Weekly News Letter for January 31, 2009

2008: prices declined 10.6 percent

National home prices declined 10.6 percent and foreclosure filings topped 3.4 million in 2008, according to a report by First American CoreLogic and LoanPerformance Home Price Index Analytics. Based on November and early December home price data, First American CoreLogic reports: * National housing prices fell 10.6 percent for the full year 2008: the largest decline in more than 30 years. * U.S. home prices peaked in 2006, since then they have declined 18.5 percent on a cumulative basis and are currently back to Spring 2004 levels.

FREE Andy Andrews Seven Decisions Perpetual Calendar. Andy Andrews is one of my favorite authors and presenters. This is a 14 page Perpetual Calendar to help you achieve whatever you desire to achieve. http://www.andyandrews.com/downloads/pdf/Andrews_Perpetual_Calendar.pdf

2009 State Legislative Outreaches...

Louisiana REALTORS State Legislative Outreaches provide a great opportunity for REALTORS to receive informative updates on key legislation prior to each year’s Regular Legislative Session and to discuss pertinent issues with state lawmakers. Nine Outreaches will be conducted by LR around the state in late winter/early spring 2009. For more information contact Louisiana REALTORS at 800-266-8538.

NOMAR, Friday 3/13/2009, 9:30 CE, 11:30 Outreach, Association Office Metairie
NABOR, Wednesday 3/13/2009, 9:30 CE, 11:30 Outreach, Beau Chene Country Club, Mandeville

Sell or Rent interesting and useful article was posted on www.SlidellCalendar.com under Documents and Listing Forms, Sell or Rent. If you give this to your customers, recommend that they seek legal tax advice before they make a decision.

David Knox is one of the best trainers in real estate! He conducts a First Tuesday Training Video and they have been outstanding. The First Tuesday Training for February, released on February 3 will be on Negotiating Low Offers, how timely is that? Here is a link you can access to view the most recent videos (all less than 10 minutes each), you will not regret spending time on this site!
https://www.davidknox.com/knox_sales_meetings/


Thousands of Full-Text and FREE Books, http://www.fullbooks.com/. This is a really cool site if you like to read. You only get the titles and author so you either have to know about the book or simply open it and look it over to see if you want to read it. This is a tremendous resource.

Oh Woe Is Me, How Can I Stay Up In A Down Market? This is a report that appeared on www.ActiveRain.com which is a real estate specific site where people post articles. This one is from a Keller Williams agent and is short and very good. http://activerain.com/blogsview/896405/Oh-Woe-is-Me-How-Can-I-Stay-Up-in-a-Down-Market.

2015 – The Real Estate Agent of the Future. A short prediction of what the future real estate agent will look like or require to know. Can’t say I disagree with the prediction.
http://www.inman.com/opinion/guest-perspective/2009/01/26/2015-real-estate-agent-future

The Science of Getting Rich, by Wallace D. Wattles, written in 1910. It is outstanding and must have been used to create the book and movie “The Secret”. Really good stuff and is a free download. www.TheScienceofGettingRich.com.

www.Pandora.com. This is my favorite web site of all (if you like music). You can enter a specific song or artist and the site will find that song or artist and similar songs and/or artists and create a radio station you can listen to whenever you are on line. You can have more than one radio station and it is FREE. Fantastic site!

GPS - PERSONAL SAFETY ALERT

A couple of weeks ago a friend told me that someone she knew had their car broken into while they were at a football match.

Their car was parked on the green which was adjacent to the football stadium and specially allotted to football fans. Things stolen from the car included a garage door remote control, some money and a GPS which had been prominently mounted on the dashboard. When the victims got home, they found that their house had been ransacked and just about everything worth anything had been stolen.

The thieves had used the GPS to guide them to the house. They then used the garage remote controll to open the garage door and gain entry to the house. The thieves knew the owners were at the football game, they knew what time the game was scheduled to finish and so they knew how much time they had to clean up the house. It would appear that they had brought a truck to empty the house of its contents.

MOBILE PHONE - PERSONAL SAFETY ALERT

I never thought of this.......

This lady has now changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag, which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet...etc... was stolen. 20 minutes later when she called her hubby, from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our Pin number and I replied a little while ago.'

When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.

The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the pin number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from their bank account.

Moral of the lesson:
Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.... And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked through texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when you're being text by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you.

*** I never thought about THAT! As of now, I no longer have 'home' listed on my cell phone.

Nugget For The Noggin
$10.00 to $12,000
by Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, January 25, 2009

What will $10.00 a month buy for you?

One Ferdie Po Boy at Bears without drink or tip
Two paperback novels
One-half a hard cover book
5 to 6 gallons of gas
2, maybe 3 packs of cigarettes
1.5 alcoholic drinks
4 beers
2.2 high quality golf balls (the devil made me include this one)
9.4 candy bars
13.3 cans of soda
2/3 of a CD
1/2 of a DVD

You get the idea.

Let me offer you another alternative because I “ran the numbers” so to speak (or write). Let’s say we have 100 associates in our Market Center (we do), and let’s say that each one of the 100 members gave up 1.5 alcoholic drinks, or 9.4 candy bars or one less Ferdie Po Boy at Bears, each month. Instead, let’s also say that instead of spending the $10.00 per month that same $10.00 was donated to Keller Cares. What would happen?

Each one of us would have $120 a year identified as an additional tax deduction on our income tax so it would be like our “Uncle Sam” was actually donating the $10.00 a month ($120 a year for those of us like me brought up in our public schools).

Each one of us would have a “good feeling” in the gut of our stomachs that we did something good for someone else. And, if the truth be known, we may actually be donating to our own well being should we ever experience another Katrina-like event.

Each one of us would rest in the knowledge that should an earthquake hit California, floods hit Iowa, hurricanes hit New England, the Virginia/North Carolina/South Coasts, hurricanes hit Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and/or Texas coasts, snow storms disable the Midwest, (you get the idea) we would be helping our fellow teammates wherever they may be located.

Each one of us would be contributing to a whopping $12,000 a year being donated to the charitable Keller Cares fund – in case you missed that, $12,000 a year and it would cost each one of us only $10.00 a month.

Because I graduated from our public school system, my math skills tell me that 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 equals PRICELESS!

As a reminder of how “things can hit home”, one only needs to remember Hurricane Katrina. Two days following Katrina, Mo Anderson announced to the world that Keller Williams Realty was going to take care of “their own” by insuring that each one of the over 720 affected Keller Williams associates in the Louisiana/Mississippi affected areas would receive CASH, directly deposited to their accounts – no questions asked! That commitment meant that Keller Williams Cares would dispense over $5,000,000 (that’s 5 MILLION for us public school grads) from a fund that did not have 5 Million in its account. Keller Williams associates from across the globe stepped to the plate and made personal donations, organized fund raisers, donated items and showed up at door steps with food, clothing and supplies. That is living the Keller Williams culture – Integrity – do the right thing!

What a lot of people did not fully grasp was that Mo Anderson put her reputation as well as the reputation of the entire Keller Williams Realty family on the line. The fund did not have 5 Million when the commitment was made. But as stated, teammates from across the country stepped to plate and have been stepping to the plate ever since. Yes this makes me feel very proud of our company and its associates but I am more proud of our own Market Center teammates who this past year donated over $7,000 to Keller Cares, this from one of the “affected Market Centers” from Katrina. Everyone deserves a sincere pat on the back.

The advantage of making small monthly deposits to the fund is that future responses will be made from a position of strength rather than an after-the-fact gigantic fund raising effort. Can you imagine if every Market Center in the system did likewise?

PRICELESS!