Diarist.com

A few mornings ago, I was getting some cereal for my six-year old daughter, and she said something that stuck with me, both because it seemed very observant and because it provides an interesting lesson for all of us in real estate.
"Dada, did you ever notice that every cereal box talks about how its cereal tastes the best?"
"Yes, I did. What do you think about that?", I replied.
"I guess they want everyone to buy their cereal." True enough.

As a 13-year resident of Pflugerville, Texas (located immediately adjacent to north Austin), I have seen a lot of growth occur here over the years. I remember doing a real estate marketing piece in 1997, which was my first year in the business. That year, they had recently replaced the population sign for our town, which used to read 4,444. I believe this was for the 1990 census figures. As I recall, the population then was around 11,000, so I was happy to point to our growth as a sign of things to come.

I have noticed an odd and somewhat disturbing trend in my real estate career, both when dealing with clients and with fellow agents. If you do not agree, that is certainly your prerogative. This is not a hard and fast rule, but rather a personal observation.
Here it is:
If someone proclaims that they are a certain type of person, they probably aren't like that at all.
What?!? What are you talking about, Crouch?
Perhaps a few examples will help to flesh out this idea a bit more.

Over the years, I have gone on hundreds of listing appointments. These days, it seems as though I am competing less and less often, since they probably found me through a friend of mine or a past client. When I do compete, I haven't really kept track of the percentage of times that I win the listing, but I would estimate that about 9 out of every 10 choose me. No, I am not exaggerating.
Why have I had such a strong track record with listing appointments? Hey, I'm glad you asked. You did ask, right? Well, either way, you may find this post useful.

My wife and I have had a long-standing joke about Gilligan's Island (which I mentioned on a previous post): "Do you remember that episode of Gilligan's Island when they were poised to get off of the island, but then Gilligan screwed something up and they were forced to remain there?"
If you have seen this show, and I think I saw every episode multiple times when I was growing up, then you know that almost every one of the shows revolves around the premise in the question above. Basically, Gilligan ALWAYS managed to find a way to mess up their plans of being rescued.

If you are considering relocating to the Austin, Texas area, you may have questions with regard to the medical facilities here. Basically, no matter where you live in the general Austin area, there is probably a hospital located within 10-15 minutes of your home, especially with the advent of the toll road system which opened about a year ago.