How Awesome is This !!!

I am so excited. We just got home from our first Keller Williams Realty Office Annual Awards Party. Scott and I were 1 of 3 people honored with multiple awards tonight. We also got two bottles of wine. :)

We ranked 9th in sales out of an office of 60 amazing agents. We are 1 of 13 agents fortunate enough in this market to be in the Million Dollar Club. We were also honored with the award for Rookie of the year for our dedication,integrity,hard work, and ethics. Although we have only been with KW since April of 2008 we managed to prove that hard work, training, and passion allowed us to triple our business and place us in the top 5% for all of Tulare County. Everything has my name since all of the paperwork and commission is paid in my name, not because Scott doesn't work his cute little buns off.

How Flippin Cool is That?

A Birth Certificate shows we were born
A Death Certificate shows we died
Pictures show we lived! I Believe...


Just because two people argue, Doesn't mean they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, Doesn't mean they do love each other.

I Believe...
We don't have to change friends if We understand friends change.

I Believe....
No matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt You every once in a while and you must forgive them for that.

I Believe...

True friendship continues to grow, even over The longest distance. Same goes for true love.

I Believe...

You can do something in an instant That will give you heartache for life.

I Believe...
it's taking me a long time To become the person I want to be.

I Believe...
You should always leave loved ones with Loving words. It may be the last time you see them.

I Believe...
You can keep going long after you think you can't.

I Believe...
We are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel.

I Believe...
Either you control your attitude or it controls you.

I Believe...
Heroes are the people who do what has to be done When it needs to be done, regardless of consequences. (atheletes and celebrities are not hero's, DP)

I Believe...
Money is a lousy way of keeping score.

I Believe...
My best friend and I can do anything or nothing And have the best time.

I Believe...
Sometimes the people you expect to kick you When you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I Believe...
Sometimes when I'm angry, I have the right to be angry, But that doesn't give me the right to be cruel.

I Believe... Maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had And what you've learned from them, and less to do With how many birthdays you've celebrated.

I Believe...
It isn't always enough to be forgiven by others; Sometimes, you have to learn to forgive yourself..

I Believe...
No matter how bad your heart is broken, The world doesn't stop for your grief.

I Believe...
Our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, But we are responsible for who we become.

I Believe...
You shouldn't be so eager to find Out a secret. It could change your life forever.

I Believe...
Two people can look at the exact same Thing and see something totally different..

I Believe...
Your life can be changed in a matter of Hours by people who don't even know you.

I Believe...
Even when you think you have no more to give, when A friend cries out to you - you will find the strength to help.

I Believe...
Credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being.

I Believe...
The people you care about most in life are taken from you too soon. 'The happiest of people don't necessarily have the best of everything; They just make the most of anything!


Nope this profound wisdom is not mine, it was sent to me in an email and once again I am sharing it with my readers. I don't know who's wisdom this is...if you do feel free to share.

thought for the day

Good Morning. Here is a great thought for the day:

My boss claimed that he would show me how to double my income and double my time off within twelve months. This sounded completely unrealistic, but I was willing to give it a try.

He asked me to make a list of all the things I did for the company, then he asked, "If you could do only one thing on this list all day long, which one task would contribute the greatest value to your company?" Once I had identified that task, which was quite easy, I put a circle around that number.

He then asked, "If you could do only one more thing on your list of key tasks, which would be the second activity that contributes the most value to your company?"
Once I had identified the second most important task, he asked me the same question with regard to the third most important task.

He then said something that shocked me at the time. He said that fully 90 percent of the value that you contribute to your company is contained in those three tasks, whatever they are. Everything else you do is either a support task or a complimentary task that could probably be delegated, downsized, outsourced, or eliminated.

As I looked at the three tasks, I realized that these were the three things that I did that contributed the most value to my company. This was on a Friday. On Monday morning at 10 o'clock, I met with my boss and explained to him what I had discovered. I told him that I needed his help in delegating and outsourcing all my work except for those three tasks. I felt that if I could work on those three tasks exclusively, all day long, I could more than double my contribution to the company. Then I said to him that if I doubled my contribution, I would like to be paid twice as much.

My boss was completely silent. He looked at my list of key tasks, looked back up at me, looked at the list again, and then said, "Okay". It was now 10:21 am according to the clock on the wall behind him. He said, "You're right. These are the three most important things that you do in this company — and the three things that you do the best. I will help you to delegate and downsize all these other minor tasks to free you up to work full-time on these three key tasks. And if you double your contribution, I will pay you twice as much."

He did; then I did; then he did. He helped me delegate and assign my minor tasks so I could concentrate on my top three jobs. As a result, I doubled my output over the next thirty days, and he doubled my income. I had been working very hard for more than eight years, and I doubled my income in just one month by focusing all my time and energy on my three key tasks. Not only that, but instead of working ten and twelve hour days, I work from 8:00 to 5:00 and spend time in the evenings and on the weekends with my family. Focusing on my key tasks has transformed my life.

Perhaps the most important word in the world of work is contribution. Your rewards — financial, spiritual, and emotional — will always be in direct proportion to the value of your contribution. If you want to increase your rewards, you must focus on increasing the value of what you do. You must dedicate yourself to contributing more results. And the three key tasks always contribute the most.

Prioritize. :)

Before you send me an e-mail telling me that some famous person, nun, paster, minister, self help guru, president or someone else wrote this: I KNOW !!! I received an email today that contained this "story" written by someone somewhere and I would give credit if I knew who shared this profound wisdom.

My goal is to share this thought with those that stop by my blog. Enjoy

Travel, Holdiay, New Year !!!

What a month we have had. Our trip to Cancun was beyond fabulous!!! Our suprise adventure at Sea World was..out of this world. I will post more about it soon. Our Christmas was terrific, and our New Year celebration..restful.

We enjoyed Christmas Eve day at Scott's dad's home as his family opens gifts on that day. The kids had alot of fun and really raked in the presents.
Christmas morning Steven came running in at 5:38am to shout that Santa brought him just what he wanted...which was a Nerf Volcun Machine Gun...with extra bullets. (too bad Santa forgot the batteries) We spent about an hour opening gifts and cleaning up then I ventured out in search of an open store that could save the day with 6 D batteries. I did eventually find the only store open...Longs Drugs and thank heavens they had some D batteries left. While Steven was playing with his new treasures Scott and I proceeded to take down all of the Christmas deco and put the house back together and by noon we were snuggled up in a blanket with our tissue and cold meds to watch the new movies Santa brought Scott for Christmas. We had spagetti for dinner and good times were had by all.

New Years Eve, well we watched some moves and although we all planned on staying up until midnight ... the three of us were just tooo dang tired so we went to bed at 11:00 and I was asleep by 11:02.

Since I pulled Steven out of school a week before school was out for winter break we had a whole lot of school work to get done. The school will excuse his absense so he will be elig for perfect attendence if we get all of his school work done. He goes back Monday and we only have one project left. Thank heavens.

We managed to close escrow on 4 homes between November 17th and December 29th. Holy Cow !!!!!!!! Most of the negotiations took place while we were in Cancun, but by golly we got it done. We had 4 buyers all contact us out of the blue within 2 days of each other and the kicker is ...they all are qualified and capable of buying a home right now. Needless to say we took our stuffy noses and coughing lungs on the road every day for the last 9 days to find the perfect house for all four and we have done it for 3, and Scott is showing the 4th person more houses as I type. The other 3 have placed offers and we hope to have answers by the end of next week. I am hopeful that the client Scott is with now will love one of the 3 we found for her to see.
We were also approached by Washington Mutual (where we bank) last week to see if we would set up a table in their lobby with information about our local housing market and the improtantance of using a Realtor. Naturally we said....heck yeah. So I am in the processes of trying to come up with an elegant display and useful information for customers to enjoy and maybe prompt them to explore answers to their burning questions.

Our local market is on fire!! Our office of 40 agents closed 56 escrows in December and we are on track to close more then that for January. We are not the largest office in town so I imagine the larger offices are pulling high numbers as well. It is tough for people to know how their local market is doing unless they ask. Everyone focuses so much on the national news and national market that they just don't understand.

I will tell all of my readers right now that if you purchased your home with an FHA Loan you will want to think about refinancing as rates are expected to drop down to the 4% range during this first quarter. IF you have an FHA Loan, you do not need to go throught the credit pull the appraisel or anything, the lender just shows that the interest rate is less now then the day you signed loan docs. All fees should be incorporated into your loan so you have no out of pocket expenses.....This is HUGE. this will reduce your monthly payment.

If you have a conventional loan then you do need to go through the credit pull, normal loan qualifications, and the house has to appraise...If you bought your home between 2004 and now chances are your home will not appraise so don't waste your time or take a credit hit.

First-Time Buyer Tax Credit Up to $7500

For the basic facts about the $7,500 home ownership tax credit that the federal government created earlier this year as part of the Housing and Economic Recovery Act (H.R. 3221). For homes purchased between April 9 2008 and July 1, 2009. By the way...you do not need to be a first time buyer to get this credit, so be sure to check it out.

On that note, I need to get to work generating more business to hit our goal for this year. I will try to blog soon with pictures and tales from our Cancun adventure.

holy cow

My goodness time flew by. I am tying up loose ends at the office today and trying to get these last two escrows closed by Wednesday of this week because we are leaving for Cancun thursday......wooohooo. We are sooo ready to go. We have worked so hard this year and focused on growing our name in this community and I think we are moving forward nicely. I have set in stone some enormous goals for 2009 and failure is not an option. So although we are headed out of the country for 10 days....I will be working on our strategies to meet our goals.(it will just be beach side rather then in the office.)

Steven doesn't know it yet but we decided to take him to Sea World when we get back since we fly into LA and San Diego is just a few hours from there. I booked a great room and we will be able to spend the whole day checking out the park without trying to rush through it to get home.
I have been wanting to take him for the past 4 years but it just hadn't worked out. He has worked with us this whole year and sacrificed some serious play time and by doing so he has really improved his professionalism and worked on his manners. We strongly feel he deserves this little something extra "just for him". He is really going to like taking his hard earned paycheck money from savings to spend at Sea World on whatever he wants without hearing a "no" from us (unless it's candy). This will be very difficult because I see LOTS of stuffed animals coming home with us. Shamu is cute .....but 15 different sizes of stuffed shamu looses its appeal. oh well, Showing 187 houses in 1 year lost it's appeal for Steven too, but he stuck it out so we will too. :)

We finally have cold weather and fall foliage here. It still doesn't feel like winter and Christmas here with out the cold and snow but we are looking forward to seeing what Santa leaves for us this year. Steven asked for the nerf machine gun with extra belt to wrap over his shoulder. Santa worked real hard to make sure that gift will be waiting for him when he wakes.

I just completed all of my non business related Christmas cards and I can mark that off of my list of 19 things to do before we leave Thursday.

Last night I packed our suitcases with everything we need other then toiletries. One good thing about going to Cancun in the winter is only packing shorts, swimsuits, tee shirts and flip flops. I can pack a month in advance if I want too. (which I may consider for next year.)

Well now I better get going so I can pick up a few things for the house and eat lunch before going to get the little fireball from school.

Christmas Deco

Well I finally did it, I got all of the interior deco and tree set up for Christamas. phew what a job. I normally wait until after turkey day, but since we are headed to Cancun on the 10th and returning on the 22nd I figured we better get going early if we want to enjoy them.

Speaking of enjoying the deco......the three little trouble making cats are killing me. They are jumping into the tree swating off the deco and scattering them (if they don't break when they hit the tile floor) all over the house.

They eat....yes chew and swallow the shiney garland...they like the gold best by the way. So needless to say a portion of my normal deco is placed neatly back in there storage boxes for next year when the little treasures are older and not as interested in the decorations.

We are having Scott's family over for dinner on turkey day so I need to get to my shopping list so we have all the good stuff. I don't think it will be difficult to spend $90.00 to get a free turkey. We shall see how it goes tomorrow.

We are in the paper

I was so excited this weekend when I opened the paper and saw our names in it. We received an award last week and it was need to see ourselves listed in the Visalia Times Delta Weekend edition.

I hope to see us listed as top sales very soon.