I love AR competitions! They're generally a lot of fun and I always learn something new. It's kind of funny that it takes a challenge to motivate me to learn something new but hey, at least I accept challenges and get out of my comfort zone and force myself to continually learn something new. LOL
This latest challenge was issued by Niki Parekh and it was to blog about what AR means to me and to illustrate it in a collage. First and foremost, I have never worked with a collage program before so finding in one that was user friendly and somewhat easy for this collage newbie was a challenge all unto itself.
First there was Picasa (totally sucked - don't recommend it for the newbie), then Shape and then I finally found Photovisi after asking Niki if he could recommend a very user friendly program for the collage newbie. Thx Niki; greatly appreciate the recommendation. :)
For me, becoming a member of AR was all about learning to blog for business; it was all about increasing my exposure to prospective buyers and borrowers in my local market in an effort to generate leads and expand my internet presence. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!
My AR blog is a definite lead generator which has resulted in additional closed transactions and I've displayed a few of my success stories in my collage. WHOO HOO!!!
So, on that note, I want to give a great big THANK YOU to my friend, Carol Lee, a local Realtor with Dilbeck Real Estate, for dragging my @$$ here and pestering me into blogging about loan programs and the mortgage loan process.
I also want to thank Virginia Hepp for reaching out to me back then because my first impression of AR was not a warm and fuzzy one and Virginia really encouraged me to hang in there because it would eventually get better. You were right Virginia.
I want to also give a shout out to some of my fellow MLO's who together, we have all continually struggled to educate and inform others about the mortgage industry as well as the loan process. Because let's be honest here, we MLO's are the minority here and we are constantly bashed by AR Realtors here and most of us are usually prepared to step up and fight the good fights. So to Janet Guilbault, Rob Rauf, Gene Mundt, Rodney Mason, George Souto, Ed Gillespie, Nevin Williams, Karen Cooper and all the other licensenced MLO's here who are the epitome of professionalism in our fields - BRAVO!!!
I want to also thank my blogging buddies, Renee Burrows, Anita Clark and fellow MLO David Krushinsky for inviting me to be a part of their blogging groups.
Being a part of their blogging groups has been a wonderful opportunity to not only help educate and inform the buyers in their markets about the loan process and the mortgage industry but it's been a great way of increasing the exposure (and google juice) to my own blog. WIN WIN!!!
I want to also give a shout out to some darling, spunky, southern gals, Tammy Lankford, Charita Cadenhead, Pam Miller, TLW and Cinnamon Wright (aka CA - they don't call her Cheeky Assistant for nothing) who I've come to know, admire and respect. I think of Tammy as our resident storyteller because I just love the way she tells a story. She has literally had me in tears to laughs in a matter of minutes with her funny and heartfelt stories. As for Charita, Pam, TLW and CA, well let me just say this, they give a whole new meaning to the word "Sassy". They remind me of me (only I'm a native Cali girl)! LOL
I want to give a special thanks to Greg Nino, Gwen Banta and Bill & Liz Spear (aka BLiz) for their incredible sense of humors because they bring a whole new meaning to the word funny when snorting coffee out your nose and all over your keyboard while reading one of their posts. Then there are the resident photographers Vegas Bob and Russel Ray for some the most incredible photography in the rain.
Lastly, I want to give a big shout out to my fellow left coasters Karen Fiddler, Cynthia Larsen, Elizabeth Weintraub, Gene Riemenschneider, Jane Grant, Kat DeLong, and Tni LeBlanc as well as my LA & Ventua county buddies Ken Barker, Maya Swamy, Sheila Rasak, Andi Grant, Endre Barath, Jane Peters, and Michael Jacobs for being really incredible bloggers/writers and whose blogs I have really enjoyed subscribing to.
Cali is a wild and wacky place and these folks are some of the absolute best resources for all things real estate when it comes to buying and selling real estate here in our beloved Cali.
I'm sure I'm missing some really wonderful bloggers and friends but I could literally go on for another 700 words about all the things I love about AR but I'm sure I would lose the last remaining ones that have hung in here so far for the first 700 words. On that note, here is my AR collage and just a sampling of what it means to me.
Photos courtesy of flickr: honeytech hebergersite alvhyttan
Comments (29)Subscribe to CommentsComment