Posts

Trollng a Scammer

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Today, someone tried to scam me out of $400 through texts. They posed as a person who is, basically, my boss at my real estate office. So, they probably got my cell number and information about our office from our website. I consider myself pretty savvy to all the scams, but this experience taught me it's really easy to fall for one. I was falling for it for an embarrassingly long time. I think it's because the possibility of being scammed is just not in the fore of our mind. This scam actually started last night. I didn't notice the text until this morning, though, and was feeling kind of bad about it. I guess one thing I should be thankful to this scammer for is making me revisit my notification settings to make it less likely to miss important texts.   So, I got these texts when I was just leaving Walmart. I was in the parking lot about to pull out and go home. I got back out and headed back into the store.  At this point, I was thinking my broker needed a gift card righ

National Association of Realtors Faces Competition

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The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has held a monopoly over the real estate industry for a hundred years. Their grip on the industry is unmatched. For example, only about 15% of all doctors are members of the American Medical Association. About 17% of all lawyers are members of the American Bar Association. In real estate, 99% of agents and brokers are members of the NAR. The recent controversies they have been embroiled in has created an opportunity for an association to compete with them.  Founders Jason Haber and Mauricio Umansky propose the creation of the "American Real Estate Association," which aims to foster collaboration, innovation, and excellence among real estate agents, providing an alternative to the NAR.  According to these founders, their key areas of focus will include strengthening agent skills, enhancing investor-friendly education, improving ethics, and promoting diversity and inclusion in decision-making. Currently, joining their nascent associati

Mixed-Use Development Planned Near L’Auberge Casino

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  Pinnacle Entertainment, the parent company of L’Auberge, recently applied to the planning commission for approval of a nearly 540 acre development. The land is located south of L’Auberge Crossing and east of River Road. According to their application, it will have 1,500 residential units including low, medium, and high density. Nearly half of the land will be devoted to over 880,000 square feet of commercial space. The application describes the development as: “a casino, recreational vehicle resort, single-family residential neighborhoods, medium and high density residential, commercial buildings and open space.”  Application for approval is on the agenda for the March meeting of the planning commission. Copy of the application: https://www.brla.gov/DocumentCenter/View/18720/PUD-1-09

A Surprising Advantage of Video Conferencing over Face to Face

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  If the Covid years have taught us anything, it's that face to face meetings are far better than meeting on Zoom.  In a Zoom meeting, because of the slight delay between sending and receiving, there’s always this kind of forced good manners where you have to wait for someone to come to a complete end of their statement. Someone finishes their sentences, and then there’s a long pause, and then someone starts to speak again. It doesn’t have the rhythm and dynamism of normal conversation, where people can talk over each other a little bit, react instantly to what is being said, and pick up on more non-verbal cues. In a Zoom meeting, it doesn’t feel like a real conversation; it feels like people are making prepared statements. Jonathan Levav, the King Philanthropies Professor of Marketing at Stanford Graduate School of Business, studied and attempted to quantify the advantages and disadvantages to Zoom communication and found, as one might expect, that video conferencing is no substit

Find Contact Information for Free

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  Join me as I reveal a powerful online tool that I've successfully used for over 20 years to track down individuals for various purposes, from legal cases to real estate matters. I'll demonstrate how to use the tool and share some tips on maximizing its accuracy. Featured Web Tool: https://www.truepeoplesearch.com/

Free AI Web Browsing Assistant

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  In this video, I introduce you to HARPA AI, one of my favorite AI tools. HARPA AI is a free Chrome add-on that assists you in web browsing and searching the web. I walk you through my favorite use cases for HARPA , including looking at articles and podcast web pages. I also demonstrate how HARPA can summarize web pages and YouTube videos, allowing you to quickly extract useful information.

How to Clip Images on a Windows Screen

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In this video, I will show you a quick and easy way to clip an image on your Windows screen for use in your marketing.