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News from the Club – October 25, 2011
New Technology is great but it seems to be advancing so fast that the average person can’t keep up!! What good is all this “good” stuff if we don’t have the training, time or energy to learn what it’s all about?! We don’t really! Relax! We just need to do our best to keep up with what our own particular needs and environment request! Some of us need to know more than others and some of don’t need to know any at all. That is, we don’t all have to know the latest and the greatest but just those things that can keep “our” everyday business, life and families up-to-date and current with the technological world. The more I learn the more I see how it can benefit almost anyone in any profession. It does seem a little overwhelming with everything from: I-phone, X Box, Wii, W 7, QR codes, GPS, Blackberry, Droid, Web, Blog, Bluetooth, MP3 and things I can’t even imagine or comprehend! Windermere just updated all the personal agent websites last week! A majority of us don’t like change and the websites are a little more difficult than they were presented to be but we are figuring them out! Of course, at first we like to whine and complain a little but in the long run, these new sites are going to be great! Next Windermere will change their main Home Page and search Website to be more user friendly and combine some of the most popular attributes from other sites that clients are demanding. The best of all worlds! Before the end of the year our franchise Windermere/CIR for Camano Island and Stanwood will hopefully be reorganized with a type of “cloud” web sharing for our agents which will be another change! A lot of changes coming before the end of the year to get up and running for a great start to 2012! It seems like a lot of things all at once but we just have to take them as they come, do what we can, learn as much as we can in the time we have, move on and keep going. In addition to last week’s blog of staying positive, it is much easier to embrace the new ideas, technology and changes coming our way. Real Estate has and is changing as well. We can now be at home or any hot spot on our computers and look at every entire property For Sale in any State or City, we can use our I-phones, Blackberry’s or Droids and the QR codes to go to any listed property and shop for exactly what we want. We can drive around and use our GPS on our phones or handhelds and know where all the listings are located, then use the QR codes again to get either agent information and/or home information. We can get our I-Pads or Notebooks to go “On Line” as well and get all the information we are looking for from almost anywhere. Another reason why we as agents need to keep up with as much technology as possible to keep up with our technologically driven clients and the world!
News from the Club October 3, 2011
REALLY??!! October??!! Yikes!! To me this all means the end of summer and start of the real Fall/Winter Holiday season. Although one of my most favorite times of the year, the slow and moderate Spring/Summer we had makes the transition a little less than historically exciting. Not the summer has been lazy by any means but now it is time to pick up the pace with ourselves and our families and gear up to get involved with all the exciting events and year-end. We have already noticed the change in scenery; the maple leaves falling, the chill in the night air and the gorgeous, cool sunrises over the Cascades. The fall colors of lemon, mustard, pumpkin, burnt sienna, hunter, oak and mahogany are all my favorites! Of course, first we have Halloween this month with decorating, baking, making costumes and the culmination of the “Big Night”!! The children’s treasure trove usually last until they can restock at Christmas! The smells of those outdoors fires, fall stews, hot ovens, pumpkin pie spice, apple cider, cobblers and wood burning fireplaces bring childhood memories as well as more recent. Then after Halloween, gratefully, Thanksgiving has not become as commercial as the previous and post holidays to it, so it brings a family togetherness and a time to relax, enjoy, prepare and actually plan the big doings of December. I love Thanksgiving for that very reason; it has stayed less retail and I can enjoy cozy weekends watching movies, playing board games and just spending time with my family! No sooner do you get that Turkey out of the oven it seems as if overnight, “tis the season,” so to speak with the countdown to Christmas!! With kids it’s kind of hard not to get caught up in it all; more decorating, baking, parties, shopping, friends and family!! Christmas Day and the week following is the last breather prior to another New Year! Hopefully it will be a good year to come! As for the Real Estate market in Stanwood and Camano Island as well as the rest of the country, this all means the start of our fourth and final quarter for the year. For our own sakes and the down economy, we need to continue and increase our Pending sales and finish out the sales year strong. We need to set up and prepare those coming listings for the start of the New Year as well! We have been on an upward trend in the third quarter and if we can continue strong, we should have a year-end result better than that of 2010! Continued low-interest rates and low home prices give hope to the finish of a great year!
News from the Club – September 26, 2011
Time flies! Isn’t that what we all say? It sure does! This weekend I celebrated my 30th High School Reunion! It certainly does not seem like that long. Where does it go? Most of us, as children don’t focus on work or a talent or the future paths we need to prepare for. Most kids just go to school, socialize, play and don’t think about much of anything until we reach high school. Most of us procrastinate; say we will do it tomorrow, etc. As we get older, week after week goes by and one day we turn around and 30 years have gone by. What have we done? What do we have to show for our work, our efforts for the past years? Do we have a plan? Do we have goals? Do we have time to do the things we want or need to get done? Time management may be one our most important skill sets. Carpe Diem! Seize the day! Being that “Type A” personality, I always want to work smarter and get more done. I feel like I am constantly working and never spending the time I want with my growing and aging family. I get a little frustrated with myself when it feels like I am constantly working and not getting any of my personal goals accomplished. As with life, families, personal, we especially need to time manage work. We need to work more efficiently in the fast paced world. Take assessment of those actions that we do each day and analyze if those actions are productive and contributing to our goals for the days, weeks, and months. There is no waiting as we need to make urgent, deliberate decisions to affect our work lives to give us more personal lives. Time is not waiting for us. We as Real Estate agents are also trying to communicate the urgency to our clients about their Real Estate decisions. We have clients every day that we feel or know like a particular property and then say things like “I need to think about it”, or “It has been on the market for a long time, I can wait”. Uncannily it seems every time we hear this, suddenly there are two or more others interested in the same property and it sells! Indecision and procrastination changes our clients and our choices, our direction. None of us knows what will happen a few months from now, next year or the year after. With the home prices low and the interest rates low, we need to communicate to our clients that it is a good time to buy. A property is only worth what someone is willing to pay. Of course, we all understand that the market has been in a huge decline but we hope that we are at the bottom of the downward trend and in a “leveling” out period before we start our recovery. We hope our fourth quarter for 2011 will be a good end to this year and in 2012 start our incline to a healthy housing market. Another reason to urge our clients to continue to purchase and not wait is to stimulate that recovery. Without continued sales there can be no turn around. We can’t wait! We can’t afford to think about it! We need to seize the day! We need to buy now! With our local expert Brokers, if you want to purchase any property, we can find it for you. Come in today and let us show you the inventory! Talk to our preferred lenders and see how and what you can do! Carpe Domus?
News from The Club – 9/12
Labor Day has come and gone. Now we remember 911! It never struck me before but did they plan the attack the same week as one of the biggest “American” Holidays? Was it supposed to be the week prior? It is a somber and inspirational day! Somber for the obvious reasons, yet inspirational that our people, our government however, clumsily or haphazardly pulled through strong and sound from the greatest homeland attack in our nation’s history from another country! Remembering 911 is different for everyone. My daughter asked me “What it meant to me to be an American” and I couldn’t answer! I was dumbfounded. I never thought of it. Always took it for granted. Even with having the privilege and experience of traveling to many different countries and seeing the differences. Every time I returned home realizing how fortunate I was with just the everyday enjoyments, I still could not put in words, what it actually meant! In some ways 10 years seems like such a long time and others like yesterday. What if cars were luxury and we had to walk or ride a bicycle every where? What if we could not travel on paved roads to get the items we needed or go to school and work? What if we could not choose the person we were to marry and have a life with? What if there were no major medical facilities or any way to pay for them? Think about the smallest every day event and think if you couldn’t do it? What if we could not buy and sell our own homes? I believe there are over 15,000 Realtors in the State of Washington alone. We complain about the market and the economy that has been depressed for the last few years. What would we do if there were no option at all? Real Estate activities and Pending sales have and continue to stay up even now at 50 for Camano Island!! The actual number is down from two weeks ago at 57 but we have also had 15 closed sales which is more than one a day!! Most agents in our Windermere offices have at least two or three current active buyers yet to have purchased as well! We are all grateful and thankful to have what we have and enjoy the little things, even if they don’t appear to be as good as they were before. I think we would all like to say “Thank You” to all our past, current and future clients for choosing Windermere for your Real Estate needs. Thank you also to all the other Brokers from other Firms for your continued professionalism and perseverance. As a small part of our Thanks, don’t forget Club Friday this week on 9/16 from 12-2 pm with Wells Fargo with the traditional and always FREE BBQ Lunch!! Hope to see you soon.
