an ongoing conversation place for everything real estate

CBSHOME Real Estate is pleased to announce its Veterans to REALTORS® Program, which will help Veterans become real estate agents by removing 100% of the start-up costs associated with becoming a REALTOR®.

The Veterans to REALTORS® Program will assist Veterans trying to reenter the workforce by covering the costs of licensing classes, REALTOR® dues and other costs for getting established in the business.   CBSHOME will also include a series of training sessions that will help Veterans learn additional skills to be a successful in the real estate business.  The cost covered by this program can approach $3000.00.

“We feel that Veterans are highly disciplined, hard working people which have great skills for real estate.  We are excited about this program and the possibilities it provides Veterans in our area,” said Joe Valenti, CEO of CBSHOME Real Estate.

For more information about the Veterans to REALTORS® Program visit http://cbshome.com/vets or contact Monica Humpal, Director of Career Opportunities, at 402.964.4601.

The homes that are selling in todays market are: clean inside and out, decluttered, minimal furniture, great curb appeal, low maintenance. If your home has not sold, it most likely one of the above reasons it hasn’t or maybe it is over priced.

Maybe your neighbors home was listed at $200,000 and it sold, what your neighbor didn’t tell you is it sold for $170,000. So now you put your home on the market for $220,000 because your home is in better condition than your neighbors. Well thats why you need a Realtor, just becasue your neighbors home sold, doesn’t mean they received the asking price. So now your home is overpriced and your not getting any showings and wonder why. Maybe you used a real estate agent that doesn’t expose your listing to 2200 MLS agents? Or maybe you just hired the wrong agent? Thats ok, everybody makes mistakes, “Live in learn and learn by living” is my motto!

Price and condition is all it takes to sell a home in Blair Nebraska. With over $8 million dollars in pending/closed transactions in 2011, you owe it to yourself to call Kevin today for a free consultation. I will be brutally honest with you because we have one combined goal,  SELL YOUR HOME! Call Kevin Kermeen with CBSHOME Real Estate today, there IS a difference. (402) 657-9656 or visit my website at www.KevinKermeen.com

CBSHOME Real Estate would like to welcome back Ginny Heberly to the Pacific Street Office!  Ginny  has been in the real estate business since December, 2009.  Her career background includes Key Sales & Regency Brokerage for 11 years; Sales Force for 5 years, Baker’s Supermarket for 12 years and Midway Airlines for 4 years.

Outside of real estate, Ginny enjoys golf, work and family.

Again, welcome back Ginny!  We are happy to have you at CBSHOME!

CBSHOME Real Estate would like to welcome Iris Pope to our West Dodge Office!  Iris is a newly licensed sales associate.

Prior to real estate, Iris worked at Centris Federal Credit Union, Arbor E & T and First National Bank.  She enjoys investments, working for herself, sewing, chess and family.  On a personal note, she is married with three children (and number four is on the way)!

Again, welcome to Iris Pope – we are excited to have you at CBSHOME!

Insulted, angry, ready to walk away…does this describe you when you get that dreaded low-ball offer? 

Well, let’s face it, selling your home feels personal doesn’t it.  It’s where you live, the furnishings and design are yours, so it’s natural to feel not just criticized, but a little insulted when that low offer lands on your kitchen table for your review.  Remember, you can’t “shoot the messenger”  in a situation like this.  Your Realtor is required to present every offer to you…including the insulting ones.  Even the best of agents have had to present the most ridiculous of offers at some time or another.  This is never fun.

Before you react consider the reaction of this seller:

A CBSHome Realtor recalled the actions of one of her sellers.  She had been working with a seller for some time, and received a contract for the sale of their home.  As she read it, she knew this was not going to make her seller happy.  In fact, she dreaded presenting the low offer so much that she broke one of her “Golden Rules” and called the seller to buffer the news.  Later that evening she met with her clients.  She felt certain this would not go well.  Then something surprising happened.  Rather than alienating the would-be-buyers her client decided to write a letter.  This letter expressed that while they appreciated the time taken to view, consider and ultimately write a contract to buy their home, they would have to respectfully decline the offer.  No counter offer was made.  The seller went on to say that the contract simply didn’t meet their objective and that they wished they buyers the best of luck in finding a new home for their family.

Fast forward now,  after more showings the couple could not find a home they liked more than the home on which they first made an offer.  They came back to their “original” house, and made a second offer that was completely acceptable to both buyer and seller.

This illustrates that there is “A High Road”, and this seller took it.  He could have cursed, blamed his agent, and alienated this couple.  Instead he acted with a cool head, and instead of offending this couple he kept them on his radar screen by writing a personal letter.  The fact that he had the forsight  to react with class and dignity no doubt led to this ultimately happy outcome.

CBSHOME Real Estate would like to welcome returning agent Anne Conway Day!  Anne will be working out of our Davenport Street office.

Anne is an associate broker and has been in the real estate business since 1993.  She was previously with CBSHOME from 1993 to 2009.  Her career background also includes 8 years with IBM and she has worked in advertising.  She “grew-up” in the real estate business as both her parents have been in commercial and residential real estate in the Omaha area most of their lives.

Outside of real estate, Anne is married with four children, two Labrador Retrievers.  She also enjoys triathlons.

Welcome back, Anne!

CBSHOME Real Estate is proud to announce that we have partnered with the Larabee School of Real Estate to offer our agents free continuing education!

We understand you are looking for a highly skilled agent to help you with your real estate transaction.  We are providing our agents 12 free hours of continuing education with topics ranging from License Law to Green Building, Leases and Energy Efficiency to ensure they are given every opportunity to sharpen their skills.

Do you need help finding an agent at CBSHOME Real Estate; click to search for one of the BEST trained agents today!

Sales Associate, Jerry Ahlvers, was recently named the Nebraska Realtor Association’s Realtor of the Year!  He has since been recognized at the National Association’s Annual Meeting this month.  This award is given to someone for their activities within the real estate community at the National, State and Local Board levels.  Here is what a few of Jerry’s associates had to say…

“I have had the pleasure of knowing Jerry Ahlvers for over 20 years. As an agent, his integrity is the highest of any Realtor that I know, and his work ethic is enviable. In his 30+ year career in real estate sales, he has received many top producer awards and earned the respect of countless clients, customers and fellow Realtors. He has reached the leadership pinnacle by serving as Omaha Area Board of Realtors President, Nebraska Realtors President and Region 8 Vice President. For all of these accomplishments he was named the Omaha Area Board of Realtors Realtor of the year in 1996, and the 2010 Nebraska Realtor of the Year for 2010,”  Joe Gehrki, Sales Manager of the West Dodge Office.

“Jerry is a consummate real estate professional.  He is the epitome of what all REALTORS should try to achieve.   I consider myself very fortunate to have been a friend and an associate of Jerry Ahlvers for over 25 years.  On a personal note, Jerry, Hedy and their family have been wonderful friends through some really difficult times.  I especially want to thank him for his moral support over the past eight years,”  fellow sales associate, Carolyn Kesick.

Congratulations Jerry!

1. Interest rates are at an all time low. Combine this with lower than normal housing prices and you might find that buying is cheaper than renting.

2. There is a large number of inventory currently for sale so you have your pick from lots of homes. And since cooler weather is upon us you have virtually eliminated the competition as the majority of people do not want to move in the winter.

3.  Better negotiating power. There are a lot of extremely motivated home owners who are in financial predicaments whether they have lost their job or are looking to downsize to cut their expenses. Most sellers will go above & beyond to work with you on the purchase of their home whether it’s paying a portion of your closing costs or offering a home warranty.

4. Seeing a home decorated for the holidays might help you decide it’s “the one”. If you can picture yourself spending holidays in the home chances are you are going to love it for years to come. What better gift can you give yourself than a new home for the holidays?!

5. People typically get more time off work during the months of November & December. You can use this time to look at homes or even to move. And, you can recruit your family to help.

If you have questions about buying or selling a home or about the Omaha housing market please give me a call. I would love to help you find “the one”!

(402) 578-6223 (c)     Megan.Dreesen@cbshome.com (e)

World's Greatest Landlord!

If you polled a thousand landlords and asked them what the number one headache in owning rental property was, you would most likely get one of three answers… 

1) Getting the rent ON TIME

2) Property damage or unreported maintenance issues

3) Picking the right tenant

In a three part series, let’s talk about these items and some relatively easy steps to alleviate most of the headaches of both. Of course there is certainly not a ‘one size fits all’ solution but a couple of techniques that I’ve advised my investor clients about over the last twenty years have proven to work more often than not.

First let’s discuss the number one issue, collecting your rent on time. For example, let’s assume you have a rental house that you are going to rent for $1,000 per month. That’s an annual rent of $12,000 right?  What you do is increase your rent to $1,075 per month with the following clause in your lease:

 “If all rents are collected prior to the 5^th of each month, then your December rent is FREE”

For most tenants, having the chance to skip their largest bill in December; the month that always seems the tightest; is absolutely wonderful. Many of my investors get Christmas cards from their tenants thanking them for being able to provide the presents for their families without hurting the family budget.

Being the WORLD’S GREATEST LANDLORD, you will have a waiting list for their next available house compiled of referrals from past and present tenants. Imagine never again having to run an ad or keep a house vacant more than a few days for cleaning and prepping for the next tenant! That alone is worth the price of admission on my blog today! (Oh yeah, it’s free!)

As long as you are a good landlord in other respects (addressing maintenance issues quickly; not fixing items ‘the cheapest way possible’) your tenant retention will be significantly higher using my ‘December free’ program.

If you keep a tidy rental and everything is in good repair, you shouldn’t have much of a problem getting an extra 5-7% over ‘market’ with those conditions. The investors I’ve had using this technique over the last 20 years have absolutely loved it.

Let’s take a look at the numbers. $1,075 times 11 payments equals $11,825, just $175 short of what you WOULD have collected at $1,000 per month. Any landlord under the sun would gladly give up $175 to have all their rent payments on time. Whatever your numbers are, make it work for you. Just take your annual expected rent and divide by 11 to get your new rent, make it about 5-7% over what you would have charged and you’ll be fine. And remember, if they’re late, you pocket an extra months rent at year end.

This technique is certainly not for the part-time investor. Make sure you have enough set aside in December to make all your debt service payments should your tenants live up to their end of the bargain, and believe me, most of them will.

Obviously every situation is different. One of my investors found that if a tenant went past the deadline, then it seemed to be a recurring issue since the incentive was gone. What he did was allow one ‘late’ payment up until the 15^th and they could still qualify for ‘half rent’ in December. That has proven to work pretty well for him. You also need to figure out what to do for incentive based on when your lease starts. If it starts in July, maybe you offer a half month the first year and a full month every year after that.

Subscribe to my blog so you won’t miss future installments of “How to be the WORLD’S GREATEST LANDLORD”. We’ll be discussing “property damage and unreported maintenance issues” as well as “picking the right tenant”.  And oh yeah, Happy Landlording!

Bill Swanson is an agent with CBSHome Real Estate, with over 20 years of experience helping investors acquire and sell properties in the Omaha metro area. Contact Bill at Bill.Swanson@CBSHome.com