Amber Gunn, Broker/Short Sale Specialist

My business partner and long time friend, Scott Carson, and I were sitting in Starbucks in the Domain - Austin, TX today when a young man commented on my behavior.

Scott was in the process of relaying an email that he had just received, and I got rowdy in 0 to 6 (LOL) seconds. I realized the the exuberance resounding in my voice and noticed I had a small audience, one of which was this "random" gentleman in a UT sweat shirt and ball cap.

I proceeded to apologize for my rambunctiousness, and he asked me not to apologize. He explained that it was refreshing to see someone inspired and passionate about what they do. He seemed disillusioned with the reality that not enough people are excited about their everyday professional life.

All this to say... that I love my life. I experience everyday struggles, but I value my time with my family. Real estate has given me that opportunity and freedom even as a single mother. So, if you are not excited about what you are doing, please find what lights your fire!

-Hamburguesa Pistola

Chapter 2 | The Longing from The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

I HAVE FAITH IN LONGING, wherever it finds me...

It is the voice of the parts of myself I have left behind in the deals I have tried to make with life, trying to trade pieces of my dreams for promises of safety...

It is not the being, no even the doing that exhausts. It is the trying: trying to be present, to be awake, to hold the whole world, to be better, more self-aware, more conscious. My hopes for us are real: I want to help create a world where the very idea of toxic waste would raise such a cry of anguish from the people as to make it unthinkable: where we would move, pulled by the heart, to care for the poor, the ill, the dying and despairing without debating where they are deserving, without fear of contamination, seeing ourselves in each person...

I want to quit running from my own tiredness. I want to be willing and able to move only as fast as I am capable of moving while still remaining connected of the impulse to move from deep withing, stopping when I have lost that slender thread of desire and having the courage and faith to wait, in stillness, until I find it again...

"What are you longing for?"

This is what I ache for: intimacy with myself, others, and the world, intimacy that touches the sacred in all that is life. This ache, this longing is the thread that guides me back through the labyrinth of compromises I have made, back to my soul's desires. And sometimes I am afraid of my desires - afraid of that they will ask of me, what vision of myself or the world they will offer that may demand a sacrifice of my carefully cultivated way of seeing. If we are never consumed by the transforming fire of our desires, we risk falling in love with the sweet ache of longing, the daydream of "what if..." or "some day..."

Chapter 2 | The Longing from The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Chapter 1 | Accepting the Invitation from The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I want to live with deep intimacy every day of my life...

• The first warning, then, is also the first promise: if this book succeeds in actually taking you into the territory of "The Invitation," you will experience, not just read about, the ache, the sorry, the joy, the courage, the peace...
• This, then, leads to the second warning and promise: the consequences of moments of deep intimacy with yourself, another, of the world are completely unpredictable.
• The third warning holds yet another promise: no part of the journey is wasted.

"Are you ready to accept the invitation?"

I can tell you that it is possible to feel pain without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it, to dance with joy and feel the ecstasy completely, to live with the failure, to see beauty, to stand in the center of the fire...

that the courage to go deeper is found by letting you desire grow larger than you fear; that strength is found in your longing to live fully, your willingness to settle for nothing less...

I am compelled by some deep hunger of the soul, driven by a desire that will not leave me alone, to live life to the fullest...

It means tasting each mouthful, feeling each breath, listening to each song, being awake and aware of each moment as it unfolds...

Life lived intimately may not be easier. But it is fuller, richer, and more open to everything: the confusion and the insight, the excitement and the boredom, the shadow and the light...

Did I love well? There are a thousand ways to love other people and the world-with out touch, our words, our silences, our work, our presence. I want to love well. This is my hunger. I want to make love to the world by the way I live in it, by the way I am with myself and others every day. So I seek to increase my ability to be with the truth in each moment, to be with what I know, the sweet and the bitter. I want to stay aware of the vastness of what I do not know. This what brings me to the journey. I do not want to live any other way....

Chapter 1 | Accepting the Invitation from The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Original content posted at http://austinrealestateandloans.wordpress.com

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart's longing.

It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hit or fade it of fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "Yes!"

It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and buried to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn't interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.

The Invitation by Oriah Mountain Dreamer

Original content posted at http://austinrealestateandloans.wordpress.com

6 Rules to Boost Your Negotiating Skills

As billionaire entrepreneur Karl Albrecht once put it, negotiation is about starting out with an ideal and ending up with a deal. Learn what you need to do to get buyers and sellers moving towards closing.

By Rich Levin | January 2010

Negotiating skills are often minimized or overlooked completely in training and coaching programs for real estate professionals. Yet negotiating is a dominant facet of a successful practitioner's business.

In a recent article, I offered the top 10 rules for successful negotiations aimed specifically at real estate pros who might have difficulty for five reasons:

1. Practitioners are in a difficult position as third-party negotiators.
2. They frequently have little or no formal training in negotiating.
3. Buyers and sellers are usually inexperienced at negotiation and often fearful and jaded toward it.
4. Buyers and sellers are usually negotiating over their largest and most important asset and investment.
5. Buyers and sellers are going through a life experience that can make them feel insecure.

I have some rules that will help you add confidence and strength to your negotiating skills in thorny situations. They will make your business and your life less stressful, more satisfying, and more productive.

Rule 1: At your presentations, prepare the seller or buyer for how the negotiations are going to go.

You might say something like:

"May I go over what happens when a buyer is interested in purchasing your home? The buyer and agent write an offer that they deliver to me that I then present to you. Here's a copy of an offer and the additional paperwork that goes with it. There are more items than just price that have to be negotiated. I like to prepare you for all of it so that you can be more comfortable and confident when we're actually negotiating with the buyer. May I take a moment and go over it with you?"

Then, as you review it, explain all the items that might be negotiated in your market. The language is similar for a buyer.

Rule 2: Prepare the seller or buyer for the worst case.

Describe the best-case and the worst-case scenarios. Suggest that their experience will be somewhere in the middle but probably closer to the best case because you have worked hard to help all parties feel like they have won while you're getting the most for them.

When you prepare your client this way, you create their expectation for how it will go. This gives them tremendous peace of mind and confidence in you. It makes them much calmer during what is probably a very stressful time for them.

Understand that if you don't prepare them, once the negotiations begin they may try to control how it will go. They become tense, stressed, less cooperative, and distrustful of you.

Rehearse the words you'll use to prepare them for the negotiation. You'll find your business runs more smoothly, and you'll bring far less stress into your own home.

Rule 3: Research, Prepare, and Plan.

Gain information from everyone and anyone you can, including your client, the other agent, the other party, tax records, and past multiple listing records.

Specifically, you want to get answers to the following questions:

• Who's moving? Why? Where? When do they have to be there?
• Have sellers had any offers?
• Have buyers seen many properties?
• How long have they been looking or on the market?

When getting this information, be sure to respect ethics and laws. Also, instruct your sellers and buyers to be careful of what they say about where they're moving and why to ensure that they don't put themselves at a negotiating disadvantage.

Rule 4: Gain the respect of all the parties with simple courtesy and integrity.

When people realize you keep your word, it gives you additional influence in the negotiation. This entails:

• Showing up when you say you will.
• Calling when you say you will.
• Doing what you say you will.

Pretty straightforward, right? Yet this level of integrity is uncommon. If you can follow through on your promises, it will set you apart in the marketplace.

Rule 5: Maintain objectivity.

Do not talk about one party to the other except to say they're interested in the property or that they're obviously interested in selling. Very often when negotiations break down or get difficult, it's because the practitioner has shared his or her own opinion or inappropriate information about the other party.

This can also happen if the buyer talks directly to the seller. Don't bring the buyer and seller together at inappropriate times. They may say something that's misinterpreted and offend one another somehow.

Rule 6: Write an offer that you believe will be accepted.

Going back and forth more than twice makes the buyer and seller crazy. Include everything you think is important to get the deal together. Prepare buyers and sellers for this in your initial presentation.

These rules are a basis on which you can work to boost your skills to become a master negotiator.

Good luck with your future negotiations!