Paperless Office: I Can Find Anything Quick

Paperless Office: I Can Find Anything Quick
by: Dill Ward, Real Estate Investor / Agent

As a real estate professional I value organization. As a geek I appreciate the ease of doing so using technology. I shudder at the thought of standing in the driveway of my next deal without every document that's ever come across my desk at my fingertips. I love having the ability to quickly thumb through my thousands of contacts to find just the person I'm thinking of who can help me problem solve. In my business, buying distressed property means having to make decisions very quickly as competition for the best deals is fierce. I use my mountains of carefully sorted data to mine and my clients' benefit.

How do I do this?
First, every single paper object that becomes in my possession gets assessed to determine if it contains data to be captured. If it is approved it enters the system to an "inbox" where it waits for a scanning/paper reduction session. Every few days I sit down with the folder and work through piece by piece. I determine what information needs to be recorded and decide where to store it. I use my Fuji S300M portable document scanner exclusively to convert paper to pdfs. It's super fast, portable powered by my laptop and scans every size document.

Second, naming folders & files something detailed is the most important part of the process when archiving data. If you can't remember "how" to look for it, forget it. What I do is make separate folders named as detailed as possible, business cards, receipts, contracts, photos, research, bills, even concert tickets. Last say goodbye forever and send it through the shredder.


There is nothing I can't retrieve at a moments notice. Of course this takes constant discipline. Keep with the system. Just like working out, it's hard at first but soon it's easy breezy and you'll reap the rewards of your effort by being more organized, more efficient and most importantly reduce your stress.

FREE Credit Report - Thought About Yours Lately?

If you haven't looked at it in awhile, now's the time! For one there are so many errors out there, you don't want to suffer when you decide you need your credit just because you weren't paying attention to who and what has been reported.

Don't hide under a rock, know what's on there and work on it piece by piece. Look at your credit report like you would a maintenance checklist on your car. Don't get emotional or take it personal just deal with it. The first step is reading it and checking for errors. Then decide a plan of attack for derogatory line items. Decide which ones you can set short term and long term goals to address.

It's FREE once a year and should be a part of your yearly goal planning. Pay the few extra bucks to get your FICO score.

www.AnnualCreditReport.com

Dill

Fed Survey Shows U.S. Recession May Be Over

WASHINGTON (AP) – Sept. 10, 2009 – The recession is ending and the U.S. economy is finally growing again.

That’s the message implicit in the Federal Reserve’s latest survey of businesses around the country, which found economic activity stabilizing or improving in most regions.

Economists warn the expansion is fragile and will have staying power only if consumers start spending more money. Rising unemployment that keeps Americans cautious could make for a plodding recovery in the months ahead.

The Labor Department will report on Thursday the number of new jobless claims filed last week, which could indicate whether the incipient recovery is slowing the pace of layoffs.

Wall Street economists expect that first-time claims for unemployment insurance benefits fell to a seasonally adjusted 560,000 from 570,000 the previous week, according to a survey by Thomson Reuters.

Economists closely watch initial claims, which are considered a gauge of layoffs and an indication of companies’ willingness to hire new workers.

While the figures are volatile, first-time claims have trended downward in recent months. Initial claims topped 600,000 for most of this year, until falling below that level in early July.

The total number of people receiving benefits, meanwhile, is expected to drop by about 30,000 to 6.2 million. The figures on so-called continuing claims lag initial claims by a week.

All but one of the Fed’s 12 regions, meanwhile, indicated economic activity either was “stable,” showed “signs of stabilization” or had “firmed,” according to the Fed’s survey. The one exception was the St. Louis region, which reported the economic decline is “moderating.”

Businesses in most Fed regions said they were “cautiously positive” about the economic road ahead. The survey, known as the Beige Book, does not include precise figures.

Analysts predict the economy is growing in the current quarter, which ends Sept. 30, at an annual rate of 3 percent to 4 percent. That’s mostly because businesses, which had slashed investments during the recession, are spending more.

Auto sales have been lifted by the government’s recently ended Cash for Clunkers program. Manufacturing and the battered housing market, which led the country into recession when it collapsed, have also shown signs of improvement.

The problem for the economy is that the expected growth this quarter comes mainly from the auto companies and other manufacturers, which are refilling their depleted stockpiles.

Those inventories had dwindled as factories and retailers sought to bring what they had more in line with reduced sales. Any robust growth in the economy might be short-lived if shoppers don’t step up their spending.

In the Fed survey, most regions of the country reported that the clunkers program had boosted sales. Other merchants struggled. And consumer spending remained soft in most places.

Still, the assessments of businesses on the front lines of the economy were brighter than those they provided for the last edition of the Fed survey in late July.

At that time, most regions of the country reflected only that the recession was easing its grip. “That’s a pretty significant change in tone from the previous Fed report,” said Brian Bethune, economist at IHS Global Insight.

The survey’s findings will figure into discussions when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and his colleagues meet Sept. 22-23. The Fed is expected to keep interest rates at record lows, probably for some time, to help nurture the recovery.

“There are presently some signs that the economy is stabilizing and even reviving in certain areas, despite mixed signals,” Richard Fisher, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, said in a speech in Texas.

The market for homes is still weak — though it flashed some signs of improvement. In most places, buyer demand was stronger for cheaper homes, and in and around Philadelphia, sales were up for more expensive homes, too.

Fed regions credited a tax incentive for first-time homebuyers with increasing sales. Home prices kept falling in most parts of the country, though in the Dallas and New York regions, the survey found prices “firming.”

In a sign that lenders’ efforts to help troubled mortgage holders may be helping, the number of U.S. households threatened with losing their homes held steady last month, RealtyTrac Inc. reported Thursday.

The number of foreclosure-related filings — including default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions — remains 18 percent higher than a year ago.

There was plenty of bad news in the survey. In the commercial real estate market, demand stayed weak, and construction fell in all parts of the country. And the job market was still sickly all over the nation.

The nation’s unemployment rate, which stood at 9.7 percent in August, could top 10 percent this year. Fisher, of the Dallas Fed, called for “uncomfortably high unemployment” as businesses keep cutting costs.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press, Jeannine Aversa, AP economics writer. All rights reserved.

NY Times Reminds us People Vacation Where We Live & Invest

I love to once again see Sarasota specifically Siesta Key getting good press. It is a beautiful natural resource and it helps fuel our local economy. Kudos NYT!

Dill

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If They Gave Awards for Sand ... Well, They Do
By ELIZABETH MAKER

SUMMER may seem an odd time to flee to Florida, but thanks to a happy accident of geology, there’s one small island there that may be better to visit the more the mercury rises.

“Do you really have to put this in your paper?” asked a frequent visitor, Linda Guckenberger of Columbus, Ind. “Siesta Key is a hidden treasure, especially in the summer. The heat in Indiana is oppressive in August, so when we tell people we’re going to Florida, they think we’re nuts. They say, ‘Why aren’t you going north?’ ”

Siesta Key, an eight-mile-long, crescent-shaped barrier island on the Gulf Coast south of Sarasota, is becoming more popular in hotter months as tourists discover its powdered-sugar white sand that seems always to stay cool, no matter how high the heat outside. Other enticements include cool gulf breezes; clear, temperate, turquoise water; and huge discounts on accommodations from July through September at luxury high-rises, cozy cottages and funky beachfront bungalows.

Summer seems to lure mainly Midwesterners and Europeans to Siesta Key, said Dale Nelson, a volunteer with the Siesta Key Chamber of Commerce, while winter is the province of Northeastern and Canadian snowbirds.

Ms. Guckenberger and 15 family members have been renting the same neighboring condos at Siesta Sands Beach Resort for two weeks every summer for the last eight years. “It really is ‘The World’s Finest, Whitest Sand,’ ” she said, mentioning the title the beach won in 1987 in the Great International White Sand Challenge, adjudicated by Florida International University.

This year Stephen Leatherman, known as Dr. Beach and director of the university’s Laboratory for Coastal Research, named Siesta Key’s beach as the second-best in the nation. (Hanalei Bay on Kauai, Hawaii, was first.)

“I use 50 criteria to rate every beach, and in terms of sand alone Siesta Key is definitely the best in the world,” Dr. Leatherman said. Science backs up the hyperbole: Siesta Key’s beach is 99 percent limestone quartz, which stays consistently cool and silky.

Why the other archipelagic islands nearby didn’t get the same sacred sand is harder to explain. Hop over to Lido Key to the north, or Casey Key to the south, and you’ll find the more typical crushed-shell beaches that are beautiful but make barefooting a painful proposition when the sun is searing. “Why is it like this on Siesta Key and nowhere else?” asked Mark Smith, president of the Siesta Key Village Association. “Because God loves us? Who knows?”

Actually, Dr. Leatherman said, quartz grains deposited from the southern Appalachians over millennia settled in a protected pocket around Siesta Key. “Other beaches have a mix of all kinds of minerals that make the texture coarser and the color darker, but Siesta Key is all refined quartz,” he said. “It’s cushy and squeaky and absolutely dazzling.”

Siesta Key was virtually uninhabited until the 1880’s (except by rattlesnakes, copperheads, wild boars and the like). First called Sarasota Key, it was connected to the mainland in 1917 when the first of two bridges was built and the island was discovered by an eclectic mix of artists, writers and business professionals. Residents changed the island’s name to Siesta Key in the 1920s.

The island has a population of 9,581, which almost doubles in winter, according to the 2000 census.

The village has just undergone a multimillion-dollar makeover. Utility wires have been buried; concrete sidewalks were replaced with wider brick walkways, 16 new brick crosswalks have been laid; elegant lamplights, benches and a gazebo have been installed; and flowering, fragrant landscaping and black olive shade trees were planted along its main street, Ocean Boulevard.

Graham and Beverley Easton of West Yorkshire, England, say summer on Siesta Key is more sublime than anywhere they’ve vacationed in Europe. “We’ve been to Spain, France, Portugal, but Siesta Key is our true paradise,” said Mr. Easton, whose family spent three weeks in August at the Sandbox on the Beach for the 10th consecutive year. “We’re taking two other families with us, and we can’t wait to see their reaction. You walk into the apartment and open the back door to the beach, and it’s the most amazing ‘Wow’ factor you’ve ever experienced. Everyone is completely blown away.”

The Eastons start their days at 5:30 a.m. with a cup of coffee and a long walk down the beach. Their two teenage daughters build elaborate sand sculptures, swim and watch dolphins play in the surf, almost close enough to touch.

“We walk into the village and shop at the great boutiques, grab a cold beer or a daiquiri, then go back and barbeque dinner out on the grill,” Mr. Easton said. “And everyone oohs and ahhs as the sun sets: a huge orange globe slipping into the water.”

There are several new luxury resorts, including the $100 million Hyatt Siesta Key Beach Residence Club, which opened in June, offering time-share units that cost from $140,000 to $695,000.

But there are also accommodations across the street from the beach that are available for a comparable song in summer. The Ringling Beach House, for example, a pink stucco building with Old Florida charm, has rooms starting at $120 a night, and all have fully-equipped kitchens, linens and towels, air conditioning, TV, and access to barbeque grills and three small pools.

Dining choices are varied, with an emphasis on flip-flop casual: there are tapas bars and tiki bars, raw bars and crab shacks. The Daiquiri Deck, which used to be a speakeasy, offers 18 daiquiri flavors. And though it’s far from New England, Captain Curt’s Crab & Oyster Bar won the annual Great Chowder Cook-Off in Newport, R.I., in 2007.

There is more sophisticated, waterfront dining at Ophelia’s on the Bay, a top pick in Zagat’s, with dishes like Norwegian salmon with mango-honey barbeque sauce and ginger-nectarine salsa, or yellowfin tuna with grilled watermelon and kimchee-spiced aoli.

The most hopping spot on the island is the public beach pavilion, famous for its Psychedelic Superman ice cream (vanilla with bright food-colored stripes). People of all ages walk around to reggae music, licking melting cones; some stop under the large straw-roofed pavilion to get temporary tattoos or their hair braided in Bo Derek cornrows.

“You get a lot more bang for your buck in the summer, and there are no crowds, no hustle bustle,” Ms. Guckenberger said from her home in Indiana. “We just got back, and we’re still laughing with all the memories of the little ones doing face plants in the sand, like they couldn’t get enough of it.”