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You may have heard on the news last week (Friday) that Sept 19 is RE/MAX Volunteer Day.  Once again our agents went to Canadian Blood Services and donated blood to save lives.  Many are regular donors and some were there for their first time.  Congrats and thanks to all the RE/MAX agents that took part

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Hey Team,
 
We recently sent all our agents a revised Office Policy Manual.  In past we'd need to get everyone to sign a paper copy. Instead we used docusign, for a few reasons;
 
1. Docusign is awesome
2. You should have experience in docusign from the point of view of the signer (typically your client) - One  example of this is that I've noticed that AFTER a client signs, it goes to a window asking them to join (sign up for) docusign.  So I warn people in advance now that the document has been sent and they can ignore that last screen.
 
If you are reading this and are not with our tech savvy Main Streey office, contact me at cory@coryraven.com and I'd be happy to send a document over for you to test docusign.
 
Sign up and http://www.docusign.com and use code CREA or sign up through the link in webforms
 
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Shared/synced files.
 
Cloud storage has exploded in popularity in recent years.  Pretty much every CRM and email service is now cloud based.  For accessing files in a shared space, the 2 best options right now appear to be Google Drive and Dropbox
 
Pros
  • Free (up to 2 gigs of storage)
  • Easy folder and file system windows users will enjoy
  • A "dropbox" folder on your desktop so you can locally access files (so if the internet was down you could still access any files dropbox got during your last sync
    • Very easy to use files ans folders and also share those files and folders with other users (clients, other agents etc) 
    Cons 
    • Dropbox plans, if you want to use more than 2 gigs, are not cheap (They also aren't overly expensive, but they start at $11 a month for 100 Gigs of extra space)
    • There is no file editor built in to dropbox.  So if you and are share a spreadsheet, we need a system in place to make sure the most up to date one is always the one we use.  Below you can read about how google has done a better job in this category
    Google Drive (formerly Google Docs) 
    Pros
    • Interfaced with Google, where likely 90% of us already have an account
    • Free (with limited storage) 
    • Price is much cheaper than dropbox.  You will spend only $1.99 a month for the same 100gigs dropbox charges $10.99 a month for.  In fact at $9.99 (a dollar less still than dropbox) you'll get a full Terabyte worth of storage. This would hold pretty much endless documents and can act as well as a media (photos, movies and music) storage centre
    • Built in (versions of) Word, Excel and Powerpoint.  You can work on documents, spreadsheets and presentations and every change you make is AUTO saved to the document, leaving no room for "old version" errors
    Cons
    • At this point Google Drive seems like a clear winner, right?  Well it is not, yet.  Here's why... The file system is clunky, not user friendly and just, well not as good as dropbox.  I thought I'd use google drive to get pictures off my phone and on to my homer computer.  Save them from my phone to a computer and on that computer put them in to a "pics for home" folder.  What should have been easy took me a month to deal with as the original computer kept adding the pics back (thinking perhaps I deleted them by accident) and then my other computer with Google Drive kept getting duplicates.  I am sure there is a practical reason for this, but for my needs it didn't work very well
    • It doesn't use a folder system (sort of like gmail) - It will accept your file system if you create folders in the google drive folder in you computer, but then the online and desktop experience is much different.

    Never Lose Another Note
     
    I've spoken about Evernote http://www.evernote.com a few times before.  I am a big fan of this program.  Watch these videos for more.
     
    Steve Dotto talks about his 5 favourite things about evernote 
     
    More of an intro, why use evernote?
     
    11 useful features of Evernote 
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Condo Smarts: Unless exempted, strata has duty to submit depreciation report

 
 
 
 
 
 
Condo Smarts: Unless exempted, strata has duty to submit depreciation report
 

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners' Association. Email tony@choa.bc.ca

Photograph by: Jon Murray , PNG

Dear Tony: We attended an information meeting last week and the issue about draft depreciation reports came up. The advice that was given indicated that a depreciation report received by a strata council was not a valid report and considered a draft until the strata council had approved the report.

The problem we are having with our council is that the report had been received in November and is allegedly still in draft form.

How long is the strata council permitted to hold the report? We are concerned that just because the council doesn’t like the information in the report, it can perpetually hold the report as long as it wishes, but we, the owners, have already paid for this report.

Don’t we have a right to access the information? Our strata has delayed the report for 11 months.

 

— A concerned strata owner

To all strata owners, council and managers: The Strata Property Act & Regulations do not refer to, or use the term draft report in the legislation. Up until Dec. 13, 2013, the report had not become fully mandatory, so strata corporations had some comfort in reviewing and disclosing their reports. However, if your strata corporation has not exempted the requirement for a depreciation report by three-quarters vote and is sitting on a report, it is not disclosing to potential buyers or owners on request, the strata council and corporation are increasing their chances of litigation and not in compliance with the sct.

If there is a condition in the report that would result in a potential buyer, insurer or other interested party from proceeding with a transaction with an owner or the strata corporation, the risks increase.

The Strata Property Act, Section 35, which defines records that must be maintained by the strata and available on request, was specifically amended last year to include a line that identified “n. 1 any depreciation reports obtained by the strata corporation under section 94 of the act, and n. 2 any reports obtained by the strata respecting repair or maintenance of major item in the strata including without limitation, engineer’s reports, risk management reports, sanitation reports, and reports respecting items for which the information is required for a depreciation report.”

In addition to this provision, an owner or their agent may also request any correspondence under the same section, sent or received by the strata corporation and council.

It is essential for strata councils to maintain a working relationship with their deprecation planner as the process is being completed to ensure accuracy of documents and information. The strata council needs to review the document for accuracy and interpretation of the strata plan and bylaws.

Strata corporations with Sections, Air Space Parcel Agreements, need to closely review the report to ensure the proper information is being disclosed. There have already been a number of complaints relating to strata councils deeming reports are only in draft form for months on end, and sellers finding their sales collapsing without the information.

If the strata corporation receives a valid request under Section 35 of the act, it seriously needs to assess whether it will avoid providing information, and the consequences.

If a vendor/buyer request copies of correspondence relating to deprecation reports, and any of the related documents and reports, and the strata corporation chooses to deem a report a draft and not release, you are setting the wheels in motion that may jeopardize a sale or result in a claim for losses or defects that were not disclosed.

The decision is solely that of council, not the manager or the consultant. If in doubt, get legal or technical advice before you create a risk for your strata corporation.

There was a small, but significant change to the Strata Property Act last week that strata corporations need to be aware of. Under Bill 12, expenses from the contingency fund will now be majority vote if the amount is to obtain funds for a deprecation report, or an expense is related to a repair or maintenance recommended in the most current deprecation report.

This is a significant change in that those strata corporations that have obtained a depreciation report, will now require only a majority vote for the recommended costs from the contingency reserve fund as they arise.

Tony Gioventu is executive director of the Condominium Home Owners’ Association. Email tony@choa.bc.ca

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Alicia Follmar keeps running, no matter what.

Shawn Price

UNFORGETTABLE: Photos of the bleeding Follmar caught the nation's attention.

Blood can paint an indelible portrait, as Alicia Follmar learned last spring. The Stanford runner was just over a lap into the first leg of the distance medley at the Penn Relays in Philadelphia when she was tripped accidentally from behind. She fell hard, and six or seven runners appeared to go straight over her.

What happened next was captured in unforgettable photos: Follmar got up quickly and regained her stride, while long streams of blood flowed down her face and neck. She had been spiked in the forehead, showed nasty abrasions up and down her right side and generally looked liked someone running in the Freddy Krueger Invitational.

As she powered her way from 10th to third over the remaining two laps, she ran into Internet-lauded fame. There's far more to the two-event All-American than that one race, but no pictures of her are anywhere near as memorable.

“I wouldn't say it was as bad as it looks . . . . I can't say it really hurt, there was so much adrenaline,” says Follmar, now a senior. “There was a feeling that I had in my head—like a sensation in my head—so I felt my head with my hand and looked at it, and there was blood on it. At that point, I was already running. I kind of panicked, but I still kept running.” Stanford finished third.

All the best clichés—dedication, determination, tenacity—can be justified by that performance alone. But Follmar, a human biology major who is applying to dental schools, is intent on overachieving throughout her last year of running at Stanford. She was the women's champion in the opening cross-country meet, the August 30 USF Invitational, serving immediate public notice that she has “big goals” for every event in which she competes. She hasn't made a checklist of objectives that span the cross-country, indoor and outdoor seasons because, basically, she wants to do it all.

“I don't really know what I want,” she says, thinking out loud. “I want to be All-American. I want [Stanford] to win a national championship again in cross-country. I just want to be one of the best in the nation.” Stanford has taken the title three years in a row.

Whatever Follmar accomplishes, it will be rooted in a fortitude that became conspicuous during high school in Saratoga, Calif. She was a sophomore when well-known Saratoga High track coach Marshall Clark collapsed and died at practice.

Clark, an assistant coach at Stanford from 1968 to 1978, was renowned for his leadership, and his impact on Follmar turned out to be profound and poignant. Debbie Follmar, Alicia's mother, remembers how shaken her daughter was by Clark's death. “She got on her cell phone,” she recalls, “and she was crying hysterically. I finally made out that Marshall had died, and I couldn't believe it. Then I started crying, too.”

Six years later, Alicia Follmar remains conscious of how powerfully she was influenced by Clark's life and death. “I'm not crying about it at night anymore and stuff like that. But it's still, you know, on my mind. . . . It's kind of nice to be able to run in his memory a little bit.”

After Clark died, says Follmar, the Saratoga High runners looked to each other for emotional support, and she found a strength and self-confidence that seemed almost new to her personality. Today, it is those qualities that define her in the minds of others.

“Committed is the word,” says Edrick Floreal, Stanford's director of track and field. “There's a level of commitment that goes toward her team and Stanford that is unparalleled.”

Follmar, 5-foot-10 with a big back kick, has run since she was very young, sometimes with her mother, who has logged six miles a day for 35 years. Alicia was a state champ in the 1,600 meters as a high schooler; at Stanford, she won All-America status in the indoor mile and distance medley relay as a junior.

If everything clicks, Follmar may have people talking about numerous athletic moments besides the Penn Relays exploits. The problem, though, is how rich in detail that one blood-streaked day is.

Consider this: one of her three older brothers is a plastic surgeon who was at the race. The family is still talking about how much he would have preferred to stitch up his sister's spike wound instead of its being done by the podiatrist on duty. There's also the dramatic residue. One lap of merely running, then two laps of courage.

“As much as I was unhappy that she got hurt,” says Floreal, “I was pleased that people could see what Alicia Follmar is like.”

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courtesy CBC.CA

 

U.S. business magnate Donald Trump and his family are in Vancouver to announce the details of an exclusive deal to build the city's first Trump Tower.

Trump, along with sons Donald and Eric, and daughter Ivanka, have licensed the Trump brand to Vancouver developers Holborn and TA Global.

The CBC learned of the relationship back in February, when it discovered the developers were rebranding their Arthur Erickson inspired, twisting tower with luxury condos as the city's first Trump tower.

U.S. business magnate Donald Trump and his family have licensed their name to Vancouver's first Trump Tower.U.S. business magnate Donald Trump and his family have licensed their name to Vancouver's first Trump Tower.(Parker Michels-Boyce/Associated Press)

When the project was originally launched before the global economic meltdown, the 60-storey tower, which will twist 45 degrees as it rises, was to feature a high-end Ritz-Carlton hotel on the lower floors.

Another 123 luxury condos were planned for the upper floors, priced between $2.5 million and $10 million, with the penthouse priced at $28 million.

But when the recession hit in 2008 the luxury market collapsed. The project was halted and early buyers were refunded their money.

The project was restarted in April 2012, with 290 condo units aimed at a lower price point, at a location on the 1100-block of West Georgia Street.

Visuals and details of the project are expected to be revealed during a news conference later on Wednesday.

 

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One of the biggest tech tools I use is RAPPORTIVE, which is an add on for gmail.  Unfortunately will not work for you if you don't use gmail.  However, those of us on gmail MUST take advantage of it.  Imagine knowing, at a glance, what your clients have been posting recently on Facebook, twitter, linked all from your email window, without having to go to all those sites?


I can't count the number of times I've used something I've notice in the RAPPORTIVE screen while using gmail in my conversations with people by email.  "Oh by the way, I notice on Facebook you just got back from Mexico, I hope you had an amazing trip" 

Click here to watch an awesome video explaining more about the RAPPORTIVE app.

 
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Google Alerts
 
You've heard me talk about these before, you've seen videos on how to, you've read about it in my emails, but some of you still haven't done it! Sorry, but TODAY is the day.  Put aside 5 MINUTES of your time and set up a google alert for your name (or if you have a common name your name plus RE/MAX or whatever brokerage you are at) 
 
This is a key tool in managing your brand.
 
Watch this video on how to set up google alerts - It is quick and easy
 
 
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Google Glass
 
I am not sure if you have heard about Google Glass.  If you haven't you might want to read up on them.  Although you might end of terrified like I was when I read up on them.  Essentially, this is a product which is coming to the market that you wear on your eyes (like glasses) ; it turns the world in to a basically a giant computer monitor.  It overlays data on top of what you are looking at (and has the ability to record EVERYTHING as well) 
 
Not all tech is happy go lucky, this product (and the thought of everyone wearing one) is a little uncomfortable.
 
Read up on it http://www.techradar.com/news/video/google-glass-what-you-need-to-know-1078114
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I’ve been thinking a lot about this lately.

My brain started to stockpile descriptions of successful people: good networkers, exquisite communicators, committed, driven, passionate, educated and blessed with strong teams, but the problem was, that cache can look quite similar to those of unsuccessful people.

Rats.

So I stopped looking at the characterizations they harbored and instead investigated what it is that they do differently. (Well, I familiarized myself with a highball of scotch first and then I investigated. Investigations are much more fun with a scotch in your hand, I learned.)

My swigging and sleuthing combo led me to one conclusion. Assuming that all efforts and circumstances are equal:

Successful people finish sh*t.

Sacre Bleu! Could it be this simple or was this the Glenfiddich talking? I rechecked my findings and other than the fact that I chose to use the word “sh*t” instead of “stuff” told me that the scotch had given me a touch of crass but it hadn’t clouded my conclusion.

Finish what?

A thought. A conversation. A handshake. A draft. A book. A painting. A pick up line. A proposal. A pitch. A project that might fail. They close the circle on their accountability. They finish cleaning the office kitchen when no one’s looking. They finish writing script ideas in case anyone asks them for one. They finish the prototype even though it looks like a protozoa.

Unsuccessful people say, “I’m still working on it.”
Successful people get to, “I’m all set. Take a look.”

Successful people don’t always have the best ideas, they’re just willing to put their ideas out there and have something to point at. But if you have something to point at, that means everyone else can point at it too...and judge it, point out the holes and say what it doesn’t do.

Sorry, if you’re not willing to “finish” in the eyes of your public sphere, then you will never be deemed successful, publicly.

People like to know what you’ve done, not what you’ve worked on (Attention resume writers).

Does this mean that success is only defined by what others think? No, but you and I both know that it’s a huge component of it.

Finishing something allows you to pass the baton, the baton of work, the baton of judgement, the baton of progress.

If my duty is to punch a hole in a piece of metal so that the next person on the assembly line can thread a string through it, it does him no good if I only mill out 90% of the hole. 3 pieces milled out at 90% each, does not equal 2.7 milled out pieces.

Yes, you’re still milling things all day, putting in the same amount of work but your work is essentially useless to the greater good until the hole is punched all the way through.

Punch more holes in life. Finish sh*t.

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Hey team,


By now you've all heard, read and seen what happened yesterday in Boston.  Sad doesn't begin to describe it.  One thing I always try to look for in this type of situation is the good.  I find the little stories of responders, helpers, volunteers, etc. help to undo some of the damage an event like this does to one's soul.

What does this have to do with tech?  Well, this morning I was on an online forum reddit, and saw that there are several threads dealing with different ways that technology is assisting people and also allowing people from far away feel like they can be of some assistance.

-One of the stories includes a group of Korean tourists who are at the hospital with one of their friends who was injured.  Stranded with very little English, people from around the world arrange for food, shelter near the hospital, and even for some online chats and video calls to folks back home.

-Another of the stories is a strange little forum called random act of pizza.  People from around the world go online and order (and pay for) pizza for people in Boston.  Hotel lobbies, hospitals, and other gathering places are literally being flooded with free food and drink.

-Google has set up on online document detailing accommodation.  People offering a place to stay and people needed a place to stay are matched up

-Google also unveiled a people finder.  With phone lines jammed and communication difficult, this people finder created a central source for people to go and ask about a loved one or "check in" and tell everyone they were ok.

Below I'm pasting some of the threads.  Keep in mind I haven't read through all of this, and it is in relation to a disaster, so there might be some content that is disturbing.


This is continued HERE

This is the continuation of this thread.

Original Thread

REALLY GOOD INFORMATION HERE.

For those unused to live update threads, the best way to view them is to switch periodically between sorted by top and sorted by new. The sorted by new lets you get the most recent information, the sorted by top will let you see replies to important comments.

FBI and Boston police want info from witnesses. 1-800-CALL-FBI (1-800-225-5324), prompt #3 "No piece of information or detail is too small http://www.twitter.com/BostonGlobe/status/323949471002148867

Community members wanting 2 assist this investigation anonymously can call the BPD’s Crime Stoppers Tip Line @ 1(800) 494-TIPS. https://twitter.com/Boston_Police/status/323949010144620545

Update 83 (7:04 PM ET): Reports still indicate 2 killed and over 100 injured.

Update 84 (7:10 PM ET)https://twitter.com/thejamesedwards Has hospital updates.

  • Tufts - 9 patients hurt from attack, none critical, 8 more patients w/ marathon-related injuries
  • Boston Medical Center - 20 patients total, 2 children, most have lower leg injuries
  • Mass. Gen. - 22 patients total, 6 critical, 5 serious
  • Brigham & Women - 26 patients total, 2 critical, 8-10 serious
  • Bethg Israel - 21 patients total, 18 major, 3 minor, 7 life-threatening

Update 85 (7:17 PM ET): Some good graphics/maps from Boston Globe.http://bostonglobe.com/metro/2013/04/15/explosions-rock-boston-marathon-finish-line-dozens-injured/yLhfDT1XC3HXSa8wPiVijL/igraphic.html

Update 86 (7:19 PM ET): There are reports of runners being let in and out of area hotels.https://twitter.com/fredmilgrim/status/323934747199959040

Update 73 UPDATED Video of Obama's speech: http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2013/04/15/president-obama-speaks-explosions-boston

Update 87 (7:26 PM ET): @MassDOT: I-90, I-93, I-95 open. I-90 Exit 22 Copley Square ramp remains closed.

Update 88 (7:29 PM ET): U.S. Navy providing an Explosive Ordnance Disposal team to assist local authorities at the request of the State of Massachusetts https://twitter.com/nbcnightlynews/status/323938292787720192

Update 89 (7:32 PM ET): Street Closures: Clarendon from Huntington to Newbury, Newbury from Clarendon to Hereford, Huntington from Belividere to Clarendon. https://twitter.com/Boston_Police/status/323941431603503104

Update 90 (7:34 PM ET)/u/99trumpets first hand account.http://www.reddit.com/r/running/comments/1cemo3/explosion_at_boston/c9ftn98

Cory Raven, RI

Managing Broker, RE/MAX Select Realty
Member, Real Estate Institute of BC
 
4806 Main Street
Vancouver, BC
V5V 3R8

604.678.3333 (office)
604.678.3355 (direct)


cory@coryraven.com
www.selectonmain.com 
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