In an age where we have more information and knowledge available at our fingertips than at any other
time in history why are "we the people" not more powerful?

We have instant access to what is happening in real time any where in the world. We tweet our activities
to the world ad nausium. We post our faces for the world to see. We give a status update about our jobs, our families, our likes and dislikes

Our kids sit at the dinner table with their heads bowed into their iPhones when they used to bow their heads in thanksgiving for the meal placed before them. We have commercials where the children are telling the parents what ailments the parents have and what drug they should be taking to cure it.

We have relegated our conversation ability to 140 characters or less and we must respond
immediately to the latest posting on our wall. We take more anxiety drugs than anyone before us and we have more doctor's appointments.

We spend billions on weight loss and yet we are the most overweight people on earth.
Why are we seemingly so helpless that we turn to our government to tell us what to believe. I say the reason is that knowledge is not power - only applied knowledge is power!
 

You may feel that you don't need to know about todays technology and how the internet is influencing your life. You may not want to post your life on Facebook or tweet your way through life - but your children are and therefore as a parent you should at least familiarize yourself with these entities.

You need to have the knowledge of how marketing on Facebook and Twitter works and then apply the knowledge in helping your children understand the good and the bad about living their lives before the world on the internet. I encourage you to gain this power by applying the marketing knowledge Ellen Stebbins will give you in her booklet and video series concerning how to market on Facebook and Twitter .

Do yourself and your family a favor and gain the knowledge today!

The process of finding a home in Mt. Pleasant, SC or Charleston, SC can be daunting and time consuming. I came across a survey done by Realtor.org and discovered that home buyers across America take a lot of time in deciding which home to buy. Here is the poll question...

The typical home buyer searched how long before purchasing a home? 

 
Correct Answer: 12 weeks
On average, a home buyer searched for 12 weeks and viewed 12 homes before purchasing, according to NAR research.
That's the longest average time that buyers have spent looking for a home since the survey started tracking it in 2001.
Buyers searched, on average, two weeks on their own before contacting an agent. 
 

In a recent survey the National Association of Realtors published some interesting facts about todays buyers and sellers. According to an article published in the Realtor.org site....

1.	What service did sellers most often say they want from their real estate agent?
	Pricing the home competitively Of the sellers surveyed, 22 percent said they wanted help pricing their home competitively so it would sell. Other popular responses included help finding a buyer for the home (21 percent), marketing the home to potential buyers (19 percent), and selling the home within a specific timeframe (19 percent).
2.	What service do buyers most often say they want from a real estate agent?
	Finding the right home to purchase Nearly 50 percent of buyers most frequently reported that they want an agent to help them find the right home to purchase, followed by assisting them with negotiating the terms of the sale (16 percent) and price negotiations (13 percent). The least-frequent response was help in finding or arranging financing to purchase a home (2 percent).

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Chewing gum was first patented in the US in 1869 and ever since we have been told - "spit out your gum" or "don't swallow your gum, it will clog up your intestines!" So, my wife and I were driving down the road on Saturday and she asked me if I wanted a piece of gum and we both shared a delicious all-natural gum from the health food store. I few minutes later, after the flavor was gone, I was looking for someplace to dispose of my piece of gum. I looked at my wife and realized that she was not chewing anymore." Where is your gum", I asked. She replied, "I swallowed it."

   I thought to myself that if she can swallow it so can I. But guess what - I could not swallow it no matter how hard I tried. I have swallowed pills bigger than that piece of gum but there was no way I was going to be able to get it down. I wondered why she could swallow it and yet I couldn't. Then it dawned on me! My brain is connected to my swallowing mechanism and my brain had been told all my life to "spit out that gum" or "don't swallow that gum". My brain was just doing what it has been taught to do. It would take a major paradigm shift in my head before I could ever swallow a piece of gum.

   Sometimes life is hard-to-swallow because of what we have been told all our lives. Things like, "you shouldn't take unnecessary risk" - but isn't it the nature of risk to be unnecessary! Or, "you know you don't have the education to do this or that" - but isn't "doing it" the biggest part of education. Or, "you know everyone in your family expects you to be this or that" - but what about your own expectations. It is comments like these that make life hard to swallow at times. If you are told something enough times by enough people you will slowly begin to believe it to be fact and act accordingly.

   What has your brain been taught that is causing you not to move forward in your career, your life, your relationships or your finances? Begin telling yourself what you can do and over time your paradigm will shift into a more productive mind set. Now swallow hard and get started!

The South Carolina Realtors Annual Conference & Trade Show begins this week in Columbia!  We look forward to seeing all of you that we met last year.  Through my marketing of our booth (Booth 21 by the way, come see us!) I have had eyeballs on my mind.  We are always talking about how many "eyeballs" you get on your listings when they are posted on View This Home.  What we mean of course is how many viewers will be seeing your listings.  You take that number and multiply it by 2 and voila...you get the number of eyeballs! 

So, here are some fun math/facts about eyeballs for you:

3500 x 2 = 7000 The average number of "eyeballs" on ViewThisHome.com each day

2,000,000 = The number of working parts in an eyeball

36,000 = The number of bits of information an eye can process in an hour

85% = The percentage the eye contributes to your total knowledge

65% = The percentage eyes utilize the pathway to the brain

100% = The percentage the eye can function without any rest

90 = The number of "eyeball" bubbles I bought to give away at the Tradeshow (come by Booth 21 to get yours!)

300 = The average number of candy bars we give away at our booth

Okay, so the last fact had nothing to do with eyes, but if the bubbles don't get you to the booth the chocolate will (and the great website!!).

Wow!  Looks to me that eyeballs are pretty important.  So, bring your eyeballs by Booth 21 at the Trade Show and we will show you just how valuable our website can be to you and, well your clients' eyeballs!!