Carl Setzer

I've been calling myself an accidental real estate agent for quite awhile. It's well past time to explain what I mean. Most real estate agents I've met made a deliberate choice to enter this field. For many, it was money. Others I know are in this for the flexible hours, to be their own boss, and so forth. The specifics are less important though. They made a deliberate choice. Very few people in the industry stumble in. Just over five years ago, after a firey end to my last stint at Microsoft (if you want to hear the story, let's meet for coffee sometime), and I was burned out on the Fortune 500. My focus for the ensuing job search was Snohomish county. I stumbled upon a Craigslist ad for an office manager and was hired. A few months in I got my license and things changed a bit further. Now I've coordinated sales for hundreds of transactions, created marketing for even more, and developed great relationships with amazing, dedicated and talented folks. My career...

Was just reading about a few really nice changes coming up with two key loan types: USDA and FHA. The USDA has been directed to shift to a direct endorsement model. Right now, my understanding is that a representative from the USDA reviews every USDA loan. They take significantly longer than other loan types to close, which makes them less desirable than others. This change will speed up the process and make it more aligned with VA and FHA loans. And the FHA is looking at their condo approval process. Right now only 10% of condos are approved for FHA loans. One thing they're doing to tackle this is streamline the approval process. It's pretty onerous for any condo that doesn't have professional management. The other thing they're exploring is the owner occupant threshold. Currently at 50%, they're looking at dropping that to 35% of unit owners. This will also open up the number of units available to FHA financing. So, TLDR: more loans will be available. This shou...

I'm part of a real estate team. We recently created this video showcasing our team and our philosophies. You can see me at the very beginning, then again at 1:38, then at 2:45.  A bit egocentric, perhaps, but I'm fond of it. 

If you know anything about me, I LOVE the mobile revolution. However, I'm noticing that posting on the small screens increases the rate of small errors. Little autocorrect word substitutions, mainly. Ones small enough, and having enough of the right letters in a similar sequence as the desired word that they go live wrong. Had such this morning. Posted an update to a Facebook page I manage with "create" in place of "great". I read the post several times before hitting publish. Ugh! I take my writing seriously, so even small grammatical errors bother me. So, with that, I have been trying to post more from a computer, something with a monitor. I notice that my erorr rate is much smaller that way. Plus, I feel more focused. And I need to recognize I'm human and mistakes will happen. But I never intend to like it, and will be satisfied with any mistakes. Ever.