My thoughts on using pronouns to let people acknowledge your gender

When I encounter a male person but unaware of his sexual orientation, I immediately address him a male however if I some observe something distinctive about this person for instance he wears female clothing, has some feminine in his gestures or he openly tells everyone that he is gay then I will address this person as she/her for me to acknowledge and respect the sexual orientation that this person wants to be.

I don't mind whatever their sexual orientation is and for as long as they are approachable, decent and kind person I don't see anything wrong for these people to be included in the community.

What I consider an issue if the person impose too much that all people must recognize and accept that they are from the LGBT group and demands the respect that they need but they do the opposite for example they harm someone who doesn't accept their sexual orientation or any slight conflicts with someone grew into a bigger issue.

At schools, we are taught about the use of pronouns, the use of he/him, she/hers, we, ours, they/them and it. It is straightforward that when everyone sees you as a male, you will addressed as he/him and if you are a female then she/her is applied however now that we are on the modern and digital age some individuals call themselves as they/them. 

In my opinion, using this kind of pronouns confuses some people for example children, elderly and those people who follows the conservative, religious and those people who considered it as normal from previous standards and today's acceptable standards. You may inform people you're sexual orientation however you must accept that not everyone accept you for your choices.  Not all people will try to understand what you have been through for a gender change.

For you to fully embrace your identity, you must be grateful and accept who you are from the past. You make peace with it. Respect your biological make-up from birth and respect what God and the nature has given you.

My thoughts on Cold Calling to gather leads on Real Estate

One of the tasks that a Real Estate Virtual Assistant must have is the ability to gather leads to help the client's business grow. The main method in gathering leads is to make phone calls of either buyers or sellers and to determine whatever motivation they have for the property and put it on the database however I do find calling a lot of people for that purpose is a waste of time especially if you are receiving a lot of rejections from them. It is like doing a lottery, hoping to find any luck. I also do feel that calling lots of people but without a result drains the time and resources of the client. Even providing homeowners a yellow letter, there is a possibility that the property owners will take that for granted and put it straight to the bin!

To share with you my experience, I did encounter some of the cold callers either from phone or mobile phone and the first reaction that comes to my mind is, how come they knew my number and information and able to call? I quickly assume that these people are scammers & cons & I immediately block them without engaging with them. If it happens that you are an Introvert, you wouldn't spend your time and energy to those cold callers that waste your time.

In this day and age scammers can do everything to get what they wanted, and we cannot always trust the random person who calls and provide our information to them during the initial stage. You don't know whatever motivation they have. We have to protect our privacy, confidentiality and even our own boundaries from these people. Even if they say that they are legit company, do not be complacent. Do some research and asked some people who received their services.

I am not saying that we have to ban this type of Real Estate tasks because there are some people who are still benefiting from it for instance, a seller is having difficulty in finding the buyer for the property either they are too busy with their work or other commitments, and it happens that they received a cold caller, and they have a win-to-win deal. For this to become a successful transaction it really depends on how you effectively communicate.

From what I have learned regarding Cold calling tasks, a realtor will go to the county office to get contacts of properties that are on the risk of foreclosure and as Real Estate VA, you do the calling one by one but the challenging part is you don't know which among them has the motivation to sell or buy.

If you are going to ask me if I prefer Cold Calling, I prefer an old school type of gathering leads for example I am at day care center for children and by chance I talked to some mothers expressing their interest of selling their property because of a divorce or relocation to a new place. They can see me personally, send them my business contact details and get their consent so once I called them, they know it is me.

Same thing applies if I attended property matter events in the community. I get to know them in person and preferences and from there we also get to know who has the motivation to buy or sell the property so once you contact them there wouldn't be a surprise.

There was this forum that I have read about Cold Calling and one of the responses from a realtor got my attention because what he said was if you got annoyed by Cold calling then that's your problem. His most of his Cold calling transactions might be all successful however if by chance he encounters someone who can sue him to the courts then what can he do? Will his company protect him with that?

If he is the one who receives cold calls day by day and those who are really so persistent in getting information about him, wouldn't he get annoyed by that and just let the day pass and say, it is okay? We couldn't pretend like that.

Although these people who don't like to receive these types of calls are minority, it doesn't mean that you will continuously disrespect their boundaries. According to some sources, Cold Calling is not illegal however there are also laws and restrictions on some states that they must be aware of for example Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. So, if these people put their names on "Do Not Call List" & you are still stubborn & call them then expect some consequences.

It is important that as a Real Estate Virtual Assistant, you have to be mindful of issues that can happen on Cold Calling. Asked your company or client of what measures they will just in case the receiver of the call sue you for doing it. If they can’t provide you a good answer, then you are at great risk & it is time to think if they are good company to work with in the long run.

It would be better to find leads using a different method and don’t require you to depend on Cold Calling a 100% or not at all. The other method might be on a slow process but if that guarantees the quality of service you are giving that in return can provide you a good value of prospects then that would be a great thing! When you are doing things in a right way, people will start to pick it up & will support you in many ways.

In this day & age I do feel that more people value on the inner peace at work wherein it doesn't give them any stress because someone sued them for the violation they have done. A good business respects people's boundaries, privacy & confidentiality.

Navigating Broker Price Opinion

Making property valuation through Broker Price Opinion (BPO) is one of the essential skills that realtors must have and same thing applies to real estate virtual assistant (REVA) because they are assisting the clients behind the scenes however for me who are still on the learning process of becoming a real estate virtual assistant, I was immediately informed that doing BPO tasks are tedious but once you get used to the process, it would be easy peasy.

In doing Broker Price Opinion as a student, I encounter some challenges.

The main thing that I am concerned when it comes to the challenges is through the lack of information or where to get the accurate and legit one. In order to get the accurate information, you need to be a licensed realtor to access the County website and also the MLS system. It is understandable that not all people can have access to County website either online or onsite due to privacy and confidentiality of the past and current owners of the property and there are potential risks that the information you acquire can be subjected for abuse. If you want to get information through onsite, you need to have information and undergo a process and rules as provided by the County office otherwise the misuse of information can result to violation.

As for MLS system, different realty firms are using a similar or a completely different MLS system and to get access it's only the realtor knows. I think using MLS system makes a Realty firm unique from the other, making services quick and get accurate information as possible however I also discovered that pulling comparable, it doesn’t have to be too complex, and you can actually do it from scratch. By knowing this, you can easily assess, plan and strategize even if the MLS system is not available.

Another thing is that is challenging for me as a student is to find out different MLS systems that are used by companies in real time and we need of more of hands-on approach of navigating it for example using a simulation version of the real one so we can practice. I also do feel that there are different scenarios when it comes to identifying whether the property is on Sales & Financing Concessions and Fee Simple and if you are lacking information or if there are discrepancies of it, it is difficult to provide a clear distinction for what the property is.

As for making adjustments, we were informed that the banks provide a standard guideline, and we have to make research of how much the property cost on average installing or repairing. The challenging part of this is each states have different pricing, and it can be also updating on a yearly basis so if you get the wrong information, it will affect your property valuation.

From my overall experience these are the challenges that I come up with and even though there are struggles once you finally completed it and aware of these challenges, it gives you more room of opportunity to improve. I do believe that as we gain more exposure of doing it, we understand about it deeply and develop our confidence and become effective in making property valuations for our clients and make right decisions after.