Thank Goodness School Started

Well last week I had my hardest week yet in my Real Estate Career. I have 3 deals going on all at once, and all 3 of them had major issues. 2 are now done and closed, but I have 1 more that is still a bit tricky, but I hope to have it closed by the end of next week. Thank goodness school started last week so at least I had 1 less thing to worry about.

Reagan absolutely LOVED her first day. She was so happy to start 7th grade (middle school here). She has loved everyday since then too, and has even done her homework without being asked - 2 days in a row!

Haley does not get as excited about school, but was thrilled to have her cousins Seth and Rachael go with her. She can drive this year and since the Volvo has some how seemed to miraculously heal itself (isn't that always the case when you buy a new car the old one is suddenly better), I feel pretty comfortable with her driving her and her cousins to school. They also have open campus so she has been able to leave for lunch too.

My sister finally closed on her house after much fighting with underwriters (man they are buggers these days) and is currently on her way back to Oregon to pick up the rest of their stuff. Her school age kids are here with me until she gets back on Saturday night.

All in all it was quite an eventful summer, but I am so happy that is has come to an end and I can finally get some work done without feeling like I am neglecting my kids. What made it worse was that Dave worked an average of 90 hours a week for the entire summer (starting in mid-may) so I was basically doing it all myself. I know he is glad that work is winding down and I know I certainly am (although I will miss the big fat paychecks) - but it will be great to have him around again!

Does Everyone Think They Can Negotiate EVERYTHING?

What's with people these days? I just don't get it. When you go to the doctor, do you tell him once he has done whatever it is that he is doing, that you want him to take a 50% pay cut? Do you walk into Nordstroms and find a dress you really like and when they ring it up, tell the sales person that you don't want to pay full price for the dress so could they please take whatever they were supposed to get in commission off the price of the dress? NEVER HAPPENS!

So why to me, more often than not lately. Is my driving all over town (with gas at $4 a gallon), the money I spend to keep my real estate license active, cost for continuing education which I am required to take, monthly office fees, and MY TIME, not worth them money I am compensated as a Real Estate Agent? It's not like I close on a house every day of the week with a 5 or 6 thousand dollar commission on each - if that were the case, everyone would be a real estate agent.

But for some reason, the last 2 buyers I have been working with, are asking me to cut my commission to get them a better deal on an already outstanding deal on a home purchase. Now I realize that a home purchase is a huge expense, and everyone wants to get the best deal they can on it. But the reason they found the house in the first place is because a REAL ESTATE AGENT listed it in the multiple listing service, and then a REAL ESTATE AGENT pulled it up and showed it to them.

This whole system of listing and selling homes is set up to bring buyers and sellers together, who otherwise would not have found eachother. That's why sellers pay commission - so that they can get someone to buy their home. Selling agents pay out tons of money to advertise and promote the homes they list. The buyers don't pay ANYTHING.... No up front costs, no hourly rate, no nothing. We drive them around - sometimes to over 100 different homes over a period of MONTHS.

And it doesn't end there! Once a buyer decides on a house, as an agent, we have to research taxes, utilities, the neighborhood, CC&R's, and whatever other specific questions the buyers have about the property, then we have to negotiate a price (that can take days and even weeks), and it doesn't end there. We have to coordinate inspections, appraisals, title work, make sure paperwork is in order and complete, schedule and attend the final walk through, schedule the closing, attend the closing, help get utilities switched over, and that is just what happens on an "easy closing". The list gets 3 times as long if a problem arises.

So for some reason, people think that all of that time and effort is not worth the paycheck that we get once the deal closes. And again, we get paid NOTHING if the deal doesn't close. And that happens - we get all the way to closing, having completed everything on the list, and the deal falls apart..... weeks of work and no paycheck.

So if I can gain anything from this you-know-what-session, it is that anyone who reads it will have a new appreciation for their real estate agent - and NOT ASK THEM TO CUT THEIR COMMISSION.... we have to feed our families too!

Ever Have one of "Those Days"

I feel like I have had "one of those days" for a whole week! Work has been busy, Dave has been gone, Haley is at Youth Conference, and my HOUSE IS A MESS! I can't even seem to catch up. I think the kids go behind me and mess up everything I do. I get home from work every day and do 3 to 4 loads of laundry, the dishes, and pick up the upstairs. I get home the next day and all of that is undone, and I start all over. I can't wait for school to start! At least if I come home when the kids get home from school I can prevent messes before they start! Maybe then I can catch up! I had everything under control at the beginning of the summer. My house was so clean I had to search for other things to clean! I cleaned out drawers, under couches, organized bookshelves and DVD's, steam cleaned the carpets, cleaned out my closet, and even went downstairs (I hate going in the basement - not sure why) and ultra cleaned the whole family room down there(Reagan would have gotten much better grades last year if she had turned in all of the completed homework I found shoved in various corners in the family room). So the count down begins..... Only 2 weeks til school starts and I can get my life back in order!

Teenagers and Feety Pajamas!

So Haley had her friend Taylor spend the night last night. They slept out on the trampoline (or did not sleep I should say) and then woke up early this morning so that I could take them to Smitty's for breakfast. They wore their feety pajamas! To Smitty's! In Public! You should have seen some of the looks we got. 2 teenage girls wearing feety pajamas to breakfast. Pretty funny. The picture was taken with Haley's camera phone so the quality is not that great - Haley has pink feety pajamas with frogs on them and Taylor's are green with dinosaurs. Ridiculous!

Dinner Ideas Anyone?

Ok so one of the hardest parts of my weekly/monthly duties is coming up with dinner ideas. I usually plan out a whole month at a time so I need almost 30 ideas at a time (which is really alot)! I decided to add my weekly menu to the left of my blog and link any recipes I have gotten online so that anyone who wants to try them can do so. Hopefully friends and family will do the same and add some of their favorites to their blog so I can get some dinner ideas. That way we all don't re-invent the wheel! So if you're making something great at your house, please share!

Finally - Some Family in Idaho!

YEEAAAHHHHH! My sister is finally moving here! She is working on signing an offer right now on a house just 1/2 mile from where I live right now. I am so happy! We will finally have family closer than 4 hours away! Our kids start school on August 21st so they need to be here by then. Haley is absolutely dying with excitement because her very best cousin will be with her in school! They are 7 months apart and very bestest buddies!!

And they always think of the craziest things to do together!

I'm sure the little boys will want to come over lots to jump on the "jumpoline".

They are quite entertaining little guys too!!

We will need to work on getting Seth to cut his hair a little more (he SAYS he just cut 4" off - still has a way to go - unless I use him to mop my kitchen floor).

And the best news of all is that it means we will always have really good food! Julie is a great cook and James is the BBQ KING!!! Yeah I am so excited!

Death of a Volvo

So I guess Volvo's don't last FOREVER... I think mine has finally died. With almost 170,000 miles on it I really can't blame it. I have NEVER had a car with that many miles on it in my life. In fact, not even close. I think the highest mileage we have ever hit on a car we have had is about 75,000. It was however nice not having car payments. It's poor life ended on Thursday. Haley drove it up to Rigby to work (luckily it was fine the whole way there) and after she had been working for awhile, Dave got in the car to start it to move it somewhere else, and the computer said that basically EVERYTHING was wrong with it - Engine System Service Required, Transmission System Service Required, Brake System Failure, etc. Dave thinks the computer went bad (and we all know how much those are). So we went out on Thursday night and got a brand new car.

I wasn't all that excited at first cause it has been over 2 years since we have had any car payments and that has been really nice, but after driving in it for the past 2 days, I am loving it more everyday. The new car smell is the best. I wish I could make it stay like that forever!

It is a 2009 Toyota Camry SE - Charcoal paint and a black leather interior. We have never owned a Japanese car before so that is something really new to us. Hopefully what everyone says about reliability will hold true and it will last us forever.

It is the sport model, with traction control, sunroof, spoiler, JBL sound system, V6 engine, Blue tooth (which I tried out today and it was really cool), and it even has a direct IPOD input so we don't have to use the little converter thing which never tunes in quite right. The things I will miss that I have had on my last few cars that this does not have - heated seats, one touch up windows (it has one touch down but not up too) and dual zone climate control. Oh well I will be happy to trade it all for a warranty and better gas mileage!