Ronda Allen's Blog

When I first started comingsoonhomes.com in 2006, I did not set out to be the owner/operator of a website.  But, I knew there were many times that I was waiting for my clients to get their home ready to sell, or to wait for a specific timeframe to arrive before I could enter their home in the MLS and offer it for sale.  One evening, I was sitting in a movie theater with my Husband, Joel, and we were watching the previews for movies coming out soon.  I leaned over to him and said "I need something like that for houses", and an idea was born. 

I just got a call from a gentleman who I have already shown a home in Irving, because they were driving through the area and saw my 'coming soon' advertising.  They are coming back on Wednesday of this week for another showing, and there is a very good chance that this home will actually go under contract before the owners can finish the make-ready on the home.  I couldn't ask for a more perfect example of how this site can work. 

Making the most of this down-time ahead of listing a home has become a powerful competitive advantage - not just for home sellers, but for home buyers.  The website, www.comingsoonhomes.com, now generates hits every month by prospective buyers looking to get a head start on great homes that are coming onto the market.  We'll tell you what work is being done, what timeline we're working under, and we'll go ahead and show you the house upon request.  If you don't mind the painter or carpet cleaner being there, we don't either. 

Although still in the process of converting to a county-based site, to maximize cross-marketing efforts, we decided not to take the site down during conversion.  So, you'll see it making it's transition every week this year, with the goal of having the transformation of the site complete by the end of 2009.  

Have a blessed day!
Ronda



Ronda Allen
Realtor, Life Coach, and Certified Purchasing Manager
RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs
   

We're having a combination multi-family garage sale and open house at 931 Green Ridge Drive, Duncanville, TX 75137 on 7-11-09 from 8am-2pm.  Come out and tour a great 3-bedroom home on .25 acre lot with a swimming pool.  This home is under 30-minutes commute time to downtown Dallas or Arlington.  List price is $152,500.  This home is professionally staged, and we will be able to assist with loan pre-qualification on-site all day. 

Come out to meet me and register for a spa certificate drawing. You do not need to be present to win. 

Have a blessed day!
Ronda



Ronda Allen
Realtor, Life Coach, and Certified Purchasing Manager
RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

We're due for a string of storms that should last through the first half of this week.  If you are new to Texas, you may not know the difference between a weather watch and a weather warning.  With a severe weather watch, we're just getting advance notice that the possibility exists - the conditions are right - for something like hail or a tornado.  With a weather warning, those situations were right and the event is actually occuring.  Don't rely on sirens to tell you when to grab the family and head for an interior room with no windows.  Turn on the tv and watch the doppler radar show you the path and take the appropriate action.  My pets get fussy about an hour before severe weather hits.  They jump on the back door and cry.  They know before we do. 

I've lived in DFW for over 30 years, but I can count the tornadoes I have seen on one hand.  With one, the sky was gray-green and the tornado just popped up and down from the sky.  I was in middle school at the time.  With another, the sky was dark gray and ominous.  The storm system tracked it's way up Hwy 380 from Denton toward McKinney and I drove in behind it.  With the third, I was driving in Frisco when the rains went from falling hard in a downward position to turning sideways and my whole world was bright white.  I was in the middle of the tornado in my car.  This isn't OZ.  It didn't pick my car up.  But, I could not see one inch ahead of me for the scariest 10 seconds of my life, and I feared being struck by another car or the windows in the car breaking. 


Our severe weather is nothing to ignore.  Pay attention and be safe.

Have a blessed day!
Ronda


Ronda Allen, Realtor
Certified Purchasing Manager
Keith Dobbs Team at RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

George Bernard Shaw said it best:
"A day's work is a day's work, neither more nor less, and the man who does it needs a day's sustenance, a night's repose, and due leisure, whether he be a painter or a ploughman".

Think about what happens to you when you try to do too much.  You accomplish less.  You get frustrated.  You feel tired.  The balance in your life tips too far toward work and not enough to God-Family. 

I've been at this job for 8 years now.  I call it a job, because it isn't my life.  I have a life, too.  Real estate is how I choose to make a living.  

This job can be all-consuming - especially in the early years.  But, one thing I can assure you that veteran agents have in common is the ability to schedule down-time.  We know that this job takes physical and mental stamina that nobody warned us about as we were working 24/7 to get the business off the ground.  We know the value of an early bedtime.  We know the value in getting home to the family before dark.  And, we know the value of a regular day of rest.  

In Texas, you'll find a good number of professional agents take off on Sundays.  A good number of owners, too, prefer to have no showings on Sundays.  Dallas is such a high percentage corporate home sale market, that many agents have both Saturday and Sunday free from showing properties.  Are you surprised by that?  As a new agent, I was really surprised by that.  But, it's true.  That doesn't mean there isn't lots of computer work waiting back at the office.  There is never a shortage of activities we could and should be doing.  I've never seen the bottom of my in-box, and I hope I never do.

Have a blessed day!

Ronda

Ronda Allen, Realtor, Certified Purchasing Manager

The Keith Dobbs Team at RE/MAX Dallas Suburbs

 

Realtors these days know that the lending industry is so rapidly changing, it is imperative that we have loan officers to rely on for the latest information and how it will impact our current and future clients.  My most trusted lender is Rodney Anderson at Rodney Anderson Lending Services (a Division of Supreme Lending).  Rodney does a radio show every Saturday from 9-10:30am on 105.3 for the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex and surrounding listening area.  You can call in with any question about credit scores, the housing market, VA loans, FHA loans, Conventional financing, Foreclosure, etc...  Any topic under the sun.  Rodney has a knowledgeable staff, and they've never been anything but early on closings for my clients.  Tune in.  He's as nice as he sounds.  He's a top professional in his trade.  I even trusted Rodney when I recently changed real estate brokerage firms, and he did not steer me wrong. 

I don't endorse people until we've been in the trenches for at least three years.  I've got to see a pattern and a compatible work ethic - not just a single transaction.  Rodney is the only loan officer in DFW who has earned an endorsement from me for consistently high service and honest answers.  I've never had surprises at the closing table, and we've always had funding the same day.  

Set the alarm.  Saturday.  9am.  105.3fm.
Call in.  Tell Rodney that Ronda Allen told you to call.
I don't get a referral fee - he'll just be glad to know that
you're following good advice from one of the agents that HE knows he can trust.
Good real estate deals are made with people who consider their word their bond.

Have a blessed day!
Ronda