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Category: Flourishing (page 28 of 38)

Thriving as only a rational animal can

November 23, 2009

A World of Thanks…..Bloodhounds

by

Realtor, Renaissance Man

Author website

As we approach the end of this year, celebrating and reminiscing, dining and partying, worshiping and contemplating, I wanted to simply say thanks to all of you. You’re now all part of my world, and thus what you give spills over into that which I, too, am able to give.

A very special thanks to Greg and Cathleen, who yoke us together, all of us, in our individual pursuits, foibles and moments of grandeur.

Enjoy a bit of celebration about the world you Bloodhounds have helped shape. Remember our singular bond, notwithstanding our differences, to be bold and fearless in all our endeavors, seeking a taste of Greg’s Greekness if only for just moments at a time.

Oh, in case you didn’t notice, I managed to sneak into the session around the 50 second mark to add a bit of my own musicality to the group. Happy Thanksgiving week to all of you!!

November 17, 2009

Purposeful Living Is Living For Real

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Such a simple phrase, yet apparently so difficult to execute. Agreeing with myself on what my purposes are was at the same time a task easily accomplished, and reminiscent of a root canal. Once they’re established, any goal flowing from them will almost always be accomplished. The importance of having purpose in our lives can’t be overstated.

I learned about purpose by analogy. Purpose is a map — any destination on the map, if we choose to go there, is a goal. The reason goals aren’t achieved, the root cause, is because the goal’s ‘destination’ isn’t on any of the ‘maps’ of the person’s purposes. If your goal is to go to Canada, but none of your maps include that country, it’s highly unlikely you’ll find your way there.

Experts have devised several methods to help folks discover their purposes. Frankly, I’ve always shied away from the concept of ‘discovering’ a purpose, as I’ve always inferred that to mean it was always there, so not necessarily my choice. We can decide at any time to change our main purpose for existence. One of the extreme examples of this truth was the Biblical story of Paul. In the story he not only radically altered his purpose, but reversed it — becoming the world’s strongest advocate for what he’d previously did his utmost to destroy.

So understand, the excuse for not having a guiding purpose cuz ya can’t ‘discover’ it is lame beyond description. We all decide what our purpose in life is, whether it’s a proactive decision or not. Furthermore, having that purpose will not only cause goals to be far more easily achievable, but will generate the goals resonating with the purpose itself. Who’d a thunk?

I don’t advocate any particular method to decide your purpose. Some write down purposes ’till one hits home. Some go to a quiet place and meditate, some even consult experts from different disciplines. It doesn’t matter as long as it produces a purpose with which you’re both at peace and big time excited.

There’s very little in the world more powerful than a purpose driven goal — Read more

November 16, 2009

How can a flat and dusty bumpkintopia like Texas outgrow a paradise on earth like California?

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A clip from a fascinating City Journal article on the differences in taxes and services among the states and how that affects growth:

If California doesn’t want to be Texas, it must find a way to be a better California. The easy thing about being Texas is that the government has a great deal of control over the part of its package deal that attracts consumer-voters—it must merely keep taxes low. California, on the other hand, must deliver on the high benefits promised in its sales pitch. It won’t be enough for its state and local governments to spend a lot of money; they have to spend it efficiently and effectively.

The optimistic assessment is that things are going to get worse in California before they get better. The pessimistic assessment is that they’re going to get worse before they get much worse. As is often the case, hanging around with the pessimists is less fun but more instructive. The current recession has driven California’s state government into what amounts to a five-month budget cycle, according to Dan Walters of the Sacramento Bee. He estimates that the budget deal tortuously wrought in July should start falling apart in October, because it was predicated on pie-in-the-sky revenue estimates and because so many of its spending cuts are being challenged, often successfully, in the courts.

The recession will eventually end and California’s finances will improve, say the optimists. Given the state’s pervasive political bias against efficient and effective public services, however, the question is whether its finances will ever get truly well. States that have grown accustomed to thinking of the engine that drives their economies as an inexhaustible resource—whether it’s Michigan and the auto industry, New York and Wall Street, or California and the vision of the sunlit good life that used to attract new residents—find it tough to compete again for what they thought would be theirs forever, and to plan budgets for lean years that turn into lean decades. Instead, they invest their hopes in a deus ex machina that will rescue them from the hard choices they dread.

For California’s governmental-industrial complex, a Read more

November 13, 2009

Embrace the Homebuyer Tax Credit: Solution to the Problem

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

The $8000 first time home buyer tax credit is a mistake.  Congress should have enacted the original idea: a $15,000 tax credit.  This goes for the repeat home buyer tax credit as well.  As a matter of fact, I would like to have seen both tax credits even higher.  If you’ll maintain an open mind for the next few minutes, I hope to show you how embracing these tax credits actually creates a “win-win” situation that benefits you and this great nation.

The inherent spirit of humankind is individualistic, creative and inclined toward action.  The heart of man is inexorably drawn toward freedom: freedom to live, freedom to express and freedom to choose.  No matter what short-term damage is effected by an oppressor or institutionalized by a government, men and women will devise ways to rebuild and overcome.  Even in countries where the idea of freedom has been systematically driven out by force, we witness people taking action toward freedom.  It is a natural state that can be delayed, but not denied.  We are DOERs.  This country, the United States of America, is the poster child for taking action toward freedom.  We are a nation made up of DOERs.

So what does this have to do with the tax credit?  It empowers us with a “win-win” opportunity.  The immoral bribes to home buyers, the unconstitutional mandate for health insurance, the socialistic bail-outs, even the very destruction wrought by stimulus packages:  embrace them all!  These are all opportunities to make that “win-win” choice.  Embrace the home buyer’s credit and ACT on it!  Be a DOER.  It’s the DOERs who create the success of our society.  A nation of DOERs – of independent, entrepreneurial, action-based DOERs – will always bring about the necessary changes to save this republic.  If you desire your own success, then you desire to become a DOER.

More specifically: every action you take to help another person receive the tax credit strengthens you as a DOER while at the same time weakening the architects – the very architecture – that imposes itself upon a free people with that tax credit.  Eventually, Read more

November 12, 2009

The #1 Obstacle in Real Estate

by

Real Estate Renaissance Man

Author website

Would you like to know what the #1 obstacle is to achieving success in the real estate profession?  If you did know, would you create a marketing campaign around it and start knocking the ball out of the park?  I love marketing campaigns.  I love creating them and prodding them into action; I even love writing about successful real estate marketing campaigns.  But the truth is, the biggest obstacle to our success isn’t a lack of good marketing ideas.  It’s not the economy or interest rates or the inventory.  It’s actually nothing “out there.”  That’s because there’s nothing “out there” nearly so scary or powerful or destructive to our success as we are to ourselves.  That’s right: our #1 obstacle in Real Estate… is us.  We all carry around a few self-doubts, maybe even a few “I can’ts.”  If asked, I bet you could list five things you don’t like about yourself without even putting much thought into it.  It’s as if we’ve gone on a date with ourselves and halfway through dinner decided we’re not good enough for the other person at the table… and the other person is us!

Knowledge is power and knowing that we are our own biggest obstacle is very powerful. Yes, you have to have goals.  Yes, you need a marketing plan to achieve them.  But I guarantee you that plan will be much more successful if its very first step, is to fall back in love… with yourself.  Sound a little corny?  Maybe easier said than done?  Fear not: I’m going to leave you with a small, powerful two-word phrase for that all-important first step.  Not long ago I was talking to my 7 year old son and I was congratulating him on figuring something out for himself.  He immediately threw his arms into the air and said “Yeah Me!”  No pretense.  No guilt.  Only genuine admiration.  Imagine that: “Yeah Me!”

Go ahead, try it yourself.  Stop reading for a moment, put your arms in the air and say “Yeah Me!”  Come on… say it with feeling – really mean it.  “Yeah Me!”  Does it feel Read more

November 12, 2009

When the cash-for-clunkers “logic” comes to the real estate market, it’s time for every homeowner with equity to cash in big

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

It’s cash-for-clunkers time in the real estate market.

Last week, in addition to extending the $8,000 first-time home-buyers tax credit for another six months, Congress added a new $6,500 tax-credit for move-up buyers.

The credit can be applied for homes selling for as much as $800,000, and the income limits exclude almost nobody.

You have to have lived in your home for more than five years out of the last eight, but that’s hardly an onerous restriction. And homeowners who have put down roots have equity.

Remember that capital gains on your primary residence are excluded from taxation if you have lived in your home for the past five years. But the way the government is spending money, that exclusion cannot last.

But, but, but… Your home isn’t worth what it was in December of 2005. That’s true, but it doesn’t change anything. The home that you can buy now was also selling for more four years ago.

Here’s the way things really shake out: If you have equity in your home, you can take that equity as a tax-free profit — for now. At the same time, you can snag the $6,500 tax credit. And you can do all of this at historic low interest rates.

If your house is worth $400,000 and you only paid $300,000 for it, you could reap a gain of $100,000 — which would save you thousands of dollars in taxes. If you wait for prices to go higher, you may wait a long time for a much smaller return. And the house you buy then will have appreciated, also.

I think we’re looking at a perfect storm for homeowners with equity: You can move now, take a tax-free gain, get a lot more house than you could have bought a few years ago, all financed with a low-interest mortgage. And then, next April, Uncle Sam will write you a big fat check for your trouble.

On second thought, this is less cash-for-clunkers than the taxpayer’s revenge…

 
Sell this idea! Feel free to share this idea with your clients and prospects — in your blog, by email, on the phone. This is big, and the Read more

November 9, 2009

Why Are Most Goals Never Achieved? What Makes Goal Achievement Inevitable?

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Note: By writing this post don’t get the idea I think I’m a goal expert, cuz I’m far from it. I do know however, what’s worked for me and a few others time after time. I offer this merely as food for thought, and a possible insight to your own goal setting history.

It’s about that time of year again. The kids have just gotten through their annual Halloween candy coma, Thanksgiving plans are either being made, debated, or negotiated, and signs of Christmas are beginning to show up in the cultural background. If you’re in real estate or a related field, it’s also about the time you see the office population begin to thin out a bit. While we sit somewhere, unawares, that little voice with whom we have a love/hate relationship begins whispering less than subtle hints about sitting down to review the year’s production vs the goals you so enthusiastically and meticulously set.

You sigh. Not just cuz you know this year’s production will probably make you look like a slug who came to work late and left early every day, but also due to all those other goals you simply gave up on, hoping they wouldn’t come back to taunt you at the end of the year. I especially like the physical goals like ‘lose 30 pounds’, knowing that even if you go on a juice-only diet ’till New Year’s Eve you’ll still weigh more than when you wrote the damn goal down. 🙂

Why do millions of us set so many goals and fail so miserably so often? Is there a common denominator? I think there is, and have been making use of the principle since the 1980’s.

I’d just become a father for the first time, and was visiting Grandma and Grandpa who lived just an hour or so up highway 15. Grandma had spent her alloted time with her new grandson (Um, alloted time is code for as long as she dang well felt like.) and found me sitting alone in her old school country sized kitchen. I’d grabbed the still warm raisin bran muffins she Read more

November 7, 2009

Looking for peace and prosperity? Nothing gets good things done like a do-nothing federal government

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column:

The elections this past Tuesday were not a referendum on President Barrack Obama or his plans and policies. How do we know that? Because everyone associated with the Obama administration loudly insists that this cannot be so. They ought to know, right?

Senators and Representatives from states and districts that supported John McCain in the last election might have second thoughts, though, and this is very far from being a bad thing.

Americans insist to each other that they want a government that gets things done — except when they happen to be suffering under a government that is getting things done. If this election was not a referendum on Obama, it was a loud, angry shout about what the government has been doing lately.

The last time voters repudiated an over-ambitious president — the last six years of the Clinton administration — the nation experienced a period of tremendous growth and prosperity. The American people recoiled in horror from socialized medicine, and the resulting government — liberal president, conservative congress — was amazingly beneficial for the American people.

How? By getting nothing done, that’s how.

For free markets to work at their best, entrepreneurs need to be able to plan for the future. If they can surmise that prices and credit terms will not swing wildly over the next few years, they can plan their investments with a sense of security.

And if not? Not.

The Obama administration’s herky-jerky dance of currency inflation, stimulus programs, emergency bailouts and tax credits not only cannot stabilize the economy, they do exactly the opposite: They convince entrepreneurs that now is not a safe time to make plans for the future.

This goes for the real estate market, too. Buyers sit on the sidelines waiting for new tax credits. Sellers live in dread of future interest rate hikes. The Cap and Trade bill promises to complicate life for every homeowner.

So how might these elections have helped us all? It’s simple. If Senators and Representatives are afraid to act, nothing will change. And when nothing changes in Washington, everything changes, usually for the better, for everyone Read more

October 19, 2009

Unchained Melody: Fields of Gold

by

Rust Belt Realtor

Author website

Saturday I took a mini vacation and visited my daughter Rian, who was taking a longer vacation in the Hocking Hills. If you are from the Mid-West, you may know about the Hocking Hills. It’s beautiful land- old forests, rolling hills. It was a treat to take a day away from normal life and I love driving through Ohio with its farmland and small towns. I’m a Realtor. Under all is the land.

Ohio is still, and always has been, an agricultural state. Our biggest business is agriculture- that’s large expanses of productive real estate- income producing dirt. I am, even in my inner ring suburb, surrounded by cornfields and soybean fields and small roadside farm stands and pick-your-own strawberries. And when I was a kid I hated it! Hated it. I was once much more cosmopolitan than the hayseed you see before you. I was once a citified mohawk wearing rabble-rouser. I was once on the fast track out of the Mid-West and onto somethinganything more exciting. And then I grew up.

I spent time with people who came from the same gene pool. I was accepted by the most gentle and loving people I’d ever met. Their quiet wit, their infinite love, their simple lives woke me up and let me understand that I could take the girl out of the country, but I never really wanted to take the country out of the girl. My mohawk grew out, my attitude softened- just a bit- and I learned to love the sight of a pristine barn rising out of tidy rows of cornfields. I know with the tiniest whiff on the breeze, whether I’m smelling cow, pig, or horse shit, and my husband Jamie, who has farming in his blood and spent his youth as an assistant to a large animal veterinarian, says that the dumber the animal, the better the smell. Hint: Pigs stink almost as much as humans.

We have beautiful land in Ohio, and no time is it more beautiful than now, in the fall, when the trees become a spectacular raging colorfest, and the farm fields are golden, Read more

October 14, 2009

Howard Brinton : A Chance To Do Something Really, Really Cool.

by

Instigator, anthill kicker.

Author website

I remember a long time ago, getting Star Power manuals in the mail.  Big, 3 ring binders full of worksheets that I’d work out with fear and trembling.  I remember getting star of the month stuff.

I remember hearing stars, ordinary schmoes like Phil Herman–a former postman talk about what made him separate from the pack.  I was hooked.  There was a formula to this success stuff, and this guy went out and gathered it up.

A collection of excellence was what Star Power was about, formed in the pre-Internet days, largely, maybe a precursor to the Bloodhound Blog of sorts.  In any case, Howard Brinton has been given a most unfavorable prognosis by his doctors.

So, a tribute site popped up, and it’s a place to go and reconnect with the stars, and to leave thoughts and tributes.   There, not here.   Thanks much.

October 14, 2009

My Best Online Find Ever

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Sometime in late 2007 I ran into a guy who wrote weekly articles about the stock market, using what he called a Super Chart. He’s what’s known on Wall Street as a Chartist, a long established school of thought. He was mentored for several years by an iconic chartist whose name escapes me.

Anyway, his name is Max Whitmore, and he’s the real deal — and a half. He’s the most unassuming guy you’d ever wanna talk to. Yet his record is second to none.

The guy hasn’t missed a major market move since 1965. Those who listened to him before this most reason meltdown still have most of their capital. He’s guest posted at BawldGuy Talking the last two Mondays, and will continue to do so until he and I, along with Tom Vanderwell launch our new site.

Here are the links to his first post, and the one this past Monday.

I began talkin’ about Max a couple years ago. Then the national site who carried his posts in subscription form, dropped him. Their loss. Then something began to happen. Whitmore followers all over the country began to email me from my blog asking if I knew where to find him. They’d subscribed to his stuff, and missed him sorely. This went on for a year at least.

Meanwhile Max and I had become email buddies. I let this be known on the blog and the queries intensified. His followers are the poster kids for loyal. Anywho, go take a look. As I said before, Max Whitmore is the real deal.

October 10, 2009

The news media may insist that the real estate market has turned the corner, but my attitude toward work is simple: “Just say yes!”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

This from my Arizona Republic real estate column (permanent link):

We represented the buyers for a million-dollar house, our first, that closed this week. A week from now, we will be listing a million-dollar home, also a first for us. We are carrying two listings at $450,000 right now, with another to come, and we will be listing another home at $800,000 shortly.

But also this week, I sold a property for $65,000. Just a few weeks ago, one of my listings sold for $27,000.

Am I schizophrenic? I hope not. But I am scared to death to say no to anyone right now.

Salespeople like to say yes. It’s not in our nature to turn people down. We like to make people happy if we can.

But I have no idea when this recession is going to end, so I don’t want to pass on any opportunity that might present itself.

Here’s the funny part: We’re living with a foxhole mentality, but 2009 is going to be our second-best year since we came into the real estate business. We’re not rich by any means, but we’re making more money than we have in the past three years.

But here’s the unfunny part: Virtually all of our income for 2009 is coming to us in the second half of the year. Our business was all-but-moribund in the first two quarters, and we came much too close to losing our own home.

So I am not proud, bashful or shy. If you have a real estate problem, I’m ready to talk about it. We’re working sixteen hours a day, at least, seven days a week. We haven’t taken time off in three years, and I don’t know when we will take our next vacation.

The job is survival right now, and I know we’re not alone among Realtors in thinking this way.

I’m nobody’s bear, and I would love to believe all the cheerleading I hear in the news about the real estate market. But my strategy for now is to just say yes to every opportunity I get to earn a living.

 
Spread the word: Click here for a printer-ready version of Read more

October 9, 2009

The Nobel Sales Motivation Strategy

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’ve recruited and trained, directly and indirectly, over 300 loan salespeople in my career.   I learned, as a new Branch Manager, that one way to enhance the overall production of the team was to practice the Nobel-Obama strategy.  Here’s what we did:

We’d look for a promising new originator and make him the sales leader.  Oftentimes, we’d pick the second-best performer, in a group of rookies, and feed him preferential leads, shower him with extra training, and “crown” him the tiger of the bunch.  The reasoning behind that strategy was that the second-best performer would rise to the challenge and be that superstar while encouraging the legitimate superstar to challenge the golden boy. 

It helped if the golden boy had a compelling story to tell.  One young man emancipated himself from his parents at age 16, put himself through college, and even slept 2-3 nights in his car while temporarily homeless.  He had been homeless because he was waiting for his initial commission check at his first sales job.  He certainly had a better story to tell than the well-connected young lady who grew up in the tony suburb of Scottsdale so we crowned him the superstar.

What we did was to encourage the sales staff to believe that hard work was the key to success rather than having an “advantaged background”.  We wanted the team to believe that if the golden boy could make six figures, anybody could.  It didn’t always work.  Usually, the polished young lady would defect to a competitior.  Business got tough, the golden boy would struggle or implode, and our competitor profited from our mistake.

Some might consider what the Nobel Committee did today brilliant.  Crowning an international golden boy encourages other heads of states to mimic our President’s behavior.    I imagine Ahmenijad might be inspired to abandon his pursuit of nuclear weapons, the new Cuban leadership might stop killing and imprisoning dissidents, and the Dalai Lama will stop telling lies about Mainland China.  Absent conflict or challenging times, the Nobel strategy might succeed as well as the one I used on sales rookies in the ’90s.

Today, I’ve learned an easier way to attract talent.  I look for eager, accomplished, smart Read more

October 5, 2009

Monday Motivation

by

Las Vegas Mortgage Blogger

Author website

It’s been a busy year.  So busy, that I didn’t realize there were only 85 or so days left in 2009.

Take away the holidays, office parties, traveling to real estate conferences and visiting family, and I estimate that we’ve got about 19 working days left.

Whether you believe that the economy is going up, down or heading nowhere fast, the only thing we can control over the next few minutes or months is our attitude.

One of my friends created a great video over the weekend that I wanted to share with the Bloodhound Community.

Here’s to finishing this year out strong….

video produced by:  Dustin Hughes

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Inventing Real Estate 2.0

Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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