Lane Bailey - REALTOR & Car Guy

That's right...

Buyers are looking at homes, and they still have a choice.

Don't get me wrong, there is competition among Buyers for some homes, but the competition goes both ways.

Buyers that don't snap up the deal fast enough might find that they lose it to another Buyer. And Sellers that don't accept solid offers might find that they lose the Buyer to another Home (Seller).

from Lane's "other" blog...

For those that love technology, there are some REALLY cool things coming up in the Atlanta area. For those in real estate that love technology, it is even better...

August 26th, 2009 - Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta: 7:00am to 9:00am, Atlanta Bread Company - Town Center Mall area in Cobb County. We will be talking about social media for business use. As I write this, Ken Cook and I are working up some starter topics... FaceBook Fan Pages and Twitter... and its available tools. This is NOT real estate specific. FREE (you do have to buy your own breakfast)

August 27th, 2009 - Blogging, Social Media, ActiveRain Workshop: 11:00am to noon, Garner Creek at Parkview clubhouse in Lilburn. Blogging and real estate are a great fit, and we, as a profession, have been using social networking forever. We will be talking about how to more effectively and efficiently utilize the "free" tools, as well as how to use ActiveRain to pull it all together. This IS real estate specific. FREE

September 24th, 2009 - Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta: 7:00am to 9:00am. Stay tuned for details on location...

September 25th, 2009 - NewMedia Atlanta: This is going to be a real estate/not real estate technology workshop to help all of us better leverage all of the cool technologies to make our businesses really rock. For those of us in real estate, Jeff Turner is going to be a presenter... and whether you are in real estate or not, he rocks. Drop into the site and see all of the other cool speakers. The is NOT real estate specific, but there will be a lot of real estate types in attendance. Not free.

October 9th-10th, 2009 - Bar Camp Atlanta: Please note, this isn't an REbarCamp, this is a regular Bar Camp. They are starting at 6:00pm on a Friday night and I have NO idea about how it will go... I've heard that a sleeping bag is a good idea. This is NOT real estate specific, and there will be a wide variety of technology discussed.

I just got the confirmation from Corey at Garner Creek at Parkview. We are going to be presenting a seminar and discussion about Active Rain, blogging and Social Networking at GarnerCreek at Parkview in Lilburn on Thursday, August 27th.

The program will start at 11:00am, and lunch will follow at Noon.

I'm pretty excited. This was one of the first things I thought about when I entered the Ambassador Program here at Active Rain. There is so much great information here, and getting the word out has been a priority for me for a long time.

I have often referred to blogging at the centerpiece of a solid Social Networking plan, and I think that Active Rain is a great place to do that blogging.

We'll only have about an hour, and I want to make sure that there is plenty of time for questions... So, here is what we are going to cover:

• Why blog?
• Why Active Rain?
• How can we incorporate blogging and Active Rain into a comprehensive social Media plan?
• What other Social Networking sites should we consider a presence in?

We will also be talking a little about WordPress, FaceBook, YouTube, Flickr, Twitter and some of the tools that we can use to make all of these things easier to integrate.

Directions to Garner Creek at Parkview

Take 285 to Hwy 78 E, Exit onto Hugh Howell Road and follow the loop under 78; Turn RIGHT at first light (Lilburn – Stone Mountain Road); Turn RIGHT at next light (Old Stone Mountain Road; becomes Five Forks Trickum); Turn LEFT at second light onto Garner Road; Turn RIGHT onto Irwin Court WELCOME TO GARNER CREEK AT PARKVIEW

1145 Morgan Garner Drive is on the right corner after you pass through the gates.

*****Here is the follow-up post.*****

The "Lunch Lady" did NOT have an easy job.

One of the reasons that I embarked on my career in real estate is that I wanted to be able to spend more time IN the lives of my children. And today has definitely been a rung in that ladder. I volunteered to help the small kids with lunch at Arcado Elementary School in Lilburn, GA.

Basically, the kindergartners need a little wrangling as they go through the lunch line. And it is kind of like herding cats... cats that don't really know what they want to eat, but have a plethora of choices in front of them... and, since they are cats kindergartners, they can't read.

Which led me to a few thoughts...

First, though, let me quickly run through the options for today:

• Milk
• Skim Milk
• Chocolate Milk
• Strawberry Milk
• Water
• Orange Juice

• Peas
• Carrots
• Rice

• Applesauce
• Pear

• Peanut Butter and Jelly
• Veggie Wrap
• Veggie Burger
• Ravioli w/Roll
• Nachos w/cheese and meat
  

Basically, the kids had a choice to make in each one of those groupings. And for a kindergartner, that is a LOT of choices. So, while working lunch for the kids at Arcado Elementary School, the challenge is to get the kids to make a decision in a timely manner. And a lot of the kids aren't ready for that kind of pressure.

As Parents, we can fix that!

To start with, we need to train our children to be able to make good decisions. We can do that by allowing them to make choices (from approved possibilities) when we can observe them. Let them pick what they want for dinner when we go out to eat. Let them decide what they might want for lunch on the weekends. Let them decide between good choices... We don't open it up to anything, but we will give some limited choices for our kindergartner to pick from.

The next thing we can do is to coach our kids. Everyone studies for tests... why not help them study for this as well. We sit down with our child each evening and talk about the lunch choices for the next day. In the morning, while waiting for the bus, we try to talk about it again. In both cases, it is a low pressure environment (some strange Mom or Dad isn't asking the question while the line backs up).

In order to help accomplish the goals, you can reference Nutri-Cafe on the web. I should mention that there are often choices that seem to show up in the line that aren't shown in Nutri-Cafe, and there might be some that are in Nutri-Cafe that won't be available at school... but at least it is a good idea. Arcado Elementary School and other local schools might run out of, or have left-overs of, a specific item.

And one more thing...

Volunteering at school is a great way to see what your child's day is like. You won't be hovering (you will actually be pretty busy), so you can watch from across the room as your child interacts with peers. It is a great way to help out the school, get a better glimpse into your child's life away from home and to also see what challenges your child might face that you never thought about... I know that I never thought about the issues my son could face in trying to decide about lunch. I know that the Arcado Elementary School PTA would be thrilled to have the help... especially from us Dads.

That's right...

Some of you might remember the first Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta event that Ken Cook and I hosted July 23rd at the Duluth Diner in Gwinnett County. There were a lot of folks that just couldn't make it all of the way over the Gwinnett County...

Event #2 will be in Cobb County...

That's right, this time we will be meeting at the Atlanta Bread Company near town Center Mall. We will start being social at 7:00am, with a more formal portion of the program running from 7:30 until about 8:30, and everything should be wrapped up by 9:00.

At our first Social Media Breakfast - Atlanta event, we had about 20 folks come out. We had a great discussion about some cool tools as well as social networking etiquette. We will be furthering that discussion at event #2. Of course, the exact topic will be different.

If you aren't able to attend, we will be using the hashtag #smbatl on Twitter and some other networks.

If you ARE able to attend, we ask that you RSVP on FaceBook or EventBrite. This allows us to give the venue an idea of how many folks we will be having so that they can schedule and plan accordingly. We would love to have you join us...