“This morning I woke up with a plan for my day, and it didn’t happen like it was supposed to,” Realtor Rolanda Pullen says. Most of the properties she sells are foreclosures, which are a lot of work, therefore, she never knows what her day is going to be like.
Yet this Realtor with Coldwell Banker Pryor Realty says she loves the unexpectedness and flexibility of her job. “I’ve had jobs where you sit in the office all day, and I love it that I don’t have to ... paper work is paperwork and I have to get that done, but I love the versatility and flexibility. I love not knowing necessarily what is coming next, so I’m not bored,” she says.
Pullen works a lot with Fannie Mae properties and uses the site homepath.com to help her clients find these types of listings. Right now, there is a special for buyers who pick a Fannie Mae HomePath property. They are eligible for 3.5 percent off the final sale price to be used in closing cost assistance if they request this incentive when submitting their initial offer and close by June 30, 2011. Elements like these are what keeps Pullen busy most days.
Pullen is a Chattanooga native, Brainerd High School graduate, and UT Knoxville graduate. After graduation, she was a job coach, teaching people how to interview, write resumes, and look for a job. At the time, Internet job searches were just becoming something people were learning, and she spent much of her time showing people how to look for online jobs. When Pullen was laid off from this company, she studied and received her real estate license in 2002.
Pullen only interviewed with two companies after she got her license. When she came out of the real estate class, it was important to her that she start somewhere where they had good training, she says.
The first company she interviewed with said they didn’t have any training set up, but said she would get “something” in that area. She moved on to Coldwell Banker Pryor Realty where Ann Martin, the sales manager, interviewed Pullen and assured her that there would be training. Pullen started training with Martin and learned everything she needed to know to become an agent. Especially going over Tennessee and Georgia contracts in great detail was part of the “phenomenal” training that Coldwell Banker provided her, Pullen says.
“I can’t put a price on it. It’s so good,” she says. “That was important to me when I first started, that I got some type of training, because as an agent you can get sued so easy.”
Pullen has stuck with Coldwell Banker, and says she loves everything about it, especially the great resource she has in her broker, Peggy Pryor.
“She’s a great resource for us if we have questions, she’s a Christian lady, and I know that I can always count on her to give me the assistance I need. I don’t feel like I’m here by myself,” she says. In working with many foreclosures, Pullen says one thing agents need to do is know what paperwork is supposed to accompany offers that are sent in.
“I advertise on my listings that there needs to be a purchase addendum that has to be included with the purchase and sale agreement when you make an offer. Lots of times, agents may not bother to look that up, and that’s an extra day wasted when I could be submitting their offer because they haven’t sent me the correct paper work,” she says.
Another thing Realtors need to make sure they are clear with clients about is when foreclosures state that they are sold “as is.” She says lots of times that means exactly that and not to mislead buyers that it’s anything but. Realtors should be patient when making an offer on an REO property, because there’s a lot of things that have to go on before the offer makes it to closing, she adds. There are many things that could delay the closings, so they just need to prepare the buyers in advance to just be patient, Pullen says.
Figuring out systems that make her life easier and remaining organized has been one of the best ways that Pullen has been able to be successful as a Realtor, she says. She recommends making a template for things an agent does regularly so they are not repeating the same thing again and again. “In our business, details matter, so you have to learn to be detail oriented,” she says. “If we miss a detail, it could be a pretty big deal.” Another thing she has learned is to keep her cool when a situation is bad, and not to allow anger to get in the way of accomplishing the buyer or seller’s goals.
“I run into situations where buying a home can be emotional for the clients and the agents that are working with them, and sometimes it’s just keeping focus on our goals,” she says. “When things go wrong, just keeping a cool head and trying to remain focused on the goal is important.”
Pullen says the Chattanooga market is in better shape than the national media portrays the whole system. She pulls up GCAR reports from their Web site that show what is actually going on in the area to show buyers that question the market conditions, and these are able to support how good the market is and how it is improving in the area.
Exercising and spending time with her niece and nephew also helps to keep her spirits up above the negativity of the business, Pullen says. Pullen continues her training to help her become a better agent and better serve the public, and plans her days with the expectation that each will hold things unexpected as the typical life of a Realtor dictates.