REO Asset Disposition Proprietary System offered exclusively by: R.P. Brown Real Estate Our experienced team is ready and waiting to assist you with your bank-owned asset dispositions.  We have a tried-and-true agressive marketing system to help get your properties sold quickly and for the highest dollar possible.  Our goal is the same as yours:  to minimize your losses. We are equipped with a complete virtual office for working in the field.  We are available for broker caravans and open houses.  We have a toll-free phone number for buyers to call us -- and we actually answer the phone!  We are experienced in doing BPOs.  And we have team members that speak Spanish and Filipino, so that we can best reach every possible buyer. Since we're #1 on ActiveRain, have a large Twitter following... 04/09/2009

OK - we lost our black lab about 3  years ago...this was the most amazing dog...his name was Jake... you know, after that country song..."If I should die before I wake, feed Jake"...do you know it???  Well, years before the kids were born, this puppy literally came into the housing complex that my husband and I were renting our first home together in before we even got married.  He knocked at the door - ok, he probably pawed at the door...but still, it sounded like a knock.  My then boyfriend or fiancee...don't really remember...was taking a nap on the weekend in our bedroom.  I picked up the puppy, took him in and put him in the bed with my honey and told him that he had knocked at the door and I had to let him in.  He finished the nap with my husband and when they got up we said that ... 03/31/2009

I was driving through Vista, CA early this evening on my way home from Target when I saw this sign:   I was so intrigued that I had to get up closer to read the fine print...because I was seriously considering renting the husband...when alas, I discovered that it was only a handyman service sign.  You've got to love the tag line, "One call fixes it all!"  LOL OK, so my question is this...they had plenty of time to start this business, get the very cool sign made up...but yet they're still driving around on Arizona plates?  That's ok...the sign gave me such a good chuckle that I had to have my daughter snatch a photo with her cell camera. Maybe they'll get some business from it...because it really is a cool sign!  I still may rent her husband myself, I've got some trim work in my house t... 03/31/2009

Being real estate professionals, the word "Ethics" is tossed around continuously.  We're supposed to be ethical, we're supposed to put our clients' interests first...but WHERE do we learn that?  From a class that we're forced to take in order to get our license?  Ummm...I don't think so. I believe if you are a not-so-ethical person by nature, you can fake it and learn to behave "above board" enough to keep your backside out of a sling in your real estate career...that's where the class could perhaps come into play.  I also believe that a truly ethical person is trained...by environment and upbringing.  Either you have a great ethical family that you were raised by, or you have the exact opposite and it appauled you so much that you vow not to be that way yourself.   I had the opportunit... 03/25/2009

This isn't your typical lead generation piece, rather it is a case of hide or seek...  The scenario is that I had someone call my toll free number last night and leave a 90 second message - as far as voicemail messages go, that's pretty substantial.  The problem is, that I have my toll free number through an online service (RingCentral) - and I have loved them in the over 2 years that I have been with them... I use them for faxing as well, but this particular voicemail message came in BLANK!  Totally silent for 90 seconds.  I have tried it on my Mac, my PC (both from the wav files) as well as to log into RingCentral and try to play the message directly from there.  No matter what I do, the message is blank.  I have submitted a help request to RingCentral to see if they could troubleshoo... 02/17/2009

I am the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce's Liaison to the Real Estate Industry, and I wanted to let you all know about the upcoming seminar that we are hosting...it is open to all professionals.  I hope you can join us! Presented by Cari Vollmer, LifeOnTrack.com DATE: Thursday, January 15, 2009 TIME: 5pm PST / 6pm MST / 7pm CST / 8pm EST DURATION: 60 minutes (call in 10 min. early to secure your seat) COST: FREE! Determined to make 2009 your best year ever? Wondering how to create a vision board that keeps you powerfully aligned with your dreams? Curious about other success tools you can use to keep yourself on track all year long? Cari Vollmer, the Passion into Profit mentor and founder of LifeOnTrack.com will teach us her world famous vision boarding process and share with us o... 01/07/2009

It's the beginning of the year, and everyone is thinking "NEW" - but what about "OLD"?  We need to maintain what is already in existance.  Here is a list of 5 things that you need to take care of now :   Make sure that the Copy Right notice on your website / blogs, etc... has been updated to include 2009.  Copyright notice should look something like:  "Copyright © 2000-2009 eRealty Network, LLC --- All Rights Reserved." Make sure that your contact information on all your sites and blogs is current and accurate.  Think to include new contact means like IM, Text, Skype, etc... Test your forms.  They may have been created years ago, and since the market has slowed maybe you have just assumed that no one is using them, but they could have stopped working if the programmer's scripts were cha... 01/07/2009

Tip #16 - Save Time in 2009!I hate to waste time on anything...I am always looking for short cuts and tricks...so here are some that I use most often that I thought I would share with you!  (These are for PC users only) I hate scrolling to the top or bottom of pages to find the navigation links that I need...so I use the END and HOME keys on my keyboard instead. Do you use your right click on your mouse for Copy, Cut and Paste functions?  Sometimes it's easier and faster to use CTRL + C (copy), CTRL + X (cut) and CTRL + V (paste) instead!  (and when working in certain canned real estate sites you run into trouble with pop up blockers, etc...and when your right click won't work, the CTRL + short cuts usually will! Instead of highlighting text and going to the edit menus to make it BOLD ... 01/06/2009

It's sad to bid 2008 adieux; however, on some level I am definitely glad to see it go!  2009 is less than 48 hours away and before you try the recipes for Jello Shooters in this post, you should really focus on what you're going to do the first week of 2009!  I'm here to help, so here's a quick list...       Tip #15 - Checklist for the First Week of 2009 Clean your desk and work area!  (Success can't flourish in a mess...you can't focus on the task at hand when wallowing in chaos!) Make those lists!  Not your generic "To Do" lists, but a full list of your goals for 2009... Now look at that list of Goals and spend some time analyzing them...what do you need to do to get those goals achieved?  How are they going to happen?  Now break that Goals list down into steps...these steps become yo... 12/30/2008

As the holidays quickly descend on all of us, I am making a list of the last minute errands that I need to run before my family holiday begins, but what about the items that need to be taken care of before my business holiday begins?  Have you thought about that, and made an active plan?   Have you called all of your active clients right now and made sure that you have done all that they needed or that you could do, before you switch over to family mode? Have you checked all your files and made sure that none of your due dates fall over the holiday and if they do, have you gotten them in early? Have you changed your outgoing voicemail message so that potential clients know when they can expect to receive a call back, when you will be back in town or in active work mode? Have you created... 12/23/2008

I didn't do anything special, I just offered to help an industry leader / professional that I have the utmost admiration for, at a time when I knew that TIME was something she didn't have.  I managed and organized the Virtual Assistant Chamber of Commerce's annual Virtual Christmas Party this year (believe me, I had some help from other great VAs), since the founder had literally just moved overseas for a short time, and she wasn't sure how much time she would have or what her Internet availability would be.  Also, this same person had asked me if I would modify a blog post, 8 Holiday No Cost Gifts for Colleagues / Service Providers in 2008, that I made here on AR into an article to be published in her newsletter...which I gladly did.  Now this morning I got a wonderful email from her w... 12/22/2008

Well, the industy catch phrase for this past year might be "Real Estate hates 2008!"...but that's ok because this coming year it's going to be "Real Estate Will Do Fine in 2009!"  WHY?  Here's why: Everyone is wiser.  Everyone has seen what greed and excess obtained too easily has cost us as a nation and as a world. Everyone has tightened their belts.  Those remaining in the industry are doing well on less...so when the market starts to turn around and all their hard work pays off...they will have greater profits to show for it because they didn't put so much money out to begin with.  The saying "Work smarter, not harder" applies to spending as well.  If you spend strategically you can spend much less and achieve the same net result. Everyone has more compassion.  We've seen what the pr... 12/19/2008

Meme: Seven Things You Didn't Know About Christine Wade What is a Meme? Mel Aclaro, a friend I met on Twitter tagged me...and now, because of him...you have to learn more about me than you ever really wanted to know :-) The rules for these things are pretty simple in case you want to start your own meme: Create a blog post with a link to the person(s) who tagged you. List these rules in your post. Share seven facts about yourself in the post. Identify seven of your friends or contacts whom you will "tag" to be part of this meme. At the end of your post, list their names and the links to their blogs. Let the friends whom you tagged, know that they've been tagged.   Seven Things You May Not Know About Christine Wade 1. I have THE most beautiful dog in the world!  He is 1/2 Rottweiler, 1/2... 12/16/2008

DRUM ROLL PLEASE! This is my 13th edition of my Tipsy Tuesday posts...that means that I have stuck with it for a quarter of a year!  I have done other blog posts of course, but I committed (in my own head anyway) to doing this tips and advice column / post for at least a year and I am a quarter of the way there!  Thank you all for reading and it would mean the world to me if you would sign up for my blog subscription via email.  You can simply click on the link at the bottom of this post...thanks for sticking with me, I so appreciate your time in reading and commenting on my Tipsy Tuesday posts.  I hope you enjoy this milestone post! Tip #13 - Roadmap to Become a BloggerThere is a great FREE ebook out there, put out by BecomeABlogger.com, it's fairly new...just this month I believe.  Yo... 12/08/2008

This post was inspired by a Google Blog Alert I received from another, non-real estate Virtual Assistant. Her blog post was strictly on showing your appreciation to your Virtual Assistant, and included paid gifts and such...and although I do not want my clients to go out and buy me gifts, that's not really my thing, it did get my brain waves going and inspired this blog post.  So, is there someone out there in the business world that you truly appreciate, but don't want to send a costly gift that they might never use?  Why not give them something that will be out there on the Internet for all time...the gift that keeps on giving...word of mouth!  And don't let them find out about your good deed accidentally - send them a holiday themed email and let them know.  Here are some ideas: Endo... 12/04/2008

My blog is called "The 10 Hour VA" and I am often asked about it.  People think that I am limiting myself to saying that I will only work with clients for a maximum of 10 hours per month, which isn't true.  I will take clients, space permitting, for up to 25 hours per month.  But your name is supposed to attract attention and convey a message, right?  Well, the message that I want to convey, is that I can create a lot of value for my clients in just up to 10 hours per month!  My concept is that clients who partner with me for 10 hours per month, on retainer, have a clear outlined value that they can expect to receive.  I'm not going to punch a time clock, I am not going to be micro-managed and report to my clients every minute of my time - because all that does is waste time, what I am ... 12/04/2008

There's still time! Let me help you get those holiday cards out quickly, conveniently and inexpensively. If you send me your contact list in Excel Format, I will upload it into my contact manager and send out real, high quality, glossy cards to your entire list...printed and mailed with a first class postage stamp. You need to allow 7-10 business days for the cards to arrive, plus 24 hours turn around time for my portion of the services. You can choose from thousands of cards (I will send you a guest username and password to give you temporary access to the card catalog once you email me that you are interested), or send me an image to put on the front for you. I can also create a completely customized card for you for a small additional charge. You won't need to lift a finger once you ... 12/02/2008

Tip #12 - Rainmaker E-CentralI just now finished a training call provided by the Gooder Group, through my association with REVA Roundtable, on Rainmaker E-Central and I have to say that I am impressed!  The extent of content that they provide for both your website and your newsletter / drip email marketing campaigns is really extensive.  Their prices are very reasonable and you have great flexibility within the system, so if you are working with an html literate VA (much like myself) and you want to have your VA doctor up the pieces and really make them your own, that capability is definitely built in...which is awesome, because few systems allow that.  If you are looking for a great content provider / drip email campaign manager that does a wonderful job at capturing and converting le... 12/02/2008

Virtual Assistant Association Challenges Virtual Assistants Worldwide to Donate to Local Food Banks Virtual Assistant industry rises to the occasion to help community food banks meet record number of families and others needing assistance this holiday season. Community food banks around the country are in dire need. With rising food prices and companies continuing to lay employees off in the declining economy, many local agencies are reporting a nearly 50% increase in demand from families needing assistance. Many of these agencies have bare pantry shelves or are otherwise not prepared to assist what many expect to be record numbers this year. Enter the Virtual Assistant community. In view of the rising need and coming holidays, the Virtual Assistance Chamber of Commerce has challenged V... 11/24/2008

Vista residents, Nick (38 yrs. old) and Austin Wade (8 yrs. old) both placed in this past weekend's 40th Annual Lake Elsinore Grand Prix.  Nick, who was in the Vets 30+ Expert class, took 3rd in his class and 3rd overall in his race. (Nick Wade in the red gear above on the Honda)   Austin Wade, who was in the Mini 65CC Novice class, took 1st place in his class and 4th overall in his race. (Austin Wade, #21, in the red gear on the Kawasaki)   I was there to witness it first hand, as I am their wife and mother, respectively.  I was / am very proud of "my boys", and it was great to see that we had so many friends and family turn out to help us keep track of it all and to just be supportive of the boys...and me...because I am always a nervous wreck! Everyone made it out of the race safe and... 11/11/2008