Our Q3 meeting  was held at the beautiful Wilson Creek Winery in Temecula's wine country.

Many thanks to VICKI PUTERBAUGH for all the arrangements in the winery's new conference center.

A smaller group of folks gathered at the Pechanga Casino to attend Night at the Improv with 3 comedians. It was a fun night of laughs. A bit over the top at times, IMO.

• DEBORAH KNISS led an outstanding meeting, jam packed with information including updates about the two new REO classes we are co-sponsoring with Silver Lining Workshops. Don't miss this opportunity to attend these two classes being offered in October in San Dimas on the 3rd and the 24th to become more knowledgeable and proficient at REO listings.

• MICHAEL HEGNA from Bank of America shared his perspective on what has happened in the banking world and what lies ahead. Knowing that wholesale loans are more than 1.5 X as likely to go into default as retail means an increased focus on direct lenders going forward. There will be more programs for first time buyers from BOA, as well as a continued emphasis on getting buyers into homes and helping them keep them

• The 2009 slate of officers was announced - Deborah Kniss (President), Marlene Bridges (President-Elect), Debbie Browne (Treasurer) and Rich Lombari (Secretary).

• We heard from RON CANNING, our Regional Vice President, and a number of attendees had the opportunity to meet him personally and chat a bit. We appreciate that he took the time to come all the way out here from Ohio to attend our meeting and show support for all that our Chapter is doing.

• We heard from our Sponsors - Bank of America, Old Republic Home Protection, and Hallmark Escrow/Coast Cities Escrow

• DICK BETTS challenged many to further embrace technology in their marketing going forward. With the increasing number of buyers and sellers who are using technology, we need to be there in order to be successful and to run our businesses more effectively. Blogging, websites, and text messaging are just a few of the things we need to be using.

• We held our ANNUAL FUND RAISING auctions for HABITAT FOR HUMANITY, with the 50/50 raffle, a SILENT AUCTION of 6 prizes, and a LIVE AUCTION of 3 prizes, hosted by Ken Nordstrom, an auctioneer. The final count of monies raised is not complete, but we know the auctions and additional cash donations left nailed to THE STUD thus far TOTAL $2136.00 (Folks who attended The Improv donated $5 for the cover charge so I'm waiting for the final tally). THANKS TO EVERYONE FOR YOUR GENEROSITY

VIDEOS:

Our Newest CRS for the quarter was announced - Bruce Campbell. See his video interview here.

I did a video with Rich Lombari (our Communications Chair) as moderator with Debbie Hake, our Q2 Spotlight Member - see her video here.

And the Q3 Spotlight Member, GARY ERICSON, was announced - see his video here.

VIRTUAL TOUR OF OUR MEETING:

For those of you who could not attend, here are some photo highlights of the meeting. ENJOY!

Our big fund raising event to benefit Habitat for Humanity is coming soon!

At our 3rd quarterly educational and networking meeting in Temecula, CA on September 26 you will have the chance to:

• Learn lots about using technology in your marketing
• Network with other real estate  professionals from Southern California
• Participate in our LIVE AUCTION and SILENT AUCTION to raise money for Habitat for Humanity.
• Enjoy a wine tasting after the event

This event is OPEN TO ALL.

While many are already CRSs, many are not. It's a great chance to learn more about technology, and chat with folks who have taken their careers to a new level by obtaining the CRS. Find out about how you can become a CRS, and the benefits of joining our local Southern California CRS Chapter. Why not visit our website to learn more!

Here are the prizes we will auction during the LIVE AUCTION:

1. FREE REGISTRATION for the 2009 Sellabration in San Fransciso 2/5 - 2/7

2. A 3 day 2 night stay in a terrific condo in Mammoth Lakes

3. A Trio of Meals for 2 at your home prepared by Chef Pamela Croft, Founder of Dinner at Home

Really?

• How about 2 free breakfasts as well.

• Plus the opportunity to network with other real estate professionals from other areas and possibly pick up or share a referral.

• AND even coming away with some great learnings on how to be THE BEST listing agent, close more listing presentations, understand and deal with your sellers' motivations AND objections, and much more.

I'd say the value of this deal is pretty high. If you get ONE MORE LISTING this year as a result your ROI is about 10 X (or more) the cost of this CRS 201 LISTING STRATEGIES course. Even if you don;t plan to become a CRS, this could be a terrific chance for your to improve your skills with one of the best CRS courses around.

Don't miss your chance.

CRS 201 will be held in the San Diego area t the North San Diego County Association of REALTORS in Vista on Wednesday and Thursday September 17 and 18 from 8:30 - 5 each day.

Co-sponsored by the Southern California Chapter of CRS

ONLY $310 + 2 lunches and 2 breakfasts.

READ MORE HERE

Visit NSDCAR for more information and to register

Here's your chance to become an outstanding LISTING AGENT.

Strategies to gain new listing business AND to help your clients are essential in this highly competitive and challenging market, whether you are a new agent or an experienced one.

CRS 201 Listing Strategies will be held in the North County Association of REALTORS office in Vista on Wednesday and Thursday September 17 and 18 from 8:30 - 5 each day.

This class is co-sponsored by the Southern California Chapter of CRS.Visit our site for more information, and learn how to become a CRS and find out about the benefits of joining our local CRS chapter.

Here's YOUR chance to obtain a strong competitive edge. Only those professionals who learn proven listing strategies will win over the client and increase their conversion rate. Listing Strategies provides students with the important skills necessary to conduct successful listing presentations, price a home to sell, close the transaction and market and promote effectively. This course will take students through an actual listing presentation that helps them understand the key steps in this process and create a system for success.

Topics include:

• Conducting an effective listing presentation


• Seller guidance and counseling


• Pricing a home to sell


• Closing techniques


• Marketing plans and servicing systems


• Sellers needs and motivations

Early reg: $285; after 8/29/08: $310, reg. deadline is 9/12/08

Instructor: Richard Sands, CRS

Since 2000, Mr. Sands has served as the Director of Education at Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage in Greenwood Village, Colorado. He was instrumental in redesigning the company's new agent training program, creating a coaching and accountability program for agents called Performance Track. As a CRS instructor, Mr. Sands motivates his students to take their businesses to the next level.

YOU CAN CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

Here's the 3rd Quarterly message from the Southern California CRS Chapter 2008 President Deborah Kniss, introducing the Board of Directors and sharing some information about the upcoming EDUCATIONAL and NETWORKING meeting to be held at Wilson Creek Winery on Friday September 26 in Temecula.

(I apologize that there were some issues with the tripod so you will hear some background noise)

If you attended the first two quarterly General Membership meetings this year, I hope you have already used your new tools and networking to increase your sales. As President, that is one of my stated goals for active Chapter members. In regards to classes, you will soon see information about a new two day class on Finance that is a must-have for this market, as well as special training on effectively maintaining an REO account – watch your email notices for more information!

This is the time, especially if “you don’t feel like it”, to get involved with the Chapter. If you would like to find out more information about the Board of Directors and what opportunities are available to you, please contact me direct. Real estate sales is all about staying cutting edge in your knowledge and skills, as well as staying connected with others.

I hope you will attend the next educational and networking meeting in Temecula – it is going to be a very important, fun event spread over two days. We will start with some fun on Thursday evening, September 25, at the Improv. Our General meeting will be held at the gorgeous Wilson Creek Winery on Friday, September 26, where Dick Betts (national speaker on technology) will be showing us how to start and maintain a Blog, how to text like a professional and much more. Of course you can’t have a seminar at a winery without doing some wine tasting afterwards!

This is also the perfect opportunity for you to ask questions about how to get more involved with the Chapter and network with a national representative from CRS, Ron Canning, who is flying in from Ohio to be with us.

Also, remember that by attending the meeting, your name will automatically be entered in a drawing to be in the “Member Spotlight”. The winner will be videotaped and profiled on our website and spotlighted in our next newsletter! I look forward to seeing you there.

Deborah Kniss, 2008 Chapter President

Stay the “Best of the Best” with the Southern California Chapter of CRS!

Southern California CRS Chapter Members:

If you could not make the meeting, or just would like to read a bit more about what happened at the meeting and some terrific learnings on investing in real estate,

• LOG IN to the Members Only Section of the Southern California CRS Chapter website.

• Go to the USER MENU (left Navigation Bar)

• click on SHOW YOUR BLOG at the very bottom to read the full report (just another of the benefits of being a Chapter member).

NOTE: IF YOU ARE A CHAPTER MEMBER but still need to obtain your logon ID and Password,

directions on how to do so can be found here.

Or you can watch a How To video.

For those of you who could not make the 2008 Second Quarterly Membership Meeting in Santa Barbara, you missed a good time, a great speaker, and lots of useful information.

I'm working on the the overview of the meeting which should be posted in the next day. In the meantime, here is a virtual tour of the meeting.

Meetings like this make it clear that being a member of the Southern California Chapter of CRS has many benefits.

Here's a brief word from our newest Southern California Chapter CRS member, KATHY BROWN.

Kathy just completed her CRS earlier this year and attended her FIRST Southern California CRS Chapter quarterly meeting in Santa Barbara last Friday, June 27.

CONGRATULATIONS, KATHY. We wish you the best of luck in your business as a NEW CRS Member.

Stay tuned for an update on the meeting and learnings from our speaker, Chris Bird.

New CRS Member - Kathy Brown from Jeff Dowler on Vimeo.

All of you are aware that the Southern California Chapter of CRS has a website that has undergone significant changes in the last year. The website contains information that is valuable to you, our members, as well as a means for consumers to search for a CRS in our region, among other things.

While much of the website is accessible to non-members (e.g., Leadership), there are some Members Only features that you may find useful in your business. In order to access these Members Only features you will need an account.

Here’s what to do.

1. In the upper RIGHT hand corner of the Home Page you will see the sign-on box.
2. Under the USER NAME and PASSWORD boxes, Click where it says CREATE ONE to create your account
3. On the next page you will SELECT A USER NAME and provide your 7-digit CRS membership number.
4. You must also include a VALID EMAIL ADDRESS for verification purposes
5. Once you have entered the information, click SEND REGISTRATION
6. You will receive an email with your user name and password. You must VERIFY who you are by clicking on the link in the email.
7. Once you have verified who you are you will be able to log in (if you do NOT verify who you are, you will not be permitted to log in even though you received a password from the system).
   

After you receive the email and verify receipt by clicking on the LINK,  you may login on the home page to access the MEMBERS ONLY features.

Look for more tips on using our website in future posts.

This year’s Sell-A-Bration, my first, was terrific. Of course the venue (Honolulu) wasn’t too shabby either, despite lots of rain (took some personal time to take a Trek up Diamond Head). There was obviously lots of focus on the market and strategies for dealing with buyers, sellers, marketing issues and much more, plus a terrific group of vendors. Networking and learning opportunities were bountiful as well.

I have no basis for comparison, as this was my first, but if this was a good example of the quality of convention that Sell-A-Bration is, then it was A+, and if you have NOT ever been, then you owe it to yourself to go next year…in San Francisco.

Part of the fun is networking – I came back with tons of cards and new friends. And the learning was outstanding. It’s impossible to share it all, but if you would like to learn some of what I took away from this event Click Here to Receive 10 Pearls of Wisdom. Pass it on to YOUR friends.

CRS 201 – Listing Course

Description: The quality of an individual’s listing skills can give him or her a strong competitive edge. Only those professionals who learn proven listing strategies will win over the client and increase their conversion rate. Listing Strategies provides students with the important skills necessary to conduct successful listing presentations, price a home to sell, close the transaction and market and promote effectively. The course takes students through an actual listing presentation that helps them understand the key steps in this process and create a system for success.

Course Content:
• Conducting an effective listing presentation
• Seller guidance and counseling
• Pricing a home to sell
• Closing techniques
• Marketing plans and servicing systems
• Sellers’ needs and motivations

Course Topics:

Ø     

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 When:  February 6-7, 2008

Where:  Pacific West Association of REALTORS®, 1601 Orangewood Avenue, Anaheim, CA 92805

[714]245-5500

Time:  7:30—5:00

Tuition:  $295.00 PWR/Tri Members

$325.00 Non-Members

To register call the Pacific West Association 714-245-5500

Did you know that as a non-selling Manager you can qualify to become a CRS (if you don't meet the normal CRS requirements because of lack of production)?

I didn't know, but a recent inquiry prompted my call to the National Office to find out.

Here is the link to the qualifications for becoming a CRS as a non-selling Manager.

For more information on becoming a CRS, visit the website.

Plans are in the works for the next Coffee Chat for San Diego.

I am working on finding a spot for our meeting in the La Jolla area so we will be closer to downtown and can hopefully bring in some of the folks from that area.

Looks like the date will be September 4 (Tuesday), 4 weeks before the Quarterly Membership Meeting being held on Friday October 5 in Temecula - plan for it - should be a good time.

I am planning to have two speakers:

• Scott Isgitt will talk about One Call Home Showings, a new service combining centralized showing scheduling PLUS email feebdack.
• Andy Konapacki will talk with us about mold - inspections and remediation - and his company, VM3 Environmental.

Stay tuned for more details and emails from Kari.

Jeff

I wanted to share the success of our Southern California CRS Chapter at the SDAR Trade Expo, held yesterday (Friday May 4) in San Diego.

The booth was set up Thursday afternoon, and we were there all day Friday from 8 am until 5 pm. Here are the highlights:

• 114 agents came by, dropped off business cards, and spent time talking with us about CRS - what the designation is, how to obtain it, the value, the costs, and more. Most people who came by had heard of CRS but were not clear on what getting the designation entailed. We had a great time sharing what we knew about being a CRS and the value that it has for all of us. It was also a chance to tell folks more about our terrific chapter and being elected Chapter of the Year in 2006.

GARY WILSON of Coldwell Banker in San Diego won the $100 Crate and Barrel Gift Card drawing.

Three people signed up for the next CRS 210 Class in San Diego on May 24 and 25.

One person joined our Southern California CRS Chapter on the spot.

I want to share a SPECIAL THANKS to the CRS Chapter members who helped with setting up the booth and staffing it during the trade show. I could not have done it without the help of these dedicated individuals, and I'm sure each was an inspiration to the individual agents they talked with about becoming a CRS.

Lois Hughes (helped with set-up AND running a shift) - Keller Williams Central Coast, Pismo Beach (MIDDLE LEFT PHOTOS)

Barbara Brokaw - Eagle Estates Realty, San Diego (MIDDLE RIGHT)

Shirley and Peter Tenger - Prudential California Realty, Dana Point (BOTTOM RIGHT, on the right)

Barbara DuDeck - RE/MAX Ranch and Beach, San Diego (BOTTOM LEFT, on the right)

Vicki Puterbaugh - Rancon Real Estate, Temecula (BOTTOM LEFT, on the left)

Rita Brooks - Keller Williams Realty, Escondido (BOTTOM RIGHT, on the left)

Thanks to all for making this a success!!

Jeff Dowler, ABR, CRS, e-PRO, SRES

Area VP - San Diego, SoCalCRS

RE/MAX Associates, Encinitas

We held the first coffee chat today in San Diego for the CRS members there. It was a small group but those who attended enjoyed it and the feedback was positive - the time was convenient, the location was as well, and people are glad we are getting this sort of activity going in our area. So we will continue to do so.

Chris Comer, from Pacific Capital Mortgage, spent a few minutes talking about his services, and we look forward to his continued sponsorship. We are planning to hold a similar event EACH QUARTER in the same location with Chris sponsoring and providing coffee and snacks. Hey, it's free, even if you only want the food! But come for the networking and learning, too!

We also learned quite a bit about using our Self-Directed IRA or other defined benefits plans for investing in real estate. MUNZER GHOSHEH, from Entrust, spend about 45 minutes educating us on how to do this - it was great. For more information visit their website or give him a call at 310-899-3811. I have plenty of brochures from his session and will have them at the next meeting. Or send me an email and I will mail you one.

We hope to have a variety of topis during the year, so if you have any ideas or a particular person you would like to suggest we bring in, please let me know. Right now there is strong interest in marketing ideas, so we'll see what we can do with that.

Hope to see more of you there next time - probably in May. Stay tune for updates.

Jeff