For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Photography displayed is original composition and artistic expression of Steve Hoffacker, and as such is copyrighted. Photos are in their original digital image state and have not been cropped, edited, or enhanced in anyway.
We spend a lot of time, money, and conscious effort designing, creating, giving life to, maintaining our brand.
Yet, it's often the little mental slip-ups that can seriously damage a brand.
Take today for instance today when I went to my local branch of Bank of America. As I walked up to the entrance, I noticed the very substantial flagpole that is mounted to the side of the building.
I glanced to the top of the pole to observe how large the American flag was that could fly from this pole - expecting to be dazzled. Funny thing - no flag.
Here it was - middle of the afternoon, relatively clear skies, not much wind, and their effective observance of the 4th of July since they are closed tomorrow. Yet no flag.
Mind you, this is the Bank of America - and no real reason they could provide for not having it displayed. Something about someone had to leave early or they were concerned about it getting damaged in the wind.
If you're going to be the Bank of America, if you're going to go to the trouble and expense of creating a beautiful and substantial flagpole, and it's your last chance before the 4th of July to show your patriotism, wouldn't you think the flag would be flying?
They probably never thought about this as part of their brand - even though a stylist version is part of their logo.
Clearly they weren't thinking - about what they did or what it conveyed.
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Freedom, as envisioned in the Declaration of Independence and as prescribed in The Constitution of the United States, isn't 100% do-what-we-want. That would be anarchy - no rules, no responsibilities.
We are a nation of laws. We also are a nation built upon self-reliance.
Take a newborn baby. Some would say this child was totally free to do whatever it wants - no worries or cares. It has no responsibilities. I would argue that child is not free at all because it it dependent on others for all of its needs - clothing, shelter, food, health, nuturing, and love. In fact this illustrates the lack of freedom.
To be totally free in the manner I believe the founding fathers intended it, we need to produce our own wealth - financial, spiritual, and relationships. We don't look to the government for support of any kind. We rely on the government for national security - as set forth in the Constitution. We count on the government to enact those laws that protect and guard the exercise of our freedoms rather than restrict them.
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Yesterday I posted about an idea I'd like to see adopted whereby legislators would have to iniital each page in a bill to affirm that they had read it and understood what was being proposed on each page. This is just like we do with sales contracts - no difference - except the stakes.
Taking that idea a step farther, I have another suggestion.
When someone proposes a bill - Waxman, Kennedy, Smith, Jones, or whomever - before they are allowed to have their name associated with the bill as a sponsor, the bill must be typed up in draft form, they must read every word of it - making corrections as necessary, they must attest to its accuracy in writing as to being what they intend to propose and support - after the edits have been made and typos fixed, and they must be able to answer questions, explain, and defend what they have proposed to rest of the body. Then and only then will their name appear as a sponsor.
They same would hold true for all co-sponsors of a bill.
By the way, a bill would need to have a sponsor, so an anoymous bill couldn't skate through by circumventing these provisions.
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Those of us who sell real estate - of even those who have ever purchased real estate - know that a sales contract of some form (that is often called by various names) is used to spell out the terms and conditions and become a binding, legally enforceable document between the parties.
The recent "Cap and Trade" voting fiasco in the House - the bill is disastrous and needs to be defeated, but I'm only talking about the voting process here - brought to light just how broken the system is.
Take our sales contracts. What happens on every single page? They are initialed by the buyers (and sometimes all parties), signifying that they have been read or that the language has been explained and understood. What happens to line-throughs and changes? They also are initialed and often dated.
So here's the plan. For each piece of legislation proposed, every Member of Congress who intends to vote on the bill or engage in any form of debate on the bill must initial every single page of the bill to attest - under oath - that they have read every word on that page and understand what it means.
What this means is that the bill must be published far enough in advance of debate for every Member to have a copy and read it. It means that not reading it is gone as an excuse or objection. It means that there can be no 11th hour additions of amendments to the bill. Any amendments become part of the same reading and initialing provisions.
This should restore a little responsibilty to the Congress and put the brakes on these rush-to-pass bills. We also can see what they're voting on.
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Photography displayed is original composition and artistic expression of Steve Hoffacker, and as such is copyrighted. Photos are in their original digital image state and have not been cropped, edited, or enhanced in anyway.
In addition to Little League baseball and softball and other youth sports in towns and cities across America, July features some special sporting events and activities.
Going on in England through Sunday is Wimbleton.
Beginning Saturday and running for 2½ weeks is the Tour de France - with Lance Armstrong attempting a comeback.
On the 14th is the MLB All-Star Game from Busch Stadium in St. Louis.
Then there's NASCAR's schedule.
Oh, and we can't forget the start of NFL training camps - that's right football returns!
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
In just a few hours, the first half of 2009 will end and we'll roll immediately into the second half.
At the top of my agenda for the second half - in addition to continuing to build my business and make sales - is the defeat of the so-called "Cap and Trade" bill.
I called Sen. Mel Martinez (R-FL) this morning, and his office said that he hadn't formed an opinion on the bill yet. What? Hadn't formed an opinion? I suggested he get on board and oppose this. My message was duly noted.
Then I tried calling Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) all afternoon. From 12 until 5, the phone registered a fast busy - as if off the hook or jammed. I hope it was jammed with people trying to pursuade him to vote "no." When I called back after hours, I got a recording that the mailbox was full.
Congress has dictated the terms during the first half of 2009: TARP 2, bailouts, GM acquisition, csar after csar created - and now this. If Congress thinks we don't care or don't notice, get ready for the second half.
Anyone want to wager who has the most points on the boad at the end of the second half?
Hint: go with the underdog.
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For more information on my coaching and educational programs and services, visit my website stevehoffacker.com or go to my other blog homesalesinsights.com for additional sales tips, insights, and commentary. You can also listen to my free podcast messages at Steve Hoffacker's Happenings.
Gene has added to the argument and discussion that this so-called "cap and trade bill" will be extremely injurious to our real estate profession. It must be defeated, and time is running out. The House vote is not yet official, and the Senate hasn't voted yet. Thanks Gene for adding more insight to this.
What
a day. I've got 9 pages of notes from today's Real Estate Forum
convened by NAR and a couple more pages from our Land Use Committee
meeting so I'll divide this post into a couple parts and only try to
pass along some of the most relevant comments.
Let's
start with the Land
Use, Property Rights and Environment Committee.
I enjoy being a part of this committee because to me, this is what real
estate is all about - the preservation of property rights and the
advocacy thereof. Of the numerous issues discussed today, I'll comment
on my favorite - and please keep in mind these are my comments
and observations, not that of the committee and certainly not NAR.
The
first issue, which you've probably heard about and hopefully responded
to the recent Call-For-Action on, is the so-called 'American Clean
Energy and Security Act of 2009'.
Jeez what a moniker, eh? How can you possibly be against anything that
promises both clean energy AND security? Well it's easy.
This
bill, introduced by one of my favorite (heh) state legislators, Henry
Waxman (D-CA), is the so-called Energy Star Building
Efficiency Bill that seeks to develop a labelling system
for every home & building in America. Yeah, really!
There are so many problems with this 685 page bill
it's hard to enumerate them all - but let me mention a couple.
First
off, it contains the deadly 'Point-of-Sale'
provision similar to the language in the Nunez Home Audit bill we
defeated in CA last year. Also similar to that bill, this POS would
mandate an inspection prior to COE by person or persons unknown, to
determine the energy efficiency of a home or commercial building. Who
knows what all they would be looking for (as usual, it's not spelled
out in spite of the 685 pages), who would be certified to do the
inspections or how sweeping the search would be. But the goal is to be
able to certify the 'energy efficiency' of a structure and give you a
little gold star to put by your door with that inspectors opinion on
it.
So,
for
example, if you've got single pane windows, they might knock 10 points
off. R-30 insulation? add a point. Low-flow toilets? Add 15 points. Gas
bill comes to $187 in December? Hmmm, how much was your neihbors bill?
Electric bill comes to $347 in July, lose 15 points. And so on. The higher your home scores, the more
money you can sell it for. In theory.
So
lets say the above scenario garners a 325 Energy Star rating for your
home. But your neighbor pulls down a 479 for the same house. Why? Is
his home more energy efficient? No, he only comes home on weekends so
the AC rarely runs and his electric bill is only $64. His lawn is dead
because he spends no money watering and he passes out drunk on the
couch in front of the fireplace so his gas bill is only $11. Yet his
home will be 'Energy Star' rated higher than yours and should sell for
more as a result. Make sense? It does to Henry Waxman.
Both
CAR and NAR
oppose this legislation as it includes POS
mandates, adds unnecessary costs
to transactions and has been shown to be an
ineffective tool for implementing energy efficiency. It
will also stigmatize older
properties, cause a further deterioration
in home value and will further weaken the national economy.
Labeling every structure in America will not, in and of itself, save
energy or reduce costs but try telling that to Henry Waxman.
Fresh off a 15 year battle with big tobacco and recently
ensconced in his cushy new committee chair,
Waxman's got a bug up his butt (or maybe it's just his head) about energy now and has the bully
pulpit to try to pull this off.
On
the other hand, NAR
wholeheartedly supports increased energy efficiency,
especially as outlined in HR 1778 (Welch, D-VT) and HR 1573
(Van Hollen D-MD) which provide incentives
for energy retrofits, provide matching
grants to states to encourage energy conservation and
provide zero interest loans
to make it happen. That's the way to get something done - identify the goal and
incentivize people to get there - not create a whole new
level of bureaucracy, inspections, little energy stars and
point-of-sale mandated costs.
This
bill is also referred to as 'the
environmental attorney's wet dream act of 2009' because
it would allow ANY individual to stop ANY development or project simply
by claiming it did not meet federal standards, forcing costly legal
battles and project re-designs to attempt to comply with specious
requirements. While most people realize there are necessarily regional
differences in building design and and construction, this bill ignores
all that with a one-size-fits-all
approach mandated nationwide.
It's
not good legislation and we'll be talking with our legislators over the
next couple days so they get the point too.
On a measure so important to our future as Americans and entrepreneurs - as well as our ability to continue in the real estate careers that we love - here is a post by Republican Congressman John Carter of Texas - someone who experiences this firsthand - that I publish alongside my post on this same cap and trade bill.
Democrats Pass Bill to Raise Gas Prices and Consumer Power Bills, Ship Millions of American Jobs to China
House Democrats today voted to raise gas prices to $4 a gallon, nearly double consumer electric bills, and to ship 2 million American jobs a year to China and India with passage of the environmental extremist national energy tax bill. Congressman John Carter (R-TX) voted against the measure, which passed the House by a strictly partisan 219-212 margin, with 211 Democrats and 8 Republicans voting for the bill. 168 Republicans and 44 Democrats voted against it.
"Based on this vote alone, the American people need to replace this House with a new conservative majority, whose first priority in January 2011 should be a repeal of this fraudulent monstrosity," says Carter. "Today, the Democrats told the public they don't care what voters think, they will ignore the majority and continue taxing, spending, and regulating the country into bankruptcy."
Congressman John Carter fought the Democrat majority national energy tax bill all week in the House. Early this week, in an effort to protect the budget of working families in the middle of a serious recession, Carter introduced amendments to HR 2454, the Democrats' national energy tax bill.
Carter's twin amendments would have automatically repealed the energy tax, also known as the "cap and trade" bill, if the U.S. Department of Energy confirmed the bill raised gas or diesel prices by more than 10 cents a gallon, or home electric bills by more than $20 a month.
"The debate over this bill is how much it will raise prices for consumers," said Carter, House Republican Conference Secretary. "Democrats contend the effect will be minimal, so they should have no problem adding these two amendments just to make sure. A vote against either will therefore be a recorded vote to raise energy prices on consumers."
The latest version of the national energy tax places the price hikes almost entirely on the backs of middle-income Americans, who make up around 70% of the nation's population. Low income families, those making less than $33,000 a year per family, would receive new federal "energy stamps", the energy equivalent of food stamps, to "render harmless" all but middle-income Americans.
"The current bill will do nothing to reduce carbon emissions, will increase energy prices on working Americans, and will cost us over 2 million jobs a year for years to come," said Carter. "These amendments will hopefully wake up some folks on the other side of the aisle as to what they are doing to their constituents."
The Carter Amendments were submitted to the House Rules Committee Wednesday, for consideration as part of floor debate. But in late night action Thursday, Democrat House leaders voted to refuse to allow consideration of Carter's amendments during Friday's debate on the bill. Democrats instead allowed a late night 309-page amendment by Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA) that was brought to the floor for a vote before House Members had time to read it.
"If this bill passes, it will devastate Texas working families trying to fight their way out of this recession, and not reduce one iota of carbon emissions," said Carter. "The overwhelming majority of Americans oppose this bill, which explains why Democrats have chosen to ram it through on a strictly partisan vote then get out of town for a week. If they succeed, repeal of this bill and passage of a real energy bill that lowers consumer costs should be a top priority for the new Congress in January 2011 when conservatives re-take the House."
The Democrat energy tax bill is estimated by Heritage Foundation to cost 3,312 jobs in Central Texas through 2012, and another 2,427 jobs thereafter. The study predicts a 58% increase in gasoline and diesel prices, a 90% increase in home power bills, and will cost a total of over 2 million jobs a year over the next decade as U.S. manufacturers move to China and India to avoid the tax, or are forced out of business by foreign competitors who are not required to comply. The bill also gives over $300 billion to foreign governments such as Brazil.
Central Texas Congressmen split their early votes on the energy tax bill, according to KWTX TV. "Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Waco, and Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, came down on opposite sides Friday as the U.S. House voted 217-205 to advance a controversial White House-backed climate bill to the House floor. The 1,200-page climate measure would impose a so-called cap and trade system that would raise energy costs, but by how much is the subject of some debate."
Tips, comments, observations, and strategies for real estate professionals on the sales and marketing of new homes and existing homes, as well as time management, personal marketing, lead generation, and customer management issues.
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This
bill, introduced by one of my favorite (heh) state legislators, Henry
Waxman (D-CA), is the so-called 
;)
;)
