Fiddlenet is "In Focus"!

Spring is officially here! Should we share the good news?

    It is official. March 20th is the first day of spring. How many sellers told you they were waiting for spring? So, how many listed today?  If you called them, I was wondering what excuse are they using today.

The truth is today may be the best day of 2009 to list your home. Why, because there are lots of positive signs, if you are looking.

For example the Florida Association of Realtors reported a 43% increase in January over last year's sales in Lee County. ( http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101511417 ) The increase in sales has been especially noticeable in Cape Coral, sometime referred to as "ground zero" of the nations housing crisis. Last year, Cape Coral lead the nation in foreclosures. But sales are increasing and are likely to continue and according to the same report, inventory is shrinking.

Let's not forget thefirst time homebuyer may also qualify for up to $8000 if they close by the end of 2009 (http://money.cnn.com/2009/02/13/real_estate/homebuyer_tax_credit_finalized/index.htm?postversion=2009021712 ) If there are more buyers in the market, could that be of value to you?

Need some more good news? The government recently reported that housing starts rose 22% in January. (http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/17/real_estate/housing_starts/index.htm) It was the first increase since June which had an increase of 11%.

Ok, so is have we seen the bottom? Are home values going to start increasing again? I don't know. What I do know is there is plenty of good news to share with our clients.

There are many people out there that need your help. They need your leadership. They need your hope and they love to hear good news. Recently Brian Williams of NBC news requested that viewers send in good news and he would read the stories on the air.  ( http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29556042/ )  He said he was "shocked at the thousands of responses" he received in just 2 days.

I was not shocked at all. For years Floyd Wickman has shared the "good news". Our trainer meetings all start with good news. When we teach a class, we start each and every class with good news.

Now that spring is "officially" here, let's "focus" on the positive signs. Let's focus on the good news.

Today may be the best day of 2009 to list a home. Who do you know who might need to sell?

Life is what happens while we are making plans

"Life is what happens to us while we are busy making other plans" - John Lennon

Have you hit any roadblocks this year? Did someone, or something knock you off track? How did you handle it? Some will simply give up on their goal and say "life" got in the way. Others will find a way to handle it. Maybe the key is simply to know where to focus.

Recently my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. Now, first let me say the doctor tells us she is going to be ok. But for the past few weeks it has been very difficult. Of course one of the toughest parts is "not knowing". Karen and I both believe she will be ok, we just want to know what to expect.

Over the past few weeks she has had 3 surgical procedures and we still don't know the final results. Once we do, we'll know how they will handle the treatment. But in the meantime..........we wait.

So, what's the point? Maybe it's that we still need to keep our priorities in order. Many years ago Floyd shared something with me that is helping us today. He said there are 4 priorities in life. They are "Business, Faith, Family, and Self".  Sometimes we need to focus on business first, then family, then faith, then self. Or sometimes it's self, family, faith and business. Or maybe it's.........well, you get the idea dont' you?

Over the past few weeks I have felt lost. I have struggled to focus on my business at all. I have spent a lot of time praying and taking care of Karen. Then I remembered the 4 priorities. I realized that my priorities have changed. Right now they are Faith, Family, Business and Self. I also realized Karen's journey is going to be a long one. Can I really afford "not" to do focus on my business at all? The answer is, of course not.

Is it possible for the order of those priorities to change daily? Maybe even during the day? It's almost funny to listen to Karen. One minute she wants me by her side, and the next minute she wants me out teaching. So, I thought, can I do both? I realized that if I can prioritize correctly, the answer is yes. 

Life is what happens while we are making plans. There are still 168 hours in a week. What matters now is that I remain "focused". Focused on what...or when? Well, that depends doesn't it? Focused on Karen, "when" she needs me, focused on business, "because" we need it, focused on "faith", because we need Him, and focused on "self", so I don't burn out. The only decision is is when to prioritize which focus.

Will it be easy? Probably not. Then again, nothing worth having is easy....it may be simple, but surely not easy.