2010 - Day Fifty One...

The lucky person to ascend the throne of tiara wearer is none other than my friend Doren. Doren is the owner/editor/chief cook and bottle washer (along with his lovely wife Tawanna) of a real estate oriented newspaper in Austin. This photo was taken on Tuesday, when he was visiting the Board for some reason that I am not aware of. He stopped by the class that I was teaching on Leasing and Property Management, and we had a nice chat during the lunch hour. Doren is a wonderful person to know, and I am happy that he took the time to sit and talk with me that day. He was also in evidence the next evening at the TREPAC Chili Cook-Off. What fun that was! I was told today that the Cook-Off raised $6,000 for TREPAC. I hope that number is accurate; if not I will make a correction/

Well, as I suspected, today began much like yesterday. I got us early, did my usual routine things, left the house about 6:30, and began my day at the Texas Association of REALTORS Winter Meeting. This photo was taken about 7:30 this morning, and the foggy hazy stuff was really interesting, obscuring the top of our newest TALL BUILDING! It is now about 10:45 and I am in my office waiting on two Buyer clients. We are going to go look at some properties! It is not raining at this exact moment. It has not ACTUALLY rained, but it has been a dribbly morning! So far, I have attended four different events at the Winter Meeting. First was a coffee of the Graduates of the Texas REALTOR Leadership Program; then there was the Ombudsman training; then there was the Property Management Forum, and finally (so far) the Property Management Committee Meeting. I kind of floated between the four different venues, but they were all worthwhile, and I am glad I got a 'little-bit' of each of the meetings. It was great seeing all the Graduates of the Leadership Program, Ombudsman was great (I love the negotiating aspects of serving as an Ombudsman). AND I can never learn too much about the different aspects of Property Management. Congratulations to the Texas Association of REALTORS for another great Winter Conference!

I showed a lovely Buyer/Client couple five or six houses late morning/early afternoon, and then I headed back to the meeting. I arrived in time to attend my friend and fellow Instructor Marcie's class about the trials and tribulations and pitfalls of Real Estate Marketing on Social Networking sites. Very interesting stuff, and it creates many kinds of Broker Liability that were not even thought of twenty minutes ago, let alone YEARS AGO when I became a licensed agent in Texas. You can never be too careful, and I never know if I have done anything inappropriate. I hope not, but that is most likely not a very good defense. We must all remember to be Scrupulous and Meticulous in ALL of our real estate dealings.

I then attended an Instructors Forum which was VERY GOOD and VERY INFORMATIVE. Many people I consider to be friends were the facilitators of the forum. Basically, it was designed to give instructors a variety of ways of presenting the instructional material. Very well done, and it was a very good use of time allotted.

Afterwards, I went to the TREPAC Reception on the 17th floor, and had a glass of wine. ONE GLASS. Having not eaten since 5AM or so, that was all it took. I was then on a quest for food-stuffs. There was not a lot of bread items (which was what I was looking for), but I did manage to have a little bit of sustenance before I left for the trip home. DO NOT MESS WITH MY CHEESE! No issues, all was good! This photo is of the City from the 17th floor. Pretty Darned Impressive, if I do say so myself. Many folks consider Austin to be a very provincial place, and usually they are very surprised at how cosmopolitan our city really is. We should have indoor plumbing in the spring of 2015 too!

Tomorrow I will show some property, feed the cattle and go to the State Caucuses.

That is it for tonight. ENJOY!

Deeds, Actions, Changes, ONE GLASS OF MERLOT, PLEASE, Kindnesses, Whirled Peas, FUN!