Complaint Free for 2009

With only two days left until Christmas, and many of us still scrambling to the stores due to the weather filled month we've had, I thought this would be a great opportunity to tell you about a great new initiative we introduced at our December meeting at RE/MAX Prestige. The initiative is called "The Complaint Free World" and you can learn more about it at http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/

RE/MAX Prestige agents are amongst the almost 6 million people worldwide who are now choosing to live a life without complaint. It is truly life changing, and I can tell you that even with the challenges brought about by the weather this month and the stress of the holidays and economy, I've been able to enjoy this end of year more so then any others in recent years.

If you're looking for a positive and uplifting start to 2009 I hope you will visit http://acomplaintfreeworld.org/ and join us in participating in this new way of thinking. As Maya Angelou said, "If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude about it. Don't complain."

Walk For Tony

This past weekend, RE/MAX Prestige banded together to participate in the 18 hour Relay for Life cancer walk at the Greater Lawrence Technical School. With this relay, one member of our team remained on the walking track for 18 hours. Just recently we lost a good friend, real estate agent Tony Vassell, to cancer. We wanted to do something special to remember him and so we participated in the Relay for Life. Our team raised over $5000 for cancer research. Not only did we raise money for a good cause, but we also got to remember a good friend, and have a little bit of fun with our RE/MAX Prestige family.

Here We Grow Again!

Today RE/MAX Prestige announced the addition of RE/MAX Action in Pelham, NH. We were excited to have the opportunity to meet witht the fourteen agents in the Pelham office that are now part of the Prestige family. This is a fantastic opportunity for RE/MAX Prestige to further our market prescence in Southern New Hampshire. We look forward to having the BEST Spring real estate market we've seen in years! Our agents are extremely busy as buyers are finally realizing that this is the time to buy. For anyone thinking of buying, check out this Time Magazine article about the housing market: http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1713483,00.html. It gives great insight as to why buyers shouldn't be waiting to jump on some great real estate deals that are out there. It's a great time to buy real estate and, the management of RE/MAX Prestige recognizes that this is also an unbelievable time to grow the best real estate firm in the Merrimack Valley and Sounthern New Hampshire area. Look out, here we come!

Under the Tuscan Sun

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm an avid reader. I usually read an average of 2-3 books each week as I'm always reading mulitple books at one time. I normally read a business or sales related book (which right now I'm just finishing "How to Be A Power Agent in Real Estate" which is UNBELIEVABLE) as well as one or two fictional books. Very rarely do I even talk to people about the fictional books I'm reading as I really do it for pleasure and rarely is there any lesson learned that is important for me to spread. This week I've been reading a book entitled "Under the Tuscan Sun" by Frances Mayes. It was published in the mid 1990's and there was eventually a movie made about it. It's a very casual read... something you'd take to a beach. This morning as I was crawling through chapters something really profound hit me. This book is about a husband and wife who buy and restore an abandoned villa on the Tuscan countryside. It speaks to the enjoyment, hard work, and accomplishment in owning a house. It speaks to the sense of wonder at the history and memories built into ones home. I'm not quite done with this novel but it has enlightened me to look at my own home in a very different way. Yesterday my house was just a place where I slept and an investment in my future. Today my home is something that I made... it's a place to build memories and to sculpt a future.

Ok... so where am I going with this? As an owner of a successful real estate firm I can't help but notice that most of us have really gotten away from appreciating what it means to own a home. The newspapers, television, and even us real estate agents speak about the value property has today like it's a dollar bill we've found on the ground. What's this house worth today? How much was it worth last week? Has the market bottomed out? Should I buy today because what if my house is worth less next year? HAVE WE ALL GONE CRAZY? We are speaking here about the American Dream! Homeownership has become a currency like a share of stock in Google! When our grandparents and great grandparents bought homes did they sit there and struggle about how much they could sell it for in three years. Absolutely not. They saved and saved every penny they had so that they too could have the opportunity of owning their piece of the dream... a place where they could raise families, have barbecues, eat family dinners.... a place to laugh, cry, and honor time as it slipped on by.

I don't think we are all that different from our grandparents who really appreciated a home for what it represented. If we were, stores with the likes of Home Depot and Lowes wouldn't be cropping up on every corner. I do, however, feel that as an industry we all need to concentrate less on the monetary value of real estate. This is not a share of Google we are talking about folks, it's one's little postage stamp sized spot in the world where memories are built and futures are molded.

RE/MAX Prestige Agents make CLEAN SWEEP at Awards Ceremony

This past Friday marked the RE/MAX of New England awards rally. It was a spectacular day of education and motivation. Speakers at the rally included Loretta Laroche, Alison Levine, and Ken Blanchard. Loretta as a sales comedian who had us all howling in our chairs. She was followed by Alison Levine, who is known for climbing Mt. Everest after surviving several heart surgeries. Finally, we heard from Ken Blanchard. He's written a million great books. Some of my favorites include Whale Done, The One Minute Manager, and Raving Fans (just to name a few). I think what I enjoyed about his lecture the most was about how people who are extremely successful in life have a remarkable sense of perspective. They are able to float to the top of the ceiling and evaluate their position differently then most. People with a good sense of perspective are usually very positive thinkers. Why? Because they feel fortunate as compared to others no matter what life brings their way. Anyway, I'm probably biased because I'm a "raving fan" of Ken Blanchards. As for the rest of the awards ceremony we were extremely proud to see many of our agents get top awards. Nancy Rogers received the Lifetime Achievement award. We had twenty eight agents receive awards all together. After the event there were about 25 of us who really got to enjoy each other's company at a local Boston hang out. What a great day for a great group of agents!

Happy St. Patty's, Easter, Spring!

Three unbelievable occassions all in one week. At RE/MAX Prestige, we started the week with a fantastic St. Patrick's Day. Some of us went to Cobblestones to watch the bag pipe band. Some of us went to The Dubliner for more traditional Irish music, and some of us went to the Claddagh. All in all, it was a fantastic day. Then, mid-week we were blessed with the favorite season of every real estate agent... SPRING. Yes, it's here, and the market is hot, hot, hot! For more information about what's happening this Spring at RE/MAX Prestige check out our Newsletter at http://marketing.remaxdesigncenter.com/70227/552796/552796.html. Finally, we are ending the week with Easter. Some of us are doing open houses but most of us are taking the day to enjoy with friends and loved ones. It's a perfect opportunity to thank our families for their support in our real estate careers.

RE/MAX Prestige Honored at International Convention

The convention is still humming along and we are learning so much great information to implement in our businesses. The best part of the convention so far was the Night of the Stars Award ceremony which took place at the MGM Grand last night. RE/MAX Prestige was honored with the award for Top Office in Largest Net Gain in Sales Associates in the United States for 2007! That's right folks, nobody in the country is growing like RE/MAX Prestige! Every single agent at our firm had a part in earning this award by joining our office in 2007 or encouraging your peers to join. Thank you to our team for making RE/MAX Prestige the best place to work in real estate. Also at last nights ceremony, our very own Christina Lazrak took home the prestigious Platinum Club award which is given to associates who earned $250,000 or more in commissions in 2007. Well, we have one more day of excitement at the 2008 RE/MAX Convention. Rest assured we won't come home empty handed. We have gained so much knowledge by surrounding ourselves with the very best agents and owners in the world and we will not let that go to waste! Oh by the way.. to start today off just right Andy and I walked the Susan G. Komen Race for a Cure 5K this morning!

CNN: May be the best time to buy in 4 years!

It's rare to find a news article that's got any positive information about today's housing market. Today I found one on CNN.com and I wanted to share it with you so that maybe it will help you get your next buyer off the Go to http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/04/real_estate/markets_less_overvalued/ to read the article.

Howdy from Sunny Las Vegas!

Tuesday was the first official day of the RE/MAX International Convention and it was unbelievable. The day began with a great review of RE/MAX then and now with a presentation as to where we were in 1973 and where we stand today. This marks the 35th anniversary of RE/MAX and at every convention they roll out great tools, technology and information for agents to embrace for the coming year. We can’t forget last year’s convention where they rolled out RE/MAX University with Agent Training on Demand (ATOD) which now is home to hundreds of the best training programs available in real estate. At this convention they announced the new training program they are rolling out with Brian Buffini called the Ultimate Agent. For the past year and half more then 30 of you have graduated from our Buffini’s 100 Days to Greatness program. Now they’ve developed the Ultimate Agent program for agents who have completed 100 Days to Greatness or agents who are looking to find a way to break through the $100K, $200K or even $500K a year ceiling. We saw a preview of this program today and cannot wait to bring it to RE/MAX Prestige. Dave Liniger also introduced RE/MAX 365. RE/MAX 365 is a year-long, aggressive campaign featuring the most relevant education, information and tools that agents need to survive and thrive in a changing market.
The program includes special broadcasts and live "Town Hall" meetings on RSN, targeted peer studies on ATOD and focused education from Brian Buffini, plus specialized tools from RE/MAX International that work for agents 365 days a year. We were also very excited to find out that Dave Liniger, founder of RE/MAX International now has a blog on RE/MAX Mainstreet. Now you can login each week to find out Dave's perspective on today's market. All in all, it's turning out to be a great convention. Right before writing this email, Andrew and I even had the pleasure of meeting and spending time with co-founder of RE/MAX, Gail Liniger. Rest assured that we are taking lots of notes so that we can come back armed with more tools, more technology, more information to offer our agents and loan originators new ways to grow their businesses.

The Tipping Point in Real Estate - Use the Newspaper to Fight Back!

I just finished reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell and I'm beginning to see how we got into this turbulent real estate market that we are in. For at least ten years real estate skeptics kept preaching that we were in a real estate bubble and that anyone who was looking to buy a home was CRAZY. Meanwhile, the market held strong and people kept buying homes and prices kept going up. At some point however the preaching of the real estate naysayers caught on and all of a sudden the media caught on, and then prices started tanking and buyers ran for the hills. If you read Gladwell's book this pheonomenom is explained as the Tipping Point where the words and influence of some (Gladwell categorizes these few as the connectors, mavens, and sales people) causes an epidemic that spreads just like the flu, a fashion trend, or even the crime rate. I find Gladwell's point of view to be quite profound and I thought to myself as I finished the book, why couldn't I be one of those few that causes a real estate Tipping Point to go the other way. So, that's what I'm going to set out to do. I am owner of eight real estate offices and I think the first key to start a new Tipping Point trend is to educate agents about how to start this trend. The first key area that all of us should look at is with the mode in which we are advertising real estate that's on the market. What's really crazy if you think about it is that we spend millions and millions of dollars on paper advertising to show the world all the inventory we have. After reading The Tipping Point, I think this is a HUGE waste of resources. What we need to realize is that the people who read newspapers are the same people who think this is the WORST time to buy a house. Just the fact that they read the newspapers indicates that they subscribe to what the media has to say about the housing market. By us loading the real estate section with our inventory we feed the media hype that the market is terrible and that there is too much inventory. HERE IS MY IDEA AFTER READING THE TIPPING POINT.... We need to re-educate those that read newspapers. Let's collectively take all of our FOR SALE inventory out of the paper because anyone that reads the papers believes the market stinks... instead let's fill the newspapers with our advertisements of success stories about buyers who just bought their first home, or families who were able to up-size or downsize into a better situation. In The Tipping Point Gladwell points out that the word you're trying to spread as an epidemic must be STICKY... it's sticky if there is a compelling reason for people to read it and pass it on. Therefore, let's not just load the papers up with pictures of SOLD properties where people just turn the page... let's fill the real estate advertising columns with photos of buyers and their realtors in front of their new homes with a small success story from that buyer. People love reality... that's why reality shows are sticky... so let's make our new wave of paper advertising sticky by showing the nay-sayers (those that believe, read, and subscribe to media periodicals) that there are millions of buyer success stories because it is truly a GREAT time to buy a home. That's my 2 cents.

It's going to be GREAT in 2008!!!

We are really excited about the New Year at RE/MAX Prestige. We had a fantastic group of agents join our firm for the new year including Len Lochrie, Barbara Miller, Angela Zhang, Dawn Billingsley, Eileen Emerson, Matt Moisan, Maureen Roberts, and Diane Marcolongo, to name just a few! Agents keep joining because we are keeping busy at RE/MAX Prestige. We are busy because we are keeping our agents educated and motivated. What has been a key to our success in that in 2007 and 2008 we have been able to demonstrate to buyers that the people who are getting the BEST deals in today's real estate market are those that don't follow the media. If you listen to the media, there are no good deals in real estate right now, and that's just NOT the case. Check out all the listings on the market right now... it's a FANTASTIC TIME TO BUY. Many of our own agents including Mary Alcorn, Dan O'Connell, Meghan Maraghy, Angela Harkins, Jim Harkins, Dave Nicholaou, Kathy Mamos, and Michelle Rivera purchased homes in 2007 because the market is just that good! Who else is buying homes? Probably the media workers!! Anyone who can understand that the media continues to promote hogwash about today's real estate market is out searching for a good deal. Anyway... we are keeping busy for 2008. We look forward to the RE/MAX Winter Sales Rally which is taking place January 9th and the RE/MAX International Convention in March. It will be the BEST year RE/MAX Prestige has every seen.