Eastern New Mexico is slowly turning a deeper shade of GREEN

Green is slowly marching Eastward over our state. Green building practices have been boasted about for years in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Las Cruces. But in the East, where dairy cattle outnumber prairie dog lovers and talk of “Green” practices still brings to mind hippies, Californians, and tree huggers, consumers and builders are finally seeing the value in researching and implementing green building practices.

It isn’t just about smearing mud on the walls and saving trees any longer – those may be great ideas but today’s Green standards are based on energy conservation. The practical people of Eastern New Mexico realize this means money – more in their pockets and less spent on heating and a/c. It’s smarter building which starts in the design phase and carries through the materials, standards and waste a project produces.
I was doing some research for a client and found that we have no “Green” builders based in Eastern New Mexico. No members of Build Green New Mexico and no builders knowledgeable about the steps to take to certify their homes for energy sustainability.

A quick way to put more money in builder’s pockets would be for them to take advantage of the tax credits available to them. New Mexico offers sizeable tax credits to builders and consumers that should not be ignored. If a home achieves a Build Green New Mexico or LEEDS certification at the lowest level (There are three levels Gold/ Silver and Platinum- Emerald) The builder can get a $5.00 per sq ft tax credit from New Mexico. For example a 2000 sq ft house would get a $10,000.00 tax credit. That is in addition the federal government’s offer of another $2000 tax credit for using sustainable energy practices. If the house achieved a platinum rating, that credit could go as high as $9.00 a sq ft. and that adds up to some nice pocket change.

I don’t know enough about GREEN certifications, practices, or credits, I admit, so my first step will be to take more courses so that I know what I am talking about. A quick resource to turn to would be New Mexico’s Energy Conservation and Management Division website. They have a nice little chart with links of where to go for more information. http://www.emnrd.state.nm.us/ecmd/cleanenergytaxincentives/sustainablebuildingtaxcredit.htm
I do have a listing on Northglen http://fly3.505home.com/ that is probably the most energy efficient, large home on the market in Clovis. The builder is now pursuing a HERS rating to verify the air-tightness of the house. Adkin’s Construction uses a special insulation, Heat Lok 217-4, that is a polyurethane foam which has one of the highest R Ratings available. It foams up and fills every crack and gap between the studs in the walls and adds extra rigidity to the structure as well. They blow in extra insulation over the heated areas of the house so that it looks like a snowstorm hit the attic. I peeked up there and it must have been two feet thick.

When I mentioned that I was going to go after my GREEN certification I got some funny looks from some of the older agents in our office. I think they are afraid that I’ll start trapping prairie dogs humanely and telling dairymen that they should let their cows out on green pastures so they can enjoy the rest of their lives. But GREEN building practices simply make life a little better for my buyers and I’m all about that.

On the Hunt

When I was little, my father liked to collect Ocean liner and Railroad memorabilia. Every vacation, every road trip was a treasure hunt where we would stop at junk stores and flea markets, used bookstores and garage sales… anywhere there might possibly be a cup or saucer or butter pat a relative might have smuggled home from a trip long ago.

He knew just what he was looking for and while I would get sidetracked by my own little collections – at one time it was little toy cannons, then old fashioned hats, snoopy comic books, metal signs and old jewelry – Dad knew just where to find what he was looking for. He could walk straight through a store, pick up a stack of china, look at the back and know this was a rare find.

I realized last week, while hunting for a home for a member of the armed forces, stationed at Cannon AFB, that I view real estate the same way dad did his collectables. I know that the house for this girl is out there. I know she will love it when she finds it. She won’t have to settle. We might do a little haggling (Dad always did). We won’t let the seller know how dear this home is to us. That’s part of the game.

It doesn’t have to be my house. Dad didn’t always keep his finds, he sold them to finance his next mission of discovery and I now have the perfect job…. Paid Shopper, for some very big ticket items.

If I could collect houses, I would. I love the old ones and the new ones, the big ones, ugly ones and even the filthy, cat pee ones. I can envision how it will look after the new carpet is in, the Formica is gone and the hardwood is revealed. I got rid of the old hats and cannons but now I have my houses.

Every time I pull up the MLS I check for new listings, I would do it even if I didn’t have any buyers at the moment. The Clovis MLS is my personal flea market and I like to know what’s out there. I’m a treasure hunter and hopefully you are enjoying the hunt as well.

Quicksand - Dont let it paralyze you.

I don't know about you, but when work starts piling end up I tend to retreat into my happy place . Ok, it's not so happy. I turn grumpy and tired and start pointing out everyone else's flaws rather than dealing with my own.
Nothing significant gets done. Only the bare minimum of maintenance makes life bearable and prevents EPA action. Inboxes become fuller, things stagnate and growth and improvement simply does not happen.
The only way to float out of the mess I create is to pick one spot, whether it is on my desk or in my mind and force myself to focus. To accomplish ONE thing. Whether it is filing that stack of papers or taking 1 online class....deleting mail from my inbox or grabbing a washcloth and cleaning a particular dusty window sill.
Once that one thing is accomplished the light breaks through the clouds and I focus on the next ONE task and soon my office is running efficiently, my desk is clean, my transactions are organized. It is almost miraculous. If I spend the day planning how to dig myself out - more dirt gets piled on and if I'm not careful I go do something deadly like take a nap or read a book. But when I grab my spoon and start shoveling... I'm closer to the place I want to be.

Top 15 reasons I love Summer in Clovis.

The 97 degree day we had today made me think of Summer and I thought I would make a list of the things I enjoy most about Summertime in Eastern New Mexico.

15 Things I love about Clovis in the Summertime:

1. Even if the daytime temp reaches 100 degrees, every evening it will be back in the low 70’s just in time to sit on the porch and sip some iced tea.
2. Kids can play outside for hours and you don’t have to wonder where they are or who they’re with.
3. Eating shaved ice from a vendor that lets you put as much syrup on it as you want.
4. Growing my own garden and watching the sunflowers get tall. Tall enough to enter in the Curry County Fair in August and win a blue ribbon.
5. The sound of softball games in the park.
6. Sonic stays open till midnight or later.
7. Every week a different church holds a vacation Bible school. And they coordinate with each other.
8. Parents take time to sit with kids who are getting free lunches at the park.
9. Dry heat and no humidity.
10. People get out in the evenings and take walks with their families.
11. Watching fireworks over Green Acres lake from the back of a pickup.
12. The smell of fresh cut lawns. (I know that’s everywhere but I had to include it)
13. Taking day trips to Carlsbad Caverns, or Lubbock, or Amarillo, or Palo Duro Canyon, or Albuquerque or Santa Fe or Ruidoso.
14. Going Camping next to a Creek in Tres Ritos and going trail riding in Duran Canyon. Since we don’t have any creeks in Clovis – it’s a big thing.
15. Driving away from the city lights, sticking your head out the sunroof and looking at a million stars.

Bouncing in The Clovis Bubble

Well, while the rest of the world sits and waits for housing to recover, for the swine to recover, for the banks to recover.... Clovis, New Mexico is bouncing along like several other small pockets of life in this big world.

We are in a unique situation because of growth at Cannon AFB and in several surrounding industries. We actually have help wanted signs around town, people are moving in, buying their first homes, fixing up existing homes, and business is booming. We are down to 275 homes on the market in Clovis -down from over 400 a year ago -in a town of 45,000 people, and we have more people being transferred in daily.

If you like to build houses, if you are a skilled subcontractor, please come to Clovis. We need you! Give me a call 575-799-9500. I'd love to put you to work. But please don't call if you just like to develop postage stamp sized lots with identical tract houses. We have a serious need for affordable housing ($150,000 - $200,000) but there must be some way to build decent homes with decent yards in communities with something other than lots in a rectangular grid.

It has been reported to us by the government that we need 2000 new housing units to be built in the next two years, to accommodate those that are being transferred to Cannon and their families.

We need to revamp our land use plans, we have a great opportunity to build a city and I hope we don't waste it for what is most cost efficient.

I would like to see green spaces, jogging trails, playgrounds, and amenities like you see in other areas of the country. People moving to Clovis are expecting more and hopefully we will deliver.

While I am writing my wish list maybe New Mexico could give home builders a break with the gross receipts tax they charge. Paying sales tax on a home like you would a box of chocolates is not helping things.

Katharine

The Shiny Things

Have you ever been struck blind by the shiny things? Those are the things that catch your eye and inspire emotions and plans and divert you from your original purposes and goals. This isn't always a bad thing. Changes are good. You just need to be aware if it is a trap that you or your buyers fall into on a regular basis.
I was previewing a home recently for a long time customer who was moving back to Clovis after living in Dallas for a few years. I'm sure this hometown girl is a little jaded by the things the big city offers in housing but I still get enamored of the little things that make houses special around Clovis.
So anyway, Here was our conversation:
Lori: So did you go see the house on Kearny?
Katharine: Yes, It was beautiful! It has beautiful granite countertops!
(Then the truth comes out)
Lori: So does it have a big island like I like?
Katharine: Ummmm....it has granite countertops!
Lori: What about the slideout drawers, does it have the drawers like I like?
Katharine: Well, it has really pretty granite countertops.
Lori: does it have a walk in pantry?
Katharine: It even has granite countertops and a sink in the laundry room.
Lori: Does it have double sinks in the hall bath?
Katharine: Not sure, but it has granite in the hall bath too.
Lori: (Laughs) So what was the granite like?
Katharine: It was beautiful... tan with dark brown veins and some little purple flecks. It was lovely.
I was stuck by the shiny things. This isn't a new thing. This is the reason that we stage a house with Shiny things like a fancy place setting, a floral arrangement, a nice rug or fluffy white towels. To give buyers something new and pretty to look at to give them a feeling of value. Not to deceive but to enhance and ,yes, distract from some of the more mundane, maybe not so pretty things about a house.
Shiny Object Syndrome is a real problem that many agents deal with. It causes us to have to lose focus and chase after the new, the shiny, the fast computer, the cool cell phone, the best flyer template, we spend our time searching for new and better instead of getting it done with what we have. New is great, just don't get distracted and believe that one new shiny object will cure all of the clutter on your desk, make your closing happen faster, keep track of your clients and write thank you notes too.
We aren't squirrels. I was suprised that after all of the thousands of houses that I have seen and hundreds that I have sold that something silly like pretty counters could distract me but I guess I'm mortal after all.
I had to go back to the house on Kearny and call her back and go on and on about the slide out drawers, walk in pantry and decently large island, that, and to run my hand over the hard, cold, solid granite with the little purple flecks.

Promote yourself by doing your job. - Stop the vicious cycle.

As REALTORS(r) we constantly worry about how to get our name out into the public, if we are advertising enough, not enough, spending too much money or not enough.

I know that my business plan is cyclical in nature.
I get a big closing.... advertise a lot.... dont get many calls from print advertising.... get disgusted.... start just getting out there... talking to people....making contacts....answering calls....doing research...showing houses....listing houses....writing offers...making sure it all happens....closing deals...getting paid....advertise a bunch...get disgusted. And round and round it goes.

I am determined in this year not to advertise myself. I will still use print advertising because our buyers and sellers in our small town watch the monthly homes magazines to see what is on the market. I will reserve the Sunday paper only for Open House ads, which work for us, and advertise all of my listings on my website, our office website as well as making an ePropertySite for each listing. These get farmed out to various online real estate search sites like Trulia, Zillow, and Front Door. The majority of our incoming buyers come from the web or referrals from past clients.

The funniest thing that I have noticed is the more I focus on promoting myself the less customers I get. The more I focus on doing my job well, the more I get done, the better my customers are served and the more customers I have. I think that REALTORS are the only ones that judge other REALTORS by how much they advertise themselves. I see faces splashed all over the billboards and on skins on cars but being behind the scenes I see that those agents aren't doing the most business. Its the ones that are being helpful, going out of their way for people even if they don't have a guarantee of a big commission that are winning the customers for life. and that is the best promotion you can have.

For example. Take our Broker, Carolyn Spence, It was a floor call of a couple asking about Rentals. Instead of just reading them the rental list and hanging up she realized that this couple relocating because of the Air Force may not like our availiable rentals compared to where they were coming from in San Antonio and decided to actually take time with them to discuss area rentals and the benefits of home ownersip in our growing town.

They took a day and went to the lender to see what they would qualify for, they went and saw numerous houses, she took them out to lunch, they were tickled that they were new in town and had already found a friend. They were still undecided about whether to rent or buy but they knew that they had a REALTOR to trust in any event. They ended up deciding to buy and Carolyn made an offer on a house that was much less than they were approved for but much nicer that the available rentals in that same monthly payment range. They were happy not to be pressured into a bigger more expensive house and Carolyn was happy that they found something they would be comfortable in for the next few years.

Then the Clovis News Journal calls - They are doing a story on transferees opting to buy instead of rent and Carolyn shares the story. I open up the Sunday Paper and see, above the fold, this article. http://www.cnjonline.com/news/air_32857___article.html/force_home.html and Carolyn was just doing her job serving the customer - not performing with $$ in mind.

It reminds me of a bible verse. "He who seeks to save his life shall lose if but he who loses his life for my sake shall save it." Luke 17:33

I know the verse is talking about eternal life but another meaning to me is that sometimes you don't always gain the thing that you are seeking by pursuing it. Sometimes you have to walk the higher road and do the right thing for your customers and then promotion comes just because you did the right thing.

And if the only way some agents can get their face out there is to pay for it to be there, I hope it works for them. I'll just keep plugging away.