Interesting trends in the Real Estate Market in the Cedar City area.  Six weeks ago I did a market analysis about days on market changes.  It was interesting to note the changes.  This morning I updated my market research, it was really telling.  Dates: Average Days on Market Median Days on Market 9/1/2007-9/27/2008 154 132 10/31/2007-10/31/2008 104 96 This is really interesting that it would drop that much in a relatively short time. With the credit crunch, I would have thought that this would have increased.  I am sure the bargains found in some forclosure and short sale homes have greatly influenced the Days on Market in the Iron County Board of Realtors.   This month I decided that I needed to get more data, so I also calculated the average sales price vs. the average list price.  I... 11/03/2008

In Real Estate do we play to win, or do we play not to lose?  There is an important distinction between the two philosophies.  Whe we play to win we do all of the things that we need to do in order to win.  We practice our scripts, market ourselves, find new business, and take care of existing clients.  There are other things that we do to win.  In this blog win=succeed.   When we play not to lose we pull back.  We slash all of our marketing costs and efforts and not just the ineffective ones.  We hold back and take on a wait and see attitude, we are not actively seeking new business.  We become much more conservative especially with our resources.   This economy requires us to be conservative with our resources, and we should do just that, but cutting off all efforts is counter product... 11/03/2008

What a great day today has been.  We got to sleep in due to going off of Daylight Savings Time.  Church was good, spent part of the afternoon watching a movie with my family and then have spent most of the evening also with the family watching some TV.  It is always good to spend time with the family.  I love to have Sundays like this one.  It is a great time to recharge and relax.  I don't have to love the subject on TV, Zach and Cody don't thrill me even with the Suite Life. I did get a short nap and watched or napped during a football game, I am not sure who won.  The real point of this point is to take some time to relax and get away from Real Estate long enough to recharge, and to focus on other important parts of life.  It is also a good time to get in touch with ourselves and our... 11/02/2008

How many times have we said that we would try to do something in response to a request?  I know that I find myself saying that very often.  Honestly, if we think about it, it is a cop out.  Try? what does that mean?  Are we going to do it or not?  The reality is that we either do it or we don't.  Try is sort of any easy out that we give ourselves if we fail to do what we say we will do. In our minds I believe that can be detrimental to our achieving goals and helping others.  It give us the built in, face saving mechanism, for exactly the opposite of what we implied that we would do.  When Darcy asks will you take the trash to the curb for pickup?  I say, I will try.  Then after the garbage pickup has passed, and I didn't get the trash to the curb, did I really try?  I think no is the c... 11/01/2008

Last night I wrote a blog about goals and some areas to think about besides Real Estate.  As I often do, I spent some time prior to going to sleep thinking about things that I need to improve upon or just do better.  I believe for me and a many other agents eliminating fear and indecision would go a long way to improving our abiltiy of achieving the goals and objectives that we would like to achieve. One of the first things to realize is that everyone fails at something, and they usually do it quite often.  Most of us have heard the story of Thomas Edison and how many tries it took him to create the light bulb.  Was he a failure?  I think not.  If I remember correctly he had over 2000 patents on inventions that he had worked on.  The key to failure is to learn from it and move on.  I al... 11/01/2008

It is now November in some parts of the world.  It is a great time to sit down and take stock.  Are you or we satisfied with what we accomplished in 2008?  Are we happy with our progress as people?  Have we learned something new and important?  Have we learned something that isn't real estate centric?  I remember watching an old interview that Roy Firestone did with Magic Johnson on ESPN.  Magic Johnson made a comment to Roy Firestone that struck me as being very deep and important.  He said something to the affect that at the end of each year when he looked back at what he had accomplished, whether it was his birthday or New Year's Day or the start of the basketball season, it didn't matter.  What mattered if he hadn't gotten a new skill or gotten better at basketball, he had wasted a ... 10/31/2008

I just had to write another post to say how grateful I am for the unseasonable weather that we have been enjoying!  I cannot in my memory remember when we have enjoyed this warm weather this late in October and on into November!  I guess that it may change next week, but for the moment, I just want to take advantage of it!  What a great night for the trick or treaters!  We are still in the low 80's during the day and not much cooler at night.  It should be in the 60's and 40's for the low temperatures this time of year.  I hope that we don't pay for this tropical heat next summer with a lack of water from non existent snowfall up to now!  I also know that Brian Head Resort is probably getting nervous about having snow to start the ski season by Thanksgiving. For now, I am just going to ... 10/31/2008

It is nearly time for the little gouls and goblins to begin knocking at the door.  So I would like to wish everyone a fun and safe Halloween!  I hope and pray that no child is hurt or harmed while out trick or treating!  I was reminiscing with some of the guys at the office about how much fun we had when we were kids knocking on doors and going all over town getting great troves of treats. We would be gone what seemed like hours collecting our bounty.  Back then we didn't worry about the scary people out there that would harm children, we just had fun.  We also didn't worry about having the contents of our treat bags xrayed for razor blades or other things to hurt us.  It is a sad state that people would derive any type of pleasure in hurting children!  I still enjoy having young people... 10/31/2008

After all the doom and gloom, it is my strong belief that real estate remains the #1 sought after asset among investors with self-directed IRA's, pension plans, or investors building their investment portfolios.  I honestly believe that real estate is the best investment in the world, and I do follow my own advice and have approximately 11 rental properties that I own.  Did you hear the recent news that there are a few states that believe the market has bottomed and is starting up?  I believe it because Saturday, my office received a call from a REALTOR in California that has referred many clients to me over the past few years.  He said he believes the market has turned upward once again in California and asked if I would send some of our foreclosures, short sales and bargains to him si... 10/27/2008

Darcy and I spent Saturday afternoon and night in Las Vegas.  My sister, her seven year old son and husband have a time share down there and we drove down to visit with them.  It was a lot of fun, we stayed away from the Casinos and still had a great time.  I usually enjoy time spent with family, we get together so infrequently anymore that it is good just to sit and catch up.  Darcy and I did go to a really nice restaurant while we were there.  I know that there are scores of good restaurants in Las Vegas.  We enjoyed a really nice lunch at the Rincon de Buenos Aires, it is on West Spring Mountain Road, I think on the 5300 block, it is in the Cathay Hills Mall, I think.  Anyway, it was excellent!  Not terribly expensive, just really good.  For those unacquainted with Argentinean cuisin... 10/27/2008

I nearly forgot to advise everyone of the annual Cedar City Livestock & Heritage Festival on Friday and Saturday.  There will be a sheep parade down Main Street on Saturday Morning at 10:00 am, followed by a Color Country Quilt Show From 10:00 am to 5:00 pm.  The highlight of the Festival is Country Music Singer Songwriter Michael Martin Murphy will perform Friday Night.  For a complete schedule of events and costs visit the web site: http://www.cedarlivestockfest.com/ Have a great weekend.  We are actually going to miss this event, but if you do come, please stop by the ERA office at 259 W 200 N one of the agents will be glad to assist you with your Real Estate needs! 10/23/2008

I am reading two books at once, one is Flip by Gary Keller, the other is the Leadership Challenge by Kouzes and Posner.  I will be honest, I started reading the Leadership Challenge before I purchased the Gary Keller book, and have struggled to read it.  I have made a goal for myself to finish what I start, so I keep plugging along.  Today I came across a great quote for us in our business not just today, but even when the market is good. The quote is in the form of a question by Elaine Fortier: "We must ask ourselves, How do I go to work today and do something that will move the enterprise and myself another step in the right direction?"  I thought that was a great question to begin each work day with.  What can I do to improve my business and myself each and everyday?  What do you thi... 10/23/2008

I have just began to read Shift by Gary Keller with Dave Jenks and Jay Papasan.  I haven't been able to get a lot read just yet, but I did come across something that caused me to stop and think.  He talkes about this being a great time to learn about the business and that once you know it is time to do, but more than that, he calls it focused action.  I have thought about this and although I have thought that I was doing this, and managing or budgeting my time effectively.  I realized that the phrase focused action, is more than just working the business.  It is setting specific goals, and organizing your time in specific tasks to accomplish those goals.  It isn't just enough to make a goal of generating 5 or 10 new leads during a time period, it is setting down and saying to yourself, ... 10/22/2008

I hope that everyone in enjoying a prosperous Monday!  I (Tony) just returned from near Capitol Reef National Park my favorite place on this earth.  I did a lot of hiking and some photography.  I found muscles that I had forgotten that I had! Here are three of the photos that I took.  To me it is beautiful, I know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.    Cedar City is the Gateway to the great National Parks in Utah! With the weekend off, it is time to get back to work.  Have a great week! 10/20/2008

Where did all my money go?  I'm missing lots of stock money right now, as I am sure many are in our country.  My homes all remain standing.  It's true that they aren't worth as much as they were awhile back, but they didn't just disappear!  My stock market money is simply gone--that's where--just gone! The real bonus to me now is that my renters keep voluntarily pumping money into my rental homes for me in return for a place to live.  It gives me a sense of confidence that all is well even though there's a financial mess going on in the world.  That's really nice of my renters, and I'm grateful.  But I can't understand why they don't call me to buy a home for themselves instead of buying mine for me!  I wish I could get someone to pump money back into my stocks for me right now, but no ... 10/18/2008

What is happening?  The prime goes down but mortgage interest rates are up?  Did I hear 6.7%?  Did I hear that they are going up by another 1/2 % soon?  Please tell me that's not true!  As interest rates go up, the amount of home that a buyer can qualify for will go down.  It's not too late.  6.75% is still a good rate.  The lender for one of my borderline buyers said today that the buyer had better buy soon, or they may not be able to qualify.  He said that lending guidelines are changing which could make borderline buyers not reach the mark required to get a loan in this market.  Lenders are only lending to people that they are sure will not default.  There are still good loans available with nothing down and 3% down in our area I do believe that now is the time to hurry and buy while... 10/17/2008

I just read a great article on RISMedia entitled Real Estate Agents to Buyers-Can We Talk?  Here is the link: http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-10-16/real-estate-agents-to-buyers-can-we-talk/  it is a great article outlining the evolution of Real Estate Agents over the last 10 years but really the last 18 months.  I won't attempt to rewrite the article, but it is something that I think that each of us are finding whether we realize it or not. We are becoming to buyer especially but also to sellers consultants as much as we are salespeople.  How are we preparing ourselves?  I know that this opened my eyes to a couple of areas in which I need to increase my knowledge base.  I liked the article because it nailed down what I was percieving, but not fully admitting to myself.  This article names s... 10/16/2008

After our little bout with snow our weather here in Cedar City has warmed up nicely.  What a great time of year to come up and visit.  The days are clear and warm and the nights are a little crisp, but the stars and moon more than make up for the chill.  There is still some color on the trees in the area, and any sign of the snow from last weekend is gone.  It is a great time to come for a visit.  This is a particularly good weekend for it if you live in Utah. This is the annual UEA break from school, meaning that all the public schools are closed, starting yesterday and today.  Here in Iron County, the schools are also closed on Monday, making for a 5 day weekend for those of us here in Cedar City.  At any rate it is a great time to come and take in all that we have to offer!  We warn ... 10/16/2008

What an amazing comeback in the American League Championship Series.  Down 7-0 in the seventh inning of the deciding game (if they had lost) the Boston Red Sox scored 8 unanswered runs to win the game and stave off elimination for at least one more game. This attitude of not quitting or it isn't over until it's over suits us well in Real Estate and in this economy.  By not quitting, the Red Sox are able to play another day, for us that may mean that we have another good priced listing that is saleable condition, or it may mean an accepted offer.  We would do well to not quit, we may take a beating but we only lose if we quit!  Have a great rest of the week! 10/16/2008

Where do you want to put your money now?  With incredibly low interest rates, huge inventory, bargain prices and great loan programs available in in our area, I'm voting for buying real estate in the Cedar City/Iron County, UT area.  I can't remember when I've seen all 4 in line to benefit buyers at the same time.  Often you'll see rates up when prices are down, and there's a see-saw effect.   During tough economical times like these, it's comforting to know that my real estate investments are still here and have not disappeared.  I certainly can't say the same for some of my stocks!  Just where did that money go?   Prices do go up and down on real estate, also.  However, it's been historically proven that prices go up over time, and none of my real estate has disappeared!  Why not take... 10/16/2008