Compromise? Wrong - it may just be a compromise to your way of thinking. The problem is that sometimes you really are not inside the head of your client, no matter how much you have tried. You really can not see, or feel, or think things about the house in the way that the client has fallen for, in exactly the same way they do. So regardless of how you feel – regardless if you look at this house and think to yourself that you wouldn’t even put your annoying brother-in-law’s dog in the house, it’s the one the client wants. Even houses that may not be in the best shape, or may be foreclosures, may appeal to your clients.

Give the client your best advice on the place, including some of your reasons for hesitation. Give the client all the pros and cons, then listen to their decision and get them the best deal you have ever made for the place they want to live in.

A year after closing, go by the house. See what changes have happened. Visit your clients on the very real excuse that you want to see what they’ve done with the place. If they are not happy, well then, your foot is in the door for another sale, isn’t it?

If, however you get to the client’s home and find that they have polished the diamond in the rough to a sparkle that you just didn’t think was there, then congratulate them on a stunning success and ask if they’d be interested in letting you do before and after shots for a brochure, or see if they might be interested in a similar house that could use their special talents. Never waste an opportunity to put a hook on a line.

With a little planning, you can avoid a lot of home-buying traps! Let us explore five tips for the home buyer.

Tip 1. Do your homework. Really look at the available neighborhoods, the commute, the school district, shopping and your budget.

Tip 2. Talk to a lender before you look at a home. Get your finances in order, get your best deal on a loan package and know in your mind that you are ready to look at houses that you really can afford to live in.

Tip 3. Consider using a Buyer’s Agent. A buyer’s agent is a general real estate agent or the listing agent that is working for the seller. It’s part of the law of agency. Unless you have an agent specifically contracted to you as your buying agent you don’t have the most complete coverage for your interest that is available to you. Think about it.

Tip 4. Investigate areas you are interested in. Check out the general area before you decide you want to live there and before you ask to see homes. Go see the area during rush hour, and late on Friday or Saturday evening. You want to be close to shopping, but sometimes you’re not interested in buying what a neighbor sells in the wee hours. Check it out first!

Tip 5. Decide before you go shopping for a house what it must have and what you can manage to deal without until you can add it yourself. You will save yourself a lot of time and very likely some money by looking at a home with an older, but serviceable kitchen until you can get the kitchen you want. ‘All new’ is nice, but it comes at a premium price tag.

How many times have you marveled at the number of ‘new home communities’ that have sprung up, with their same square footage, with only a slight variation of floor plans, and seen the people flock to them like they was a free feed at a Texas BBQ?

It is well known that the developers do minimal changes so that the neighborhood provides good comparison sales for market research, but what about individuality? What about independent thought?

Take a good look around and count the number of McDonalds hamburger spots there are in Dallas. Now that’s conformity!

The problem is, with conformity in the Dallas Real Estate market all agents look alike as well as the houses do. It’s time to take a good look at what you do that makes you look like the roan stallion or the chestnut mare with the diamond blaze when in a herd of zebras.

Remember, real estate is not about the suit or dress, it’s about the way you do business and how you treat your clients. You can treat them like some agents do, like they are in line to decide if they want fries with their generic burger, or you can give them five star service even if they are looking at a cookie cutter house. There’s the difference: they will remember you, and your service.

Who are you really working for? The client? In the short term, yes, definitely. The Broker? As long as the broker is taking a cut from your commission, you bet you’re working for him or her.

Then you look again. Maybe you need to rethink this concept. As a Dallas Real Estate Agent you are building your business as an independent contractor under a broker. Choosing the right broker is a good start. Deciding to do business to the best of your ability and to the best ethical standards is your next choice. Some agents might even argue that you decide to do business to the best ethical standards first, because it can guide your choice of broker.

Shady dealings may work in the short term, but will not sustain a good reputation and long lasting career that people trust. You are working for yourself. You have to look at yourself in the mirror in the morning. Do you want to be proud of the person looking back, or simply indifferent to the reflection?

Do you want to be someone your kids or partner can think of and talk about with pride, or do you want them to not say anything because there might be a cop or lawyer nearby that may recognize your name?

You are working for you as well as working on you. Being able to stand tall in a business field that has almost as many slick salesman jokes about it as used cars and still stand above the ‘usual tricks of the trade’ will make you not only a successful business person but someone the whole town can look to as an example of the best of in Dallas real estate.

Get the client, get the contract, miss a few steps, but only a few, the contract closes. Repeat as necessary. This is an average way of looking at selling real estate, perhaps even a typical way of selling.

Of course, if you want to make a lasting impression, a good impression that is, you have to remember that average is just not good enough in an area as competitive as the Dallas real estate market. With the Dallas commercial real estate market as competitive as it can be, missing deadlines and milestones on a contract can cost money. It can be expensive for you, for your client, and it can risk the whole deal if you miss vital deadlines. It can even cause the whole deal to fall to pieces after weeks of working toward a multi-million dollar settlement.

Being consistently lazy, or consistently late, even consistently disorganized may be predictable for some people, but it is certainly not productive.

If you consistently aim for the bull’s eye, the less likely you will be to find yourself in the dirt away from the target. The goal is to have a smooth process. Smoothing the way takes planning, organization and consistently reviewing where you are at each step of the way. Ready, take aim, then fire. Leave the fancy trick shooting to the rodeo; this is someone’s home or business you are dealing with, and not a paper target to get a blue ribbon. As a real estate professional, you earn your ribbons every time you make it to a successful closing and the keys have changed hands.

Tip 1. Please, please, read and pay attention to the expired listings on the MLS service! See how long they were listed and at what price. See what the comps were and then send the owner a letter with a proposal for meeting with them (assuming, of course, that they have dissolved the relationship they had with the prior listing agent). Start off with a line like ‘if you are no longer listing your home and do not plan to further list your home with Agent X, but are still planning to sell your home, I’d like to speak to you about it.’ Follow any correspondence, of course, with a disclaimer that says ‘If you are currently working with another agent, please disregard this inquiry.’ Stay on the correct side of ethics and no one will give you a hassle.

Tip 2. Please look at the tax foreclosure listings at your county courthouse! Yes, it does feel a bit awkward at first, but if you don’t know a property is about to be sold for tax arrears you can’t benefit yourself or a client on what may be a good investment. You are doing your city, town, and/or county a favor by building the revenues that they are short and you may just buy a gem that is going to otherwise go to waste.

Tip 3. Check the bank foreclosure listings! This is another time when it may seem awkward to look for sales, but there are many people who do not know that if they can sell the house before the bank forecloses, they can possibly recoup at least a bit of the equity. You may be able to save a family facing foreclosure a number of long term credit headaches by avoiding having the phrase “foreclosure” on their credit report. Everyone wins.

“We should send that young couple to an agency that will help them find something they can afford.” If you have ever thought that about the brokerage you are currently with, it is time for you to start having a fresh look at the Dallas real estate agency frontier. Working at a brokerage that doesn’t care for its clients is not only just marking time, it’s killing your career in real estate.

When you care about your clients, you want your brokerage to reflect that care. If you are beginning to wonder if your brokerage is the kind of company that you would want representing you in a sale, then you need to take real stock of how the broker treats not only the clients, but the agents associated with the firm. If the brokerage has not real regard for the client, then don’t expect them to have any for you, either.

Look at other brokers. Interview them. Talk to their agents. The Dallas Real Estate market is a good place to be if you are not only part of the right team but playing the right game. Don’t let someone else steal your thunder by not caring about you, your career or the client. Take your business seriously and do what is right for everyone that matters.

Go with the real estate agency that treats clients and associates with respect and concern.

The kids are off at school, you just got that promotion, you and your partner are moving to Dallas and you like the idea of being right in the middle of it all. The reason doesn’t matter, but the location, location, location does!

Downtown condos are booming. From modest budgets to the mansion in the sky, Dallas has the downtown condo home to fit your needs. Dallas Real Estate agents know their way around the city and know all the best of the best for the newest condos.

Mid to high rises, stripped down and waiting for you to re-design, or tricked to the nines with all the polish you’d expect from Dallas, Texas. It doesn’t matter what you’re looking for. With just minutes to the business center, to the theater, museums, art galleries, night life, you’ll find all you want and much, much more in Dallas Condo homes. All it takes is a good real estate agent to help you find exactly what you have in mind.

Have a look at Museum Tower. It’s ultra sleek and modern. Perhaps you prefer a bare bones loft that is just waiting for you to try out your refurbishing ideas. Maybe an old-fashioned duplex condo is more what you have in mind. Regardless, don’t let the grass grow under your feet, let some one else deal with that. You’re moving to a condo! You’ll be leaving the yard work to the maintenance team while you lounge by the pool.

Not my fault! The inspector…., the secretary….., the loan officer….. – uh, one of them dropped the ball!

Right. It’s your client, your contract, your closing, your deal and while you may need the help of all these other people to complete your sale, Honey, the responsibility is all yours. The client is going to be looking you square in the eye when it goes south.

The easiest way to fix a problem is to not let it get started to begin with. Instead of lining up who to blame, line up your markers and milestones for your contract. Keep track of them on a white board if you have to, but come up with a system that works for you. Make certain you really have touched base with all the people who have to complete portions of your contract and that you know where they are in the process.

Make them and yourself accountable up front, not in the back lot of a collapsed deal. If you know ahead that the inspector is overbooked, then you have time to advise your clients to pick a new one. If you know that there is a cloud on the title or a delay in processing the loan, you can submit for a new settlement date and arrange extensions before it becomes a panic.

Someone to blame will not fix the problem, it just makes it look like you didn’t have your eye on the big picture to begin with. That’s not a good way to look, to your partners or to your clients. Remember, you’re a member of a team, and ‘team’ is not spelled ‘blame’.

Let’s face it, Dallas and the surround areas are a great place to work, play, live and go to school. Take Irving for example. It’s not in the middle of the big city, but it’s not so far out that it’s a problem to get to either.

Travel is convenient; the airport is nearby but not directly over head. A mix of new and traditional homes can be found in Irving, along with homes in most price ranges. Family communities, condos, services and nearly every amenity you might want can be found in Irving or the surrounding area. What more could you ask for?

Why not consider taking a tour of the residential homes that are for sale in Irving? Talk to a local Realtor and see what is available. Find out what your current home is worth, if you own. If you’re a renter, meet with a Realtor to find out what you’ll have to do to get into a home of your own. Are you newly wed? Expecting a new addition? Newly single? Maybe the last of the kids is heading off to college and it’s time for a change. The reasons are your own. The homes are in Irving and they are waiting for you.

Take a drive, and have a look. Spring and summer and prime real estate sales times, so that families can get resettled in time for school Remember: with the spring and summer coming, there’s no time like the present to buy a new home.