1.    Q: Why are many coin banks shaped like pigs?
             A: Long ago, dishes and cookware in Europe were made of a
dense orange clay called ‘pygg’. When people saved coins in jars made of this clay, the jars became known as ‘pygg banks.’ When an English potter misunderstood the word, he made a bank that resembled a pig. And it caught on.

      2.    Q: Did you ever wonder why dimes, quarters and half dollars have notches, while pennies and nickels do not?
             A: The US Mint began putting notches on the edges of coins containing gold and silver to discourage holders from shaving off small quantities of the precious metals.  Dimes, quarters and half dollars are notched because they used to contain silver. Pennies and nickels aren’t notched because the metals they contain are not valuable enough to shave.

      3.    Q: Why do men’s clothes have buttons on the right while women’s clothes have buttons on the left?
             A: When buttons were invented, they were very expensive and worn primarily by the rich. Because wealthy women were dressed by maids, dressmakers put the buttons on the maid’s
right! Since most people are right-handed, it is easier to push buttons on the right through holes on the left.  And that’s where women’s buttons have remained since. 

      4.    Q: Why do X’s at the end of a letter signify kisses?
             A: In the Middle Ages, when many people were unable to read or write, documents were often signed using an X. Kissing the X represented an oath to fulfill obligations specified in the document. The X and the kiss eventually became synonymous.

      5.    Q: Why is shifting responsibility to someone else called ‘passing the buck’?
             A: In card games, it was once customary to pass an item, called a buck, from player to player to indicate whose turn it was to deal. If a player did not wish to assume the responsibility, he would ‘pass the buck’ to the next player.

      6.    Q: Why do people clink their glasses before drinking a toast?
           A: It used to be common for someone to try to kill an enemy by offering him a poisoned drink. To prove to a guest that a drink was safe, it became customary for a guest to pour a small amount of his drink into the glass of the host. Both men would drink it simultaneously. When a guest trusted his host, he would then just touch or clink the host’s glass with his own.

      7.    Q: Why are people in the public eye said to be ‘in the limelight’?
             A: Invented in 1825, limelight was used in lighthouses and stage lighting by burning a cylinder of lime which produced a brilliant light. In the theater, performers on stage ‘in the
limelight’ were seen by the audience to be the center of attention.

      8.    Q: Why do ships and aircraft in trouble use ‘mayday’ as their call for help?
             A: This comes from the French word m’aidez – meaning ‘help me’ and is pronounced ‘mayday.’

      9.    Q: Why is someone who is feeling great ‘on cloud nine’?
             A: Types of clouds are numbered according to the altitudes they attain, with nine being the highest cloud. If someone is said to be on cloud nine, that person is floating well above worldly cares.

      10.  Q: Why are zero scores in tennis called ‘love’?
             A: In France, where tennis first became popular, a big, round zero on the scoreboard looked like an egg and was called ‘l’oeuf’ which is French for ‘egg.’  When tennis was introduced in the US, Americans pronounced it ‘love.’

      11.  Q: In golf, where did the term ‘Caddie’ come from?
             A: When Mary, later Queen of Scots, went to France as a young girl (f or education & survival), Louis, King of France, learned that she loved the Scot game ‘golf.’ So he had the first golf course outside of Scotland built for her enjoyment. To make sure she was properly chaperoned (and guarded) while she played, Louis hired cadets from a military school to accompany her. Mary liked this a lot and when she returned to Scotland (not a very good idea in the long run), she took the practice with her.  In French, the word cadet is pronounced ‘ca-day’ and the Scots changed it into ‘caddie.’

      Now YOU know just about everything!  I hope YOU enjoyed this and learned something new today, always a good thing to do daily. 

From Brent Edgerton, New Way Properties: Interesting debate on Point of Sale Tax Reassessment…opposition seems to be gaining ground.:

By James T. Hammond
jhammond@scbiznews.com
Published March 9, 2011

The chairman of a House subcommittee declared Tuesday that the General Assembly did a poor job crafting the now-infamous Act 388, which aimed to relieve home-owners of taxes for public school operations and shifted that tax burden to sales and use taxes instead.

Rep. Liston Barfield, R-Conway, had presided over two days of passionate and contentious debate about the bill, specifically about legislation (House bill 3713) that would repeal a provision of Act 388 that requires the taxable value of all real estate be reset when a property is sold.

“After several hours of debate, all that we concluded was that Act 388 was bad,” Barfield said.

The so-called point-of-sale provision is widely disliked by the real estate industry, which blames the reset provision for slumping real estate transactions.

But cities and towns, represented by the South Carolina Municipal Association, defended the point-of-sale provision as necessary to ensure their revenues keep pace with the cost of providing services.

“This legislation (which would repeal the point-of-sale reset on property values) could be titled the anti-firefighter, anti-policeman and anti-school teacher act of 2011,” said Charleston Mayor Joe Riley, reciting the association’s estimate that cities and towns would lose $260 million in tax revenue if the point-of-sale provision is repealed.

The repeal provision would “create an exception to taxes,” Riley said, and put a heavier burden on stable middle-class communities, while creating a windfall tax break for wealthier communities where property values are rising at a rapid rate.

“In time, the middle class neighborhoods will always be taxed at 100%, while wealthy homeowners will have substantial exemptions,” Riley said. “You’ll see a $2 million home taxed at $500,000 of its value, while a $200,000 house will always be taxed at 100% of its value.

“That’s very bad public policy,” Riley said. “This legislation deserves a quick trip to the waste basket.”

The majority of the subcommittee was unmoved, and approved the bill on a 3-2 voice vote. The provision now goes to the House Ways and Means Committee for consideration.

Rep. James Merrill, R-Charleston, defended the repeal of the point-of-sale value reset, arguing that local governments do not deserve the “windfall” he says they continue to realize from rising property values.

“The property tax is the most insidious tax of all,” Merrill said, adding that the first things an oppressive government does it erode citizens right to bear arms, then takes their property.

“I do not understand why governments think their revenue should stay the same when the people who pay the taxes have seen their revenue go down,” Merrill said.

Merrill said the perceived inequity is in part local government’s own creation, stemming from counties’ failure to conduct regular comprehensive reassessments of real estate values.

“Charleston is going on eight years without a reassessment,” Merrill said, attacking the notion that taxpayers getting a tax break is a windfall.

“Government can get a windfall, but taxpayers getting their money back is not a windfall,” Merrill said. “Government wants to keep point-of-sale revaluation because in the short term they are getting a lot of money.”

Rep. B.R. Skelton, R-Pickens, voted against repeal of the point-of-sale provision, and noted that he had also opposed Act 388 when it was approved in 2006. A licensed real estate broker himself, Skelton blamed the depressed real estate market on widespread collusion between banking and real estate interests to approve mortgage loans for people who could not afford them.

“What’s really going to solve this problem is when the economy gets going again,” Skelton said.

Nick Kremydas, CEO of S.C. Association of Realtors, told the panel that point-of-sale re-evaluations are pushing up property taxes on commercial real estate to a point where some businesses are suspending investments in new stores in South Carolina.

But Skelton countered Kremydas’ statement, saying, “It’s amazing to me that I’m seeing all these Walgreens, CVS and Rite Aid stores going up.

“We’ve been doing ad hoc tax policy based upon who is seeking the advantage,” Skelton said. “Point-of-sale simply restores some of the equity from the transfer of the tax burden to sales taxes.”

West Columbia Mayor Bobby Horton said the problem is much greater than simply repealing the point-of-sale provision. Attempts to address voter anger over rising property taxes have so fouled up the equity in the tax system that the General Assembly needs to start over from scratch.

“I’d like to see us go back to the system we had before Act 388,” Horton said. “I think all property should be taxed at what it’s worth.

“What I’d really like to see is for the General Assembly to take off the restrictions and allow cities to levy taxes as they see fit. We don’t have true home rule as was intended. Act 388 was a band aid that has caused a lot more problems than it solved.”

 I came across this article that was written from the Real Estate perspective, but there’s so much truth in in it for ANYONE that considers themselves a sales professional that i had to pass it on…if you don’t have solid relationships in the trying environments we all face, you are doomed by a house of cards…

Brent Edgerton,  President, New Way Properties

^[1]RISMEDIA, February 18, 2011—In today’s challenging economic climate, everyone needs a bigger piece of the pie because the pie itself just isn’t big enough anymore. Everyone is talking about how to get more prospects. I constantly hear agents say, “I need more people in my database,” “I need more friends.” As a result, agents are exhausting much time, money and energy trying to find more friends. But today, we know that one could spend decades trying to convert random prospects into trusting relationships. Especially in the last six years where people have become less trusting and more cynical, and have actually created barriers to prevent people from intruding on their privacy.

I actually think a lot of agents feel the same way and, therefore, have stopped prospecting all together. But to me, prospecting and networking are much different than connecting, so what you really need to do is start looking at the Whos in your Whoville. Anyone who has lived in your community—aka, your “Whoville”—for five or more years automatically qualifies as an interested person—aka, a “Who”—that you can build a relationship with.

The fact is, there are different categories of Whos that we have already subconsciously quantified and qualified, not just by level of trust, but by level of importance and expertise in certain subject areas. For example, if I was going on a cruise for the first time, there would be two or three people in my Whoville who I would turn to as “cruise experts.” That’s the whole premise of Whoville—to understand and identify who your Whos are. Let’s pay more attention to who these people are. I’ve broken them down into five groups:

1. Your core group, or your advisors, are those you are closest to who you’ve built strong bonds with and in whom you have ultimate confidence and trust. You communicate frequently with this group on a variety of topics. Most people have somewhere between five and 12 people who fit into this category.

2. The second group is your advocates or raving fans. These are people who have a connection with you and who have an already-established list of experience. Perhaps you share responsibility with them in a social environment or through your kids’ activities. You are proactive through the connection process with this group, but not as frequently as with your core group.

3. Friends or allies are people who you know, like and trust. You have a feeling they are also knowledgeable, but you are less inclined to go to them. There’s always a little bit of reluctance because you’re not sure they’d be anxious to help you and you don’t want to overstep your boundary—you don’t want to be too pushy. By spending more time with this group, however, they could easily become raving fans.

4. Acquaintances or neighbors are people we recognize, may or may not know their first name, but we do know their last name. We see them once or twice a year at certain functions but we are not seeking them out as an opportunity or to help them with a need or concern.

5. The last group would be acquaintances we think we know. We may not know them by name, but we know who they are. You might recognize them at the salon when they’re getting their nails done, but you wouldn’t sit down next to them and start chatting.

Once you’ve segmented your Whos, the key is to come up with a system and a strategy to leverage those relationships in Whoville, thereby getting more people to be proactive advocates, which will then lead us to some of the upper levels of their Whovilles. As a consequence, we can end up with more business than we can handle. Where we fall down is not having systematized the people who live in our Whoville.

That said, here are the 10 Rs of taking care of your Whoville:

1. Research. Constantly stay in tune with what’s happening on a local level. You are the local ambassador for your community and neighborhood.

2. Recognize and prioritize the people in Whoville. Know what is important to them; what are their areas of significance? If they have children in elementary school, then know what’s going on in the school system. If they’re retired, then know about tax issues or who to call if a streetlight needs to be fixed.

3. Reach out. Elevate their level of awareness of you by reaching out to them with something that reminds them that you are available.

4. Remind them that you are able to assist them.

5. Review again what their needs are to see if their passions have migrated into an area you can offer help on. Maybe they’re planning a trip to Greece and you just came across an article you can send them.

6. Respond. Make sure you are proactive in responding to them and make sure you are reminding them that you are happy to help other friends, relatives and neighbors with any questions they may have.

7. Reward them by being a good listener and providing them with information that is relevant to their needs.

8. Refer them to people that you are highly confident will be able to take care of their needs.

9. Rework them to make sure that after you have handed them off to a referral, that individual has succeeded and your Who is satisfied.

10. If not, do what needs to be done to rectify the situation. Reconnect with them by reaching out with relevant information.

A tool like Facebook is the perfect way to proceed on the 10 R’s of Whoville and make sure you’re connecting effectively and building relationships with all the Whos in your community. After all, if you’re not the REALTOR® of Whoville, who is?

Author, George “Gee” Dunsten, president of Gee Dunsten Seminars, Inc., has been a real estate agent and broker/owner for almost 40 years. Dunsten has been a senior instructor with the Council of Residential Specialists for more than 20 years. ]]> http://blog.newwayproperties.net/2011/02/21/10-tips-to-successfully-build-relationships-with-prospects/feed/ 0 http://blog.newwayproperties.net/2011/02/10/for-your-clients-common-impediments-to-selling-and-how-to-overcome-them/ http://blog.newwayproperties.net/2011/02/10/for-your-clients-common-impediments-to-selling-and-how-to-overcome-them/#comments Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:16:11 +0000 Brent Edgerton http://blog.newwayproperties.net/?p=35 Although short and to the point, I found the below article to address some of the stresses and fears that we hear routinely.  Pretty insightful:

RISMEDIA, February 1, 2011—Even with the economy improving overall, it would be false to say the real estate market is booming, especially for home sellers. Unfortunately, negative financial headlines are causing some potential sellers to needlessly hide in fear. For many, it truly is not the ideal time to put their home on the market. But, even in a less-than-robust economy, you might be in the right—perhaps even the ideal—situation to sell. Unfortunately, some common impediments may make you run from doing so. Here are a few of those mental roadblocks, and how to overcome them:

I know my house is too big and expensive to maintain, but it’s filled with good memories. A lot of people, specifically in their 50s and 60s and beyond, are reticent to sell a home, because it’s where they raised their kids. At holiday time, that pull becomes even more powerful, when family comes back to visit. While memories are extremely important, they can keep people in a home that’s too expensive to maintain and too large for them, for too long. And, what’s worse, sometimes young adults pressure their parents to hold onto a home. If you’re one of those folks who’s just left the nest and you suspect that your parents are hanging onto the home just for memory’s sake, a little conversation goes a long way. Let your parent or parents know that you want the best for them, and if that’s a newer, easier-to-maintain home, that’s OK by you. Often, giving a parent gentle encouragement to move on, frees them up to make the decision they know they should make: to sell and downsize.

There’s so much inventory out there. Who’s even going to stop to look at my house? It’s true: in this market, there are a lot of options out there for buyers. But sellers who lament a flurry of potential competition often use this as a bad excuse not to sell. Many real estate professionals these days know a lot about preparing a home for sale, including conducting a home inspection to clearly understand the condition—and value—of your home. Speaking with a real estate professional can give you inspiration and ideas that you never imagined regarding how to distinguish your property. That’s the thing about selling your house: you don’t have to go it alone. In the best case, you can enlist a team full of great ideas.

The housing market’s down. The Federal Reserve recently noted that after losing ground in the spring, Americans’ wealth grew 2.2% throughout July-September, and household net worth rose to nearly $55 trillion. But despite this, the value of real estate holdings sank 3.7%. It’s true, the real estate market truly hasn’t fully recovered, and it would be disingenuous to sugar-coat it and say that you’ll easily get your ideal asking price in a week if you sell. But still, too many people read the second statement above—home prices are down—without taking it in stride with the first: things are improving overall. A lot of us focus on bad news without looking at the good. Home values have not fully rebounded. But the increase in Americans’ wealth means there are more people with cash freed up to buy. Also, these figures don’t take geographical areas into account. Your area might be doing better than the national average; values aren’t depressed in every single market. The best way to know what’s best for you is to ask a trusted real estate professional. Communication is the key to success, rather than hiding when you see a negative headline.

Author, Dan Steward Is president of Pillar To Post Professional Home Inspections.

Once again, it bears repeating that every market is different.  Trust a local professional to help you decide what move is right for you…not the national media.

Brent Edgerton–New Way Properties

She called me and asked what her home was worth (in these economic times) obviously she knew she wouldnt make a ton on her house selling it, but she knew she would atleast make $6,500.00 by buying her next home. 

Also, one of my good friends was renting an apartment, and being a good friend I had to tell her that I thought she was throwing her money away..and finally she came to her senses and let me show her some homes I knew she would like… She got so excited she went to the bank to get pre-approved.  Now she owns her own home that she can decorate to her own style without worrying about someone telling her what she can and cannot do and more importantly she is $8000.00 Richer!    www.irs.gov

I hope you found this blog interesting…call me if you’d like to buy a house!

range $395,000 or less

Master on main.

Thank you

Great learning experience as always with a little bit of twist.

 Thanks to all………………………..

Can’t wait for another company retreat next year, thanks Boss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bruce