Can The World Absorb A World Changing

Scientific Discovery?

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, July 24, 2018

NOTE:  Anything in BLUE and underlined is a searchable link

What do you think would happen if someone in their backyard garage created an alternative to the gasoline combustion engine?  The very engine that powers almost all of the vehicles we see on our roadways?  What do you think would happen to that invention?

Before you answer, keep in mind the thousands upon thousands if not millions of people who currently work in building the gasoline engine and supporting companies.  Think about the millions of people around the world exploring for oil and gas products to power them. Think about the mechanics that service them. Think about the thousands of lobbiests in places like Washington DC whose jobs were created to protect the industries that support the mainstay of the automobile world – the gasoline engine.  Do you still think that such an invention would ever see the light of day until such time as gas and oil saw a very significant shortage and no longer readily available?

Money drives almost everything.  If someone WERE to invent an alternative to the gasoline engine, the first thing that would happen is that the “powers to be” would be trying to purchase the idea to make certain it is buried before anyone became aware of it.  The second thing that would happen should the first not work would be to physically threaten the inventor of such a world changing discovery.  Failing these two steps, people have disappeared for much less when you consider the amount of money involved in maintaining the gasoline engine.

I don’t know if someone has invented an alternative to the internal combustion engine or not; we may never know.  But I do know that someone has invented an alternative to coal fired and gas fired energy plants and nuclear reactors all of which provide our current energy needs.  Shockingly this technology has been around since 1965 or earlier.  It is called The Thorium Reactor.

Before you understand why this is a very important discovery you first need to know about Thorium and why it is critical to understanding the “rest of the story” as Paul Harvey would say at the end of each radio broadcast.

Thorium is one of the many elements that we find on Earth and on other planets and asteroids but especially our moon.  That is the extent of my knowledge of Thorium.  I would not be able to identify it if it were sitting next to me on my desk and who knows, maybe it is.

But I can read and I can watch videos and because of these two things, I know that if any country were to plan and build a Lunar Manned Space Station on OUR moon or possibly on Mars, the need for a reliable energy source would be the number one concern.  If what I have read and watched is true and there is no reason for it not to be true, such a Lunar Space Station would be powered by a Thorium Reactor.  Why?  Because the element Thorium is readily available on the Moon as it is on Earth and most likely on Mars as well, it is safe and it has very valuable side benefits.  In fact, Thorium is probably in your back yard as I write this.

Consider this.  It would take a very small amount of Thorium to power the city of San Antonio Texas for an entire year.  Some of the links below will demonstrate how the use of a Thorium Reactor provides clean drinking water and medical isotopes.  What is a medical isotope?  This from the Internet:  A medical isotope is a safe radioactive substance used primarily to diagnose illness. The energy emitted by the isotope when inside a patient is detected by special cameras while the patient is being scanned. ... The branch of medicine and medical imaging that uses these isotopes is known as nuclear medicine.

Safe energy, abundant supply of Thorium, clean drinking water that provides medical isotopes all at the same time, can it get any better than this?

This technology was developed in 1965 as stated above.  Why has it been sitting on a U. S. Government shelf somewhere deep within the bowels of our government?  One explanation is that the Cold War with the Soviet Union was front and center in the mid 1960s and the building of Nuclear Weapons was paramount to the thinking of the government.  Nuclear Weapons could NOT be built using Thorium therefore Uranium Nuclear Reactors and Energy was the energy of choice and the Thorium Reactor was shelved and forgotten.  But was it really forgotten or was it shelved in favor of existing energy sources so entrenched in our commercial world?  The introduction of a Thorium Reactor would significantly upset that balance by putting a lot of people out of work. 

That is my opinion, not the opinion of anyone else that I am aware of but it certainly makes sense at least to me.  Want an example?  We know that cigarette smoking causes all types of cancers and serious if not terminal medical issues. Still, no government that I am aware of will ever ban the use of cigarettes; just look at America.  Yes people have been gradually weaned from tobacco products but they have not been banned EVEN when everyone knows how dangerous and deadly they are.  Instead there is now a movement to ban plastic straws.  More people die from tobacco related products than from murders cause by weapons (or plastic straws) yet millions of people will march in support of more gun controls; why not the elimination of tobacco products?  The answer is JOBS!

The reason for this Nugget is simple.  The more people that become aware of the possibility of Thorium Reactors and how safe they are, how abundant Thorium is and the related by-products, the less likely it will be that our government will continue to bury this technology.  Here are several links.  Watch them, read them, and/or listen to them.  Then you decide if the technology would be worth further development and world changing. Think about third-world countries (hate that term) where they rely upon cow dung to heat their homes and cook their food.  If you agree, write to your members of Congress.  They may or may not even be aware of this technology.  My guess is that most if not all are unaware except for my members of Congress who I have written to about the subject.  So far no response other than a canned thank you letter.

• http://energyfromthorium.com
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDqCpfVwdP4
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDqCpfVwdP4  (maybe the best of the links)
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayIyiVua8cY
• http://fortune.com/2015/02/02/doe-china-molten-salt-nuclear-reactor/ (Thorium, helping China to build one) 
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK367T7h6ZY (A five minute explanation)
• https://www.thegreenage.co.uk/tech/thorium-nuclear-energy/

If you want to read a fascinating book about Thorium Reactors and a Lunar Space Station (that we all know will eventually happen), read Dennis Lusk’s book, A New Paradigm for Humanity.  You can learn more about the book by clicking on the title of the book in blue. 

DISCLAIMER:  I am not a scientist and a lot of what I read is completely over my head.  But I understand the basic principle of the Thorium Reactor; just don’t ask me any really technical questions.  

Ship Of Fools

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, July 18, 2018

NOTE:  Anything in BLUE and underlined is a searchable link

 "When the day comes for technology to take over the world, we will have bread a generation of fools"

Albert Einstein

Can you find Australia on a map?

What about the Germany, it’s been in the news of late?

Do you know where Panama is located?

Can you name the Super Volcano site that poses the greatest threat to North America?

It is my guess that if you were born BEFORE 1962, you would have no difficulty locating countries, oceans, cities, large bays on a map of the world.  If you were born AFTER 1962 there are no guarantees you could.  What is so special about 1962?  Something significant DID occure in 1962 that is addressed further in this Nugget.  Otherwise, nothing is signification about the date. I just selected that date as an arbitrary date when our schools seems to have shifted in what subjects are being taught to our children and how they are being taught.  If you were born in 1962, that would make you about 5 years old in 1967 when most children born in 1967 would begin their formal education; some in private schools, some in public schools.

If you take just a couple of minutes to watch the video contained on the link below, you may or may not be surprised as the answers students, some in college, gave when asked to identify locations on a world map.  If you don’t watch the video, this Nugget will have far less meaning:

https://twitter.com/i/status/1018292243617239046

Personal Computers:  This is what an Internet search indicated in regard to the advent of personal computers:

Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user.

Smart Phones:  An Internet search indicated the following in regard to the advent of the smartphone:

It was the world's most widely used Smartphone operating system until Q4 2010, though the platform never gained popularity in the U.S., as it did in Europe and Asia. The first Symbian phone, the touch screen Ericsson R380 Smartphone, was released in 2000, and was the first device marketed as a "Smartphone".

Consider this from Brad D. Smith who is an American businessman and the president, chief executive officer and chairman of Intuit, Inc.

“Millennials, and the generations that follow, are shaping technology.

This generation has grown up with computing in the palm of their hands.

They are more socially and globally connected through mobile Internet devices

than any prior generation.

And they don't question; they just learn.”

But do “they just learn?”  I question that part of Mr. Smith’s statement above.  If you can just press a couple of buttons on a computer keyboard or on a Smartphone and get an answer to your question in a fraction of a second, are you actually learning anything?  It has been my experience that when something comes so rapidly I question how long the conscious brain retains the information sought.  You be the judge.  If you hear that the war in Syria has escalated, do you know where Syria is located and why anyone should be concerned about a war so far away?  If you don’t know where Syria is how do you know it is so far away?  You ask Google or Siri and get an immediate answer, then what?  Do you remember the answer or do you think, I can always ask again if I need to know?

Why should anyone learn where continents and countries are located on the planet?  Why should anyone learn where some of the larger world cities are located?  The world is concerned about nuclear weapons in North Korea.  Can you locate North Korea on a map?  A lot of folks will consider such a question as being ridiculous.  Really?  Watch the video link above and then think again whether this is a ridiculous question.  If today’s Millennials don’t know where North Korea is located, how can they appreciate the threat that may or may not exist should North Korea continue to develop nuclear weapons that could reach America?

“Man on the street” interviews are frightening.  The stupidity that is on display is beyond description or understanding.  College students have demonstrated they do not know the significance of July 4^th.  They cannot identify the countries that fought in World War II.  They do not know from which country America gained its independence.  It is sad, truly sad.

Some have referred to is as the dummying down of America.  What caused this to occur?  Is it the curriculum of our schools?  Is it that most students totally rely upon their computers and smart phones to find immediate answers?  Or is it a combination of both?

I don’t know what our schools are teaching students in 2018.  I do know what I see and I don’t like it.  I do know that people of all ages have become addicted to their computers and smart phones.  Someone once said to me, look at the time you (me) spend on your computer; that is true.  But I use my computer to write, like this Nugget.  How many people today write about anything? I also use it to read books on Kindle, Goodreads, Nook, etc.  Yes, I check emails on my compuer and spend short periods of time on Twitter and Linkedin but as I realized how much of my time those sites have taken up, I have spent less and less time on them. 

From personal experience I know with certainty that because of my computer and spell check I am no longer the speller of words that I once was.  I have come to rely on spell check and that alone has taken its toll on my ability to correctly spell words.  Look around you.  I seriously doubt that people sitting in a restaurant looking at their Smartphone are reading a book on their phone.  No, they are more than likely checking emails, tweeting, texting or playing games.  You know I am right.  I recently saw a family of five at a restaurant and all five members had their heads buried in their phones.  Have you noticed that when people talk on those devices, they talk louder as if the other person cannot hear them?  I certainly can hear them, how about you? 

Manners/Civility:  People need to take a step back and think about what has transpired in society over the past 10 to 20 years.  If they do, they will discover that progress is not always progress unless of course you like stupid children and an overall impolite society.  Want to know what a famous American thought about civility, read President George Washington’s Rules of Civility:

http://www.foundationsmag.com/civility.html

I am positive that Washington would amend those rules by adding an entire section on the use of electronic devices in public but especially when in the company of friends and family.

Where exactly do YOU draw the line?  Is it the same line your parents would have drawn when you where a child?  I seriously doubt it.  You can’t help but see incivility everywhere.  For example, consider the last time you went to a nice restaurant.  Where any patrons on their devices?  How many were wearing flip-flops, cut off jeans, tank tops, t-shirts or worse, t-shirts or tank tops with vulgar sayings/photos on them?  How many wore baseball caps and never took them off? During prom season we went out to eat and saw a parade of teenagers come through the restaurant. With very few exceptions with every couple the young lady was dressed up as if it WERE Prom Night and the young man dressed as if it were an afterthought.  Been to a wedding lately?  How many men have showed up wearing a short sleeve sport shirt as if they were going fishing?  Civility died somewhere over time; just hasn’t been buried as yet.

I cannot speak for the rest of the world and maybe not even for locations other than my immediate area.  Still I feel safe in generalizing when I say the Ship of Fools has sailed to ports unknown and like a ship without a rudder it will end up in a lot of places it may not want to go.  With that in mind, here is my favorite poem written by the very famous writer “Unknown:”

WHERE ARE YOU GOING?

High in the Sierra Mountains lives an old man

Who from his hermitage looks down in pity

Upon other men of higher mental aspiration.

One day he rescued a little group of Swiss mountaineers

Lost in the mountains’ fastenesses

When told were they were they exclaimed in disbelief,

“But how did we get here?”

To which the old hermit replied,

“If that question ain’t got no answer attached to it,

I ain’t got none that fits.

If you is goin’ anywhere in particular

Up here, yu’d better figger fust how to get thar.

Cuz by jest goin’ afore ya know where yere agoin’

Ya can get to a powerful lotta places ya might not wanta be.”

Author Unknown, pity

Do you know what happened in 1962?  From the Internet: 

On June 25, 1962, the United States Supreme Court decided in Engel v. Vitale that a prayer approved by the New York Board of Regents for use in schools violated the First Amendment because it represented establishment of religion.

Prayer in schools was banned as a result of this decision by our government.  Every decision has consequences, some good, some bad.  In this regard I would strongly encourage you to read Michael Dunn’s book, What’sThe BIG Secret?  You can obtain a free copy on his web site at:  http://www.mikedunn.info/free.html  It is an excellent book but more importantly is what Dun writes about in regards to the consequences of removing prayer from our schools in Chapter 20.

Chaper 20: What Happens When We Ignore The Conscious?  Conscious in this regard is the voice people hear that informs them that what they are about to say or do is considered right or wrong.  Without a conscious, being right or wrong occurs more by accident than by design.  If a child is NOT learning right from wrong in the home, or, if they do not learn it by attending Church, exactly where do they learn it and from whom is it being taught.  Using the smartphone as an example.  Who said it was permissible to use your smartphone in a crowded restaurant disturbing the environment for everyone?  Who said it was permissible to rob a convenience store?  Who said it was permissible for protests to turn into riotous mobs ransacking businesses as if the business owners could afford it?  Who said it was permissible to attack innocent people on a city street?  The list is endless and you can add whatever upsets you.  In 2018 people no longer seem concerned about the happiness and wellbeing of others in society.  At the risk of upsetting people who read this, consider the Black Lives Matter Movement.  Who said that ONLY Black Lives Matter?  I was taught that ALL LIVES MATTER.  But if you want proof, just look at the number of murders/shootings in Chicago.  Why does that happen?  It is very simple, no one’s life matters to the person pulling the trigger.  Where did the shooter learn that?  Shootings in America have become so commonplace that if you watch just the local news you would be totally unaware of the number of murders in Chicago.  For the record, in 2017, Chicago accounted for 22% of a nationwide increase in murders last year (2017).  https://www.economist.com/democracy-in-america/2017/09/26/chicago-accounted-for-22-of-a-nationwide-increase-in-murders-last-year   From What’s The BIG Secret?  It may be too small to properly see but you can see it in the free book on the above site.  Just look at the increase in the bars from the point at which prayer was removed from our schools and you be the judge.  Actions have consequences!

I am well aware that this Nugget is a “dark outlook” on America but someone has to say it.  How do you reverse course?  One person at a time and it begins with parents actually parenting.

UPDATE:  In view of several criticisms of this Nugget in regards to an presumed assumption on my part that our education system is failing its students, I have compiled several reports, not my opinions, that support the fact that college graduates are not prepared for the workplace.  That is a failure in our education system, no my opinion.  These links represent only a fraction of the reports listed on a Google search.  Check for yourself, then you decide.

REPORT ON STUDENTS’ PREPARATION FOR EMPLOYMENT

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2018/02/23/study-students-believe-they-are-prepared-workplace-employers-disagree

EMPLOYERS:  COLLEGE GRADUATES NOT READY FOR WORKPLACE

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/employers-new-college-grads-arent-ready-for-workplace/

DOES COLLEGE PREPARE STUDENTS FOR THE REAL WORLD

https://www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2017/09/09/does-college-prepare-students-for-the-real-world/#75d048942df7

STUDENTS ARE BEING PREPARED FOR JOBS THAT NO LONGER EXIST

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/students-are-being-prepared-jobs-no-longer-exist-here-s-n865096

STUDY:  COLLEGE GRADS UNPREPARED FOR WORKPLACE

https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=127230009

TOP FIVE SKILLS EMPLOYERS SAY RECENT GRAD LACK AND HOW TO LEARN THEM

https://studybreaks.com/college/employable-skills/

WHY ARE SO MANY COLLEGE STUDENTS FAILING TO GAIN JOB SKILLS BEFORE GRADUATION?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/01/26/why-are-so-many-college-students-failing-to-gain-job-skills-before-graduation/?utm_term=.8626692455e3

CONFRONTING THE SKILLS GAP – ARE HIGH EDUCATION GRADUATES CAREER READY?

http://www.chalkandwire.com/confronting-the-skills-gap-are-higher-education-graduates-career-ready/

COLLEGE GRADS AREN’T FITTING INTO THE JOB MARKET, AND HERE’S WHY

https://www.iselectfund.com/college-grads-job-market-hiring/

WHERE COLLEGE SENIORS ARE FALLING SHORT

https://www.wsj.com/articles/where-college-seniors-are-falling-short-1493118000

TOP FACTORS IN GETTING

TOP DOLLOR FOR YOUR HOME

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, July 14, 2018

If there is one thing I have learned that is far more valuable than anything else learned in over 33 years in the real estate business it is that honesty is truly the best policy whether you are the buyer, the seller, or a real estate agent. PERIOD!

“Mr. & Mrs. Seller (or Buyer), I need to know. 

Do you want me to tell you what you WANT to hear,

or do you want me to tell you the TRUTH?”

That was the question I would ask any seller or buyer I worked with.  The answer given was always the truth but in my heart I knew some of them preferred to hear what they wanted to hear.  This Nugget is what I truly believe to be the truth of pricing your home to sell.

The second best thing I learned during all those years is that Homeowners truly believe their homes were worth more than they were worth and that sellers believed homes were worth far less than what the sellers believed. 

I recently saw this question posted in the local newspaper.  How do you get top dollar for your home?

That is at the very heart of the dilemma is it not?  How DO you get TOP DOLLAR when you sell your home?

The answer is so simple to understand yet so misunderstood by most if not all homeowners.  Let me draw you a mental picture.

Your home has so many square feet of living area.  It has so many bedrooms.  It either has a formal living room AND a formal dining room or it doesn’t.  It has a den or it doesn’t.  It has fireplace, a pool, a fenced back yard, a double car garage or it doesn’t.  It is relatively new, old, or somewhere in between in age.  The list of amenities and features in your home is virtually endless.

But your home is most likely similar to homes in your area that have ALREADY been sold AND more importantly the sale CLOSED and is now a matter of record.  The question for sellers is this.  Would you pay MORE for any item of interest than it has been proven by the MARKET to be worth?  For example, if you want to buy a diamond, diamonds can be very similar but no two diamonds are alike.  If the diamond you like sold for $5000, would you be willing to pay $6000 for it?  I would imagine you would jump at the opportunity to pay just $4,000.  This is where TIME and ABUNDANCE enters the picture.  If TIME is important to you, the answer may be yes if it would take you more time than you had available to find another diamond being sold for $5,000. That is the importance of immediate availability.  If there were diamonds all over the market area for $5,000, why would you pay $6,000 ONLY because it was right there in front of you?  You wouldn’t pay $6,000 and you and I know it.

Homes are no different.  No two homes are identical even those built in a subdivision where the builder may have had only 5 floor plans to select from when they were first built.  Owners then do a lot of modifications to those homes to make them like THEY like them.  They may have upgraded the carpet or added hardwood floors or ceramic tile.  They may have added an in ground swimming pool.  Even from the very construction no two homes in the neighborhood were identical.  Something in each one said “I’m different; buy me!”  That is one way to get Top Dollar for your home.  Be different in a good way.

So, to answer the question, how does a seller get top dollar for their home?  The Sellers MUST, I repeat, MUST understand that the seller does not set the sales price for their home – THE LOCAL REAL ESTATE MARKET DOES!  It is really that simple.  But the key phrase “Market Does” there is that one word LOCAL.  Local in this case may mean your very specific subdivision.  Not the one across town or even a half mile away –  it’s within YOUR SUBDIVISION (if you live in a subdivision).  Of course there are exceptions such as the fact that your home may not have been built to the same standards, let us say 2000 to 2500 square feet of living space.  Your home may of have had an addition or it may have been built by a different contractor and now contains 3500 square feet of living area.  In other words, your home no longer can be compared to other homes in your immediate subdivision.  Still, the sale of those homes in your immediate subdivision has a tremendous influence on the price your home will eventually sell for.  There must be something in your home that would drive a buyer to be willing to buy a home that is somewhat less in value because it is not amongst homes that ARE DIS-SIMILAR to your home.  Disclaimer, my home is such a home.  It has 1000 square feet of living area MORE than any other home in my subdivision.  That is not good for me.  But I like my home and I understand how it is valued and bought it anyway because everything else about the home just fit me and my family at the time.  Any other buyer, probably not so much.

In order to get TOP DOLLAR for YOUR home it MUST first be in tip top condition.  No one wants to pay top dollar for a home that requires attention or modifications.  How do you get a home in tip top condition?  You the owner must first stand out on the street and observe your home as a seller would for the very first time.  What do you see?  You must look at it with eyes that are seeing it for the very first time not as you know it to be.  Does it have a great curb appeal?  Are there any obvious repairs needed like painting, new shutters, landscaping, etc.?  What does the rest of the immediate neighborhood look like?

Your next step is to go through each room in your home and do the exact same thing.  Look at each room as a potential buyer with the buyer’s eyes.  This is the first time you are seeing each room as a buyer would.  Then the garage if you have one.  Then the back yard if you have one.  Never overlook the neighbors’ homes if you have them.  What do the neighbors homes look like?  Example, would you be willing to buy YOUR home if your NEIGHBORS have cars up on blocks in their driveway? My guess is probably not.

The above procedure is NOT an option, it is a mandated necessity. Go through the procedure with a note pad and write down everything you see that a buyer might object to and then identify those areas that can be fixed to put it in tip top condition.  For things that either cannot be fixed or you do not desire to spend the money to fix them, you must adjust your mental value of your home downward. 

Think of it this way.  Is your home at the very top end of the price value of similar homes in your area?  Is it at the bottom price value?  Or is it somewhere in between.  Not many homes that go up for sale are ever ABOVE what the highest most recent sale was just as not many are below the lowest price a home sold at.  Most homes are somewhere in between the highest and lowest.  Given the condition of your home, make a judgment as to where on that sale line does your home fall as it is now not as it could be with some improvements – more towards the top if not at the top or more towards the bottom if not at the bottom?

HIGHEST PRICE ____________________________________ LOWEST PRICE

Then YOU have to ask yourself, what can I reasonably do to move my home along that price line to make it more attractive to a buyer thus a higher market value than as it currently sits on that line?  The following are some tips; some of them cost money, some cost elbow grease, all require action:

• Cleanliness – thoroughly clean your house
• Cleanliness – consider hiring a professional house cleaner
• Stage Your House – you probably have been to “model homes”, you have seen how they appear.  They have been staged to make them look their best in a potential buyer’s eyes.  It is not difficult but it is not obvious and your tastes may not be what are currently selling.  Consider hiring a professional Home Staging Expert, they are not that expensive.  Or ask your REALTOR®.  You do have a REALTOR® I hope.  If they are proficient in Home Staging and take his or her advice.
• Paint – fresh paint is oftentimes the only thing that needs to be done.
• Woodwork – dusted and repaired as may be indicated.
• Kitchens & Bathrooms – they oftentimes are the selling points of a house.  Make sure they are spotless and bright. 
• Hardware – don’t laugh at this but one of the first things a buyer sees when coming to view your house is your front door and the front door handle.  Does it look new and shiny or old and worn?  As the buyer goes through your house, they cannot help but see the door knobs and hinges on the doors.  Old rusty hinges and door knobs show an inclination of “needed maintenance” and a buyer mentally asks, what else needs to be fixed in this house?

You may not have picked up on a very slight difference in language above.  Do the words House and Home mean the same thing?  In one sense yes.  But in a more important sense no.  To most people the word HOME means something warm and fuzzy whereas HOUSE does not.  You live in a HOME but you sell a HOUSE.  You, the homeowner, need to stop thinking of all the “warm and fuzzies” you created while living in your Home.  You now need to think more like you are just selling an object, a HOUSE.  If you continue to think of your HOUSE as a HOME your mind may consider the comments of a buyer to be offensive and actually lose a sale.

For Sale By Owner vs. REALTOR®.  Yes people have sold their home without the services of a REALTOR®.  Given the propensity of people today to take legal action against anyone and everyone, if you attempt to sell your home without the services of a real estate agent, I am suggesting you are walking a tightrope without a net.  Real Estate Agents are fully aware of the legal pitfalls of selling what most people consider their single greatest asset.  People are buying their single greatest asset.  Neither one take kindly to the misrepresentation of the other in the sale of real estate.  It is your decision so decide wisely AND based on CURRENT real estate market conditions.  Having been in real estate I would not attempt to sell my home myself.  Besides, homes sold through real estate agents tend to attract qualified buyers and have routinely sold at higher prices than prices received by owners who sell their homes without a real estate agent.  Besides, more than 70% of all real estate sales involve a real estate agent(s).  Don’t take my word for it, check out the sales yourself.

It all comes down to this.

• Your home is only worth what someone else is willing to pay for it
• Your home is only worth what a mortgage company is willing to lend to a buyer to enable the buyer to buy it
• Your home is ONLY worth what a qualified real estate appraiser indicates the market value to be, and the mortgage company accepts
• Your home is worth whatever a buyer is willing to pay with CASH (without a home loan/mortgage) regardless of its market value UNLESS the buyer obtains an appraisal from a qualified real estate appraiser.  Then it is doubtful the buyer would pay more cash than the appraiser indicates its value to be
• Your home is probably NOT worth what you may THINK it is worth because homeowners typically think their home is the best on the market and therefore worth more than the market would indicate.
• Your home is probably, actually most likely, not worth what your neighbor SAID their home sold for or what it is worth because they either don’t really know or they don’t want you to know the truth.  They don’t know the real estate market and that’s a fact
• Your home is definitely not worth what some distant relative thinks it’s worth even if that relative is a real estate agent but lives a great distance away.  They don’t know the LOCAL real estate market
• PERIOD!

Getting top dollar for your home means pricing your home properly and within what the LOCAL real estate market would indicate and justify.  There are always exceptions to the rules and this advice is no exception.  Of course I could be wrong but I’m not.  Over 33 years of real estate experience tells me I am not wrong on this advice.

If you want a booklet on Staging Your Home For Success, email me at JimBrown@gymbeaux.com and all you need to do is put STAGING in the subject line and the booklet is yours.  You must have Microsoft Word and software that can read/open a Word produced document.

Advertising – Marketing – Coffee Cups

By Jim “Gymbeaux” Brown, July 9, 2018

If you were to receive a Christmas card with this photo on the front, what would first attract your attention and what would you think of next?  Therein lies the purpose of this latest Nugget for the Noggin – differentiate the difference between Advertising and Marketing and then the importance of using tools to create a memory that hopefully draws people to your business.

THE CARD:  If I were to receive this card in the mail, I would immediately think of Sandra Nickel in Montgomery, Alabama.  Why Sandra?  She is well known in the real estate industry as “The Hat Lady.”  Why is that important to know?  I first met Sandra well over 25 years ago and in 2018; I remember Sandra, what business she is in and her famous trademark “hat” on everything she ever put forth to the public.  She did not send me this photo; I have misplaced the card she originally sent me at Christmas so many years ago.  The photo was of a lone pine tree standing out in a barren field with just one hat hanging on its branches.  No words were on the face of the card like Merry Christmas, just the photo.  No words were necessary to know from whom it came.  In fact if my memory serves me, I believe it was a post card and not a fold over card so just the post card arrived in the mail.  The moment I saw the photo I knew who it was from without even turning the card over.  Her MARKETING SKILLS are second to none!  THEY WORK!  As an aside, she not only was marketing to me, she was also advertising at the same time to anyone and everyone that handled that card in the post office system.  Think about that when you consider how many post cards Sandra mails out each year.

Do you know what the difference is between Advertising and Marketing?  I had to learn the hard way.  Believe it or not, I majored in Advertising and Marketing at Bowling Green State University.  In the two years I attended, I took NO classes relating to business, advertising or marketing and totally lost interest in college; it was one of the several reasons I joined the Coast Guard aside from giving me purpose in life. 

I learned the difference between Advertising and Marketing from a fellow real estate agent, broker, trainer, owner and operator of a real estate school and expert “marketer” himself – Rick Barnes from Texas.  It was one of those lessons you occasionally experience that just sticks with you.  Here is what Rick said:

YOU ADVERTISE TO PEOPLE YOU DON’T KNOW (THE MASSES);

YOU MARKET TO THOSE PEOPLE YOU DO KNOW (THE FEW)!

Think about that for just a second and you realize how true that statement is.  When you place an advertisement in a newspaper or an advertising book, you are advertising to the general public not to the people you know.  Yes, some of the people you know may see your advertisement but that is more by accident than by design.  You are using a shotgun approach to attracting business to your business.  A shotgun has a scatter pattern where you are hoping that one of the projectiles hits a hopeful target.  Hope is not a good strategy!  Dr. John Maxwell  Isn’t that what you do when you place a For Sale ad in the newspaper, run a “hire me” video on TV or any number of different advertising outlets like Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, etc. etc.   You are NOT aiming at someone who will eventually buy from you; they are lost in the gigantic circle you are aiming at.  You may or may not hit them.

Marketing on the other hand targets the people who already KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST you (Bob Burg made that famous) and who will BUY from you (a slight modification by Jeffrey Gitomer).  Sadly most people I know ADVERTISE instead of MARKET.  Does it not make sense to continue to contact the people you know to constantly remind them in a nice way that you are still in business and there is no way on this Earth that you can make a success and grow your business without their help?  Example:  I retired from real estate after 33 years December 2012.  Six years later I can count the number of Advertising pieces I have received in the mail on 10 fingers/thumbs.  They have been few and far between.  I can count the number of MARKETING pieces on about 2 fingers in those 6 years and that is sad, truly sad.  Out of sight, out of mind!  It IS that simple.  Of the Advertising pieces I received, they were truly hit or miss because I have never received another real estate advertising piece from the same agent twice.  Over my 33 years in the business I have known thousands of real estate agents and have personally trained hundreds.  You would think I would receive more MARKETING pieces from the ones I know but I do not.  So maybe my training was not all that well received but I stand by it and what I am writing here.  You can bring a horse to water but you can’t make them drink.

RICK BARNES:  His MARKETING system was so simple and extremely inexpensive.  He created the slogan, THINK REAL ESTATE; THINK RICK!  He would then use his own computer and printer and a good supply of card stock paper to create post cards both large, 2 to a page, or smaller, 4 to a page.  One side of the post card would read:

THINK REAL ESTATE

THINK RICK

The other side of the post card would in as few words as necessary to get the message across, identify him and how to contact him.  BRILLIANT!  He would use different color paper to match the season, like red and/or green for Christmas, purple for Easter, Orange for Thanksgiving, etc.  But the cards were always the same and that is the beauty of his system.  REPITITION!  It takes REPITITION for people to remember you. Even those who know you oftentimes forget that you are in a business they could use.  Personal example.  As the broker of a real estate office, I did not want my agents to think I was in competition with them for sales so I did not advertise nor market myself to anyone.  As a result, I have relatives who have purchased homes and who have sold homes using real estate agents from another company because they either “forgot” or maybe they just didn’t want to use me or my agents and that is okay.  Still the question always lingers, would they have at least given my company a chance to represent them if I had marketed the services of my company to them?  No one will ever really know will they?  My bad!

Another one of those simple messages I heard that is impossible to forget, “you want people to remember you, FROM THE MAILBOX TO THE TRASH CAN, because that is where most if not all of your advertising and/or marketing pieces are going.”  Therefore, make it sweet and simple but make it repetitive or almost always the same!

Coffee Cups:  I have known quite a few real estate agents who have purchased personalized coffee cups and gave them out more in the form of shotgun advertising than the more specific marketing approach.  I have tried this experiment on more agents than I can count.  I would see an agent drinking from a coffee cup with an advertisement on it.  For this purpose let us say it was advertising a mortgage company.  Very casually I would ask them for the name of a mortgage company they would recommend.  I do not recall EVER getting an answer that matched the name on their coffee cup they were using – EVER!  I have done this with cups advertising attorneys, home inspectors, banks, you name it.  Before I said another word, I would ask them to name the name on the cup without looking at it; most of the time they could not.  But here is a really great question that only you the reader can answer.  Have you ever received a coffee cup with an advertisement on it?  If so, do you still have it?  If not, why not?

The answer is very simple.  You already have coffee cups.  Okay, may you keep one or the most recent cup on your desk in your office but that is just one of the many cups you may have received.  What do you do with the others?  I know what I have done; they ended up in the trash or being given away to Goodwill.  Look in your kitchen cabinets, how many coffee cups do you have stored there with the name of a real estate agent or some commercial concern on them?  Probably none!  Point made!

COFFEE CUPS THAT MADE A DIFFERENCE TO ME:  I received the first one from an agent on the Mississippi Gulf Coast Jerry Olson.  He and his family went to Disneyland.  Upon his return he gave me a Winnie-the-Poo coffee cup.  That was in the late 1990s.  I still have it and I still remember who gave it to me and it does NOT have his name or company name on it.  Second example, Christine Mottinger and her husband Don went on a trip to Alaska.  When she returned she gave me a coffee cup with beautiful images of Alaska on it.  That was about 20 years ago, I still have the cup and I remember who gave it to me.  There was no name or company name on the cup.

The point of this is more of a question.  Do you want to be famous?  If so, continue to ADVERTISE to the people you don’t know.  Or, do you want to be successful?  If it is successful, learn to MARKET to the people you know.  When you do, you want whatever you give them to be outwardly positive and attractive but more importantly you want it to be memorable like the Winnie-the-Poo coffee mug has been to me. 

KITCHEN MAGNET: Another example is a kitchen refrigerator magnet that we have actually kept.  Believe it or not, (believe it) I have a magnet on my refrigerator from Ashley Logawick, a real estate agent in Blaine, MN where I have never been.  I don’t know how long the magnet has been on my fridge but I do know it is now on our second refrigerator.  What is so special about the magnet?  Not the agent, she’s a fictitious agent made up by the magnet company but rather the info on the magnet – KITCHEN CONVERSIONS and METRIC CONVERSIONS.  This is genius!  If I lived in Blaine MN, and if Ashley were real, I know who I would call if I had a real estate need.  Do you know how many tablespoons are in 1 cup?  Answer, 16.  How many ounces in 1 cup?  Answer: 8 ounces. How about how many meters in a foot if you ever need to know that?  Answer: .9144.  All this info right on my fridge!  I don’t remember such things but when I need them I don’t have to look them up, they are right there on my refrigerator.  That is effective marketing for sure. I believe I picked up the magnet at one of the national real estate conventions at The Magnet Street booth and it was a sample.

Hopefully you take this information and run with it to grow your business.  If you really want to know more about what it takes to grow your business, I HIGHLY recommend reading Gary Keller’s book, The Millionaire Real Estate Agent commonly referred to as The Red Book.  FORGET that it says REAL ESTATE.  It is NOT about REAL ESTATE it IS about building a successful business and what you MUST do to lay the groundwork for that to happen.  I know of several businesses outside of the real estate industry that have heaped high praises on the book.  It is about the importance of knowing your numbers, knowing your customers, knowing how many customers it takes just to break even and then knowing what you MUST do to increase your customer base and when and how to feed that base to keep your customers as your customers.  BINGO!  A book that will actually help anyone in almost any business; you can’t get any better than that!