Are you on the road to hitting the goals you set in January for 2009? Do they seem like a pipe dream? If you're struggling with goal setting, check out this blog post I did for BASB on how to make your goals a sweet reality.
This exquisite executive golf course home is
designed and built for the most discriminating buyer. This 6,278 SF, 4
Bedroom, 5-1/2 Bath pool home features a state of the art designer
kitchen with granite, 150 bottle Sub-Zero wine cooler, German Miele
ovens, Café Latte unit, Sub-Zero refrigerator.
Listing provided by Point2
What keeps you awake at night? Is it the economy, too many bills, or just the stress of being in the real estate business? There are plenty of strategies that can help you get a good night's sleep. Here are some of the old standbys.
Is there an important project or goal in your life that
never seems to get the attention needed for real progress to be made? Do you
find yourself avoiding this project despite the consequences you know will come
from inaction? One of the best strategies to avoid this situation is to create
an environment that fully supports you to take action.
Author-inventor-visionary Bucky Fuller said
"environment is stronger than will." Many of us have been taught to
use will power to accomplish our goals with little thought given to the role
our environment may play. Unfortunately, without a supportive environment, will
power eventually runs out of steam. Our good intentions about prospecting, using social networking, or following up with past clients wither and die on
the vine.
Highly successful people combine their will power with an
environment that supports them to take action. Each individual requires an
environment that supports his/her unique talents and strengths.
While your unique environment might take years to fully
establish, there are three simple strategies you can take to have immediate
benefits. After reading these, ask yourself if you are ready to take action to
improve your life today. If so, take ONE of these strategies and start working
with it. Ignore any internal conversation about whether this will or will not
work and just follow the strategy.
1. Choose
friends that fully support your goals as evidenced by their thoughts, comments
and actions. For example, if you are interested in losing weight and one friend
keeps encouraging you to eat dessert, avoid eating meals with this person.
2. Completely clean some part of your physical space in
either your work or home environment. Start small and clean one room. Your
bedroom is a great place to begin. Then keep this space clean for 4 weeks and
take notice of how you feel. If you are sharing this space, ask your partner
for support and make a fun game out of it.
3. Donna Lee Laue of UniqueGlobalEstates.com had a very insightful comment about today's luxury real estate market: "Frugal is the new black." Plenty of millionaires and billionaires have gone broke. It's hard to shift from spending what you want to spend to being frugal. One way to do this is to form a group and to go on a Money Diet. Compete with other group members on who can find the best the best deals and who can cut the most each week. This doesn't have to become a burden--by making it fun, you create an environment that supports you to be smart about your spending and can help you weather this tough market.
Posted by Bernice Ross, www.RealEstateCoach.com, If you need help thriving in today's tough market, contact me personally at Bernice@RealEstateCoach.com for a complimentary coaching session with one of our highly experienced real estate coaches.
This ultimate Santa Fe treasure, hidden high in the
hills of Tesuque, is nestled into the utmost private setting with red
rock, box canyon cliffs and a cascading waterfall as a backdrop.
Surrounded by a 40 acre conservation easement, this stunning residence
offers unobstructed, breathtaking views of the Sangre de Cristo
Mountains while situated only minutes from downtown Santa Fe.
Listing Provided by Point2
Whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, or any of the other social media platforms, expanding your luxury real estate referral database is now easier than ever before. In the past, we had to spend thousands of dollars on print advertising to generate two or three high quality leads. Or you may have spent hundreds of hours holding open houses, knocking on doors, or cold calling prospects. As often as not, your call, mailer, or door knock was unwelcome.
It is not a question of if you will experience situations
that will test you; the question is when will they occur and will you be
prepared to deal with them. You also need to address HOW you handle a situation
where your best is simply not good enough. How can you prepare yourself to
better handle these situations? Here are some suggestions to help you grow your
effectiveness at handling challenging situations in today's tough real estate market. Please note these are not tips and techniques to grow your business--they're about your mindset--the ultimate secret to winning in any situation.
1. Self care. Taking great care of yourself is the only way to stay in top mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual condition. Working from this place will make coping with any challenge easier.
2. Know yourself. Giving your best is subjective and personal. Being able to observe and acknowledge when you are giving your personal best at any specific moment is an essential skill.
3. Allow your best to grow over time – ignore the desire to defend that you are doing your best and you can’t do any more. No matter how good you are, there’s always room for improvement. Also, small improvements over time add up to big changes in overall effectiveness.
4. Support – coach, friend, mentor—anyone who encourages you to be at your best, even when it’s painful. Being at your best requires a solid base of support.
5. Partnership – working directly with someone when you come face to face with a situation allows you more resources than tackling it alone. Just make sure that you and your partner are aligned and working toward the same outcome.
6. Regularly train yourself to grow and improve. Waiting until the last minute to get trained is a good way to magnify the size of any challenge you face. Start your training early and maintain it for an extended period of time.
7. Mental toughness – learning how to handle a tough situation is like learning any other skill. First gain awareness, then practice, and finally, use feedback to improve. Again, start doing this BEFORE you need to use it.
8. Give yourself permission to exceed your abilities without having the need to beat yourself up. Each of us is our own worst critic. Exceeding your abilities is much easier when your inner critic is on holiday.
9. Make a list of 10 significant situations where your best wasn’t enough and describe how you handled the situation. Write down what worked for you and what didn’t work. Keep this list handy and refer to it when facing challenges.
10. When faced with a challenge where you have few strengths or abilities, minimize any consequence of failure. Take small steps that you can easily deal with and avoid taking huge risks.
11. Express gratitude often to your self and others who support you to grow. Pushing yourself beyond your limits is a sign of courage and a willingness to grow.
12. Stay present. Every day is a new day – what may have been easy yesterday might prove challenging today and vice-versa. Use what you have available today, not yesterday.
13. Laugh. Pushing your abilities will undoubtedly make for some incredible stories and comedy.
Posted by Bernice Ross, CEO RealEstateCoach.com and MCC (Master Certified Coach) Need a real estate coach? We have group and individual coaching at all price points--you don't have to face this nasty market alone. Visit us at www.RealEstateCoach.com to get the real estate coaching and training you need today to succeed tomorrow.
Look at this beautiful ocean front home with breathtaking views.
Listing provided by: Point2.com
Do you want to get in the REO business? It's a risky proposition that can have great rewards. Before you jump in and shell out your hard earned commission dollars in the pursuit of a big payoff, here are some major pitfalls that you must address.
1. You can get stuck paying the lender's bills
If you list a REO, in many cases, the lender will expect you to turn on the utilities in your name. I've heard of many cases where the lenders never reimburse the agents for the costs they incurred. Even when the agents submit their reimbursement request on time, it often "gets lost" or the agent can never get the person responsible to call him or her back. If you don't meet the lender's deadlines, you don't get reimbursed. This is not the case with every lender, but it is a major risk any time you take responsibility for the lender's bills.
2. Insurance
A major pitfall in some lender REO listing agreements has to do with insurance. Have your legal department review the documents to determine if the lender is requiring your company to become an "additionally insured" on your E&O policy or to indemnify the lender with general liability or workmen's compensation. If you sign a lender listing that has this provision, you may have committed your company to these provisions. The result is you and your broker will have to defend any lawsuit AND you will have to pay to defend the lender as well. Furthermore, there's a good chance your E&O won't cover it.
3. Be wary of property management risks
If you are hiring people to repair the property, you are engaging in property management. This requires special insurance. One way to handle this is to set up a separate company that handled REO property management separate from your brokerage activities. Again, your regular E&O typically excludes property management activities, thus making you responsible for the costs of any litigation.
4. The lender wants you to carry the disclosure burden
This is a dirty little secret about which most agents have no knowledge. It's common for the REO listing agreement to require the agents to inspect the property weekly and to report on the property's condition. This means that you are responsible for reporting the defects. This is a serious issue because so many foreclosure properties have been trashed by their former owners. This lender trick puts the disclosure responsibility and liability on the agents.
5. Do you really want to oversee repairs on the property?
When you supervise repairs on a REO listing, then you are responsible for those repairs. Again, have an attorney review the listing agreement to see if the lender has included a "blanket indemnification" that covers the lender and shifts all the responsibility to the brokers. One of the best ways to avoid the repair issue in any transaction is to simply give the buyer a credit for the repairs. If there is a problem, it's between the buyers and the person they hired to do the repairs.
To avoid signing a "lethal listing agreement," remember that all contracts are negotiable. Have your company's attorney review the contract first to find out if there are any issues. If the lender won't change the terms, walk away from the listing. Remember, a single lawsuit can cost a $100,000 just to get to court--that's not including any judgments. Those are the hard costs that don't begin to cover the costs to your business and your peace of mind.
Bottom line: have those REO listings reviewed before you sign them, make sure you have the appropriate insurance in place, and avoid being a property manager unless you are set up to do so with the appropriate insurance and other necessary support.
Posted by Bernice Ross, author of two of real estate's best selling books: Waging War on Real Estate's Discounters and Real Estate Dough Your Recipe for Real Estate Success
