Contact Me
What I do
White Picket Fence Appraisals, Inc. is a premier provider of real estate appraisals and value reconciliations for bulk REO purchases. Our highly qualified certified appraisers provide professional valuation services for a broad range of needs. We are a leading provider of real estate valuations for Estate Tax Purposes, Divorce, Partial Interest, Condemnation and foreclosed properties being offered on a bulk REO tape. We offer on-line ordering, automatic status updates and electronic delivery of the valuation report/analysis. When you work with us you save time and money. To find out more, or to see a sample, visit our website: www.whitepicketfenceappraisals.com
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My Story
I was a senior in college and the only thing I knew for certain was that I didn't want to keep doing what I had been doing. My dreams of finding employment before graduation were a distant memory. It took me from May to February to come up with a new job description for myself. I wanted a flexible schedule. One that allowed me to go grocery shopping at noon on a Thursday. I wanted unlimited income potential. Something that would incentivize me to work more effectively. And I wanted to be paid to do something that I already did for free, like look at houses. A few weeks later, after I had written all of these things down, I saw an ad in the paper for real estate appraisers. I never knew I could run my own home based business while getting paid to look at people's homes. Jackpot!
- My passion:
- I am passionate about identifying my mental hangups and then shining a spotlight on them. It is very difficult to simultaneously hold onto your issues and acknowledge what they are costing you.
- Why I started my business:
- I started my business because I had no where else to go. I was tired of being contracted to work for other people, which left me with one other alternative...work for myself.
- Why I joined the M3 RACE:
- Being the sole decision maker for my business I wanted to be held accountable by someone other than myself. I figured, if I put my goals out there for everyone to see, then I will be accountable to the silent masses.
- Best business advice:
- It is not what you know, it is how you use what you know.
- My biggest challenge:
- Getting up in the morning knowing that I have an uncomfortable task ahead of me which might result in failure but pushing myself to do it anyway.
- What helps my business grow:
- Having a game plan helps my business grow. Before the M3 Race my only goal was to cover my expenses. However, now I dream much bigger and set goals. Just knowing what my goals are pulls my business to the next level.
- How I balance work/life:
- I make a list everyday of what tasks will most effectively contribute to the bottomline. After I do those tasks I stop working. Free time is my reward for pushing myself through discomfort.
- Within five years, my business will:
- Within 5 years my business will not require me to work in the day to day operations. I'll be free to focus on product development and training. All of the fun stuff.
- My professional affiliations:
- Linked IN
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My Daily Blog
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My tasks are having babies
October 30, 2009
Have you ever have one of those days where a seemingly simple task turns into an all day event? I hate it when that happens, but my tolerance for multiplying assignments seems to be getting shorter and shorter. I'm working on an assignment today and rather than just get through it I had to go through archived emails, make a note of all the product changes and then make corrections to the exisiting work completed. That's not so bad. So why then am I infuriated by the fact that I just can't just knock the task out? Why am I getting so upset about being a bit sidetracked? Why does any little detour make me want to quit the task all together? Maybe it is because I feel like I will NEVER get it done. But that is such a gross exaggeration. Where is this coming from?I'm noticing a trend in my behavior. The longer the project, the less likely I am to ever get started. This is not good for a business that has been forced to venture into unchartered territory which will require a lot of start-up/preliminary assignments. I guess the problem is I have a timeline in my head of how long every task should take. The moment it looks like I will not be able to complete the task in the allotted time I get discouraged.I start telling myself things like, "You'll never get done with this. What's the point? You're never going to use this? It won't matter if you don't finish. You're wasting your time. Do something else." And it amazes me how arbitrary the "something else" I opt to do is. Like cleaning out my inbox rather than compiling a client database. Hhhm. Maybe my desire to quit is actually the fear of failure in disguise. Maybe its not the expanding task that upets me as much as it is the feeling of being out of control. I don't like feeling like I misjudged a task because then what else am I wrong about? What if I just don't know what I'm doing? Well, then what's the point in trying if I'm just going to fail anyway? So I quit. I have quit a few half started projects that met there demise when I got to a question that I could not answer. I don't feel comfortable not knowing the next step. It puts me on edge and makes me antsy. How dare I be forced to WAIT for an answer. I want to know now. And not only that but I want the answer to the next three questions as well. Its a control thing. Ok, now that I know what the problem is, I feel better. How ironic!
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Was I productive?
October 22, 2009
Today has been one of those days where I have to keep reminding myself that there all kinds of productive. I should have known I was off to a rocky start when I didn't look at my to do list until 10am. To my surprise there were no mission critical tasks on the list. Just housekeeping stuff like filing papers and sending out emails. However, what wasn't on the list was mop the floors, wash dishes, do laundry, clean bathroom sinks and vacuum. Nevertheless, this is how I chose to spend the first two hours of my morning. It amazes me that even still I can't work in clutter. I always thought that as the business grew, I would outgrow this tendency to clean whenever the mood struck but I guess not. I repeart over and over again, if you don't do it now, you'd do it over the weekend. But that doesn't help since I never seem to want to work on Saturaday and Sunday to make up for the weekday cleaning. Since I work from home, the line between my workspace and homespace (if there is such a word) has blurred. As a result, I cannot focus unless the entire house is spic and span. But this causes a crisis of guilt. The I should's and I oughta's overrun my thoughts as I try to focus on cleaning out the lint tray in the dryer. I am often tempted to check email as I soap up the sponge and listen to voicemail while I have breakfast. But I've had to learn the hard way, beginning multiple tasks at once causes a sensory overload that can only be reversed by taking hours of time to decompress. And the whole problem is that I feel like there isn't enough time. Even though today is a light day. And even though I could get everything done on my list in two hours, I still have guilt about not doing some sort of work fidgit every hour of everyday. Do commuters feel this way or is this a byproduct of the virtual office?
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