Brad Neihouser CBC Shook

  Overpricing your property for sale It is incredibly tempting to overprice a property that you have for sale. No one wants to leave money on the table when they sell their property, and that includes real estate professionals.   When I came to Lafayette, IN, 10 years ago, I inherited a listing on the market a couple of years before I got here at an outlandish price.   Being new to the area, I took the assignment and began working with the owners to try to show them data that says the property is not worth nearly what we are asking.   This seemed to fall on deaf ears, and reluctantly, two years ago, I told the family, "I'm not going to renew this listing contract. This is a total waste of time for me and for you."   About six months later, they came back to me and said they were ready to get serious about selling this property… and it seems that they were.   A short story long… the property sold almost to the dollar of what I told him ...

Let’s kick off with an unforgettable evening, one Barb and I will surely never forget. A night with the Eagles in Clevland, Ohio.   Legends of Rock and Roll   I LOVE The Eagles, when I saw they were playing just one state over, I decided we had to go…   We flew into Burke Lakefront Airport arriving around 4:00pm.   After freshening up and having a great dinner with my beautiful wife, we headed to the venue to watch the most iconic rock bands of all time take the stage.   First off, the opening act was the legendary Steve Miller Band. Steve Miller informed us that just that week he turned 80. He played an hour long set of all his hit songs back from the 70s and it was magnificent.   What was astounding was watching the stage crew change the stage from the Steve Miller Band to the Eagles set in about 15 minutes.   Don Henley, the voice of the Eagles, told the crowd that they had over 100 people in their crew, and I don’t doub...

I just returned home from an intense two-day marketing seminar…. Admittedly, this is something I've always felt I could do better at, so I'm always looking for ways to improve.  The man leading the seminar told us to spend most of our time writing the headline or the subject line of our marketing materials.  One of his businesses was a Barber shop, and the above headline "If We Can't Make You Look Good, You Are Ugly," was one that he used in his advertising, and it was a smashing success. We all laughed when he told us the headline, but if you stop and think about it, it sure gets people's attention.  I wonder what headline I can use to grab someone's attention in my commercial real estate business.  Commercial real estate can be somewhat boring, but it seems like if you're boring, you might be broke. So, in the coming days, I'm going to work intently on writing better headlines and subject lines for my emails.  Boys and girls, the whole reason fo...

Dear Friends, One of my quasi hobbies is riding horses with my sweet wife. No, I’m no cowboy, but Barb likes to ride horses and I like being with Barb. So, a while back on a Sunday after church, I had the bright idea to say, “let’s go to the state park and ride.” It was a beautiful afternoon… Did I Say That I Wasn’t A Cowboy? I didn’t realize the first time you ride these horses after they have been locked up all winter, they can be a little wild! And they were a bit frisky, but all seemed well… until we were going up a new trail that we had not been on, that’s when it all fell apart… I said I wasn’t a cowboy, right? My horse took one giant leap to the right, and with a hard hit, old Brad ended up unceremoniously, in the dirt. This Crazy Thing Took Off Like he was on FIRE. This also spooked Barb’s horse. She id her best to stay on but was finally dismounted, much more ceremoniously than I was. I’m told, most of the time, when horses throw t...

  How Do You Extend A Helping Hand? The Bible reminds us of the enduring presence of the poor and needy; this truth remains evident in today's world. We don't have to search far to witness the overwhelming need surrounding us. It's important to note that helping doesn't imply a mere handout; rather, it signifies extending a helping hand. So, what should one do when approached by a person on the street asking for money to alleviate hunger? Even in our relatively smaller community of Lafayette, IN, such encounters occur more frequently than one might imagine. It's often easy to dismiss such requests with grumbling or even worse. However, on one occasion, a gentleman caught me in the right mood, asking for money to buy a Coke from McDonald's. Instead of immediately dismissing him, I conversed, asking him questions. I expressed my uncertainty about his intentions— How could I know if he would truly use the money as claimed or instead indulge in drugs...