Robert OHaugherty, REALTOR, ABR

Eat plenty of turkey and dressing, watch the Macy's parade, gab with loved ones, watch your favorite sports team get beat, and most important of all, give thanks for everyday and for all your loved ones, our troops, and our country. Don't forget the pumpkin pie with ice cream, chocolate candies, and invite someone over who doesn't have anyone to spend Thanksgiving with. See ya'll soon.

I was just sittiing at the computer, watching my e-mails, wondering where everybody's going for Thanksgiving when "Voila!" it popped in. I quickly logged in and there it was, just waiting for someone to accept. I did and captured the BPO (from Pro-Tec). My first one. I quickly ran the stats, grabed the digital camera and headed out. It was an exterior job for $45, due by Friday 11/28. But I had the required pics within one hour, went back and filled out the form and finished the job, uploaded it and finished it. It took a couple of hours of paperwork, didn't have any errors or imcomplets (atleast at this point of submittal), and got a quality rating of 100%. I signed up with 9 BPOs in August and so far, still, the only one who has being sending me BPOs has been Pro-tec. I've received 10 requests for BPOs from them but this was the first captured. Since this is only an exterior, photos only and comparisons, it appears to be fairly simple. The form was equally simple and I should be able to knock it out in about an hour on the next one.

Yesterday, I attended a "Power Panel", a panel of 6 top producing agents in te Northeast Tarranty County area in Texas, and heard first hand how these agents are dealing with the current slow down, how they got into the business and questions from the attendees as to how they became "top" producers. I took notes and here's a quick breakdown of how they achieved their success and what they are doing in slower times.

• Hard work, worked the real estate business just about every day of the week, 12 hrs, as if they actually worked for someone else.
• Strong, single minded thought.
• All began with a great "mentor".
• All made a plan, created a system of contacting prospects (who later became clients) and then stayed with the plan, worked their system consistantly, stayed focus on that plan.
• Prospected everyday of the week for at least 1hr in the morning.
• Surrounded themselves with other successful agents and people who can support a successful thought process.
• When times get slow, they worked harder, read great books, got more required education out of the way, when after a designation, but they kept building.
• Turned the TV off.

Ok, there you have it. This is great stuff. And as it turns out, I, myself, have already started down these roads, and it's rewards are coming in.

Open Houses are not dead! In two open house for a commercial property our agency has had 5 guests tour the lease space that we have listed. Our client is overjoyed. Previously listed agent never had 1 guest and never even showed his space. We've had 5 in two weeks. One was the next door tenant who will be taking two of the 14 offce spaces available immediately. The others were other commercial agents just checking out the space and taking notes. But still, there is activity, people coming and going and our client sees us talking up the space. We've taken plenty of pics and have put the lease space on our website and two blogs. And we're having fun.

I've had three very good deals fall through in just a week. And as best as I can tell, due to the economic slowdown and changes in the lending practices. No more income stated loans no matter how good the credit and cash. And the others are pulling back to ride out the storm. The leads are drying up, listings are expiring and not relisting and the phone's not ringing as much. These three prospects 6 months ago would have been sales and completed.

So now here's my plan. FORGE AHEAD, WORK SMARTER, HANG ON, and make two extra phone calls each day, go on to the networking meetings, get more MCE credits, read, read, read, and tighten the belt, we may be in for a bumpy ride. I attended an economic meeting this week and also heard from a "Power Panel" of experienced agents and this seems to be their plan as well. One big producer said he started in the industry when it was worse than it is now back in the late 70's (12% rates, etc.). But I also looked around the room and found some agents MIA. But I always remember this. I have a bigger goal than hard times and a strong will and mind. I surround myself with strong real estate people and stay with positive, goal oriented drivers and that continues to keep me moving forward.