ADVANCED ACCESS November 2002 Newsletter

November 2002 Newsletter

"Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds,
to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation."
James Lovell, Astronaut

What makes a great real estate website? Forget the splashy graphics, which can take a long time to load. According to one of the judges in Florida Realtor's annual Website contest, the ideal site has a clear focus, and a simple design that makes it easy for visitors to find what they want. "It's the organizational approach," he says, "that makes a site effective."

Louis Wery, from Sarasota, Florida came in #2 on the list of "Top Ten Salesperson Website" winners. Stephen Canale, one of the judges in the contest, believes that Louis Wery's site contains "almost everything a consumer would want, without distracting data and design." "This is great use of a template Website that's fast loading with a clean home page design." Canale goes on to say "Having recent sales and current mortgage information is a real plus for consumers."

Louis notes that his customers enjoy being able to see all the MLS properties on the market. He says "I've updated my site about four or five months ago, and the result has been a lot more traffic. Last year, I had seven sales from my very basic site, and I expect to at least double that number this year."

As a residential investment company, our client EquityMax, Inc. has taken a different approach to its corporate Website. Brad Emmer, President, says the site is aimed at making the process of buying and financing investment properties in South Florida faster and more cost effective. "Certain bells and whistles provide an interface that allows even the part-time investor to invest in real estate online 24 hours a day." Allen Hainge, one of the judges, said "They promote their investment approach very well," he says. "It's quite different from a typical company site."

Congratulations are also in order to Diane McCombs, who just won 3rd place in the Women's Council of REALTORS® Website Contest. Diane is a second-generation REALTOR® who started her career in 1986. She has been one of our clients for over a year, and recently upgraded her website to our new Classic Package. Her site received high marks with the judges for "quick navigation" and extensive content.

The Women's Council of Realtors has14,000 members and is growing. Diane is the Local Chapter President in Ocala and in 2003 she will be the District Vice President and the Co-Chair on WCR State Trends and Technology Committee. Diane has actively been promoting her website, and in October it recorded 2141 sessions. As of November 13, it had already recorded 1366 sessions for the month and should surpass October's number.

Diane says, "I'd like to send out a big "Thank You" to Gee Dunsten for recommending your company to me at the Florida Association of REALTORS® Convention. Gee was one of the speakers and was excellent! Another big thank you to everyone at ADVANCED ACCESS!"

Every year, the National Association of REALTORS awards the Good Neighbor Award to REALTORS® who have made extraordinary commitments to improving the quality of life in their communities. A few months ago, we reported that Linda Norton, our valued client, was one of the finalists in the contest. We're now pleased to announce that Linda is a 2002 Good Neighbor Award Winner.

Linda, affiliated with Coldwell Banker in Fort Collins, Colo., had built a reputation for helping first-time and credit-challenged buyers. She'd also volunteered with a nonprofit group that bought land and put it in trust to keep the land cost out of the housing equation. But for Linda, Funding Partners offered something different-a new way to use her business skills to help families struggling for the comfort of home.

"We were looking for a broader solution to affordability," recalls Linda. "We didn't want to build houses-there were plenty of good organizations doing that. Instead we asked ourselves what was needed to make housing more affordable. The obvious answer was money. So our mission became to find more ways to bring more dollars."

With that mission in mind, Linda applied to the U.S. Department of the Treasury to become a Community Development Financial Institution. Funds must be matched dollar for dollar by money raised in a local community. After almost a year of applications, Funding Partners received a $600,000 grant.

One Arvada, Colorado, family that benefited was Shirley Bowling and her two sons, who were squeezed into a cramped apartment after Bowling's marriage dissolved. "Owning my own home has given me such pride and confidence that I can move forward in a positive direction and set a good example for my sons," says Bowling. "I would never have been able to save the money for a down payment."

"Linda is totally committed to the cause of affordable housing," says Gina Roe, executive director of Funding Partners, "and the Fort Collins community is a better place for that commitment.

We recently heard about a new book to educate your clients on how to retire through investments in real estate. The Little Wow! Book on Home Investing is filled with everything you've ever wanted to know about making money through real estate investments.

The author, Carlos Royal, one of our long-time friends and colleagues, is offering an opportunity to become an affiliate for the book and earn a portion of each digital book sale. The real bonus - if you educate your clients about the advantages of real estate investments, perhaps they'll buy more real estate from YOU.

If you're interested - here's how to get the $4.99 per digital sale. Simply visit the website www.eBksNow.com, click on the Wow! Book link, and then click on "Become an Affiliate." After you sign up with Clickbank, you can place a link to order the book on your website. At that point, Clickbank tracks the leads, the sales and pays the checks. And, when 10 unique clicks (that don't have to be sales) have come through from your site, you will automatically be given the code to download a free digital copy of the book for yourself.

Carlos reports that about 30% of the people that read the book buy an investment house. The Little Wow! Book promotes real estate as THE INVESTMENT - not the stock market. This book has a five star rating on Amazon.com. It is only 96 pages, it is down-to-earth common sense investing, clearly written and easy to understand. The book includes a 10-year plan to becoming wealthy through the purchase of single-family homes.

ADVANCED ACCESS' Seminar Department has always offered training classes to various Associations of REALTORS® and real estate companies across the country. Our partnership with prominent national speakers ensures our clients are exposed to more innovative ideas to maximize their business potential. We are honored to announce that we are now affiliated with Randy Eager, a prestigious trainer and National Seminar Speaker.

Randy Eagar is a fast-paced technology humorist and is President of Computer Camp Technology Training. He has currently built his business around training real estate agents in technology and consulting top producing agents with their websites and has authored 7 training manuals to this pursuit.

Randy has authored many local, state, and national courses, and many Computer Camp technology training courses. He has also authored many articles for Real Estate Business, Real Estate Today, and several state magazines.

To book Randy, or any of our other prestigious National Speakers, for your next event, please visit our website under "Special Programs."

ADVANCED ACCESS' Sales team just returned from the exciting city of New Orleans where we exhibited our products and services at the National Association of REALTORS® Convention November 8-11.

The highlight of the convention was talking to our customers from across the country. Many of you are "old friends" who we've known for years, and others are new clients and friends. We appreciate all of our valued clients who took the time to stop by and say hello to us during your busy convention schedules.

In last week's marketing tip, we reviewed some of the exhibits that stood out for those who could not attend the convention this year.

At NAR in New Orleans this year, many of our clients told us that they missed the Featured Employee section in our newsletters each month. So, back by popular demand, please enjoy reading about our "Featured AA Employee" this month - Lindsay Connell.

Lindsay Connell is the type of person who makes your day a little brighter every time you come in contact with her. Smart and personable, Lindsay has a wide range of knowledge in many areas. Before Lindsay was promoted to the position of Marketing Specialist she was an expert in domain transfers and search engine submission. Lindsay truly cares about her clients, and their satisfaction with our products and service is her highest priority. Lindsay's enthusiasm about her life and work is infectious - maybe that's why so many of her clients refer their friends and associates to us.

You might say Lindsay has "real estate in the blood," as her mom is a Realtor® in Anaheim Hills and she has been around real estate most of her life. Growing up with a parent "in the business" has given Lindsay unique insight into her clients' philosophy and requirements.

Lindsay enjoys reading and writing, and has aspirations to be a Journalist and a Writer. She is currently attending Fullerton College, although as she says, "I loved high school and wish I could go back." =) In the future, Lindsay would love to travel "everywhere," and experience living in different countries. Always looking for a new adventure, Lindsay would love to try sky diving were it not for her fear of heights. In her spare time, Lindsay enjoys "watching - not playing" basketball and hockey.
A real "team player," Lindsay is a joy to work with and is popular with both clients and colleagues. We're honored to have Lindsay on the ADVANCED ACCESS team.

At this time of Thanksgiving, we would like to pause to count our blessings. One of the joys of living in this great country is the freedom we enjoy which gives us opportunities to achieve our goals. All of us at ADVANCED ACCESS are sincerely thankful for your friendship and for the confidence you have shown in us through the years. Without your business, loyalty and support, our progress would never have been possible.

It is in this spirit that we say "THANK YOU" and extend our sincere
Best Wishes for a HAPPY and HEALTHY THANKSGIVING DAY.

Please note that in order to allow our employees to celebrate the holiday with their families, our office will be closed Thursday and Friday, November 28-29, 2002.