Scripture for Thursday, December 2 Read Matthew 7:21, 24-27 Jesus said to his disciples:"Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,'will enter the Kingdom of heaven,but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. Jesus, you are our rock. Our plans and decisions must be built on your faithfulness and wisdom. You love us and care for our family so much! Show us how to rely on you for our strength and hope. We always want to be guided by you. Charles Gardner, Realtor/Investor Region Realty-Greater Houston Homes-Humble, TX 12/02/2010

Scripture for Today Read Isaiah 25:6-10 On that day it will be said:"Behold our God, to whom we looked to save us!This is the LORD for whom we looked;let us rejoice and be glad that he has saved us!"For the hand of the LORD will rest on this mountain. Lord God, we see in Jesus that you keep all your promises and bring everything about at just the right time. You said you would send your Son, and you did! We trust in your promises and your faithfulness. Thank you for allowing us to have hope. Realtors need your hope and love daily. Charles Gardner, Realtor/Investor Region Realty-Greater Houston Homes-Humble, TX 12/01/2010

Feast of St. Andrew Read Matthew 4:18-22 ‘He said to them,"Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men."At once they left their nets and followed him.' Father, it is amazing that you want to speak to us! Help us to hear you in little ways today. We are like little children climbing onto your lap, longing to hear you speak to us. We want to receive all that you have for us. How generous you are! Charles Gardner, Realtor/Investor Region Realty-Greater Houston Homes-Humble, TX 11/30/2010

Is Real Estate better than Social Security? (Humble, TX) Real Cost of Social Security Cuts versus Real Estate Reductions Investors on a fixed income or those thinking about retiring within the next few years are facing some of the most difficult decisions in decades; keep working as long as possible in order to build a better nest egg or try to "make do" and hope against all odds that your money holds out. It's not a simple choice especially with the dual threats of low interest rates combined with Social Security cuts. In fact, what may initially seem like minor modifications in calculations can actually result in thousands of dollars less over a period of time. Today we are going to compare and contrast the decline in Social Security versus real estate to see the true cost of each ove... 11/29/2010

Rental Housing Search Engine Have you seen this new search engine for rental houses?  There's finally a single place for rental hunters to search when looking for a new apartment or rental house. RentJungle.com pulls contents from the listings of thousands of other websites-7,219 sites and growing-and allows searchers to conveniently search one location. And for those investors with rental properties, if you're rentals are not already listed at sites that Rent Jungle pulls from, you can pay a small monthly fee to have your properties included on the site. A spokesperson for the company claims Rent Jungle is capturing more than 80% of the rental listings on the Internet. Visitors simply go to the site, put in a city and any optional specifics (like number of bedrooms or whether you need ... 11/29/2010

Read Matthew 24:37-44 "Therefore, stay awake!For you do not know on which day your Lord will come. Be sure of this: if the master of the househad known the hour of night when the thief was coming,he would have stayed awakeand not let his house be broken into.So too, you also must be prepared,for at an hour you do not expect, the Son of Man will come." Father, Jesus, Holy Spirit, we want to look for you this Advent. We give this time to you and ask you to surprise us with your presence and your love. Any time of the day or night, we want to know your touch and receive your word into our hearts. Charles Gardner, Realtor/Investor Region Realty Greater Houston Homes  Humble, TX 11/29/2010

Now, O Lord, what do I wait for? My hope is in you. --Psalm 39:7 Advent begins. Hope is revealed in me. Advent, the season celebrating the birth of the Christ child. Hope is revealed in us as we anticipate the unfolding good which is manifesting in the world and in our individual lives. We hold hope tenderly and reverently in our hearts and allow it to grow and expand in our thoughts, feelings and actions. We hold hope for humankind to enjoy lasting peace and prosperity and live in harmony as brothers and sisters. May the Advent season be one of great hope and believe in all the great things God give us. Charles Gardner, Realtor/Investor Region Realty-Greater Houston Homes 11/29/2010

Realtors are YOU Prospecting? Agents, if you want to make it in real estate in this market or any market, you simply MUST be prospecting on a daily basis. What is prospecting?  It is picking up the phone to make a living. To go a little deeper, Prospecting is reaching out to people to create a connection that could become a lead that in turn could become a sale.  The sales funnel starts with prospecting touches.  The better you get at prospecting, referral requests, and follow-up, the less people you will have to touch per sale.  This is a simple concept.  However, most agents and investors will whine about how low their sales are while they sit and wait for their phone to ring instead of finding the sales themselves. Seriously, that small electronic device that you spend time facebooki... 11/24/2010

Prepare Now for Black Friday-Realtors and Investors It's that time of the year when shoppers are out and about picking their way through crowded stores, sorting coupons for cash savings and looking for the most lucrative real estate deals?  Not exactly! Although Black Friday might be the favorite day of the year for retailers, it's less than impressive for many real estate investors. Traditionally, fewer people move over the holidays and battling banks while trying to lock-in rates is less than appealing to most would-be buyers who prefer to wait until after the holiday season is over to resume shopping. So, what is an ambitious short sale investor or realtor to do? Actually several things come to mind both online and off. Here's what you need to know to prepare for Black Friday: 1. Inc... 11/24/2010

New Fall Creek Restaurant - Vittorie's Pizzeria & Italian KitchenIt was lunchtime.  I'd heard about Vittorie's and thought it might be the place to check out.  And my team member, Carol decided to go along.  We are both very glad we did!  At Vittorie's you order at the counter, you're given a number & the food is brought to your table.  The varied menu includes pizza, pasta, soup, salad, appetizers & dessert.  And after devouring our lunch selection, neither of us can wait to check out the more of the menu choices.  Lunch is something special.  For $6.95 you get the following: (1) a choice of soup, either tomato-basil or the soup of the day (which was potato today) (2) a choice of house salad or caesar salad (3) a choice of cannelloni stuffed with chicken, spinach & cheese or chicken sc... 11/24/2010

New FTC Rules Issued on Mortgage Assistance Relief The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has issued the Mortgage Assistance Relief Services (MARS) rule. It's designed to protect distressed homeowners from mortgage relief scams that have become all too common. The rule, which takes effect January 31, 2011, bans providers of both foreclosure rescue and loan modification services from collecting fees until the distressed homeowner has a written offer from their loan servicer or lender that they decide to accept. "At a time when many Americans are struggling to pay their mortgages, peddlers of so-called mortgage relief services have taken hundreds of millions of dollars from hundreds of thousands of homeowners without ever delivering results," said FTC chairman Jon Leibowitz. "By banning provi... 11/23/2010

Short Sale Price Decline For those of you handling buyers of short sales or who have real estate investors interested in short sales, it looks like Thanksgiving has come a little early for you. All the recent foreclosure paperwork problems (with the big banks being found out about using robo-signers) are causing some shoppers to stay away from distressed properties. This means more opportunity for you and your investors. Campbell Surveys' conducts a monthly study of home sales and real estate market conditions and its October survey was answered by more than 3,000 real estate agents nationwide. These servicing issues disrupted both REO and short sales. On the surface, this would appear to be bad news for agents. However, the decrease in overall distressed property sales activity has cau... 11/23/2010

Guide to Short Sale Leads from the Wal-Mart Girl I call her the Wal-Mart Girl because that's where she can be found every Friday from about 3 to 5 p.m. She has been a Realtor in the Wichita, Kansas area for some time now and is the daughter of one of greatest icons in real estate I have ever known, whom will remain anonymous for this story. One day, the Wal-Mart Girl said to me, "Come on, let's go shopping for groceries." I thought to myself, "Hmmm, some Realtor. We are supposed to be marketing for short sale leads and she wants to go shopping." I didn't know at the time what was in it, but she had a crumpled up little brown bag in the front of the shopping cart and off we zoomed in high gear into the local Wal-Mart. As we entered, the place went crazy. People approached her as soon as ... 11/23/2010

Talk about shopping close to home - Humble Trade Days are back again.  November 19 & 20, from 8 AM to 5 PM, at the Humble Civic Center, you'll be able to shop under a covered pavilion.  This is a great way to get a jump on Christmas shopping.  Unique items, handcrafted furniture, jewelry, collectibles & bargains to entice you PLUS door prizes are given every 15 minutes on Saturday.  Free Admission - Free Parking too! Susan Brown, Your Texas Connection sells real estate in Walden on Lake Houston, Eagle Springs, Summerwood, Atascocita, TX, Kingwood Greens, Royal Shores & Kingwood, TX - just to name a few!  Susan's the team leader for Your Texas Connection at Keller Williams Realty NE.  Visit their website for more in depth info about the team and what they can do for you.  Or call Susan d... 11/09/2010

Short Sales Realtors and Investors When the Truth Hurts Hopefully you will be among those that have made the most of the year by taking advantage of historically low interest rates and incredible investment opportunities. But what about the rest of you? Statistically speaking, there are a lot of readers who sit on the sidelines waiting for the "right" time to take action...but somehow, they never quite seem to get around to it. Or perhaps you are somewhere in the middle; you started off strong but seem to be losing momentum. Whatever the reason, it's time to tell yourself the truth.  Sometimes the Truth Really Does Hurt Few people deliberately set out to lie to themselves but that doesn't mean they are honest either. Just one glance at the current real estate melt-down speaks volumes ab... 11/08/2010

Time to Use the "Like" Button...Do You Have One??In what may initially sound like just another search engine strategy, Bing and Yahoo are actually positioning to make major waves in the market. The Yahoo/Microsoft alliance is designed to switch the way results are viewed and rated. While this may not initially impact Google, who remains the single largest search engine in the nation, it does have the potential to impact ALL (including Google at a later time) search results in fairly dramatic ways. Savvy short sale and real estate professionals should take note and begin putting a plan into action sooner rather than later. One of the first steps you can take to prepare is to use your social media network...not only will it help with the Bing/Yahoo campaigns but is very likely to increase... 11/08/2010

  What's the Deal with Owner Finance & The SAFE Act? The SAFE ACT went into effect October 1, 2010 and since that time, there has been an avalanche of rumors, false information, fear mongering and outright confusion surrounding the facts and status of owner financing. Let's look at some details every real estate agent and investor needs to know about owner financed real estate. The SAFE ACT in a Nutshell The SAFE Act essentially says that you must have a license to sell an owner financed property. The original intent is to crack down on fraud and confusion surrounding the sale of a home but there are some inadvertent consequences of potential interest to investors as well as agents; especially those that use a "mortgage assignment" when dealing with investment property. Keep reading to ... 11/08/2010

The purposes of our sharing these blog posts are to remind those who attended convention about what they learned & experienced, and help those who could not attend to learn & experience what we experienced.  In case you arrived at this blog from another location, here is a link to our website which contains ALL links to our material, and we recommend that you go here to get started: http://www.exitrealtyneh.com/2010exitconvention.html For more information about our our brokerage, Exit Realty NE Houston, please click here: Real Estate Careers Let's change gears a little and ask, what did YOU learn from Bob McKinnon at convention or from watching this video?  Please watch the video & comment!   11/06/2010

Please see the flyer below for information about this one of a kind prospecting course!  For registration information contact: Keith Hebert, EXIT Realty Broker/Owner at 281-798-4599.     Looking For Leads In All The Right Places Johnny Loewy   Looking for Leads in All the Right Places is designed to teach REALTORS® how to increase their earning potential through inexpensive methods of prospecting for residential and commercial clients, allowing agents to keep more of their money. Without prospecting, nothing else matters. If REALTORS® aren't prospecting they aren't prospering. Many new REALTORS® ask the question, "Where do I start?" and many experienced REALTORS® ask, "What am I doing wrong?" This course answers both questions, with some new twists. We will focus on goal-setting, time ... 11/05/2010

  The purposes of our sharing these blog posts are to remind those who attended convention about what they learned & experienced, and help those who could not attend to learn & experience what we experienced.  In case you arrived at this blog from another location, here is a link to our website which contains ALL links to our material, and we recommend that you go here to get started: http://www.exitrealtyneh.com/2010exitconvention.html For more information about our our brokerage, Exit Realty NE Houston, please click here: Real Estate Careers (Parts 2 and 3 are at the bottom of this post) I was introduced to Dan Castro when Tami Bonnell sent me his book, Critical Choices That Changes Lives.  I sat up & started taking notes after reading this line just a couple pages into the book, "Eve... 11/03/2010