Real Estate in Bergen County: We WORK Harder

It is a fact that all Real Estate agents and companies tell you that they are the best. As a matter of fact on of the "ten" questions to ask a real estate agent before you hire them is: How many listings do you have? OR how many listings does your company have? OR Does your company handle this type of home in the market? While all are very important questions, let's look at the importance of the attitude of leadership and the support and quality marketing a company has which backs up the agent.

Our company believes that any real estate company must put the agent first, the real estate agent knows that they need a great attitude behind them. This doesn't mean that a company gives the agent the old "Got get 'em" attitude. It means the attitude of the leader, the Broker, gives the agent all of the tools and then some so that they can get the job done.

Most companies and agents say they have the best marketing to expose a home to the most people. Yes, they say that, but they are all lying. Most don't even know what tools are available. At CENTURY 21 Eudan Realty, we provide tools for our customers that have been around for a very long time. Why don't other agents and companies use them? I have no idea. Maybe they are just being frugal. We believe we have to do more than anyone else just to get notice. Remember the old slogan of Avis rent a car? We try harder! Well, at CENTURY 21 Eudan, we not only try harder, we do more. We have to because it's the only way to serve our customers and clients properly. We won't just put an ad in the paper and put it on MLS because that's what they all do. We give our sellers their own 800 number and an extension, we give each listing its own website. We have the only "One Click To Homes" website int the country. That's right the United States of America. Don't believe it, go check it out.

We not only try harder, we work harder!

It all starts with real estate

I wake up every morning, pour my cup of coffee and turn on the TV as I get ready to work out. As the news intrudes in the peace I hope to attain on my treadmill, I feel like why bother. Stories headlining the news are all about “Economy in Crisis.” I want to go back to bed. It’s a wonder suicides haven’t increased just because of the media and all of the negativity we have to deal with on a day to day basis.

Pick a day any day and what do you hear, read and see: Negativity from the news media. If there is something positive, it’s most likely spun to the negative. I don’t care if it’s CBS, NBC, ABC, Fox, CNN, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal or local papers like here in Bergen County, New Jersey, The Record. Listening, reading and watching, what do we have to live for?

Let’s face it, as they say in marketing: Sex Sells! This is their sexy version of condemning our lives because they want to make money. Nothing wrong with that at all. But just once, how about a positive spin on the economy? How about a positive spin on a bad story.

I never used to read the newspaper or watch the news because it was all about death and destruction, because that’s all they had to was to bring negativity into our lives. Over the past few years it has all changed to bad news about all of our financial lives. I am willing to bet (and I do not gamble) that if the collective news media took my suggestion of taking positive spins on everything for a week, the economy would rebound and we would all be ok. BUT, why would they do that? Will it sell? Will they lose their advertisers? Of course it will sell, of course they would not lose advertisers. They would probably gain some.

Remember the last time we had economic difficulty? The last bad stretch we went through was the late 80's with the Savings & Loan debacle. The news media killed real estate then and never gave real estate any credit. You destroyed us (the real estate industry) then and destroyed us now with what was allowed by the government to happen and the news media. It took real estate and the economy a long time to come back. The media helped us along again in the late 90's and early part of this century when they said the economy and the upswing in the real estate market couldn’t last. Way to go media!

Real estate drives every economy. When the real estate market is good, so is everything else. When something is good, the media kills it and is the doomsayer by predicting problems with no basis. It is absolutely not all the fault of the media. They haven’t caused greed that has occurred and driven problems throughout the world, they just stoked the fire. We are living the Gordon Gecko reality and what it has done to us. Here, the media actually did some good, but the regulators-our politicians, sat on their collective butts and reaped the benefits and got fat along with the pompous corporate leaders. It turns out they were only the leaders of how much money they could take as bonuses. Think about it: A top executive gets fired and walks away with millions. This isn’t a game show with departing gifts instead of what is behind door number one. They got not only what was behind the door, but they got the door for their new house too!


The Bailout is helping everything but the little guy. The media is so excited about being negative on the corporate engines and has forced the hand of the fat cows in Washington to bail them out. Now a bailout of the auto industry. Who’s going to bail me out? Who is going to bail out the small business man. Well, they did it for AIG, they are going to do it for GM, but will they come all of the way down the food chain? Earlier I said it was a wonder that suicides haven’t increased, but what has increased are the commercials on TV about depression medication.
We don’t need medication, we need all of the Howard Beales of the world to stand up, open the window and scream: “I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take it anymore.” (from the movie Network)

It all starts with real estate. Stop helping out these fat slobs in the corporate world and start helping the home owner who was told he could afford a house when he really couldn’t and now his life is crumbling around him. Force the banks to take the money and bail out their mortgagors, not line their pockets with some more unregulated funds. By helping out the little guy, you help out the economy. The heck with the desired trickle down affect. It’s now time for the trickle up affect. Help the little guy. He in turn is able to spend more money on food, clothing and extras. Then the retailer does better and so on and so on. How about that CNN?

Let’s face it, the only place we can get real news is on “Weekend Update” on Saturday nights. If you want to hear someone tell it like it is, go to www.TheKidFromBrooklyn.com.

No media outlet has the guts to make a difference, just help be the cause of the difference. If you say I am wrong, let’s go back a couple of years and think about that starring couple of Bill and Monica. Parents during those years had to fight with their teenagers that oral sex wasn’t sex. The kids said it was ok because the leader of the free world said so after he got caught with his pants down, literally. The media so loved Clinton that not only did they get him elected, they also kept him in office and say that he is a great man. A great orator yes, a man? You be the judge.
As I digress.

As I said in an earlier blog, the best investment is real estate. As a great man (my father) once said, “Land, they aint makin any more of it” It all starts with real estate.

Great Time To Be A Real Estate Agent

Being an order taker in Northern New Jersey in the residential real estate world is over. For the past several years, if you had a real estate license, you could make money. Work was a 4 letter word and most agents didn't like that 4 letter word.
More agents are getting out of the business than are getting in. This should be a relief for the agents that actually work and worked hard to get where they got. These hard workers are still working hard and are still making the money they were making before. They are making the money they were making before because they took nothing for granted and kept working their job. The agents that are slow now have stated that business is slow and that they are going to wait for the market to come back.. Simply put: the workers are earning the order takers are yearning.

A part of our training and support regimen at CENTURY 21 Eudan Realty is to set a goal, write it down and make a plan. What a concept. This is what the business world calls a business plan.

I have interviewed many agents in the past year. Before I meet with them, I review as much of their statistics, their listings and how they market on the whole, as possible. At our meeting, we discuss production in a round about way. We then discuss what they are doing as far as prospecting. Prospecting can be anything from keeping in touch with past customers to anything one can imagine.
The workers say they are doing all of the things they did before. In other words, what made them successful they continue to do. AND they are maintaining their level of success. The order takers aren't doing anything that they may have done before and their transactions have dipped to an all time low or is non-existent.
For workers, this is the best time to be in real estate. Those considering this as a career, NOW is the time. We have a method of getting new agents going quickly as well as a method to restart that order taker and make them profitable.
A great time to get back to basics and be a real estate professional in Bergen County, New Jersey.

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• Tales of Woe from Real Estate Agents

Real Estate is BACK=It never left!

Real estate has lost some value over the last year. Stocks, bonds and other investments have done much worse.
A great man once said: "Land, they ain't makin any more of it." That man was my father, Sal Fanale. You see he never invested in stocks and bonds. He invested in real estate.
Boy, do his words ring true.
Lehman Brothers-done, gone, mort! Others gone or bailed out or bought out. Jobs lost. Billions lost. Interesting, the people are gone but the real estate is still standing...bricks and mortar, still there. The land the buildings sit on...not going anywhere even if the building deteriorates or is torn down. Land, they ain't making any more of it.
Yes, we have a bunch of problems in our economic lives, but an investment in real estate will always be something you can see, walk on, etc. A stock is a piece of paper that can be worth a lot or nothing. You never know.
Our company, CENTURY 21 Eudan Realty has been a leader in the residential real estate market in Bergen County and Northern New Jersey for many years. We are growing. Join us or sell or buy through us. We do it well.
All real estate companies have the tools available to help sellers sell and buyers buy. Our unique service proposition is that we actually utilize tools available while our competition and most real estate companies don't. They don't want to spend the money.
Please remember if you even considering selling or buying, make sure the companies you are considering hiring have the Internet presence and utilize the tools that will get eyes on your home. If buying, make sure they are knowledgeable about communication with you, the buyer. Communication between a buyer and their real estate agent is the most important thing.
Everyone talks. Talk is cheap. Make sure any real estate compay guarantees this service.
Remember-Land, they ain't makin any more of it!

Bank Frustration

The banks are the biggest problem in any recovery. It appears now, more than ever they really don't care about the person who needs a "short sale." If there are real estate agents out there having trouble getting through on the phone to these service companies, go to our website and contact us.
Today, we followed up on a foreclosure property we have listed and have a offer for. The authorization and hardship letter from the seller was faxed in August. They told us today that they didn't have this and couldn't move forward until they did. They have had the accepted offer for a week.
It is obvious to us at Century 21 Eudan Realty that the banks may care less now because they are getting bailed out.
The frustration continues.