Another Successful Tropical Realty Charity Golf Tournament!

Hi Everyone!

Sorry I haven't been writing lately as things have been extremely busy at the office and in putting on our 4th annual Charity Golf Tournament. First the tournament:

Every year we seem to get a little better at running these tournaments. This year was very smooth and we had so much fun. We will have pictures on the site shortly from the tournament.

As you may or may not know, this year our tournament is supporting Sturge-Weber Syndrome (SWS). SWS is a very rare disease that can be noticed by the port wine stain on its victims. Unfortunately, my granddaughter, Lola, is one of its victims. In very rare cases, the stain gets into the brain and begins to calcify. At that point, the child will develop seizures (Lola has had two in her two years of life) and possibly learning disabilities, mental retardation, stroke and possibly death. The hardest part for my family is the fact that there is no diagnosis. There is no way to know what and when this will attack Lola.

We have been blessed that so far Lola's two seizures were not damaging at all. She is and will always be on anti seizure medicine twice a day, every day. We pray daily as do many of our friends that when she does have another seizure, it's not her last.

So the tournament this year is very personal to me. Lola is the light of my life and is always smiling and laughing. She is great! Our tournament this year had a record 112 players from all over the area and even my closest friend of 40 years from Boston. Everyone had a great time and everyone was very generous. We haven't figured out the totals yet but we are sure that we are around $11,000 in donations. My wife has also raised an additional $2,000 or so. Lola spent her day running around the golf course smiling and laughing and warming the hearts of everyone there. It's hard to believe when looking at her that there is anything wrong with her. She is the perfect two year old!

Business

Business has been great! Buyers are finally realizing that this IS the best time to buy a home. The prices are amazing. I just sold a home to one of my long time customers that would have been over $500k two years ago for $325k. It's an amazing house at an amazing price. There are so many opportunities for the buyer. Of course that is one of the downfalls for us too. There are so many great deals out there right that everyone is having a hard time making decisions on which great house to buy!

Are we at the bottom? I believe so, but you know that it's impossible to know until we start going up. At that point you have missed the bottom. That is why I tell everyone that if you wait to see where the bottom is, you will have missed the bottom. The only thing I know for sure is, right now you can buy a home with a 6% mortgage. If you wait until homes appear to be at the bottom, usually on the way up, we don't know what the mortgage rate is going to be.

If you have been on the fence, this is the time! If you have wanted to invest in real estate, this is the time! If you are thinking about buying your first home, this is the time! If you are moving to Florida to retire, this is the time! If you are looking for a vacation home, this is the time. Finally, if you are thinking about a condo, it's even better...this is the time!

From time to time I like to tell you a little about my thoughts in business. It is amazing to me that most Real Estate Brokers are not really business people. They were great at selling houses, but selling homes and running a company with employees, mass marketing and Agents is not the same. For that reason I will be starting a new company called eHomes Realty. Originally I was going to use this company to franchise my Real Estate company. After a lot of thinking and talking to advisers, I have decided to create a membership company that will allow independent Brokerages who are not affiliated with a franchise to reap some of the franchise benefits. So far the response from chatting with people has been great.

As with everything I do, by building this company will allow our customers to have a better opportunity to seek out Real Estate in different areas. Currently we have a good amount Brokerages to help our customers that would like to live out of the area. eHomes Realty will expand our network of reputable Agents that we would feel comfortable allowing our customers to use.

I'll keep you posted on the new business as I get closer to launch date. The beauty of it, is that it will be almost all online and can grow online. I will also be appointing one of my experienced Agents to be my team leader and assist me in managing the staff while I am out of town on my business travels. One thing for sure you can know is my Real Estate customers will always be my main priority and their success in finding or selling their home will be my first and foremost goal!

That's it for tonight. I'll try to write more but you know how life gets in the way!

Have a great day and take care!

Mitch