Christine Wade

Welcome to the 3rd edition of “Tipsy Tuesday”. If you’ve been following along with us, you know that this blog series was the brain child of a chat I was having with some of my fellow Virtual Assistants over at the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce regarding how often one should blog. The discussion was about having themed blog days (as in a specific day of the week is a specific type of blog post) - which I think is a great idea, but I am not that disciplined. Instead, I decided just to devote one day a week to my Active Rain blog efforts...and “Tipsy Tuesday” was born! I wanted to make it interesting and not just a generic real estate tip, and since real estate agents generally love the finer things in life, I decided to add a wine recommendation or a cocktail recipe as well (something that could be used at an open house or given as a closing gift, or for purely personal pleasure). I hope you enjoy the Tipsy Tuesday blog posts! Please subscribe to my blog so you won't miss any!

• Tip #3 – When’s The Last Time You Updated Your Contact List?
  Ok, if you read my article, The 12 "Ways" of Christmas, you know that I think the holiday season is all about expressing gratitude to all those that have helped, in whatever way, to grow your real estate career. You can’t very well do that if you don’t have current contact information for them, now can you?
  
  So, my suggestion is to get your Real Estate Virtual Assistant (if you don’t already have one, contact me via the form at the right, or visit the VACOC and fill out an RFP for a Real Estate VA to contact you with information about their services) to create a postcard for you that requests complete updated contact information from these people. This includes name, phone & fax numbers, mailing address, email address and a notes section for them to tell you anything they want you to know…but especially about their buying and selling needs at the present time. It goes without saying that this postcard should be addressed to you and already have postage applied. This postcard should be sent to your entire contact list in an envelope with a note announcing that you are updating your office systems and would appreciate their current information, and to thank them for taking the time to fill it out, that you will enter all returned cards (by a specific date) into a drawing for a giftcard that is universally welcomed (Home Depot, Target, Walmart, Lowes, etc…) – the amount of the giftcard should be “worthy” – you only need to give one away after all... As the postcards come back in the mail, pass them on to your virtual assistant to update the information in your database so that you are ready for the holidays and to get started on your 12 "Ways" of Christmas!
  
  
• Tipsy #3 - Pomegranate Margarita
  My best friend makes these in world class fashion – she can barely walk away from the bar at a gathering without someone asking her to return and make them another one. I don’t really enjoy that whole “sweet & sour” thing in my margaritas, so she uses Cointreau instead of Triple Sec or Margarita Mix for me. Here’s her recipe, enjoy!
  
  
  1. 1 ½ oz. PAMA Pomegranate Liquor
  2. 1 oz. Patron Silver Tequila
     
  3. Cointreau to taste (orange liquor) (subs for triple sec with PAMA)
     
  4. Fresh lime juice to taste
     
  5. Diehards can add a splash of Grand Marnier as well
  6. Serve on the rocks, of course!

This blogging series was the brain child of a chat I was having with some of my fellow Virtual Assistants over at the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce regarding how often one should blog. We were throwing out the idea about having themed blogging days (as in a specific day of the week is a specific type of blog post) - which I think is a great idea, but I am not that disciplined. So, I decided just to devote one day a week to my Active Rain blogging efforts...you guessed it...Tipsy Tuesdays! I wanted to make it interesting and not just a generic real estate tip, and since real estate agents generally love the finer things in life, I decided to add a wine recommendation or a cocktail recipe as well (something that could be used at an open house or given as a closing gift, or for purely personal pleasure). I hope you enjoy the Tipsy Tuesday blog posts! Please subscribe to my blog so you won't miss any!

• Tip #2 - Add ReoTrans.com to your To Do List!
  This is a mini version of a post I did as a Contributing Author over at RealBlogging.com recently, so you may want to jump over there and read the full article.
  
  REOTrans is a comprehensive system to manage and sell default and REO properties - and its popularity is only increasing. If you haven't signed up to become a member of REOTrans by now, you should be asking yourself if you're missing out on an opportunity for income potential in this tough market.
  
  REOTrans allows agents, lenders and vendors to communicate effectively, collaborate on task lists, store and share property files and images...all with the end goal of selling REO properties. Agents can try to get BPOs, and hopefully the listings, which of course are tough to get, depending on your market and how many agents you are competing with within the REOTrans system. The technology of this system is amazing...but with amazing, sometimes comes confusion and that "deer in the headlights" syndrome. Everyone doesn't have to be good at everything to succeed. It doesn't matter how you work within the REOTrans.com system, directly or through your Real Estate Virtual Assistant (REVA), all that matters is that you sign up, get involved and get every ounce of potential out of your real estate career possible.

• Tipsy #2 - Menage a Trois
  I hesitated about posting this wine's name in public, but I figured that if Costco could sell the stuff than I could at least write about it! The name of course comes because it is made from a blend of three very flavorful grapes. The first time I had this wine, I was at a neighbor's and she offered me a glass. It looked like a nice dark red wine, so I accepted, figuring that it was a Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. It tasted really good, it wasn't really oaky like a lot of Merlots are, it was almost a little like desert, but not overly sweet at all...it was just really that good. And there was no aftertaste. She showed me the bottle and it said "Red Table Wine". I never would have bought something that said that, I would have turned up my nose and thought that it couldn't be very good. I was wrong. And when I say it was a little like desert...it's just because it is so good, it has nothing to do with being a sweet wine, because it isn't. You will save about $4 a bottle if you buy it at Costco, but I have also seen it at my local grocery store. This is a Napa wine made by Folie a Deux.
  

I bought this book well over a year ago, and I pretty much read it from cover to cover. Even though I'd had my real estate license for years...I was no good at it. I could do the backend stuff as easy as pie, but the front end stuff...I just wasn't comfortable with. I never felt like I knew the area good enough or how to negotiate well enough... I'd taken all the classes, I had my license with Prudential for awhile, so they make you go through this long array of classes when you first sign with them, plus I had taken other classes, attended other seminars, but what I didn't have was experience. There's no way to fake it. But, I think this book does a really good job of walking you through the steps to getting the huge array of knowledge you need and feeling comfortable spouting off about that knowledge, and I think this confidence will get you through (as long as you have a very supportive broker to go to with questions) as you gain the actual experience level.

Here's a partial list of some of the chapters in the book:

• Online or Offline: Danny Kennedy's 12-Month Farming Almanac (very good stuff)
  
• Confront Old Pro - And Win (wonder if this chapter would help the gentleman who blogged recently about losing a listing to a well endowed female agent? Probably not.)
• High-Tech Promotion and the Personal Touch
• Self-Organization
• Prepare and Perform - Or Pass Out

There're 28 chapters in the book, so that is just a sampling, but I really enjoyed it and had several "ah ha" moments when I read it through the first time. I just picked it up again and am going to scour it again over the coming weeks. I am getting ready to hang my license with another broker (still trying to decide who to go with - it's inactive now), and I really want to go in feeling confident and ready this time out.

I've been a Real Estate Virtual Assistant for 7+ years now...this book isn't about the admin. side of the business much (yeah, think I've pretty well got that down), it's about the "Do or Die - gotta have the courage to get out there" stuff. Enjoy!

I was talking with some of my fellow Virtual Assistants over at the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce today regarding how often one should blog. We were throwing out the idea about having themed blogging days (as in a specific day of the week is a specific type of blog post) - which I think is a great idea, but I am not that disciplined. So, I decided just to devote one day a week to my Active Rain blogging efforts...you guessed it...Tipsy Tuesdays! I wanted to make it interesting and not just a generic real estate tip, and since real estate agents generally love the finer things in life, I decided to add a wine recommendation or a cocktail recipe as well (something that could be used at an open house or given as a closing gift, or for purely personal pleasure). I hope you enjoy the Tipsy Tuesday blog posts! Please subscribe to my blog so you won't miss any!

• Tip #1 - Add descriptive TITLE tags to your web pages!!!
  Seriously, it does wonders (not miracles) for your search engine results. It's probably the most important, most heavily weighted tag on every web page and for whatever reason, real estate agents frequently leave them as "Untitled" or with some generic canned comment in there that their website provider has stuck in there. And by the way, what do you think your Title tag should read? Your name? Not really. If someone is searching the web for you, specifically, they will most likely find you...your name is on your site. But if someone's searching for a new home in "XYZ Neighborhood", are they going to type in your name (do they even know you?) or are they going to type in the name of the area that they would like to find a home in? Exactly. That's what needs to be first in your Title tag. So, if you were a buyer and searching for a home in say, Philadelphia, you might type into the search engine search box something like this: Philadelphia homes for sale, or Philadelphia real estate. If you know that you want to work with a big name agency you might type in that name as well. So for an effective tag line, yours should say something like: "MyTown real estate, brought to you by Your Name of XYZ Realty Co." Or if you live in a more metro area, you can name the City and then the specific subdivision that you specialize in. The tags are there for a reason, to help the search engines find you...help them to help you...go update your Title Tags!!! Here's a much better resource than myself for how to format your Title tags on your website: http://www.highrankings.com/allabouttitles
  
  
• Tipsy #1 - Mezzacorona Merlot
  This is not an easy wine to find. It's not expensive, but it's an Italian Import wine that is not stocked by most grocery stores, Bevmo, etc... I have found the white wines from Mezzacorona at my local stores, but never the reds. The first time I ever had this wine was at a little dark, moody Italian restaurant in my city. I was not a merlot lover at the time...and I dare say this wine won me over. It was full of flavor with no bitter aftertaste, it was almost like desert, but yet it wasn't sweet at all...it was just that good. Look around at your local Italian restaurants and see if it's on the menu, or perhaps as your local store to bring some in for you. I know there are better merlots out there, but I haven't tasted one yet. This would be an awesome addition to a Holiday Open House, an intimate steak dinner for two or any occasion when you want to open a bottle of red. Enjoy! (And if you find it somewhere that's a nationwide chain, you have to tell me so that I can see if they have it near me!)
  

All the best~
Christine Wade

The Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce Announces the Newest Member of Their Board of Volunteers

Vista, California, August 25 2008—Are Virtual Assistants and Real Estate Professionals a match made in Heaven? Of course not, there's no such thing...but Christine Wade of eRealty Network, LLC thinks that they're about as close as it gets.

Christine is a member of the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce (VACOC), a professional association dedicated to helping business-minded Virtual Assistants grow smarter, more successful practices, and providing business owners with free tools and resources to connect with reputable, qualified Virtual Assistant professionals. Christine was just named to the VACOC Board of Volunteers as their Real Estate Industry Liaison. Christine has been a member of numerous other Virtual Assistant organizations; however, the VACOC is by far her favorite. The reason? The members are all seasoned administrative professionals. You cannot even become a member without a minimum of 5 years administrative experience, and you must be capable of following some pretty detailed instructions for your membership application to even be considered. You would be surprised how many less-than-stellar applicants these membership prerequisites weed out. Christine was looking for a different kind of Virtual Assistant organization when she applied to the VACOC; she wanted to network with peers that were more experienced, who had valid ideas, experiences and processes to share of their own, rather than organizations that were filled to over-flowing with under qualified members, calling themselves virtual assistants, who were simply looking for seasoned VAs to tell them how accomplish tasks that they didn’t have the experience to and never should have taken on in the first place.

Christine has high expectations for how she will utilize her role as the Real Estate Industry Liaison for the VACOC. Her passion is real estate, she is an agent in the state of California herself, and she knows how detail oriented the administrative work can be that is associated with this industry. Christine hopes to bring together qualified and disciplined Real Estate Virtual Assistants and savvy real estate agents who know that in order to make money, they have to make time – time to tend to their clients, not time to sit at the computer and handle the administrative tasks that should definitely be handed off to someone who specializes in those tasks. Today, being the age of Web 2.0, the agents are expected to have competent web presences, which only increases their administrative workload tenfold. Qualified and professional Real Estate Virtual Assistants can help mark off these tasks, such as posting blog entries, updating inventory on websites, MLS data entry, creating hard copy inventory sheets, creating just listed / sold / expired / FSBO marketing pieces, and the list goes on…

Christine wants to spend her time educating agents about the benefits and value of partnering with a quality Real Estate Virtual Assistant, as well as working with Virtual Assistants who show an interest and potential for working with Real Estate agents. She hopes to help guide those individuals down the path toward becoming a Real Estate Virtual Assistant. The two industries might not be a match made in Heaven, but they’re at least as good of a match as Oreo cookies and milk are. They definitely complement each other lucratively for both industries.

If you are a real estate agent looking for a great virtual assistant to help you, contact Christine directly or visit the membership directory located on the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce (VACOC) website here: http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/directory - there’s even a RFP area where you can post your request for a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, simply click on the link at the right on that same page. The deadline for qualified virtual assistants to participate in this year's Virtual Assistant Survey is August 31, 2008 - so head over to the survey today to make your voice be heard! http://www.virtualassistantnetworking.com/survey.htm

ABOUT Christine Wade, a self-professed, self-taught computer geek turned Virtual Assistant, had over 12 years experience in the corporate world in administrative positions (ranging from general to executive assistance, as well as management), before she decided to venture out on her own in March of 2000 and opened her virtual doors. Stop by her website and see what her clients have to say about her services; learn why she gets so many word of mouth referrals for her company and perhaps even decide to experience it for yourself! eRealty Network, LLC - www.The10HourVA.com

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