Roland Rogge BBA, CIPS, GRI, e-PRO, CNE

All I can say is I don't understand why so many Realtors do not attend. There are many continuing education classes and events for networking. So many of us get caught up in the day to day grind. We forget there is a world out there, not just our tiny community that we work in. All of the people that move to our retirement communities, such as Sun Village, Sun City Grand and other 55+ communities like Del Webb, Robsen or Radner just to mention the developers.

We must net work with other Realtors in other states and countries. I have a client that just purchased a home in Sun City Grand. He trusts me and allowed me to give him a referral for some one in my network. I spoke to one of my network agent while in Anaheim, California. He and another agent are going to get a referral from me because I know him and I believe he can get the property sold. We as Realtors must help our clients to get the best possible results achievable.

By networking, you really know other agent not only from around the country, but around the world. We can provide better service for our clients. So next time take a little time and get to know other agent from places your client may choose to move to or from. I meet agents from New York. Who knows they may have a client that wants to move to Sun Village or Sun City Grand.

This is one NAR Designation I have wanted for some time. I traveled from Surprise, Arizona to Arcadia, California. Only about a five hour drive. I meet so many incredible and brilliant people. Jennifer worked in Palo Alto, Brian the Central Valley ( near Bakersfield ), Karen in Laguna Beach, Olga in Los Angels, David, Tommy, Victor in the Arcadia area. Of course the list goes on. But we simply had a great group. I learned much about the may great cultures from the Orient to Russia to South Africa and a bit of Irish.

I discovered that there is only about 1800 Certified International Property Specialist around the world. As many of you know that I'm from Germany, and yes I speak German, but now I have an international net work. I do believe that many around the world see the incredible real estate opportunities in our great country. We all come from other places, maybe a generation or two ago, but we do still carry a sense of pride of where our forefathers came from. Having take these courses with all my class mates I felt that sense of pride, but we all love being here and being able to offer others the hope, the dream that America is still that shining light to the world that My favorite President Ronald Regan so proudly spoke of. Some times you need to discover that you simply need to get over you-self.

So now I'm one of 1800 Certified Internation Property Specialists around the world.

I mostly work in Sun Village and Sun City Grand. So no, I'm not doing any short sales. My believe is that one should never proclaim them self to be an expert at what one is not. There is a lot of short sale experts, that in my opinion will be looking for an attorney in the not so distant future. Most of my home owners in Sun Village and Sun City Grand know they have to be competitive with their market place in order to sell their home. Most of the retirement communities have not be struck as hard as the family neighborhood. Both Sun Village and Sun City Grand have had drops in value, but not to the extend as surrounding Surprise area. The golf course and retirement homes still seem to hold value. Value begets value.I do have a couple of investors that are buying bank owned properties. That seems to be less problematic. I enjoy working for my clients not the bank and quite frankly that is what they expect.

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Days like this last Sunday are not great "Open House" kind of days. We have many folks with their home town address in Green Bay Country.

Most of the time those number don't spell out Winner, but they worked out just fine for the Cardinal this Sunday. I know a lot of Green Bay fans, with a lot of my family living in Wisconsin. I must admit they took it pretty well. Some were complaining about the face mask that was not called, but earlier in the game when Kurt Warner got his face mask ripped and no call, they all said oh its part of the game So like we used to hear "maybe next year". We did or do enjoy having you all here. You all are great fans; you do have a great team. This was the best game the NFL has provided for this fan in a long time, yes.

Here is the reason I'm going way back to days long, long ago. When I was speaking to friends and clients they found my background interesting. Yes, a continuing blog was sub jested. So here it goes. My Mom and I came from Germany to Phoenix, Arizona back in 1961. Why Phoenix, well my Uncle who had sponsored us fell ill, my Moms sister was living in Arizona. You can't reschedule a major move like this, so we came to Phoenix, Arizona. Here the story begins. We arrived in mid April, as we were debarking from the plane we could smell the Orange Blossoms in the air. The Sun was setting over the mountains to the west. My mom took my hand and said "we are staying". Wow, Milwaukee, Wisconsin would have been nice, but how can you beat Arizona. If you have an answer please feel free to comet. (Today we are enjoying another boring 70 something degree kind of a winter day.) That’s my mom to the left, me in the middle and Tante Ingetraut. My Aunt is still living in Bad Wiessee am Tegernsee, Germany. It seems our family has gotten smaller as time goes on. I hope she may read this Blog. I will continue this Blog about my family History, I hope you will enjoy.