Trey's Blog: February 2008

Three Agents in our office were awarded the GMAC Premier Service Diamond sales partner award recently for their outstanding customer satisfaction ratings in 2007!   The recipients were  Trish Thornton Havel, Dave Kissel, and Trey Thurmond. 

This recognition is reserved for those professionals that received a 100 % satisfaction rating in 2007'.  The surveys are conducted by QSC an independent organization that surveys customers after they close on a real estate sale.

Additionally  our company received a 98% + satisfaction rating, from buyers working with agents at the firm in 2007. That is a great rating!

These awards really mean a lot, as this is a service business,    and who better to rate the quality of a firm's performance than the customers!

Have a prosperous week!

Well they are finally going to finish the "Road-Ramp" to the heavens in front of our office in College Station, Texas. This project has been going on for many months and when completed will certainly help the neighborhood overall access and safety.  This is the new exit ramp for Hwy 6 to Rock Prairie Rd. in College Station and will overpass Business 6 known as Texas Ave.  In the interim they have closed the old exit ....so if you are on 6 southbound,  you will have to take the Deacon/Texas Ave. Business 6 exit then turn left on Texas and immediately exit  right onto the frontage Rd.  This will put a very large amount of traffic on the frontage which some of the businesses there are sure to appreciate for a while anyway.

There is an old saying in Real Estate that many successful agents know by Heart:

"List to Last" OR LTL

Times and techniques have changed,  but the LTL Rule is still so powerful and true.

For many years I have observed the development and growth of new agent's careers. As a result it became increasingly obvious to me that .....the sooner an agent believes in the LTL Rule , the quicker their career takes off.  And even if the agent has a good  supply of buyers knocking at their door, unless he or she becomes a believer in LTL ..... the sooner their career is likely to fold. This is almost universal.

Many new agents tend to take all the floor time they can handle in the beginning. But even so, they eventually find that floor just isn't enough to pay the bills. There are exceptional days but not that many. And no matter how many times they hear or read about the importance of listing, there is no substitute for trial and error in making a new agent a believer.  After months and months of thinking they can do it with floor time alone, they either have the "AH-HA!" moment or they just decide real estate isn't for them.

During this "AH-HA!" moment the light finally goes off  " Hey! I need some listings!"

   I call this learning curve period FTP  or Floor Time Trap . Now don't get me wrong! Even the best agents know the importance of floor time. Do it often and do it effectively. But they don't substitute it for all the other things they know they need to do to generate business.

Now if you have a bad case of FTP  ther is still hope! You can avoid floor time trap.

Here is an easy formula.

• Decide to do something about it. The very next day compose your cheerleader list  and if you have never done so...shame on you!   These are all the guys and gals you know who will send you business, and you know they will....but you must make the list, and write a letter to them letting them know what you do for a living  and what you specifically need them to do for you. ASK FOR BUSINESS!  Send the letter with 5 business cards attached. No cheap looking letters allowed! Use quality material  and sign in blue ink, then hand address envelopes in blue ink. This is important. Make your cheerleaders feel important 
•  Next Step...Call Them to see if they got the letter. Take the opportunity to visit , then ask for their business and referrals again.
• Call them or write or email them a couple of times a year to keep the personal touch going.
• Please abide by all state and local solicitation laws and the  rules of your local association in this process.

Soon you will see some results!

Have a prosperous week!

Trey

www.researchvalleyhomes

Well now that's more like it Aggies!  98 to 54 over Texas Tech at Reed Arena.  For the first time in a good while the Aggie basketball team really made us believe they really wanted to win and proved it tonight against the Raiders and their new coach, the younger Knight. The men really hustled tonight especially on defense and yes on offense.  Coach got a little gander ruffled in the last few seconds when he  wanted the Aggies to run out the clock , and they took a shot instead, trying to reach 100 points.

 Hope we can keep this new energy level going!

When My wife and I first got married we didn't have much and like a lot of young couples struggled, cut coupons, and did whatever to get by.  At that time Ralph Nader was just getting to be a hot item and was the consummate "Consumer Advocate."  And... young couples trying to be penny conscious listened to what he said. I suppose his opinions on  safety, value, and what was good or bad for American consumers had some merit. Obviously he had a significant long term effect.

Now , you know ...I guess I am not surprised that he is running for President again.  Someone said today he is too old...well I am old...you are old. It is all relative , but he is older than McCain. He is a smart guy but apparently not smart enough to go away. Now I am not a Democrat so don't get this wrong. I just think he is wasting America's time. We have enough real issues with the entire slate of candidates this time.

Please Ralph. Please just go Away...Go on now, get outta here....don't ever come back,  and stay gone!  Enough already...please!

The main problem I have with Ralph has nothing at all to do with Democrats, Republicans, or the elections and is probably only an indirect outcome of his consumer safety advocacy....but here you go....

Lawnmowers, in my humble opinion,  are now more dangerous than ever. Take me back to the good old basic lawnmower days!  The ones like your grandma or grandpa had.

Modern mowers have so much safety and energy crap attached to them that they are hard to start and die easily when mowing.  You have to hold down the safety kill bar, make sure the safety kill switch key is in, pull the rope at a very awkward and inconvenient angle.   And once you get to mowing the deflector safety shield stops up the mower with grass every 2 minutes forcing you to shut down and remove the stoppage and then crank up again.  This becomes an edless mundane cycle. Start...Stop.... Clean....Start ...Stop....Clean.  

After 20 or 30 minutes you become exasperated and stressed...and might possibly could have a heart attack or get disoriented and chop off a foot or something worse! 

There RalphI got it off my chest ...I can't tell you how many times I have mentioned your name while cranking a lawnmower or weedeater that wouldn't start...and you really don't want to know what I said.

Have a prosperous week!

 Trey

http://www.classicgmac.com/ 

 Blind Web Site....I am not really sure if that is the correct name and I am not talking about sites for those that cannot see, but isn't it a NAR requirement that all Realtor web sites clearly identify themselves as such.  I believe they have to indicate that the site is for an agent, broker, or Realtor and there are a number of ways to do so. I really get hot coming across a site now and again that in no way says it is an agent's site. It may appear to be just a free information site, when in fact  it is really just luring in prospects who don't know better.  That seems so deceptive to me and beneath the code of  ethics and standards of practice.. Am I wrong?  Just trying to verify this concern.

Have a prosperous week!

M. F. "Trey" Thurmond, Broker, GRI, CRB

www.treythurmond.com

It was announced that with the layoff of over 8,000 mortgage  and lending industry employees in California, that the Feds have made a grant  available of over 5  Million dollars to help. This money will be used with some state funds to help retrain those affected.

I am sure it would be difficult to have "former sub-prime mortgage expert" on your resume when job searching.  I really feel for all those folks and their families and hope that they locate  acceptable jobs soon.  I wonder what kids of jobs they will be trained for?  These are white collar employees.

On a local note I have seen a lot of employees changing mortgage offices and several banks streamlining and centralizing their mortgage departments. Hope that isn't any indicator of negatives on the horizon.

Have a prosperous week!

Trey

www.classicgmac.com

Our booth at the  local Home Builders Association  Home Products and Garden Show this weekend in Bryan/College Station, Texas was busier than we have ever seen it.  One vendor told us that this show had more visitors than one they just did in Houston!  I also understand that a lot of the visitors who came this weekend were from out of town.  That is good for the community. We gave away the usual stuff at our booth like candy and rulers but the big prize we offered was a flat screen TV. We will draw for it tomorrow and I am sure someone will be real happy when we call them! 

People often ask me if these shows are worth the effort .......I say absolutely!  It is easy to pick up two to three good leads an hour, plus  we will try to contact a lot of those who participated in our drawing.  We have been doing this show for as long as I can remember.  We used to do the local boat and sport show when we had a lake development. The one lesson we have learned is:  Go light and portable......sure makes it easier to clean up and go home afterwards when you are tired.

It is always a fun event. You get to mingle and chat with other vendors in our industry like homebuilders, lenders, flooring and counter-top companies.  I definitely recommend doing trade shows when you have the opportunity. It is a great outing for the whole family too. Prospective new home buyers and also remodelers get to see a lot of neat things that they might put to use.

Have a prosperous week!

Trey Thurmond, CRB, GRI

www.treythurmond.com

Thinking of a real estate career? We have been helping agents develop their careers for 30 years!

Call me.  979-694-8844

No doubt things are beginning to get down and dirty in American politics.  Mr. McCain's girlfriend -lobbyist-New YorkTimes story thing, Mr Obma's real estate investor-acquaintance-crook that got money from a crooked middle-east- thing, and and then  the thing that a national radio host brought up this week about Hillary...(a girlfriend relationship thing? )I hadn't heard that one until this week.)  It is all amusing in a way, but certainly to be expected. Trying to predict polital outcome right now is a little like betting on College Basketball.... Wait another week and the best team in the nation could be beat by an unknown. All these things are just previews of bigger and dirtier things to come.

As the primaries heat up... expect the mud to start flying more each week. It is like a giant soap opera.        What do you think tomorrow's Headlines will be?

Have a prosperous week!

Trey

Well my wife and I had dinner tonight at a local restaurant as we had to work late. This was a sports-bar type establishment with large TV's scattered throughout the restaurant.  No sports tonight however.  All eyes were focused on the"Great debate" in Austin ,Texas.  I was having a hard time focusing myself.  I know it is polite to give your attention to all parties in a debate...but I just couln't find anything of substance being addressed by either the Irishman, O'bama, (as Kinky Friedman from Texas referred to him as on Nnational TV) or Hillary.

Kinky said " With a name like O'bama he has to be Irish doesn't he?

 I actually got sleepy and almost fell face first into my plate watching the two duke it out mentally and with body language.

The word in our area is lots of Republicans will vote in Dem primary in Texas just to hurt the Dem Party. Who knows. All I know is I came home after the debate knowing no more about the candidates than I knew a month ago.

Have a prosperous week! 

Trey Thurmond