Seattle Reconnections ~ Real Estate, Money, & You

I am a licensed Realtor ~ without any business.

With the downturn in real estate business, I found myself presented with what it means to be living with less and living large.  Some of what I now realize is that living with less can be a lifestyle statement which is not incompatible with the idea of living large.  Living large indicates an openness of heart, a state of gratitude and giving.  When I put it in writing this seems obvious.  But for me, the lifestyle and the openness means that I can move beyond fear: can live with a sense of directedness that helps me to move forward.

Being a real estate agent is a natural offshoot of my past work experience.  Learning how to become a successful sales person is not necessarily a “natural” skill for me.  It takes discipline to pursue a client base.  The words “marketing”, “prospecting”, “appointments” ~ become interspursed in business conversations, training classes, goal setting exercises.

So the challenge for me is to apply my new-found mantra, “I am a steward of God’s gifts to me for the world.” This incentiveates me to apply myself to finding clients I can serve.  Being a faithful steward means that I learn to deal with the reality of the challenges of our times, looking for creative ways to address those things that produce the effects I desire: being a faithful steward of God’s creation, bringing hope and love into the world I know.

“Prospecting” becomes reaching out to others.  “Marketing” involves spreading out into the world the real estate news that will give people the tools to find themselves a good place to live.  “Appointments” become face-to-face encounters.

I will move on to exercising what I learned…..

I have been spending the day working with webhost CS www.AdvancedAccess.com to put some badly needed touches to my website which is www.SeattleHomesforAll.com

I know it may seem backwards, but I got a big kick in the Bu.. when I saw my website on the TOP OF YAHOO’s Search under “Downtown Seattle real estate”!!!  Well, Self, I said - I had better give the site a good housecleaning right away if there is the possibility of having unexpected guests!!

So.  It looks a lot better - check it out if you are reading this.  The Advanced Access CS, Michael Moore, was very knowledgeable, doing for me those adjustments I couldn’t do myself.  As a Small Business Owner I need to present a shiney image to the public.  Getting better every day in every way…

I spent a delightful evening with the Women’s Business Owners group’s After Hours which took place at ….’s Ale House down by the downtown Stadiums.  5:30 is the very worse time to contemplate going out again on a dark Tuesday evening but, once there, I sure like the chance to meet women from diverse business areas.  I left inspired and ready to get to work on my business when the evening ended.  More about that in another blog.

Starting a new business has been very challenging.  Add to that the imperative to lead a balanced life, just goes nowhere.  I used to walk/hike at least three times a week and up to now that has all changed. 

So now I have a new business plan.  I significantly reduced the neighborhood area (farm) that will be my focus.  My vision is that I can insert myself into the life of a pocket of neighbors by being present to them over an extended period of time.  That means that it will be where I send my letters, where I walk, where I take pains to notice movement and change. 

Former strategies have resulted in no strategy.  I am a one-to-one type of person.  The thought of becoming an expert in an area of 10,000+ residents has been just too overwhelming.  Fruitless even.  Now that I write it, I realize how literally fruitless it has been for my business.

Now, when I look outside to see what kind of day it is, I can plan a good walk in a familiar area.  I can see it all now: a balanced life returns.

While neighboring communities were experiencing phonomenical growth, the business climate in Seattle went sour with Boeing layoffs creating great migrations of talent who left the area for better opportunities.  Slowly, in the 80’s, businesses were finding their niche and people like Bill Gates and pals were creating a whole new Northwest industry.

New uses for computer software spawned a myriad of computer start-up companies all around the country but not the least in the Northwest.  In the 90’s, the software boom created a highly paid and highly educated population.  Software engineers were pampered at work.  It was financially easy to became new home owners - family or no.  A large part the software related industry fed upon the hope of unlimited prestige - for  advancement in products with potential for windfall opportunities.  Families in the meantime and. now, singles, were moving out of Seattle major into fast-exploding suburbs.  In Seattle, the kitch was for in-city condos, for cultural, sports-related entertainment options.  Oddly enough, in the suburbs, new housing was developed with high salaried singles and couples in mind- mega houses squeezed into typically compact lots.  The major housing choice issues shifted from where to raise a family (schools, parks, neighborhoods), to ease of travel to and from jobs.  Then the “balloon” burst, creating another major shift in the profile of the Puget Sound population.  The housing inventory once again began to increase (while prices continued to rise).

Seattle Real Estate has always been one step behind national trends.  This time might be an exception to that history.  It is common knowledge that employment statistics, the condition of large Puget Sound companies, has had a stratigic impact on the local economy.  In the past, Seattle and its suburbs were largely riding the tide of Boeing’s successes and losses.  Being the largest employer, Boeing workers were the majority of sellers and home buyers.  A large sector of Boeing employees were raising families, interested in schools, parks, and family-friendly neighborhoods and amenities.  There was a big migration to newly developed suburban areas where modern, family friendly homes together with newly constructed schools were in top demand.

Seattle is once again on the upswing.  IN SPITE OF WHAT THE NEWSPAPERS report. 

Fact: New companies are seeing Seattle as the location-of-choice.  And large existing employers - Costco, Starbuck’s, Google - are continuing to expand. 

Fact: The housing inventory has grown but house prices continue to edge upward.  The so-called “slowing of the market” is a natural adjustment to the frenzy of home buying during the period when lenders told us that anyone who could sign their name on a closing document could own a home.  Once again, home buying is a careful financial investment - what could be so scary about that when houses do eventually sell and prices are still holding - ?

CONCLUSION: Seattle has been able to hold its own through economic downturns much more serious than what is happening today.  As a city blessed by its surrounding chain of hills and large bodies of water, Seattle has a finite inventory of land on which to build.  The forecast for population growth in the area wavers between 100,000 to much more in the coming years.  Investment in residential housing in the Greater Seattle region couldn’t a be better. So, for those looking for a house in the Seattle area -  consider buying your house now!  Go to my website www.SeattleHomesforAll.com and make your next purchase soon!

Can a Senior Woman make her way in Real Estate?  Sure, why not?  As a senior by age, my peers and I bring to our real estate career, experience, empathy, appreciation, a fresh and sometimes wise viewpoint.

For many of us, real estate is not our first career.  After having maxed out our first/second careers and we have re-examined what we want to get from work ~ the honorable work of contributing to the human community.

Experience?  We are from the generation who know that it is important to continue learning.  Of the many educational arenas available, real estate is a very interesting field.  It is a combination of rules and regulations, people skills.  It requires the ability to see the differences among such issues as financing needs, housing styles, needs of various groups of people. 

Empathy. We are accustomed to identifying and blending needs.  We have worked for managers who we liked or perhaps did not appreciate.  We know how to balance wants and needs, knowing that each person has his/her own tastes and/or tolerance levels.  We bring an awareness of the scope of human strengths.  And we appreciate the opportunity to join with our clients in their search for “home”.

Appreciation.  We appreciate being able to become our own bosses, for many a “first”.  We recognize the skills in our team members, being grateful to have so many competant sources of knowledge.  We know the value of networking.  We network to gather around other highly qualified professionals among other real estate service providers - title officers, lenders, contractors of many sort.  With this assembly of persons, we know that we are ready to be the best realtor ever.

Then there are the qualities of fresh perspective together with the wealth of wisdom many women have accumulated over a significant piece of time.  These assets - perspective and wisdom - are not always recognized as assets.  That is the challenge.  Women starting a real estate career in her sixties need to remember to value themselves.  We have done it before and can use those skills now so a 60+ woman can begin a new real estate career!!!

As the purpose of a Blog is to get ideas out there, I made a promise to myself that I would create more focus in my blogs.  I see that I need to determine certain topics that can keep me adding input.  I see that I can get attention for my issues by roping in my wandering mind by finding words and phrases that I can easily include in my latest blog posting.

So, today I will commit myself to recognizing what I talk about and how I say it.  Perhaps then I can look forward to adding input and reading (hopefully) responses with further insights.

Stay tuned for how this works out…

 Seward Park - at water’s edge.

If I were pictured here, it would be bent over my laptop trying to figure out the features of Top Producer.  It is easy to select a business tool, forgetting to take the time to use the program to its full capacity.  Whenever I take time to do just that, I feel so guilty because the time spent is time I should spend in drumming up business.  Getting up in the morning to address the question, “what can I do today to increase my profitability?”, sometimes means that the efficiencies that we bring to our set of service offerings are lying crumpled on the floor as we dash out the door for “business”.  For example, I want to be able to provide my clients with an overview of the community they are interested in.  This data can be had through varioius lead generation programs, through looking up the information myself, or through asking for help from a title officer.  By looking into the features of Top Producer I discovered that neighborhood statistics are already available in Top Producer! TP can supply me with the neighborhood stats - all I have to do is add a blurb about the highlights of living in various neighborhoods.  Now I know that I do not have to start from scratch AND I don’t have to buy another internet service in order to meet my goal of having useful information for my client.  My hope  is that the time spent on learning the internet programs I already subscribe to, will lead to a more complete service to my clients.

My preference is getting as much information as I can from one, trusted source.   Here is an example. Small Business Advice This site contains blogs from small business experts.  Here is another place where we all can learn from each other.