March 1st, 2010
- Ask them how long they’ve lived in the home. This gets the conversation going and starts the process of you gathering information from the homeowners. (“It seems like this is a nice area to live. How long have you lived here, in this house?”)
- Ask them if they plan on living in the same area when they sell their home. The reason for this question is that it gets them to tell you what their future plans are. Knowing what their plans on are huge so you know what to focus on when it comes to negotiation time. They may answer that they may be going to another state, another country, moving back home with parents, or moving in with a spouse or boyfriend/girlfriend. There could be positive reasons or negative reasons associated to the area – for example, they may be divorcing and want to leave the area, which lets you know they are in a hurry to leave. (“I noticed a few shopping malls nearby, seems pretty convenient. Do you plan on living in this same area once you sell your home?”)
Ask them when they plan to get the house closed by. If they give you a specific date, then this tells you a lot about their situation, whether personal or financial. They may tell you they need to close on April 1st because they need to pay tax liens on the property. They may tell you there’s no real fixed date in mind to sell and they’re just looking to see what the market offers. The answer to this question gives you insight into how motivated they are to close by a certain date. (“Is there a time-frame in mind for when you’d like to get this closed by?”)- Ask them if they have a bottom-line price on the home. By getting an answer to this question you’ll gain insight quickly on what the seller has in mind in regard to price and whether you’re on the right track to getting a deal done. (“A lot of sellers I’ve seen recently, instead of doing the whole haggling-price thing, put a final and best price on the home and then put it on the market. This can often make the transaction process much more stress-free. Do you have a bottom-line price on this home?”)
- Ask them how much they owe on the property. Not all owners will answer this, but if you can get an answer to this question it allows you to follow up by asking them that if you can offer them their price if they can let you assume payments on the house for a period of a year or 2.
When asking these questions, don’t just ask the sellers one question after another, rapid-fire style. You don’t want to be an impersonal robot, you want to connect with them on a personal level. You want to engage the property owner in polite conversation, gaining rapport and gaining their trust. You want them to be comfortable with you – this allows them to open up to you and answer your questions truthfully.
If you notice the questions I’ve written for you above as examples, you may see that none have easy “Yes or No” answers. You want to ask open-ended questions. You ask the questions and then stay silent – let them answer, don’t fill the silence with chit-chat! You ask the question and then wait. By asking these open-ended questions you’re leading the conversation, but they’re the ones talking. Generally, you’re looking for a 70%-30% conversation split, with them being 70% of the conversation. Why would you want to blabber on and on – what good does that serve you? A hiring manager for a company would never dominate the conversation of a hiring interview, they ask questions and then let the applicant speak. Always remember that your outcome in this initial process is to get information on the property and on them as homeowners. You don’t want to blabber on and on about how great you think the tile is and it’s your dream home or other nonsense like this.
As a final note, always have your contracts and paperwork with you when you go to look at any property! You never know what can happen – you always need to be ready to take action if the opportunity arises.
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August 25th, 2009
If you’re in any sort of business where looks plays a part (which is just about any business where at some point you have face-to-face interaction with people), then you need to know about style. My personal favorite clothing designer is Kenneth Cole, so when I found an article written by him in Details magazine I definitely took a look.
I’ll give you the run-down on Kenneth Cole’s rules of style. One of the big take-aways of style is that clothing is a form of self-expression. It’s usually the first thing people see before you even open your mouth. As first impressions are usually formed within the first five minutes of meeting someone, this means it’s essential for you to get your personal style together. You’ll get better results in your business life and your personal life with just a few tips.
- Before you open your front door to go out into the world, take a few minutes to take a good look at yourself in the mirror. Think about what message you’re sending out with what you’re wearing. Is it exactly the message about yourself that you want others to receive? Or is there some inconsistency between your look and what you want to project? If there is, make a plan to fix it!
- If you’re wearing cologne/perfume, make sure you arrive before it does and make sure that it doesn’t linger when you leave.
The truth is that most people don’t really dress up. The trick to look great without looking too “try-hard” is to mix a dressy look with a casual look or a rugged look with a refined look. For example, wear a blazer with your jeans or a casual top if you’re wearing dress slacks. Also, of the items you’re wearing, one item should be more tailored. If you’re going to be wearing a t-shirt, then wear cleaner jeans.- Your choice in footwear is critical. Your shoes are the most important accessory in your wardrobe – they allow your entire outfit to come together and make a huge impact in your look.
- Find your own “personal uniform”, then layer in something new in order to maintain the freshness of your look. For example, Kenneth Cole always wears jeans, a white shirt, and his boots. He then mixes up the rest. He may wear a white shirt, a pin-striped blazer and a V-neck sweater. Another day he may wear a graphic t-shirt, with a white shirt and a vest. However, you must always have a comfortable blazer and a white shirt in your wardrobe.
- If nothing else works, wear black.
- The accessory of the season are vests. You can use them as an element of sportswear or you can wear a vest with a suit – but make sure they’re not matching. Vests are best used to break up a suit and wear them as separates. Your suit jacket, either with or without the vest, can be worn with jeans. Your suit dress pants can be worn with sneakers, hooded sweaters, and t-shirts.
- Patterns and stripes need to be very subtle. You don’t want to look like you’re wearing a matched wardrobe (or that you’re an escapee from the local prison). Think about putting on a jacket that doesn’t match your pants and wearing a shirt that doesn’t match either. You don’t even need to have your belt and shoes matching, as long as your whole look seems to work together.
- You know you’ve put together a good look when people tell you, “You look great.” What you don’t want, is people asking you, “Where did you buy your jacket and how much were your shoes?” You want your look to help present you.
- You should never look like it took you more than 10 minutes to get dressed, no matter how long it actually took you.
Tags: kenneth cole
August 24th, 2009
I say this emphatically: Budgeting is not boring.
What makes budgeting boring for some people is that a lot of us don’t have the correct knowledge and experiences when it comes to budgeting. For example, if you went to a bowling alley and, because you had no idea how to bowl, every time you’d throw the bowling ball it would go in the gutter, then bowling would be pretty boring too right? It’s the same with budgeting. If you know the right way to do it, you gain positive experiences and budgeting can become fun. You see results (more money in your bank account) and this is definitely a fun thing!
What happens is that you start to feel accomplished in your new routine of living on a budget and the benefits that it entails. You may even look back at the “bad old days” when you used to spend your cash wildly and look back not too fondly! You take a look at those old bank statements and wonder where all the cash went.
What your new budget-conscious mindset will give you is new opportunities to do fun things in life without having to run over to the ATM machine every other day for a fresh infusion of cash into your wallet. Does frugal have to equal being bored? Not necessarily.
In order to get your new budget-conscious mindset right, I suggest you track your budget for the first few months. You can use either standard pen-and-paper or you can use any of the assortment of computer programs for this (Mint.com, Intuit Quicken, etc). After some time following your budget (again I recommend at least a couple of months writing everything down) you can think about dropping the written records and not having to write every expenditure down. The human mind takes a minimum of 30 days to get used to any new mental habit, so make sure you don’t give yourself any leeway during that first month or two to deviate from your planned budget! Once you get comfortable with your budget, you’ll be able to figure out how much you’re allowing yourself to spend on any particular category and how much you’ve already spent, all by heart. One of the big tips about fighting temptation during that first month is that whenever you feel an urge for something not budgeted (ex. new LCD television) remember what you’re saving for (ex. winter trip to Puerto Rico), imagine yourself doing that and walk away! Then replace that “urge” with something constructive (ex. watching the sports game at a friend’s house).
The bottom-line is that in order to budget effectively, you must have “budget-awareness”. This means you need to be aware of how commercial society influences people’s spending habits and you must fight these urges. A huge contributor to our materialistic culture is television – studies actually demonstrate that the more that a person watches television shows, usually the more that person will spend. Television constantly bombards the viewing public with messages of ultra-luxury beyond the grasp of the common middle-class, leaving the majority of people in debt trying to “catch up with the Joneses”. Even your friends and neighbors may affect your spending habits! Try to develop friendships with people also trying to build a debt-free frugal lifestyle in order to support your new ways. Remember that budgeting and frugal living doesn’t have to be forever – remember to reward yourself for your good work following your budget and reaching your goals!
Tags: mint·quicken·television
