What every one is talking about

Mark your calendars for the third week in April. Just today as I was driving through downtown the facade was going up and crowds of gawkers were snapping shots of plywood mimicking a Wisconsin town of the 1930s. Store fronts are transforming into unknown ghosts of small town past.
This is an exciting time. Many are plotting how to get a glimpse of the stars, or more specifically Johnny Depp. I have my place all scoped out with the help of friends in the Main Street retail business. As much as I adore Johnny Depp, I am more excited about watching the stunt people do their work staging the crash scene at the corner of Main and Washington.
How does any of this relate to real estate? It doesn't really, anymore than the Georgia Bulldogs being National champs and watching student applications increase. It simply might cause our community to get more favorable attention and enlighten folks about all Oshkosh has to offer.
There are real tangible benefits as well. Columbus officials say they have seen an increase of $250,000 in movie related revenue. I would have thought the tab much higher. The production crew alone working right now in downtown have to be earning a good salary, add in the equipment, the building of sets, food, hotel, etc. of those already on site and the total has to be sizable. That doesn't include all the people snapping shots while sipping on their coffees from Blue Moon.
If you have any tips, rumors, speculation email me and I will post them.
Johnny Depp in Oshkosh ... does it get any better?

Almost a Month?

It has been almost a month since I last added a post. It was a solemn oath that I would post a minimum of three times a week, and now ...

When we last met I was slightly complaining about the length of time it takes to build a new real estate practice: brick, mortar, brick, mortar. The plan was working slowly but steadily creating marketing opportunities, expanding the sphere of influence and getting loads of education. On paper I anticipated about six months of business construction before seeing a payoff. It was what Bryan Buffini in his "100 Days to Greatness" course calls farming.

Then buyers changed my well thought out plan, not that I am complaining. On Monday I got my first accepted offer, yea! Another buyer has already signed a Buyer's agreement and who knows where the others will lead. I have been "hunting" over the past month by accident.

But, all my seeds are in serious jeopardy. The Buffini 5-5-5-5-5 is looking more like 1-1-0-0-0. My long term projects are getting stretched and in danger of falling apart, but my education is going gangbusters. I have attended a WHEDA (Wisconsin Housing) seminar, my weekly Buffini lessons, a HUD conference, Legal Update, WRA Government Affairs, and I start my ABR classes in three weeks.

This is an exciting time. Spring may not have arrived yet in North East Wisconsin, but my season has begun, if only I can remember and plan on working the seeds, solidifying the mortar and any other silly metaphor that comes to mind.

As Buffini would have me say, "I am never too busy for your referrals."

The website has also taken a hit on updating but tonight and tomorrow I will be adding several pages and updating the news areas. Check it out!

Building A Business Brick by Brick

One month ago I signed all the paperwork to become a Real Estate Agent.

Today is the first day in a month I can finally begin to see progress. I feel like a construction worker, lay a brick, slather with mortar, lay another brick, slather with mortar. The bricks are the solid foundations: a desk, business cards, education, advertising. The mortar are all the connections that firm up the foundation: announcement letters, referrals, social on-line sites, professional connections, website, blog.

The list of things that must be done is not only infinite but fascinating. Each thing you do shows you other connections, other foundations you can also build on. My previous career it was exclusively word of mouth, who you knew, who called you for what job. There was really no opportunity for self promotion except maybe around the bar at 4 a.m. on election night.

When I reach my two month anniversary I hope to be adding the roof of my new adventure. It will definitely be a green roof with lots of grass, trees and flowers so I can venture up and enjoy everything I have done from the top.