Fort McMurray, Alberta Information

A guest of a resort hotel in a tourist area walked into the dining room where breakfast was being served.  Shortly after the guest sat down a waiter arrived to take his order.

"I would like two eggs, over easy, one with the yolk overcooked and rubbery and the other undercooked with the yolk broken and running out on the plate.  I would also like some sausage that has been grilled and set out on the plate to get cold, burnt toast that has also grown cold so that it crunches and crumbles into nothing at the first bite, butter that has been in the freezer so that it's impossible to spread, and a pot of coffee that is lukewarm and very weak."

The waiter busily scratched down the guest's order and said, "This is a very complicated order, sir.  It might be difficult to deliver it exactly as you have requested."

The guest replied, "But I had that exact breakfast here yesterday!"

It should come as no surprise that between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, our excessiveness hits an annual high, especially where waste is concerned:  We throw out 25 percent more garbage than we do the rest of the year.  That's a million extra tons of garbage per week.

So this year consider some of the ideas below provided by The ULS (Use Less Stuff) Report.  Your planet will thank you!

?·        If every family saved and reused just two feet of ribbon per year, enough ribbon would be saved to tie a bow around the entire planet.  When unwrapping gifts, poke two holes in a paper plate and feed the ribbons through so they're easy to find and reuse later.

?·        The more than two billion holiday cards sold in the United States each year could fill a football field 10 stories high.  If each family cut back by one card (not that The ULS Report advocates "scrooginess"), they'd save 50,000 cubic yards of paper.  At least try using recycled paper products, and consider sending e-cards when appropriate.

?·        If each of us throws away just one tablespoon of mashed potatoes, it adds 16 million pounds of waste to landfills.  If that's unimaginable in your family, think of it this way:  One discarded spoonful of cranberry sauce amounts to over 14 million pounds.  Make only as much as you need, then store any leftovers in airtight containers and be sure to use them.

?·        Reduce the number of bags thrown out by carrying your own, whether you're shopping for gifts or groceries.

The ULS Report has more useful tips on its Web site at http://use-less-stuff.com.

In 1955 Harland Sanders was 65 years old and virtually broke.  Fortunately, he possessed two things:  a car, and a recipe for chicken.  He took his recipe on the road to sell to restaurants, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Harland "Colonel" Sanders was the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, and now KFC restaurants serve more than 12 million customers every day in 109 countries and territories around the world.  Colonel Sanders is proof that it's never too late to decide to never give up.

Let's celebrate that it's never too late!

I invite you to experience an evolutionary online marketing technology for the Fort McMurray Real Estate Market, streaming HD web video tours. I offer high definition web video tours of your home when you list with me that are stream directly from my personal website www.McMurraysBestHomes.com  and including MLS^®.

My web video tours are not only comprised of interior and exterior shots, but also include highlighting features to match feature sheets, a visual from Google Maps of the area, a community tours with landmarks and neighborhood shots.

Why Video?

• A real estate web video tour is the next best thing to an open house walk through. Nothing replaces this up close, in person visit, but a web video tour is the ultimate way to promote interest and prompt buyers to make a call to me to schedule a showing of your home.
• I show your home to clients who are genuinely interested and serious about viewing your house.
• Gives your home a one-up over the current highly competition Fort McMurray Real Estate Market.
• 93% of home buyers turn first to the Internet to research real estate. Optimize the exposure of your home today with a web video tour!

This is the future of real estate marketing! It is a natural evolutionary phase. Spinning 360 virtual tours will soon be forgotten and photography alone will simply not be enough. Ensure your real estate advertising is top notch and up to date. Let the power of high definition web video tours go to work for you in selling your home in Fort McMurray.

Marketing and Distribution of Video Tours
Here are a few of the social community video websites, similar to YouTube, available to host and stream your home web video tour to the world.

Did you know that when working with a good mortgage broker, you will always be offered the best rate upfront? Manulife Financial Advisor, Greg MacPherson, says that banks "only reveal the lowest mortgage rate they will give you when you absolutely force them to by coming up with a better competing rate from across the street."

This is the similar to negotiating the price of a souvenir in a third world country marketplace. They always want as much as they can get. You shouldn't have to go through that!

The difference is that banks usually offer retail mortgage rates while brokers always offer wholesale mortgage rates.

 Our lenders are offering some extremely low rates right now that are generating a lot of attention. If you are thinking of buying your first home, refinancing your existing home for a lower rate, or buying another property now may be the time to do so.

Did you know that even 1/4% difference in rate on a $300,000 mortgage over 5 years will cost you over $3500 in extra interest? It definitely pays to check with a broker to ensure you are offered the best rate.

If you need help in finding a good broker to help you with your next home purchase visit my website www.McMurraysBestHomes.com and I will give a few names.

Often, the market will get tougher for a period of time. Agents will get frustrated because there is not enough inventory. Sometimes, getting new listings is more difficult than ever. We will always go through periods of challenge and adversity. We will all have trials. Even long ago, Confucius said, The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man without trials.

We must accept that adversity and trials are there to strengthen us, our thoughts and mind, and our will and actions; to shock us into improving our skills, so we are better prepared the next time around. That is the role of adversity in our lives its to make us better.

The first thing to do when you encounter adversity (because of not having enough listings or sales) is to increase your frequency and intensity of prospecting. When those challenging market adjustments appear, it may take more contacts to generate the leads we need. It may take more leads to generate the appointments we need. It may even take more appointments to generate the listings we need to drive our business. Tracking our numbers and sales ratios and understanding the market can be the difference between winning and losing. Writer George Shelham said, Winners keep track of the results; losers keep track of the reasons. The results are the daily activities of prospecting: the contacts, leads, appointments, and clients created from them. The losers let the reasons why they dont feel like prospecting take over. We all can think of a million reasons not to prospect. There will be many distractions every day that will take us away from the necessary

There are things we know we need to do daily to achieve success and accomplish our dreams in life. Often, our feelings determine whether we do them or not. Our will and desire has to be strong enough, so we do what we need to do anyway . . . even if we dont feel like it. For example, I feel like eating Rocky Road ice cream daily. I have a weakness for ice cream, especially Rocky Road. If I did what I felt like doing, I would weigh considerably more than I do. I need to discipline myself to control that feeling with the action of abstinence.

We all must control the feeling of not wanting to prospect. Prospecting daily is an act of will, not feeling. If we are determining whether to prospect or not based on feeling, we will not prospect. Granted, daily prospecting isnt easy. It will be difficult, but it will be worth it. When the first part of that statement is coming true, always remember the second part: It will be worth it! The personal satisfaction that we will achieve by conquering our fears and winning the game of production will be unmatched.

Too often, we expect results instantly. We want success without effort. We want victory without defeat. It amazes me how many speakers and trainers are trying to sell Agents on the get rich quick system of success. They promise results from a magic ad campaign, a magic website, or any number of other gimmicks. If we look throughout history, the people who got to the top and stayed there have one thing in common: they continually worked diligently, and all their failures added up to eventual success. These successful people persevered and struggled and mastered the fundamentals to reach the pinnacle of peak performance. I watched a commercial that illustrated this truth well. The individual in the commercial said, Ive missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. Ive lost almost 300 games. Twenty-six times Ive been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed! I have failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed."  The commercial was for Nike, and the individual was Michael Jordan.  We can only avoid failure by playing the game, meeting the challenge, and stepping toward the adversity.  We must stare failure down and do the difficult task of prospecting.  We need to set aside our thoughts of not feeling like it.  If we do that, we will change the outcome of defeat to victory.  Start your journey to disciplined success today.

comments by Dirk Zeller of Real Estate Champions in a reccent email.

How do you know when a prospect or client is going to waste your time or go the distance? That is something new Agents and some experienced Agents struggle with regularly says Dirk Zeller of Real Estate Champoins in a recent email sent to me. Please read the rest of the email it has some great point that needed to be shared.

Having a step-by-step pre-qualifying process helps dramatically. It will help you evaluate each person the same. When you go in to get your annual physical the doctor doesnt just wing it. The doctor sends you through the same steps as every other patient taking an annual physical. All patients have their blood pressure checked and blood and urine samples tested. The doctors and nurses dont skip a step. Create a step-by-step process to qualify your prospects. There is no substitute for experience. Like anything in life, the more you do something the better you get. Michael Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time because of will and practice. Even though he was cut from his high school team, he focused on improving; his practice habits improved between high school and the NBA.

The experience of working with many prospects and clients helps you develop a sixth sense. The only way to develop that sixth sense is through making mistakes and learning from them. Since a sixth sense is developed by experiences, the number of years you do something has very little to do with it. Lets say that you need to do 100 closings to have a functional and operational sixth sense. You could take 10 years to do those 100 closings or two years. By doing more, you will develop your sixth sense more quickly.

There were transactions and people in my sales career that didnt pass the smell test. There was just something that didnt feel or smell right. Rather than hoping it would all come out in the wash, I would pour bleach on the situation by questioning and digging deeper. The gray stains would be bleached to white, and I would be able to see my next step much clearer.

I had one rule when working with people: It usually gets worse under pressure, not better. The deal that is in escrow that is shaky the first week remains shaky all the way through and usually gets worse. Our solution was to tighten or kill it in the first week. This solution would either remove the escrow or solidify it, so that it would close easier. The prospect that is flaky at the very beginning usually doesnt get any better. Qualify him hard to either get him to commit to you with certainty or remove him from your life and move on. The seller at the listing appointment who will not take your counsel on price is a great example. Does that person get better or worse 30 days down the road? Usually 30 days later he blames you because his home hasnt sold. Actually, his failure to accept your price counsel was the reason.

Develop your sixth sense quickly by creating more opportunities with prospects. The more opportunities you have, the more selective you can be with who becomes a client. Dont neglect to listen to that sixth sense you are developing. Rarely will you be wrong.

A great coach Dirk Zeller just emailed this information that is so timely.

Lets start with the bottom line first: The whole purpose of a prospect presentation is to establish your competitive advantage. In the least time possible you want to communicate what makes you different from the more than 1.2 million other licensed Realtors in the United States. You want your prospects to see exactly why they should hire you, whats in it for them, and why they should proceed with confidence to sign your listing agreement.

Most agents spend the presentation explaining what they will do for the client rather than focusing on the results the client can expect the agent to deliver. Newspaper ads, website pages, home magazines, dazzling flyers, and a lineup of other marketing items are tactics that, in truth, nearly all agents use in the normal course of business. They are not competitive advantages. In fact, you must assume before a listing presentation that every agent will promise a near-identical marketing plan.

So why will they hire you over the others? Theyll hire you because they see whats in it for them. And whats in it for them is the set of benefits they will receive as a result of your proven competitive position.

Defining your unique competitive position

To differentiate yourself in the field of real estate sales you need to create, define, and consistently convey a competitive position that positively distinguishes you from your competition.

By knowing and exploiting the difference between your products and services and those of your competitors you will attract more prospects, win more clients, grow your market share, increase your revenue, expand your profits, and, eventually, weaken your competitors.

To pinpoint your unique competitive position, answer these questions:

* Are there key statistics that set you apart from your competitors and provide you with a clear point of difference?

* Do any of your Big Three statistics create a unique competitive position?

1. Average list price to sale price

2. Days on the market

3. Listings sold versus listings taken

* What benefits or values do consumers receive only when they deal with you?

* Do you have dominant or strong market share in a geographic region?

* Do you specialize in a particular property type, such as small plexes or a certain style of home?

* Is your market share success tied to a particular price point?

* When representing sellers, do you achieve quantifiably higher sale prices?

* When representing buyers, do you achieve quantifiable savings in sales price, down payment, monthly payment, or interest rate?

Your answers dont need to lead to 20 unique competitive positions. You only need half a dozen reasons why the consumer whether youre presenting to a buyer or a seller should choose over everyone else. Focus only on advantages that will matter to your prospect. Keep in mind the old sales adage: Its easier to sell someone what they want to buy than what you have to sell them.

Proving your excellence: You dont get paid for second place

A Fortune 500 CEO who doesnt increase revenue will watch the stock price plummet. A quarterback who throws for lots of yards but doesnt win games will be benched or traded. A Realtor who doesnt get listings sold or find and secure the right home for buyers will leave the business.

In the real estate world, results are the name of the game. Anyone can make money in a marketplace where everyone wants to buy and sell, but only the excellent agents will thrive in a competitive marketplace.

There hasn't been a better time to buy in Fort McMurray in the past three years then right now. Since October 2008 we have watched the listing price of single family home drop. The number of sales each month has been in the 30's a compared to the 100's in the past few years. The average price is down about $40,000 over the same period last year, but still up from three years ago. March 2009 will be seen as the turning point in our market, the sales volume has incease to near normal levels for Fort McMurray at just under 100 unit for March.

What has caused this change? Near record low interest rates, oil prices are around the $50 a barrel range. The recent news that Suncor is purchasing PetroCan and the fact that all the major oilsand players are still hiring staff position. Are all signs that Fort McMurray is ready to start leading Canada economy again.

If you have been sitting on the fence waiting for the bottom of the market before you buy, then welcome to the bottom. Things are about to start moving again. Give me Patrick Dardis a call today to find the home of your dreams in Fort McMurray.

In setting prospecting goals, focus on three core areas: the number of contacts you should make each day and week, the number of leads you should develop, and the number of personal appointments you should set.

Start with easily attainable numbers, so you can build up your energy, intensity, focus, and discipline slowly and steadily. You wouldn't decide to run a marathon without working your daily and weekly mileage up over time, and the same premise applies when establishing and meeting your prospecting goals.

A contact is a personal conversation with a decision maker who can make a purchase or sale or who might refer you to someone who could. A contact is not a conversation with the babysitter, a 10-year old neighbor, a friendly teenager, or an answering machine.

When I take on a new coaching client, I almost always start them with a goal of five contacts a day, and I would suggest the same for you.  Make a goal of five contacts a day without fail, resulting in the completion of 25 contacts a week.  It will take three to four weeks for contact with five prospects a day to become a habit. Once you achieve the goal for three weeks straight without missing a single workday, you can raise your goal to seven or ten.

Leads are contacts that have demonstrated through their dialogues that they possess the basic motivation and desire to make a change in their living arrangements. In prospecting, we assume until we either pre-qualify them ourselves or they secure an appointment with a lender that determines they have the financial capacity to make a purchase.

To advance your business, you should aim to develop at least one lead per day and five leads per week.

An appointment is a face-to-face meeting with prospects, during which you discuss their needs and wants, share how you work, and aim to gain their commitment to work with you in an exclusive relationship to sell their home or find them a home to purchase. An appointment is the launch of the agent-client relationship. It is not a meeting during which you show a property!

Like your lead-generation goal, your appointment goal should be set at a reasonable level: A goal of one appointment a week is a solid start. If you acquire two appointments, terrific, but make sure that you are able to secure at least one.

If about now you are wondering, hmm, five leads and only one appointment a week from all those calls, realize that these are starting goals. It is far better to begin with aims that you can actually achieve rather than ones that overwhelm you from the onset. As you gain consistency and skill in prospecting, both your numbers and your ratios will improve.

Even if you maintained the goals we set and sales ratios of leads and appointments, you would have a good year as a newer or inexperienced Agent.  At the end of the year, you would have made 1,250 contacts.  You would have created 250 leads.  You also would have set and conducted 50 appointments and gotten two weeks off with your family to boot.

Even if only half of the appointments turned into listings or sales, you would have 25 deals in your first year.  In most companies, that would make you rookie of the year.  You would also earn in excess of $125,000 in gross commission income.  I do not know too many people in real estate or in any other profession that make that type of money in their first year.

So set your prospecting goals by focusing in those three core areas: number of contacts made, number of leads established, and number of appointments secured.  You will meet your goals if you follow through and be diligent in achieving them.