If you get the chance...check out the Harris Real Estate University December To Remember contest. During the entire month of December we are asking for HREU Realtor Coaching Students to submit their stories of how they were able to help someone using something they learned at HREU. Every week we will select the best over all submission and award them with a Free Digital Video Camera.....at least 4 new video cameras will be awarded!

Read the other submissions here.

Dear Tim and Julie,

During this month of gratitude I want to say –  thank you for your coaching and leadership and the impact it has had on my life and those around me. I want to share with you a personal story how I am now able to give back…….

Because of your coaching, I have been able to successfully shift in my business to a business that is thriving in this market. I am now of greater value to my clients and those in my community. Repeatedly, as I sit at kitchen tables, guiding families through the foreclosure process or working out a loan modification package or a short sale. I know that I  am offering hope  at a time when it seems hopeless, I see and feel the stress and fear lift from the room as I show homeowners how to take back control and develop a plan of  action to meet survive  this confusing unpredictable housing market.

It is because of my business success in this difficult market, I am able to extend myself out to a larger circle in my community.

Tim, for several years, I have been a sideline supporter of the Foster Children’s Foundation, an organization that I feel great passion to support.  However this year, thanks to your coaching, I was able to make the commitment to be involved in the Tomorrow Matters Program (TMP).

You see Tim and Julie, the Tomorrow Matters Program meets every Saturday….for most of the day. In the past I have avoided making the commitment because Saturdays are “Real Estate holy days of business”. With your coaching I knew I had “strong spokes” in my business wheel and moreover, I was not dependent on a random buyer sign call on a Saturday afternoon to be successful and secure in my business.

The freedom of having my Saturdays open and to be apart of Tomorrow Matters has been gift to myself beyond words. My sense of balance and wellness has improved. I wake each day with passion to give back…..to myself and those I am in contact with.  I build my business not to fill my pocket with commission checks but as a means to increase my opportunities to give back to my community. I understand that being wealthy or successful is not something that you hide under a rock or flash in others face but is a powerful tool to help lift others to their highest.

Tim, this past Saturday was graduation day in the fall Tomorrow Matters Program. As we said our good-byes and congratulated the kids on their success, I asked what must be the mother of all dumb questions….

I asked (Paul) a young man in the program (Paul is 17 and will soon be too old to participate in the program) ……”What do you want for Christmas?”

At the time it seemed like a simple harmless question…. one of those space filler questions we all ask this time of year.

However the foolishness of the question was pointed out by his reply…..

“Dude I get what DFCS gives me.. and maybe I’ll get lucky the year”.

Dumfounded and thrown back by his honest answer, what I failed to realize was that (Paul) gets what (Paul) gets and like everything else in his world, he has little to no control over it. You see all around the county in churches and offices people with warm and loving hearts are making donations to Boys age 5, or 9, 12, or Teen Girl or Child age 3 - 7 and from that pile  DFCS picks the most age appropriate gifts. Those gifts are then sent to the childrens foster family or group home so that Christmas morning can be as normal as possible. Paul is 17 and has no foster  family support, placement / adoption of 17 years old boys is extremely rare. He is living in a Children’s Shelter and  by default, he will a last kid on the list of kids to receive gifts from the smallest pile of adult teen gifts. In other words, “Paul will get whatever DFCS gives him”

Tim and Julie, being trained by the best to handle any objection I tried to recover by asking that one more question question…..
“If you had to buy yourself a Christmas gift, there was no limit on price, and it had to be something fun what would you buy?”

Paul took less then a minute to reply, (I learned then that 17 year old boys do have a Christmas Wish List),

” I would like to replace my acoustic guitar. It was that was stolen from me at my last group home, and playing guitar is the only thing that I am really good at.”

Tim, Julie I need an acoustic, steel string, mid+ level guitar for a 17-year-old boy to break the mindset of a kid who is growing up thinking all he will ever get in life is what is left in the pile.  Tim, Julie more then once I have heard you talk about the law of attraction and mindset are strong forces in the universe.  Whom do you know that can help me make this happen? I need my HREU family to help me change this kid’s world.

How can we make this happen?

Tim and Julie, With Gratitude THANK YOU your’ coaching and leadership have not only affected my life but the lives of my clients their families and the lives of Children Living in Foster Care.

Thank-You and Happy Holidays,

Eric Reid

Renaissance Realty Group

175 Langley Drive C4

Update: Paul WILL be getting his guitar for Christmas….

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“found a guitar….might need a little work…..send me your address and we will ship it. Comes with a stand and a cover…….from; Tim and Julie”

HREU is sending Eric (and Paul) and guitar. Paul will have a great Christmas afterall! Please consider donating gifts to your local DFCS. Remember, the older kids usually get little to no gifts for Christmas.