As a result of the economic crisis, many people are finding themselves in a credit crunch: credit card interest rates have increased, spending limits have decreased and some accounts have been closed altogether. Here are a few principals of “Credit Card Management 101” to keep in mind when reviewing new cards.

Tip No. 1: Check your credit limit.
Many creditors have recently lowered credit limits. Verify your spending limit before you use your credit card. Going over the credit limit will not only result in a fee, but your credit score and annual percentage rate can get zapped too. If you charge purchases to a credit card, be sure you can pay the bill in full when your monthly statement arrives.

Tip No. 2: Call your credit card issuer and negotiate for lower rates.
If you regularly pay on time, credit card companies may be willing to negotiate your interest rate. It’s worth a try.

Tip No. 3: Read the fine print on future offers.
You’re probably receiving fewer credit card offers in the mail, but be sure to read the fine print on any you do receive and decide to activate. Many credit cards will offer a low introductory rate that may skyrocket within a certain time period or if the cardholder makes a late payment. Know exactly what the credit card’s terms and conditions are before you accept it.

Tip No. 4: Consider using year-end bonuses and holiday gift money to pay down credit card balances.
Give yourself a gift that’ll give your personal finances a boost by paying down credit card debt with any extra money that comes your way.

Tip No. 5: Stick to your holiday shopping list and pay for gifts with cash.
According to a Dun & Bradstreet survey, consumers spend 12-18 percent more when they use credit cards instead of cash. This holiday shopping season, make sure you stick to your gift list and use cash or your debit card to avoid impulse buys.

Cold calling is a necessary aspect of commercial real estate in order to build a client database. But, you need to differentiate yourself from other brokers in the way you approach your prospects and clients. Ho do you differentiate yourself? Do you specialize by property type? Whatever it is, that is the message you want to send to your prospects and clients on a regular basis. To see what Infusion is all about browse to http://infusionsoft.com

REA synchronizes with Outlook 2003 or 2007. From there, you have to synchronize to your smart phone, be it Treo, BlackBerry or whatever. Exchange server has tools that your IT department can activate-if you have an IT department. If you do not have an IT department, you can use install software on your computer and do it yourself.

My favorite synchronization software is a product of Companionlink Software. They have been doing this stuff for a long, long time and are the best. You can download and try it before you buy, which you should.

To get a complimentary copy of “Stop Email Abuse” a chapter out of “Honesty Works! Real World Solutions to Common Problems at Work & Home,” please call Deatra Vailes, Director of Sales and Marketing with the Steven Gaffney Company at 703-241-7796. This chapter includes additional tips on when to use email and when to not use email.

Financing your deals is never easy. We have a lender to which we can refer you and he can give you a quick answer on whether or not he can make it happen. Email me at sales@gorea.com for the referral.

       “The financial world is a mess, both in the US and abroad.  Its problems, moreover, have been leaking into the
        general economy, and the leaks are now turning into a gusher.  In the near term, unemployment will rise, business

While your company has a website for itself, and you appear as an agent or associate, it is not sufficient exposure for an agent. You must have your own web site to generate business. Period. The next question is how to do it. You can go cheap with the high school kid and expect the results to be poor. Or, you can use a firm that specializes in sites for commercial brokers:

John Ramon

Reaction WebR

Managed Results For Commercial Real Estate

Phone: 303-841-2335 x5 | Fax: 303-479-9134 www.reactionweb.com | john@reactionweb.com 

 Let them know that you saw this in the REA blog.

We at REA are aware of the challenges brokers are facing regarding the commercial finance market. How we got here and and the likely way out are well explained in the article linked here.

These are the times when you can upgrade your skill set with REA and we provide daily training sessions to all our clients. When the financing log jam clears, you will be better prepared than your colleagues to grab a larger share of the business. Click here to see the current list of web-based sessions.

Speed up Outlook 2007

If you are experiencing slow email on Outlook 2007, try this. It made an enormous difference for two of our computers.

STEP 1: Turn off Outlook 2007 and locate each of these files in turn and rename as indicated. For some reason, during the upgrade these four files can become corrupted — the migration from 2003 to 2007 isn’t the smoothest but not having to create all your POP3 accounts again is excellent.

1. extend.dat — you will find this file in the location
   Drive Letter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\extend.datChange it to extend.old

   A user has reported that this file was the only thing that he needed to rename, so at this point try restarting Outlook normally and see if it has improved. If no difference has been made then rename the new version of the extend.dat as extend.old2 and continue on with the remaining files.

2. views.dat — may not find it most of the time
3. frmcache.dat —
   Drive Letter:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\FORMS\FRMCACHE.DATChange it to FRMCACHE.old
4. outcmd.dat —
   C:\Documents and Settings\user-directory\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook\outcmd.datChange it to OUTCMD.old

STEP 2: Restart Outlook 2007

Send yourself some test emails and watch the messages appear.

Tim Creagh spoke at a conference for commercial real estate brokers and the topic was Organizing Your Database.  Many of the ideas for his talk came from his training sessions with the office and teams he had trained to use REA over the years. These tips were meant for anyone regardless of what database they were using but you’ll see that REA users have a big advantage over the other systems.

If you would like a copy of the speaker notes detailing some of the things you can do to organize your data click this link:  Organize Your Database