As summer nears to an end, the boating crowd often thinks that Lake Havasu just shuts down.  We drain the lake, turn off all the lights and padlock the doors.  Anything could be further than the truth.  One of the aspects of Lake Havasu I like best is that we have two distinct seasons – HOT and not hot!  Now personally, I don’t really enjoy when it is 115° during the day and dipping to 108° during the ‘cooler’ evening hours.  I know, there are a lot of people who love it, but I just don’t like the feeling that I about ready to combust at any minute.

During the summer, activities pretty much revolve around the lake or pools.  There is no wandering the streets on a mid-week afternoon stroll.  There is no ‘let’s sit on the patio and enjoy the nice weather’ conversations.  Most people will try to go as fast as they can from one air conditioned place to another.

As summer begins its departure, we all look forward to not hearing our air conditioners running 24/7.  We look forward to cool days and even cooler mornings.  We look forward to be able to park our car in the open and not having to worry about burning our hands, and other body parts, on the interior of our car. But most of all, we enjoy being able to go outside and enjoy our wonderful city.  Not only can we still enjoy the lake, since the average temperature can range from 50-70°. But my favorite thing that opens up for all to enjoy during the cooler weather is the massive amount of open space in the desert surrounding the city. Weather it be for hiking, dirt bike riding, quading, or 4 wheeling, there is just an unlimited amount of trails and washes that is out there for the taking.

Most of the desert can be accessed directly from the city proper.  There are trails that start from the extreme south (Standard Wash) to the extreme North (Craggy Wash and Havasu Heights) along with many interior entrances throughout the Eastern edges of the city.  A surprise to many visitors is that one is able to license off road vehicles to be able to drive on the streets around the city.  This makes it especially nice so that you don’t have to necessarily trailer the vehicles for a ride in the desert. You will find a lot of vehicles, like the Yamaha Rhino pictured below.

People will use these during the week to go to the grocery store, take the kids to school and to just tool around in the nice, fresh weather.  On the weekends, you will find dozens of groups out in the desert enjoying a day of awesome views and fun rides.  There is always someplace new to go, new friends to make and just a plain old fun time to be had.

So even though some think that Havasu closes down after the summer is over, to me, the beauty and joy of Havasu has just begun.

This week I have the opportunity to attend Inman’s Agent ReBoot in Las Vegas. I was excited at the opportunity to reconnect with some old friends, make new friends and get a lot of great knowledge.  Then Friday came and I got a call from Nicole Nicolay (@nik_nik) asking me if I would fill in on a panel because one of their speakers had canceled.  Now if you know me, I am not a shy person normally, but I do have anxiety of getting into something that I am not sure that I am good at.  Fortunately @nic_nic told me that I could talk about Twitter.  Woo Hoo!  If I am addicted to anything in Social Media, Twitter would be it.  Even though I am still anxious about getting up on stage, at least it will be something that maybe I can enlighten some in the audience with my experience.

As I got to think about things, I realized that I really did not interact, through Social Media, with too many people in Las Vegas.  There are a few, but overall, not that many.  On the other hand, I know tons of people in the Phoenix area both through Twitter and Facebook.  I spoke of this both to Nicole and Ricardo Bueno (@Ribeezie) and they too said they had that same impression. They felt that they too did not have a lot of SM contacts in the Vegas area.  With this thought in mind, I am even more excited to take part in Agent ReBoot and to show all those Las Vegas REALTORS what Social Media is all about!

If you are in Vegas and see me at the event, take a minute and stop and say hi!

Keller Williams RED Day Giving Back

Let me just premise this post to say that I have been in Real Estate in Lake Havasu City for 20+ years.  In January 2008 I helped launch our local Keller Williams Market Center.  Now, I am not one to switch offices on a whim.  I worked for my first office for 4 years until I took off a couple of years to raise my children and then worked for my second office for over 11 years.  I am not one taken into flashing lights and bells and whistles!  I take any change and analyze, dissect and then finally decide what is best for me.

Keller Williams? Why?

Careers worth having, Businesses worth Owning and Lives worth Living!  After attending sessions at International headquarters of KW in Austin, TX, I was on board.  I loved the idea that we were not just REALTORS, but family. My experiences with Keller Williams warrant a whole new post, but I do not want to digress.  I made the move!  And have never looked back!  I was honored to be nominated and win the “Culture Icon of the Year Award” for  2009 for my local office. As part of this honor, I am now the person in charge of identifying and organizing RED Day!

What is RED Day?

Mark Willis, President of Keller Williams, has spoken so eloquently of what RED Day encompasses! Last year the KW family spent more than 160,000 hours with more than 20,000 volunteers, giving back to their community.  In Lake Havasu, we worked the grocery stores and collected food and money for our local food bank.  Sure, the foodbank loved our contribution, but in the last year, I have been bombarded by what our community service project has done for our agents on a personal level.  Keep in mind that even in mid May of Arizona it is quite toasty!  OK, downright hot!  Even though our agents were miserable because it was 100+ degrees, they ALL relayed to me how fulfilling and wonderful they felt for giving back!

What are we doing in Lake Havasu?

This year we decided to give back to our schools.  Unfortunately Arizona is 48 of 50 for funding for our schools.  As a mother of three, this is not only distressing, but downright upsetting.  Therefore, our RED Day committee has decided to give back to the schools.  We are going to go into the local high school and help spruce up some of the offices!  Some of these places haven’t seen the strokes of a paintbrush in a very long time!  We also want to involve the students by conducting a food drive that day so that the students can start to learn to give back to their community also.  It looks like it is going to be another awesome experience for both our agents and the school!

How many of you have heard of a Real Estate Bar Camp? I recently attended my third one in Scottsdale, AZ on April 9, 2010 and was amazed at all the great content and networking that I got for FREE! So what say you is a Bar Camp? Basically, bar camps started in other industries and recently, within less than two years, the real estate industry has taken the idea and applied it to their needs. A Bar Camp is in a word an “un-conference.” There is no set agenda, no set speakers!

The first REBarCamp was set prior to the Inman Connect Conference in San Francisco in the early fall of 2008. To date, there have been dozens held throughout the country from Portland to Miami and Minnesota to Raleigh/Durham. The events are coordinated by locals – REALTORS, lenders, title reps – and are successful not only because of their long hours, days, weeks and months of hard work but in conjunction with the many sponsors. Because of the sponsors, they are able to get the venue, name badges, refreshments, and even lunches to offer all the attendees at no cost.

No Agenda, no set Speakers? How can this possibly work?

Simple (well after all the

Easy (after all the hard work the organizers have put in)! Everyone shows up and the big, empty whiteboard is rolled out with only a grid with times and rooms along the sides. Attendees with a passion towards video blogging, photography, Twitter, SEO, niche marketing, etc grab a pen, pick a square and voila – a session has been set! They act as the moderator, not the instructor. Everyone gathers and interacts discussing and asking questions. In the end, everyone, including the moderator, comes out with a new idea or thought.

In Phoenix there were of 475 attendees. A lot of these came from the Valley, but there were many others who came from around the country just for this event. Bill Lublin came from Philly, Melissa DelGaudio came from West Virginia, Missy Kitzman came from South Dakota, Mike Mueller came from Central California. A lot of us have created friendships online through Social Media and use these events to get together ‘in the real world’ to network and have fun. See what Kathy Howe (@SedonaKathy) had to say about it!

If you see a REBarCamp come anywhere close to where you are STOP, REGISTER, and ATTEND.
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