Brendan's Blog

Jamie Smith Hopkins of the Baltimore Sun had this to say about the details of the extended FTHB credit.  Expect a vote in the house today....

I am still unsure as to how I feel about all this, but it is important to be "in the know."  Any Active Rainer's out there that have a local reporter that covers things as eloquently as our friend here at the Sun, please comment....I'd love to follow them as well.

I know that I have been writing a good deal about the first time homebuyer tax credit as of late, and what can I say...it is on my mind.  A big segment of our client population happens to be first time buyers, so I am obviously wanting to stay in the loop.

At the surface, this seems like a really good idea.  Most realtors that I speak to seem to be really hoping for the extension/expansion, as I am.  Anything that can stimulate this housing market is obviously something that I stand to gain from personally.  Or do I?

First, let's start with the positives:

• Obviously, my first time buyers are inclined (in theory) to "get off the fence" and take advantage of some great deals out there.
• If the expansion is approved for existing homeowners, my business could really benefit.  People that are already living in a housing stock that is appealing to a first-time buyer, would presumably have an easier time selling, and potentially trading up into a part of the market where there are outstanding values, while collecting a tax credit.

Now, some questions and reservations:

• What if, in the long term, this credit is just continuing to prevent the market from making a necessary correction?  Home prices were rather inflated, and a lot of us certainly enjoyed the ride, but is this credit just going to prolong the inevitable and ultimately make the fall even harder? 

• Why is it that the credit is the same regardless of the market?  Why is there the same incentive in healthy markets as in those that are hardest hit?  That doesn't seem to make sense, and the taxpayer is left paying the bill.
• Where on earth does the FIVE YEAR qualification come from for existing home-owners?  What about those that have been in their homes for three years, and are under-water?  
• As it looks to me, the credit is available to those buying a principle residence, but it doesn't REQUIRE that you sell your current home...there are some scary implications here.

We all know how rewarding it feels to cross something off of our TO-DO list.  I know that I am guilty occasionally of adding things to the list that I've already accomplished, just so that I may have the pleasure of crossing them off!  If there is anyone out there that doesn't know about GOOGLE TASKS then let this be the day you figure it out!  Google's free web based programs are very easy to use, and I find that the TASKS program is one of the most valuable.

Since it is web based "cloud" computing, no longer do you need to carry around a big TO DO LIST with you!  On Monday mornings, I set my tasks for the week, in multiple different categories.  I currently have a Buyers category, a Listings category, a Prospects category, then a personal TO DO list, a Shopping list, and a list of tasks for volunteer organizations that I am involved with.  I can access this list wherever I have an internet connection, and even on my phone while I am at the grocery store.  As I cross things off the list, it is updated everywhere.  I am able to take advantage of those fifteen minute windows between appointments in ways I never have before!

Once a task is "checked off" you have the ability to leave it visible, with a line through it, and UNCHECK it the following week.  This is terrific if you like to keep track of contacting that prospect once a week, writing a blog post a few times a week, remembering to make updates to your website weekly, etc.  Dates can be assigned to tasks, and they can show up in your Google Calendar...

Gone are the days of freaking out because you've misplaced your To-Do list.

Set up a Google Task list today, and chime in at the end of the day to let me know how many things you've accomplished.  Blog post was number seven for me today!  Good luck!

So, my blog posts have been lackluster as of late.  Partially from feeling a little beaten down about the market, partially from getting used to having our first child, and partly due to my latest project.

Many of you that follow this blog know that my primary career was as an opera singer for many years.  Last year, we were devastated to lose our beloved Baltimore Opera company.  In the "making lemonade out of lemons" department, we decided to take matters into our own hands in order to keep opera in Baltimore.  I'm thrilled to announce that not only is our company, Baltimore Concert Opera a great success, but there is also a flurry of activity out there surrounding the future of opera in Baltimore.  In fact, Baltimore Opera's old domain name was purchased at the auction (sad, I know) and has been turned into a resource for opera lovers in Baltimore.  Please visit baltimoreopera.com if you have any doubt that there are plenty of chances to hear live operatic music in Baltimore~

Now, although this takes a good bit of time, I try very hard to not let it take time away from my business.  Occasionally, it is a big challenge, as there is so much energy surrounding this project, the excitement is reminiscent of the real estate boom.  I realized very recently that there is a lot to be learned from this experience that can be translated into my business.  Rather than whine about the loss of our beloved Baltimore Opera company, we got to work...created something wonderful, and felt great along the way.  Our tumultuous environment in the real estate world certainly presents opportunities for us to re-tool, examine the way we do business, the way we ask for referrals, what we are thankful for, what used to be easy that is now hard work.  

With every performance that we present, I marvel at the work...from our volunteers, our singers, our pianist, the employees at our incredible venue.  There is a reason, after all, that opera is latin for WORK!  However, that work is appreciated by our audience, and at the end of the day, we take great satisfaction in that.

Running a business in a tricky business climate is work indeed, almost an art.  The next time that I get to the settlement table, I promise to reflect a little bit on the amount of work that went into the deal on behalf of my client.  I'll realize that I have a unique skill set that allowed this transaction to happen smoothly, or God forbid if something went wrong, I had the skills to "right the ship."  With that attitude, I don't see why my "audience" won't grow to standing room only!

If you are in the Baltimore area, and have interest in seeing opera in a very unique way, please stop by and see us. Those of you on Twitter can follow us @concertopera  We'll be melting the two worlds together next month when the Baltimore Concert Opera sponsors a networking happy hour at the Engineers Club (our phenomenal venue!).  Drop in for a drink and a song!  Here's looking forward to a great season of singing and selling!

As I mentioned in a post last week, it looks like we are getting close to getting some news on the homebuyer tax credit:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125678511901015147.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_realestate

I wonder, if this is extended only until April, as proposed, if it will really have the desired effect.  The upside is, perhaps it will help alleviate the pain of the slower winter months, if buyers have that deadline looming.

In any case, write your congressment...get this thing passed!

Good Morning All,

There is little doubt in my mind that Social Media Marketing has already become a huge part of our business, in fact most businesses.  In addition to my career in real estate, I also run a small non-profit opera company called Baltimore Concert Opera.  We rely, as we do in real estate, heavily on "word of mouth" marketing, and Twitter and Facebook have been a huge boon to building a fan base, as they have in real estate.

I find myself, however, going through vicious cycles where I become overwhelmed with all of the updating that is necessary.  Emails to our client list, updating our websites opera-houses.com, MtVernon-houses.com, as well as all of our single property sites, craigslist, Zillow, Active Rain, blogging, the list goes on...

Occasionally, I let things slip for a couple of days, or a couple of weeks, then I am overwhelmed with TOO MUCH information to blog about.

Anyone out there have advice for scheduling this sort of work, without letting it become all-consuming?  After all, I do prefer to work with real live clients, rather than cyber ones!  Any thoughts would be appreciated!

It has been entirely too long since my last blog post.  Am I burying my head in the sand during this slow market?  It sure doesn't seem that way.  We've actually been rather busy over the last year, but I have woefully neglected this blog, and many other on-line activities.  I know too well that waiting until the phone stops ringing to devote time to my on-line marketing is a big mistake...so, here comes my new year's resolution, in OCTOBER!  I will check in on my blog once a week, if not more, and I will get back to the marketing tools that have made my business successful!

The entertainment budget in our household (as well as many others I'm sure) has been slim as of late.  Thank goodness we live in Charm City!  This is the first of a series of posts which will document how easy it is to enjoy Baltimore on a budget.  I will chronicle ten outings, in and around Baltimore, and I am giving myself a whopping budget of fifty bucks!  Wish me luck!

My first event took me to Baltimore's Homeland neighborhood.  This fantastic North Baltimore neighborhood, close to Loyola University and the College of Notre Dame is home to some of Baltimore's most beautiful homes, and to the breathtaking Cathedral of Mary our Queen, where I was lucky enough to spend a few hours last evening.

The Cathedral which was dedicated in 1959, and took over five years to build, is truly one of Baltimore's most beautiful landmarks.  I have the pleasure of visiting this awesome structure twice a week, as a section leader in the Cathedral Choir, but I sincerely appreciate any opportunities to visit this awe inspiring space when I am not "on the clock."

Yesterday evening was one of those occasions.  As part of the Cathedral Music Series, Daniel Sansone gave a recital of organ music on the brand new Cathedral organ, completed one year ago by the Schantz Organ company, of Orville Ohio.  Although I am rather educated in classical music, my knowledge of the organ repertoire is blissfully limited.  This allows me to truly "unplug," rather than being in "work" mode.  I spent ninety minutes bathed in glorious sound as I enjoyed the inspiring architecture of the Cathedral.  The recital began just as the sun was setting in the stained-glass window on the western wall above the altar.  Mr. Sansone chose to play the first selection (Bach's Fantasy in G Major) from the front console, giving the audience a unique perspective, one couldn't help but feel as though they had just stepped into the cockpit of a jet, with the four keyboards and myriads of controls...thank goodness this organist knows how to fly!  The majority of the recital was played from the gallery, which features 104 Ranks, and 75 stops, a truly impressive instrument that was handled with virtuosic flare.  The highlights of the program for this listener were the Toccata, Fugue and Hymne sur "Ave Maris Stella" by Flor Peeters, and the Sonata in G Major of Sir Edward Elgar, which closed the program.  As I sat there in this remarkable space, I reflected on the great deal of work that went into creating such beauty...the countless man-hours spent building and maintaining this limestone miracle known as the Cathedral of Mary our Queen, the ornate stone and woodwork, the miles of stained glass, the mamouth task of building the new cathedral organ, the hours that went into planning this recital not to mention the lifetime of devoted practice that allows the organist to bring this music to life.  All of this work, which inspires the cathedral's parishoners (whether consciously or not) on a weekly basis, provided me with ninety minutes of pure relaxation, reflection, decompression...joy.

An added bonus, this great evening didn't effect my entertainment budget in the least...the Cathedral Concert series is free to the public (they do accept a free-will offering, but for the purpose of my project, we're calling it free~)  Check the cathedral's website for a schedule of upcoming events...and stay tuned for more posts!

OK, we are in a tough time right now, and every piece of business in important, but I still feel that in a "karmic" sense, educating the public needs to be priority number one.

I am in a rather unique situation at my current brokerage, the agents are busy!  My partner and I are two of only a handful of agents that are doing any on-line marketing.  As a result, when someone sees a sign in front of a home and "googles" our company name, our info tends to come up.  We do get a number of qualified leads this way, and for the most part, the listing agents are too busy to field all of the calls, and are pleased that we are working the business.  After all, the buyers are contacting us directly through OUR private website, or AR, so I do not feel as though we are poaching any leads.

This scenario leads to usually 7-10 phone calls per week.  I continually marvel at the percentage of those calls where the buyer thinks that they are saving money by contacting the listing brokerage directly, and even more, the number of people that actually verbalize that thought.  All that I have to do is explain that if they contact the listing agent directly, they are not represented, and the listing agent gets paid twice!  Today, the lead did not go to me...it went where it belonged...to an agent who had been working with this client for weeks (apparently without a brokerage agreement...but that's another story) and was about to get cut out of the deal because the buyer thought they could save some cash.

How as an idustry can we get the idea out there to the public that buyer representation is important, and for all intents and purposes, free.  Any thoughts, short of "one buyer at a time?"

I had the opportunity yesterday to tour Turner Development's newest project in Baltimore's Locust Point neighborhood yesterday, and the day before.  I feel that I need to consult a thesaurus prior to making this post, as I don't think that my feeble vocabulary is stocked with enough superlatives to describe this truly amazing project.  I want to be clear, that I have been skeptical of this project since its inception, but am truly blown away by the progress, and with the finish line is sight, the end result.  I originally and naively thought that it would be crazy to build a luxury development like this in South Baltimore, without the businesses in place to cater to the residents, but now firmly believe that Silo Point is about to be the anchor that turns Locust Point into one of the premiere neighborhoods in Baltimore.

Silo Point is a 228 unit development is a conversion of a 1920's grain elevator silo, nestled in perhaps the most attractive piece of water-front in Baltimore, near Fort McHenry.  The northern side of the building has absolutely stunning views of the Baltimore City Skyline, and the Inner Harbor.  The neighborhood has building restrictions in terms of height, but Silo Point is grandfathered, meaning that nothing is going to block these truly extraordinary views.

To me, this project redefines luxury.  The insdescribable views aside, this development offers every amenity one could look for.  I found myself speechless at the level of workmanship that went into the conversion of this structure, retaining much of the original concrete (especially breathtaking are the columns in the main lobby) while bringing all of the modern amenities one could want, including AMX touchpad technology, closets by closet innovations, a myriad of available floor-plans (I think 30 at my count), terrific restaurants, a concierge, 24hr gym, and the list goes on.

My clients and I stopped in on Sunday afternoon while we were touring other properties in the area and were met by very friendly staff, and a stunning sales center.  Sadly, we were unable to take a tour that day, but quickly rescheduled for the following day.  We were met the next afternoon by Scott, the very personable and extremely knowledgeable sales manager.  We viewed a number of different floor-plans and models, and were impressed by just about everything, including the price (most of what we looked at was under the $750k mark).  There was a flurry of activity, with workmen everywhere as they get ready for an opening event in the coming weeks.

If city living is your thing, take a look at Silo Point...here I am, publicly "eating crow," I was wrong...way wrong...Congrats to the folks at Turner Development, this project is a home run (did I mention you can see Camden Yards)