Category Archives: Inspiration

You have to be kidding me….

February 14, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Sometime I am amazed at people and overtime when I think I know a person I am baffled how quickly they can change.

For years I have known this person. During this time I thought of this person to be of high ethical and moral standards, until just recently.

A situation came up where this person showed their “true colors” and I was more than floored. My first thought was….you have to be kidding me…..

I personally had all kinds of thoughts and feeling including being disgusted, hurt, mad, and over all disappointed. I never expected this action from this person.

This quote came to mind after I calmed down:

Ethics is knowing the difference between what you have a right to do and what is right to do. ” Potter Stewart”

In our personal and business life we are sometimes faced with that decision and we all have to decide what road we will go down.

commitment, Communication, Inspiration, organizing, planning, tips

Too much information

February 14, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Have you ever attended meetings, seminars, webinars where the presenter just kept on talking and talking and talking about the same topic but tried to explain it in different ways over and over again?

Just recently I was in such meeting.

A question was asked and it could have been answered with a short, sweet and to the point but the presenter choose to user up to 10 minutes to answer this simple question. I am sure the presenter felt great about being able to fill the room with all the information he knew about the topic but I am sure that most of the room was lost after 2 minutes.

I need to admit I am the last person to give meeting advice but even I was off to another dimension to occupy my time and to wait out the long winded present to move to the next topic.

Lighthouse Consulting had a great article on how to keep a meeting on track called Six Tips for Holding Successful Meetings with Staff Members. I think this could easily be translated into any type of meeting. I also found a great meeting article from the Norwood Business Portal called Tips on Holding Online Meetings.

No matter if you have a face to face meeting or a online webinar you need to keep your audience engaged and interested and some questions just need to be answered in person or with a personal phone call.

Don’t be long winded with any topic or when answering a question.

Andrew Jackson said it best:

Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in. – Andrew Jackson –

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, Team work

Every problem has am opportunity

February 12, 2013 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

Inside of every problem lies an opportunity. “Robert Kiyosaki”

Many focus on the “but I can’t” rather looking at an issue or challenge as an opportunity to stretch their wings and taking a new path maybe one less traveled. We should see the issue as a new challenge that needs to be concord to see what is on the other side and not view it as a road block to where we want to go.

When we cannot climb over it let’s find a way around it.

A simple example is when I see a vacant home in the area. This vacant home begs to be listed and when I would just focus on the “but I can’t” side of my brain I would just give up finding the homeowner after a few tries.

My more adventurous side of the brain will not give up that easy and many times I do track down the homeowner who left their property vacant and I do get to list and sell the home.

When I would have listen to my “I can’t do it” side of me I never would have found the homeowner and never either listed and sold the home but also would have never met this homeowner who can be a great referral source for me in the future too.

So …quit listed to your “I can’t do it” side of the brain and get your more adventurous side of the brain in gear and moving forward. You never know what you will find at the end.

Communication, education, Inspiration, Team work, tips

“Do you have workers or believers?”

February 1, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Stood out to me as I read an article in the IBJ under the Small Business Matters blog titled Preaching to the choir could be good strategy.

Is our internal and external staff truly satisfied? It is not the leadership it is a satisfied staff that will be the crucial part of a business success. No matter how many money rain dances the leadership does when the Indians are not happy noting will be accomplished.

Is the business as healthy from the inside as you make it appear on the outside or does it have bald spot under all the hair? Is everybody in the same board rowing into the same direction or do you have some who do not understand the your goal and vision and do you have an internal tug-of war going on.

Did you clearly communicate your vision your culture to your organization? Did you include others but the normal decision maker to create your goal and vision or did you just use the “normal” handful to help with the decision making.

When we don’t market our vision to our internal and external staffs who can you expect them to sell it for you?

commitment, Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Team work

Hello REALTORS…where are you…

December 5, 2012 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

….came to mind as I was looking for REALTORS in a certain area of the US.

It has been interesting to say the least.

I am one of the people who does not give up that easy when it comes to finding someone for areas but what is with the potential client who will give up after a while or a few tries.

Just for giggles I did a small study of the area I am looking to hire an agent in for investment properties and found out some interesting stats.

60% of the active practicing real estate agents in this area are part of the Local and National Association of REALOTRS
The local Association has no website.
70% of the REALTORS Brokerage firms have a website
less than 3% of the local REALTORS are members of the local Chamber of Commerce or otherwise active in their community.
1% of the REALTORS in this area have a web address in their own name and 99% of them have their website redirected to the company website who they work for and do not have their own website.
95% of the websites do not have a clear to identify office location/address without having to click on several links to find the info
80% of the REALTORS in this area do not have a company email they advertise the free email providers like AOL, GOOGLE, MSN…..
1% of them will return phone calls and emails.

This is just a few things I found.

I am not a marketing person but common scene tells me when I am a Real Estate Entrepreneur I need to been one thought and through and my future clients need to find me on the web.

Here are some basic tips;

Have an email address with your own web address or with the company you work for. Don’t advertise google, aol or the others free services unless they pay you.
Have a website and a place on the web in your own name and don’t redirect it to the company you work for. Just have a link to them.
Return all phone calls and emails within less than 48 hours
Get active and involved within your community through the Chamber of Commerce and not only through your local church, find another non for profit you can volunteer for.
When you are not a REALTOR make sure you have a website and it can be found quickly and easily
Make social media and blogging part of your routine.

commitment, Inspiration, tips

Our office does not pay a referral fee!

February 20, 2012 Bettina Settles 2 Comments

Reading my emails I came across a posting from Peggy Chirico called “I Don’t Take Referrals!” and it reminded me of several conversations I had with REALTOR’s that where located in an areas I had a referrals for.

As I called and talked with the Principal Broker, to find out which of her agents to send the referral too, I was surprised to hear her say that her office is not paying a referral fee for referrals. They never have and never will. She informed me that it is not necessary for her office to pay a referral fee; they have enough work coming in to keep them busy.

OK…..I understand….and I moved on to another office in the area, which was happy to pay a referral fee for a listing referral in the area.

In our office we love receiving referrals and we do pay a referral fee to the agent who gives us the referral at the time of closing. I do not see anything wrong with this. When we have a referral for other areas, I am gladly willing to send the referral to a more local agent.

I see a referral given or received a chance to build a relationship for live and a potential for future referrals and that is the true value of a referral.

There are so many men who can figure costs, and so few who can measure values. ~Author Unknown

Inspiration, Short sale

Reaching the defaulted borrower ……..early…….

February 16, 2012 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

We are still not through the wave of possible short sales that are coming on the market. The new furcated number I have been given just recently is a HUGE scary number and when all of them would hit the REO market…..wow…..

2012 might be the year of the short sale and have you prepared yourself for the huge workload?

Mortgage servicers are still using the Door-to door outreach program and from reading though all of the information I have I can see that the personal face to face contact approach and reaching defaulted borrowers early during their default period is still the way to go to avoid having to many REO’s hit the open market.

Reaching the defaulted borrows is one thing, but are you willing to work with the defaulted borrower early in the ball game or do you just hope they might consider calling you for a short sale?

Are you truly ready for them when they call you up and ask you to list their home as a possible short sale?

commitment, Inspiration, planning, tips

I call it the stinking thinking

February 13, 2012 Bettina Settles 1 Comment

As soon as you open the email, or turn on the TV you hear the bad news.

Job loss here, cut back there …..and you name it.

Today alone the last months’ job numbers where posted. Nation wide now at 8.1% unemployment…..

…….91.9% of the total work force is still employed.

Things I hear on the street every day are sayings like

…..I am not getting my raise this year.

…. I no longer get any overtime.

…. I was told I have to take an extra day off

Think of it as:

….my Company is being proactive so that I still can work in the near future.

I call it as the stinking thinking that get’s us in a bad mood and how we think about things what we are being spoon feed over the news and airwaves every day.

It does not matter what your circumstances are at the present moment. Think positively, expect only favorable results and situations, and circumstances will change accordingly. It may take some time for the changes to take place, but eventually they do.

Sure you can not turn the stinking thinking around on a dime and no one expect s you to do this. You need to practice and maybe find a positive thinking partner to help you with this.

Read about the subject; and when you can not buy the book there is always the old fashion library to go to.

Start visualizing you success, smile more even when you have to face it and use positive words when communication with yourself and others.

Last but not least…..as soon as you have one of those stinking thinking thoughts try to replace it with a positive thought. It is not easy at the beginning. We are creatures of habit and habits are sometimes hard to break, but you will get there.

commitment, Inspiration

Go with the change or you are being left behind…

February 8, 2012 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

….that is THE thought came to mind as soon as I read a blog from Krista Franks about the Real Estate Professionals feeling the burn of the recession.

Sure Real Estate Professionals are not immune from the downturn of the market; most of them have been on the forefront of the wave and many have not survived the trend and had to find either another part time or full time job to keep up with their cost of living.

The once who looked beyond the box they had themselves in during the good and great times of real estate and adjusted quickly to the change had it a bit easier than the few who did not see the tide coming and where swept off with the tide of change.

Real estate as usually was no longer the way to do business, real east of change was what you needed to adjust too and that is what the consumers wanted from the field.

The once who did not adjust lost a huge portion of the market that is today’s norm and the once who adjusted early took over….bottom line is when you do not adjust to the changing market and educate yourself, you will be left standing at the vacated empty dock with the ship sailing without you to newer ground… or like in “Who moved my Cheese” from Spencer Johnson you will arrive at Cheese Station C to find no cheese left.

So…who are you….??? Sniff and Scurry or Hem and Haw.

Inspiration

How to get beyond the fog in your head

February 2, 2012 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Staring at a blank piece of paper after having another unsuccessful recruiting call completed this morning and taunting with the feeling that the negativity form yesterday has spilled over into today I run across this article written by FC Expert Blogger Kaihan Krippendorff called “Where To Find Inspiration When The World Tells You To Give Up”

Reading what he has written about the struggle a 40 year old company had to find their mojo helps me understand that I am not the only one at times struggle with the lack of energy and enthusiasm.

Now where do I find my inspiration from to push through rough times?

Do I read more books?
Do I just take a quick break and take a short walk?
Do I set a small goal and reward myself when I reach this goal?

Then I remembered my own favorite saying: “You can lead them to the water but you cannot make them drink. When you force them to drink they may drown.”

“To reach the top you have to take one small step at the time”

Picking up myself by my own boot straps and reminding myself that Rome was not build in one day and to look at what is in front of me right now and not what is down the road or returning to the past I push on the next phone calls.

This is a new call a new opportunity to recruit and was a thought I had a chance to put on paper.