Monthly Archives: June 2018

Home Buyers Need to Know A Seller’s Motivations

By Rey Post, Associate Broker, Sotheby’s International Realty &

Host of “All Things Real Estate” Radio Show

June 24, 2018

What motivates home buyers to pursue the purchase of a home is an important topic, worthy of a lot of discussion. Housing market circumstances (pricing and the level of inventory); buyer demographics; varying home preferences; personal finances; family situations; and general economic issues are among the many things that impact why buyers consider becoming home owners.

At the same time, when a buyer decides—whatever may be the motivations and conditions—to seriously hurtle towards a home purchase, it is also important for one to understand what is motivating home sellers. 

This stands to reason, given the state of the current housing market at the start of the summer of 2018. Just about everywhere in the nation, home inventory is light, which means that many other buyers are in line to potentially chase after the same home that interests you. This means that it’s imperative to have a strategy to make sure you are able to “win the race” towards buying any home.

Not only do you need to have your home purchase financing plans in place, as well as clearly define the type of home you wish to buy—with all the amenities identified that are important to your personal goals—but you also need to make sure that you have partnered with a real estate professional who can effectively lead you down the path of what can be a very complicated process.

But knowing what is motivating the seller of the home you are interested in buying, is also just as critical as the other things that you have a fair amount of control over. Here is a useful article that helps to define this element of the home buying process:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/holdenlewis/2018/04/18/home-buyers-guide-to-motivated-sellers/#ebb76a46015a

So “Rey’s Real Estate Recommendation” for this week, is to not only analyze the motivations you have as a home buyer and build a plan to meet these goals and expectations, but to also know what the seller has on his, or her mind as you approach the step of making an offer on the purchase of a home. Including this as part of your plan to become a home owner, can make the difference between success, or failure in securing that place you want to call “home.”

For more information, please join us for the “All Things Real Estate” radio show, which airs each Sunday 12-2pm (Mountain Time) and can be heard at the “Listen Now” link at ATREradio.com.

Dad’s Advice Is Good, Even When We Don’t Know It At The Time!

June 17, 2018

By Rey Post, Associate Broker, Sotheby’s International Realty &

Host of “All Things Real Estate” Radio Show

On this Father’s Day, I discovered some useful advice from reading an article that is good when applying to my real estate work, or for that matter, just about any other thing in my life. Written by J. Jennings Moss, the Editor-in-Chief and General Manager of Silicon Valley Business Journal, the article addresses the simple theme of What I learned when I finally listened to my dad.”

My dad was the king of the backup plan. When I learned to wait tables and then to bartend as a way to work my way through school, he applauded.

“Those are skills that you’ll keep forever, “ Jack Moss would say. “This way, if you get laid off or worse, you’ve got another way to earn a living.”

As I got older and started to pursue a career in journalism — something my parents liked only slightly better than my original plan, which was to be an actor — my dad’s backup instincts kicked in again. I wanted to be a national political journalist. Or a globetrotting foreign correspondent. Or a Pulitzer Prize-winning muckraker. (Of those, I accomplished the first, and still dream about the other two.)

Those were all noble goals, he would say as he would encourage me to think elsewhere: “You should consider being a business journalist. The world will also need people to explain how business works, how products succeed or services fail. Good business coverage has a deeper impact than you know,” he said

My dad knew a little something about survival, business and luck. The youngest of six kids born to Eastern European immigrants just before the start of the Great Depression, he grew up in Brooklyn — Coney Island, to be exact — watching his father, a peddler, push a cart through crowded neighborhoods selling this, that and the other.

I never heard my dad describe his life as poor or sad or unfortunate. The only sentiment he expressed was a desire to leave home, which he did when he joined the Army in World War II. When the war ended, he used the G.I. Bill to get a bachelor’s degree in hotel management and then a master’s in international relations.

From there, my dad’s life changed forever. He went to work for Northwest Orient Airlines, moved to Tokyo, lived the life of a carefree bachelor expat, met my mom and had three sons. After more a decade in Japan, he moved the family to Hong Kong, where we spent eight years. That was a great time in his life: full of exotic adventures, a successful career in a glamorous industry, plenty of friends and a loving family.

But his circumstances started to change when we returned to the states in 1972. He found himself managing a Mexican restaurant on Moorpark Avenue in San Jose, until an old boss got him back into the airline business, working for the now-defunct World Airways at Oakland International Airport. He made that San Jose-Oakland commute every day in a lemon-yellow Ford Pinto.

Six years later, another change in employers moved us to Tucson and he went to work for Evergreen International Airlines. He only lasted there a year, and at the age of 55, he realized he’d aged out of most jobs.

Jack tried to become a small business owner, twice, but failed. He sold computers at Radio Shack, and though he didn’t love it, he showed up every day and did the best he could. I never heard a defeatist word come out of his mouth and didn’t fully comprehend how bad his finances were until I saw one of his tax returns several years later.

He finally retired at age 65 after my mother died from cancer. He would live another 18 years, delicately managing his investments and providing me career advice.

It wasn’t until his death in 2006 that I finally did what he had suggested years before and became a business journalist. And I finally understood what he was trying to tell me: tell a business story and you’ll tell a tale about life and loss, about success and failure, about humility and hubris.

Thanks, dad, for guiding me to my backup plan.

So “Rey’s Real Estate Recommendation” for this week, is to reflect on this Father’s Day how dad’s experiences and observations can, more often than not, bring great value to your own career pursuits and the way you lead your own life.

For more information, please join us for the “All Things Real Estate” radio show, which airs each Sunday 12-2pm (Mountain Time) and can be heard at the “Listen Now” link at ATREradio.com.

Remember, ‘Thank You’ Goes A Long Way In Real Estate

June 3, 2018

By Rey Post, Associate Broker, Sotheby’s International Realty &

Host of “All Things Real Estate” Radio Show

As we mark the 9-year anniversary of the first broadcast of the “All Things Real Estate” (ATRE) Radio show on June 3, I plan to thank a number of people during the broadcast, who have brought a level of support that helped to guarantee that we would see this day. Without this genuine interest in what we wished to achieve with the program, our website (ATREradio.com) and blog—ATRE would never have made it past even the first year of broadcasting.

The principal of wanting to thank those who helped to make ATRE a success is something that has always seemed to be right for me, as I pursued my work—whether in real estate, or the other business interests I had prior to becoming a Realtor.

A simple thank you for tasks done by others—large and small—has always brought dividends to any buyer, or seller transaction I have been pursuing. More broadly though, it just seems right in so many ways and helps to grow relationships with other professionals in the trade. Any real estate transaction is layered with personal and business relationships that have the potential for making the process either a success, or a failure.

Given that buying, or selling a home is typically about the largest personal financial transaction that anyone will have in their life, emotions—even fear—can something’s play a major role in the process. Kindness and gratitude are sometimes hard to muster for all involved in the process, especially if there are unexpected challenges that occur while moving the possession of a home from one person to another.

I come loaded with lots of honest ‘thank yous’ for everyone I encounter in any real estate process—buyer, or seller clients; other professionals playing a role in the effort; even the hard-working support staff that play an important role in the process, and often don’t hear the simple phrase of stating appreciation for all of their behind-the-scenes work.

All of us are only human, so it may be easy to forget the concept of “thank you.” Under the pressure of any real estate transaction, it is important to step back and take a moment to reflect on how many are involved in any “deal.” All of us want any transaction to make its way to the closing table. But making sure that both sides to the transaction are as happy as they possibly can be, is the real measurement of success.

So, on this special occasion of the 9th year of the airing of our radio show, “Rey’s Real Estate Recommendation” is to consider taking a moment to understand that a “little bit of sugar” goes a long way in what is one of the most high-pressure jobs most of us will have in our lives. That is—to help make the buying or selling of a home as happy and pleasant a business experience as it possibly can be.

For more information, please join us for the “All Things Real Estate” radio show, which airs each Sunday 12-2pm (Mountain Time) and can be heard at the “Listen Now” link at ATREradio.com.