careers: Who Moved My Cheese?
- 01/09/08 11:50 PM
The 2008 real estate year is already off to a great start. Open houses are busy, contract activity is picking up, the general buzz around the office is, well you know, buzzing. Does this mean we are out of the woods yet? Not necessarily, history in Northern Virginia real estate has shown us that January and February tend to be very active months in the real estate market. This is the time of year that good agents use to set the stage for their entire year. This being said, what better time to introduce CB Ashburn's 2008 book club. We are … (5 comments)
careers: Committed
- 01/04/08 12:54 AM
Happy New Year everyone. I hope the holidays treated everyone well. I personally had a wonderful time relaxing with my family. For the holidays a colleague of mine gave me a copy of the book, "The Heart of a Leader" by Ken Blanchard. It was a very enjoyable book, a quick read, and it had some very insightful thoughts. My favorite excerpt from the book talked about the distinction between being "Interested" and being "Committed." Interested folks do something only when it is convenient or comfortable. Committed individuals follow through no matter what. No excuses! He gave the example of exercise. … (1 comments)
careers: Interesting Time of Year
- 12/14/07 03:36 AM
It is Friday once again, which is a great thing after a busy week. As I walked down the shopping plaza to grab a quick sandwich and get back to work, I had to remind myself to stay focused and not call it a weekend just yet. This is the time of year (and I've done it many times in the past), that realtors call it a year and wait for the Spring market to officially start on January 2nd. Yep, that's right, in Northern Virginia our market cranks back up as soon as we ring in the new year. I'm … (1 comments)
careers: Players Only
- 12/05/07 06:06 AM
Wow, it is Wednesday already and I'm making my first blog entry of the week. I guess it is a good week when you have to carve out time to blog.In our office we run our business meetings on the 1st and 3rd Tuesdays of every month. Yesterday I had a conflict in my schedule and was unable to lead the meeting. I had previously lined up a couple of great speakers for our meeting, including our Mid Atlantic Regional VP of Marketing for CBRB. Tom (the Marketing VP) was going to address our team on upcoming marketing initiatives for the … (0 comments)
careers: Brand Recognition
- 11/30/07 12:31 AM
While visiting a broker open house this week I had the opportunity to chat with several team members from another brokerage. I asked the group the question, "Why did you choose your company?" It was very interesting to hear the responses. It was not the commission split, it was not the tiered profit sharing plan, the consistent answer was flexibility. My next question was, "How so?" Several items came up, and one by one I mentally checked off that Coldwell Banker offers our agents all of these things. The area of debate that came up was individual branding. This particular organization heavily … (3 comments)
careers: Practice What You Preach
- 11/19/07 05:16 AM
Recently a team member in my office forwarded to me a recruiting email from a competing broker. Outside of being a bit wordy, the recruiting message was actually very good. The concept was "Dare to be Different." The idea was to focus on the latest technologies to advance your business. The manager referenced items such as blogging, LinkedIn, ActiveRain, etc. I decided to investigate my competitors offering. Here is what I found . . . I visited his office website and clicked on a link called "Manager's Blog- Find out what the manager has to say about the latest market trends." … (2 comments)
careers: An Unexpected Resource
- 11/16/07 09:11 AM
Another Contribution from my team for our office blog: As agents we are always interested in subjects related to getting deals closed. Any insights that help move transactions are like small nuggets of gold.My daughter works for the Home and Garden Television Network ("HGTV") in New York. I started watching some programs out of interest in her work. Well, I am now hooked. An entire network devoted to all things related to the home!HGTV has a mix of shows to appeal to anyone interested in houses. Decorating, staging, design, remodeling, construction, going green- it's all there. The shows that appeal to me … (0 comments)
careers: So Where Did the Year Go?
- 11/15/07 07:10 AM
From time to time I ask my team to share their thoughts and experiences on our office blog. Steve stepped up to the plate today. I'm proud to say that Steve is a daily fixture in our office. His work ethic is just as big as his smile and sense of humor. Take a read below and meet Steve. -Brian So here we are, a week before Thanksgiving... Where did the year go?I am still trying to wrap up a few transactions before the end of the year.I am planning to have a booming 2008 with the Success Sessions and theBusiness Planning … (0 comments)
careers: Meet Mike
- 11/13/07 11:31 PM
From time to time, I ask members of my team at CB Ashburn to contribute to our office blog. Below is a posting by one of our team members that I wanted to share on ActiveRain as well. One of my favorite things about leading our office is the diversity of backgrounds that equal success in real estate. You have to love a construction forman/stand up comic that has all the right tools. Hello all, my name is Mike O'Hara. I'm a full time Real Estate Professional Licenced in both VA and MD. I'm not much of a Blogger but I thought … (0 comments)
careers: Have You Googled Yourself Lately?
- 11/08/07 01:34 AM
You know that old saying, "All roads lead to Rome"? Well, in the modern age of technology, all Internet roads should lead to HOME. Your home pages, that is.If you haven't been paying attention to the Internet lately, you might want to take a look. Google yourself. Google our office. Google the agents you know. Taking the time to build your web pages and establish your professional associations in any industry.In our tech-crazed global nation, everybody under 30 has grown up Internet friendly. The last 15 years, professionals in all industries have been working actively with the Internet and rapidly advancing … (5 comments)
careers: Heart Walk
- 11/05/07 12:24 AM
Today I want to let the pictures do most of the talking. This past weekend, several members of the CB Ashburn team and CBRB Mid-Atlantic participated in the Greater Washington Heart Walk to raise money for the American Heart Association. As you can see, the weather was great. The atmosphere was fantastic and we had a great outing. The walk was approximately 3 miles long and looped the Mall area from the Washington Monument to the Capitol building. The Heart Association put on a first class event with plenty of snacks, water, power bars, etc. at the aid stations. We even … (1 comments)
careers: High Gear
- 11/01/07 09:21 AM
Well things are really running in high gear this week. I'm amazed that Friday is almost here. Between HUD-1's rolling in the door from successful settlements, to mock listing presentations with the newest members of the team, this week has disappeared (almost). The mock listing presentations were a lot of fun. Three of our newest team members presented to me, while I played seller. I saw some really great stuff from the agents, we tweaked a few items, and we'll be that much stronger for the live go of things. Tuesday after the tech session, Kae Davis and I hit a … (2 comments)
careers: Falling Up
- 10/25/07 05:22 AM
Wow! There is so much great stuff starting to happen at our new CBRB office here in Ashburn. With the leaves falling down all around us, we are proud to be falling UP-up on listings, up with presented offers and closing sales contracts, and up on the numbers of new market leads. Here's WHAT'S NEWS: This month hosted our first quarterly office luncheon/BBQ out at VERNE'S place. If you were not there, the meeting was awesome, the venue superb and the grill fixin's were the perfect do. We are taking suggestions now for the next casual events to pursue. This week, … (0 comments)
careers: Not in Our Office!
- 10/23/07 09:18 AM
In today's real estate market, the media, your neighbors, and even from some realtors you are very negative about the real estate market. So is it a bad market? I have one response, Not in Our Office! I am proud to say that October is quickly shaping up to be the most productive month we have had here at CBRB's young Ashburn/Dulles office. Our sales volume is up over 300% from this time last year at the old Sterling/Dulles office we replaced. Why is this happening? It's about attitude. First, you have a choice: you can blame the market or you can … (5 comments)
careers: Busy Week
- 10/17/07 04:12 AM
It has been a pretty busy week here at CB Ashburn and we're only at Hump Day. I'm still limping along after completing the Baltimore Marathon this past Saturday. This was the second straight year of completing the marathon. I've never been a runner, but somewhere last year I discovered how rewarding it is to set your sights on a task like running 26.2 miles and seeing it through. My wife told me I'm not aloud to say the word "marathon" at home for at least two weeks. However, I'm already setting my sights on Marine Corp next year.This past Monday … (0 comments)
careers: A Busy Fall
- 10/16/07 01:14 AM
While many agents and offices sleep on the fall market, we've been very busy here at CBRB Ashburn. A couple weeks back we took to the outdoors. Verne Dickerson was nice enough to host our Fall Picnic/Offsite at his beautiful property sitting on 46 acres North of Leesburg. We spent some time getting to know each other better through a great game called "Two Truths and a Lie." It is always amazing what you learn about people (can you say licensed bail bondsman in the group). Next we buckled down for a little bit to discuss and refine our vision as … (0 comments)
careers: Around the Office CBRB Ashburn
- 10/15/07 07:18 AM
It has been long overdue, but it's finally here. The launch of Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage- Ashburn/Dulles office blog!! A little over 6 months ago CBRB opened the doors to our new Ashburn/Dulles location. A lot of great stuff has taken place since then. After taking a few weeks to make our new office feel like home, we kicked things off in style with a Grand Opening party to be remembered. We had a little something for everyone, t-shirts, giveaways, great food, popcorn and a moon bounce for the kids, and 100.3 The Globe was even on hand to keep things … (1 comments)
As a managing broker in real estate, I field a lot of questions on a daily basis. For this blog, I try to adhere to a simple rule, if I have been asked the same question in real estate by more than one person, it is a potential blog topic.
The 2008 real estate year is already off to a great start. Open houses are busy, contract activity is picking up, the general buzz around the office is, well you know, buzzing. ;)
;)
