Christine Stalsonburg

After reading the post on Back to Basics, it made me take out all of my goal setting materials and get to work on a business plan for the remainder of the year and make this the best six months every. For anyone out there who may be in the same boat that I am with my goal setting, I have written down some of my guidelines that I use to set my goals and hopefully, it will be beneficial to you.

1) Decide what you want and be specific about the date that you want to achieve this goal. Most imprtantly, write it down. When writing down your goals as if you have already achieved them.

2) After writing down your goal statement, decide what action steps are needed to achieve this goal. Break them down into short term and mid term goals.

3) Incorporate your action steps into your day planner so that you can be assured that they get done. This step will help you keep motivated and achieve your action steps.

4) Create that much talked about vision board. Make more than one. Keep one at home and one in your office. The more remindes of what you want to achieve, the easier it is to keep this in the forefront of your mind.

5) Keep your attitude positive about achieveing yoru goals. Never let a small setback get your down. ALways end your day on a positive achievement.

6) Avoid contraction words like don't , can't, wouldn't. Even in a positive sentance, these can have a negative affect. Example: I can't wait until I have my new red Mercedes. All your mind hears is can't and that is what your mind will remember. A better statement would be to say "I am thankgul and happy that I will have my new red Mercedes by the 4th of July.

These steps work if you let them.

Every Day Tasks

1) Read your goals out load to yourself at least once a day, more times if you can.

2) Take some quiet time each day to meditate and focus on your goals.

3) Read 20 minutes of motivational or inspirational material.

4) Listen to 30 minutes of motivational material (this can be done while driving)

5) Surround yourself with positive people.

6) Be ready to receive your goal. If it is to achieve a certain income level, make sure that you know exactly what you are going to do with the money when you receive it.

7) Take action every day to achieve your goals.

8) Trust, you have placed your order - Expect It - Visualize It

Goal setting is a great activity to do in a small group and to keep in touch monthly to help each other to be accountable to their goals and the action plans required to meet those goals.

DREAM BIG -- PLAN WELL -- TAKE ACTION

If you are representing lenders in the sale of their REO, you should take a minute to check with the carrier of your E&O policy to make sure that all of your activities associated with this listing are covered. If your policy does not cover property management activities you could be operating outside of the coverage of your policy.

Some lenders may require in their listings agreements that you provide additional duties that might not be in the normal realm of a listing agents responsibilities. These additional areas may involve safety inspections, environmental inspections or renovations and clean up of the property. Many E&O policies specifically state that property management serviced to not include renovation services or analysis or evaluation of, or recommendations concerning safety issues on the property.

Make sure you discuss these potential pitfalls with your broker before you enter into this market. This may be an area that you broker has not taken a second look at, so it would be a good idea to at least bring it to their attention to make sure that the firm is covered.

This would also apply to those things that we all sometimes do for your sellers. We take care of having someone plow their snow or repair a pool pump. As listing agents, we must remember what would fall under a property management contract and what falls under the normal duties of a listing agent. If your broker does not have E&O coverage for these tasks and something goes terribly wrong in the repair of something, guess who will be responsible for these actions. You guessed it, you will. At times, we do these things just out of seller convenience, thinking we are being helpful to our seller. We are and everything is usually fine until something goes wrong and now there is blame to be placed.

This is the very reason that we always give our clients (buyers and sellers alike) a choice of service providers for things like: mortgage, inspections, title company, land scaper, repair companies. We don't want to be the one on record for making the decision as to whom to hire for those services.

If any of you have dealt with REO properties, you are probably well aware that they typically do not come with property disclosure statements from the lender. This doe snot relieve the lender-seller of their legal obligation to disclose all known defects to a buyer. The lender-seller is most likely not aware of all of the property's defects.

If the lender is indicating that they will not be providing property disclosure statements, a buyer's broker would advise the buyer to request the property disclosure statements in the offer. Before the buyer agrees to waive the property disclosure, they should be provided with a blank copy of the disclosure form. This will enable the buyer to make an informed decision regarding whether or not to waive the property disclosure documents. The buyer's broker would be wise to obtain the buyer's written acknowledgment of receipt of the blank form. The buyer can and should utilize this document as a checklist when conducting their inspections.

Foreclosure transactions are exempt from Federal lead-based paint law. Let me define this a bit further. A trustee at a foreclosure sale who is enforcing the terms of a deed of trust is not considered a seller and is therefore not required to make the lead-based paint disclosures. However, when the lender becomes the owner at the trustee's sale, the lender is required to comply with the lead-based paint disclosure law when they sell the REO.

Wow, hard to believe that April is almost half way over. Boy how the time flies. I hope that everyone has an very Happy Easter and that we all take a moment to remember the season and what Easter stands for. As we spend time with our families today, let us remember all of those out there that are less fortunate than we are and pray for a quick recovery of our economy and that those who are unemployed will soon have jobs again; those who are homeless will again soon have shelter and food. Sometimes, I think we all take for granted what we have. Everyday, I an thankful that God has given me everything that i have needed to get through the day and know that he will make sure I have everything that I need to get through the next day.

Happy Easter To All

Christine

North Lake Leelanau

Cinsisting of 2,950 acres, Lake Leelanau North is located in Leelanau County in the Village of Leland. Lake, Brown and Rainbow Trout, Cisco, Perch, Smallmouth Bass, Northern Pike, Rock Bass, Smelt and Sucker can all be found here. Annual fish plantings have produced a very good population of lake and brown trout. Lake trout typically weigh 4 to 8 pounds and browns average 3 to 4 poinds. Each year, some rely trophy trout are caught. Rainbows are not as abundant as lakers and browns but are an absolutely beautiful fish and som eof the best tasting. Smallmouth bass are plentiful at 2 to 4 pounds and northern pike average 22 to 25 inches. Trout are concentrated in the north half of the lake - in and along the dropoffs of the deep areas. Trolling off the inlet of Houdeks Creek and south along the east shoreline will produce nice trout. Trout fishing is best in spring before the Mayfly hatch, normally in late June. Pike, smallmouth bass and perch are commonly caught at the lake's south end, near weed beds.

South Lake Leelanau

Consisting of 5,370 acres, Lake Leelanau South is located in Leelanau County in the Village of Leland. Brown Trout, Walleye, Cisco, Northern Pike, Largemouth and Smallmouth Bass, Bluegill, Perch, Rock Bass, Smelt and Sucker can be found here. All fish are caught in good numbers. Brown trout average 4 to 6 pounds, walleye and smallmouth bass average 2 to 4 pounds. Good brown trout and walleye fishing is north of the access site off County Road 641 on the east side and south of the access site off County Road 643 on the west side. Smelt and minnow imitating baits trolled in 25 to 35 feet of water will produce fish, especially in late summer. Smallmouth bass fishing is popular from the narrows south along the west shoreline at the dropoff. Northern pike fishing is best south of the narrows and off the inlet of Cedar Run Creek at the lake's south end. Perch, bluegill and rock bass are found all over the lake.

Christine Stalsonburg, Realtor

Coldwell Banker Schmidt Realtors

231-944-0854

www.stalsonburg.com

www.northernmichiganrealestatecs.com

402 E. Front St. Traverse City, MI 49684