Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

It is only how you look at things

March 29, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Finished up the mandatory CE for my licenses and I am so ready to leave the room. Not because I am done. NO I truly enjoined my time for additional information, education and networking. I am so ready to leave the negative crowd behind me who was part of the audience for the last few days.

I am constantly asking myself “when you don’t like to learn, why are you calling yourself self-employed? They reminded me of a blog I had posted in March of last year called Are you a Real Estate Entrepreneur or Employee? and an agent I have talked with who was not aware of the new changes within the field of real estate.

Some of the “old timers” and “new comers” into the field who tell me that nothing new can be taught to them. All this ran through my mind as I read a blog post Mark G. called “No Time for Improvement? Bah! Make Time for Improvement!”

What is the old saying: When you stop learning you need to move on or out of the business.

…and anyone who tells me they don’t have time just keep in mind:

“Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.” – H. Jackson Brown

Communication, education, Inspiration, organizing, planning, Short sale, Team work, tips

FHFA Streamlined Modification Initiative

March 28, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

FHFA announced just recently the new Streamlined Modification Initiative for Borrowers and Servicers to benefit from a more simplified program to the borrower and servicer.

The New Streamlined Modification Initiative Borrowers is an additional option for borrowers who are in trouble with their mortgage in addition to the modifications options their servicer’s offers to them.

This FHFA program is offered by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and runs from July the 1^st 2013 and expired on August 1, 2015 and is a program that is available to homeowners whose loan is guaranteed by either Fannie Mea or Freddie Mac. Their mortgage must be a first-lien mortgage with either Fannie Mea or Freddie Mac and needs to be at least 12 months old with a loan-to-value ratio equal to or greater than 80 percent.

Borrowers who are between 90 days to 24 months delinquent starting July 1^st will receive a Streamlined Modification Solicitation Offer from their servicer and when the borrower agrees to the terms of the offer they do not have to Streamlined Modification Solicitation Offer but will need to make trial period payments on time.

Borrower should still work with their servicer to possible pursue the full range of modification options available to them like the HAMP program ever prior to being later more than 90 days.

Communication, education, planning, tips

Open invitation for burglars

March 26, 2013 Bettina Settles 2 Comments

Cruising some of the neighborhoods to look at potential homes who are listed for sale for some of my buyers and would you not know it ……… one of the neighbors took the trash out today and is now advertising to anyone who drives by that they are the proud owner of a 55 inch Samsung flat panel TV.

How tempting it was to pull into their driveway and knock on the door and make them aware of what they are doing by throwing out their un-collapsed box into the trash for the trash service to pick up on Thursday and today is only Tuesday. It would been better for them to collapse the box , turn it inside out ,make it as small as possible and string it together for the trash service to pick up.

One way to prevent your house to be burglarized is not to throw un-collapsed boxes from recent purchases like TV or other electronic items into the trash. You don’t want to advertise what you have in the house for someone to take.

When it is an item they can quickly turn around and sell very quickly on the open market or their drug dealer down the road they will.

Just a few days ago I had posted another blog called: “Spring break but not for burglars”. Where is gave some ideas on how to make sure that your home is not an open invitation for burglars when you are out for spring break.

Is this a guarantee to 100% prevent a burglary? No …but we can make sure we have done everything we can on our end to make sure that no one knows you left the home and it is unattended during work and play time and to make sure that no one knows what you all have they might be willing to steal while you are out.

Inspiration, Team work, tips

Urban farming a popular trend

March 26, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

You have seen it on the popular DIY channels on TV, in Homes magazines and during local fairs and exhibits. Urban farming is here to stay.

Some individuals even started to make a career out of their urban farm and have been very successful doing it.

When you plan on starting an Urban Farm you need to do your homework before you even start. Not only to research what grows in your area but also the legality of what you can or cannot do in the area you live in.

For instance when your garden is within a homeowner association you might have limitations on how large your storage shed can be, maybe your fence can only be a certain height or you cannot build the chicken coop your daughter would like to have for 4-H.

Some of you might live outside the city limit but maybe you are within the jurisdiction and limitations of a city even so you are outside the city limits.

Before you start turning the soil, do your homework first.

Find out form the local Planning and zoning board what if any limitations are attached to your land and property due to zooming ordinances. Some limitations could be the height of a fence, size and location of a storage barn, or limitations on small farm animals. When you are in within a homeowner associations read through your associations rules and regulations. You might not be able to have a small composter or your storage shed needs to be the size of a postage stamp with a lot less storage you need.

When there are too many limitation for you to have your own backyard farm you might put your farm into containers and scale it down or rent a small plot in the community garden many cities now has for their residents.

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

Not all Cities are great for Small business

March 25, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Thanks to the 6 + inch snow outside I have some time to catch up on reading. Last week I found and saved a article written by Laurie Kulikowski called “Best Cities for Small Businesses” and found that not every cities is created equally and supports small business owners especially women business owners.

Some of the few Cities mentioned in the article who are supportive of small business owners are San Antonio CA, Des Moines IA, Miami FL, Kansas City KS, and Atlanta GA.

Other cities have been very slow in reacting to the changing business field and have mainly been focusing to attract large employers and businesses to their market. Many cities are not willing to invest into their future by investing and updating their infrastructure to attacked small businesses into their town. For any small business to move into the areas they need the support.

Support from the local government is needed by providing the basic infrastructure for the business to attract qualified personal during work and play, with a well-connected transit system, over all great connectivity, parks and family friendly recreation areas.

Also the support from local already established businesses are needed as well.

Many cities and their businesses have many opportunities who are more male oriented and very seldom female. The attitude that “she “is just doing this because “she” is a bored “housewife” is still alive and well established throughout the country.

The attitude’s is slowly changing and it has taken years to get to this point.

Sure we have National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) , American Business Women’s Association and the SBA (Small Business Administration) who is focused on women. Have you noticed that most of them have groups and meetings only in the larger cities of each state? You don’t hear much about them and you have to know they exist. Some cities offer networking evens for women but you have to be in the know or know someone who is in the know to find out about any meeting that is geared to women business owners or women who are interested in opening up their own business.

Meghan Casserly, with Forbes pointed out in her article called “Why Women’s Networking Groups Fail” that when the network is balance of resources, information and good intentions to make a network not just functional, but beneficial to all members you have a good network. When one of the parts is missing you have just a great conversational group that meets for coffee.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning, tips

Spring break but not for burglars

March 23, 2013 Bettina Settles 2 Comments

Here we have another spring break. Suitcases are packed and the air is full of excitement and anticipation of the trip to the fun and the sun. Burglars are as exited for your to go on spring break only for a totally other reason.

Within the United States, one in every thirty-six homes will be burglarized with an average loss of $1,675 per break-in.

During all of the spring break excitement have you take some precautions to minimize the possible risk of being burglarized?

Hold the mail and newspaper
Put lights on timers and set timer to different times of the day
Leave the TV or radio on for noise
Make sure all the doors ,windows and garage doors are locked and secure
Have the blinds closed so no one can peek into the windows
When you have an alarm system make sure it is armed
Have your exterior light on light sensors
Ask someone you trust to take out your trash and pull back in your trash can for and after trash day
You might consider hiring a house sitter for a while
Do you have a written inventory of your household items, including all of the serial numbers of your electronic items? Just in case…..

Is this a guarantee to 100% prevent a burglary. No …but we can make sure we have done everything we can on our end to make sure that no one knows you left the home and it is unattended.

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

Planning for the next stage

March 20, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Just had an interesting article called “When I Hire You, I’m Hiring Your Mentors’ Judgment” written by Adam Bryant and he interviewed Ilene Gordon, CEO of Ingredion for this article come over my desk and it hit home.

Standing at the crossroads I can see that I have to tackle what I do with a team and see it as a project and count on that Plan A might fall through and Plan B, C or D needs to be in place and to have someone I could lean on and consult with when the Plans are falling apart.

Needless to say I don’t have my team in place and that is the first thing I need to get back into place. A team I can consult with and who knows me better than I do. What I already have is a potential target list of companies I am considering to contact to work with as an independent contractor.

I can see now that I have put the cart in front of the horses. I need to get my horses into place first.

That hard part will be….who to ask and where to start….

Looking in my tickle file of articles I have kept over the years I came across and article written by John Warrillow titled “How to Pick a Mentor: Take a Cue From Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt” that gave me some great tips.

Here comes the challenge to find the individuals who do or have done successfully what I would like to do in the future.

education, Inspiration, planning, Team work

Standing at the crossroads

March 19, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

This year has been already a roller coaster ride of ups, downs and sideways movements and again I am standing in a fork of a road.

I am actually very excited while looking at the fork in the road that has been presented to me this time. The hardest decision will be what road to take. Any of the roads I will take will be just fine and that is the exiting part.

At this time I actually feel like a kid in the candy store.

Overwhelmed by all of the goodies that are presented to me and having mom in the background urging you to make a decision. This time that mom voice in the back has been silenced and time for a decision has time and will come later.

Anyone who was standing at the fork in the road knows what I mean with the mom voice in the back.

There comes a time where it is ok to listen to and do what the mom voice tells you to do. Sometimes there are times where the voice has to be silenced and you have to reach deep to discover your own voice and passion, compare of doing what you think feels right or everybody expects you to do.

commitment, education, Inspiration, planning, Team work, tips

Think outside the box

March 5, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

How many times do I hear individuals voicing their concern about not being able to “get anywhere” either in their personal or business life?

In this fast pace world we are in it sometimes feels like that we are taking two steps forward and three steps back.

Most of us never take the time to celebrate or see the small successes we had. In some cases some of us just don’t see the tree from the forest and maybe overlooking some of the small or large opportunities that are presented to us. There are also some who have been given the “big opportunity” and the mindset has set in that there are set for “life” and don’t have to look outside the box any longer for new opportunities.

Zig Ziglar has a great quote: A lot of people quit looking for work as soon as they find a job.

Now other will tell me….but the economy is bad, the area we are in struggles…..let me throw another one of my favorite Zig Ziglar quotes out to you.

I’ve always taught that a poor economy is the best opportunity for salespeople because the naysayers and grumblers have already given up, leaving more territory, more opportunities to be successful than in a good economy when virtually all salespeople are out there, giving it their best.

Now how to we get past the brain freeze and start again thinking outside the box?

Let me throw two more Zig Ziglar quotes at you:

I believe that being successful means having a balance of success stories across the many areas of your life. You can’t truly be considered successful in your business life if your home life is in shambles.

You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.

Communication, education, Inspiration, planning

Transition

February 28, 2013 Bettina Settles Leave a comment

Watching a historical moment unfold, for the Catholic Church, today on TV! I was thinking back on the day of his election and placement as head of the Catholic Church 8 years ago and I am amazed on how peaceful any transition has been over the centuries.

My first thought moved to the small word: Transition

We could learn a great string from the transitions in the past. Many of the heads of states or Companies transitions are not as piece full and fluent.

We in our personal and business life have many transitions we face on a regular basis. Some of the obvious once are birth, graduation, marriage, death, divorce, job change just to name a few obvious once.

How well do we deal with any transition is all up to us, our personal preparation and attitude we bring to the table. Any transition is emotional no matter how good we prepare and it is ok to have emotions.

My favorite saying is: “We are humans and not robots.”

I ran across a great article from the CharmingHealth.com called the “Transition Phases During Life and emotional imbalance” where I found some great Ideas and tips on how to deal with life’s transitions we all have to face.

Now you are asking what this would have to do with our business life.

I am thinking a lot.

When we are not prepared ourselves to deal with the life’s little emotions that might come our way how can we help our contractors we hired or employees we have with their emotional crutches they keep.