Real Estate Agents and Mortgage Brokers- How to be Professional Outside your Field of Expertise

Real estate buyers and sellers, please allow me to vent my frustrations with our current real estate market. I invite you to read along and hopefully, get an inside look at some of the problems that are contributing to today’s real estate market conditions.

I was just reading a post by Richard Zaretsky titled “Back to Basics-A Review on Short Sales“. His post is chock full of more information than I can digest in one sitting. I bookmarked it for future reference. I also sent a link to one of my clients who is facing eminent foreclosure if we can’t get a short sale for her ASAP.

Here’s the problem I’m having. As a REALTOR®, I want to provide the best possible service to all my clients. But I have my hands full staying abreast of the real estate market and keeping my sellers updated with any current sales and how those sales will affect their real estate values. I also have to constantly update and tweek every web site and blog where I have my listings posted. So although the market is down and sales are few, that doesn’t necessarily lessen the amount of work I have to do. It just means my focus is in a different area.

Which brings me to my current problem. The mortgage industry is going through more changes than the real estate industry. There’s not enough funding to go around, even for the very few buyers we do have. And the rules of the game are changing by the day. So while real estate sales and real estate financing are closely intertwined, they are still two separate industries. There are agents who hold real estate and mortgage licenses, but they’re only going to excel in one field. You can’t be an absolute expert in both. I personally want to be an expert in the real estate industry so I can provide my clients with the best possible service. But I’ve always maintained a basic knowledge of what was happening in the mortgage industry as well. It’s only logical that real estate buyers are going to have financing questions while they’re going through the buying process.

Read the rest of this post aboutReal Estate Agents and Mortgage Brokers Professionalism here

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

Volusia County First Quarter Real Estate Sales, 2008

Since we’re now past the first quarter of the 2008 year in real estate, I decided to give you all a first quarter update for all of Volusia county. Before I show you the results so far, here’s my post of the Daytona Beach FL Real Estate Year in Review for 2007 which includes a comparison chart for 2000-2007.

You might also be interested in my real estate charts for all the other cities in East Volusia County. You can find those below.

• Daytona Beach Shores real estate sales 2000-2007
• South Daytona real estate sales, historical review
• Port Orange real estate sales history
• Ormond Beach real estate sales 2000-2007
• Ormond by the Sea real estate sales history 2000-2007
• Ponce Inlet real estate sales year in review, 2000-2007
• Wilbur by the Sea real estate sales review
• Holly Hill real estate sales review 2000-2007
• New Smyrna Beach FL real estate sales history
• Edgewater/Florida Shores real estate sales review

Now for the 2008 first quarter real estate sales.

The actual sales numbers, per city for the first quarter of 2008 are as follows…

Port Orange real estate sales: 124

Daytona Beach real estate sales: 123

Ormond Beach real estate sales: 98

New Smyrna Beach real estate sales: 91

Edgewater/Florida Shores real estate sales: 50

Daytona Beach Shores real estate sales: 35

Ormond by the Sea real estate sales: 20

Holly Hill real estate sales: 19

South Daytona real estate sales: 18

Ponce Inlet real estate sales: 15

Wilbur by the Sea real estate sales: 3

And that completes my Volusia county real estate sales update for the first quarter of 2008.

For all your real estate needs, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa C Hill!

www.DaytonaBeachRealEstateSales.com

Daytona Beach Real Estate Buyers and Sellers, here’s another reason to live here!

A few days ago, during the course of one of my typical real estate days: show houses, go to condo project office, run errands, eat, etc., (I had to type “eat”. Now I’m hungry!) … I decided to stop by the Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park in South Daytona to call a few clients and enjoy the view while doing so. That’s one of the perks of being a real estate agent. I can work from wherever I want to work =) And this gorgeous park is located directly on the Halifax River/Intracoastal Waterway.

As I made my phone calls, I got out of the car and started wandering around the park and noticed quite a few things have changed since the last time I visited there. Some of the updates, I was already aware of, like the new bathroom facilities and children’s play area. But those are the things I noticed just from driving by. But as I was walking around I noticed a new boat ramp! Awesome! And there are plenty of extra long parking spaces, to accommodate your vehicle and boat trailer too!

Then I decided to take some pictures of the river, from the dock, where you’ll always find people fishing. There was only one couple there on that day, and since I was on the phone, I didn’t get a chance to ask if the fish were biting. Although I doubt it, since just a few yards away, several young girls were excitedly screaming and frolicking in the shallow water. I asked them what the were finding and was informed that there were tiny baby crabs under all the rocks. I wanted to kick off my shoes and join them! No, I’m not kidding. That is totally something I would do! As a matter of fact, when my daughter was much younger, we had one of her birthday parties in this riverfront, South Daytona park. They have picnic areas and pavilions for cookouts and parties.

And then I found something really cool! They now have a canoe and kayak launch! I’m sure there are more in the area, but this is the first one I’ve seen.

So if you’re interested in buying or selling real estate in South Daytona, FL, make a Smart Choice and call me today. I’m a Daytona Beach native, selling real estate all over Volusia County. And if you already live here, the Riverfront Veterans Memorial Park in South Daytona is a great place to spend some time!

All about Lisa Hill.

View Daytona area MLS real estate listings.

On the 50th Anniversary of the Daytona 500: Remembering NASCAR’s 1st Woman Driver

NASCAR’s First Woman Driver: In doing my research for this blog, I was surprised to discover that women had been competing in Daytona Beach racing since the 1940’s, when it was held ON Daytona Beach.

But one woman stands out from all the rest; Janet Guthrie. Talk about an overachiever! Janet was a pilot, a flight instructor, an aerospace engineer, a technical editor, passed the first round of eliminations for NASA’s Scientist-Astronaut program, and had 13 years of experience on sports car road racing circuits, while building and maintaining her own cars, all before 1976, when she was invited to test a car for the Indianapolis 500.

Janet Guthrie was the first woman to win a starting spot in the Daytona 500, in 1977, once it had moved to it’s new, official race track. She was in 8th place, when 10 laps from the end, her engine went bad. She finished in 12th place, and won Top  Rookie. That same year, she won the North Atlantic Road Racing Champion title. In 1978, she finished in 9th place in the Indianapolis 500. But sponsorships and funding were hard to find for a woman at that time, even after placing in the top 10 in a number of races.

According to Janet, as can be expected, many of the men from the “good ole boys” club were not willing to accept a woman on their turf. But as Janet accumulated years of experience under her belt and gained experience on major tracks, including the Brickyard at Indianapolis she felt that most of the tension between her and the men eventually abated. But, Janet always felt that one driver never accepted her; Richard Petty. However, she actually qualified ahead of Richard at Talladega one time. In Janet’s words, “I thought that was just delicious. I really enjoyed it.” On the flip side, some of the men were more welcoming. Janet says that Donnie Allison was very kind and helpful. And Buddy Baker offered some helpful advice.

Janet continued to look for funding, and continued racing, and placing well. But was never able to make it to victory lane, primarily because she didn’t have a fast enough car. Janet raced in the Daytona 500 one more time, but did not have nice things to say about her crew chief that year.

According to the Daytona Beach News Journal, Janet raced a total of 4 years in NASCAR. She started 33 races and finished in the top 10, 5 times and earned $78,309 over those 4 years. Her helmet and driver’s suit are now on display in the Smithsonian Institution and she was one of the first woman athletes inducted into the Women’s Sports Hall of Fame.

Since Janet, only one other woman, Shawna Robinson has driven in the 500, which is NASCAR’s premier event. And Guthrie’s record still holds.

Janet is now living in Aspen, CO and says she only follows NASCAR races now, if a woman is competing.

(Sources for this post are The Daytona Beach News Journal, Janet Guthrie’s web site, Wikipedia and Nascar.com. I’m citing all references because I ran into quite a few contradictory dates and statistics.) But you can buy Janet’s autobiography, “Janet Guthrie: A Life at Full Throttle” and get the facts straight from her!

If you’re in Daytona Beach for NASCAR, Bike Week, or any other special event. You should consider buying real estate for the time you spend here, I’m a Daytona Beach native and would love to help! Make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill today!

Volusia County Real Estate Sales: 2007 year in review

I finally finished every city in east Volusia county for my 2007 real estate sales, year in review. Whew! So here is the final compilation of all that data and the charts.To read the first post in the series, which was for Daytona Beach, and contains the most physical information about our market, read Daytona Beach Real Estate: 2007 year in review.

To view each individual real estate chart for Daytona Beach Shores, South Daytona, Ormond Beach, Ormond by the Sea, Port Orange, Ponce Inlet, Wilbur by the Sea, Holly Hill, New Smyrna Beach, Edgewater and Oak Hill, click anywhere in the afore-mentioned cities. It will take you to the Edgewater post, which was the last in the series, so it contains links to all the previous posts.

Now for the combination of the data for all of east Volusia County.

And there you have it. This post concludes my 2007 real estate year-in-review series.

If you’re interested in buying or selling real estate in any of these cities, make a Smart Choice and contact Lisa Hill for all your real estate needs!

Adams Cameron & Co., Realtors - 1100 Dunlawton Ave., Port Orange, FL 32127 386-761-6100

 

All charts in this series were created and are copyrighted by Lisa Hill