It isn't always the beauty contestants who say things that make you say, "Huh?"

I have to giggle at myself once in awhile when I hear something I have just said and have to rearrange the sentence a bit to make sense!

Here are some real goodies.  Enjoy!

Good news! First time homebuyers tax credit extended and expanded to existing homeowners!

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives voted by an overwhelming 403–12 margin to approve the Unemployment Compensation Extension Act (H.R. 3548) that included, as an amendment, the extension and expansion of the Homebuyer Tax Credit. The bill already passed in the U.S. Senate yesterday, so now it will advance from Congress to the White House for President Obama's signature. The Administration already has signaled its support of the Homebuyer Tax Credit amendment as well as the President's intention to sign the bill into law.

Many of us called, wrote and emailed our Senators and Congresspersons to urge the extension of the credit, and some of those who weren’t sure the first time homebuyers’ credit should be continued had argued that nothing was being done to help those buyers who weren’t first-timers.

The terms of this extension will not only extend the first-timers’ credit to the end of June, but will also provide existing homeowners a tax credit when they buy a replacement residence.  To qualify, the contract must be dated by May 1 and it must close before July 1. There are many homeowners who have thought of downsizing and some who have wanted to buy a larger home while prices are down.  Those buyers will now be helped to move to the home that will fill their needs.

And the extension of unemployment benefits will help prevent even more families from becoming homeless while they search for new jobs.  Unemployment checks are not as good as a full paycheck, but certainly better than nothing, and a lifesaver for many families.

Our voices were heard in Washington, D.C., and we should be proud that our government is taking strong action to help our industry and the economy. Having an extended and expanded Homebuyer Tax Credit available to qualified home buyers in the first half of 2010 undoubtedly will benefit our business and the U.S. economy.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

These are such great saftey tips that I thought it was worth reblogging, even if it is late to inclulde them in this month's newsletters.  Keep your kids and those in your neighborhood safe.

I have one to add:

Please back into your driveway today so that if you have to leave, you won't back out over scurrying children in costumes that may restrict their vision and your ability to see them.

And Happy Halloween!

When you run out to get that last minute bag of candy for the trick-or-treaters, pick up a few batteries too!

Halloween night is the night to turn the clocks back an hour, and it is also the best time to change the batteries in your smoke detectors.  I had someone ask me why the batteries should be changed on the specific days that the clocks are changed forward and backward. 

There really is no reason to do it on those days, except that we change the clocks every 6 months, and you should change your batteries every 6 months.  Changing the clocks is easy to remember (or if you forget, you will have an unpleasant surprise when you show up an hour late or an hour eary for church or an appointment the next day).

It is harder to remember to change your smoke detector batteries, yet that could be a matter of life and death, so why not tie it to something you will remember?

Please don't ignore this - the family you save will be your own.

And Happy Halloween!

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

"Be of good cheer. Do not think of today's failures, but of the
success that may come tomorrow. You have set yourselves a difficult
task, but you will succeed if you persevere; and you will find a joy
in overcoming obstacles."
-- Helen Keller (1880-1968)

This is so true.  I have gone through some pretty tough times in my life, but I have worked my way back each time.  I am able to take pride in my achievements because to some, my predicaments or situations may have seemed hopeless.   Whether dealing with health issues, financial disasters or the losses of loved ones, I allowed myself a brief time to feel sorry for myself, but not so much time that I couldn't pull myself back up.  It sometimes took scratching kicking and fighting against depression, but I never sank into it and continued to put on a happy face and keep on keeping on.  I am so happy now, and could never have imagined how good I would feel now or how comfortable I'd be.

I do feel sympathy when others are going through little disappointments from day to day, but I have to confess that a part of me wants to say, stand up and get over it.  Keep your eye on the prize and get past this.  Most times, though, if I ever said that sort of thing aloud, it would probably be perceived as being unfeeling or uncaring.  Far from it.  I just don't want anyone to let their problems take over their lives and give up on their dreams.  What Helen Keller said so eloquently is what I would like to share with others.

Think of what Helen Keller's life was like.  She was completely deaf from birth, completely blind from birth, never learned to speak, and yet she learned American Sign Language and learned to understand what people were saying by putting her hand on their throat when they spoke.  She "heard" through her fingertips by interpreting vibrations.  She learned to type, was a prolific and inspirational writer, and taught other blind and deaf children.  If she can overcome her obstacles, there is nothing we cannot do if we simply decide to get it done.  We will stumble and fall along the way, but if we keep getting up and moving forward, we will reach our goals.

Don't let any failures and disappointments define you or discourage you.  If things come easy to you, you will not appreciate them half as much as you will appreciate and want to celebrate the hard-won victories.  You will find joy in overcoming your obstacles.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

I just read a great article by sales coach John Mayfield on Realtor.com that asks "Do You Have the Right GAS in Your Tank?"   The premise of the article is that you need to fill your tank with the right GAS to reach your destination, which is success.  I never thought of using the word "gas", but it does fit perfectly with my beliefs and the way I used to teach when I was mentoring some entrepreneurs.  So I'll use his GAS acronym to explain my own philosophy.

The first ingredient of GAS is setting GOALS. 

This is something we all know, even if we don't think much about it.  I have long been a proponent of setting goals, writing them down and using them as a roadmap to move me in the direction I want to go.  Clearly if you don't know where you're going, it will be hard to chart a course to get there, and you will miss the important road signs.

It is important to make your goals specific and set a date for reaching them.  That will keep you moving forward and planning your time and energy to reach the deadline you have set.  You might say that you want to make $200,000 this year.  This is not a bad goal, but it needs to be meatier.   To accomplish this, break it down to its components.

For example, to make $200,000 in commissions, how much in gross sales will you have to close?  Don't forget to estimate the deductions from your commission before you receive it.  If you have desk fees or share commissions with your broker, have E&O, risk management or other costs taken out before you get paid, make allowance for those. 

When that is done, look at the average sale price of homes you sell, so that you will know how many homes you will have to sell to meet your goal, then you can figure from there how many you have to average per month.  If you can meet or exceed your monthly average, the annual income will take care of itself and tackling monthly goals allows you to know where you are at all times on your road to success.

The second ingredient is ATTITUDE.

The one thing that we can control is our attitude.  We might not be able to control the ups and downs of life and the disappointments that may confront us, but it is up to us to decide how we handle them.  I have found that putting on a happy face, as the song goes, will encourage others around me to smile and be upbeat, and before I know it, my smile is an accurate representation of how I feel.

If I were to mope around and react grumpily to those around me, I would infect those around me with my grumpiness and have a lousy day.  I don't need any lousy days, so I won't do that.

By the same token, I don't surround myself with grumpy people, naysayers, and those who may try to tell me "for my own good" that I am not going to reach my goals.  I believe in myself, and if others don't believe in me, I'm afraid I can't be around them.  My attitude is too important to my professional and personal success and my physical well-being.

If you have trouble with this, try reading uplifting and motivational books, a chapter each night as you calm down for bedtime, and think about what you read as you go to sleep.  Think about Robert Schuller's motto:  If it's to be, it's up to me.   And realize that you truly are the only one who can control your attitude.  Don't let others govern how you feel about life and yourself.  A positive person will always be more successful, as others want to be around you.

The third ingredient of GAS is SELECTIVITY.

This actually fits very well with the discussion of attitude, as you select those with whom you associate.  Remember your parents warning you not to hang around with the troubled kids or you'd wind up troubled too?  It's the same concept.  If you surround yourself with unmotivated folks, you will have a difficult time keeping yours strong. 

If you watch some television shows, hang with certain people and read certain books and newspapers, you will be convinced that the world is "going to hell in a handbasket" and there is nothing you can do about it.  That is depressing.  Immerse yourself in positive thoughts, surround yourself with positive people, and you will believe that anything is possible, and for you, it just might be!

This is a long post, but is only a small part of how important I feel that these three ingredients are.  They are not the only ones, of course, but Mayfield's use of the GAS acronym inspired me to discuss these three factors.

So, are you putting the right GAS in your tank?

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

 Welcome to the Halloween Party!  In your comments, show me that you have brought something fun to the party. 

Got refreshments?  A costume?  A pumpkin?  Decorations? Post it in your comment and have fun!

Via Mike Michaud (North Texas Help-U-Build):

How many of these words do you know?

When I was about 12 years old I developed an unusual hobby of sorts.  I would pick up a dictionary, pick out a word that I wanted to add to my vocabulary, and the next day at school, my self-imposed challenge was to find three opportunities to use the word in conversation.  By that evening, the word was one I would never forget, and I would be able to use them all the time.

Once my friends realized what I seemed to be doing, they would try to figure out what the definition of the word was from how I used it, and pretty soon we were all coming to school with new words.  I know ... it sounds like we were a bunch of nerds, and maybe we were.  We were a group of about a dozen who did earn excellent grades in school, but we also had lots of outdoor fun and played sports.

I started thinking about those days the other day when someone complimented me on my vocabulary.  Apparently I use words that I think everyone knows, but many people don't.  Now I feel a bit self-conscious, because I do not want to be perceived as one of those nasty people who deliberately use their vocabulary to intimidate others.  I think the trick is moderation, which I think I do.

Anyway, I remember some of the words that were on my list of new daily words all those years ago.  How many do you know?  And what would you think to have a 12 year old kid using them in regular conversation?

Threap

Claptrap

Quincunx

Kerf

Mélange

Saccade

There were, of course, many others, but those are ones I recall of the top of my head as being ones I came to school with.  I think I had the most fun with claptrap, both because of its meaning, and because it was just fun to say.

So how many of these words do you know?

I'll give the definitions in a comment.  How about taking any of them that you don't know and seeing how often you can work it into a conversation?  Or find a different one in your own dictionary search and start using it, and see how much fun it is to increase our vocabularies.  I'd like to learn some of yours too, so please share.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.

Here is proof that what you write will allow others to know you.

I know that many of us here on Active Rain blog at least partially to get business.  The more our name is in front of others, the more apt we are to get that call when someone needs our services.  But what do you blog about?

Some have a strictly business-like blog, with every post a meaningful and informational article to inform readers about some aspect of their business.  Others post nothing but commercials about their rpoducts or services.

Some of us have a mixture of these things, along with funny or interesting stories and anecdotes, photos both lovely and funny, and a bit of personal informatoin about our families.  We may share information that we find interesting or educational that has nothing to do with our business. 

I believe that mixing it up can present a well-rounded profile of who you really are as a person, and readers do feel that they get to know you.  Callers I have had who retain my services after reading my blog say that they feel like we are already friends.  They might feel that I will understand a situation they have because they know I have experienced it or have written about another who has the same circumstances.

And some calls are just to discuss something I have written about.  This morning I heard from a very nice lady who called me from New Jersey.  She is a third grade teacher, and when she arrived at school yesterday morning, she found two praying mantises mostly frozen in her school parking lot.  She scooped them up and brought them into her classroom, fashioned a "cage" for them and caught some insects to put in there.  They warmed up and ate everything she fed them and are doing well.  The kids want to keep them as classroom pets, and she agreed.

When a couple of other teachers heard about this, they told her she had to release them into the cold because it was illegal to keep them.  She was distraught and the kids were upset, so what did she do?  She called me and told me the story, and because I had written a post about  a praying mantis in my yard, she asked me whether I thought she could keep them.  She felt I was a nice person from the things I write, and that I might be willing to help her.

I did a little more research, called her back and told her that there are a couple of imported praying mantises that are endangered, but not the native American species.  She was funny, saying they hadn't spoken so she didn't know if they had an accent and were foreign.  Our native mantises are plentiful and are not endangered at all.  She decided that she would keep them and thanked me for making her feel better for rescuing them.

I know this has nothing to do with my being a Realtor, but you just never know who will be reading what you write, so keep that in mind when you write, and make sure your blog does not depict you as something you do not want to be known as.

I have no criticism of the way anyone wants to blog.  We have free expression here, and I have learned from all types and appreciate them all.  I personally just find that I interact with a lot more consumers with my crazy mixed-up blog than when I used to write only about real estate.

Proof that what you write will allow others to know you.

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Full time real estate services in Fair Oaks CA, with friendly professionalism, 20+ years experience. I work hard to give my buyer or seller a low-stress transaction. "Happy clients make me happy."

For all your real estate needs or questions, call me at (916) 705-8951 or visit my website at www.SusanNealFineProperties.com.