I keep hearing agents complaining about how short the battery seems to keep a charge on their ActiveKey. Many have gone and bought the autocharger for them. Me, I have enough stuff in my cab (yeah, I drive a truck for real estate) and don't want yet another cable device (already have a charger for my phone and for my laptop, beleive it or not).

There is a way you can make your charge last for weeks, believe it or not.

Turn the radio off!

Yes, the biggest drain on the ActiveKey battery is the radio. Even when you turn the unit "off" the radio is still on and draining the battery. You can turn the radio off by simply turning your key on. When on, press the ON/OFF button for about 10 seconds. The key display will indicate RADIO IS TURNED OFF. The battery charge will now last quite some time.

Oh yeah, when you are going to show a property, don't forget to turn the radio back on so it can get the code update. Turn your key on, and press the number 1. The radio will turn back on. It takes less than 10 minutes to get the new daily code.

Hope that helps.

BTW - this information is on the quick start sheet that you probably can't find anymore.

Three women die together in an accident and go to heaven. When they get there, St. Peter says, 'We only have one rule here in heaven: don't step on the ducks!'

So they enter heaven, and sure enough, there are ducks all over the place. It is almost impossible not to step on a duck, and although they try their best to avoid them, the first woman accidentally steps on one.

Along comes St. Peter with the ugliest man she ever saw. St. Peter chains them together and says, 'Your punishment for stepping on a duck is to spend eternity chained to this ugly man!'

The next day, the second woman accidentally steps on a duck and along comes St. Peter, who doesn't miss a thing. With him is another extremely ugly man. He chains them together with the same admonishment as for the first woman.

The third woman has observed all this and, not wanting to be chained for all eternity to an ugly man, is very, VERY careful where she steps. She manages to go months without stepping on any ducks, but one day St. Peter comes up to her with the most handsome man she has ever laid eyes on .. very tall, long eyelashes, muscular, and thin. (Kind of looks like this guy-------------->

St. Peter chains them together without saying a word. The happy woman says, 'I wonder what I did to deserve being chained to you for all of eternity?' The guy says, 'I don't know about you, but I stepped on a duck!'

Here are a few traditional hints to help in your daily life around the home:

• To avoid cutting yourself when slicing vegetables, get someone else to hold the vegetables while you chop.
• To relieve high blood pressure naturally, simply cut yourself and bleed for a few minutes. This will reduce the pressure on your veins and arteries. Repeat as needed.
• If you have trouble falling back asleep after you turn of your alarm, place a set mouse trap over the off button.
• To relieve the symptoms of a bad cough take an extra large dose of laxatives. You will be too afraid of the consequences to cough.
• You only need two tools in life, WD -40 and Duct Tape. If it doesn't move and should, spray it with WD-40. If it moves and it shouldn't, wrap it in duct tape.
• For those times you need a third tool, if you can't fix it with a hammer you have an electrical problem.
• If you only tool is a hammer, everything else becomes a nail
• Some people are like slinkies, they aren't really much good for anything but they make you smile when pushed down the stairs.

I have a pair of old sandals. Actually I have several pairs of old sandals. But I have one special pair of old sandals. I have had them for over 6 years. I got them on sale from Gart Sports in Beaverton, OR.

They fit perfectly from the first time I tried them on. I wore them everywhere, to the beach, to work, to relax in. I wore them on planes and while driving, while walking and while working out. (Don’t laugh, yes, I work out.) I have worn them in over 20 states. They have been soaked by the waters of oceans, countless small lakes and streams.

I wore them when I first met my wife. Yes, my sandals are older our relationship, but then, most of my clothes are. I wore them when I first saw my grandson and held him in my arms. I wore them walking him around the house, letting the motion put him to sleep.

I wore them out. They are cracked, the soles are worn, the tops are barely holding together. They don’t provide the support or comfort that they used to. I have gotten a new pair of sandals to replace these. I looked for weeks but couldn’t find a pair like the old ones. I mean a pair of sandals that I knew were just perfect from the minute I tried them on. Oh, they are comfortable, but they just don’t the same. I still find myself putting my old sandals on even though they have almost fallen apart. I should toss them, but, I am just not ready to yet.

Homes can be a lot like old shoes. Sometimes they are perfect from the time someone sees them. If lucky, they become more special with time. They are filled with memories; of children born and raised, of birthdays, of holidays, of graduations, of vigils, of friends and of family. They are filled with memories of the good and too often the sad, of celebration and of sorrow. But they are the memories that we take through life just the same.

And sometimes, like old shoes, they have to be left behind, not the memories but the homes. Maybe they are too big, maybe too small. Maybe there is a job transfer. Maybe some reasons that are not so pleasant.

We need to remember that when we are prospecting for a listing, when we are giving a listing presentation. Sometimes we are selling more than just a house, we are selling someone’ memories. It may be just a listing to us, but it is often a bittersweet and traumatic experience for our clients.

Old shoes, it’s really hard to let them go.

Part of my lead generation is talking with FSBO's (For Sale By Owners). 

I have been doing this regularly for sometime but I still get responses that amaze me, regardless how many times I have heard them before.

I just got off the phone with a woman who is selling her own house. She does not want to deal with an agent, does not want to offer a co-op. She doesn't want to pay someone else for something she can do herself.

That's fine. I do a lot of things myself, also. But I know what I am doing (ok, my wife might sometimes have a different opinion), usually.

But this woman does not really understand. Her house (vacant, not where she lives) is an expired listing. It did not sell in 6 months on the market. It was overpriced. Based on comparables, overpriced by about 10% - 15%. I don't know what steps, other than MLS, the agent might or might not have taken to market the place.

But what do I know? I know that if it didn't sell the first time, it was priced too high.

So, what is this woman doing? She is selling it herself to save the realtor commission. On top of that, she has raised the asking price by over $5000. Her only marketing avenues are:

• a sign in front of the house
• 2 for sale by owner arrows pointing towards the property
• a weekly ad in the newspaper

I would like to have told her she more than likely won't sell this home with her tactics. I would like to have told her that her best chance is to trust and use the services of a knowlegdable Realtor. I would like to have told her that she is doing a good job of selling her competitions home. But, at least at this time, she would not have heard me.

I wished her best of luck.

For a copy of my For Sale By Owner handbook, just call me or click on my email link.

On the way into the office this morning I was listening to Neal Boortz. Those of you familiar with him probably know that he is crusty, sometimes crude and rather impatient with some things. He posted a link to this on his website and recommended watching. It is very out of character with the persona he usually presents.

The winner of the 2008 Cannes Film Festival Online Competition Cannes 2008 is Alonso Alvarez Barreda for his short film Historia de un Letrero (The Story of a Sign) produced in Mexico/U.S.A.

It is a very moving, heart warming story of what one person can do to change the life of another in a postive way. How just a few simple words, a few seconds, can mean the difference between success and failure.

It made me think, what simple thing can I do that would make a difference?

What words can I change on my sign to make life better, for someone else as well as for myself?

I was just reading reading Michelle Finnamore's post Eating With Nude People in the Room  and it reminded me of a strange weekend a long time ago in a state far far away.

I was 22 and stationed on a ship in Bremerton, WA. I took some time off to visit a woman I new in Southern Oregon, near a little town named Takilma on the Illinois River. Her name was Susie and she had been a family friend for at least 10 years. She was also married, 10 years older than me, and 8 months pregnant.

She and her husband lived in a, well, commune isn't exactly the word for it. Everyone owned their own land and built and maintained their own homes. Guess you would just call it a community of long (what the heck did I mean by long) wanna be hippies or hippie types. I rolled in on Wednesday evening and we stayed up late catching up, we hadn't seen each other in a couple of years.

I went to sleep up in the loft and woke up hearing voices in the kitchen. There was Susie, in here house dress and there was here neighbor, long haired, good looking and stark naked with an even tan all over. Now you can imagine the reaction of a 22 year old sailor having just gotten up out of bed.

When I was able to pick my jaw up off the floor we had introductions. This was her best friend in the area, don't remember her name. We sat and had breakfast as if this were the most normal thing in the world, Well, for them it was.

Later, I walked the woman back to her place to pick up something that her husband was making for Susie's cabin. When we got there, we were introduced. Of course, he was naked also, except for a pair of heavy workboots and leather gloves. After all, he was working in his sawmill. He was covered with sawdust and was picking splinters out of various places on his body.

This was a very strange weekend, to say the least. One of these days I will tell about the county fair we went to.

To this day one of the thoughts I live by is:

Wear Pants When Working Power Tools!

"The expression of gratitude is but a paltry acknowledgment of our debt to those who have served our nation with honor both at home and abroad, the debt continues to mount." Oconee County Commission Chairman Melvin Davis.

After nearly ten years of herculean efforts, amidst scandal and scrambling for donations, on July 4th, this year, the Oconee County Veteran's Memorial was dedicated. Hundreds of Oconee County residents, veterans and their families attended the emotional and solemn ceremony.

The memorial is a 13 feet tall and 23 feet long monument of marble with the seals of the 5 branches of the military - Army - Navy - Air Force - Marines - Coast Guard - prominently embedded. It is fronted by a small fountain in a courtyard bordered with flowers. The flags of the 5 services, as well as the United States and Georgia flags frame the background.

Much of the labor and materials were provided by local businessess.

The memorial is located in Oconee Veteran's Park, 1.5 miles west of the Oconee County Community Center on Hog Mountain Rd (Hwy 53). 

At least for men. An article titled "Low Carb beats Low Fat in Diet Duel"  A 2 year controlled study in Israel finds that and Atkins style diet was the most effective for weight loss in men. More surprising, it also found that a low carb diet reduced cholesterol more than the other two diets in the study, Mediteranean and Low Fat. In fact, it found that although all three diets worked on both weight and cholesterol, the Low  Fat diet came in last for both men and women. The Mediteranean Diet had the highest weight loss for women.

The study will be presented in tomorrow's (Thursday, July 17th, happy birthday Sardi) New England Journal of Medicine and being called highly credible.

What makes this even better, from my view point, I just went back on an Atkins style low carb diet. Whoopee!

I have just been rereading a book I read first over 25 years ago, In Search of Excellence by Tom Peters & Robert H Waterman Jr. It was a very interesting read then and is a very intersting read now. It analyzed the practices of what were considered 43 of the top performing companies in the Fortune 500. The proposition they came up with was that rather than being companies being run by "Bean Counters" they were companies whose focus was on:

• People (employees)
  
• Customers
  
• Action

Along with this Peters came up with a list of 8 themes or values that these companies practiced. I worked for one of those companies that was featured multiple times in this book, Digital Equipment Corporation (D.E.C.). Peters was at many conferences and management training sessions that D.E.C. put in place. At that time it was the 2nd largest computer company in the world. Not much more than a decade after being featured D.E.C. was no longer in business.

Two of the reasons that D.E.C. was featured were it's commitment to customer service and sticking to the knitting or maintaining it's core competencies. However, shortly after being featured those in charge (except for maybe Ken Olson) lost focus on these. They brought in a new CFO who implemented, for the first time, a bean counter attitude in the company. At the same time the focused was changed from an engineering focused company to a sales focused company.

Needless to say, service was one of the first areas to suffer. Margin numbers were increased and service productivity numbers were increased. Additionally, sales quotas took priority over customer commitments. Ultimately, it was the customer that suffered. All this was designed to increase the overall margin and revenue of the company thus returning more to the shareholders (of which most of the employees were). These actions, along with several others, had just the opposite effect.

So what does that mean to me today? And to you? What are your 8 themes? Or even 2 themes? Are you customer/client focused or dollar focused. Do you "stick to the knitting" and try to excell at one or two or three core competencies; buyers, sellers, residential, commercial, property management, etc. or do you dilute your efforts by trying to do everything?

Are you still practicing what made you successful before? Or have you lost focus on your core competencies? Is the customer truly #1, or does the client take a second seat to counting your beans?

Go ahead and read the book, it is still pertinent today, especially today. Not all of it may apply to the Real Estate profession, but much of it does.