Jeff Rickard

Thanks for nothing!  Sometimes the government does stuff to help us and sometimes they do stuff so that we think they are helping us.  FHA Secure falls in the latter category.  To date nationally FHA has only done approximately 400 true FHA Secure loans.  Remember this was suppose to help us all out of our loan crisis issue.  A great plan that just does not work in the real world.  To make matters worse the FHA website is telling us all what a great program FHA Secure is and that they have done thousands of loans.  What they have done is thousands of FHA cash out refis.  That is great but nothing new and certainly not FHA Secure.  For more detail on FHA Secure read my post from November 21st. 

February is well known for sweethearts and Valentines.  It is that time of year that someone may steal your heart.  Just make sure they don’t steal your credit at the same time!

Identity theft is the fastest growing crime in America.  In 2008 someone in one of every three households will become a victim.   Every day identity thieves are coming up with more clever ways to access your credit and bank accounts.  And once a victim of identity theft it takes the average person up to two years to clear everything up. While no one is immune to the possibility of identity theft there are things you can do to protect yourself. Continue Reading »

     If you think rates are dropping read economic notes this week!  Colorado Housing and Finance Authority (CHFA) has also increased substantially at the end of last week.  Two increases in two days, that is a lot when you consider that they usually change every few weeks!

Did you know that you have a brand?
     It may not be as well-known as Nike, Toyota, Wheaties, Xerox, Band-Aid or other entities with which we normally associate the term. Nevertheless, you have one.
Think about it a second. 

     What came into your mind when you read the above brand names? Sure, you may have thought about a type of shoe or car. But then, even subconsciously, you recognized an association. That association most likely was established quite a while ago. You have a distinct perception about every product or service that you recognize. These perceptions are a complex mix of those things you believe as realities (how you see things as they are) and values (how things ought to be).
Establishing a brand.

     Companies use marketing to establish brands, intending to influence your perception of their products and services. If a company can establish a brand for their product or service in your mind, and influence your perception of that product or service as “good,” then it increases the likelihood of winning your purchasing decision. 

So what’s your brand? 

     What perception do you give to your customers? You think that you know how your customers see you. But everyone’s perception is unique, and impacted in some way daily. You must influence and persuade your customers’ perceptions of you constantly.

I love to read motivation, sales skills and marketing books. The love of those books is the reason I created Motivation Monday and I like to highlight my favorites. Today there are two books that I am very into and seem to be somewhat life changing. Part of the reason they seem so important to me is that I finally stepped down from management and since then the positive energy of the business has been somewhat overwhelming.

I am not ready to highlight excerpts yet but I do want to alert my readers to these books. They are Take Charge of Your Mind by Paul Hannam and John Selby and Flight Plan by Brian Tracy. Take Charge of Your Mind is about techniques that you can use to keep your focus during the work day and Flight Plan is a book about setting goals. There is nothing new about setting goals but the way they go about the process makes you actually act upon those goals. Now that seems amazing to me!

     I hate to beat the same horse but I am getting a million calls from clients wanting to lock these new unbelievably low mortgage rates.  Please read the economic notes this week.  It hits the nail on the head.  You can access economic notes by clicking on the tab above. 

     Today I want to highlight another blog site, www.cherrycreekcoach.com  This is a coaching website run by Becca Robinson of The Robinson Group.  I know Becca and I am very impressed with the work she does in coaching and motivation.  Check out her site today!

I know I’ve gotten behind on my posts for 1760 MortgageGuide, so I decided to submit a little something about the cost of printing from your home office. I’ve worked with a lot of Realtors and Mortgage Professionals, and I know that they tend to do a lot of marketing straight out of their home offices but I wonder how many do the math and figure out exactly what it’s costing to print those fliers on your handy-dandy inkjet.

Just about everyone has owned an inkjet printer at one time, and experiences differ from person to person as to how well they liked or disliked that printer. I had an Epson several years ago that I used so infrequently the cartridges almost always dried up before I had the chance to expend them, the print head always seemed to be clogged when I did want to print and then I would get these weird stripes down the page. Not the best experience in the world and it put me off Epson’s for years.

Working in several marketing departments throughout my professional career, I’ve had a chance to work with a lot of different kinds of printers and print technologies, from an old black and white laser printer that boasted a smoking fast 1 page per minute print speed over an Appletalk connection, to a Xerox Phaser that used solid wax blocks of ink and boasted 30 pages per minute.

Inkjet printers are cheap. They’re practically given away at every store that stocks them - heck, I saw a stack of HP inkjet’s at Big Lots just before Christmas and they were $20 each - $20! The catch is that they’re given away because the manufacturer knows they will make their money back on the consumables ten fold. It’s kind of like a cell phone - they are given away to get you into the plan and once you’re signed up, everything you really want to do is an ‘extra’ charge.

Continue Reading »

Teamwork!

     Building a team in the market today is critical if you are looking to take the next step in your business.  Knowledgeable teammates all pulling together to make your business grow is a must and there is also a comfort in knowing that there are more oars in the water paddling towards your success. 

     There are two teams you need to be concerned with, your internal team and your external team.  Internal are your team members that work with you in your company.  External team members are people you depend on to provide outside services.  Both groups not only have to provide job requirements but also have a “growth” attitude.  As the boss you need to ask; ”Did they get their job done and did they provide a service and attitude that makes me stand out in the marketplace?”  If the market is going to get tougher you need to stand out!

     Here is a link to a great article that goes into detail on team building,     http://rismedia.com/wp/2008-01-15/does-your-inner-circle-grow-your-business-seven-ways-to-know/

  1760mortgageguide.com and I want to congratulate one of our own contributing authors.  Matt George was named the 2008 President of the Colorado chapter of the Appraisal Institute.