For those of us participating in the MakeOver2TakeOver Contest, our assignments are due today. The week was a challenge for Caulk Wood TEAM, Bonding for Success.

I have been out of town at a funeral since Wed. Kim Woods five year old daughter had a birthday on Friday and Kim went to a blogging conference in the middle of the week.

When Rich announced the title, I read that and thought... OK, been there, done that. Rich answered back and bought the T-Shirt.

When I started in real estate, my youngest started kindergarten, my husband was pastoring and I was excited. Within the first month, we were involved in a church split. If you know what that means, no further comments needed. If you don't then GOOD for you!

Regardless, my entire Sphere of Influence (SOI) was gone. (((pooff)))

This was in 1995, things were really different back then. I was working in a traditional company and all the talk was about, " how the internet was going to do away with Realtors."

Well, I didn't know enough to be afraid.

So the first thing I did was get a Realtor.com web site and a laptop. At that time in my traditional company in Saline Michigan, no one had a web site. In later years, I've been teased, "you were one of the first to get a web-site".

All I knew was, well, if the internet is going to take over Realtors, then I better be on the internet.

Silly now but I was only licensed for a few months.

Back in 1995, I did the traditional things I knew, "Open Houses every Sunday, and floor time, plus I picked up floor time when someone couldn't be there, I joined the Chamber, attended meetings and handed out my cards. When I did Open Houses for other agents, ( I had no listings of my own ) I got my name in the paper.

***Fast forward to 2008, I rarely do OPEN HOUSES, NEVER Floor time, and spend less than 1% on the newspaper than what I did back then.***

It was fun to work with Kim on this project as we thought:. " Ok, no closings in 9 months, credit cards maxed out, and no money, it is to either  Go For Broke or 'Be' Broke.

I am even more confident now that time spent doing the things that don't cost a lot of money can make you successful.

It is good to reflect back on early days to remember what we did, what we would do now if this had occured in 2008 vs 1995.

Kim will share the results of what we felt would be effective for "going for it" in 2008.

I'm looking forwarding to learning from my competitors this week. This is an assignment that I believe in a slow market, we can all learn, "something" from. Good Luck everyone ! Off to catch a plane.