Carter Ritchie- 100% focus on Win / Win relationships. Richmond & Central VA

As we sit 36 hours away from 2011 (as I write this) the excitement of a new year with new opporunity is mixed witha little fear and dread. My business partners and I have been agressively charting and planning over the last month. We have been documenting our budgets (both personal and business). We have been analyzing how our time is spent and most importantly wasted. We have been looking at closing rates and ratios. We have been looking at our communication and follow up with clients, associates, and sphere of influence. And FINALLY wee have been looking at what our financial goals are.

We have been able to get as detailed with our business planning as determining how many mailings, calls, emails, and emails we need to plug in to reach our sales goals. We know what the average sale is and we know how many we need to make.

So here's the thing...I'm feeling a wee bit overwhelmed with the figures. I just met with my accountability partner this morning and discussed time blocking.

My current plan for success involves the following:

1. List writing and checking items on list from prior evening every night before slumbering
2. Starting the day (6 days a week) with making pertinent calls (8:00-9:15) before the computer come on!
3. Two days a week making direct calls (in 3hour blocks) to folks facing foreclosure.
4. Two hours daily (5 days a week) updating webites & blogs.
5. Three weekly lunch dates with VIP Sphere
6. Monday Morning Staff Meetings
7. Monthly Vendor meetings for cross referals
8. Weekly Mailers (Wednesday All Day Event)
9. Visiting Area properties for HOT LIST- Friday 8AM-2PM
10. Hold an Open House at one of our RED HOT Listings every week with a purpose.
11. Take Thursdays Off.
12. Check in with accountability coach every Wednesday morning.

NOW- I NEED MORE ESPRESSO TO GET THROUGH 2011!

My question for you, my Activerain friends is this:

Are you ready for 2011 and what's your plan for success?

HOUSE PASSES BILL TO EXTEND FIRST TIME HOMEBUYER CREDIT. HR 5263, a bill to extend the tax credit set to expire tomorrow, was passed by house lawmakers in a 409-5 vote. If passed by the Senate, the bill will extend the tax credit Closing deadline for an additional 3 months.

If the bill fails to pass, the National Association of Realtors estimates that up to 180,000 buyers who were under contract by April 30th and qualified for the credit, would fail to recieve the credit. Most of these Purchasers are involved in purchases of distressed properties, whether REO or Short Sales. Fingers crossed. More news soon!

Real Estate Bar Camp in Richmond #REBCRVA and Social Networking with Brian Block

What a great time today with fellow Real Estate Professionals. Jennifer James gave a wonderful talk on the power of Activerain and Google placement. Blogging has been a constant challenge for me. The schedule of Real Estate tends to knock me off of the schedule I should be keeping on blogging. After learning about the SEO benefits, I'll definitely be working on my blogging effort.

Yesterday master social networker & blogger, Brian Block spoke to the powers of using Facebook, Activerain, twitter, & blogs to build one's real estate business. As I was starting to get in the groove, I had to fly out the door to meet with a Client to draft a Purchase Offer. Not complaining, but a prime example of how easy it is to get knocked off the blogging and social media bus.

As luck would have it, Brian Block was the first speaker at the Richmond Real Estate Bar Camp #REBCRVA breakout session on blogging. Beyond good and powerful stuff. Brian has been interviewed by countless media sources due to his hard and diligent work on blogging and social media work. After a LONG day (yesterday), I checked out Brian's blog. Impressive.

In addition to the Activerain talk that Jennifer James gave, and the Blogging talk that Brian block gave at the Richmond Real Estate Bar Camp #REBCRVA -

I enjoyed hearing a wonderful effective Real Estate website talk given by Bobby Carroll Dakno. Beyond the obvious, Bobby gave more awesome insight on SEO, as well as the psychology of consumers visiting websites. No question, we will be revamping the websites. Thanks, Bobby!

Sarah Stelmok and Heather Elias did an awesome job speaking to Hyper local websites & blogging. I think we started to scratch the surface on giving information on the areas that we work, but hyper local blogging goes way beyond. Heather & Sarah are truly giving tremendous data on their local area including restaraunts, parks, ativities, neighborhoods, people, and yes..even a little real estate.

Aside from the mega informative day, we had a wonderful time catching up with Agents statewide. Not sure why I hadn't been to Richmond Real Estate Bar Camp #REBCRVA before, but I won't miss another one if at all possible.

Oh yeah...by the way...this is me trying to utilize some of Jennifer and Brian's tricks. Any thoughts on Richmond Real Estate Bar Camp #REBCRVA or Bar Camp in general?

Here's the last list of 5 things about Carter Ritchie.....at least for a while. I'd love to hear a little about you too.

21) My wife, Lynley and I chose to make a major life change several years ago. We moved to the Country. We live in rural Virginia 45 minutes from two large Virginia Real Estate Markets. We enjoy the very best of Virginia. We kept our home in Richmond to enjoy city life on occasion, but our heart stays in the country.
22) Travel. I've been all over, but I don't get to travel like I used to. Next year is going to be a month in Scotland so I think this year will be a bit then. Some of mine & Lynley's favorites are Scotland, Bahaibe (The Dominican), St Thomas, Honduras, Key West, Maui, and Alaska. There are countless others but those are at the top.

23) I worry (no obsess) about the details. For me if you cover the details, you can then relax. When they are not covered you end up reacting. that's chaos territory for me, which is a bad place.

24) Breakfast is my favorite meal. That's not to say that I do not LOVE amazing dinners, but I've found the simplicity of eggs, breads, preserves, sausages, and bacons to be the really sweet spot. 10 minutes and you are in sheer comfort land! Oh yeah, lets not forget the french press to go with it.

25) I don't feel entitled to what we have, but am extremely grateful for it all...especialy the friendships. If I can remain this blessed with the relationships, the things mean next to nothing.

I will blog tomorrow on some of the very best unknown secrets of Central Virginia. Hope you join me. Have a great Saturday!

Early on I had ZERO sense of the power of "Home." I looked at the place I lived as a mortgage payment, a set of maintenance and repair bills and profit or loss at resale - little else. This largely was because my first home was an Owner financed duplex in a neighborhood on the cusp of a high crime area, purchased with the help of family. The house was no Beauty Queen, but since I was a poor College kid with very limited means it worked. My interest rate wasn't bad at 10%. Nowadays I wouldn't pay more than 6%. The reality is that I bought the home because it was within my limited budget and pickins were slim within my budget. I was a first time buyer buying the little I could afford.

That home, as an Investment, was a tremendous blessing. It allowed me to enter the world of Real Estate Investment, which I have thoroughly enjoyed. Since that point, I have been fortunate to be able to buy and sell a number of properties. The focus has always been on the numbers. Several years ago, my beautiful wife humored me by agreeing to live at a Country Lake house for the Summer. The property was one we renovated to flip. We never sold the house, we never left, and we never regretted it. Living on a 200 Acre spring-fed lake in the country was a game changer for us.

That was the point that I truly understood a basic fact in Real Estate- a home is more than an Investment. The right home is life changing. I'm a slow learner. I get it and I own it. While so many friends and family members were buying real homes 10 years ago, my wife endured always living in the stereotypical starter home. Nowadays, life is pretty good on our little piece of heaven.

So here's what I don't get - In this market people can buy dream homes that are definitely life changing for dramatic discounts in the Central Virginia Region, whereas the starters are starting to move up in price. Yet, most established home owners whom we talk to are in the mindset I lived in ten years ago. The sentiment of so many seems to go beyond conservative. It is irrational. Where we live is life changing, but this fact seems to have been forgotten by many. I get that conventional funding is tougher and jumbos are non-existent. I also get that prices of luxury homes have driven down much further as a result. I also get that prices will only go down to a certain point before starting the climb back up and I also get that at some point Interest rates will have to rise. What was unreachable and unattainable just a year ago, is well within the reach of most move up buyers, but there's no room left on the fences.

For me, the slow learner, there is tremendous value (both financially and otherwise) in living in your dream home. For us, we relax more, are at home more often, are more focused at work, and in general are happier. The overall value- Priceless. In this BUYER'S MARKET what is the true value to getting off the fence and moving up? By the way, remember - in this market All offers are considered, is a reality more times than not.

What says you?