May 24th, 2007 → 10:36 pm @ terry
When I am out in the field working, if I am not taking calls I am making calls. Today was the day for conversations with real estate investors.
As you may know, I call field reps around the country just about every day. I try to call as many field reps as I can without it causing me to have my own production problems. I have been gathering names, e-mail addresses, phone numbers and the like for many years. Every time someone would mention another field rep I would make notes. There are well over a thousand names with contact info in my field notes.
Today two of the people I called said they are no longer doing field services work. They are now both real estate investors. I could not help but be curious which really came first, the field services or the real estate investing.
I got sort of dizzy and thought I might be in a Twilight Zone re-run or something. I ran two routes today, fourteen and forty two, (14•7.50) + (42•6.50), and on both routes found an investor in a house. You know me. I’m shy, so our conversations usually only lasted thirty to forty minutes. That’s one of the reasons why I was gone ten hours when I should have been gone about six or seven.
Both of the investors told me they had purchased the house at the court house auction. Both said they would flip or rent depending on what they felt best about when their purchase was cleaned up and fixed up. Hmmm. Two former field reps now investors; two investors buying houses here in town – it started me thinking.Another thing I found out was that a lot of people that have been in the field services business just vanish. Sometimes the phone will ring with no answer, sometimes there is an answering machine and other times there is the announcement telling me that I have called a non-working number. I got about twenty of those today and it started me thinking some more.
I will try to wrap up the week early tomorrow. I hope to be home by noon. We are planning a nice long holiday weekend and since I’m a slow learner, I’m going to go out by the pool and practice doing a lot of nothing.
I never realized how mediocre the world was until I got involved with some of its supposedly top people.
Mason Williams
May 23rd, 2007 → 11:34 pm @ terry
An old, and favorite saying among Alabamians is “Thank God for Mississippi”. Look at just about any published list, and I do mean any published list and you will find Mississippi is number fifty and Alabama is number forty-nine. There are lists for education, health, income, mortality and such. Glance at the bottom of the list to find us!
I haven’t bothered to look at any of those lists in the last couple of years. I’ve really lost interest in where Alabama ranks among others. I really love my home state and my home town and I become more appreciative of it as time moves on.
I said I haven’t bothered to look at a list lately but I did happen to see a list the other day in a magazine. It was a ranking of the combined city and state taxes the average citizen pays in the fifty states. I think Alabama was number thirty-three. Thank God for New York – ouch!
I will have to say that a lot has changed in Mississippi in the last couple of years. I have noticed that their roads have less litter and pot-holes. There was lots of construction even before the hurricanes. A lot has changed in Mississippi and it looks like it may be Alabama’s turn.
Several months back, an investor group led by Dale Earnhardt Jr., announced plans for a motorsports and entertainment park about twelve miles north of us. Thousands of acres of land are to be developed for the project and it will create thousands of jobs and eventually hundreds of support businesses.
West of Mobile Bay and along the Mobile River, we have a just finished 745-foot-tall tower, called the RSA Tower. It took more than four years to design and build, cost $200 million and supplied hundreds and hundreds of jobs. It has brought many new businesses into Mobile.
ThyssenKrupp AG recently announced they have selected Mobile, Ala., as the next North American site for their German steel mill company. It will be located about thirty-five miles north of us and the numbers used talking about it are almost beyond my comprehension. Three point seven billion dollars construction cost, twenty-seven thousand construction workers to build it and twenty-seven hundred permanent jobs when completed.
Just last night, while having supper with a few friends, one of them said they have so much work at a local ship repair facility that they cannot find enough workers. They are bringing in two hundred workers from outside the U.S.
So why am I bragging so much? It’s not really bragging; wait, yes it is, but – it’s about opportunities. While all of this big stuff has been going on, there have been dozens of new sub-divisions created with thousands of homes. There have been hundreds of muffler shops, printing companies, retail stores, shipping companies and lord knows what else pop-up in my area.  All of this activity creates mortgages, re-financing, insurance needs, etc. There’s a lot to do!
I may never get the opportunity to talk with anyone at the RSA Tower, the ThyssenKrupp AG steel plant, or the marine repair and shipbuilding company, but you can bet that I’ve already been talking to the muffler shops and the shipping companies. Three or four of them a week find themselves on my route. Most of them still have no idea what I do, but with time they will, and when they need my services they should be able to contact me; especially after I have left a card every time I visit.
One of the really big national field service companies used to send us about eighteen hundred jobs a month. About a year or so ago, that number dropped a lot. Wonder why? We had 993 jobs from them in January of 2006. We had 371 jobs from them in April of 2007. Whoa! What’s happened? Well, there are several possibilities none of which matter – the companies send what they send. Yes, it hurts but we are replacing some of the lost numbers with small numbers of jobs from lots of smaller companies. It takes time, but it is happening.
Do not put all of your eggs in one basket – you’ve heard it before. Stand on your own two feet – you’ve heard it before. Do not let any one or two companies dictate the growth and direction of your field services company. Stop at the muffler shops and figure out why I have put the RepReportsâ„¢ at www.TheRepReport.com.
May 21st, 2007 → 9:52 pm @ terry
Do you by any chance have a couple of extra hours laying around that you are not going to use? I could really use them, so if you are interested in selling them, give me a call.
Time! I’ve heard that we all have the same amount of it but I really think I’ve been shorted some how or other. We have all had some pretty long days with lots of rush inspections and many pictures. Vickie still says the mortgage and insurance companies are getting current pictures before storm season.
Speaking of storm season. A few years back I assembled a small group of field reps that would be willing to travel to disaster areas and work as a team to inspect damaged properties. Since I have not called on that group of reps for a couple of years, I suspect there are many changes in the capabilities of that team.
I had a call last week from a national field services firm inquiring about the readiness of that team. I am going to once again try to put this group together. If you are interested or need more info please e-mail me or give me a call. (2•35)+(42•6.50)+(7•7.50)