Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Online Weekly Newsletter for the Week Ending October 29

QUOTE:The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” Eleanor Roosevelt. The big question is, do you believe in your own dreams?


NOVEMBER 2, 2010 – VOTE! For Slidell residents be aware, there are 10 Constitutional Amendments on the ballot and they are all important. Make sure you review the amendments BEFORE you get in the ballot booth and they are lengthy and complex. Visit this web site and enter your parish, ward and precinct and you will be provided with a sample ballot: http://www.sos.louisiana.gov/SampleBallotDatabase/tabid/917/Default.aspx FOR MISSISSIPPI, check http://www.sos.state.ms.us/Elections/2002Sample.pdf for a sample ballot for the state and your local area.

BOARD DUES: REMINDER: NABOR Board Dues are due November 15th. NOMAR Board Dues are due November 30th. Please make certain you advise the MCA when you have paid your dues.

2011 LICENSE RENEWAL: Here is the web address at which you can renew your Louisiana Real Estate License online. Remember you need to have 12 hours of CE this year 4 of which MUST be on the Louisiana Real Estate Law.

10 DO’S AND DON’TS FOR MAXIMIZING YOUR TWITTER ACCOUNT from Lowe’s: http://rismedia.com/lowes/8355/10747

HAPPY HALLOWEEN. WHAT DID YOU GO AS? I WENT AS A SALESMAN. A gem by Jeffrey Gitomer, http://rismedia.com/lowes/8355/10747

WHAT THE LOCALS THINK WIDGET: This appears to be free. You enter a city and state and it finds testimonials from local residents. When you enter Slidell, Louisiana or Picayune, Mississippi you get no ratings, no recommendations. The site gives you a widget tag to copy and paste to your web site enabling anyone who visits your site to see what the “locals are saying” about our communities. This would be a great opportunity to solicit our databases to ask them for testimonials to put on the site and get a good rating for Slidell & Picayune. Check out the site at: http://www.streetadvisor.com/widgets/what-the-locals-think


YOUR MOST NEGLECTED CUSTOMER. WHO ARE YOUR MOST VALUABLE CUSTOMERS? The answer may surprise you. Great article by Denise Lones: http://www.brokeragentsocial.com/article/950/your-most-neglected-client

PLAY TO WIN article by Jon Gordon: http://www.jongordon.com/newsletter-102510-playtowin.html

10 TIPS FOR REAL ESTATE SUCCESS IN 2011: By Bernice Ross from Inman News. Success leaves clues. This will not be the first time you see notes such as these. After reading them, go to www.SlidellCalendar.com, go to the Document Section, look up PRODUCTIVITY and the scroll down to the New Commission Calculator. You only have to enter a couple of variable items and it will calculate for you how many listing and buyer appointments you need to make to earn the income you desire provided you have a specific number (the spread sheet will calculate that number for you) people in your database and that you contact them on a regular and systematic basis. Great article by Ms. Ross: http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/berniceross/10-tips-real-estate-success-in-2011

BUSINESS AFTER HOURS. We are co-sponsoring the Chamber’s Business After Hours in the parking lot of our Market Center, Wednesday, October 27th Co-sponsors include: Bayou Title, Central Progressive Bank, Blizzard Beach, Expo Signs, Fish Window Cleaning, Home Bank, Lee R. Cosgrove with Edward Jones The Wine Market and Tropical Smoothie Cafe'. 5:00 to 7:00.

OUTSIDE THE BOX THINKING, an excerpt from The Little Black Book of Connections by Jeffrey Gitomer. “Every one of you has experienced a WOW! Very few of you have given one! Almost no one makes a goal or a resolution at the beginning of the year that says, “I gotta WOW! more people.” Bob Carr of TLC (sprinklers and outdoor lighting systems in Baltimore Maryland) is the only person I know with a “WOW Budget.”. He spends a hundred dollars a week wowing one customer at random. He’ll install an outdoor light that turns on when you drive up your driveway, or a timing device on a sprinkler. It’s a $5,200 (annual) budget that will earn him hundreds of thousands of dollars in business and fifty-two lifetime fans a year. In ten short years, Bob will have 520 loyal fans – otherwise known as loyal sales people – on his team. (Unless of course he doubles his budget.). (Not in the book, I have a friend who makes a substantial donation to a local charity in Jackson, MS every year. When he does, he identifies a portion of the donation to be in each name of some of his best customers/friends and then sends them a Christmas card that wishes his customer/friend a Merry Christmas and lets them know that a donation (undetermined amount) has been made in his or her name to (the charity selected). What are you doing and how much have you budgeted to create WOW! experiences for the people in your database? If you have not read Gitomer’s book, you have no idea what you are missing.

HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT THIS? HAVE YOU COUNSELLED YOUR OWNERS ABOUT THIS? This is a great and timely article about insurance coverage on vacant homes. A word to the wise should be sufficient: http://www.inman.com/buyers-sellers/columnists/maryumberger/5-insurance-tips-vacant-homes

NET WEAVERS INTERNATIONAL. It is all about Networking. This site refers you to resource material including a book and has a computerized self-analysis as to your networking skills. Check it out on: http://netweaving.com/

FOR YOUR CLIENTS; PREPARE YOUR HOME FOR WINTER WITH THESE SIMPLE TIPS, by Paige Tepping, from Lowe’s: Great tips to include in your blog to your customers: http://rismedia.com/lowes/8355/10661

THE FIVE STEP FORMULA FOR CREATING A SUCCESSFUL MARKETING MESSAGE. Lowe’s article: http://rismedia.com/lowes/8355/10344

CREATING A PAPER TRAIL; REMOVING THE POSSIBILITY OF CONFUSION: In a discussion with Caren Morgan we came up with the idea of sending an email to every coop agent who submits an accepted Agreement to Purchase on your listings. I have uploaded it to http://www.slidellcalendar.com/ Document Section, Sales Forms. It is a word document that you copy and paste into your email to a coop agent upon immediately receiving an accepted Agreement to Purchase. In addition to saying “thank you” it establishes “expiration/completion dates” and identifies all the various documents that are available as attachments on the MLS. By sending out this email you are creating a paper trail and eliminating any chance of misunderstanding when it comes to critical dates. If you use it, I would upload a copy of what you sent to Paperless.

PERSONAL SECURITY REMINDER: Today I received what appeared to be an email from my bank stating they had new customer software in place and needed me to confirm my account. When I went to the web site it asked for information such as social security number, security code number from the back of my debit card, etc. I called customer service instead of responding on line and as suspected it was a fraud. Had a similar incident involved PayPal. The problem is that the emails and web sites appear to be real but they are not. Any time anyone asks you for your social security number or card security code you should have a huge red flag pop up in your head. For example the information they asked for they already had. The bank advised me that they would never ask for such verification through an email. The same holds true for the IRS – the IRS NEVER seeks info from you via email. Beware, be safe!

REMEMBER NEW ORLEANS? This is a 10 minute YouTube video that describes why no one owns the phrase “Who Dat”, especially the NFL. If you are from New Orleans, sit back, relax and then if you are like question whether progress is necessarily a good thing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmbXwjnCxx4

AN EXCERPT FROM DR. TOM HILL’S WEEKLY EZINE:

In last week's Eaglezine I mentioned that starting today, and each week for 6 weeks, I would share one of the six keys to success. I started life coaching in 1994 and in the process, met literally thousands of interesting people - primarily in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In the process I became fascinated with why some people figure life out and others never do. My observation is about 85% never do and about 15% do. There are a lot of characteristics that can enhance one's progress, such as a good education, work ethic, integrity, etc.

My experience led me to identify six basic concepts that seem to make the major difference, so here we go. Number one is - 15% of the population are committed to "personal development" - every day committed to becoming the best person possible. It's almost a compulsion or as Jim Rohn says "Work harder on yourself than on your job." In my coaching I encourage clients to focus on their spiritual, health, relationship, emotional and intellectual areas of life. In the process, you will attract money- money is a by-product. So make a daily personal commitment to grow every day in every way possible. In the next 5 Eaglezines I will share the other 5 characteristics of 15 percenters.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments and critiques are always welcome.