While most of the country is talking about lowered homes prices and a slowed housing market - Oklahoma and especially S.E. Oklahoma is still on the rise!  According to a report released by the Southeastern Oklahoma Association of Realtors, home values in Southeast Oklahoma rose by 4.3 percent in 2007.  The problem;however, is we have more buyers than sellers.  What we need is for property owners to realize the facts in S.E. Oklahoma and not be afraid to put their property on the market.  Now is a good time to both buy and sell in S.E. Oklahoma.  Since 2002, the sales price of an existing home in S.E. Oklahoma has risen by an average of 6.4 percent a year!  It is important to know the facts about your local area.  What is happening locally is much more important than what is happening on the national level.  Don’t always listened to what you hear on the national news - call a REALTOR and find out what is going on in your neighborhood.  Read the attached article to learn more facts about S.E. Oklahoma.

In my last post I was talking about telephone calls and the respectful thing to do is to return them!  Well, it has now been five days since I telephoned a dock repair person and I have not heard from them yet.  In talking to other people I also find that we seem to have become accustomed to this pattern, accept this behavior and then feel so grateful when we finally hear from someone!  I don’t think it should be this way.  I finally decided to call someone else today.  I got a hold of someone else, they promised they would be at my house before dark to take a look at my dock.  Well, it is 10 p.m. and I have turned the porch light off.  No call, no show.  Maybe tomorrow I will call a third person and see what happens.  Let me hear from you all out there.  Are you having better luck than I am with service people right now?  I hope so.  Let me hear about your experiences.

I just read an article online entitled “11 Business Practices That Undermine Your Marketing Program and Trash Your Reputation” by Trey Ryder http://treyryder.com/undermine.asp   Practice # 5 reads: ”Return phone calls when you get around to it.”  The solution - return phone calls promptly!  There have been many vendors and service people I have called only to find myself waiting days for a return call.  Or I have taken on the challenge of continuous calling over a course of time to see just how many phone calls it would take to get a particular person to return my call.  Part of quality service includes knowing that your phone calls will be returned in a timely manner.  It would be good to know which vendors and service people make it a sound business practice of theirs to return phone calls promptly.  My goal is to return calls within 24 hours max.  I try to make it even less time than this.  My experience with Mallie’s heat and air has been good in this regard.  Any time I have called them they have answered right then or returned my call in a very short time.  This kind of service goes a long way in my books.  I want the reputation of being the person who responds to people’s e-mails and phone calls promptly.  It is part of my customer service pledge.

One of the reasons I started this Blog is to help real estate owners find the help they need on home projects and repairs.  You can see a list of vendors and service companies on my R.E. Vendor List page at http://karenweldin.topproducerwebsite.com/vendor-list.asp  I have also created a Community Resources sub-page on my Community Information page at http://karenweldin.topproducerwebsite.com/community-resources.asp.  This is to help residents (including new comers and weekenders) find the resources they are looking for.  Here you will find all kinds of helpful ideas and links to local businesses and activities.  I would really like for you to take the time to share a review on any of these vendors and resources you use.  Give us some feedback on my Blog so we can learn from one another. I am really interested in your opinion.   I hope you will visit my website at www.karenweldin.com and offer suggestions and feedback by adding comments to this Blog.  Together we can make this fun and informative!  Happy Blogging!  Karen