I'm a big fan of Paula Hathaway's blog and I felt this post deserved to be re-blogged!  This article is timely and is also particularly applicable to our Wisconsin recreational property marketplace.

On January 12th, 2010 I received a delightful surprise in the form of a phone call, informing me that I had been appointed to the National Association of REALTORS Equal Opportunity - Cultural Diversity Committee.  Former NAR President Dick Gaylord congratulated me on the appointment by telephone and the next day I learned that the announcement had been picked up by the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog. [photo courtesy of LuxuryRealEstate.com^TM]

Two days later, on January 14th, I received a copy of The Residential Specialist magazine (published by the Council of Residential Specialists), containing an article by Regina Ludes that featured an interview I had given her back in late October of 2009.  The article, entitled "Letter Perfect" featured interviews with four CRS designees who promote the CRS designation to consumers and to real estate industry colleagues, in innovative ways.

As part of my 2010 NAR committee duties, I'll be attending the NAR Midyear Legislative meetings in Washington, D.C. in mid-May of this year.  And I will also be in attendance at the 2010 Realtor Conference and Expo in New Orleans, in early November. 

I'll continue to serve on the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA) Equal Opportunity in Housing Committee throughout the year, as well as serving on the 2010 Wisconsin CRS Chapter leadership team as Education Chairperson.  But it's truly an honor to be invited to represent my colleagues in Wisconsin and Minnesota by serving on a committee of the National Association of Realtors!

[My thanks to Regina Ludes at the Council of Residential Specialists for approving my link to her article]

Yesterday evening, I received a cellphone call from a fellow who wanted information on one of our listings.  He was calling me from Madeline Island, using a Blackberry with Verizon service.

He was having obvious trouble getting a decent cellular phone signal in downtown LaPointe.  We were able to chat for about ten or fifteen seconds and then his phone would drop the call.

With his phone number displayed on my Caller ID, I figured it was worth a try to see if he could receive text messages.  And it worked!  We were able to exchange email addresses and I sent him the information he needed.

Text messaging has turned out to be a boon for us in our real estate practice.  One of the biggest advantages is the fact that text messaging uses far less bandwidth than a cellphone call.  So when your cellular signal fails you and drops calls, or even if you don't have enough signal to connect with the person you're attempting to call, it's worth trying to make contact by sending a text message.

I've read that text messaging worked when all other forms of communication failed during the Hurricane Katrina disaster in 2005. 

If you find yourself showing property in an area with low population density, text messaging can keep you in touch with office or clients, even when the available cell signal is so poor that calls are difficult to place.  And if you are momentarily in a "dead zone" (zero signal area), most cellphones will store your SMS message so you can hit "re-send" at a later time and you'll have a better chance of getting your message on its way.

I've found text messaging especially useful in northern Wisconsin and in parts of rural Minnesota or the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where the cellular service is poor.  It even works quite well on the seventy-mile stretch of Highway 13 that runs between Superior, Wisconsin and Ashland, an area that is notorious for dropped calls.

Our Madeline Island EMTs and other emergency personnel would be wise to offer a text messaging number that could be used to obtain fire, ambulance or police assistance.  Last year I witnessed a tourist accident on Big Bay where a first responder was trying to render first aid and no one nearby could get enough cell signal to call the LaPointe EMT (landline) number.

You can read more about my experiences with cellular phone service on Madeline Island here:

Cellphone Secrets - How to Get a Cellular Phone Signal on Madeline Island

Now I remind my clients "If you're having trouble reaching me by cellphone, text me at 612-670-2539".

This evening, I was delighted to receive a call from a fellow who was interested in purchasing one of our listings.  Unfortunately, he was attempting to call from a cellphone from downtown LaPointe, on Madeline Island.

Our Island has poor cellular service that is almost legendary.  Unless you have Alltel local service (from Chequamegon Telephone Cooperative on the nearby mainland) or your cellular carrier is AT & T, you can expect to have problems using your cellphone on Madeline Island.

I have a Blackberry World Edition phone (with Verizon service), however in this part of the world, it doesn't work very well).  On Main Street, in front of our office, I get one or two signal bars, occasionally three at best.  In various parts of town, I get zero signal bars.  I can receive incoming calls but if I dial out, the call is usually dropped shortly after the recipient answers.  Clients and friends who subscribe to a Verizon plan tell me that they've had the same problem up here.  I've also heard that Sprint and T-Mobile work poorly on the Island, if at all.

Apparently "3G" stands for "going, going, gone" when you try to place a call in the Apostle Islands.

For those of you who don't plan to terminate your Verizon, Sprint or T-Mobile plan early (and pay a penalty for doing so), there are a few options.

Firstly, get as close to the water's edge as you can when placing a call.  Lines of sight are important when you make a cellular call in a remote area.  I've found that I can get a decent signal sometimes by standing on the Ferry Dock in downtown LaPointe.  The dock shared by the Beach Club and our Madeline Island Realty office is a fairly good place to get a signal as well.

Perhaps the best and clearest signal location I've identified in LaPointe is the beachfront area next to the Pub Restaurant and Rendezvous Center for The Inn on Madeline Island.  I usually get three or four signal bars there, at least when weather conditions are clear.

Another good signal location can be found within a few yards of the Marine antenna behind the Madeline Island Yacht Club.  The MIYC antenna tower and its Yagi antenna may be a place where you can "hitch a ride" and pick up a signal that's a little stronger.   

I'm hoping some enterprising person will decide to open a cellphone rental service on the Island.  In the meantime, I wish we could get a cellphone tower on Madeline Island that would be compatible with the digital service available from most major nationwide providers.

Last week at the Seventh Annual LuxuryRealEstate.com "Spring Retreat" in Las Vegas, I had the pleasure of participating in a lecture/panel discussion with Michael Edlund, LRE's Director of Technoloy.  Our presentation was entitled "The Luxury Lounge: All You Will Ever Need To Know About Using Luxury Real Estate's Online Gated Community".

Our panel was part of the four-day conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, which took place April 26-29.  Attendees were offered a series of presentations at the Spring Retreat, including:

"The Power of Social Networking: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn" (moderated by Victor Lund of The WAV Group)

"Dream Big, Risk Big, Taking Over the World One Stroke at a Time" (with featured speaker 2008 Olympic Gold Medalist Mary Whipple)

"Turning Unsold Listings Into Revenue" (presented by William May)

"Short Sales: Don't be the Ostrich with your Head in the Sand" (led by Colleen Olson and Janos Farkas)

"Memorabilia: An Opportunity to Meet Some of the Greatest Minds in the Industry" (led by Ann Chiasson)

"Integrating Who's Who in Luxury Real Estate and LuxuryRealEstate,com Into Your Business" (led by Meghan Barry)

"The Fearless Broker" (led by Penny Evans Carruth), and 

"Heart-Centered Real Estate" (with featured speaker Peter Tongue).

Michael Edlund and Eric Kodner prepare to deliver a presentation on the LuxuryRealEstate.com "Luxury Lounge" at the Four Seasons Hotel in Las Vegas.

Michael and I took turns speaking to attendees about the features and benefits of the Luxury Lounge.  LRE's Luxury Lounge community has grown hugely, particularly during the past six months. 

One of the most memorable events of the conference was a Black Tie dinner and presentation of a Lifetime Achievement Award to Broker Shari Chase.  Shari is one of only three LuxuryRealEstate.com members to have been named to LRE's "Billionaire's Club".

We had quite a stellar list of attendees at this year's Spring Retreat, including my friend Jim Walberg (Caribbean Islands Realty), Jon Larrance (Perry & Company, Denver), Bruce Hiatt (Luxury Realty Group LLC, Las Vegas), Colleen Olson (Arizona Best Real Estate), Robert Kenney (Turnquist Partners, Austin, Texas), fellow Rainer Dave Abernathy (Ocean 30 Group, Jupiter, Florida), Ralph Gray (Honolulu, Hawaii), Larry Lawrence (Olympic Valley, California), Elise Kalles (Toronto), John & Gail Krolick (Incline Village, Nevada), Elad Bushari & Mara Tamaroff (Boston), Tricia Fox (Gold Coast Residences, Chicago), Janice McNeal (Luxury Homes Tacoma, Washington), Morgan Carey (British Columbia), Lianne Read (Salt Spring Island, British Columbia), Ann Chiasson (Sea to Sky Properties, Whistler, British Columbia), Amber Jones (Sea to Sky, Whistler, BC), Carol Ihli (Denver), Julie Jones (Premier Estate Properties, Fort Lauderdale), Jeff Bretherton (Hamilton, Montana), Stuart Wright (Boulder, Colorado), Victor Lund (Arroyo Grande, California), Andreas Dimitriou (Athens, Greece), Diana Bull (Santa Barbara, California), Darryl Baskin (Tulsa, Oklahoma), William May (Seattle), Shari Chase (Chase International, Lake Tahoe), Patricia & Cedric Choi (Choi International, Honolulu), Ohan Antebian (Irvine, California), Ilya Moshenskiy (Redmond, WA) and Chiara Gajar (Olympic Valley, CA) among many others.

My apologies if I have omitted anyone! 

This year's "Spring Retreat" was a fabulous event and I particularly enjoyed participating as a panelist and speaker.

The Council of Residential Specialists (CRS) is informing state CRS Chapters that there are seven remaining 2009 Diversity grants still available, but the application deadline is March 15, 2009, just a few days away!

These monies are set aside for the purpose of encouraging programs and events which promote diversity in real estate.  Each chapter grant will be in the amount of five hundred dollars.

If your state CRS chapter is interested in applying for one of these grants, contact Toni Sherman (CRS Director of Business Relations) via email, at toni@tonisherman.com. 

Madeline Island will be hosting the fifth annual "Big Ice Golf" Tournament in LaPointe, Wisconsin, on February 21.

The event will take place from Noon to 4 p.m. on the 21st.  Proceeds from the event will be donated to the La Pointe Volunteer Fire Department.  Local businesses have chipped in to sponsor the nine-hole course on the Lake Superior ice.  The tournament site offers a beautiful view of the lake and the Bayfield mainland.

There'll be no sand traps, no water hazards and no lugging golf clubs in the hot sun.  If you've never played golf on the ice, here's your chance to experience some unique midwinter fun!  

Google Earth is a fun and useful utility, but it's far from perfect.

I found myself searching for the town of LaPointe, Wisconsin on Google Earth yesterday evening.  And depending on how you type the town's name, you get entirely different results.

LaPointe is the commercial zone on Madeline Island, located at the southwestern tip of the Island.  LaPointe Township includes the entire island.  Madeline Island is one of the twenty-two Apostle Islands in western Lake Superior, situated about seventy-five miles east of the Duluth-Superior metropolitan area.

There seems to be a sort of eternal debate among Islanders (and summer residents) about whether there should be a space between "La" and "Pointe".  It seems to make a difference on the Web when you're searching for our town.  I have seen some search engines generate results based upon two separate words, rather than upon the town's complete name, when the space is utilized. 

Anyway, Google Earth shows two very different locations for the town of LaPointe (or La Pointe):

• Under "Search" and "Fly to", if you type in "La Pointe", you get a location on Oak Island, in the Apostle Islands region of Lake Superior.  Oak Island is part of the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, miles from the town of LaPointe.
• If you type in "LaPointe", you will see multiple results for LaPointe businesses, including our company, Madeline Island Realty.

In Google Maps, you can submit a correction by visiting TeleAtlas.com.  TeleAtlas feeds corrections in map locations to Google Maps on a regular basis, although it may take some time for the change to appear on the Web.

I haven't yet figured out how to get Google Earth to recognize that the town of LaPointe is NOT located on Oak Island.

Maybe it would be a good idea if we could all arrive at some uniformity about whether to use "La Pointe" or "LaPointe" on the Web.

Today, I was delighted to learn that I've been appointed to the Wisconsin REALTORS Association (WRA) Equal Housing Opportunity Committee!

The purpose of our state's EOC is to monitor and evaluate "legislative, legal and regulatory trends with respect to equal opportunity in housing". The EOC works with our WRA Public Policy Committee to help craft or influence pending or proposed legislation dealing with Fair Housing issues.

I feel honored to be invited to join this WRA committee.  I believe that service on association committees and boards is more than an obligation.  It's important for real estate professionals to "walk the talk" when it comes to Fair Housing and ethics issues.  And service on a committee such as this one is, for me, part of that effort.

Today I attended the Wisconsin CRS Chapter luncheon at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center, in Green Bay.  The CRS luncheon was part of the event schedule for WRA's "Designation Week" which opened yesterday and continues through Friday, February 5.

2009 CRS Wisconsin Chapter members (left to right), Chapter President Pat Dollins, Eric Kodner, Jo Baldridge

Close to fifty Wisconsin CRS Chapter members attended today's networking luncheon, chaired by President Pat Dollins.  Following the event, I spent a pleasant couple of hours staffing the CRS booth at the Convention Center, along with Pat Dollins and Jo Baldridge.

And this evening, our CRS Chapter hosted a hospitality suite at the Radisson, with a guest list that included CRS instructors Chuck Bode and LeRoy Houser, as well as 2008 WRA Chairman Mike Spranger. 

The Council of Residential Specialists will be hosting their 2009 National "Sell-a-bration" in San Francisco, February 5-7.