Pat O'Brien's (pat8635) Blog

I found it funny that I called a chamber member at Frontier Airlines to help with an issue at American.  It was a reminder to me that I need to make sure that as business people, we remember that good service is essential.  If we say we are going to call, we need to call.  We need to return calls...

The Metrocom is the 10 cities Northeast of San Antonio.  Checking some numbers for a presentation I found that the last three months of last year we had almost a 10 month inventory of homes.  The first three months of this year we were down, but still close to 9 months. The amazing news is that f...

I got invited to be on the 18th hole of the Valero Open today.  Our chamber Tourney was yesterday and some chamber members invited me to observe a night tourney last night.  That is more time on a golf course then I have spent in over a year.  One of the parts of golf that amazes me is the fact t...

I have a closing that was scheduled for March 6, 2009.  We just got a clear to close after 5:00 p.m. on March 27, 2009.  My clients want to know when we will actually close and I can only tell them that I hope by April 1.  Part of the problem has been that I have no relationship with the lender a...

If it seems too good to be true, it probably is... I heard this a million times growing up (Dad also warned me a million times not to exaggerate) and as I get older and think about what dad's gifts to me were over the almost 47 years that I spent with him, this advice was about the best. While in...

At the monthly lunch for the Randolph Metrocom Chamber, Norm Dugas, a major force in San Antonio's development community, talked about many factors affecting our current market and focused on the JLUS (Joint Land Use Study).  (A JLUS is the tool that is used when civilian and military needs for l...

I volunteer at the San Antonio Stock Show and Rodeo.  There are many volunteers at many of the events that are in the real estate industry.  Many Realtors that I know are here, title, loan, inspectors and appraisers are here in force and not doing it for any other reasons other than to help raise...

In states like Texas that use an option period to allow for inspections and the like, the power of the option has to be understood.  I had an agent email an amendment that I sent to my clients.  They didn't get it back to be before the end of the option period.  The buyer's agent figured that sin...

The first Monday morning of the year was the annual housing forecast as I have done for many years.  I spent the morning hearing that we didn't end the year as well as we expected and that we had many more months before we are through this tough part of our economy.  The amazing part was how well...

I spend a bunch of time on my bicycle.  Every year I set a goal for miles that I want to ride.  The last two years that goal has been 4,000 miles.  This year I had many distractions.  I started the year with pneumonia that got me off the bike for weeks and limited my return. Then later in the yea...