I’ve always considered myself a ‘networker’ probably well before the term even became a term. In real estate, we all look toward our happy customers for referrals, and actually it doesn’t matter whether it is real estate or not, any business can benefit from the power of word-of-mouth marketing.

A prospect generated from from a word-of-mouth referral is most certainly a better prospect than from other means because they trust the source and are less suspect. Multi-national companies have learned to value that type of marketing and as realtors, so should we. Many times we realize the power of referrals, but fail to direct our marketing efforts and activity in that direction.

In today’s real estate climate, I believe that to remain successful we should be thinking ‘outside the box’ when it comes to marketing and promotion. Certainly one of the ways is to identify our most loyal customers and direct a campaign specifically targeting them for referral production. It sounds simple enough, but again, we can easily tend to forget it.

We refer people daily to various businesses because it has been ingrained in our brain through slogans and other forms of advertising, so much so that when we hear it we immediately identify with that particular business. And so it should be for we realtors, whether it is a slogan or something else that makes us stand out. Our customers need to be talking about us in order to generate those referrals, so we’d better give them something to talk about. I’ve always said, if they aren’t taking about you, either good or bad, you aren’t doing anything!

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The Fall season here in Florida get us closer to my very favorite time of year when we can throw open the windows, turn the a/c off and finally “air” out the house. The good news is that it can last up to five months if the prevailing wind currents that bring us that cooler weather from the north remain in a certain pattern. Last year was a perfect example of that happening and it was great!

Coming from New England the one thing that I do miss living in Florida, (I should be used to it because I’ve been here almost 18 years,) is the changing of seasons. Here we effectively have what I call two seasons, the muggy season and the dry season or Summer and Winter. Now I’m sure that there will be people who will argue that as we transition into the Winter and Summer, there are two other periods of season. Maybe it would be somewhat different if the palm trees changed colors or when attending the high school football games, the air was a bit crisper.

Yet maybe sometimes I tend to forget the very reason I left New England for the warmer climate…those dreadfully cold Winters, the Summers that never were. I forget the Spring seasons that were nothing but mud everywhere from the melting snows or the Fall seasons when the colors of the leaves changed so quickly you totally missed it.

Maybe it’s not so bad down here after all!

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Today is my 64^th birthday and I consider myself rather fortunate that I have managed to outlive my father by some 10 years, although I’m not sure why that is. Maybe it’s the luck of the draw or more so because we have come a long way medically and our generation is just living longer.

Since turning 60, I have been virtually wishing my life away. I can’t wait to get to 65! No it isn’t that my real estate career isn’t prospering, because it is. It isn’t the fact that I want to retire, because I can never see myself doing that and I truly love the work that I do. It is the fact that when I turn 65 I am elidgible to begin receiving medicare health benefits, and if that isn’t a sick reason to wish your life away, I don’t know what is.

I don’t think that I am the only one who has experienced those thoughts either. What I find is that there is something desperately wrong with our country when you begin wishing that you were older than you are simply to get affordable medical benefits. Normal health insurance premiums are absolutely through the roof and not in the least affordable for most Americans.

Republican or Democrat and politics aside, it’s damn well time that something was done about it!

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With everything that went on today regarding the failure of the “buyout”, Wall Street and the historic hit that it took, the takeover of Wachovia National Bank by Citi Group, as well as all the other news, it’s nice to know that there are some stable factors in the banking industry in all of this. One of them is Wells Fargo, the banking source for Prudential Florida Realty, our company.

Why Wells Fargo? There are many reasons, not the least of which is their approach to credit risk. Their business practices are sound and they prudently manage credit risk on home mortgages and equity loans with solid underwriting, something that many banks have failed to do.

Because of this prudent risk management, they are not facing many of the issues that other lending institutions currently are. They never have made a habit of purchasing nor servicing negative amortizing loans or option adjustable-rate mortgages. Because of that decision, they are sitting solidly, while others are failing.

Not one, at this time or place wants to knock the competition because it’s like kicking someone when they are down, but it sure is nice to be affiliated with an institution that made tough decisions in the interest of their clients!

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While driving around Naples today trying to get real estate done, I tried to listen to as much of the live hearings discussion about the Government bailout proposal as I could on CNBC radio. My main interest was in listening to the remarks of Treasury Secretary, Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke while they were grilled by the committee.

While both sides of the aisle claim to be non-partisan and talk about the good of the people, I came away totally confused from listening to the statements and questions from the committee, while trying to evaluate what is on the table and more importantly what the outcome will be for the real estate climate. Everyone agrees that action is needed immediately and that it has to be addressed without delay. But always with regard to American politics, since it is a contact sport you get two diametrically opposed opinions and if you are trying to make sense of it all, it can be damn difficult.

All I know is that the financial plumbing is plugged and it needs some Drano. My only hope is that they can all get on the same page quickly and resolve the crisis, because if they don’t, who knows what the future of the real estate market will be.

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The recent announcement by the President of his proposal to buy out hundreds of billions of dollars worth of mortgage assets in order to stop the bleeding in the financial circles may have had somewhat of an adverse effect. The proposal we were told in part was to help stimulate consumer confidence and yet it might have done the opposite and caused people who were ready to buy now to think twice about purchasing.

The proposal, which will be considered by Congress this week, certainly didn’t do much to alleviate Wall Street investor fears as whitnessed by the dow jones plunge on Monday, giving back all the Friday gains. This coupled with the huge spike in oil prices because investors were looking more to what they considered a safe haven, thereby driving prices to a record one-day gain.

One can only hope that this doesn’t have any kind of trickle-down effect that will effect our local real estate market here in the greater Naples area, just as we were beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

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All summer long we have been hearing about and reading stories of the coyotes up in The Brooks communities in Bonita Springs. They have boldly attacked small dogs while on a walk with their owners, and in some cases, the dogs have broken free of their leashes or backed out of their collars and were chased down by the coyotes, caught and dragged away. 

Fish and game representatives can do nothing, so communities are forced to hire private trappers. Despite the minor success the trappers have had in the Bonita and Estero area, the coyotes are here to stay.

A few months ago, there was a report of a coyote that was filmed in East Naples by a homeowner as the coyote tried to get at a cat it had treed. The cat eventually fell out of the tree and was promptly dragged off by the coyote.

Lately coyotes have been spotted in the Moorings primarily off Regatta Road. Police have confirmed that there have been four reports of sightings, which means that they are now in more urban areas. It is prudent that people be warned so that they can keep an eye on their small children and family pets. 

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Three pieces of good news in one day yesterday…Just unreal…

First…the 30–year fixed mortgage rates have dropped sharply to a seven month low and are now sitting at 5.78, down from 5.93 the week prior. It’s good news for those who have had the patience to wait to transform 3/1 and 5/1 arms to 30–years fixed notes. It was the fifth straight week that the rate has declined and certainly should help to stimulate mortgage applications.

Second…the Naples Daily News, yes the same paper that bashed us for the prior two years, has begun publishing positive real estate articles. I know, I know they are just reporting the news, but the stories that they published during the past few years were totally negative and did the market and the community a severe injustice, in my opinion. It’s good to sdee the change!

Third…a Senior Vice-President and Chief Economist at National City Corp, Richard Dekaser, who had previously seen Naples as tremendously overvalued, has now reversed his philosophy and sees Naples as slightly undervalued. As a matter of fact, you can read the article here.

We’re excited about the prospects of the upcoming season!

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