2015 Real Estate Community - Silicon Valley

SCCAOR - my MAIN Association for 13 years as a REALTOR and 13 years as Pauline's assistant. - They have featured us in the newsletter and was our "home" for three years for our programs during the lean years. We would cater our own programs and were able to charge very reasonable rates. Their member benefits is top notch and education is EXCELLENT. Definitely believes in making me the best professional I can be.

SILVAR - supports WCR - Rose Meily is a ray of sun for us and often puts our events in the newsletter and other online outlets.

Marketing Meetings

• Evergreen - Sheryl's stomping grounds. There are 7 BODs in this group, the main person is Denise Morris. Sheryl became a BOD in 2014 - she hosts the months of March and August. Sheryl also provides statistical info here. They do put local listings on tours when agents request and it is toured as a group. They are very supportive towards all the groups and especially WCR. I have sponsored several meetings on WCRs behalf. Bagels and fruit and juice.
• CBVA - This group was founded back in 2010? It originally had its meeting at the Almaden Valley Chicken Coop. The leadership is composed of several top brokers (Alain Pinel, Keller Williams, Coldwell, Intero, CSR, Silicon Valley Assoc) They are a very professional group. Tour is an open format.
• South County - Meets on Wednesdays - strong group down there but I do not attend but I have had a few transactions in South County from this group.
• Willow Glen - Mike Gaines! Excellent.
• Campbell - meets Fridays - Hosted for many years by Frank Oliver and big Rusty - must know these men! Big personalities and well known in the community. The duo retired in 2012ish? Many years back it was at the Elephant Bar, then moved to downtown Campbell Chicken Coop, then moved to Mama Mia (meh venue), now it is back at Elephant Bar. Mimi is a regular here. I used to go to this one too but now I only go if something needs to be announced or I have a listing there. I do not have strong ties to this leadership team.
• Rose Garden - Nora! One of my favorite REALTORS. They meet twice a month. Mimi, Anna Maria, and Heather are regulars. I will be adding this tour to my rotation.
• Milpitas - I believe they meet on Fridays. I do not know much about this group.

Women's Council

NHORA -

VNARP - new group

FAREPA - Filipino group - I have strong feelings for this group, they are my people. Always welcoming. One of their key leaders, Paul Stewart, passed away this year. He was a great man. He always held WCR in high regard and helped us secure strong speakers as joint events!

AAREA - I am not very closely tied to this group even though I am Asian. I do support my friend Michelle Lin and Atsuko who are heavily involved.

CAAREA

Women's Council

• Monterey - love this group - strong network and past presidents are very invloved. They travel together. I see Santa Clara finally getting travel funds to get more officers and members to travel together.
• Sacramento - LOVE ARIA! My hat buddy.
• Peninsula - love Marianne! I have attended several of their installations.
• Santa Cruz - in 2010 and 2011, during lean times and I mostly had to travel alone, I would dine with this group often.
• Tri-Cities - 2011 - Ann Gupta is a good friend but faded away from WCR
• Livermore - respect for the leadership and business ladies here! They have awesome events
• San Francisco - I love their 2015 president. I do try to go to their events when I can.
• Marin - I went to one event there in the past.
• Sacramento - would love to go to their events if I can.
• Delta - Delta DIVAS! Such a stong network! When I can, I go attend their events and programs - love them!
• Central Valley - love them! When I can, I attend their events.
• Placer County - I have had 3 referrals out of this network! 
• San Diego - Fiona - love her! Linda Lee - LOVE HER! San Diego is just amazing! Network to model!
• Long Beach - LOVE LB! - Another network to model!
• Inland Valley - Yvonne and Adrianna - two of my favorites!

Thanksgiving Vegas 2015

What a good trip!

Saturday - left Salinas around 5pm and arrived about 2:30am (stopped at Temecula - yuck bathroom)
Sunday - dinner and shopping with the kids!
Monday - dinner with Vanessa!
Tuesday - pick up Lawrence and Amy and Mom and Brandon
Wednesday - pick up Joseph, shopping with Mom (ham and groceries)
Thursday - cook and eat
Friday - nails and shopping at OUTLETS
Saturday - Flamingo overnighter... dinner at Brooklyn Bowl
Sunday - Marissa and Joseph go home. Pizza
Monday - left for home around noon... got home at midnight. (stopped at Stateline for coffee, dinner at Barstow, restroom break at Buttonwillow, gassed up at Hanford)

Notes for next time:

Go to Vegas a few days early to relax before the festivities start!
Early days, cook. Later days, too tired to cook so get frozen food or easy to eat stuff
Breakfast: bacon and sausage and bagels

Do something outdoors if the weather is good - start early - nice to move around if we stay home for a long time - an easy walk somewhere nice but not a mall or casino

Coming home -
be sure to have eggs and basics stocked up

2015 - REALTORS CONVENE! WCR and NAR

This was my 8th national conference as a REALTOR.

This was my most favorite one!

The cherry on the top for me was John Legend and the 6000 REALTORS singing along to his song "All of Me."

Loved that moment!

Wednesday - PMN - Becky Hill! New friends and new leadership insights

Thursday - General WCR meeting. PMN acknowledgement! RPAC acknowledges that WCR leads the way! We went from $800k in contributions to $1.8M as a group!!

Friday - Econ update, WCR National elections, EXPO, Linda Lee reception

Linda Lee's reception was one of the best parties I have attended with WCR! It was so casual, so friendly, and so warm.

Saturday - Amazing WCR session with MyNerdyBest Friend and the amazing Leigh Brown! Followed by a photo session with Emmitt Smith and then the NAR general meeting. Good neighbor awards!!

Sunday - went to hear Leigh Brown again speak on the 7 Deadly Sins of RE.

Sunday night - concert!

Overall:

I wished more of my REALTOR friends were here to be part of this experience! To be amongst other passionate realtors was heartwarming. We are all in this together!

I hope I can get more REALTOR to future conferences. The sales stuff is good too (Tom Ferry, Brian Buffini) but this is all about your PROFESSION!

Action items:

Code of Ethics
Safety
Economic update
RPAC

Jobs are good! Millennial wave is coming! Affordability is a concern. Sales will continue to increase but not at the break neck pace.


Dr. Yun - many retirees stay in their home state and not necesrraliy go to Florida or Arizona or Texas. They do prefer those states if they do want to leave their state.

Trends - on

Cris
Good job growth
Good wage growth
MIllions of people are getting back to work. - If you want a job, one can find one..... 5% unemployment - equilibrium.

WCR Categories

EXPENSE

Luncheons (Eventbrite, supplies, other)

Marketing

Travel 

Registration - State Meeting/Nat'l Meeting

Operations

Software/Program

Internet/website

Quick Books

Membership

Supplies

Community Involvement

Leadership Development

Constant Contact

Retreat and supplies

INCOME

Partnership

Membership 

Luncheon

Ways and Means

Other

Headaches and Withdrawal and Sleep

For about two years, I was on medication Nortryptiline since 2013. It was very effective in giving a nice restful sleep without waking in the night.

About two weeks ago, I decided I wanted no more of it.

My reasoning was some mornings it was difficult to wake up, and I really did not have to wake up more than one time a morning, if that makes sense!

I noticed some nights I did not take it and I woke up easily!

So, I stopped cold turkey.

The first few days were ok, nothing out of the ordinary.

Starting on day 5, I felt off... I thought it was allergies or sinus pressure. So I put myself back on the allergy regime. No relief.

I then resorted to tylenol and excedrin. Sort of helped...... I then had to take Sumatriptan, helped somewhat.

For a weekend, it was a struggle managing the pain.

I almost wimped out and went back to the NORT..... but I had already gone 8 days and hoped it would finally ease up.

Suddenly, I had a hard time falling asleep. As in taking me longer than 30-60 minutes. Usually, I know I am asleep in minutes! I thought this a gift but now I know it was assisted with the medication.

So the last several days, I am not having restful sleep... waking too early (3am) and not able to go to sleep. I was on 3-4 hours of sleep for a few days.

I had a break through I think this morning!

Yesterday was ROUGH!

I woke at 5am..... after fall asleep after midnight, 1am...... I wanted to sleep more. I knew 4 hours a night was not right for me for several days.

I reasoned, ok, I wake up now, and I go to bed early tonight..... easily, right?

I had a full day yesterday.

I was down in Santa Cruz for business.... Got there about 1pm and all was good so far. After I saw my client, things went wonky.

I needed to go to the bathroom so bad. I ended up driving around in a daze for about an hour.

I wanted to take Benny to the beach to wear him out. He was being so good after being kenneled in the van for over 4 hours while I was working. On top of this, I have not eaten, I have no appetite but I know I should.... I don't eat.

I wanted to preview my friends' beachhouse listing and also periscope it. By the time I got to do this, it was 4:30pm on a FRIDAY. Who wants to see business at this time? Oh well, I didn't want to overthink it and did it anyway.

Generally, I think I have good energy on video....... doing this broadcast, I was a zombie. I knew it but did it anyway. I knew it would still be helpful to me in learning.

I drive us home.... I am so wiped out. I lay on the couch hoping to fall asleep, this is about 7pm. I cannot sleep........ so frustrating.  I turn on the tv. I turn on social media and periscope. I turn on podcast. I turn everything off. I do breathing excercises and relaxation... I want to quiet my mind. It was a challenge..... nothing.

I go to bed with sand all over ... I cannot physically get up to change or brush off the sand. TIRED.

No sleep... I start to think negatively......

Finally, about 10pm.... I doze off a few times..... I know it was about 11pm I do fall asleep! SUCCESS!

I wake at 5:20am....... sigh......... should i just wake up? Should I try to talk Mig into going to the DeAnza Flea Market.. sigh... I'd like to fall alseep....

I DO!

I wake around 8am...... I feel ok but sleeping this late, I need it.

I finally wake at 9am ish....... I feel rested.

Right now, I am on the couch, I still want to squeeze in more rest.

The science of sleep. I am now curious about it. I thought for the last couple of years, I had sleep down!

As it turns out, I need to learn it now that I am not being sleep assisted. The sleep assist was nice.... such restful sleep.

I hope to find that again in a natural way.

Sea salt, maca, and raw eating.....

My husband has been super into his fitness and jiu jitsu. He is getting turned on to stuff I was exposed to and had off and on tried to incorporate into my life.

I was detoxing and hydro-therapy'ing in 2005. (lemon hot water)
I was going to hot yoga in 2006.
I started juicing in 2009/2010.
I got our Blendtec in 2012.
I started hearing about maca and sea salt in 2012.
Mig got me our uber juicer in Dec 2013.
I got turned on to chia seeds.... 2012ish?
Flax seeds in 2009.
Hemp in 2014.
Aloe vera and coco nut water in 2010.

HOWEVER, since 2011, most of this practice went into hibernation. So interesting how even when I KNOW what is good, and I KNOW what is best, I get drawn into desserts, processed goodies, and general bad health habits.

I heard on one of my newest favortie podcast (Shawn Stevenson Model Health Show) about Rich Roll and his lifestyle 180 since turning 40. He wrote this book on plantbased eating....

Anyhow, I am looking at the photos, and while some look interesting, I cannot say they look DELICIOUS as what is  used in captions.

I know I have had super yummy kale quinoa salad and super yummy smoothies and tasty mushroom barley soup.... Grilled or roasted veggies are yummy...... but DELICIOUS, I am not too sold yet.

Which is why I started this entry..... I am wondering if after a while, I will look to lentil, kale, avo bowls as DELICIOUS......

DELTA!! Fashion Show

I strolled in around 5:20pm and snuck into the restroom to finish my makeup. I ran into Mariam whom I met at the Contra Costa FS a few weeks back. I have her phone on my cel now and I promised to take pics of her on the runway and send to her. Love all my WCR Friends!

The raffle gifts lined the entry way. I was able to check in, easy peasy, table 7. I ordered my ticket on line but they also had physical tickets.

I ran into Lynn Valintis and Melanie. Always awesome to run into friends at these events!

I stepped out to the patio where the pre-fun was starting. I am sitting here soaking it all in. (I started this blog in that moment on my iPhone. Blogger was not so easy to work with on the phone once I started adding pictures)

The weather is perfect! I thoroughly enjoyed people watching. I thought about having a glass of wine but I knew I had a drive home. I really liked the Friday night schedule. 

We were able to our tables at 6:15. I ran into Cecily........ more friends!

I bought my $20 of raffle tickets and started dropping them into the variety of bags. (About 20 raffle prizes 

I liked this one a lot!

It is a writers basket!

I loved the rose petals all over. Nice touch. Dinner was buffet and yummy - chicken parm, NOM!!

Show begins at 7pm with God Bless America and soldiers representing all the military branches.

Liz - Delta network - love her!

 

Runway:

Here is Mariam! She had some great fashions!

 

I don't know this lady but I liked her pose!

7:30 break for live auction - one week lodging in Lake Tahoe followed by a dinner preparation from an Italian taught cook. Jodi came and chatted with me for a little bit. MORE FRIENDS!

The entire evening I was texting Matt and Mimi. They were definitely missed!

I won the Writer's basket!!

The finale was the models coming out into the audience dancing to Happy. This was a great way to end, on a high note!

I left right away at about 8:45 and got home at about 10pm. I was excited to check out my basket of winnings! Good night!

FB paid ads

I've been playing around with facebook paid ads.

A couple of hundred dollars later:

I do have a list of addresses from my "Do you want to know how much your home is worth" fb ad that went to a landing page: PrimeSellerLeads (https://www.facebook.com/PrimeSellerLeads1?fref=nf)

I followed up with the phone numbers that were provided (response was, often: "ohh, maybe that was my husband/daughter that must've done that") I also followed up with snail mailing a business card, notecard, and RPR report. No conversions yet.

I then went on to experiment with landing pages (aka squeeze pages) with some type of give away (aka lead magnet). I used LeadPages.

Setting up the LeadPages took a few hours.
Setting up the lead magnet report took a few hours.
Setting up the image for the facebook ad took a few hours.
Setting up the facebook ad took a few hours and a cost a couple hundred of bucks.

This garnished me with 3 email sign ups.....

I think my most successful facebook pay to play testing was with Boosting Posts.. (also the most simplest to activate) .. the analytics are quite interesting as well.

Bottom line: I am intrigued with this online paid marketing opportunity on social media, it is a bit of a distraction from my real estate business, and then as listings and escrows start to come together, I can focus less and less on this. Ultimately, I don't want to manage this lead generating option, but I do need to have general understanding of it.


#wcrtechtalks

Long time Evergreen Resident Enjoys an Afternoon at the Village Square For the First Time.

Add caption

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For my newbie REALTOR friends.

Real Estate is feast or famine!

When there is an escrow to close and a paycheck coming in, HAPPY DAY! Make that money stretch out!

There may be weeks or months of no paychecks but lots of work (showings, appointments, cmas, etc). FAMINE!

It helps if you have a safety net, like income from a partner or family to help support you during the famines.

Preview property in areas you want to get familiar with.

Have your top 15-20 list of friends, families, neighbors with their address and phone number. Get their email addresses and birthdays and anniversaries.

Learn MLSlistings.com

Spend a weekend on C.A.R website

Do CMAs for your family and friends. Do net sheets, too.

Do Open Houses or Twi-light open houses.

Go to Marketing Meetings and get a flavor of the different agents out there.

Take classes but know the real lesson will be when you are actually writing a purchase agreement, reading a termite report, put together a disclosure package, opening up a house for a showing, or getting info from an agent, ETC.

Marketing on a shoe string budget - doorknock or call your database. Collect emails and send items of value (reports, cma, etc)

Marketing with some money - do a small mailout, hold an event like a mixer or luncheon, start a meet up group for your area. We started having quarterly mixers for Evergreen Business Owners.

Keller Williams book, MREA - is a must read! It is also available in audio!

Valentine's Day Weekend 2015 - Cambria, Ca

WCR Installation Thoughts 01.21.15

Yes, great event!

I arrived at Maggianos a little after 10am. Kristen and James were there already. Anna Maria was there also.

I gave my registration list to them and they did a great great job!

My color ink printer was not working so the color coding didn't come out.

Thoughts for next time:

Registration - make sure to have square ready for credit card charges
Assigned table place settings
(mishaps here: Intero Table C21 Table, WCR State and visiting, sponsors)

I am so glad we asked Earlynne to be our photographer!

Early guests who want to help, have tasks for them (pass out party favors, greet, watch for sponsors, pass out papers... help people find seats, make introductions

MUST Thank:

Linda Weiert
Barry of Mlarnik
Christy Collier
Brendy
Hilda
SILVAR
SCCAOR

New member:

Lucy Ramos
Gabrielle
Grail
Claudine

Mild Case of Anxiety

I just had this wave of anxiety....

I am personalizing the 2015 Annual Strategic Partnership for Matt. We have an appointment today with Chase.

I just returned from WCRCA State meetings.

Here are some things on my plate:

Business - follow up on 3 leads
Send note cards to my WCR friends
Valentine paper gift

WCR - book keeping
WCR - membership - meet with Claudine
WCR - programs - venue and speakers

Usually when I feel this anxiety, I have to write it down and process it in my head.

Reset - 1/15/2015

This past week has been exhausting!

This weekend I was in Irvine for three days. Then on Monday we had out Wcr retreat, then I went to a SVCC meeting. On Tuesday, I gave my first market update of the year at EEVREMG then back to SVCC for a new member luncheon. On Wednesday I had to take Marissa to the Ortho then back to the SVCC for mixer.

This morning was the EBA 7:30am meeting then went for an oil change.

This afternoon I finally had time to catch my breath. Tomorrow will be SCCAOR installation then next week WCR.

Day 2 - Meet the Masters

Day 2

I am hoping to be able to stream the Dallas Cowboys game on my laptop. I logged in for the faster internet so we will see.

Lender Panel
Aaron Chapman
Pattern interrupt

10 conventional -
*Fannie/Freddie stuff - understand guidelines*
*Learn more about investor financing options*

USA only place with 30 year fixed - plus Denmark
-powerful product for an investor

The thought quick payoff -
If you want to accelerate, yes, but stay with a 30 year mortgage

How many can I buy?
-set up trusts vs LLC?

Private lenders...

GFE - good faith estimate
HUD - hard number
when terms change or rates get bought down, etc, numbers will change

Thoughts - investors here own multiple properties in different areas - more sophisticated

Brown paper bag! haha - great! - guideline, duct tape, Jim Bean, razor blade, condom...?! energy drink

Delayed financing

**Self directed Retirement plan - What every real estate investor should know**

Reader's Digest -

Matt Sorensen - IRA - Book - podcast - blog
http://sdirahandbook.com/

IRA - special tax status

IRC 4975
Rules in what you can and cannot invest in....

IRA/LLC - checkbook control IRA

Deal flow-financial friends - experiences

Chicago - Mike Fisher
C class properties preferred - better cash flow

Thoughts: This group is cash flow business minded, appreciation is bonus. Tax advantages, Debt advantages, IRA self directed

Chicago property $105,000 with $1500 rents..? interesting!

Chris and Justin on Land
On reselling -

Doug - Economics

Empowered for all seasons
Ray Daleo - biggest hedge fund

Inflation and growth
Prices shift when either or both are above or below expectations

What is my tax situation? What is my tax strategy? When starting, scalability means nothing....
In the beginning, think about growth and tax efficient.
Build asset base in steps

Kansas City - Plutus Group - Zach
Revitalization of downtown Kansas City
Job opportunities

Randy - Four letter word: DEBT

Not a bad word!

Mortgage in 3 ways
Asset protection -

Meet the Masters - SNA trip

5:11am left home
5:34am curb at SJC

5:45am arrived to my boarding gate!

Jamba Juice

605 line up

8:10am on the move to hotel shuttle with luggage!

8:40 early check in, scoped out market, nicely stocked!

I had a late lunch at the EATS restaurant.

DAY 1 - Meet the Masters

Jason's 10 Commandments

"Garbage Fees" - lender and title and escrow costs