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Oklahoma City, OK Real Estate News

By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
First, let me say that I have signed up to be a fan of some Facebook fan pages. Normally they are organizations to do with Oklahoma City whether they are real estate related or not, cancer groups, non-profits, and organizations like Active Rain. So I am not totally against fan pages, but I think that that old adage, there is not enough hours in the day applies. At some point we have to draw the line on what we do, but also we have to make choices about how we present ourselves. Let me share with you some of my concerns about a fan page. 1. I have to have one just to have one. Do we have to have one of everything. A big problem is listed above. Either we spread ourselves to thin to actually transact business with real people, or we are afradi that if we don't have one then we might miss ...
Comments 15
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
I had two out of three short sale listings recently in Oklahoma City where distressed homeowners buried their head in the sand and were in danger of having the real estate they owned go into foreclosure. One waited until when we got the property to list, only two weeks remained until the sheriff's sale date. We got it immediately under contract, but with only 10 days left, it is requiring daily followup, and we won't know for sure that we have had it removed until three days before. When you are ten payments late and have received the notice of foreclosure, the time to call a Realtor is long passed. We will know on Monday so we have our fingers crossed. Two more were phone calls today. One client called early in the process, we have a meeting set up tomorrow, and he is fully cooperative...
Comments 6
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
I have been a Realtor in Oklahoma City for almost 20 years. I have been involved with over 2000 transactions, have given speeches to hundreds of people in an audience, been on marketing panels at conventions, but I have never given a TV interview in all that time until this week. Remember the B movie Panic in the Year Zero? Yep, that was me. It will turn out all right becasue the lady doing the interview wants the right information to get to the public, and they took 20 times the footage as necessary, so they can hone in one what I said well. The interview was about how buyers can save money with short sales. I mentioned that three benefits come with the purchase, upside equity, downside protection, and they pleasure of keeping someone out of a froeclosure that would have a huge negativ...
Comments 0
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
I grew up with Walter Cronkite. For a young man in 1950's Oklahoma City, I had no idea what was going on if I had to rely on local media. We had the worst newspaper you could possibly imagine if you wanted to get any idea about what the world was about. Can you imagine a time where one person was a man who words were taken as absolute truth?  I remember sitting in the cafeteria  in my high school and hearing about President Kennedy's death. I went home to find out about it from Walter Cronkite. When my girl friend was freaked out about the ghostly pictures of Man on the Moon and wondered if it was real, I told her that Walter did not lie. Has there been an icon since George Washington who had this power of integrity? When Walter declared the Viet Nam war was not winnable, America took n...
Comments 11
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
There have been lots of post here recently about some pretty touchy subjects on Active Rain including global warning, the stimulus package, President Obama, and even are we one nation under a Christian God? It's okay if we don't always blog for business. Bloggers have strong opinions, and it can be heady to think that we can reach a large audience even if we are not Nobel winning scientist, economist, or novelist. I must be a frustrated novelist because my post seem to be so long. There have been also angry replies that have gone over the edge. Some folks have been so extreme that i have ceased to read their post because they have been so personal in their attacks, but keep on blogging on what you want, it is the freedom we have as Americans. I am reminded of something called healthy sk...
Comments 0
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
A recent article on Inman News says exactly that. To read the full article email me at joe@joepryor.com or I will do the article as a link on my WordPress blog at www.joepryor.com since AR is not set up it seems for PDF insertion. To summarize, Fannie and Freddie are transferring appraisal work to the HVCC companies. FHA work is being ordered in some cases through the management companies. The more experienced appraisers, because of these changes are not getting request for work through the management companies. Since there is a limit imposed on these companies on how much they can charge, they are trying to give the work to inexperienced appraisers. which according to the Appraisal Institute and the American Society of Appraisers is "adding unnecessary and substantial risk to the FHA p...
Comments 3
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
I have been getting this email from Realtors as well as others. Mars will not be as big as the Moon to the naked eye in August, and if it was we are in big trouble. This hoax surface about 5 years ago and is making the rounds again. I know we love really cool news on our blogs, but if you send this one out, they will be asking back why you did not do research. I have downloaned a link about the truth separated from the fiction. It was fun to think about though. This what you will get in the email, Picture is from Hubble.  
Comments 3
Price: $54,900 FIZBER.com ID 11646614 Condo/Townhome/Co-op with 2 bed, 2.0 bath, in 11140 Stratford Drive Oklahoma city, OK, 73120 http://www.fizber.com/11646614/ 11140 Stratford Drive - For Sale By Owner Property Details: Type: Condo/Townhome/Co-op Address: 11140 Stratford Drive, Oklahoma city, OK, 73120 Sq footage: 845.0 Floors: n/a Bathrooms: 2.0 Bedrooms: 2 Year built: 1985 View full property details and seller's contacts. View more Oklahoma homes for sale. Homes for Sale by Owner. Description: PRICE reduced! Motivated seller. Amazing DEAL!! $5000 OFF original list price. 2 bedroom 2 full bathroom Condo right outside of the Village in Oklahoma City. Condo has beautiful wood floors throughout the Living and Dining room area. Vaulted ceilings, fireplace, open floorplan, pools onsite,...
Comments 1
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
Neither can sellers, buyers, appraisers, or the whole membership of MENSA. Just when you thought you had HVCC handled, then stuff happens. One way we have "worked" with HVCC is to do comps for appraisers, and leave them in an obvious spot for their perusal, and it seems that out of state lenders like appraisers that are out of the city and do not subscribe to our MLS system. It was my thought that HVCC was supposed to guaranty competent appraisals without coersion. Well, that competent part hasn't worked ourt so well so far in Oklahoma City. Now for the fun part, we finally got a local apprasier who has a reputation for being one of the best, and I agree with that assessment. We had a rental property that the owner was selling to an owner-occupant doing a conventional mortgage with 20% ...
Comments 70
By Ryan Hukill - Edmond, Realtor, Team Lead
(405home @ ERA Courtyard)
This one just hit the market and won't last long with all of the updates the owners have made. Here are just a few of the details to get you started: 3,242 square feet - 4 beds, 3 of which have a master suite setup. 2 are upstairs and 2 are down. All bedrooms have walk-in closets and ceiling fans. 3.5 baths, which include one powder bath located conveniently for the great-room. Open, flexible floorplan which features 3 living areas (2 down and 1 up). Large greatroom features refinished hardwood floors, 10' ceilings, surround sound, and is perfect for entertaining. Newly remodeled island kitchen is a cook's dream, with tons of cabinet and countertop space, stainless-steel appliances, a gas Dacor cooktop, and a double self-cleaning oven. Your guests will be greeted by a two-story entry, u...
Comments 3
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
Okay, I know the house in the picture is just a bit of an exaggeration about how buyers see your home listing, but pricing a home right is critical especially in the current market. I realize that if everything is in working order, but when I work for a buyer my primary duty is to inform them of condition of property and how that will affect their financial situation. The problem many Realtors have had in pricing, especially those without a ton of experience, is that they pull comps from the MLS, and there is no way for them to truly differentiate one property from another in condition, especially from capital improvements, so lets take three homes that we showed a first time buyer this week, and I will take the literary license to equalize the square footage to illustrate a point. The ...
Comments 6
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
I finally took a vacation. My girlfriend reminded me of my promise that after we went through my cancer treatment at the end of last year we would go somewhere. We ended up leaving on July 2nd for 5 days in Cabo San Lucas, my first time there. We stayed at Dreams all inclusive resort and it was one of those few times that the experience matched up with the pictures and description. It was heaven. The picture is the beach at the hotel. What is even more remarkable is that I did not answer the phone or check email while I was there. It was like withdrawal symptoms, but like a soap opera that you don't watch for a week, once you get back to it, you really haven't missed anything. Luckily we had two people in Oklahoma City watching our back. I really want to let you know that, if you are th...
Comments 5
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
No this is not the for people, this is for the state legislature. I love California, and I have two trips planned to SF in August(Inman news), and September. I helped your economy twice already this year by coming to the state. Now you are mired in a budget crisis, and this 2/3 majority rule, and the insane party politics garbage is threatening Oklahoma. Why? Because your bigger than most countries with your budget! You aren't the only ones facing huge shortfalls at the end of the fiscal year. Arizona, Indiana, Ohio, Connecticut, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Mississippi are facing similar shut downs of essential services. Folks the money is not there and you either have to shut down government or raise taxes so what will it be? The anti-government conspiracy in every nook and cranny crow...
Comments 4
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
Only Franz Kafka could create a world as hopeless as working to get a loan modification. As CDPE's (Ceritifed Distressed Property Experts) we have listened to the webinars about doing our best to try to keep people in their houses versus a short sale. My partner Charlene Humphreys and I will work up to 200 short sale possibilities this year alone, and in Oklahoma we have not experienced the devastation of hard hit markets. I can only imagine what short sale teams are going through there. Here is my statistic for the success rate of loan modifaction this year, ZERO. I can't believe that any real estate activity is more frustrating for the homeowner and the Realtor than this. You want to save the house but the system is rigged, and the governments program they love to talk about is not wo...
Comments 10
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
Attention all of you who are addicted to paper marketing. It looks like snail mail is on it's way to the Smithsonian, right next to the abacus. I know that in saying we need to get off our addiction to paper, at Active Rain I am preaching to the choir as we say in Oklahoma, and the amen corner is very loud this Sunday. It is not a shock that stamps are going up constantly and usage decreases, and that the Post Office is beginning to downsize. I still have checks from six years ago because of online banking. If you still are only going to give up paper marketing when the pry your cold dead hands off it, consider a few other recent events. The Boston Globe barely made it. Without significant union concessions and others, they would be toast. Seattle now has an online newspaper only. The R...
Comments 13
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
That's a picture of me in Houston with our precious poodles, Hope Elizabeth the standard, and Henri the toy. You can imagine why the little guy got that name if you were around him. Everyday that I got home from cancer treatment, they were there to jump on me, demand me pet them and walk them as if to say I don't care what kind of a day you have had, what about my needs? And they did deserve it because poodle love will be my chapter 3 of a surviving cancer book. Which leads me to yesterday. I blogged here about how happy I was to be a Realtor on Monday morning, sitting in my robe, drinking coffee at the computer, blogging and commenting, and working on internet lead generation. Meanwhile, my life's partner and real estate partner Charlene was having the opposite day. Will the roofers sh...
Comments 6
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
My joke that I tell on myself as a Realtor is this, Thank God it's Friday because I only have two days left in the work week. Does not mean I put in 8 hours a day for a total of 56? Sometimes, and then other times it may be 30. That is the beauty of being self-employed and I wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, with real estate and retail ownership since college it has been all of my 36 years of work. And you know what? I love it more than ever. Yeah I know, self discipline and all that stuff is necessary, and there is no pension unless I create it. But how many people do you know love what they do as much as being on vacation? I was inspired to post by sitting at my desk, and yes I love the morning coffee. I am typing in my bathrobe with a coffee cup by my hand, and a bowl of grano...
Comments 13
By Matt Listro, Your Credit Repair Expert
(National Credit Fixers - Matt Listro)
Oklahoma Credit Repair National Credit Fixers: 330 Roberts Street 4th Floor East Hartford CT 06108 phone: 860-282-6181. National Credit Fixers boasts of 13 years experience repairing low FICO scores. Whether your credit has been damaged by a foreclosure, bankruptcy, slow credit, collections, judgments, repossessions, etc. we can help. We are the experts in credit restoration and credit repair. We have helped numerous residents of Oklahoma and are experts in Oklahoma credit repair. Not sure how to fix your credit score?  Let us help.  The road to the best credit repair is a tricky one, but lucky for us we have a great GPS system (insert chuckle here).  We specialize in knowing how to fix bad credit.   We will help you excercise your rights under the FCRA (Fair Credit Reporting Act) to im...
Comments 2
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
This is a picture of my group, the ones in the purple Tee Shirts. I had mine on too like every other cancer survivor who was there. This was my first time to participate as a survivor, my cancer free diagnosis coming in February. My girlfriend was not quite as enthusiastic as I was. Care givers look at these things differently. The cancer survivor wants to honor their successful struggle, while the care giver doesn't want to be reminded of it. Watching me go through treatment was a very frustrating experience for her, not because I was unkind, but because she could do so little to reduce my pain. The first event was the cancer survivors dinner and then the second was the first lap being done by the survivors to kick off the relay that wouldn't end until 6:30 AM. This is where I started ...
Comments 1
By Joe Pryor, REALTOR® - Oklahoma Investment Properties
(The Virtual Real Estate Team)
AT&T has been deluged with complaints so they have relented on giving the upgrade price to everyone whose contract renews in July, August, or September. You can go into Apple tomorrow and get your new phone at the upgraded price of $199 or $299. Mine was set to renew on September 29th. Yippee!  
Comments 9