Deana Smedlund

Bikes

If you like motorcycles, blues music and BBQ then you will love coming to Fayetteville for the annual Bikes, Blues and BBQ. This event is for all ages. The 10th annual event kicked off today September 23, 2009. This event last year brought over 400,000 people to Fayetteville and the surrounding areas. There are places to ride downtown, in the rolling hills and through the mountains. There is a charity event poker run to raise money for a charity. There will be battle of the bikes event where people have created their own bike and they can see what others have created and showcase their own bike.

Blues

There is great music as well, there are local and national known bands, in the day time you can listen for free and at night there are tickets for sale to see groups of your choice. This year there will be Molly Hatchet, Blackfoot and the The Marshall Tucker band to name a few.

BBQ

What would bikes and music be with out good ol' southern BBQ some of the best you will ever eat! There are BBQ cooking contests to see who can make the best BBQ. There is sampling and you can actually vote on your favorite BBQ on Friday and then on Saturday the real judging begins.

Put all three of these together and you have BBB and if you love this event and love the great fall weather we have here in Fayetteville, Ar you just might want to call it home one day! Fayetteville is the college town in the area, home the Razorbacks at the University of Arkansas. A great place to come year round and especially during the fall!

P.S. You don't have to own a bike to get in on all the fun!!! People watching might just be the best entertainment of the whole event!

Lowe's recently names Century 21 Exclamation in Rogers, AR. The #1 best office, as far as looks, location and technology. We also are in the top in our Region. They have names us the top 6 in the United States and will soon name #1 office in the U.S. We are a company that is less than two years old and we placed #4 at the last Century 21 state Convention and that was after only being in business for a year. We have top producing agents at our company. We have the best coaching program around and work as a team.

Everyone in this office shares their ideas and successes and that is one reason I believe that we are so successful in such a short amount of time. The broker owner and managing team are top notch and the agents are from all over Northwest Arkansas and have a ton of Real Estate experience. This is a friendly atmosphere to work in and we pride ourselves on being very competitive and not letting the economy and housing market get us down. Northwest Arkansas is a great place to live and we want to assist buyers and sellers in one of the most important decisions of their lives. We take a personal approach and treat each client as if they were our only one. We work with buyers and sellers in this area and often exceed their expectations.

If you have a real estate need whether it be buying or selling please stop by our office or give us a call, you will be glad you did. We keep up with the current statistics of the market and share the information with our clients so they are aware of how aggressive they need to be to price their home or how aggressive they need to be in making an offer. Also don't forget if your a first time home buyer you will need to be under contract by October 15th, 2009 to be closed by November 30th, 2009.

For more in formation about Northwest Arkansas or our office please call Deana Smedlund at 479-903-4661. You can also e-mail me at Deana@ersells.com or you may text me as well.

Deana Smedlund

Hello everyone, I wanted to share some motivational words with you today. In our sales meeting today our coach played the Facing the Giants movie for us. I have seen this movie before a few times but this is a movie that you can see over and over again and get something different out of it. The movie is about a football team that defeats a much larger team than them but the story has many life lessons and can be applied to family, work and just every part of your lives. In Real Estate we many times face rejection, fears, successes and failures. This business is not for the weak and it's not for people who accept defeat. We as Realtors have to face giants as many people do in other professions and in their private lives. So anyone would benefit from watching this movie. This movie has been proving effective over and over as it's watched in locker rooms, conference rooms and homes alike. There are many success stories of people who after watching this movie have went on to face their giants no matter what they may be. There are so many things in this movie that can be written down and applied to our business and our lives. One thing is attitude. You have to have a good attitude. Second is actions usually follow beliefs, if you believe you can't do something or be successful then you probably won't be. Also preparing for the rain, if you prepare for the rain but do not plant your seeds then you do not believe it will really rain. It is not hard to get down and feel sorry for yourself. The past year or so in Real Estate has been one of the worst and listening to the media will back that story up time and time again. I for one got my license in August of 2007 and I was told why are you getting into real estate now, this is the worst time ever, are you crazy? No I am not crazy I believe in real estate, I believe in myself and I believe that I will be successful in this business and no it will not be overnight but in time it will pay off and now is the time to prepare for the rain because it will come and for those who do not believe it will then I would say to them get your umbrella because your gonna need it. I am a firm believer that there is power in positive thinking and you have to believe that you will be successful and that your a great Sales Agent because if you don't who will. There are many religious quotes in this movie and though I am not going to quote any I can say that if you watch this movie it will change your life and if you don't want that to happen then this movie may not be for you.

So watch this movie and apply it to your business or even your personal life and watch as you defeat your giants and you acheive victory after victory. Set goals, make a schedule, stick to it, Be the best at what you do.

Some Giants we face:

Phone(rejection on the other end)

Short Sales(not knowing how they work)

Mad Sellers(not telling them the truth up front)

Buyers(getting agency agreements, getting them pre-qualified )

Media(listening to the negative comments)

You(not believing in yourself)

Defeating the Giants:

When you are rejected, say NEXT and move on.

Take a short sale class in person or online, ask a fellow agent how they handled one.

Tell sellers up front you will not over price a listing that you want and need sell-able listings and they want to be competitive in the market, will save you from having them mad down the road when you ask for a price reduction.

Buyers, get them to sign an exclusive buyer agreement with you so they don't walk away after you have shown them 30 houses and they decide to go through a for sale by owner and get them pre-qualified so you know what price range they need to look in. Save yourself time and money.

Media, turn off the T.V. read a motivational book or take an online class.

You, tell yourself that you are the best sales agent and you people like to list with you and that you are the best closer out there. Do daily affirmations and look in the mirror when you tell yourself these things. You will start to say and believe it if you hear it on a daily basis.

Hello everyone, I have not been on here lately to blog but wanted to share with everyone that recently here in Northwest Arkansas on our local news station 40/29, Bella Vista Arkansas was named one of the top 25 places to retire. It actually made it to #12. I thought that was great! I sell real estate in this area and Bella Vista is a great place to live for all ages not just for people that want to retire. It has been known as a retirement community for a long time and still is but over the recent years it has grown so much and many families that have moved to this area have found Bella Vista as their favorite pick. Our major towns are Bentonville, Home of Wal-mart Home Office, Springdale which has the Tyson Corporate office, Rogers of course and Fayetteville which is the Home of the Razorbacks. There are many small towns in between but these are the major 4 and anywhere you go around here you can't go wrong. The lifestyle is great not too busy but yet has many things to offer. Bella Vista is known for it's 7 lakes and has many properties that have lake front and of course the golf course. Bella Vista is unique in the fact that is not as flat as some of the other towns. It has many trees and hills and rocks and just a real natural look and feel. It also has many walking trails. So I am so glad that is was named #12 because I do agree that this is a wonderful place to live and retire if your looking for beautiful scenery and love the outdoors this is the place for you. There are older homes and newer homes so you have your pick if you like older homes that someone has fixed up or you like new construction you will not be disappointed. There are all sizes, shapes and ages of homes to choose from. Also not to mention the other towns and all they have to offer as well.

I would say if your moving here or know someone who is please have them give me a call, I would be glad to assist them in finding a home in any of these towns. Also if you are moving away for any reason I would be happy to help you sell your home as well.

So Congrats to Bella Vista for putting Northwest Arkansas on the Map as the #12 place to retire in the U.S.

Deana Smedlund

Century 21 Exclamation Realty

479-903-4661

Deana@ersells.com

I have a success story about an appraisal. Well I consider it one because I have been through a ton of obstacles with this one property I have had since November. I got the listing in November of 2008. It turned into a short sale in Jan. of 2009. I have had countless offers on this property and two contracts have fallen through in which one was a week away from closing. The buyer could not financially afford the home even though I got a pre qual letter on him. Also the house didn't appraise for listed price. We were asking $139,900 and it only appraised for $133,500. Ok so back on the market current I go back to another agent and see if her clients still want the house, they had previously made an offer and was beat

out from another offer that was higher and bank accepted it. She said yes they loved the house let me ask them, they ended up walking away from another house and losing $500 earnest money because they wanted the house so bad. Well we are in the middle of this and two weeks ago I get a call from the other agent, are you sitting down new appraisal done and house didn't appraise for $133,500 anymore which 6

weeks ago it did. Wow I though that is really unfair. I was upset didn't know what to do, buyers didn't have the extra money and of course the sellers are in a short sale and can't come up with the money either. So me and the other Realtor put our heads together and I told her this is the same bank why

can't we use the old appraisal it has not been that long. She said well you know I have been told if the

last loan was FHA that the appraisal should be registered to that home for 6 to 12 months. She said lets

give this a try and see if we can't get them to use the old one. Well after a week of e-mails, phone calls and sweating bullets we were able to get the lender to agree to use the previous apprasial and said that someone didn't register the previous one to the house or they would have never had a new one done.

They were unware of this and when we told them they did some research and found it and we were able to keep this deal alive. My sellers were so excited and of course the buyers were as well. So I guess the reason I am sharing this story is for people like me that didn't know you could even do this and to not give up on any deal until you have hit a dead end in every corner and been told no by everyone.

Your representing your client and you should go that extra mile until you find a way (legally of course) to make it happen if at all possible. So the deal is back on and should close this month.

I also notice that you learn something everyday in this business. That is what I love about it, never boring and always learning something new that makes you better and more prepared the next time you encounter a similar problem.