Authenticity is my style. What you see is what you get!

Some feel that in business you have to present yourself a certain way. Suit and tie, professional demeanor, correct grammar and representation and many other items that I am sure you are aware of. In many respects I do not disagree. However, I give up being someone I am not to be authentic. When I am comfortable you get the best me. The knowledge that I have is still the same. The advice is the same. When I act the part I lose a little authenticity. I am trying to be someone I am not. I am simple in spirit and I do my homework. I know what it takes to get you in to your home and that is who I am. Here is a short video about me, California Home Strategies, Capitol Mortgage and how I want to help you!!!! Enjoy!

PCAR Variety Show Fundraiser for CanTree and the Salvation Army

I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to be part of an amazing fund raiser. Placer County Association of Realtors banded together with the food sponsor Capitol Mortgage and the Bar Host Chamber of Commerce to throw one heck of an event. Much of the credit for the organization of the event has to go to Val Berlin Douglas (North American Title) as she was responsible for corralling and organizing a bunch of entrepreneurial professional that like to wander around and do our own thing. Great job Val.

So what is a variety show. We did everything along the lines of musical skits that were pieces of movies like 13 going on 30’s Thriller dance a tribute to the man Michael Jackson and Santa Baby musical. There were several one and a half minute lip syncs done by many of the volunteers from artists like Rod Stewart (Geoffrey Poulos), Prince (Kevin Capps), Beyonce (Tami Hinkle), Katy Perry (Deb Newton) and so many more excellent solos. We even got a guest appearance from Willie Nelson (Bill Johnson).

The show started out with a bang and had two groups perform their stuff. That was followed by another round of songs and performances and finished off with all the solos. Then there was an encore presentation to end the night. Many of the attendees stayed after the scheduled performances to take part in some Karaoke set up and put together by Joe Crespillo of Sell State Realty First our emcee of the night.

I do not know the final count I think that it would be safe to say that we raised in the ball park of 3K -4K for the evening. This was my very first year to be a part of the event and one of the things that I learned and respected from all the volunteers is that they were all repeats. So many of the volunteers were on their 6th year of the event. I now know why. It is so much fun and the camaraderie was awesome. I was welcomed in as the newcomer and assisted and helped the entire evening.  We were able to get away from the normal stressful situations that are present in Real Estate transactions. We were able to do something that is above and beyond our own self interest which showed me the true values of the agents in this industry.

I want to say thank you to all the participants and all of the attendees that came together to make this event happen. I am already excited about what next year may bring!

Successful Thinkers at the Park

Last night, I had the opportunity to attend and event at the park. The event was the Successful Thinkers meet-up and the energy was electric. John Orozco and Rickey Sanchez of A2B concepts were the hosts of the event and they did an outstanding job.

This was the very first time I had attended an event like this and I did not know what to expect. I was thinking that it would be another night of drinks and networking more of the usual conversation. Hi I am Matt who are you? Awesome what do you do for a living? Then a little of acting interested or acting like you understand what they are telling you when you are thinking I can’t wait to get out of this conversation. Sounding a little negative? I am just trying to be honest. We have all been there because we are human and we all have a goal that we would like to reach in our lives.

How was the Successful Thinkers meetup different? This was the first time that I had conversations and my occupation was not the first thing to come up. People asked about me and who I am and what I represent and told me a little about themselves. Occupation was secondary. It has always been my opinion that my occupation is not who I am but simply what I do and this was the first time I felt like others cared about that.

How did the night go? When I first arrived I gave a business card to the person that was registering everyone, Gina. I filled out a name tag and began to socialize. After about a half hour of socializing everyone sat down and the hosts said a quick introduction and rolled right into the agenda. The first thing they did was highlight a few local businesses that are doing things out there. The first speaker Gina was a breast cancer survivor and she is doing some awesome things for raising funds and providing resources for those that have breast cancer. Next was Marlo who runs a family Jewelry store in Elk Grove. From there they had some giveaways provided by business owners within the network. The gifts were awesome and the winners were very excited. Especially the guy who one the girls t-shirt. After the giveaways , Robert Velarde stepped up and hit a home run explaining the purpose, the mission and the design of the Successful Thinkers community. He was inspiring and informational. Nick Lynch followed to explain just a few of the many amazing things that are going to happen at the November 6th event featuring the main speaker Rudy Ruettiger. Yes you read that correctly the same Rudy from the movie continues his story and inspiration right here in Roseville California at Adventure Church. If you would like to go the event is free if you sign up to SuccessfulThinkers.com and create a profile with a photo and a bio. If you are like me you may be asking what is the catch. That is whay I went to the event in the first place. To determine what I was not reading or seeing. However, there is no catch.  If you would like to attend the event just go to Successful Thinkers and sign up. My referral ID is 6228 so be sure to let them know I sent you. Remember to create a bio so that you can go on the 6th for free. If you are scared that there is still a catch like I was don’t let that stop you from going. You can pay $25 at the door and still get hundreds of dollars worth of information and inspiration.

The night capped off with more networking. I truly enjoyed the format of the Successful Thinkers eetup and know that it will not be the last event that I attend. Stay tuned for all the great stuff that will be coming soon…………. By the Way thank you Robert Velarde for all the very kind words about my blog and my business. Your delivery is both genuine and passionate…………Thank you Rickey Sanchez and John Orozco for arranging the event……………….In the closing words of Mr. Robert Velarde, “See you at the Top.”

Sactweetup at the Lofts

I had an opportunity to attend last nights Sactweetup at the Lofts in downtown Sacramento. The Lofts on L street were kind enough to host the event while showcasing their beautiful 1900 square foot Penthouse Suite. The suite had amazing views of Sacramento and was definitely a showcase of contemporary design.

Alejandro Reyes (also known as @Successfool) and Sierra Friend (@sierrafriend) are the creators of this amazing Sacramento event. The first event that I attended was at Panera and there were quite a few people but last nights event showed just how much the event has grown. Walking in I passed News 10 filming so they could cover the event and give it well deserved time on the news.

What is all the Buzz about? The Sactweetup is where Sacramento and Twitter meet. Local business professionals as well as some from as far as Walnut Creek and Fremont get together and share ideas about how to grow their business through Social Media. It just doesn’t stop there. I have met with many of the professionals that I first met online and then at the Tweetup outside of the event. I have been able to exchange referrals and learn more about their businesses.  Above that I have established some relationships that transcend business. I regularly get together with a friend @thisaac and we share our faith and hold each other accountable is areas of life.

Last night, at the event, I had the opportunity to meet several more people. Each time I get the chance to go I am never let down. I carpool with one of my favorite people ever @meghanwood; the meghanshow.com and we just have a great time.

Make sure to check out the L street Lofts and make sure that you make it to the next Sactweetup. Check it out at www.sactweetup.com.
Here are the great people that I met last night to name a few:

Jason Everett – Sales Partners

Rajkumar Karthikeyan – Midland National Life Insurance

Kristi LeGue – CPA

Ryan Lucia – Voyage Financial Group

Rick Pearse – American City Realty and Financial

This list is certainly not all encompassing as I met Jennifer Bourn, Mickey O’brien and spoke to several others that I have met in the past. Looking forward to the next tweetup!

Technology have you down? Watch Mike Ferry’s Video on Technology and real Estate

I came across these video and it caused me too laugh a ton. Mike Ferry is a well respected Real Estate Trainer and to hear his take on Technology was informative. Check it Out!

Honored to be Honored

Last week, I was sitting in my office when out of the blue one of the wholesale reps that I work with appeared from around the corner. She had a bag and a square box in her hand. As soon as I got off the phone I said, “Hey Maryann how can I help you?”  She said, “I just wanted to give you this gift to you on behalf of Pinnacle Capital Mortgage.” The award to the left was what they had in the small square box. The bag was a bottle of Merlot.

The reason that I have written this is simple. Thank you Pinnacle Capital Mortgage for everything. With out you I would not have been able to help the homeowners that we helped together. I greatly appreciate your part and efforts to get these buyers in to the home.

“I am honored to be honored.” It has been a humbling few years and you never know how you are doing overall. I always know the number of loans I do and the number of people that I have blessed to help. What I do not pay attention to and what I do not know is how I am doing in the overall scheme of things. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you. I certainly will be drinking the wine soon enough!

Where does your Professional go when the deal hits a snag? You Deserve to Know!

In today’s market even the cleanest deal will have some hurdle or obstacle that will have to be explained. The question is when the going gets tough who is there to answer the questions and help you through the hurdle. Is it the Realtor? Is it the Loan Officer? Is it Both? Neither? Who is there by your side as a buyer and/or a seller when the road is bumpy?

I mention this because it gets to me a little bit. I think that as an industry we have to rally together to deliver the news. All too often professionals go into hibernation when the deal hits a bump. They do not answer their phone or they wait until they have it solved and call as if they did not ignore the previous 100 calls. Let’s look at this from a different angle for one minute:

I am a doctor and I just looked at X-rays for my client. I have found a mass that I have not quite determined what or how I will take care of it. I have a few ideas based on my expertise but want to do further research before providing the solution. In this case do I:

1. Inform the patient of my findings and let them know what I think may be the solutions
2. Send the patient home without any knowledge of the findings hoping that I will have the solution in a few days
3. Ignore all the inquiries I am getting from the curious nurse, patient, family members, etc.
   

I think that we all know the answer to this. It is our duty as a professional to let others know. If we do not have the answer and we have to consult other “doctors” as sometimes is the case we should let the parties know this. “Uncertainty” is one thing that every human I have ever met is inclined to dislike. We like to know what is going on and what we have to do to help the situation. Sometimes that will be nothing but knowing that we can do nothing but wait is better than not knowing what is going on at all.

I will be the first to admit that when I was first in the industry I did not like making the bad call. I still don’t but the difference between now and then is “I have been on both sides of the fence.” Solutions are derived from brainstorm and I still believe in the old saying “Two heads are better than one.”

Please feel free to let me know if you agree or disagree with this?

Mastermind Revisted: A blessing to all who attended!

Recently, I returned from the Mastermind Summit in San Diego, California. The event was in it’s 10th year and is hosted by Brian Buffini. For those of you who do not know who Brian Buffini is check out his site www.buffiniandcompany.com. He is the one of the largest Real Estate trainers in the country. His coaching and training have brought my business to a new level and I have only begun to tap into it.

Mastermind Summit is different from every other Real Estate seminar that I have ever attended in my life. I was not sold any products at all. In fact I was given gifts for attending that were not little pens. I received a book not written by Brian Buffini and I got a journal. The point of the Mastermind Summit is to take a hard look at all aspects of your life. It is definitely a more holistic approach to self examination. Brian Buffini has never been shy about his spirituality and this year was no exception. The focus of Mastermind this year was “What Matters Most.” The event started out on Sunday and the very first guest to get the event underway was Sinbad. He was hilarious. It was a great night and it was just the beginning.

The next day Brian started the day and went deep. We had to take a look at the things that mattered the most in our life. After we figured that out we also had to take a harsh look at how an outsider would perceive the order of importance based on out actions. Sometimes our heart does not align with what out actions show. We were challenged to make sure that we are giving the intention to What Matters Most in our life what it deserves. I can say that many times my business was stealing me away from what matters most. We examined that and wrote some joggers down that would assist us in a goal writing session that we would have on the final day.

We had another guest speaker that day in Hyrum Smith. He is the founder of Franklinplanner.com The leader in time management strategies. He was amazing. The take away from Hyrum Smith for me was laying the foundation of my personal Governing Values. My personal Constitution so to speak. We talked about how to come up with those. Write a descriptive sentence about each of them and commit to living them. Our first gift from Brian was a book written by Hyrum Smith with an appropriate title “What Matters Most The Power of living your values.”

Honestly, I cannot even explain all that went on at the seminar so I am going to save you the rest of the details. Go to his site and check out information regarding all the events that they do. What I really wanted to talk about was the impact that it had on my life. Since I have come home from  the event I have been by no means perfect but I have been aware. The first step in getting better at things and breaking age old habits is awareness. I have realized that the business does not go away if I handle my priorities in the middle of a day. It has caused me to be upfront and more selective with my time. It has also led me to be more effective in my work because I now crave the time with my family and have planned it in to my day. I get in do the things that I need to do and get out of the office. I care so much about the result of my clients loan that many times I would find myself micromanaging a file and putting off activities that I needed to accomplish to keep the vehicle moving. This would cause what I would call cardiac arrest results and holes in the business.

So the question that I like to ask my customers and all the readers out there is the following:

What Matters Most in your life? Let’s take that into account when we are getting you qualified for a home loan. Let’s get specific on what we want and what we need and make a plan that fits!

I am very grateful for the opportunity to have attended this event. Thank you to the Real Estate agent Brook Terhune that paid for my ticket to go. It was truly an eye opening experience.

Marketing Focus: Where do you spend your time?

Yesterday morning I was at my networking group meeting. This is not the normal Letip or BNI group it is more than that for me. It is called the Christian Business Roundtable. We are group of men that share the same Faith gathering to sharpen each other and hold each other accountable in business and in life. It was my second meeting and my very first formal meeting. Each meeting it is practice of the group to have a Best Practices portion where we can share and expand each others business arsenal if you will. Today the Question was:

You just sold your business to a conglomerate and have agreed to remain for a few months as a consultant. You will receive 100K bonus if you can increase sale by 20% in the next six months but you have been allotted only a limited increase in your marketing budget and no media advertising budget.

You have gotten together with an Advisory Board to give you straight talk about ideas to drive traffic. Start getting the advice now!

• What “out of the box” marketing steps can be taken in: Special Promotions, Network Marketing, Newsworthy Press Release, Low cost Direct Mail etc.
• What steps will drive more traffic to your product or service?

As I left that meeting I had so many ideas to work on for my business but the one that stuck out was based on affiliate marketing. When market others services our reward internally is great. In addition external reward via increase in our business is nearly always the result. However, I do not want to rest on my own understanding. I realized that Facebook and Twitter have given me a large audience of business professionals. These professionals that I have come to know are always thinking outside of the box to drive more traffic. So I figured I would ask my advisory board.

What steps would you take to increase your revenue by 20% in six months? Share them hear with all of our readers and watch the explosive power of two or more.

Don’t take my word for it:

“Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, the other can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

***** This information is not my own. It was borrowed from the Christian Business Roundtable that I am involved with. The post here is meant to be thought provoking and to generate a massive brainstorm session amongst a group of professionals. We all can always use a jump start of fresh ideas.*****

How is my Credit Rated? Part 3

As part of the five part series on credit rating Michelle Luker takes a moment to look at the third largest weight on our credit.

First let’s take a moment to recap. In the first two parts of the series we found out the following:

• 35% of the score is based on how you handle your debt obligations

• 30% of the credit score is derived from your revolving balances carried on accounts as they pertain to your debt utilization ratio.

In Summary we learned that paying our bills on time mixed with a healthy balance of debt makes up 65% of our score. That is 2/3 of what makes up our credit rating. That leaves three remaining items that comprise only 1/3 of our score. Now don’t make the mistake of minimizing the remaining three factors in the series because they are only a small portion. So the third important factor in our credit score rating is the following:

• 15% of the score is derived from the average length of time you have had credit.  The longer an account has been open, the better.  Never close a credit card account; leave it open with a zero balance.  You actually reduce your score by closing older accounts as your average account age will not increase in the future as quickly.

Two things can happen when you close an old card. Your debt utilization ratio which we learned about in the second part of the series is decreased and the average length of time accounts have been established is also decreased. So two things are happening from one simple action that we believed would be for the best. The trick though is too make sure the cards get used because if they go unused forever without activity it will decrease the overall impact of the card. After all it is a credit rating and that would require credit to be used.

New accounts obviously can only grow in strength over time. Many times when you pay off a mortgage or car note that you have been paying on for a long time your score will go down. Then the new debt is added. Two things have occurred the auto loan is paid and closed and the new debt has no history of payment. So you can see how this works.

Again, I want to thank Michelle Luker for stopping by California Home Strategies to offer some advice on Credit. We greatly appreciate your presence and the fabulous information that you have provided us.

For any specific credit questions do not hesitate to contact Michelle directly.

Office: 916-652-9637 Cell: 916-316-0247 Fax: 916-644-6626

Capital Credit Source, Inc. 4804 Granite Drive, Suite F-3261 Rocklin, CA 95677

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