Tony & Darcy - The C Team's Blog

Darcy and I returned home earlier this evening from our office retreat.  It was great.  Our Broker pays for the Agents in the office to go to a resort for a retreat.  This year our retreat was as I mentioned in my last blog at Ruby's Inn at the gateway to Bryce Canyon National Park. 

It is a gorgeous location, these photographs really don't do it justice.  Anyway back to the retreat, we went on Thursday night for check in then a dinner with the other agents in our office and their spouses and in some cases, their children.  It is a great time to get to know people outside of the office.  Our Broker also hired a local band to come and play. 

It was a great time, everyone that remained danced and sang.  It was a lot of fun to see people let their hair down so to speak.  It was much more fun than I had thought that it was going to be.  The band, based in Cedar City, named Muddy Boots, did a great job of mixing musical genres in a good way.  They are a good band, and if anyone is interested their web site is muddybootband.com.  They have at least one CD. 

Today was spent in free (to the agents) CE training for 6 hours.  The instructor was at one time on the State Real Estate Commission Board, so the training was good, and he was a good instructor.  We are going to have a new state approved REPC this fall, so he highlighted some of the changes while teaching us the current REPC and what will not be changing.  He then taught the Code of Ethics, very timely and good instruction.  It was valuable training, it helps us as agents be more professional and competent.  It also was great in making the office feel more unified and more like a team. 

It was time well spent.  I hope that everyone has a great weekend!

Darcy and I are packing up for our office's annual retreat.  We are going to beautiful Bryce Canyon.  For those that are wondering, our broker takes our entire office to a resort overnight.  The Brokerage pays for the rooms, meals and the training.  Tonight, after getting checked in, we will have a dinner it gives all the agents time to mingle outside of the office.  We also get to know the spouses that aren't involved directly in Real Estate. 

Tomorrow, we will have 6 hours of training.  Our Broker brings in sales trainers or CE certified trainers.  It is great!  Tomorrow we will have 6 hours of free CE training.  We also go over whatever issues that face the office, and try to resolve them.  It is a great opportunity to get information that makes us better agents, and to be more professional.  I am not sure how long our broker has been doing these retreats, but it is very beneficial to us as Realtors to get the training, and to feel appreciated!  I will let you know more when we get back!

I am back for a short respite.  Darcy and I went to GE Supra in Portland.  It was a great time.  We were wined and dined with several other people from around the country.  We got invited because Darcy is the MLS chairperson in our local board of directors.  It was a sales pitch, but it was done right, they took care of everything!

There is a lot going on in the world of lockboxes, the Active Key and the E Key smart phones, PDA's etc.  are amazing!  The capabilities are really cool.  For those who haven't been there, Portland is an amazingly beautiful city.  I thought that it would be a nice city, but it is so green and well I guess that you could say blend in with the hills and trees that I would never guess that it was as large as it is.  The Rose Garden is very beautiful also. 

It is good to be home even for a short while!

Yesterday while at the office, one of the agents in our office made the comment that he had a neighbor that had taken out a construction loan to build a new house then didn't qualify for a mortgage on that house.  He said that he knew of this happening twice in our area.  One case in his daughter's neighborhood, the bank holding the construction loan actually evicted and foreclosed on the new home.

I have been unable to verify this, and while it sounds outrageous, I still wonder if this could be true.  Has anyone experienced anything like this?

This really isn't about golf.  I have played enough golf in my lifetime to be just thouroughly frustrated with it.  I was watching the Tiger Woods press conference after he had won his 3rd US Open at Torrey Pines.  A reporter asked him if he was nervous when he teed it up at the 18th hole trailing Rocco Mediate by one stroke.  It was his answer that got me, his answer was: "of course I was nervous, being nervous just means that you care."

Here is the best Golfer in the World, arguably the best golfer ever, and he still gets nervous.  It vindicated the feelings that we have when go into a listing presentation or a buyers presentation.  It is the jitters that we feel when we have researched listings then take buyers to see them.  It isn't necessarily the feelings of self doubt, but rather the acknowledgement that you care.  You care that you aren't wasting your buyers and your time showing them homes.  It means that you want to get the highest possible price and the quickest possible sale, with the least amount of hassle for your sellers.

So take it from one of the best in the World:  It's okay to be nervous, it just means that you care!  Have a great week!