Stacey Rider

This is my tasty and simple recipe that will compliment your Turkey and all the trimmings at Thanksgiving.

Say NO to the can!

Stacey Rider's Cranberry Sauce

Ingredients:

• 1 bag cranberries
• 1/2 C. sugar
• 1/2 C. brown sugar
• 1/2 C. orange juice
• 1/2 C. water
• 1/4 t. cinnamon
• zest of one orange
• juice of 1/2 orange

In a medium saucepan over medium heat, dissolve the sugars in the juice and water. Add the cinnamon and cranberries. Add the orange zest and fresh juice and stir. Cook until the cranberries start to pop, about 10 - 15 minutes. Remove from heat, transfer to a serving bowl and let cool. It will thicken as it cools.

Place is small canning jars and use a fabric round to decorate the top of the lid and give to your clients for the Holidays!

Enjoy!!!

Many communities have additional Halloween carnivals and Steiner Ranch is no exception. This year, the Steiner Ranch Community is hosting a Children's Halloween Adventure. Bring your ghosts and ghouls to John Simpson Park on Oct. 31st from 3 - 5 p.m. for a frightfully good time.

There will be games, arts and crafts and the popular Petting Zoo. Admission if free, there is no need to register and everyone is assured a great time! Make sure your children have their costumes on!

For more information, see the Steiner Ranch HOA at http://www.steinerranchhoa.org

In August I changed Real Estate firms. The four partners that own The Bartlett Real Estate Group are hands on in helping each agent market themselves. From the beginning, they have said it's not about advertising or buying your way in to an area, but all about building relationships.

My approach was thinking about me, who I am and what do I love to do? Once recognized, it's taking that knowledge and applying it to my Real Estate.

I love to cook! My husband and I have 5 children and we are always having fun in the kitchen putting ideas to recipes and then presenting it to our family for critique. I've taken that love of cooking and molded that with Real Estate and created FourPointsFoodie, a web site that focuses on my love of food. I've also teamed up with a local Kitchen store and added a free give-away too.

It's still in its infancy, but to date I've added over 25 new people to my data base.

Check it out for yourself...

www.FourPointsFoodie.com

I'd love your feedback!

"You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are."

How many times have we heard "just be yourself" or "you don't have to follow the crowd". Yet follow the crowd is something that easily happens, especially in Real Estate. It's simple to see what other Realtors are doing and fall into that cookie cutter type of being a Realtor. But in today's market, it is so important to set yourself apart from the crowd and to really BE YOURSELF!

So ask yourself some tough questions:

• What sets you apart from the pack and makes you that unique Realtor?
  
• What can you bring to Clients that others can't.
  
• Or HOW can you act more yourself, as you are, and market it.

Great questions for deep thoughts on a Monday morning!

I have an adorable listing. It's gotten rave reviews on property tours. Open House comments are highly positive. Agent feedback has been full of praise. But it is still active! The price point was good, but we reduced the price to make a bigger impression. Central Texas is in a drought, yet my client is hand-watering (which is the only legal way) to keep the yard looking semi green. Designer paint, professionally landscaped backyard... we have been scratching our heads on this thinking "what is wrong...".

Called my favorite home stager and we had a one hour appointment today with the owner. New eyes are better than four eyes! In 60 minutes she transformed what we thought was beautiful into something incredible. Bedrooms look twice as big, windows filtering more light inwards, counter tops seem endless. I was shocked and impressed at the same time. What a difference.

An open house next weekend and the property tour again. I'll let you know what the new feedback is... and when we get a contract! But above all, having the Stager really opened up my eyes. My Client was absorbing all she heard and was quick to respond when the Stager said "Let's move this now..." And as a Realtor, it's an excellent idea to have someone else make the strong suggestions while I stay neutral. However, my Stager was quick to refer back to me when the Client didn't answer in a fast enough fashion.

I'm incredibly impressed... more to come....

Stacey