The "R" word

I went to dinner with my dad tonight and he said it, that we are in a recession. I said please don't say that word in front of me anymore. He said it just means that they announced that the GNP is not growing- whatever that means. This is what the current economy means to me-

We are having a great year in real estate. We have sold as many homes this year as we did last and it is only August. When people ask me about how are business is doing- I always say "that we are doing really well!".

Here is how my career has broken out in real estate.

2005- slow, which I expected since it was my first year.

2006- fantastic!

2007- better than 2005 but not as good as 2006, which I did not expect but decided to work harder to make 2008 another fantastic year instead of throwing the "R" word around and making excuses.

2008- fantastic- this will be my best year by far in the real estate world!

I took this from a friend's blog today - Raquel with Silver Square, Inc. - and I think it is where the economy is today.

The Formula that Changes EVERYTHING by Jack Canfield

It seems that everywhere you turn these days, you hear people talking about the economy.

What’s interesting is that some people are scared to death about it, while others couldn't be happier.

While I don’t claim to be an economist, I do know one important fact. The economy is the same for everyone, it’s how you respond to it that determines how you feel about it.

It’s yet another example of what I’ve been teaching for years. . .

E + R = O (Events + Responses = Outcome)

The basic idea is that every outcome you experience in life (whether it's success or failure, wealth or poverty, wellness or illness, intimacy or estrangement, joy or frustration) is the result of how you have responded to an earlier event (or events) in your life.

Online Networking

Okay, please raise your hand if you are overwhelmed by online networking- I am raising mine high right now!



It seems as if there are so many places that you can be a part of online networking in our current Internet world. Here are the one's that I am a part of on a regular basis. Take a look at my profiles and become my online friend/connection today.



I am on LinkedIN. This is what the LinkedIN people say they are- "Your professional relationships are key to your professional success. Our mission is to help you be more effective in your daily work and open doors to opportunities using the professional relationships you already have. This isn’t networking—it’s what networking should be. Forget exchanging business cards with acquaintances that don’t know your work, or trying to renew professional ties when you need a favor."

I feel like it is a good place to stay "online" connected in the business world. A good place to go if I needed a job or needed to hire someone. A good place to go if I wanted to try to get contact information for someone at a specific company. I like LinkedIN. Here you would not become my friend but would be my "connection". Here is my profile on LinkedIN, become my connection today.

The second place I have a profile in the online world is Facebook. I love Facebook! It has been so fun. A friend of mine said the other day that she might have become addicted to Facebook and I can see this might be a growing problem for me too. This is what the people at Facebook said they are "Facebook is a social utility that connects people with friends and others who work, study and live around them. People use Facebook to keep up with friends, upload an unlimited number of photos, share links and videos, and learn more about the people they meet." I just love Facebook...did I say that already? I have gotten reconnected old friends and classmates. It is a place where you can post pictures of your family or your life and share with others. It is a great place. Here is my profile on Facebook , become my friend today.

I have chosen to be involved with only two online networking groups full time but there are many others out there. There are one's that charge you to participate and one's that don't. My opinion is that you should not have a profile up if you can not maintain it, just my opinion, so that is why I decided to stick with two groups so I can keep up with the maintenance.

Hope to see you online today!

Bobbie

My aunt died last Wednesday. I have not been able to write this here until now and it is still very hard.

I started my blog on advice from a good friend of mine (also my "marketing manager" or at least she will be when I sell enough homes that she can actually be on my payroll instead of doing work for me at little to no cost). She feels like it is good to have a blog for many reasons- check out hers here - it is incredible the knowledge that she shares on a daily basis- reasons including driving traffic to your web site, storing information pertaining to your industry so it can be accessed by clients or potential clients and the list goes on and on. I have found it to be cathartic for me. I have never thought of myself as a writer but many have commented on my writing here on my blog and how they have enjoyed it. It has become a place where I can publically share my thoughts- even if only a few are reading them.

So today I am sharing my thoughts on my Aunt Bobbie. She was so much! I will list some of the things she was here but I am sure I will miss a few.

1) She was a good friend to my son David. She played with him when no one else found the time. She made him laugh. She always thought of him.

2) She was a loving mother to Peter. When I see an adult that I think is amazing, I tend to look towards their parents to see how they became who they are today. Peter is an adult that I admire to be- a friend to many, a listener, a writer, a mentor, a therapist. He is a person I look to for guidance.

3) She was a sister. My mom is Bobbie's sister. My mom was in a way like a mother to Bobbie and in a way lost a child last Wednesday. It is hard to lose a child.

4) She was my aunt. Bobbie was my aunt. She gave me cool presents and notes each holiday ( I mean each holiday including Easter, Valentines Day, Halloween- each holiday) she wrote notes to me that showed her deep appreciation for the person that I was to her. She was my aunt.

5) She believed in God. Not only did she believe in God but she believed in Faith. She believed everyone should have a faith in something (something that they believed) and it did not matter to her what that was. She just wanted them to believe.

The list could go on and on but I will end there for now.

Her funeral service was on Monday and it was so true to who she was. Peter and my mom did a fantastic job of planning the day on what they thought she wanted. She was buried in an Indian dress with a halo of live daises around her head. She wore putulli oil. We sang "Moon River" at the burial.

There were tons of people who attended the calling (or visitation as Shannon liked to say), the funeral, the burial and the celebration. I never realized how many friends Peter had. I always knew that he was a good person but I was never aware of how many lives he has affected and helped with in his career.

Larry (Peters father) spoke about the times when they were first married in the 60's. He spoke about all the traits that attracted her to him and how she was in so many ways misunderstood.

I spoke for mom and did a horrible job. It was hard to hear due to me not being close enough to the microphone- mom made me aware of that immediately.

Peter spoke about the movies she loved, the books she read and the people in her life. He spoke about my dad being probably the only man that she really trusted. He spoke about their car trips together. He is an amazing speaker.

My aunt is not with us today and it is hard. I want her to come back. I want to have one last of her deviled eggs, I want her to go with David to the "Kids" museum one last time, I want her to send me one last note.

I love you Aunt Bobbie and will forever remember you!

What did you do for Earth Day?

Earth day was today. Earth day was founded in 1970.

Let me just start by saying I am not the perfect example of what Earth day is all about. We have never recycled (before today) and I am not sure I have ever tried to save on water, electricity or gas except to save on our bottom line dollar.

Today, this Earth day- 2008, I am going to try to turn over a new leaf.

I have tried in the last couple of years to use environmental friendly cleaning products but I am not sure my goal was for the earth but to make my family and home a more environmentally safe home. Today, I will still continue to use those products but I will start thinking not only about MY family but about the earth and more importantly about our children and our children's children who will inhabit the earth.

So what have you done today to contribute to making the Earth a more friendly place to live? I heard a quote that we as Americans contribute 5% to the world's (the Earth's) population but consume around 25% of the worlds resources. How much do you and your family consume?

If you can do just one thing to make a difference I think it is worth while. Do something, change something in your life that you are comfortable with. This is what we have done- some might work and some might not.

1) A couple month's ago I stopped buying plastic bags- the lunch sandwich type. When you think about it you don't think it would be hard to give up small plastic bags but it was. Have you tried to fit American cheese slices in a reusable container? But we did it, change is good.

2) Today I purchased totes to recycle with. I will be honest, I have not paid to recycle in the past because I was not sure that the items that the so called recycling company picked up- after I paid them- would actually not be put into that same garbage refill. Today we are going to start recycling- plastic, glass, metal, paper, cardboard and hazardous containment's like paint. My goal will be to take them to a recycling center myself that I don't have to pay for but will be assured that the items that I drop off will be recycled.

3) Our next goal as a family is to give up paper towels. Should I say it was our families idea or my idea. I have not talked to David about it yet- he really doesn't have a choice but I called Mike thinking that he would say no way. That way I could just act like I wanted to be Earth friendly but blame it on my family. But instead he said "how we would do that?". I think it is a good question so I said "well we would have 1) separate towels to clean up spills on the floor or other areas that we would usually use a paper towel 2) we would use cloth napkins when we had a snack or a meal 3) we would clean with cloths or towels that could be washed" and he said...."okay let's give it a try. "

That is all we can do "give it a try". We can try not to use paper towels and if it is manageable which I think everything can be after you get through the "changes" that occur with that try. We gave the no plastic bag thing a try and it is manageable. I do think sometimes why am I not reaching for a plastic bag but I don't think about the Earth first, maybe I should, but I think about David's children.

Give it a try- you can do tons of stuff. You could give not using plastic baggies a try, or not using paper towels or using cleaning products that are environmentally friendly but you could also give a ton of other things a try that might fit better with you and/or your family like composting, riding the bus (IE: Lora), taking a reusable bag to the market, carpooling, turning off the lights, using less water- really the list goes on and on and on. I ask you this today - Earth day- give it a try and see what works for you.

Blog/Animals Lost continued

I will tell you one of the hardest things about keeping up to date on my blog is that I feel like NO ONE is reading it. I am not really one of those people that needs a ton of attention, or am I?, but I started this Blog to give information to people (primarily about the Greater Indianapolis real estate market) but when I feel like no one is reading the information or finding it useful then that is when is hard for me to update.

Today I received an email from a current client who is subscribed to receive my blog entries and it made me so Happy! I also think it is good information so I am posting it here.

"You are probably already familiar with this site but I have it as a reminder every day to click to help fund animal rescue. The sponsors pay every time someone goes to the site and clicks…plus there is some cool stuff you can buy!"- Niki

http://www.theanimalrescuesite.com/clickToGive/home.faces?siteId=3&link=ctg_ars_home_from_ths_thankyou_sitenav

Now the really cool thing is I was not familiar with the site so I am glad that I now am and the second really cool thing is that I am posting it here so everyone that reads my Blog can be familiar with it too.

If you would like to receive my Blogs on a daily basis click here and sign up today.

It would be great to hear from you too about my Blog entries, both any positive or negative comments, it would just be good to hear from YOU!

Too many animals lost

Yesterday Mike and I went to MoonDog to have a beer after we dropped off David at my parents to spend the night. While we were relaxing I read the most recent Nuvo newsweekly and was shocked by what I read.

Most of you that are reading this know that I am passionate about animals and in particular retired racing Greyhounds. So I guess since I feel like I am pretty aware of what is going on in this city as far as rescued animals I was shocked at the numbers I read. Here they are-

Animals handled by Indianapolis Animal Care and Control in 2007:

Received: 17,964
Adopted: 1,760
Returned to owner: 1,402
Transferred: 2,801
Euthanized: 11,508

Animals handled by Humane Society of Indianapolis in 2007:

Received: 8,981
Adopted: 3,967
Returned to owner: 266
Transferred: 482
Euthanized: 3,251

Did you read that? That is close to 15,000 animals that were killed last year in Indianapolis alone....15,000!

You can read the entire article in Nuvo Newsweekly written by Shawndra Miller called "Saving the Strays" here.

If you want more information about adopting a greyhound please go to Greyhounds Pets of American- Indianapolis or Indy Prison Greyhounds or contact me at ccinamon@curryteamindy.com .

If you are looking for a new pet for your family (and don't want a Greyhound) please consider contacting your local shelter or your local rescue group of the breed of your choice, there is a rescue group for EVERY breed of dog and cat.

This is a good book to read if you are in the stage of considering a shelter dog adoption. Rescuing Sprite by Mark Levin

Vacation

We are on vacation! We being Mike (my husband), David (my son), my Mom and Dad. It is fun!



Saturday I awoke at 2:47 am- my alarm was set for 2:30 but for some reason it did not go off. I finished packing, showered, made sure the house was ready to leave for a week and then off we went. Our first stop was to pick up my parents. My dad (and now my husband- I think my dad is rubbing off on him) likes to arrive at the airport about 25 hours before the plane departs....okay not 25 hours but a long time. We picked up my parents at 5:00am! and arrived in Sarasota Florida around 9:15. What a great world we live in!



My husband always says that we should write a sitcom about our lives and sometimes I think it is true. The flight went smoothly except for me crying because there was so much turbulence. I just kept thinking who will take all my dogs if something happens to all of us! It did not really effect anyone else. My mom and I had a couple bloody Marys and she did a great job of talking to me about other things until all of sudden she said "and this makes me think that I should redo my will so that there are other beneficiaries besides you and David"...nice!



Mike and I rented a convertible (I had a coupon) and we could not figure out how to get the top down so mom immediately went to find help by about 30 rental car agents. My parents car was in an accident so it has a white label on the front windshield that says accident and white arrows pointing to the place where the accident did damage on the car (the white markings like you get a Mike's car wash)....nice!



Off we head to Long Boat Key. My mom said take the lead and when we stopped on the side of the road to look at the map, my dad got out of the car and wondered what we were doing and he said he would lead.....amazing communication had by all.



Our first stop was a cafe in Brandenton Beach to have an early lunch. The sand and the water were so incredible to feel and see! David bought a sharks tooth necklace and we ate lunch and had a beer at 11am. Yeah, this is what vacation is all about!



Mike, David and I went to the public beach on Ana Maria island called Holmes beach to relax in the sun since our check in time was not until 3pm. Mom and Dad went to check in....I will explain later.



Dinner the first night was at home (all of us being so tired from the super early flight).



Sunday we ate breakfast at the Blue Dolphin (David threw up on the table there once when he was two). That's what I always think about when I am there but it was a great meal.



We then went to the pool, to the beach, mom fixed an amazing lunch (another story I will tell you about at a later date- the rules of Kathy Curry...), Mike and I had dinner at the Salty Dog- I actually saw 7 live dogs there and it made me miss my dogs and Mom and Dad took David to diner with Lou and Linda.



Monday we found a great new breakfast place called Rotten Ralph's which sits at on a long pier. We ate a great breakfast and also got to see some amazing birds.



Mike, David and I then went deep sea fishing for the remainder of the day and we caught about 30 fish! The trip was fun and the homes we saw on the coast were way beyond imagination.



Today is Tuesday and we went to Rotten Ralph's again for breakfast even though David wanted to go to the Blue Dolphin. He thinks the Apple Cinnamon Pancakes there are so fantastic, we promised him we would go again tomorrow.



Shopped a little, and then Dad, Mike, David and I went to the Mote Aquarium where we saw Sharks, Dolphins, Sea Turtles, Manatees and many other sea creatures. We stopped by the Salty Dog to grab a bite and now it is raining a little......I am sitting on the screened in porch writing this....life is good!

Valentine's Day Salute

Happy Valentine's Day! I am not sure how I feel about Valentine's Day. Sometime I feel like it is one of those "Hallmark holiday's" where you feel pressure to buy something for people that they don't really need or want. I guess for the most part Valentine's day is just another day. Now my mom loves the holiday and the day, I think it is her favorite (mine is Halloween) but mom's favorite holiday is for another blog entry. This entry is a salute to my Valentine.

My Valentine is my husband-Mike. We have been married for almost 13 years and like any marriage we have had our "seasons" througout our relationship. For the most part it has been great. Mike has made it that way. I think it is harder to live with me than it is for me to live with him. He is my rock, my support, my anchor, my coach, my compass, my handyman, my seamtress, my cook and my sweetheart.

I started my real estate career full time over 3 years ago for many reasons but I think the number one reason was the flexibility that this job holds. I have the ability on most days to be home when my son gets off the bus, I get to go to Valentine Day parties at school, I get to be on the PTO board and volunteer at school, I get to revolve my schedule around my sons. The flexible hours also bring weird hours- lots of weekends and evenings and lots of last minute changes in schedules. Throughout the last three years Mike has been a big reason that this schedule works. He is home in the morning to put David on the bus and fix his breakfast when I need to go to a networking event or a continuing education class. He is home in the evening and/or weekends when I have clients or open houses and he is open to the fact that my scheudle can change suddenly when a client decides this is the weekend that they need to see 50 houses because their job has all of sudden decided to relocate them to this area.

So today, Valentine's Day, I would like to say THANK YOU AND I LOVE YOU to the person who is always there to support me- my husband and my friend Mike Cinamon. Happy Valentine's Day!

Santa

What an interesting time of year, a time of year which brings belief, stress, over spending, friendship, families, arguments, laughs, tears, prayers, expectations and many other emotions and thoughts.

This time of year, Christmas time for me and my family, I have to constantly remember what it is REALLY about- the birth of Jesus Christ. I have to remind my self and I have to remind my child. I also have to remember that this time of year is not this to everyone but many wonderful beliefs to them.

Today, I want to write about what Santa means to me. By the way, this has nothing to do with buying or selling a home...just Santa.

When I remind myself and my family what this time of year REALLY means we also speak about Santa a lot. What does Santa mean to me?

It means belief in a child's eye

It means a time of year where wishes do come true

It means the smell of pine needles when I open my front door and smell the wreath (we went to an artificial tree a couple years ago when we received a beautiful hand me down from my parents).

It means snow and snow men

It means cookies left out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer

It means wearing pajamas too late in the day and hot chocolate too late in the evening

It means so much to me and so many people

So you ask, do I still believe in Santa and I say YES! I believe that the marshmellow gun that David asked for on Santa's lap must come and I believe we must put carrots out for the reindeer's because that is what Christmas is about...it is about believing! So I say to you today- believe in Santa or whatever mythical figure your holiday believes in because it makes all those emotions like stress, tears and arguments seem to be so much easier.

Pets

"I just love animals!" - as an old boss of mine once said.

Currently at my house we have three dogs and one cat.

We have Freddy (Freeway Freddy was his racing name) who is a 9 year old retired racing greyhound.

We have Shelby who we adopted from the Hamilton County Humane Society and I think she is around 13 and we think she is a border collie/golden mix (we call her our campfire dog- not that I camp but if I did she would stay close).

We have Brandy who is also a retired racing greyhound and is 4. Greyhounds typically don't bark, jump up or lick and she does all three- she watches what Shelby does and mimics her actions. It is funny to witness.

And last but certainly not least we have Gail who we acquired from a good friend of mine who became engaged and now married to a man that is allergic to cats- we think Gail is around 12 or 13. She had never lived with dogs or kids and is now certainly the best cat I have ever owned.

I can not imagine a life with out my animals.

When you are selling a home typically pets are not the best selling point. So here are a couple pointers for when you list and sell your home if you also have pets.

1) Crate or if possible remove all pets from the home when it is being shown to a potential buyer.

2) Remove water and food bowls from the house during showings.

3) Make sure, make absolute sure there is NO pet smells in the home. This means cleaning and storing any pet beds, litter boxes, carpet (possibly replace) and furniture where pets sleep or lay most.

4) If you have caged animals or reptiles remove or store the cage during showings.

So if you are a animal lover like me- get all the animals you want (my preference would be that you find one to adopt) but just make sure when you are ready to sell your home you "stage" your pets too. Unfortunately NOT everyone likes pets.

David Wilcox

This will be my fourth year as a full time real estate agent. I started working with my mom in November of 04. Each year I look back and realize that there is one item that I have accomplished with my business that stands out to me for that year. The first year it was creating our web site- www.curryteamindy.com, the second it was forming an amazing accountability group with two other woman business owners, the third year (this last year) it was forming a partnership with David Wilcox.

David is an outstanding person, friend, business man, real estate agent, consultant, sales manager and father....also a great pet owner. David worked for the F.C. Tucker company for many many years. Several of those years he was the top producing agent in the entire company, most of those years he was an incredible manager to my mom and all the other agents at the Tucker Meridian North office.

Last year we formed a business partnership where I can help him manage his real estate clients so he would have more time to grow his consulting business Wilcox Realty Consulting, LLC.. The partnership has been tremendous! He has taught me more than he will ever know in a very short period of time about the present, past and future markets. He has sales skills that he is willing to share on a daily basis. His knowledge of all things "real estate" overwhelms me.

So here is the bottom line, if YOU or anyone you know would like to utilize me as their Realtor of choice, you not only get me (and my mom) but you get David too....We make a fantastic team!

Saturday

As a Realtor it is very normal to work weekend and evenings. I was just telling someone the other day that it actually works well with my family dynamic due to the fact that my husband is in the restaurant industry and what are really "normal" hours in that industry? Since his job has such sporadic hours he does not blink an eye when I work both Saturday and Sunday. This Saturday I met with a client at 8 and another at 2:30 but the best part of my day is what I did in between the two.

From 11-1 I went to Northview Christian Life for their Holiday Bazaar. Northview is a large Christian Church and every year for the past several they give the opportunity to small or home based businesses to show and sell their wares. I helped with a non for profit booth.

The booth was set up to raise funds and share awareness about Greyhound dog adoption through a newer organization to this area called Indy Prison Greyhounds. This program is dedicated to placing retired racing greyhounds in permanent loving homes, while providing the inmate handler with the opportunity of finding compassion, unconditional love and rehabilitation through the human-animal connection. In a typical racing greyhound adoption situation the racer is taken from the track and then hauled to it's geographical destination and then into foster care and then to his or her "forever home". In this situation the dog is taken off the haul and put into foster care at a Greater Indianapolis area prison.

My role at the booth was to introduce the retired racing greyhound (I took my two dogs with me for live examples) to the public via this event. I have done lots of what we call in the greyhound adoption arena "meet and greets" but this one was better because I felt like I was helping two good causes at once- the retired racing greyhound and the prisoner who will gain accountability, responsibility and compassion after sharing his or her life with these remarkable dogs.

If you would like any information about how to adopt your very own greyhound, please contact me and I would be glad to share Freddy and Brandy (my hounds) with you too.

Giving Thanks

One of the many things that I like about blogs is that you get an insight to the authors more personal side. So here is something personal about me. If you are reading this you probably already know that I am an only child and I work with my mom. If you did not know that, well now you do. I have been so blessed to be able to work with her on a daily basis and gain so much knowledge from her many years in the Real Estate business. This week that has been a challenge....we are also still mother/daughter as well as business partners and this week some of the mother/daughter stuff got crazy. This is what I wrote to my mom and dad about today.

I want to give Thanks for what we have because we have so much.

I want us to be Thankful for our family because it is OUR family and many don’t have families- sisters, sons, parents, cousins, aunts, daughters, grandparents even if they come late or leave early or decide not to come at all. Even if they say things that we think they should not or if they say too much or not say enough.

I want us to be Thankful for our health because MANY do not have good health but have cancer or sickness or mental illness.

I want us to be Thankful for our homes because many do not have homes even if our homes are not PERFECT.

I want us to be Thankful for the food that we have because many do NOT have food at all.

This is what I want. I just want us to be a family (the family that we have) and be good to each other for at least one day.

-I also wish this for you and your family today (Thanksgiving) and every day. I hope you have a great day!