Luxury Real Estate

By Jim Walberg of Keller Williams Realty - The Bay Area Team

For the past several years the Rotary Club that I have been a member of since it was chartered in 1989 has distributed dictionaries to the 3^rd-graders of the San Ramon Unified School District. There were over 30 of our Rotary club members who participated in the distribution last week. David Behring, president of the Wheelchair Foundation, and myself assisted with the dictionary distribution at Tassajara Hills Elementary. David and I went into the 3^rd-grade classrooms to the delight of the students. As we were distributing them we had them help us look up words so they could learn how to navigate through the beautiful hardbound dictionary. Some of the words were “service”, “Gila monster”, and “impertinent”.. As a student would find the word they would raise their hand, then stand up and read the definition. I hope you agree with me when I say the love of reading is one of the most important skills a young student can learn. Dictionaries are intended to bring words to life, and as a resource for students to use for many years.

The idea for The Dictionary Project began in 1992 when Annie Plummer of Savannah, Georgia, gave 50 dictionaries to children who attended a school close to her home. Each year she continued to give this gift, raising money to help give more and more books so that in her lifetime she raised enough money to buy 17,000 dictionaries for children in Savannah. Early on, her project attracted the attention of Bonnie Beeferman of Hilton Head, S.C., who began a project of raising money by selling crafts to buy dictionaries for the schoolchildren of Hilton Head and the surrounding communities.

By 1995, Bonnie was getting so many requests from local teachers to be included in the project that she wrote a letter to the editor of the Charleston, S. C., newspaper explaining the project and asking for someone to help meet the requests from the Charleston area. Mary French, who was already an active school volunteer even though her two children were still of preschool age, read the letter and decided this was a project for her. Starting with a few schools in Charleston and Summerville, she realized quickly that providing dictionaries to all the students in Charleston was going to require serious fundraising. She and her husband Arno French formed a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit Association in 1995, along with a Board of Directors. Arno served as president, Mary became the director of the association, and The Dictionary Project was born.

Since 1995, over 11,668,293 children have received a dictionary thanks to the generosity of sponsors like our Rotary Club, who have participated in the Dictionary Project. We have chosen to focus on all the 3^rd- graders in our local school district so they can enjoy the benefits of a large vocabulary. In 2008, alone, there were 2,417,994 dictionaries given to students as gifts from organizations like Rotary and my local real estate agents. The goal of this program is to assist all students in completing the school year as good writers, active readers and creative thinkers by providing students with their own personal dictionary.

Most children do not own a dictionary, nor do they have access to one in their home. We selected the third graders as the group to provide them to each year since there are at the age at which dictionary skills are usually taught. It is a challenge for a student to do their best work without a dictionary. By providing this tool we are helping teachers as they are helping all their students become active readers, good writers, creative thinkers, and resourceful learners.

The Dictionary Project is now in 15 countries. If dictionaries are not being distributed to the 3^rd – graders in your community you may want to consider organizing a way for it to happen. Until next time…your East Bay lifestyle detective remains on duty! CLICK HERE if you would like information on any real estate services.

By John Brian Losh of LuxuryRealEstate.com

Another addition to my ongoing discussion of the principles I believe are required for success.

Hard Work: Preparation is extra work and pays dividends. Being prepared to work with a buyer or seller puts you miles ahead of the ‘ad-libber’.

Passion: Decide what you enjoy the most and build your practice to make yourself the expert. Your passion is apparent the moment an individual meets you.

Community: Go out of your way to make your new neighbor feel welcome and that neighbor will be forever grateful.

By John Brian Losh of LuxuryRealEstate.com

Passion: If you surround yourself with colleagues with equal passion for real estate, your power and abilities will far exceed a factor of ten. Surround yourself with success to achieve success.

By John Brian Losh of LuxuryRealEstate.com

Community: Give back to your community everyday. Thank God for our many blessings.

By John Brian Losh of LuxuryRealEstate.com

Passion: If real estate is in your blood, you are in business everyday.

By John Brian Losh of  LuxuryRealEstate.com

Hard Work: To succeed in the real estate business there is no substitute for hard work. If you are going to hold an Open House – go the extra mile and put out 5 more signs than you usually do. The one or two extra people you attract may make all the difference. Likewise if you are a buyer, learn the market, know value, and look for the extraordinary real estate agent.

Welcome to our New Member Mr. Karim Dalati in the Cayman Islands!

LuxuryRealEstate.com is proud to introduce our new member in the Cayman Islands.

Originally from Montreal, Canada, fluent in both English and French, Mr. Karim Dalati has over 10 years of real estate experience. With an eye for detail, and excellence, Mr. Dalati systematically makes certain of the total satisfaction of his international clientele while making property purchases in the Cayman Islands. In addition, Mr. Dalati’s clients also appreciate his utmost professionalism, personalized services and continued discretion. He can also assist clients with any investment opportunities in Montreal, Canada.

For more information regarding Mr. Karim Dalati’s luxury properties and the Cayman Islands, please feel free to visit http://century21cayman.com/en/team/view/info/1000394.html and/or contact him at karim@century21cayman.com.

About Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate:

Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate is an invitation only network representing the best luxury real estate firms and professionals from around the world. Each affiliated member is carefully selected to represent his/her market area. Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate also hosts the industry leading Website www.LuxuryRealEstate.com (a 2009 Webby Award Honoree).

By Meghan Barry of LuxuryRealEstate.com

I had the pleasure of meeting with the team from Marquette Turner Luxury Homes on a recent vacation to New Zealand and Australia. Michael Marquette, Simon Turner and Christine Watson were gracious hosts in Sydney, Australia. I always enjoy meeting with members around the world, and do so as often as possibly. It’s great to hear that they are doing business with so many other LRE members, many of whom they have connected with through the Luxury Lounge. Marquette Turner Luxury Homes has built an impressive reputation throughout the LRE network, and especially in their local community. It’s fantastic to be a part of their success.

Photographer, Ilya Moshenskiy, long time friend and partner with LuxuryRealEstate.com, has shared his time and talent with our community for years at LRE events. He now would like to share a link to some photographs that he says may be some of his "favorites". Please enjoy the fruits of Ilya's photo shoot of the recent Chelsea vs. Seattle Sounders soccer game that took place here in Seattle. Thanks, Ilya!

Click here!

By Jim Walberg of Caribbean Islands Realty

For the past two years the Virgin Islands Sustainable Farm Institute on St. Croix has been selected by the National Geographic Geotourism Challenge as a Top Ten Finalist out of 611 entrants from around the world. The VISFI is located on more than 100 acres in the rain forest of St. Croix.

The mission of VISFI is: To provide a working educational farm enterprise that integrates sustainability in education, environment, and community through quality instruction in Agroecology and related fields. The National Geographic Geotourism Challenge promotes innovations that benefit local communities and cultural landscapes in tourist destinations. The 2009 theme is “The Power of Place: Sustaining the Future of Destinations.”

The VISFI St. Croix project was chosen as one of the ten finalist by a panel of judges that included Nobel Peace Prize Winner Dr. Wangari Maathai, founder of the Green Belt Movement, and Keith Bellows, editor of National Geographic Traveler. “Our 2009 entry is about how farm-based education can be used in a structured format to teach about self-sustainability and cultural identity, and promote healthy development,” said Nate Olive, program co-founder and VISF program director. “The real winners of this program, regardless of the outcome of the contest, will be the children we interact with daily.”

The project is called Natural Mentors, a four-part program about nature survival, environmental awareness, organic-food production and mentoring relationships. More than 900 Virgin Island youth have participated in it this year. This program would not be possible without the cooperation of VISFI and Crucian Heritage and Nature Tourism (CHANT); Anne Marie Gibbs and students at Complex High School; the Community Foundation of the Virgin Islands; Lana Vento Charitable Trust; and the Virgin Islands Department of Tourism’s “My Community” program.

The VISFI program combines experiential learning, outdoor lecture, field laboratories, personal and group research projects, leadership development, and local environmental awareness. All of these pieces work together to create a comprehensive educational experience. The outcome for the participants is personal growth, self-awareness, and community development in each student relationship with agriculture and the environment. They promote healthy agriculture through intelligent, sustainable farm design coupled with environmentally conscious practices and principles. The outcome that VISFI is creating is family and community based agricultural enterprises that will be sustainable for all future generations.

In the future, VISFI hopes to create a global network of small farm and educational farm campuses to facilitate the sharing of information, ideas, and sustainable agriculture and resource management technologies. Representatives of the farm institute ask that people to go online and vote for VISFI. Votes may be cast through August 12th. The top three winners will each receive $5,000. Please support this important Geotourism Challenge. Until next time, your Caribbean lifestyle detective remains on duty.