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Focus on Communicating Value

Patrick Lieuw

By the time you read this, most of you (I hope all of you!) will have paid your dues to SAR, C.A.R. and NAR. Do you think about what you are getting for your money?

There are so many ways you get your money’s worth that SAR has a page on the website just to list them. Go to www.sacrealtor.org/benefits. In my experience, you don’t need to do too many transactions in a year before zipForm® alone is worth the price of your Membership. By the way, if you have not yet paid your dues, you will lose access to zipForm® on February 1.

SAR is here to help you with things you couldn’t do by yourself, or if you did, you would have no time to sell real estate. A prime example is our political action effort. Many times, SAR is able to stop regulations or fees before they go into effect and you may not even hear about them.

Another value is the diversity of SAR. Each one of us brings his or her own insights and background, and I’m not just talking about differences in gender and ethnicity. Many of us started out in a different career. We represent many cultures and age groups, to say nothing of our hobbies and memberships in other organizations. We can harness all of that knowledge to make the SAR even better.

A couple of years ago, Barbara’s theme was All Aboard. Doug’s theme last year was Your Bridge to Success. Now that we’re all on board and successful, my theme for this year is to Focus on Collaboration.

Continue reading: Focus on Communicating Value

The Pitfalls of Social Media

Patrick Lieuw

“Going on a Panama cruise next week – finally taking a vacation!” Have you, your spouse, or your child ever posted anything like this on Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare on your phone, your website or another social media website? Did you stop to think about how vulnerable this information makes you? You may think that only your close friends and family will access this information, but you can’t be sure that this is true. What if a stranger, an acquaintance, your teenager’s classmate or a distant friend-of-a-friend reads it and decides your house is an easy target for a robbery?

Think about what else you may post on these websites: pictures of you dancing the funky chicken at your cousin’s wedding, or pictures of your latest (Not-Safe-For-Work) Halloween costume. Has your son or daughter ever posted anything like this or maybe much worse? It may seem funny at the time, but keep in mind – your boss several years from now may be able to easily see this information with a simple search of your name. In fact, a recent Microsoft commissioned survey found that as many as 70 percent of hiring managers have rejected candidates based on information found online.

In all of these examples, easy access to information posted on the Internet can have serious consequences. Have you run an online search of your name recently? You may be surprised with the amount of information out there. One can easily find a person’s full name, phone number, birth date, address and pictures with a few clicks of the mouse. For instance, www.intelius.com is one site that searches utility, change of address, property and business records and other publicly available information to find people. You might have to pay a little more money to access more details of a person, but it is still a relatively easy process for someone to obtain information on you.

Continue reading: The Pitfalls of Social Media