I think Bill Gates said it best in a recent commencement address. He said that there is no fast way to achieve success. Often young people expect instant gratification and they may become frustrated with certain processes they have to go through on the road to success. My advice to students is that it’s important to develop social skills, to learn how to work with different kinds of people and different generations. As we continue to focus on technology as our primary means of communication, we are in danger of our interpersonal skills becoming more obsolete. I believe those traits will be sought after even more in the future because a lot of young people are uncomfortable in social situations. They’ve become so used to communicating via e-mail and text messaging. They are much more apt to send an e-mail than to pick up the phone and call someone. They also need to learn about what’s appropriate in various situations.

 I think the key to career satisfaction is self-evaluation, determining what you really like, what your interests are, and what’s of value to you. You need to identify your skills early, finding out which skills you like to use and which you don’t. Once you find that—and it could be through shadowing someone, having an internship, working a summer job, or even going to work with mom or dad—you can take that information and explore the kinds of jobs that you will enjoy. The job search is much easier once you know what you’re looking for.

We know that buying and selling real estate is not the same in today’s world as it was even five years ago. We asked our customers what they considered most important in selling their home. No surprise, they said, “Give my property the largest exposure available in today’s market.”  And that is exactly what we strive to do! We are excited to not only “keep up”, but  to lead in todays world of technological advances. We know that our web presence is critical. So—we’re doing what it takes to show your property in a myriad of real estate search sites. We want to give your property the best image, the best exposure, and the best price in order to complete your sale.

To this end, we are proud to have Marv Strong as part of our Gallery team. Marv, our newest sales professional, is also our internet marketing expert. He has the experience and expertise to manage our internet marketing growth.

Our Gallery real estate experts are all able to professionally counsel you. They are well educated. They are experienced. And they are knowledgeable in every facet of buying and selling in our lakes area.

So, whether people are looking for real estate by computer, stopping at our kiosk, or coming in to look at properties featured in our shadow boxes, they will see your property in its best light! We treat your property like a work of art. We are proud to personally “show off” your property. We even “bring you property” with us to a variety of sport shows and/or home shows such as: The Des Moines, IA Sport Show, The St. Cloud Sport Show, the Lake Home and Cabin Show in Minneapolis/St. Paul. And—because a picture is worth a thousand words, we take care that our photos accent your property no matter where it may be displayed.

We are members of “SASI” MLS system (MN State MLS System), so your property is exposed to MOST EVERY SALES PROFESSIONAL in Minnesota. And it is also exposed to any individual searching the computer on their own, anywhere in the world!

Even though it’s a “new world” of marketing, we haven’t forgotten the “old fashioned” importance of placing newspaper ads, putting up signs, and helping people find your property with the best directions, because…

We do homework best!

Buyer activity for the week ending December 25 was fairly even with last year – down only 3.3 percent to 379 purchase agreements signed. The lowest weekly sales volume on record is 235 and it occurred during the final week of 2007. Weekly sales volumes have lingered between 400 and 700 units since the beginning of May 2010.

Sellers were outwardly optimistic about future purchase activity as they listed 657 new homes on the market, up a substantial 47.3 percent from the same week in 2009. That’s the largest year-over-year gain in seller activity since mid-April 2010.

Inventory levels are still on their seasonal uphill climb, and this won’t change until the snow starts melting. At this rate, that could be May! In all seriousness, there are currently 21,161 Twin Cities properties being actively marketed. That’s 11.5 percent more than the same week last year. This is nothing extraordinary and is in line with the usual seasonal changes.

As 2010 limps into the history books, we happily bid it adieu as the outlook for the latter half of 2011 continues to look up.