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Tankoo.

Thankfulness is a funny thing. We all know that, as children, "tankoo" are magic words, words that gets the child a second cookie and a smile. Everyone wants to be thanked, acknowledged for something good, kind or magnanamous that was done to or for someone else. As children grow up the behavior of saying thanks becomes less and less automatic until, as young adults, the thankful heart and the giving of thanks has almost disappeared.
You would think that as adults our desire to be thanked would dictate a sensitivity to be appreciative of others. You would think our desire to be thanked would lead us to be thankful. The golden rule, "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you" would naturally kick in, right? But as we age, our hearts and minds become more self-serving and more selfish. We become skeptical of other's motives and only thank when it is obvious it is deserved. Sometimes, the fact that someone has gone above and beyond for us needs to be pointed out by others before it dawns on us. We give thanks away like a precious, undeserved gift that we don't expect to get back.
Our Founding Fathers knew. Our first President knew. Generations of farmers and mothers and fathers knew. They knew that, unless a day is set aside once a year as a day to give Thanks, the special and sacrificial events that happened to bring us to this day would never be remembered. "While there were many observances regarding Thanksgiving, the first historic proclamation was issued by President George Washington on 3rd October 1789, during his tenure. According to it, November 26 was declared as 'A day of public thanksgiving and prayer'. The day was to be observed by thanking God and being grateful for his favours."
We all, children and adults, need to look out of ourselves, to reflect the awesome life that we are living, the land of plenty and land of generous people. We in turn need to be grateful, learn the joy of thanking others genuinely and thanking the Almighty Benefactor who provides all lavishly. He only asks for one thing in return.... a "tankoo" that proceeds His, "You are welcome! Now, go love your neighbor!"

Hope you Elect to read this!

Dear Friend,


What are you doing on this Election Day, Nov. 2, 2010? Have things really changed in your life since last Election day? Things really do change whether we want them to or not. Most of the changes in our life come about naturally, things we can’t do a thing about… Aging of our bodies, leaves falling from the trees, harvesting the crops, the first frost. Losing a job or losing a spouse might be changes that you had no election over. No one asked you if you wanted them or you would have said no! But many things in our lives are out of our control.

One thing that is still in our control is the election of those who will govern us. You may feel strongly about a candidate or you may be apathetic and doubtful that anyone can truly make a difference. Either way, vote. It is a right and a privilege. It may seem like yours is a tiny insignificant vote, cancelled out by the very next ballot, but you do what you can to let your voice be heard. And that is awesome!! Do what’s right.

If you have been faced with a decision about selling your home or maybe buying a home rather than renting, I hope you will elect to call me today. I will do what I can to sway your situation to a positive experience. Moving and change is not always bad!! It can be downright fun to get out from under a debt and live in a home that is within your means. I vote for you to call me, right now!!

Here is a link to my "November Real Estate Update":
http://realtytimes.com/144/RuthParker


This Newsletter is full of interesting and useful information that I think you will enjoy whether you are a buyer, seller, homeowner, or renter.

This month's issue includes topics such as:

"Knowledge Is Power When You Buy A House";
"Four Questions Help Determine Improve vs. Move";
"Kitchen Remodeling Trends";
"Questions You Should Ask About Property Taxes";
"Eight Out of 10 Still Believe Buying a Home Makes Good Financial Sense";

Plus a roundup of October real estate activity as well as much more advice and information.

I hope you enjoy this monthly newsletter. If you have any comments, please e-mail them to me. Or, if you would like to see a certain topic covered in future months, let me know that too!
Sincerely,


Ruth Parker, Realtor, e-Pro
Catalyst to Success Coach
Keller Williams Realty Midway
200 Municipal Dr. Suite 2
Thorndale, Pa 19372
610-213-1809 direct
http://www.ruthparker.net/
http://findyourpahome.com/

Green Colored Time Blocks

Green colored time blocks
by Ruthie Mae Parker on Sunday, September 26, 2010 at 10:58pm.

"Your aim these days is to learn how to time block. You need to organize your business hours so you can get more done!"

My business swallows my days starting at 7 in the morning. Two hours lead generation, one hour social media, three hours upgrade websites, four hours prepare for teaching a class, two hours showing a house, two hours preparing a contract, one hour scanning and sending and negotiating the contract... Lets see, thats fifteen hours already and haven't scheduled getting dressed yet!!! And that doesnn't include going to meetings at the office: 30 minutes to get there from my home office, 2 hours there,30 minutes back home. Thats three very important hours for just one meeting, and there are at least three meetings a week....Meanwhile, if I am a really good agent, I should be listing at least two houses, staged and priced perfectly, two times a month.

I busily move the piles of papers that need to sorted, filed, addressed,or shredded to the side so that I can more clearly see the Microsoft Calendar with the fancy colored squares for blocking time. Awww..lets see..... Pink for lead generation, Blue for office meetings, Red for Leatherhead team activities......I am getting the swing of this, feeling more successful already!!

My attention is suddenly caught by the sound of my phone ringing and I hear my mother's voice leaving me a message "I know you are busy Ruthie, always busy. You are such a hard worker and I understand, honey. I am so proud of you. But if you have a moment, could you give me a call? I need you......... bye"

How do I time block for personal matters? Am I the only Realtor who struggles with this? Can I say ""But mother! My time blocked for you is between 7:50 and 8:00 pm on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays!!" ? or can the young mother say: "Sorry honey, can't pick you up from school today. Are you sure the throwing up is that serious?"

My point is, business to a Realtor is so many things, all wrapped around clients. The business of a Realtor is to seek, find and satisfy clients and that is a full time job. The job has the ability to rob every available minute in a calendar, time blocked or not, unless I force myself to take a break!!

But take a break I must. I just bet my clients will understand that needs of a friend or family member needs to take a bigger chunk of green on my time block....green representing the richness of relationships that money can't buy.

This Month in Real Estate (US) :December 2010

Mud Hut for sale in Kenya?

I don't think there will be any international office of Keller Williams opening up in Kenya in the near future. I had the thought in the back of my mind as I jetted over continents to land in this 3rd world country. If I could find one mud home with a for sale sign in the yard, I could have my picture taken by the sign and be able to count this trip as a business expense! But that wasn't to be. Other than the fact that I handed out all 25 of my business cards to young Kenyans, the trip was all pleasure and no business.

Being a real estate agent in rural Pennsylvania is fun. Most of my listings are modest and homey, with updated modern appliances and indoor plumbing. I have seen flats in the poorest section of urban living in Pennsylvania that had electricity to power the flat screened tvs and working kitchen sinks, refrigerators, stoves and bathrooms with sinks and flushing toilets. When the opportunity came up in my life to visit Kenya with a friend of mine, I jumped at the chance. I wouldn't be staying in a fancy hotel or resort in downtown Nairobi. No, I would be staying in the homes of my friend's family, both hers and her husband's. Now that I have been there and returned unharmed, I need to proclaim the sharp contrast to American life that I found.

1. People are poor but very willing to share whatever they have. Most don't own their own homes, or at least don't own the land their shack or garden sits on.

2. The homes are made out of logs of locally grown trees, the frames packed in with mud, the roof being either thatch or sheets of corrugated metal. The floors are made of hard packed cow dung, smoothed and hardened to almost look like cement. Some homes are made out of bricks made locally. Many homes have minimal electricity, enough for a lightbulb hanging from the ceiling in two rooms and a small television and staticky radio in the livingroom.

3. One of the homes I stayed in had indoor plumbing, where the toilet and cold shower were the same spot. On a good day the toilet flushed by using the handle. I wasn't there on a good day so needed to catch the water from the cold shower in a basin and use that to flush the toilet. This was an especially modern home owned by a wonderful and very generous professional family. The other homes did not have indoor plumbing. Instead, they had something similar to our outhouses, buildings they call latrines. Latrines are a hole in the cement type floor and three walls and a door. To use these facilities, exercises like squat thrusts would have been helpful before coming. Enough said about this. In the stall next to it there is just a room like a closet with a string stretched across corner to corner. This is the shower room. A basin of hot water is brought out with a bar of soap. It is a sponge bathe, wash your hair and rinse, dry your body and get dressed type of room and then, before walking in the muddy yard to get back into the house, you might want to use the basin of shower water to take into the toilet stall next door to "flush".

4. Most people walk from their home out to the main road and then take public transportation. Public transportation consists of mini minivans, matutus, bicycles with a padded back seat or motorcycles, or buses. I saw more people walking in the streets and cattle grazing by the road than passenger cars. I saw flipped cars and jackknifed tractor trailers and double decker buses with the windows exploded out. The roads, the drivers, the lack of lights or traffic enforcement, and the fact that they drove on the left side of the road, made traveling the scariest part of my trip. Driving in the cities caused me to just close my eyes and pray which isn't a bad thing.

5. Shopping was an interesting experience in all of Kenya. Below you will see a typical shopping centre that gave me a twinge of homesickness. It was a Philadelphia Shopping Centre.

Because there are no ice boxes or refrigerators in the cooking rooms of most homes, food for the day's main meal needs to be purchased or picked fresh from shanty garden shops daily. In bigger cities there are grocery stores but most towns consist mainly of shops along both sides of a highway that they call a town.

Women cook their vegetables and goat or chicken meat on either kerosene or charcoal burners that sit on the floor. Meals are served in the living room on a coffee table. Before the food is served, a pitcher and a basin is used for each diner to wash his or her hands. Often after eating the meal of goat or chicken, the pitcher and basin is passed again. The meal is completed with a hot and milky cup of chai tea, which is the most common hot drink served in all homes. For this coffee loving girl, I was pleasantly surprised how much I grew to like chai. I had a variety of mukumu, ugali, chipatis, goat stew, chicken, rice, and many vegetables like carrots, arrowroot, cabbage, onions and potatoes at most of my meals. Kale and maize are grown on home plots everwhere. Very common in many areas are orchards of banana plants and mango trees. There are pinneapple plantations and sugar cane farms. At one home, I was brought a whole plate of sugar canes to gnaw on - a special treat for Kenyans. I opted for a fresh mango mmmmmmm........

There are so many more things to tell you and pictures to show you - things like the live chicken that was presented to me as a gift of honor; the street children singing a special song just for me, the busy market place with the body of a seemingly dead man laying on the sidewalk; the zebras running across the road stopping traffic; the day spent in the government clinic with three newborn babies; the street fight right in front of me; the orphans, the boarding schools, etc..... I will tell you all about these things in the next chapter of this blog. I am signing off for now - still your Realtor for Life but with a whole new appreciation for lifestyle.

Why Doing HOMEwork is Fun: Part 2 (Disadvantages)

I have been a Realtor for 13 years and have had an office space in all of the companies I have worked within, until now. This last company I have joined will be my last move. I have ownership in the company and feel like I am home where I belong. But the model of this company does not support every agent having an office space in the building. I gave up my corner office to an incoming team and decided to work from home. More and more Realtors are being brought on board at these large companies and being told they need to be a work at home agent. I’m sure that working from home is not for everyone, whether they are new agents or very experienced. Some do not have a home space to use that would be appropriate, can’t afford all the equipment, need more space for a team, or need the education and support of the office environment. It is understood that there are advantages and disadvantages to working from home. But for me, for now, it is wonderful!

Disadvantages

1. Of course there are some drawbacks to working from home too. In order to prove that I can still meet my business plan goals and be just as productive without the office support, I need to be self disciplined and self motivated. That isn’t easy for someone who likes to live life as an adventure and cherishes spontaneity. Sticking to a plan and making those calls even when the birds are calling me to the front porch takes discipline and commitment.

2. The camaraderie and bonds of friendship are harder to develop when not being in the general office often. I am a friendly, sociable person and do enjoy mentoring newer agents. I find the interaction with people on Facebook, email, and the phone takes the edge off my need for office frivolity. Making a point to go to as many meetings, functions, and classes as I can with my fellow office mates has helped keep me connected and reminds them occasionally that I still exist, even though I work at home.

3. Accountability is something that is important for all Realtors no matter where they work from. Being a home working agent can become a completely independent 24 hour a day whirlwind without the opportunity for checks and balances. One of the main areas that needs to be checked is the matter of time blocking. Without strict deadlines, guide lines, and structure, the days disappear without any one but me being aware. In an effort to stay connected to the office, continue to keep up my business calls, work with an assistant and still maintain a comfortable home life for my family, the lines between work and home can get seriously blurred. The calls can get made, but the beds don’t. My clients could be thrilled with me for calling them to work out an issue at 10pm, but my husband isn’t.

4. I need to purchase and maintain all my own office equipment. The business expenses are higher for a work from home Realtor. But then, the equipment doesn’t get used as much as a big office machine either. If my machines break down, I need to run into the office more often. Much of the software and new programs that I use have had to be self-taught through online courses, rather than attending a class taught by a slightly more knowledgeable Realtor.

5. The professionalism that clients today expect and deserve from someone who is a professional can be lacking from a work at home agent. The beautifully decorated office space with the granite topped conference table may be missing from some homes. In an effort to be very professional and not have to worry about keeping my desk top neat at all times, I rarely meet my clients here. We meet with the loan officer in his office or do consulting in a room at the main office. Most of my client consulting, if not done over the phone, is done at the office.

There may be more disadvantages but at the moment I can’t think of any. Its 6:30 in the morning and my first cup of coffee has gotten cold while I have been putting the finishing touch on this Frog (blog For Realtors Only).

Why Doing HOMEwork is Fun: Part 1 (Advantages)

I have been a Realtor for 13 years and have had an office space in all of the companies I have worked within, until now. This last company I have joined will be my last move. I have ownership in the company and feel like I am home where I belong. But the model of this company does not support every agent having an office space in the building. I gave up my corner office to an incoming team and decided to work from home. More and more Realtors are being brought on board at these large companies and being told they need to be a work at home agent. I’m sure that working from home is not for everyone, whether they are new agents or very experienced. Some do not have a home space to use that would be appropriate, can’t afford all the equipment, need more space for a team, or need the education and support of the office environment. It is understood that there are advantages and disadvantages to working from home. But for me, for now, it is wonderful!

Advantages

1. Because this is tax season, I am putting this advantage at the top of the list. There are tax deductions for working from home, especially if you are self-employed! My home office space and equipment can be counted if used as my main office. So what can be deducted? A business portion of real estate taxes, mortgage interest, rent, utilities, insurance, painting, repairs and depreciation. Although I don't know if the living room cushy chair could be decucted, but if you would like to know more about the tax benefits for working from home, then click here.

2. A definite advantage is being able to have more useable hours to work. I don't have to spend the time getting dressed (although I still do), driving into the office every day or going out to eat for meals, unless that is part of my scheduled business plan.

3. When my power hour starts at 9 in the morning (calling or emailing prospects or clients), the only traveling I have to do is from the kitchen table to the cushy chair in the living room or down the hall to my office. Using my wireless laptop, I can reply to emails with music playing as loud as I wish. When I need to make a call, all I have to do is hit the mute button. When a call comes in, I can search the MLS, update my status on Facebook and drink a cup of coffee all at the same time.

4. I don't have to brave the elements, take chances on slipping on the ice, or shovel my mile long and mile high driveway to get to my office! Even when the weather is bad I can receive faxes, emails, and still work long hard hours. Hmmm.. now that I think of it, maybe that isn't an advantage... everyone needs a snow day once in a while.

5. I can sit out on the front porch swing and negotiate a deal on beautiful days. Or, if sitting at my desk, I can see a woodpecker in the hanging birdfeeder just outside my office window, or watch the red fox or deer running through the woods while working a price reduction on a listing. I can open the window next to my desk and feel the warm breeze as it becomes a gust of wind. The only papers flying around the room are my own. My assistant enjoys the same views from her desk and uses a new computer just for her, with fax, scanner, copier and printer within arms' distance from her desk.

6. I can be working while the furnace repairman is repairing or be here to receive special deliveries when they are due.

7. When it is time for lunch or a snack, I can walk out to my own kitchen and whip up a sandwich with leftover roast beef and drink fresh water from my own well. No emails from the front desk asking who ate whose lean cuisine!

8. The cost of mileage and wear and tear on my car is a lot less when I am not driving into the office every day.

9. Incoming faxes and phone calls are much more private at home. Sometimes, the voices in an office can be loud :).

10. Important calls are never missed, regardless of the condition of my house or what I'm wearing.


Of course, not everyone has a home like mine, with the appropriate atmosphere for a professional office. There are definitely disadvantages to working at home, and those will be covered in Part 2.