Gig Harbor Undressed

Not so Great moments in Gig Harbor Undressed History!

I’ve had a ton of fun writing this blog for the past 2 1/2 years.  About 80% of my business has come from either this blog or my social media presence, which is ultimately all linked back to Gig Harbor Undressed.  But it’s not always success stories.  I recently had a not-so-great moment in the blog’s history.

I had some buyers who were interested in a home for sale in Gig Harbor’s Fox Crest neighborhood (out by Fox Island).  I called to set up the appointment to show the house, and when I said “This is Matt Thomson from Keller Williams Realty” the homeowner enthusiastically replied, “You’re the Gig Harbor Undressed guy!  I read your blog all the time!”

So why is that a not-so-great moment?  The home was previously listed with another agent, cancelled, and now currently listed with a second agent.  I’m a Realtor.  I sell houses.  I never even got a call from the guy who reads my blog to see if I may be able to sell his home (I’m guessing since he was reading my blog, he should know that others read it too so his home would have had great online exposure).  What makes it even more of a not-so-great moment is that when my in-laws went to a garage sale at this house (completely unknowing that I had shown it) they found out the owners were moving to Park City, UT.  That’s where I grew up.  I graduated from Park City High.  My mom still works for the Park City School District.  Good friends of mine work for the Keller Williams office in Park City and could have helped these folks on the buying side when they moved.

I love that people enjoy the blog.  I don’t expect every single person in Gig Harbor to sell their homes with me.  Yet it is a bit of a sting when I know that there were several potential connections with a homeowner whom I could have helped and I never even got an interview!  If you enjoy the blog, please, keep enjoying it and share it with others.  And please remember that I sell houses and I’d love to interview for the job of helping you, your friends, your co-workers (you get it) buy or sell your home!  It’s always tough to have one get away!

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What I’ve learned…from a car salesman

Fine, let the jokes begin.  I know the stereotypes of used car salesmen and I know the stereotypes of real estate agents.  I believe that anybody who has used my services to buy or sell real estate can affirm that I don’t fit the negative stereotype of your typical real estate agent, and after buying a used car from Joe Yi at Lexus of Tacoma, I can affirm that he doesn’t fit their negative stereotype, either.

Sales can be a tough job, as it’s really my business to sell myself more so than to sell homes.  That can be tough to do while remaining genuine and true to my core values.  Recently, while going through the process of trying to buy a new car (for me, 10 years old counts as new!), I was able to have modeled for me a great example of a salesman who treated me the way I hope I treat my clients.

What do you want when you are looking to buy something, be it a house or a car?  One, you probably I want information.  You probably I want access to inventory.  You most likely I want trustworthy guidance.  Mainly you I want to feel comfortable and respected.   Joe provided all of that for me during the 5 weeks that I worked with him on the phone and in person.  I’m not a car guy.  I like cars, I like keeping them clean, but I know nothing about how to maintain them, which ones hold their value, etc.  Joe, although a Lexus salesman who clearly believes Lexus is top of the line (duh) never steered me in any direction.  He gave me information and let me make up my own mind (ultimately not a Lexus, mainly for $ reasons).

I strive to be the same way with my clients.  Buying a home or selling your home are huge decisions.  I have built my business by providing the very best information, not just about the home buying or selling process but about the neighborhood, parks, schools, etc.  Reflecting on how comfortable Joe made me was a fantastic reminder of how comfortable I want to make my clients feel.  I know how much stress can be involved in this process…I make it my job to minimize that. 

Any stories you have about a salesman or saleswoman who not only earned your business but your trust as well?

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What I’ve learned–from a dog

This video was shared with me by Larry Cragun.  I almost turned it off 2 minutes into it because I thought it was too cheesy.  The last 3 minutes I couldn’t stop crying.  God has made us all unique, and we all have something unique to offer.  We just need to find what it is and feed it.

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Increasing Thankfulness

Life is interesting.  When I moved to this area nearly 13 years ago, it was just me.  I knew almost no one.  I lived by myself in a little apartment  just off of the Narrows Bridges.  I was teaching and coaching cross country and track and field.  Life was great.  I was completely on my own schedule, had a good job, wasn’t making much money but had virtually no expenses either.  Life was pretty good.

Then I bought a little house on South 7th St in Tacoma and got a dog.  That was just weeks before my 25th birthday.  It was great.  I lived about 1 mile from the school where I worked, had a bit more responsibility now taking care of Sebastian, but was still pretty much on my own.  Seb and I went running every day, either through the streets of Tacoma or through Pt Defiance Park.  It was great.  Life was good.

Then I got married, and shortly thereafter moved to Gig Harbor.  My level of responsibility went way up, I couldn’t come and go as I pleased (like this is a big deal…I’m a homebody), we had 2 incomes but expenses were higher too.  We got a 2nd dog, and were becoming a little family.  Most of all I had someone to share my good life with, and someone who made my good life a lot better.  Life was really good.

Then we discovered a 2 legged kid was on the way, so we bought a newer, larger house in a smaller Gig Harbor neighborhood.  The real estate market was booming, the baby made us a real live family, my wife took to motherhood like she was born for it, my dog took to the baby (my wife’s didnt’, so we had to find him a new home), and we now had a ton of responsibility and more expenses.  But we had the joy of a baby so life was really flowing now.  Life was very good.

Today, lots has changed.  The real estate market tanked and is now making a comeback.  Expenses go up and down.  Our neighborhood has filled with lots of little kids, as has our church.  My little baby is a chatter box of a 2-year old.  Sebastian is still with me, just a lot grayer and a little slower.  My wife is still embracing the motherhood role like an old pro.  Not only do I have my trusty old dog, and a wife to share life with, but a baby who has become an actual person, someone who laughs and jokes and offers me water and bites of her candy.  Life is great.

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What I’ve learned…from driving

It’s been a while since I’ve contributed to my “What I’ve learned” series, but I got another lesson today while driving in to work.  I’m fortunate.  My office is about 4 minutes from my house.  It’s an easy drive, without much traffic.  Today, however, a driver pulled out of Canterwood just in front of me.  She didn’t cut me off, but I probably would have waited had I been in her shoes.  Just as she pulled out onto Canterwood Drive, she stopped.  Right in the middle of the road.  I could see her digging for something on the seat next to her.  As she lifted the cell phone to her ear, she began driving again, giving me a little “I’m sorry” wave in the rear view mirror.  As we approached the round-about traffic circle she was in the right lane headed towards HWY 16 West and I got in the left lane to head across the freeway to my office.  We both pulled into the traffic circle at about the same time, me to the inner lane and her to the…inner lane.  I honked as she crossed the solid white line and the turn only arrow into my lane, and she gave another apologetic wave.  Problem is she waved with her “free” hand as the other hand hung onto the cell phone she was still talking on, meaning no hands were left on the wheel meaning her Escalade bounced up on the round-about median.  Basically, she was unprepared to drive this morning.  She had something more pressing to do or something more important to think about, and it put her and others in danger and inconvenienced and frustrated me.

Being prepared is a big deal.  When I am meeting someone to discuss putting their home on the market or meeting with a buyer to show them around Gig Harbor, I need to be prepared or else I’ll inconvenience and frustrate them, putting my business in danger.  One of the things I love most about working at Keller Williams Realty in Gig Harbor is that the folks here help keep me prepared.  KW is widely known as the leader in real estate education and training, and our business coach does a great job of keeping me on track.  If you are looking to sell your home in Gig Harbor or if you are hoping to relocate to Gig Harbor and buy a home, I’d invite you to give me a call and learn what a prepared Realtor can do for you.

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What I learned…from Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson is an interesting person for a Realtor to be taking lessons from, but it just goes to show that there are lessons to be learned everywhere.  Rickey was recently inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, and some of his statistics got me to thinking.  I was a huge Henderson fan when I was a little kid playing Little League baseball in Park City, UT.  I kind of fancied myself to be a Henderson-type player.  Basically, he was the fastest thing to ever hit the basepaths in Major League Baseball, and speed was the only skill I had on the diamond. 

Did you know that Rickey Henderson holds 4 (that I know of) all-time MLB records?  He’s hit more home runs as a leadoff hitter than anyone in history.  He’s stolen more bases than any player in history.  No one in the history of MLB has scored more runs than Rickey has.  Do you know the fourth?  Nobody has ever failed at stealing bases like Rickey Henderson has.  That’s right; he’s been caught trying to steal more times than any player in MLB history. 

It’s an age-old saying, mixed around in multiple ways.  You can’t fail unless you fail to try.  Fail your way to success.  Abe Lincoln is the country’s biggest failure, and on and on.  But this still got me to thinking.  Rickey Henderson is the best base stealer of all time (he said so in his own words), yet he failed more than anybody in history.  How does that work?  He always believed in himself.  He never once took off to steal a base without thinking that he was going to make it.  He never let getting caught deter him from trying again the next time he got on base.  If anything, I bet it motivated him more.  Each time he got caught, he cost his team an out and erased a potential run off the boards.  Shouldn’t he have been more careful?  He scored more runs (the goal of the game) than anyone in history, so I’d say he was a pretty good risk.  No telling how many runs he manufactured simply by distracting the opposing pitcher; there’s no stat for that.

So why, in real estate, are so many agents afraid to fail?  This blog was a risk.  Nobody else was doing one in this area.  Using Flickr, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube to try and sell my clients’ homes was a risk.  I’ve put things on those sites that have had zero results.  Nothing.  Total failures.  Yet I’ll keep on running, keep trying, because I’m succeeding more than I fail, and each failure teaches me something.  I like writing about what I’ve learned, and this time I’ve learned to keep trying from Rickey Henderson! 

Photo from Funked.com

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What I’ve learned…from my wife

Welcome to another installment of “What I’ve Learned.”   This one is a bit trickier, because I’ve learned a lot more from my wife than what I’m writing about here.  Yesterday was Father’s Day.  I’m not a big fan of getting gifts; I just never seem to know how to properly react and I always feel a bit awkward for some reason.  My wife, on the other hand, is a great gift giver.  She loves it, and it really makes her happy.   It’s the way that my wife gives gifts that has taught me a valuable lesson about life and business.

For starters, my wife is a great shopper.  She’ll pick up things at garage sales and from thrift stores that totally buck the stereotype.  Things that look (and often are) brand new, she’ll find for $1-$2.  Saving money is a gift in itself to me; I tend to be a bit cheap, so knowing that not much money was spent on me makes me pretty happy.  But the gifts that she gives are pretty amazing, too.  When asked, I’ll always say I don’t want anything, because that’s generally true.  That puts my wife in a tough position, because she wants to get me something I’d like, but I don’t offer any help.  So she listens, and watches, all the time.  I’ll get gifts that I really do want, but didn’t think to ask for (like a fertilizer spreader, or a high powered lawn sprinkler).  How’d she know that I wanted those things?  At little points in seemingly insignificant conversations, I mention them, mostly just in passing, and she listens.

That’s a good practice for life and for my real estate business.  Many real estate agents have the saying, “Buyers are liars.”  I think that’s horrible–and bogus.  Often when a buyer tells you want they want in a home, they don’t really know, or can’t think it all the way through.  “Well, we’d like at least 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms would be nice, I’d like a big garage, and a nice yard would be good.”  That’s standard, and many agents rush out to find that house.  But WHY?  What would a big garage do for you?  Would a workshop be as nice?  What would having a nice yard look like for your family?  Would being next to a park do the same thing?  Really listening to home buyers and learning what they want is a skill.  Not just listening to what they say when they tell you what they want, but listening to what they say when they walk through a house, or drive through a neighborhood.  Giving my home buyers the gift of the perfect home is a great aspect of my career.  I don’t know that I’ll ever be the gift-giver that my wife is, but I do know that I always give my full attention and best efforts to match my clients with a great gift…the gift on the perfect home.

Dad’s day gift photo courtesy of Nadia308 and Flickr. Gift house photo courtesy of H Dickens and Flickr.

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What I’ve learned…from my lawn

Welcome to installment 2 in my “What I’ve learned” series.  I was mowing my lawn a few days ago, and I learned an interesting lesson about my real estate business.  Gig Harbor, like most of Western Washington, is a pretty rainy place to live.  We get a steady amount of rainfall from October through May most years.  We average about 39″ of rainfall per year, which seems to me to be plenty of water for a lawn to thrive.  As spring descended, my lawn looked great.  Thick and green and healthy.

Then we had 2 weeks of sunny, dry weather, and the lawn died.  I mean dead, brown, dry, crackly grass.  It made me wonder how a lawn that gets so much water all year could completely die after only 2 weeks of dry weather.  Couldn’t it store some water?  Couldn’t it fade a bit, but still maintain some green?  Then I got to thinking about my real estate business.

Generally, when real estate agents first get a “lead,” we take great care of that person.  We shower them with new listings, follow up calls, check in emails, etc.  But after a few months of constant contact, many agents give up on that lead.  “I’ll let them call me when they’re ready.”  “These guys will never find a home they like.”  Or, the agent simply doesn’t have a good follow up plan and they let their potential client simply fall through the cracks.  Whatever the case, after months of “watering” that lead, keeping the potential business well fed and healthy, many agents then allow the client to dry up after only a few weeks of ignoring them.

There’s few feelings in real estate worse than seeing a home come up on the MLS with a different agent when you thought you’d get the listing, only to find out that despite your months of efforts the other agent happened to call just as the sellers were ready.  Or when you see a new house come on the market, and you think “This would be perfect for the Smiths.  I haven’t talked to them in a month.  I’ll give them a call!” Only to find out that they just bought a place 3 weeks ago at an open house they visited.

Many agents will place the blame on the customer, expressing disbelief that the client would have a real estate transaction without them.  That’d be like me blaming my lawn for dying, exasperated that it had the nerve to die without water after I’d let mother nature water it for 8 months straight.  In my business, I make it a point to have frequent follow up.  When you first contact me about a real estate need or question, you may be months, or even a year or more, away from being ready to make a decision.  That’s okay!  I don’t expect all of my “leads” to be ready to buy or sell a home immediately.  If you are curious about the Gig Harbor real estate market, wonder what your home is worth, are curious what a home in the neighborhood is selling for, feel free to give me a call.  I don’t mind answering those questions, and I’ll keep in contact from time to time to keep you up to date about how the market is moving. 

Photo courtesy of andrewds14 and Flickr.

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What I’ve learned…from Cutter’s Point Coffee in Gig Harbor

Welcome to a new series of blogs that I’m pretty excited about.  I’m always learning and applying lessons (at least trying to apply them), and for some reason these past two weeks have been full of great lessons that I’ve learned from odd sources, and I decided I’m going to start blogging about them.  I’m actually really looking forward to this and I hope that they’re enjoyable to read, as well.

My first lesson is courtesy of Cutter’s Point Coffee shop in Gig Harbor’s Uptown Center.  Gig Harbor is just loaded with places to get some coffee and meet with folks, but few are as comfortable and well-managed as the Uptown Cutter’s Point.  I went in there this morning to claim a free drink.  They offered a free latte to the first 50 followers of their Twitter Account.  I was one of the lucky 50, but I don’t drink coffee, I’m more of a hot chocolate guy.  However, it was 79 degrees outside, so hot chocolate didn’t sound too good. 

So I asked if they could make me the “chocolate milk-shake thingy” that I’ve had before.  The folks behind the counter graciously agreed, and I watched them make my free drink “upgrade.”  It didn’t look quite right though, so I asked to make sure there wasn’t any coffee in it.  They informed me that all flavors of their frappuccinos have coffee, and I explained that I wanted just a plain chocolate milk shake, no coffee.  They smiled, said no problem, began serving my mistake as a sample to the other folks there, and made me another free drink upgrade.

Let me summarize.  I got a free drink, something I didn’t deserve, just a gift.  I asked for something other than the latte that they offered me.  I told them that what they made me isn’t what I wanted, I wanted something else other than what they offered and what they made me.  And the good folks at Cutter’s Point did nothing but smile and graciously gave me what I wanted. 

Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams Realty, has a set of principles for our company called the WICCCCTTS (verbalized as “Y4C2T’s”).  One of those C’s stands for “The Customer Always Comes First.”  Notice it doesn’t say the old adage “The Customer is Always Right.”  The customer isn’t always right.  I wasn’t right when I visited that coffee shop in Gig Harbor this morning.  I’ve had sellers who weren’t right when they told me what their house was worth, and I’ve had buyers who weren’t right when they wanted to throw in a low-ball offer.  But customers always come first.  They are the reason I’m in real estate.  Customers are the reason why Cutter’s Point is serving coffee in the Uptown Center.  Right or wrong, the customer and his/her needs always comes first. 

Thanks, Cutter’s Point, for treating me so well although I wasn’t in the right.  Congrats on earning my future business and my referrals.  Thanks for showing me a real-life example of how I can continue to put my clients’ needs first.  If anybody has any stories they’d like to share about this subject, please feel free to share in the comments. 

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