In this week's fifth excerpt from SHIFT: How Top Agents Tackle Tough Times, Gary Keller shares "Tactic 2: Re-Margin Your Business," which teaches you that the number one determinant of surviving is expense management.

As Keller says, "To shift is to change. The market changes therefore you must change with it."

Click here to read this excerpt.

Advance pre-orders are available for Keller Williams associates only!

Click here to order your copies and save 45 percent off the cover price.

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While visiting all of the great booths in the Mega Camp 2008 Exhibit Hall, make sure to stop by the KW Cares booth. The KW Cares staff can answer all your questions about KW Cares grants and fundraisers, or about KW Cares in general. 

There will also be signature KW Cares products for sale: including the KW Cares incREDible t-shirts; KW Cares umbrellas; note cards and the KW Cares DVD: Take it to Heart. 

KW Cares t-shirts are the perfect attire for your market center’s fundraisers, and for those rainy days: an umbrella.

All items are also for sale on the KW Cares Website www.kwcares.org. 

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OutFront consistently brings you news and resources to ensure that you are knowledgeable about Keller Williams Realty's culture and best practices.

Be sure to stop by your market center to pick up your copy of the July/August issue which shares new insights from SHIFT author Gary Keller on the writing of the book.

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Visit Reed's Website

Author of:

An Agent's Guide to Financing Solutions

Mortgages 101

Mortgage Confidential

Getting a gift in the form of cold, hard cash to buy real estate is a wonderful thing. Gift funds are a common way parents help their kids buy a home, but there are certain requirements to follow to ensure the gift transfer goes smoothly.

What exactly is a cash gift? Technically, it is a transfer of funds from one party to another without any expectation of being paid back. This non-repayment factor is a key element because lenders can’t accurately calculate debt ratios if the gift is in fact a loan. How do lenders determine this? The “givers” are required to sign an affidavit stating that the funds being given are a gift with no repayment expectations.

Who can give a gift? Gifts can come from family members (parents, siblings or grandparents), non-profit agencies, local or state agencies, churches, domestic partners and trade unions. 

The party that furnishes the gift must show an “ability to give”, which means they have the money available in an account they own. This is documented by providing account statements showing the funds are available. Finally, it must also be documented that the gift funds were transferred from one party to the next and the lucky recipients (and future home buyers) must provide a bank statement showing the gift was received.

While the need for documentation might sound heavy-handed, the truth is lenders need to take every precaution to make sure that the “gift” isn’t a “loan.” So if you know what the lender expects ahead of time, the gift transfer can be seamless. Just remember, financial gifts over a certain limit may have income tax implications, so be sure and consult with an accountant or tax specialist before getting the mortgage process underway.

One final note to consider. Conventional loans differ from FHA programs in their requirements for reporting gifts to be used toward the purchase of a home. Buyers using conventional financing need to prove that they have at least 5 percent of their own funds in the purchase transaction. However, that requirement is waived if the gift represents more than 20 percent of the purchase price. The FHA loan, on the other hand, merely requires the buyers have at least $500 of their own money at closing, regardless of the amount of the gift.

Written by David Reed, Texas-based mortgage banker with more than 20 years experience

and author of Mortgages 101 and Mortgage Confidential.

Have a question? Contact David Reed.

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With years of experience and extensive knowledge, Dianna Kokoszka brings you two great free MAPS coaching calls which introduce you to some of MAPS Institutes's top Fast Track coaching programs.

Rising Stars includes mindset, scripts, working with buyers and sellers, lead generation while The Language of Sales teaches you how to reduce the challenges of knowing what to say and how to say it.

Click here to see our entire free call schedule. Each of these calls is a $49 value but MAPS is offering them to you for free!

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The Power Hour competition between team leaders to recruit the most cappers is getting tight as we move closer to the end of August. The winners will win a night's stay at either Mark Willis or Mary Tennant's house during Mega Camp 2008.

Here are the leading five market centers:

•         La Mesa / East County : Sheila Dine
•         Bayside, Queens : Allison Kettrick
•         Reno North : Melanie Kennemann
•         Indy Metro South : Rhonda Smith
•         Santa Clarita : Frank Crandall

Want to become a front runner? You still have time! Enter your numbers on the KW Intranet to earn your chance for a special sleepover with the dynamic duo.

"Power Hour has been such a lesson in accountability for me and for the entire market center," says Rhonda Smith, team leader at the Indy Metro South market center. As one of the top five market centers in the Power Hour contest, it has also been a huge factor in successfully recruiting new agents to the market center.

"Power Hour just gave me another reason to follow up with recruits who were already thinking about moving," says Smith. With the current market causing other offices to close within the Bargersville, Indiana area, the opportunity to recruit new agents suddenly became an option as well. "Being able to offer agents who just lost their business another chance with Keller Williams Realty is just magic – and dedicating one hour a day to calling them really made a huge difference in whether or not they actually moved," adds Smith.

One thing Smith has learned from the entire Power Hour contest is that "you absolutely have to start doing it. Each week I read about associates having huge success, but it wasn’t until I implemented it myself that I saw true results."

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KWConnect has been redesigned in response to your feedback and now offers improved navigation and searchability along with full-screen video downloads. 

To be launched at Mega Camp, KWConnect 2.0 includes a desktop application called My KWConnect which has the ability to push the latest training videos onto your computer for you to use in your training and recruiting meetings. As part of the initial launch, each market center will receive three free licenses for My KWConnect. Additional licenses will be available for associates to purchase for their own computers at a later date.

Want to learn more?

The Keller Williams Service Center is holding a 1-hour Web Conference to show you KWConnect 2.0. This conference has limited spaces and will be a first come first serve basis.

Date: Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Time: 3:00 - 4:00pm CDT

*If this is your first time attending a web conference, please:
1) Allow extra time to log in.
2) Ensure you are the ‘Administrator’ of the computer being used.

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