Last night we had a little pow-wow over at the Meeses to further evolve our business strategy and planning for our team merger. Beverly Steiner, owner of the Keller Williams Danville Market Center, and Rick Geha, owner of the Keller Williams Freemont Market Center, joined us to offer their insight.

Rick and Bev are fun, friendly and smart. They helped us to explore some of the challenges we may face with the merger and offered suggestions from their personal experience and observations they have from other team mergers.

Looking at the photo of me, I better get back to the gym PDQ!

Rick Geha, it turns out, loves to sing Mack the Knife. So, he is on the hook for the Meeses garage sale on March 29th. Craig's group of old-time rock & roll musicians - Still Rockin' - will be there (200 Alicante Place, Danville, CA) entertaining the neighborhood from 9 to noon. Rick Geha will be appearing to sing Mack the Knife!

Bev Steiner swears he is really good at it. So, come on by and give a listen. 

We attended a training class today at the Keller Williams market center in Pleasanton, CA. The class was taught by Rick Geha co-owner of the Pleasanton market center and one of the star teachers at Keller Williams University.

The subject of the class was home sellers and the agent listing presentation. As usual Rick presented a great class touching on all of the key points of a first class listing presentation. But, again as usual, Rick took the class to the next level by focusing more on the home owner and their needs than the agent and their business.

Rick emphasized these points as the key assets of being a successful agent.

• Honesty
• Trust
• Communication
• Competency 
• Reputation 
• The Client's Interests Above All Else

As Rick noted, all clients want agents that are honest, that they can trust and that are competent. He emphasized that the number one client complaint is lack of communication. Rick's message - be a communication champion. 

In speaking of reputation, Rick noted that your reputation among your clients is critical, but do not ignore your reputation among your peers. 

Rick stresses above all else put the client's needs. If an agent has the client's best interests at heart, then the business will grow and be successful regardless of how any particular listing presentation works out.

A couple of questions from the audience addressed the issue of clients that are focused only on price and commision. Rick Geha said that he tells potential clients that he can line up 40 local real estate agents that one by one will quote a lower commission or price to get the client's business, but the client should only hire an agent based on the 6 reasons above. 

Another key point Rick mentioned was knowing your market and local real estate trends - everything he mentioned in this regard you can find on our site AND more. 

Yesterday, when updating our Industry News page, I found this little tidbit included in the report from the National Association of Realtors®: 

Existing-home sales eased but prices stabilized as inventories tightened in December, while 2006 was the third-highest sales year on record, according to the National Association of Realtors®.

It got me to thinking about Rick Geha of Keller Williams over in Freemont, CA. Rick is owner and part owner in several KW franchises in the East Bay area of California. He is also one of the elite trainers in Keller Williams University. Rick travels around the country helping KW agents build successful careers in real estate.

I attended two Rick Geha trainings last year - the year of continued "doom and gloom" from the media about the real estate industry. Rick started both classes asking, "How's the market?" As you might expect, he got varied responses as some agents actually parroted the media. The first thing Rick did was set everybody straight - "It's unbelievable!!" is his reply.

And then he goes to work to show you why it really is. Rick Geha has been selling real estate in the East Bay area almost as long as my buddy Jim Walberg. He's been through blood-letting of a couple of real down markets and he knows the market as well as anyone. When he tells you the market is unbelievable, he's not blowing smoke up your …

All along, he was telling us - It's the second hottest market in history for this area. It seems to have been, or close to it. The wildfire market of 2003 - 2004 is going to make any other market look extremely bad.

This has raised a couple of interesting thoughts in my brain. Many people think today's interest rates are not so good, but they're comparing them to the interest rates of post 9/11 when they were lowered to help the country move through some difficult times. Historically, interest rates are a great deal right now.

The other point is how attached we become to "paper profits." Many property owners are holding on to the thought of having money in the bank that was never there. Property values fluctuate and until you sell it, the money is imaginary. Just ask all of the millionaire investors of the dotcom era that woke up one day a lot poorer than the day before. Many had still realized great profits from their original investments, but it was interesting to watch them suffer losing their "paper profits." 

One situation we are seeing more and more of these days - clients attached to a home valuation that is a year or two years old. We often hear - an appraiser told me… Rick Geha's advice is call the appraiser and see if he/she will buy it for that.

That Rick, he's a funny guy and one hell of a trainer. He's the reason you see us putting so much time and effort into "knowing our market" and communicating to our clients so we're all on the same page - current reality. 

CPR – Concrete Physical Reality – some people avoid it like the plague.

This past summer, I retired from one of the big airlines in this country after 32 years of (service???) More on that at some other time. After nine years of no increased wages, and steadily declining benefits and two years of drastic pay cuts, it was obvious there was no future there – time to move on.

The retirement benefits that are left are just enough to slowly starve on. So it was great news to see $13,000 show up in my bank account from one of the insurance plans. But, I wasn’t expecting that windfall and much as I needed it and wanted to spend it, I decided not to stick my head in the sand. Of course, it was a mistake on the bank’s part and they sure were glad I brought it to their attention.

Why do people ignore the obvious? What’s the motivation behind refusing to deal with what is staring us right in the face?

I’ve been reading in the media how bad the real estate market is. In my corner of the globe – San Ramon Valley, California – it’s a real downer according to the media. Agents are dropping like flies. House prices are falling. Houses are qualifying for historical registry because they have been on the market so long. You know, you’ve heard it too.

Well, according to my buddy, Rick Geha, Keller Williams Freemont – this is the second hottest market in this area’s history – surpassed only by the market of a couple of years ago. Yes, time on market is increasing. Yes, price is being impacted to a small degree – maybe 2 to 3 percent. Yes, some agents are bailing out because now you have to do more than place a sign in the yard.

But, houses are still selling and the rate of sales is pretty stable and the graphs are consistent in nature with last years. And, interest rates continue to move up and down around historic ten year lows.

Here is an interesting aside – this article isn’t going in the direction I was intending. It’s one of the things I enjoy about writing – sometimes things just go off in a direction of their own.

When people as Rick, “How’s the market?” his reply is – “UNBELIEVABLE!” Not to him, to those who blindly take things at face value – like doom and gloom reporting. You want a bad market – return to the glory of the Carter years when interest rates were at 20 percent. I had to sell a house during those times – and it did sell – for what I was asking. Why, because life goes on. People still relocate.

If you want to survive and thrive in life, you have to resist that temptation to put your head in the sand and ignore what’s going on around you (like nine years of deterioration at your job). You support yourself by questioning. Is this $13K really mine? Have people really stopped buying and selling homes? What’s really going on?

Figure it out because your clients need to know what’s really happening. They need your help and clear vision to assist them in keeping their heads out of the sand until the media tells them it’s okay to reengage life.