OCTOBER 2012 ISSUE 7

2012 CALENDAR

October 2 Deadline to Request presentation of PMN at National Convention 15 Local Chapter Elections must be Completed 31 Local & State Chapters dues changes to National for 2013 dues billing 31 Happy Halloween 31 Local & State Dues Changes for 2013 to National

November 1 2013 Officer Reports for State & Local Chapters to National 6 Presidential Election Day – Vote 7-12 NAR/WCR National Convention, Orlando 7 WCR PMN Class 22 Happy Thanksgiving

December 1 Name of State Member of the Year Recipient due to National 2 Name of Entrepreneur of the Year Recipient due to National 25 Merry Christmas

January 1 Happy New Year 1 State Member of the Year & Entrepreneur of the year to National

15 Meetings & Programs Announced to All Members EVENTS, ARTICLES & INFORMATION FOR THE NEWSLETTER CONTACT: Kim@KimSlade.com Please submit articles by the 15

th of

each month, in a Word document (if possible) and Arial font

Hello Women’s Council Members,

We would like to thank our National Women’s Council President

Bobbie Nelson from Santa Cruz, California for coming to Orlando as

our special guest speaker at our August Convention. We were truly

blessed to have Bobbie here with us. We would also like to thank

Melissa Zimbelman our 2013 Candidate for National Financial

Secretary for attending and participating as well as California State

President Jamie Saltman and California State President Elect Tammy

Newland for attending. We really enjoyed having them all here with

us!

Congratulations to all of our members elected to our 2013 Leadership

Team and Congratulations to all of our 2012 Florida Chapter Award

Recipients. You can find the list of all our Award Recipients on our

website.

http://www.floridaassistant.com/WCRWebsite/WCR/State/0.PDF/Awa

rds/AwardRecipients.2012.pdf

Our National Convention is just around the corner and we have the

advantage of it being in Orlando. There will be great educational

sessions to attend and the networking opportunities are limitless. I

encourage you to take part in all of it and I know you will come home

with so many ideas that will benefit you both personally and

professionally.

Our Chapter’s have held their elections and we would like to

congratulate all the incoming officers. Your District Leadership

Retreats will be held very soon. With the New Year right around the

corner, now is the time to get signed up on a Committee in your

Chapter for next year.

Looking forward to seeing you in Orlando!

Women’s Council President, Diane McCombs

Emergency? Who You Gonna Call?

SRQ DAILY COLUMNIST JEFF WIDMER IS A PUBLIC RELATIONS AND SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGIST

Payphones have gone the way of steam engines and spats. Concern about security has not. Colleges have responded by installing emergency call stations known for their blue lights. Adults old enough to remember rotary phones can use their landlines and lifelines. Leave it to the internet generation to develop an alternative. Security apps for smartphones have become a booming business. They provide a wide range of functions from receiving emergency notifications to connecting you with commercial monitoring teams through a subscription service. Apple’s App Store alone lists 98 apps in the emergency-alert category. What’s your best bet if you want to use your smartphone as a mobile substitute for blue-light boxes? Here’s a short list of apps, some free, some not, starting with passive software and advancing toward interactive systems: • CodeRED Mobile Alert. Designed to keep you informed, this app taps into the national CodeRED Emergency Notification System to alter subscribers of public safety issues. • Emergency. The utility allows the direct dialing to four main emergency services (general, fire, police, medical). • SOS Panic Button. This app features a large panic button that, when pressed, will use the phone’s GPS tracking feature to notify friends and family of your location by telephone and email. • Bluelight. The app notifies your friends and family when you don’t arrive at your destination as planned. • SOS Response. This is for users who want their smartphones to act more like hardwired home alarm and blue-light systems. The app sends photos and GPS information to a monitoring team, who then alert responders. • MyForce. Another subscription-based service, this app sends reports to alarm monitors who, the developer says, will connect to 911 dispatchers “after an emergency is validated.” A word of caution about the technology. Anyone can use a blue-light emergency call button or home-alarm system. Only those who can afford a smartphone and the monthly fee can access some of these subscription services. And what happens if your phone can’t find a signal?

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE ON NOVEMBER 6TH

– YOUR VOTE COUNTS!

Women’s Council – North Broward Masquarede & Martinis

Fundraiser - $50 per person The first 100 people to sing in at the door get a FREE LIPSTICK ($18 value), compliments

of Lulu Cosmetics!!!

CONTACT JULIE DANIEL SCHMIDT, REGISTRATION CHAIR

WOMEN'S COUNCIL OF REALTORS, NORTH BROWARD CHAPTER JULIEDANIELSCHMIDT@REMAX.NET - 954-296-7804

SPONSORSHIPS STILL AVAILABLE - CONTACT AMY CHENOY 954-540-6187

WHEN

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2012 FROM 7:00 PM TO 10:00 PM EDT

WHERE HILTON AT DEERFIELD BEACH

100 FAIRWAY DRIVE DEERFIELD BEACH, FL 33441

THIS IS THE EVENT YOU WON'T WANT TO MISS!!!

ENTERTAINMENT, SINGING, DANCING...

Entertainment DJ, Gary Stewart of Star Entertainment sponsored by Castelli Real Estate Services

Entertainer, Singer/EmCee, Desiree Dubois sponsored by Greater Fort Lauderdale Realtors

Passed Hors d'oeuvres & Martinis Sponsored by Mortgage Advantage

(1 martini and plenty of appetizers included per ticket)

APPLETINI SPONSOR, BANKERS MORTGAGE LENDING DIRTY MARTINI SPONSOR, L&S INSURANCE

COSMOPOLITAN MARTINI SPONSOR, CITIBANK MANGO MARTINI SPONSOR, MIAMI ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS

MY ENERGY PLACE OF FORT LAUDERDALE WILL BE OFFERING THE FOLLOWING 10 MINUTE SESSIONS: NANCY ZIFER - PSYCHOMETRY

JOLIE HASSAN - HAND ANALYSIS/PALM READINGS

MASKS REQUIRE

FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS NEED PRACTICAL MOBILE APPS FEATURED IN MACS WOMEN – MOTIVATORS AND CREATORS

When your online business peaks up, multi-tasking may not be enough to help you organize the time. Operating a virtual office effectively is an increasing concern for business owners who are busy balancing business and their personal life as well; you are not the only female entrepreneur who is stuck in this often crazy situation. Meetings are coming in, customer’s inquiries are coming in and you need to take the kids out for baseball practice and get dinner on the table at a decent hour. Rather than wish for a genie in a bottle or pull your hair out, let’s take a look at how mobile applications can help you organize your to-do list.

Voice Messaging. No kidding, Dragon Dictation is a mobile app that allows female entrepreneurs to just speak instead of typing text messages. Well, this is the 21st century technology and sharing and storing information with this app will just be a breeze. You can also update your status on social media networks and even make notes to remind yourself of important things. This app is indeed helpful for small business owners who are always on the go. Faster Payments. Small business owners who are multi-tasking between family and business matters will be glad to received payments via their mobile phones. Square – a small swipe gadget allows any female entrepreneurs and professional women to take payments even when travelling to seminars and other business engagements. Square is a free item but requires minimal fee from other vendors. With Square, small business owners can easily take payments from clients while being mobile, with only a 2.7% fee per transaction. No More Same Outfit. With your craze schedule, it would be no surprise if you wore the same outfit to an event or a meeting with the same people multiple times. You can avoid this by using a mobile app called Outfit Diary. The app will help you keep track of what you wear and when you wore it. Simple and vital for women on the go, you will simply love this app. Mobile Fax Machine. Simply turn your mobile phone into a fax machine with Faxburner. Entrepreneurs who are always on the go or who do not use a standard fax machine in your home office will find this app useful. The app allows you to receive faxes right on your mobile phone which you can also opt to have sent to your email. Whether you are on the road or in the middle of a business transaction, the app enables you to receive and send fax, you can have all important information right at your finger tips. Record and Save Your Meeting. Save Meeting app is a multi-platform app that lets you record,

save and also share your meetings and documents with your team or staff. The app is free to use for Android or Apple gadgets and even lets you save up to 1,000 minutes in your Save Meeting account. Another cool feature of this app is that it transcribe audio recordings easily. There are still a lot of mobile applications that can help you organize your small business. Like many female entrepreneur on the go or even in their home office, being on the lookout for the latest apps will allow you to set up systems to help you operate more efficiently. You can download apps for free or purchase them at very reasonable subscription rates. These apps are easy to operate too. If there are apps that you are currently using that you find helpful in operating your business, feel free to share them with everyone. Send them to me and we’ll get them in the next newsletter. Send the app and a brief description of what you use it for. Send to Kim@KimSlade.com

Top Five Things to Prevent a

Carjacking

1. Awareness, awareness, awareness. How many times have you pulled up to a stop sign or red light and immediately started checking emails, looking at documents or listening to voice mails? Did you even notice the two guys on the side of the road with a baseball bat? Most carjackers are looking to surprise you. But if you see them first, they will wait for another victim.

2. Cell phones. We all have a cell phone, but how many times have you went to make a call and your phone was almost dead? Charge your phone every chance you get so that you can use it when necessary. The last thing you want is to be stuck on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere with no phone.

3. Call. Don't stop. Many times carjackers use accidents as a way to attack you. They may fake an accident to get you to stop to help. Instead, call the police to come assist them. It's better to be safe than sorry.

4. Avoid drive through ATMs. Carjackers sometimes stake out drive through ATMs. When you pull up they can block you from the front and behind and demand much more than just your car. If you must use an ATM, use one located inside a building like a grocery store or inside a bank.

5. Don't get trapped. Be sure to keep at least one-half your car's length in front of you when you stop at a stop sign or red light. This allows you enough space for an escape route.

Thanks Linda Arvanitis, for providing the Awesome Quotes

"Remember, happiness doesn't depend on who you are or what you have; it depends solely on what you think."

Dale Carnegie

"We can never bring anything to us unless we are grateful for what we have. In fact, if somebody was completely and utterly grateful for everything, they would never have to ask for anything, because it would be given to them before they even asked.

That is the power of Gratitude." May the joy be with you, Rhonda Byrne

What’s the Matter? Communicating Real Estate to Foreign Buyers By Gregg Fous

English is a difficult language, no question. When I was 11 years old I spent the summer with a family in Germany. I spent a few months prior to my travels with a set of LP records in an attempt to learn to speak some basic German in order to be able to communicate with my hosts. I learned most of my German, however, from my host’s five year old son. I do remember using the expression; “What’s the matter?” whenever I got a laugh or didn’t understand a reaction from my new German friends. The expression would get even more laughs. Then I would repeat, “What’s the matter?” and the laughter would return. The definition of matter: “the substance or substances of which any physical object consists or is composed: the matter of which the earth is made.” according to Dictionary .com, and apparently according to my German friends. For me it was synonymous with, “what’s up” or “what’s wrong”? For a country that measures its nails by the penny, its bras by the cup, power by the horse, and paper by the ream, it’s a wonder that we can all understand each other at all. At Market America Realty we help many foreign buyers navigate the real estate market and I find that it’s helpful to review basic real estate jargon and practices and keep a very open mind of the reactions to new experiences by our new clients. Certainly relative terms like “large” and “expensive” need to be avoided. Better you should say the size and the prices, because “large” and “expensive” impart a reference point that you may not share with our guests. For a similar reason I shun the word “very”, as in: “this house has a very formal dining room”. Better you should describe the ornate crown molding, the plush wall paper and the recessed lighting. I do find that establishing a common understanding of what typical is to be very helpful; as in. “this is a typical home in this area”. Then go on to use this home a reference point for size, prices, amenities and garden. I like to use a story to describe a second or investment home another buyer recently acquired to illustrate the process. For English “as a second language” clients I avoid using contractions and I pause often to make certain I am understood. I also avoid using words that have multiple meanings (use “certain” in place of sure, and of course “situation” in place of “matter”). Our form of taxation, commissions, and banking all will be a bit strange to your clients. (I have put together a helpful summary on taxation here). For some of our Asian clients the concept of income taxes and what salaries are here is also new to them. Many Asian employees receive only net pay as their taxes are paid at the corporate level. Be certain to explain thoroughly how you earn your commission and who pays you and what a co-broker commission is. It’s extremely helpful that when you do explain something complicated like taxes or commissions to provide it in writing. Before meeting with your clients from abroad you should become familiar with the metric system and the exchange rate for your clients and learn about how real estate transactions are handled in their country. You should know how Florida Real Estate is viewed from Abroad. What have they heard about the “real estate bubble” here? Get a frame of reference before you begin your own explanation.

Someone coming from a country where gas is $9.00 a gallon certainly has a different view from someone who comes from a country where most no one has a “garden” ( what we may call a “yard”), or where public transportation is ubiquitous. Decision factors like security, energy savings, privacy, and quality of construction are valued differently by different cultures. I love the experience in dealing with different cultures and I love to learn from them and see Florida from a new set of eyes. There nothing the matter with that is there?

Make your Reservation TODAY! - WWW.WCRMIAMIDADE.COM

6 Tips to Building Relationships and Getting More Sales in Real Estate

By Jennifer Allan-Hagedorn

The more people who KNOW you, LIKE you, and TRUST you, the more successful you’ll be. Simple as that. So, how do you get yourself more of these people who know you, like you and trust you?

1. “Impress One Person a Day” If you make a positive impression on just one person every single day, that’s 365 people in a year who think a lot of you as opposed to just a whole bunch of people in the world who sorta recognize your name.

2. “Forget about Branding, Focus on Bonding” Instead of trying to brand yourself as the ________ Realtor (Hiking, Biking, Golfing, Dog-Rescuing, etc.), get out on the world and hang out with people with similar interests. Once these people get to know you as a person, they’re far more likely to want to support your business than if you’d simply targeted them to market to.

3. “Be Pleasant to 10 People a Day” In order to increase the number of people in the world who know you, just get out there in the world (where these people are!) being a bright little ray of sunshine in the lives of everyone whose paths you cross.

4. “Be an RCHB (Reasonably Competent Human Being)” Anyone who is self-employed and hoping for the support of his or her friends and acquaintances needs to realize that they are always on display. While our friends may love the heck out of us as a friend, if our behavior when socializing gives them reason to doubt our professionalism, it WILL affect their willingness to support our business.

5. “Prioritize Properly” Always put your current clients at the top of your priority to-do list. Yes, even ahead of prospecting.

“Always put your current clients at the top of your priority to-do list. Yes, even ahead of prospecting”

6. “Go to lunch with friends” Note, I didn’t say TAKE your friends to lunch, I said GO TO LUNCH with your friends. As a FRIEND, not as a “hungry” (pun intended) real estate agent on the prowl for business. When you GO TO lunch as opposed to TAKING someone to lunch, there’s no obligation for you to pitch your business, nor for your friend to listen to your pitch.

As we begin to enter the holiday season in November and December, our schedules pick up and safety sometimes takes a backseat. But this time of year is very dangerous in our industry.

Don't let your guard down! Here are some great tips to keep you safe in the upcoming months.

Top Five Things for Listing Appointment Safety

1. Take a buddy. There's always safety in numbers. Do listing appointments with someone else.

2. Stay connected. We realize that taking someone with you isn't always possible, so when you must go alone, stay connected. Check in at the front door before you meet your client. Then check in again every 15-30 minutes with your office or a safety buddy.

3. Verify information. Before you go to the appointment, verify all the information the client gave you. Check foreclosure listings for that property as well.

4. Do a drive by. Driving by the property well before the appointment gives you several advantages. First, you can see if the property looks lived in or abandoned. You can check out the neighborhood. Also, it will give you information you can talk to the owner about, showing them that you are truly vested in the sell.

5. Be aware. Always be aware of everything going on around you. The best defense is a good offense. If something doesn't feel right, it probably isn't.

BONUS: Halloween Safety

1. Don't give out candy at your front door. Opening your door to strangers (especially those in costumes and masks) isn't safe. Sit in your driveway or on your porch and hand out candy there. This way you can see what's going on around you. Don't forget to keep all your doors and windows closed and locked.

2. Keep the lights on. Be sure your house, porch and driveway are well lit. This is for your safety and for the safety of the kids trick or treating.

3. Be careful with cords on the ground. The last thing you want is a lawsuit from someone who tripped over a cord you had across your lawn or driveway to those awesome Halloween decorations.

4. Trick or Treat safely. While you are walking your kids from house to house, please be sure your kids can be seen. Only trick or treat on well lit streets and near houses with lights on. Also be sure your kids have reflective items on their costumes so any passing car can see them. Predators can be lurking anywhere so never let your kids out of your sight. Lastly, before you go out please visit

www.FamilyWatchDog.us. Check out the neighborhoods you will be visiting and be sure to know which

houses you should avoid.

5. Candy check. Never eat or let your kids eat any candy until you have inspected it. Unwrapped or homemade items should not be eaten and avoid anything that looks old, worn or looks like it's been tampered with. We all know this, but it's worth saying, watch how much candy your kids eat. Too much sugar can cause tummy aches!

YOUR 2013 LEADERSHIP TEAM AT THEIR RETREAT IN SARASOTA

October 18th - 20th, 2012, Amy Worth-Paul, incoming 2013 Florida State Chapter President, held a 2 1/2 day Leadership Retreat at the beautiful Lido Beach in Sarasota. Amy along with the 2013 Leadership Team presented

their vision for 2013, motivating and inspiring all attendees to share in their vision and set necessary goals to achieve great successes for the Florida State Chapter. This 2 1/2 day Retreat was chock full of great inspiration and

educational information ranging from Public Speaking Boot Camp and Marketing 101 to Conflict Resolution and the new Strategic Plan. In all, there were 4 breakout sessions and 9 educational presentations including one presented

by Motivational Speaker, Candice McElyea whose topic was "Leading with Passion." Even though this sounds like a

great deal packed into 60 short hours, make no mistake....there were plenty of opportunities for one to enjoy themselves too! Many attendees took advantage of early morning yoga on the beach (and by early, we mean

6:15am under the stars) and everyone had the time of their life on the sunset dinner cruise and pool party. At the end of the Retreat, everyone left with something valuable to take back to their chapters and/or districts; goals were

set and action plans were put into place. A big thank you to incoming President, Amy Worth-Paul for imparting such

a wonderful learning experience for all that attended.

Special thanks to our Strategic Business Affiliates for their generous support

OUR 2012 FLORIDA STATE CHAPTER WOMEN'S COUNCIL OF REALTORS SPONSORS:

Refer to them often!

PLATINUM: HomeTeam Inspection Service, North American Title Company, Two Men and a Truck & Wells Fargo Home Mortgage

SILVER: Audrey Lackie/Watson Realty, Jacksonville Chapter of the Women's Council of

Realtors, Arrow/Hughes Pest Control, Gia and Scott Arvin/Matchmaker Realty, Naples-on-the Gulf Chapter of the Women's Council of Realtors, Anita Colletti/John R Wood Realtor, Housemaster Home Inspection, The Russell Hampton Company

If you or someone you know would like to become a Florida State Sponsor please contact Penny Ericksen - Penny@PennyEricksen.com

Mission of Women’s Council of Realtors We are a network of successful REALTORS® empowering women to exercise their potential as

entrepreneurs and industry leaders.

Vision of Women’s Council of Realtors Through our influence as successful business professionals, women will effect positive change in

the profession and in the broader community.

2012 Women’s Council of Realtors Line Officers

PRESIDENT PRESIDENT-ELECT VICE PRESIDENT TREASURER SECRETARY Diane McCombs Amy Worth Paul Penny Ericksen Pamela Banks Audrey Lackie

REMINDER: Check to make sure your information is correct on the www.WCR.org website Log onto www.WCRFL.org often to stay updated on what is going on in other Chapters in Florida.

Newsletter compiled, edited and formatted by Kimberlie Slade, Venice Chapter & Governor District V & XIII