Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Time for some news

OK, so the last couple or three weeks have been filled with a pile of start-up activities
  • my website is live www.millardhomes.ca
  • my e.mail address is live colinmillard.homes@gmail.com
  • my office line is live at 250-721-9299
  • I have completed my one week of practical training with the Victoria Real Estate Board at the Residential Training Services Applied Practice Course
  • my cards are now in for printing - a two sider with strong emphasis on the excellent Brokerage I have joined, Pemberton Holmes
Then Victoria has had some winter!!  Yes below freezing temperatures, icy winds from the east, snow, and then back to gales and rain. I have to say having a smaller sized SUV that has All Wheel and Full 4-Wheel drive capability means you can carry on and hardly skip a beat.

Then our world of musical activities has been high on the to-do list.  The Victoria Philharmonic Choir was in full voice on November 20th www.vpc.ca.  Any singers out there?  Lots of fun and really good musical training under the direction of Peter Butterfield.  For a review of our concert please take a moment to look at Deryk Barker's site http://islandnet.com/miv/index.shtml

Also the Victoria Chamber Orchestra for which I am Treasurer, and more importantly for which my wife plays violin has had two concerts this last weekend www.victoriachamberorchestra.org. 

So a fairly full time, but being YOUR consultant in Real Estate is my priority so as we head into December I will be starting more active participation in this world, where I can bring all the talents from my work life to date to assist you with your real estate questions.  More on that shortly.

Have a good day!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

About to start another week

Well in Real Estate we should know that the weekends, when our clients old and new are most active, is the time for us to also be at our most active.  OK, yes I spent Saturday afternoon at the Pemberton Holmes office - two calls from people needing directions, and then I was 'on call' until midnight Saturday.  Well it was my wife's birthday and we went to the Keg - cell phone on and new laptop at the ready!!

And the rest of this weekend I can feel pleased that I almost have a fully functioning website - I'll post the url here as soon as I am sure some typos and bits have been sorted out.  I am also setting up a new e.mail address just for real estate.  This will be separate from our personal e.mail addresses, and I will access it at any time just on the laptop and my IPhone (that is coming as a birthday present for me in a few days - SURPRISE!!). 

I am working on my Facebook account to set up a link for people to access my website that way, and will also update my Linkedin profile and fire up a Twitter account.  Those are all targeted for completion this week.

In the mean time I am open for business so don't forget, and send me a note so I can drop by to tell you more of what is totally unique about my way of bringing a smile to your faces and your bank manager's!

Questions?  Just send me a comment - looking forward to hearing from you.

Friday, November 5, 2010

YOUR consultant in Real Estate

So my tag line was born.

Personal - yes that is for you as my client, i.e. YOUR

Real Estate - well that is now my area of activity - I'll tell you about my past if you ask!

AND 'Consultant' - for sure that is what I am for you.  I have been a consultant for many people and on many projects in my 40 years of construction, project management and business, so a 'Consultant' I will remain.

In any event that BEST describes what I can and will do for you: 
  • I will listen
  • I will make notes
  • I will verify you requirements
  • I will take your instructions
  • we will agree on terms for what you want - that is budget to most people
  • we will agree on the best and most economical way for your needs to be met
  • we will plan a strategy for the work, for communications and of course marketing
  • I will agree with you how we will implement this plan
 And in all of this I will be YOUR Real Estate Consultant.

So let's get on with it!!

The Story So Far

Well it was late 2009 that someone - perhaps she who must be obeyed - and perhaps as she wanted me out from under her feet, suggested I look at Real Estate as 'something to do'.

So in January 2010 I met Jeanie Goode and Jerome Peacock, and then Roland Stillings to talk in generalities about getting into this.  After a few more glasses of red and some more investigation I signed up in March for the UBC studies.

Between UBC and the Real Estate Council of BC they discovered I had done and passed this course in 1985/86, and they said I could now 'just' challenge the Exam.  Well of course a little matter of 25 years from then until now, made this a challenge in many more ways than one!  We went to England in May/June and I had with me the first couple of chapters from the enormous manual, and read almost nothing while we were away.

I had decided to challenge the Exam on September 2nd, so by June I had to get serious, and July and August were very serious.  I read the whole book and did all the Assignments.  As a challenge student they had provided me with answers so I could check my work as I went on.  Also a book with 1,000 previous exam questions - did them all.  I found I was easily beating the 3hr exam time for 100 questions and getting about 75%.  Exam day I took my time and my result was a 80% - not bad for an old fart.

I knew in my head I had done better than pass so immediately booked the post licensing course for November and started talking to Brokerages to see who to tie my flag to.  Pemberton Holmes Ltd were the winners, so I joined up and got my application in for my License.