REAL ESTATE ANTHONY

In my many years of being a real estate professional, when working with buyers, they are my number one priority. I always create a buyer’s info. chart for them. Creating my chart saves the buyer time, money and gas. My chart keeps them from running all over town looking for homes they will never buy.

I get out in the field to visit the home builders when I get a break from buyers. Meeting the sales crew and builders means my buyers will benefit from the meeting. I always find more specials, grande opening, upcoming locations, in house info., home tours, types of wood used, tax rates, lot rates and the building process when visiting with them. Building a relationship with the builders and sales crew always connects me with first with needed to know info. before it goes to print. Once again, as I said before, my buyers will benefit.

I’ve yet to experience a boring day in real estate. The number one question people call or e-mail me about my real estate column is, ‘Do you work my side of town?’ My reply is yes. I tell them that the State of Texas allows me to cover Texas. I always tell them I have many realtor friends that could be a benefit as well. Sometimes my realtor friends could be down the street from their home and I’m 200 miles away. If I call them friends that means I trust them. Now, if they just don’t want to work with no one else but me, I will make that happen with no problem.

The last week in March was a good week. I started it in Kingwood where I visited Pulte Homes in Woodspring Forest. I had lunch with the VP Sales Professionals and other realtors. Pulte Homes in Woodspring had many designs to choose from, such as the Orleans, Beclaire, Avalon, Versailles, and Ellington. They really made me feel at home.

I visited Lakeshore located on the north side of Houston during the middle of the week. Wow! When I drove up to see the Lakes of Houston was so nice, I had to sit in my car for a few seconds before I got out and just look at the lake. Perry Homes in Lakeshore was the first builder I visited. They were so happy to see me and also made me feel at home. They had about 70 / 80 Homesites available and the prices were pretty good. My second stop was Coventry Homes in Lakeshore and it’s also located by the lake with some of the homes right by the lake. The salesperson inside the Coventry model home answered all of my questions. I always feel good when getting the right answers and understanding them.

Now, it’s the end of the week. I spent the day at the Lakes of Bella Terra in Richmond. This gated community is filled with love, good people, friends, family, and hard working citizens. My first stop was at the recreation center to register for the visit. Once that was completed, the friendly staff showed me a map of the community. The next thing they showed me was a kitchen full of so many types of food. The representatives said that it was up to me on how much I wanted to eat. The food was great! The name of the catering company is Virginia Meyer Catering Inc. I didn’t know where to start after eating, because the whole community looked so nice and so many builders in one community. So, I started first with the custom homes in the estate custom homes section, which range from $700,000 to $2 Million. Masterpiece, Ronny Carroll, and Westport are the custom homes builders.

Reactive people wait for things to happen and then they respond. All of their work and efforts account for less than 20% of all that is accomplished. Did you know that 80% of everyone you know falls into this category? People who are reactive tend to watch as life happen, they seldom get involved and then wonder what’s happening!

Proactive people take charge of their lives through planning, sound decision-making and successful project execution. Proactive people comprise an almost 20% minority but this 20% minority actually achieves more than 80% of all success. They make things happen. Proactive people utilize effective time management and they know how to plan ahead then follow through to a successful outcome.

Planning ahead significantly impacts the time it takes to perform any given task. A study on time effectiveness showed that every minute spent planning resulted in reducing the time required to complete an activity or project by three to four minutes. Spending ten minutes planning ahead can reduce project completion time by thirty to forty minutes, while one hour of planning can reduce completion time by three to four hours. If properly applied, fifteen minutes of planning can effectively control your time for an entire day. Planning ahead is an excellent tool in time management.

Managing your time efficiently and the utilization of time saving techniques are very important when the clock is ticking. Below are some great tips that will assist you in setting proper priorities:

• Plan to set aside time for preparation and creative thinking for long-term tasks or projects. Short-term urgent tasks will always use up all of your time unless you organize and plan to spend your time otherwise.

• When you have a multitude of things to do, review them quickly and make a list of what needs to be done, in what order and by whom. After completing your list, handle each item only once. Do not start a task, do a portion of it, then put it back in the pile. You end up working harder not smarter. Whenever possible delegate a task to someone else.

• Don’t start many tasks at the same time - even if you think you can handle them all. This is not the most effective or efficient way of dealing with the tasks you have at hand. Multi-tasking is not always a good approach for every situation.

• Manage your emails and phone calls or else they will manage you. Designate specific times at which you will check your emails, voicemail and make phone calls. Ideally, you will be able to stick to your schedule and avoid continuous notification of incoming emails and phone calls.

Planning is one of the keys to managing your priorities and achieving success both in life and in business. If you have not been a successful planner in the past, here are some tips for effective planning:

• Know your prime time and energy level.

• Respect, protect and direct your prime time.

• Have clearly defined goals and objectives.

• Implement an action plan for all projects.

• Have a method to track appointments and commitments.

• Focus on and complete one or two short-term activities that are likely to produce the biggest results and provide short-term success.

• Be prepared to make major changes. Be open and creative in finding and introducing different ways of doing things.

You can choose to be either proactive or reactive. Where are you now? Where do you want to be? Are you willing to put in some time and effort in the short-term for long-term advantages, success and the ability to move to the next level? The choice, as always, is yours.