Market Center Newsletter for Friday May 29, 2009

Published a bit early to avoid becoming really lengthy

QUOTE: “We are what (and where) we are because of where we were when we were ten” Dr. Morris Massey.

NEW NUGGET: The SECRET is in the BAG! You can read it at: http://www.nuggetsforthenoggin.com/

THE SHIFT #2 WITH GARY KELLER. Coming to the New Orleans Marriott 555 Canal Street, Thursday June 18th, 7:30 am to 3:00 ( you beat the traffic going both ways, imagine that). Cost is only $20 to see and hear our founder and who I think believe to be a visionary genius. The sign-up sheet is at the front desk. Mandeville, Baton Rouge and Metairie are all predicting turnouts in excess of 100 people. We were not asked to compete, what does that tell you? If I had my magic wand working, I would not have a sign-up sheet, I would just sign everyone up automatically and then you would have to have your name removed because frankly I cannot think of too many reasons why everyone would not want to attend. MORE IMPORTANTLY, everyone of us has friends in the business who are NOT with Keller Williams – INVITE AT LEAST ONE COMPETITING AGENT TO GO WITH YOU AT YOUR COST! You want to grow your Profit Tree? Who doesn’t? We could easily surpass Baton Rouge, Mandeville AND Metairie if (1) everyone would sign up for just this one event and when you sign up, sign up for two and bring a competitor at your expense! What a deal! You and they will get an education and you will get quality time with a friend in the business – that is a Win-Win in my opinion.

IT’S OFFICIAL. MISSISSIPPI LICENSE HAS ARRIVED. I obtained my Mississippi Broker’s license because there was an interest by several agents in our Market Center to expand their business into the Picayune and western Mississippi areas that geographically are very close to Slidell; made good sense. I think it is important for everyone to know that the funds needed to make this happen did not come from Market Center money that would affect profit sharing. We will be working on making the Mississippi exposure 100% self-supporting. Anyone desiring to obtain their Mississippi license can download the appropriate forms from the Mississippi Real Estate Commission web site at: http://www.mrec.state.ms.us/. You will also be required to join the Pearl River County Board of Realtors once licensed in Mississippi. Setting this up will not happen over night as there is a learning curve (mine) to learn not only where the forms are located, but how they read, how they are used, and more importantly listing and selling techniques and traditions that may not be the same as Southeast Louisiana. The Board is closed for the Holidays so I am unable to join until next week. My membership will not become official until I attend the Board’s orientation scheduled in August.

PARTNERS MEETINGS: Just for a moment I want you to take off your shoes, literally. Take them off, clear your mind. With your mind totally clear of any pending worries, thoughts or business, I want you to put your shoes back on but as you do you recognize them as your seller’s shoes, WOW! How did that happen? Now with your seller’s shoes firmly on your feet I want you to start thinking like I would if I were your seller. You listed my home and have described just how many other KW agents are on your team and that you are going to expose my home to the 100+ agents back in the Market Center because it is quite possible a buyer for MY home may already be working with one of the selling 100! No one else in Slidell can make that claim and I’m pumped! Now imagine my dismay when you hope I never discover that on the big day of announcing MY home to the “selling 100” two things happen. First there are not 100 in attendance at this week’s Partner’s Meeting but more importantly, neither are you. Then as the various photos of my home show up on the big screen, there is no one promoting MY home as to why it is a good value for buyers. Let me assure you, if it WERE my personal home and MY agent did not see the value in promoting MY home to HIS or HER fellow associates, I would be having a serious talk with my agent; wouldn’t you?

CYA. I think we all know what CYA mean, for you-know-who it may be a lot more paper than for the rest of us. I recently attended a course hosted by the REALTOR® Association of Acadiana in Lafayette entitled, “Keeping Your Commercial Client Out of Legal Trouble” taught by Mr. Jim Hochman. The course was OUTSTANDING! There were many lessons but one lesson came across loud and clear – cover your behind! Use cover letters for everything. Use a computerized customer tracker type program like Top Producer or ACT and USE IT! The program records your contacts as to when, who, and what was said, etc. Get in the habit of attributing factual information to third parties. Get names and titles of the people you talk to and refer to them in your correspondence, conversations and even contracts when possible. Whenever your conduct a face-to-face or telephonic conversation, back it up with a confirmation letter, email or fax. You want to create a paper trail regarding your transactions. INTERESTING RECOMMENDATION: If you feel you have a transaction that may lead to legal action, make a memo to the file to document the facts as you know them to be in the order they occurred. HOWEVER, address the memo to the company broker and the company attorney. By so doing, the memo is not considered as evidence that may be obtained by the opposition through the discovery process. Since the attorney is involved, it becomes privileged information.

BROKER BIT #1: On a similar note, the Louisiana Agreement to Purchase has space for the Buyer’s and the Seller’s mailing addresses and contact info yet most agents leave this information blank. It was pointed out that in the event a buyer and/or seller must be legally served, this information is required. The spaces are there for a reason and it is not up to individual agents to determine what information is important or not. FILL IN THE BLANKS!

BROKER BIT #2: Have you ever wondered why closing companies have the parties at the closing sign in blue ink ONLY! Because it differentiates copies from originals. Copy machines have become so good it is sometimes difficult to determine the original from its copies. With that said, why as agents are we not doing the same thing with our listings and sales documents? On listings, the Market Center is to maintain all the originals of the listing and eventually the original of the Agreement to Purchase. So there are several points in this Nugget. If you are working from faxed or emailed copies of listing and sales documents you still need to arrange to get the originals whenever possible EVEN if it means using SNAIL MAIL to achieve it. Why not blue ink when you and your customers are filling in the blanks when you handwrite a contract/form? If you prepare the forms on Formulator, use Blue Ink to sign the contracts/forms. No where does it say you MUST do this, it just makes good business sense to do so. At one point REALTORS® would create multiple copies and have the customer signed duplicate originals. If the truth be known this is still a preferred method of doing business. And while you are writing in your blue or black ink, please remember someone else has reason to read it and so many times you or your customer’s hand writing is illegible (unreadable for you-know-who).

DENTAL INSURANCE for the self-employed. Health insurance for the self-employed is difficult to find and/or expensive. Ran across this company who offers dental insurance to the self-insured (among others). I don’t know anything about the company or their coverage other than their number: 800-678-7129. http://www.encoredentalplan.com/

EVER HEARD OF KINDLE? Kindle is available through http://www.amazon.com/. It is an electronic book storage device. It has a WI-FI connection where you can download book from Amazon.com in 60 seconds from almost anywhere you are. The basic edition can store up to 1500 books that you can recall. The Millionaire Real Estate Agent and Shift are just two of the books that you can download. Not only can you use the device to read the books you have downloaded, you can also have the device read the books to you. I priced the MREA on Amazon.com. The book is listed at $20.00. You can download the audio book for $30.98 or you can order the CD Set for $75.00 OR you can download the Kindle version for $13.17 and have everything – you can read it or you can have it read to you and you can easily put Kindle in your purse or briefcase and take your personal library with you wherever you go. There are two versions, one is $359 and the DX version (larger) is $489.00. Expensive yes but if you saved $10.00 a book AND THERE IS NO SHIPPING CHARGES ON THE BOOKS YOU DOWNLOAD, IT WOULD TAKE $360 of downloaded books to break even. No book shelves, no shipping charges, no taxes because you are ordering the downloads online and it is extremely convenient.

LOUISIANA TRAFFIC LAW – PAY ATTENTION. A law was signed into effect in June 2008 that required drivers to move into another lane, whenever possible, when they come upon an emergency vehicle. If this is impossible, you are to slow down until you pass the vehicle(s). Heavy fines will be imposed for violators.

HUMBLE AND HUNGRY, by Jon Gordon “The Energy Addict”, this is a great article and video. http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-052609-ibelieveinyou.html
DENTAL INSURANCE for the self-employed. Health insurance for the self-employed is difficult to find and/or expensive. Ran across this company who offers dental insurance to the self-insured (among others). I don’t know anything about the company or their coverage other than their number: 800-678-7129. http://www.encoredentalplan.com/

JEFFREY GITOMER. ON CHOOSING HAPPINESS; WHAT’S YOUR CHOICE? Another great Gitomer article. http://www.gitomer.com/articles/ViewPublicArticle.html?key=ajcdMibak3PV22zhvm7Pog%3D%3D

MEMORIAL DAY VIDEO, a little late but this is good.
http://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=db5ed59e2e&view=att&th=1217899363379645&attid=0.1&disp=attd&zw

GESRIN MLS DUES. The annual MLS Dues statements have gone out. Dues must be paid by July 1, 2009. SUGGESTION: Add up your license renewal fee, your E+O annual fee (both due by December 31 of each year) and your annual MLS Dues (due on 1 July of each year), the total should be between $800 and $900 annually. Divide 900 by 12 months and that equals $75.00. If you start paying your dues to yourself on a monthly basis of $75.00 a month as if you have actually paid your dues monthly, paying them when they actually become due will not be as big a shock on your bank account twice a year.

UPCOMING COMMERCIAL REAL ESTATE ACTIVITIES: On June 4th at the Beau Chene Country Club there will be a CID Sponsored Networking event to include 2 hours of CE; the ABCs of the LACDB followed by a luncheon. Then on September 15, there will be 4 hours of CE, The 1031 Exchange followed by Risk Management; How to Avoid Being Sued in the Commercial RE Arena. I have attended several of the Commercial courses lately and they all have been extremely well done and very informative. If you are interested in commercial real estate in the slightest, I would highly recommend you join the NOMAR CID that costs $50.00 a year and thus far has enabled you to attend these courses free of charge.