Every year, Keller Williams Real Estate offices around the country raise funds for an organization we call KW Cares.

The mission of KW Cares – a non-profit organization – is to give a helping hand to KW agents, office staff and their families who are in crisis as the result of a sudden emergency. (Read more about KW Cares.)

To that end, our local Annapolis Keller Williams office is holding a garage sale this Saturday, May 1st, from 7:30AM to 1:00PM, in the parking lot of our building. The address is 7 Old Solomons Island Road - just off West Street.

If you would like to donate to the cause, we need gently used items in working condition – household items, small appliances, dishes, furniture, clothing, sporting goods, tools, etc. You know the drill. You can drop the items off at our office anytime this week between the hours of 9:00AM and 5:00PM.

If you – or anyone you know – love a good garage sale, we hope you’ll come by and survey the offerings. From the items we’ve seen so far, in the storage area, you’re sure to find some real treasures for sale at great prices.

Bring your appetites, too: they’ll be a couple of food vendors on hand selling hot dogs and sno-cones.

We hope to see you there. If you have any questions, please call me – Ken – at 410-507-7222. Thanks for your support.

Realtors Really Are Out For Blood…at least this one is. Once again, The Moss Haedrich Team is coordinating our KW office’s blood drive, this one to be held this Thursday, May 14, from 10:00AM to 2:00PM.

Whether you’re one of our clients, friends, associates, vendors – whatever – we need you to roll up your sleeve and give a pint. The good people from the Anne Arundel Medical Center will have the Bloodmobile on site. If you’re a fraidy cat about giving blood, call me for emotional support…or to schedule a time slot. Blood is always in short supply – this is a great way to give back to the community.

Keller Williams Red Day – Speaking of giving back to the community, May 14th is “Red Day” for KW offices and associates everywhere. Across the country, KW agents will be involved in community support activities of every kind – from stocking food pantries to working on Habitat for Humanity homes. It’s our way of getting involved and being good citizens and community leaders. The Moss Haedrich Team is proud to be part of the local effort.

On the Hot New Listing front, we’ve just started marketing a lovely condo in Riva Trace, one of the area’s sought after communities. I love it when I can use the words “Pottery Barn Perfect” to describe a listing, and this is one of those times. There are currently 5 active condo listings here; stay tuned later this week for a Riva Trace Condo market update.

First Time Homebuyer Tax Credit Update – We’re getting tons of calls and questions about the $8,000 Uncle Sam wants to give you this year to buy a home. We’ve added a countdown ticker over there in the left margin so you can keep track of the days you have left to take advantage of this tax credit. Email questions about the credit to me at kenhaedrich@gmail.com and I’ll send you an informative list of Frequently Asked Questions (and the answers, too.)

Finally, next week is Commissioning Week at the Naval Academy. For the uninitiated, that’s graduation week and it’s an exciting time to live here. My favorite part of the week is the Blue Angels show, during which I unabashedly get in touch with my inner 10-year old. The rehearsal show is at 2:00PM on Tuesday the 19th and the actual show the same time the following day. Watch the weather and go on the best day; they won’t do the show in bad weather.

Coming later this week: Anne Arundel home sale stats for April.  

I read a blog post today that said Internet searches for the phrase “houses for sale” were at their highest point in 2 years. The author thought this an encouraging sign: investors, he speculated, are poised to step in at what looks like the bottom of the market, soon to be followed by everyone else who has been waiting for a signal that it’s the right time to buy.

Is he right? Are we bottomed out and about to experience a pent up homebuying rush?

I’m not sure, and I’m not sure anyone else is sure. But since we are out here in the trenches with actual homebuyers, we ARE sure of this: homebuyers are confused, overwhelmed by the negative news of the housing market and Wall Street bailouts. More than anything, buyers need to turn off the TV and seek the counsel of local, experienced professionals who can move them from fear and confusion to a sound, fact-based strategy for purchasing a home.

Putting Together a Team is a Homebuyer’s First Order of Business

If you’re considering purchasing – or selling – a home, do not wing it. To fully understand the ramifications of a real estate transaction, and to afford yourself all due protections, you need a team. First, seek the advice of a financial planner, preferably one with a strong real estate background. (We can arrange for a free consultation if you don’t have one.)

Second, establish a relationship with an experienced Realtor who will work his or her tail off for you and give you 5-star representation. (That would be us, or another Realtor who has earned your loyalty.) Your Realtor can be a key person in helping you put together your team.

Lastly, only work with an experienced, professional lender who comes highly recommended from a trusted source. Realtors know better than anyone which lenders are the real pros.

That’s the core of your team: Realtor, financial planner, lender. If putting together a team sounds like work, well, it is. But especially in this market, you can’t afford not to. We have a saying at Keller Williams: Nobody succeeds alone. Those cowboy days are long gone, pardner.  

I normally try to keep a safe distance from anything that involves sharp objects and blood, especially my own.

The notable exception is once every few months when we – The Moss Haedrich Team – help to organize a community blood drive at our office. Our local area needs roughly 7,300 units of blood each year and it takes work and a small army of volunteer donors to keep the supply from running low. We’re glad to do our part and help rally some troops for the effort.

Incidentally, all the blood that’s donated to the Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Blood Donor Center  – and that includes the blood mobile program – stays right here in the community, where it is used for more than 3,000 life saving transfusions each year.

If you’d like to help out and pitch in a pint, the AAMC Blood Mobile will be parked at our office at 7 Old Solomons Island Road this Thursday, June 19th, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM. In addition to plenty of moral support for big sissies like myself, they’ll be refreshments on hand. As a bonus, you’ll get a free mini-physical including blood pressure and temperature checks, blood iron level test, and cholesterol screening. All good stuff to know.

You can just show up if you like – well hydrated, please – but if you’d like to reserve a 15 minute time slot, or have any other questions, call me directly 410-507-7222. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you there.

I normally try to keep a safe distance from anything that involves sharp objects and blood, especially my own.

The notable exception is once every few months when we – The Moss Haedrich Team – help to organize a community blood drive at our office. Our local area needs roughly 7,300 units of blood each year and it takes work and a small army of volunteer donors to keep the supply from running low. We’re glad to do our part and help rally some troops for the effort.

Incidentally, all the blood that’s donated to the Anne Arundel Medical Center’s Blood Donor Center  – and that includes the blood mobile program – stays right here in the community, where it is used for more than 3,000 life saving transfusions each year.

If you’d like to help out and pitch in a pint, the AAMC Blood Mobile will be parked at our office at 7 Old Solomons Island Road this Thursday, June 19th, from 10:00AM to 1:00PM. In addition to plenty of moral support for big sissies like myself, they’ll be refreshments on hand. As a bonus, you’ll get a free mini-physical including blood pressure and temperature checks, blood iron level test, and cholesterol screening. All good stuff to know.

You can just show up if you like – well hydrated, please – but if you’d like to reserve a 15 minute time slot, or have any other questions, call me directly 410-507-7222. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing you there.

Several years back, on my first day in real estate, I sat down with the team leader of the Keller Williams office here in Annapolis. I signed some papers, had a stack of books and a training schedule handed to me, and then this:

So Ken – tell me about your Big Why.

Sorry? It sounded like she thought I owned a ranch in Montana, The Big Y.

Your Big Why. Why are you here? What’s the one thing that gives meaning and purpose to your life more than any other?

Well, I hadn’t really considered it. And truth be told, I thought the question was a bit lofty for someone who hadn’t even learned to use the office copier yet, let alone sell a single house. But I was new, eager to make my mark, and vaguely recall mumbling something about the opportunity to help people and make a decent living in the process.

Read pages 72 and 73 in there, she said, pointing at one of the books she had just handed me. That will help you figure it out.

Gary Keller, on The Focusing Power of a Big Why

The book in question is one we at Keller Williams refer to as “the red book” – The Millionaire Real Estate Agent, written by our company’s co-founder, Gary Keller.

Sure enough, right there on page 72 was this: “…we’ve discovered that the one thing that all high achievers have in common is they are working for a Big Why. The Big Why is about having a purpose, a mission, or a need, that in turn gives you focus. High achievers always have a Big Why powering their actions.”

I was intrigued, and followed the exercise Gary outlined, writing down everything that motivated me. I was underwhelmed: to my eye, what I had written looked like a ragtag group of Little and Medium Whys. There wasn’t a Big Why in sight. A life of insignificance loomed before me. I had better get digging for a Big Why, and fast, if I wanted to be a high achiever too.

The Power Behind Being the Best You Can Be

I didn’t realize it at the time, but – as Gary went on to explain – there is nothing wrong with a collection of lesser whys: we all have to pay our mortgage or rent, fund retirement accounts, help put our kids through college.

But those – and all of our smaller whys, says Gary – will fall into place naturally if we simply put this one Big Why at the forefront of all others: to be the best we can possibly be. A powerful Big Why like this, he points out, gives foundational support to all of your other whys. It’s like geese flying in formation: the lead goose expends all the energy, while the others draft behind with much less effort.

“Being your best” he goes on to say, “is actually a goal-less pursuit. You can never really reach a point where you can truthfully say, ‘I just can’t grow anymore.’ And what is so exciting about that is this kind of Big Why can create a life that literally explodes with limitless possibility and unlimited growth.”

All Those Big Whys Help Build Stronger Communities

One of the things I love about Keller Williams is the large number of individuals we attract who have a Be the Best You Can Be mentality. That’s not really surprising, given the fact that KW agents have – at their disposal – all of the tools and training necessary for achieving greatness.

All around us in this company we see agents harnessing the power of their Big Whys to strengthen their communities and do good.

Gary Keller himself recently donated $5,000,000 to Baylor University to fund a research center to study the agent/client relationship.

We have agents who have organized drives to provide shoes for needy children in poor countries; agents who’ve purchased and planted trees to re-green urban areas; others who’ve paid surgery bills to help families in their community; and some who have given thousands of dollars to support low-income housing projects. We – The Moss Haedrich Team – support the Fisher House with a $100 donation after every settlement.

How a Big Why Creates Value for Our Clients

We believe that on a daily basis, being the best we can be is the only way to run a successful and competitive real estate business.

It’s the fuel that drives you to deliver the best possible customer service for your clients; to constantly improve your internal systems and marketing skills; to maintain regular and effective communication with your clients and constituency; and to build strong relationships with fellow agents and colleagues in the industry.

When you do these things, we believe you create real value for your clients. And they in turn create value for you, by telling others.

As for myself, I’m still tweaking my Whys, and like those geese, lining them up in proper formation. Unless and until I can come up with something that makes more sense, my Big Why – like Gary’s – will be about being the best I can be: it’s a good fit, even if the downside is that there are always days when you feel as if you might have done better.

But like Gary says, that’s the whole idea.