We're all self-employed. No matter what your job is, you're self-employed. It doesn't matter if you're flipping burgers at McDonald's, you're an office administrator, a nurse, contractor or you're a Realtor, you're self-employed. What happens if you decide to skip work for a couple days, come in
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01/21/2014
I live in a rural part of Virginia, and I love it. People on the western side of the Blue Ridge mountains tend to be a bit more rugged in many ways. We're a hardy lot over here. My in-laws are some of those hardy people. I've learned a lot of great things from my in-laws, and one thing I learned
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01/20/2014
Sellers, if your house has been on the market for a year or more, there's a problem. Good properties that are in good condition, priced well and are easy to see sell much more quickly. As a matter of fact, they typically sell in less than a month. My last two listings sold in less than 5 days. S
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01/20/2014
If you're good at what you do, people will find you. My electrical contracting company has a faithful following of regular clients. We've had some of those clients for decades. They only want us on their projects. One client actually waited a year for me to get to him. That's loyalty, but it also
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01/19/2014
I was driving through town this morning, and I noticed a sandwich board sign. The owner of the sign had created an elaborate logo with white lettering. The only problem was that the logo was so complicated that you couldn't read it, and the writing was white on a light background. If I hadn't slo
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01/18/2014
It might be me, but I love it when I see people doing very clever things. I get even more tickled when I see visionary and clever decisions being made by those who are fairly new to the business. It can be difficult that first year or two. So, when a newbie is doing smart things, I'm impressed. K
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01/16/2014
There are a lot of mistakes sellers make that could cost them a sale, but I had a unique one a few years ago that not only cost a sale multiple times for my seller, but it also cost him $28000. The house was a simple plain vanilla ranch house. The local market was just in the beginnings of the 20
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01/15/2014
Be a make it happen business, not a "we can't do that" business. Every business survives through its customer base. If you have no customers, you can't stay in business. If you have a good customer base, you're obligated to treat them well. If you do, they will keep coming back to you when they n
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01/15/2014
I know we all have those agents who drive us crazy, and I've had my share. I'm not shy about writing Member's Only posts about terrible experiences with less than satisfactory agents. They do drive me batty. I can't say that today. I'm in the middle of three deals that are scheduled to close over
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01/13/2014
I've been an empty-nester for about 2 months now. So many of our friends went through a great deal of trauma when their kids left home, but it hasn't been that way at our house. Actually, we like it. That's not to say that we didn't love having the boys at home. They've always been a great source
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01/11/2014
