Griselda's Blog

Poker Walk nets $ 13,000 for charities!

The Poker Walk is organized by the Zonta Club of Miami Lakes. It took place on April 26 and it raised $ 13,000. This money is going to be divided between C.H.A.R.L.E.E. and Casa Valentina.

C.H.A.R.L.E.E. is a foster care agency serving abandoned and neglected children in the Miami-Dade County area.  Casa Valentina cares for young women who are moving out from foster care but do not have the means to be independent.

The Poker Walk is a fun, annual event. Attendees draw poker hands by walking to various homes at Loch Lomond, Miami Lakes. In addition to playing the poker game there's good food, drinks, games, door prices and the opportunity to socialize with neighbors and friends .  This year the grand price for the winning poker hand was $ 500.

Zonta Club of Miami Lakes plans to continue hosting the Poker Walk event in the coming years, and we know next year is going to be even better!

Congratulations to all Zontians who directly or indirectly contributed to the success of this event!

The Town of Miami Lakes Senior Games for 2008 will take place April 25-26 at Barbara Goleman Senior High School.

Miami Lakes is a fantastic city that offers many opportunities to have a great time while getting to know your neighbors. And this is event is one of them.

This is the second annual Town of Miami Lakes Senior Games. It is hosted by the Miami Lakes Elderly Affairs Committee. The competition will include basketball, tennis, golf putting, table tennis, run and walk races, and many more activities for everyone to enjoy and have fun.   

To obtain registration forms please call the Town Hall at 305-364-6100 or visit the town website.  

The Main Street Merchants present the Taste of Miami Lakes Festival. This fun event will take place on March 29th from 11 am to 9 pm in Town Center. 

This is an opportunity to taste the varied foods offered by Miami Lakes restaurants and vendors. The program includes lots of fun activities for kids and the whole family. There will be arts and crafts, musical performances and a fashion show. Have fun, be there!!!

In my previous post about the Town of Miami Lakes I posted some pictures showing one of the characteristics of this city: its lakes.

According to the Town's official website, there are a total of 23 lakes. Some of them are: Lake Glenn-Ellen, Lake Patricia, Lake Hilda, Lake Adele, Lake Carol, Lake Cynthia, Lake Elizabeth, Lake Katharine, Lake Sandra, Lake Sarah and Lake Suzie. Each one of them is surrounded by homes that take full advantage of their location. 

These wonderful lakes add charm to the city, and they bring peace and beauty to our surroundings. 

I hope you enjoyed the pictures. If you watch closely, in the picture above you can see a couple of ducks enjoying the lake as well!

I took Max to the vet yesterday to have a couple of warts surgically removed. The thing is that after the procedure the doctor discovered Max has a large lump in his neck that went unnoticed by us. Max has so much skin and fat around his neck we didn't feel it. 

Well the thing is the doctor took a sample and sent it to the lab. We will not know the results until next week. But I'm worried. I'm usually the one who doesn't worry until the moment I see the train coming at me. But now I am truly worried, mostly because the doctor told me it didn't look good.

Max is my baby. Even though we also have a one year old dog named Charlie. Max has been with us for almost 9 years. He goes everywhere I go. He is always following me. He is the first one to come to the door when I get home, and the one next to it when I leave. It is incredible how much love he is capable of giving.

I love you Max!

Once in a while I like to see if there are any new AR members from my Town. So yesterday I clicked on “Miami Lakes” , where I am the featured agent, and to my surprise, the original page was gone…Gone as “not there”...as “there was something else in its place.”

         HELP!!!

My Town has been hijacked! Where is it? Where are all the pictures I uploaded to Localism months ago? Where is the  post I wrote about Miami Lakes? Where are all the agents that were listed there? Where am I???

I've sent emails to AR support but didn't get any answers yet. It gets worst. Just now, another agent whose information also disappeared with the missing pages sent me an email. She tells me that this "disappearing act" has been going on  since last week and she claims to have sent various emails to AR support that have gone unanswered.

What is going on?  I know mistakes happen. But this seems so surreal I feel like something else might disappear at any moment ...

The town of Miami Lakes is located in the Northwestern part of Miami-Dade County, Florida.  This city has a small town atmosphere and it’s about 6.5 miles. The streets are lined with trees, and as it should be expected, there are indeed many lakes here.
This prosperous town is the project of former Florida’s governor Bob Graham and his family.  It was incorporated in the year 2000, and now it has approximately 27,000 residents. It has many green areas, parks and sidewalks that make it easy to go for a walk. 

Location, location, location! The Town is near expressways such as the Palmetto (826), I75 and the Turnpike. This fact and its closeness to Broward County make Miami Lakes a strategically convenient place to live in a time when traffic has become a nightmare for many South Floridians. 

Miami Lakes is a town that has something to offer to everyone. The schools are excellent. There is a great Community Center that offers free classes for seniors and children. The city has is own newspaper, The Miami Laker, that offers information on everything local. There are clubs and associations that allow and encourage much interaction within the community. One of them is the one I belong to, the Zonta club.  There is a Civic Association that helps maintain and improve the city. The Civic Association is also responsible for the organization of various events, such as the Veterans Parade. There is an active Chamber of Commerce that is an asset to the business community and to the community in general. For those who favor the "greens" there is a Championship Golf Course at the Don Shula's Hotel and Golf Club. There is also a good variety of excellent restaurants. There are various shopping centers and then there is Main Street.  At Main Street you can just go for a walk, or do your shopping. You may want to stop by the ice cream shop or you might meet a friend for coffee or a for a drink. 

  Margaritas anyone? 

You also may decide to see a movie, or have dinner, or both... Main Street offers a range of amenities and entertainment. It is the heart of the Town.

Miami Lakes Real Estate:  there is an offer of homes that varies in size and in style, from the small condo to the luxurious residence. The city is also known for its town home communities, and most of these have been developed around lakes. Many single family homes have wonderful views of lakes, like those below. They have access to the lake and some have mini beaches on their backyards. 

       You are right!

Miami Lakes IS a wonderful city.  I should know. I live, work and play here. It’s been my home for the last 8 of the 28 years that I have lived in Miami.   

OK, OK...which one is it? let me think...

Do you really have to choose? I believe you don’t.

I recently wrote a post on graphic signatures. Searching the subject landed me on a blog where there was an interesting comment. It said that using graphic signatures would give our prospective customers a bad impression.

That got me thinking. Can we behave like ourselves and as professionals at the same time?

What is it to “behave like a professional”?  I am asking the question as it refers to real estate agents. The way I see it, professional behavior includes many aspects, and the following are essential:

1)    Education and information – this includes polishing up skills, getting as much education as possible in all areas that relate to our business, and keeping up to date with changing information and technology. 

2)    Develop areas of expertise – we cannot be experts on everything. We specialize in certain geographical areas and on certain types of real estate, such as condos or single family homes. For example, I sell real estate in the Town of Miami Lakes, and in the adjacent areas of Palm Springs North, Hialeah and El Doral. But I will not take a listing in an area I don't really know much about, such as Miami Beach, or Miami Shores. In that case I would refer the sellers to another realtor who specializes in the area and can help them better. 

3)   Work diligently - doing what we are supposed to be doing to achieve our customer’s real estate goals of selling or buying property. This includes carrying out all the work that needs to be done in a timely manner (filling/submitting paperwork, marketing, follow-up, doing home searches, previewing listings, researching, etc., etc.). We need to do what we promise we would do. It is always better to under-promise and over-deliver. 

4)    Respect customers – for me to respect other people is to treat them, as I want to be treated. So this includes acting with integrity, honesty, and taking their wants and needs into account. It also includes the three items above, because I owe it to my customers to be as educated and as informed as possible and to work diligently to attain their goals. And it includes many other aspects such as maintaining constant communication with them, keeping them informed of any market changes, etc..

5)    Respect yourself – same definition as above. I have to be honest with myself and I also have to take into account my own needs and wants.

6)    Respect everybody  - including agents, brokers, title agents, appraisers, inspectors, buyers and sellers represented by other agents, and anybody else involved in the transaction. Same definition of respect as above.

7)    Demand respect from everybody - these includes all sellers, buyers, agents, brokers, and every other person involved in the transaction. Same definition of respect as above. I demand to be treated with the same consideration as I treat others.

Now, as you see, my definition of behaving like a professional doesn’t include being impersonal, boring, faceless, humorless, dull or somber. I am human being, and I want the world to know it, particularly my customers. I have my wants and needs, and I have my own taste too! Do I want to impose it on my customers? NO. I respect theirs and they respect mine.

I have found that letting my personality and my own taste show through little things here and there allow me to enjoy what I do much more. At the same time, it seems that customers feel more at ease realizing that they are dealing with a real person. Does it mean that if you enjoy dirty jokes you are going to tell one to the sellers at the listing presentation? Well, a little common sense goes a long way…

But behaving professionally doesn’t mean that you can’t be yourself (or if you are too wild, a milder version of yourself?). 

I am not less of a professional because I choose to cover my agenda with a purple folio. It serves the same purpose of any other agenda, and I enjoy using it!

Saying something funny at your first meeting with customers? Why not? A good laugh will usually make everybody more comfortable. You don’t have to be a stiff, and don't be full of your self either!

Relax. Be yourself. People can smell a fake right away, in the same way they can identify authenticity.

And by the way, I also believe you can use colorful pretty signatures. I don’t think they take anything away from your professional behavior. Not a little bit.

COLORFUL/GRAPHIC/ANIMATED SIGNATURES WELCOMED!

A blogger at AR was offended by the following comment I posted on her blog:

“Excellent comments! There’s a constant negativity being fed to the public. That’s why it’s so important to educate buyers and sellers to approach this market from their own personal circumstances, and not from the angle that the media brings to it.”

This blogger deleted my signature (even though she reposted the comments), and said that she considered this as “comment spam.”

At the time this was a new term for me. So I posted again and asked, a bit confused and embarrassed at the same time, to see if I could understand what had happened.  

The answer I received was that signing with a graphic signature “ says ‘I am more important than your post and I want everyone to know it’.”

WHAT?  How is it possible to come up with such an interpretation???  I must be more powerful than I think  I am, to be able do all that with a single copy and paste of my first name… oh my!

Anyway, I did my research about comment spam. Even if I was not familiar with the term itself, I immediately recognized various cases I’ve seen as comment spam.   For example, posting a blatant promotion of your self, business, websites, or blogs, instead of a real comment. Another example is embedding links on the signatures or the comment itself, or adding a phone number or email address to the signature. 

It makes sense to call these examples "comment spam." But to say that my comment fell under the same category as those examples above seems to be stretching the definition a little bit too far. I guess this blogger can call “spam” anything she doesn’t personally like, and she obviously dislikes graphic signatures as the one I included. But I don’t have to agree with her definition. 

And I don’t. 

I usually have a good sense of humor. And, usually, I don't waste my time with stuff like this. But lately I find myself a bit moody. Don't know exactly why. I also have hot flashes...Mmmm...It must be the market, dam it! ;-)

So I said to myself, should I be gracious and leave this woman to her own “spamic deliriums”? Or should I make one more comment. Just to get it out of me. I couldn’t resist, so I made a comment.

This is what I wrote:

“(her name) thank you for all the links. I believe that now I have a clear idea of what constitutes comment spam. I already knew it, only I didn’t have a name for it before. Making comments with links to your own website or blogs is no doubt disrespectful and obviously one of the varied examples of comment spam.

However, I still fail to see how the signing of a first name by itself could be considered comment spam. My first name was written in cursive colored letters without any links added, nor any other self-promotional material such as a phone number or an email address. I also don’t understand how you can interpret that I was saying ‘I am more important than your post and I want everyone to know it’ just because I signed my first name.

But then again each person sees things differently and you are entitled to your opinions and interpretations as well as I am entitled to mine. I realize that when I visit a house I am a guest, and that I am expected to adhere to the customs of the home I’m visiting. So if I find those customs too restricting or exasperating I may respectfully excuse my self and leave. I guess the same logic applies to blogs. So Thank you and good bye. “

I almost added "If offended, feel free to delete" at the end of my post, but I knew she would delete this post anyway. AND SHE DID!
Now since this is MY BLOG, I can do whatever I want. So here it goes!!!

Max, our 8 year-old yellow lab, is terrified of both. We live in Miami Lakes, Florida, and during the summer we have thunderstorms almost every day.  We live in a one-story home with lots of windows and sliding doors, surrounded by palms and other trees. When there’s a thunderstorm, sometimes it feels like we are sitting outside in the middle of it. So imagine how this makes poor Max feel! (just in case you are wondering, we do have accordion shutters to protect us from hurricanes).

Since the time Max was a little puppy he started to shake as soon as he heard thunder or fireworks. I didn’t know what to do. But I knew I didn’t want to give him any medication to calm down. So I covered a sofa with a blanket and put Max on it. It worked. Even though he kept shaking, I could tell he felt safer there. Eventually he would relax. He would cuddle up and look half his size, and he would stay on the sofa until the storm passed, or the fireworks stopped. Then when he thought it was safe again, he would jump off and look for me or another family member. Kind of letting us know everything was fine. 

Well, over the years we have used the same "therapy" to deal with Max's anxiety when a storm approaches or fireworks start. Actually, I’ve seen that this sofa/blanket remedy seems to work faster now than it did years ago. Now Max relaxes just a couple of minutes after jumping on the sofa and making himself comfortable.  The bad thing is that Max has learned to associate the rain with the thunder, so now even if it is just raining he gets all shaky and goes to the sofa!

It was only recently that I talked to the vet about this, because we were at the office when a storm started and Max went crazy, shaking all over. The vet was very glad that we had found a way to calm Max down. He told me that this problem is extremely common and that many dogs become very destructive during storms and some even hurt themselves.

It seems though that Charlie, our seven-month Poodle/Schnauzer mix, doesn’t mind storms or fireworks for that matter. He doesn’t act any different when there’s thunder. He did not have any problems with the 4th of July fireworks celebrations either. So it seems Max will not need to share the sofa after all. I’m sure he is happy about that!
Here is Max on the sofa. This picture was NOT taken during a storm.