OK, folks. Pay attention and see how being connected helps and, thanks to Active Rain, helps a lot.....
Diane Olsen, a good Realtoy buddy of mine and a somewhat dormant Active Rainer, referred me to a great client who wanted to sell his house in MD and move into a condo in DC. Normally, this would have been a double fantastic referral but I'm not licensed in DC (which I will expand upon in another post).
Since I've been reading Active Rain posts, I knew that Pat Kennedy was a DC Realtor Extraordinarie. So I get Pat on the phone and make the arrangements for my client to get wonderful Buyer representation in DC.
My client is highly motivated to do what it takes and he had already done some huge renovations to his home and it looked like something Martha Stewart should have on her show. He agrees to price it competitively and pretty soon we get an offer. The Buyer's Agent is none other than Joyce Dawkins, another Active Rainer (although not as Active in the Rain as she could be) who was a pleasure to work with through the inspection issues and the appraisal issues all the way to settlement. I found out during the pre-settlement walk through that Joyce was (and maybe still is) a protege of the Active Rain goddess herself, Lenn Harley.
Meanwhile, Pat is busy showing our mutual client condos, finds him one and then does her negotiating thing so well that William Shatner would be in awe (you have to know the Priceline commercials to get this one).
Settlement on the listing is in the morning and settlement on the condo is in the afternoon. Money needs to flow from one to the other. Of course, the checks from Title Company A weren't exactly ready at settlement so when they were ready I raced out to Bowie to pick up the checks and then into downtown DC (more on this adventure later) to deliver them to Title Company B where the afternoon settlement was about to wrap up except that it needed money.
Pat does a nice post about this on her Blog
So, it pays to pay attention to the Rain. It works. It just does.
Ken-It was nice meeting you again today. If you say that it pays to pay attention to the Rain, who would doubt you. Awesome!
That's funny. Joyce is one of the hardest working most dedicated pure buyer's agent I ever met.
She is one of my little birds that I taught to fly, got through broker school, kicked out of the nest and now sells my referrals.
Small world.
Hans -- Good to meet you as well!
Lenn -- The conversation developed around why Joyce was an exclusive buyer's agent and that led to her experiecne with you. She spoke glowingly of the time she spent at Homefinders.com. She also gave me some background on the world famous Lenn Harley maps.
Okay Ken, I know you put me out there since I told you I wasn't an active blogger (smile). I must say you really got me good. You really could be a great news reporter. But really, its okay because I have a lot to say. First, thank you for being a great agent to work with from beginning to end. No drama! Second, thank you for having a coachable client who took care of his home in the first place and didn't mind doing everything that you told him to do to get all of us to settlement. I'm sorry that the check took so long to get there but it wasn't because my client(s) didn't have loan approval. And, I knew that Bank of America had money.
Also, I am proud to say that I was trained by Lenn Harley. But you can't be a cream puff working with her. She takes no prisoners when it comes to doing what's right with our buyers. So come correct. It doesn't matter who you are, if its not right, Lenn will let you know and she made me let you/them know too. She is my real estate Momma. No suck up! Just fact.
Okay, I'm out of the blogging closet. I am looking forward to going public with blogging.
Ken, thank you again.
Joyce -- It was great working with you. I figured the loan was good. I was kind of disappointed that there was a little delay at the very end but, hey, if there wasn't I wouldn't have had a chance to be in a photo with Pat Kennedy on Active Rain. All's well that ends well.
Great picture too!
Ken-as I said on Pat's blog the bacon is cooking in our universe. I'm sure you get it!
Active Rain 90210. Great story and I'm glad this story has multiple happy endings.
Ken,
These types of referrals and stories are what AR is all about. Anyone who doubts how beneficial this network can be to its members, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and others, should take notice.
I have a couple of people that I will be referring to out-of state agents. I absolutely plan to use AR to find that agent.
Ken- Its great to be able to meet and learn from great real estate professionals like yourself here. Congratulations on your AR Referral. Much success to you. Great post.
Active Rain Networking is great.
Thanks for the post.
Bill
Thank you - I'm taking this whole Blogging / Active Rain with a leap of faith!
www.PippaMAC.com
Ken, thanks for posting encouragement to keep up our participation in Active Rain.
Oh yeah...the more visible you are, the more you read, the more you blog, the more you refer, the more you get referrals, the more business, the more fun.....and so it goes...come out in the RAIN !
Thanks for yout tasking the time to provide us with this information in the Active Rain network. AR is the new "cyber backbone" of the industry, and with it's uplink to Localism.com it will transfrom the marketplace. Agents who don't see which way the cyberwind is blowing are going to find themselves at a considerable disadvantage inside of three to five years.
KEN - Good story. I imagine that as AR continues to grow, that there will be many more of these situations where Rainers are working together, both intentionally and unintentionally.
Ken, it's always exciting to see testimonials to the power of the Active Rain network and the connections that you make here leading to $ in the bank.
What a great story.
Ken, you deserve more than one gold stars for this transaction! You're going the extra mile, or in this case, a bunch of extra miles, to get the check to 14th and Church Streets in the District, made my settlement as smooth as butter, and definitely blogworthy. Thanks for everything!
Nice when they flow through like that, 1-2-3. That is exactly what the networking thing is about!
Chris -- It's sweeet when it works well like this one did!
Pat -- Client service, relationships, referral.....we aim to please!
Andrew -- Transactions like this make me remember why I like real estate.
Brian -- AR is working for me. Pat has another listing referral of mine, too.
Adam -- One can only hope that the AR network will continue to be a great source of referrals and working toward a common objective.
Rob -- Years ago I was listening to a panel of real estate professionals talk about the advent of "The Internet" and whether it would replace Realtors. I remember one panelist saying that "Yes. The Internet will replace the Realtors that don't embrace the technology and adapt."
Sally & David -- It took me about 6 months or so before I really got started. I'm glad I did.
Christine -- Yep. Keep at it. It's worth it.
Pippa -- You'll reward will come!
Dr. Bill -- Amen to that.
Lanre -- Thanks for the nice words and encouragement.
Ruthmarie -- You can learn a lot about a fellow Realtor by what they post and how they post it. That's how I realized that Pat Kennedy was a Realtor Extraordinaire in exactly the jurisdiction I needed a good Realtor.
Esko -- the networking is invaluable
John -- 90210 -- I only wish! :-)
Cindy -- Bacon....Mmmmmm!
I need to get more of my clients active in the Rain, and this post is a good place to start
One of the best ActiveRain stories I have ever read. To think that so many ActiveRainers could be involved in a deal is incredible. I just know that this will spread to our area. Great story.