Follow Up

I may have told you already but prior to being in the construction industry, I was in a sales environment for most of my corporate life. I learned some huge lessons along the way but one of the largest was one that I'm getting ready to share with you. One day when I was working in Chicago, I was having a sales meeting with my Regional Vice President. I really respected this guy and had known him for a long time. Not only was he my boss, but I considered him my friend. He was the kind of guy who you would run through a wall for. He would kick my tail to make me better but always left me understanding the lessons he was trying to teach to make me better; but I digress, back to the sales meeting. He was big into details and asked me if I had accomplished certain task items that he wanted me to do. I dutifully went down my list and rapped off all the things that I thought he wanted to hear and was totally expecting a reply of good job back at me. Instead, he got teed-off and told me something that I never forgot. He said Kevin, anyone can delegate anything but it takes a leader to follow-up. Man I was blown away by that comment. From that day forward, I ran out and grabbed a Franklin Planner that I still carry to this day. That was 9 years ago he made that comment to me. Whatever you do in life as your profession, there is so much competition- both internal and external. That one piece of advice has enabled our company to not only survive- but thrive in this downward housing market. The thing we preach around here is to follow-up. We preach it in our meetings, to our people and we live it day to day. We have even invested money in software programs that keep us accountable and ensure that we follow-up. If this is an area that you struggle in, just know that there are things out there and resources that can help you. You can start as simple as getting a good calender/organizer that you like, or use such free services such as Google Calender, Yahoo Calender, Microsoft Outlook, etc. to help you manage your day. Whatever you decide, invest some time in a program such as this to help make your life less stressful, and more manageable.

Writing Your Own Real Estate Contract

I talked to a friend the other day who wanted to buy a house from someone without a realtor. Both her and the seller were hammering-out a price and had felt that they could both save money in realtor fees. This is very true, but if you want to make sure you do it right make sure you get some help first.
There is a website that you can use as a guide to see what kind of language is included in a real estate contract. You can see samples of blank forms here:
http://www.trec.state.tx.us/formslawscontracts/default.asp
There are several important things in the contract that are designed for your protection and the other parties. If you go down this road, do me a favor and make sure you consult an attorney to review your agreement. Please do this because the $500 or so you spend is far less than what a potential lawsuit can cost.
After you have an agreement and both parties are happy, take the paperwork to a title company. A title company is kind of like a referee in the sense that they make sure the title is clean and that it can be insured. You don't want to get a knock on the door one day from someone's long lost son or daughter telling you to get out of their house. Title insurance helps prevent against that.
Next, get your inspections from authorized persons ASAP. Make sure that you hire someone who can tell you about the things you can't see in the home like the plumbing, insulation, structural and mechanical systems. Those things are so important. Most inspectors will generate a very detailed and lengthy report-generally around 9-10 pages or so. Before you hire them, check to see that their reports include photographs of the problems. Some do, and some don't but if you have pictures it is way easier to fix.
Lastly, please make sure that you are qualified to by the home. That means that a bank has preapproved you and all they are waiting on is for you to close on the home. Your offers hold a lot more weight when accompanied by a preapproval letter, and there won't be any last minute scrambling on your part to come up with the money.

Top Business Tech Trends for 2008

Here are the top 5 Tech Trends for 2008 according to CNET:

1. Go Green-Businesses will be utilizing renewable resources more and more that are environment friendly.
2. Microprocessors- Intel is getting ready to unveil a new chip that allows businesses to take more applications outside the office as the business community shifts to a more mobile environment.
3. Search Engines- The Yellow Pages are history as more and more people are searching online to find what they are looking for. Make sure your business can be found.
4. Social Networking- My Space, Facebook and Linked-In are all examples of popular social networking sights where people are collaborating in cyberspace to do business. These sights are growing at an exponential rate.
5. Security- With commerce and sensitive data being stored on line, it is now more than ever important that your business is protected with proper security measures.

Flipping Houses

Back in 2003 I flipped my first house. Flipping a house in my definition means buying a house at a deep discount, renovating it and then selling it for a profit. The above example is one of probably dozens that I did that was abandoned, had fleas, was leaning, had insufficient structural damage, insufficient wiring, no HVAC.....the list goes on and on. I guess in retrospect I was part crazy, but I look at a house like this and something clicks for me.

Unlike a lot of the TV shows you see, my motivation has never been about the final dollar profit, if it was I would do something else because it's too hard of a body of work. I look at houses as an art form and a passion. So that is my first tip for you; if you want to embark on a project like this- by all means love it. You've got to have a passion for anything you want to make a career of and mine just happens to be real estate. If you don't love it, sure you might make a few bucks but ultimately your prospective customers will notice.

The second thing I would recommend is to have help in the evaluation process before you purchase a project. One of the hardest things about renovating an older home is you never know what surprises you may encounter behind walls. I remember one time we had just got done putting a fresh coat of paint in a living room when one of my workers told me they heard a buzzing sound. We soon realized that it was coming from inside the walls. Well let's just say I found out the hard way how difficult it is to remove Africanized bees.

The third thing I would say that ties into the above is buy the house deep. I mean shoot for 50 cents on the dollar or lower. The deep discounts you buy at can help with unforeseen expenses you didn't anticipate. Guess what else, modern building codes today are different from the past. Once you get a City Inspector in to pass an inspection, his or her expectation is going to be that you bring the element of the home you are working on up to current codes. That could mean wiring, framing or plumbing- so be prepared to spend the necessary money to make it right. You want it right anyway because you want to be able to sleep at night knowing that the happy homeowner who purchased the house from you is safe in their new home.

Lastly I would strongly advise you to have more than enough money to finish the project the right way. You will need money for closing costs, holding costs and labor and materials along the way. The biggest detriment to a project can be lack of funding. Make sure you have accurate estimates up front and then anticipate about 25% extra for unforeseen things.

Also remember, the payoff for a project can be way more meaningful than money. If you are considering such an endeavor, use caution and some tips from above to help you in your decision-making process.

Happy New Year!

Well this week was good because we got all the folks back in the office from vacation safe and rejuvenated to take on the new year. I commented to one of the girls in the office that it wouldn't be so bad coming back to work if we could wear pajamas till noon like I was doing at home over the Holidays. You could tell though that after a day we all hit our rhythm and got rocking again on the business front. We started off our weekly meeting going through various things and came to agreement on certain housing goals we wanted to hit for the first quarter. This brings me to the point I'd like to make; planning can be huge if met with a good dose of desire. It defines, clarifies and gives motion to your daily walk. My wife and I spent New Years Eve going to a movie and were actually about an hour early. She grabbed some wine and I ordered a beer and we talked about our New Years Resolutions for our family. We divided them up into personal, financial, family, Spiritual and physical health. We wrote them down on the back of a receipt and folded-it up and put it away with our other resolutions from years past. Some we keep and some we fall short on but the point is we try to give ourselves specific direction for the near future. We do the same thing in the office and I am so glad for that. I wish the same for you.