Millionaire for a Moment

I attended an exciting conference last week all about Mortgage Planning. The most rewarding moment, however, may have come when I did not receive $1,000,000. On the second night of this three day conference they played one of the many games designed to keep the energy level high. This particular game was based on the TV game show Deal... or No Deal and the player had a chance to win $1,000,000. I was as excited to play as the next guy; that may not be a lot of money, but you can probably live on it!

The first step had all 3900 of us go to side tables where we randomly picked a chocolate bar. Twenty-six of those bars had a golden ticket inside, a la Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. I was one of the lucky 26 and we all went on stage. Now they had to narrow us down to one contestant so they handed us each a black envelope as they collected our golden tickets. All but one person would open their envelope to find the word "Sorry" printed on the card inside. But that one person - he or she was going to continue on and play the game. There was a glitch though, as often happens in life, and when they finished handing us our envelopes they realized that they had given out more than 40 chocolate bars with golden tickets! How to fairly deal with the people who did not get an envelope? The host decided to collect all the envelopes from us and divide us into two groups; he flipped a coin and half the group had to leave the stage. The other half were given the envelopes anew and after opening them one person went on to play the game. Yours truly was in the group that had to leave the stage.

Now what I neglected to mention is that I did not know what the envelopes were for when they handed them to us and before the host decided to take them all back I opened mine and glanced inside. You can probably guess by now that mine did not say "Sorry" and I would have been the person playing!! While I sat in my seat watching the game play out (after passing on the chance to take $29,000 and losing the chance at $1,000,000 early on, the lone player walked with a cool $9,000) I at first felt a little frustrated and angry. But I soon realized that I was walking away with much more than a million dollars. After all, even if you win $1,000,000 it begins to lose value instantly due to depreciation, taxes and so on. But I was the only one in the room to leave with a secret message from an envelope. A message of priceless value that can never be taken or stolen or depreciated. A message that was fated to end up in my hands. Inside the envelope, there was a card and it read: You ARE a WINNER!

A Season in Tme

I missed the Brokers' Open last week while attending a conference on Mortgage Planning in Las Vegas and I came back with great info and lots to tell you about. Today I want to share the most exciting parts:

• The market is expected to continue its contraction from $3.9 trillion in 2003 to $3.0 trillion this year while inflation (rates) continue to rise... THAT IS GOOD NEWS
• Over the course of 2007, the number of loan officers should drop from 480,000 to 250,000. That means 230,000 less people dropping rate sheets on you, 230,000 less people attempting to buy your business rather than earn it and 230,000 less people trying to explain yet another convoluted loan program with "assisted this" and "deferred interest that" when they can not get THE PAPERWORK RIGHT ON A BASIC 30YR LOAN, OR EVEN RETURN A PHONE CALL... (and that is very good news).
• By the end of 2007 the number of Real Estate agents will drop from 2.7 million to 1.4 million... AND THAT MAY BE THE BEST NEWS OF ALL!

Let me share with you one of the most important things I learned last week: there are no bad markets!! There are seasons: times of contraction and expansion, times to sow and times to reap. But for the successful Real Estate agent it is never a bad market; just a change in positioning.

If you do not have a plan for the seasons, if you are not sure how to dial in your success, that is OK. See me after the rally, or see Katie of Lisa. I have strategies and plans to grow your business. Who is going to be successful during this time of transition, this change of season? That is a mystery here at the Mystery House Tour. I will tell you one very good indicator though: people whose professionalism demands that they make time each week to preview properties in their area and know their inventory! I congratulate every one of you that shows up on a regular basis. Enjoy the change of seasons, enjoy the Rally and most importantly: enjoy the Ride.