Newletter for the Week Ending March 20, 2009

QUOTE: “Wherever you see a successful business, someone once made a courageous decision.” Peter F. Drucker

CONGRATULATIONS TO DEBBIE VITITOE, #1 Residential Sales Associate in St. Tammany Parish for 2008; CAROLE WOODWARD, REALTOR OF THE YEAR for 2008! and NICOLE SILVA, ROOKIE OF THE YEAR for 2008 and all of our award winners for 2008; job well done all!

CODE OF ETHICS ARTICLE 2:
Realtors® shall avoid exaggeration, misrepresentation, or concealment of pertinent facts relating to the property or the transaction. Realtors® shall not, however, be obligated to discover latent defects in the property, to advise on matters outside the scope of their real estate license, or to disclose facts which are confidential under the scope of agency or non-agency relationships as defined by state law. (Amended 1/00)

BROKER BIT: REAL ESTATE COMMISSION COMPLIANCE ISSUES.
Like it or not, when you write an Agreement to Purchase (Offer), you are to get the listing agent’s (designated agent) signature on the first page of the Offer. To be compliant there is no way around this other than calling the listing agent, letting the agent know you have an Offer and then arrange to MEET face to face and obtain the proper signature and date on the first page of the Offer. You then make a copy for your files and the Market Center’s files. If the listing agent has access to a fax machine, fax signatures are acceptable. You cannot simply obtain the signature of someone at the front desk, licensed or not – you are to obtain the Designated Agent’s signature and that would be the Listing Agent.

Next issue is the section on the last page of the Offer that specifies when the offer was presented to the Seller and another section to indicate when it was presented to the Buyer. In both cases it calls for the DAY of the week; the DATE, the TIME and whether it was AM or PM. Not an option – this must be completed.

Next is the reference to the Seller’s Disclosure. There are options on the bottom of the last page of the Offer – complete them as applicable.

FINALLY, as was taught in the 4 hours of CE class on the new Agreement to Purchase, leave no space blank! NONE! If something does not apply, enter N/A.

Other areas that are subject to error include obtaining the BUYER’S INITIALS on the Lead Base Paint Disclosure. It is not be a check mark; INITIALS. Same applies to the listing agent section in paragraph (f), it requires INITIALS, not a check mark.

WALL OF HONOR. The Market Center is going to honor our military family. Please send me JimBrown@gymbeaux.com a photograph of yourself, or your immediate family member in uniform. I will post it on the Wall of Honor.

With the Congruence of Ridiculous Anti-Happiness Publishings (CRAP) for short, I thought you might like to see and hear a truly remarkable and uplifting story, video and audio. These are two of my favorite entertainers. The story speaks for itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXbLXI7R_lg&feature=related

POWERFUL VIDEO CLIPS: There are some, certainly not you, who may not be ready for this link to a couple of Video Clips by Ms. Byron Katie. I have been listening to several of her CDs. Look for the photos under the heading The Work In Action. The video on Race is powerful. I sincerely hope everyone takes the time to watch these. http://www.thework.com/.

CCIM Class on Advanced Negotiating to be held in New Orleans on April 2-3. Check out the details at: http://www.ccim.com/education/rlwc/negotiation_workshops.html

NETWORKING STRATEGIES. A report by Peter Lowe of Get Motivated. Peter lists 20 strategies for becoming an effective networker. If you believe in generating leads, you must also appreciate how important networking can be to accomplish that. The report has been uploaded to http://www.slidellcalendar.com/ in the documents section in the Networking Folder.

CONCERNED ABOUT YOUR WEIGHT AND YOUR APPEARANCE? Checkout the free report YOUR BODY’S SECRET LANUAGE. It is posted on http://www.slidellcalendar.com/ under Documents and Health and Fitness.

BEFUNKY.COM. This is such a cool web site. You can take a photograph and turn it into a cartoon or several other formats. You will need to set up a free account in order to save the photos. http://www.befunky.com/

9 Part Prospecting for Profit Ecourse by Colleen Francis. Uploaded to http://www.slidellcalendar.com/, Document section under Productivity.

www.VistaPrint.com/tdoffer. There are some great prices plus free business cards on this offer from Vista Print through http://www.tigerdirect.com/. If you plan to buy any electronics such as computers, cameras, or even parts, check out http://www.tigerdirect.com/ and then let me see what our company representative can do you for on price and/or free shipping. Sign up with a free account and get some great email sale flyers on electronics.