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In a world teeming with technological advances, the real estate industry probably is closer to cutting edge than much of the corporate sector. Besides making heavy use of the Internet to list properties, communicate to clients and pursue professional credentials, realtors have taken software and hardware deployment to new levels.
The numbers bear this out. A survey from the National Association of Realtors (NAR) shows that 87 percent of real estate firms had Web sites as of 2004, with 97 percent of individual realtors using personal computers for their businesses.
Another NAR study estimates that 56 percent of member agents had spent an average of $1,000 apiece on technology by mid-2006, with 30 percent investing upwards of $2,000. The same report reveals an upswing in the use of automated transaction management systems, which monitor each step of the real estate process, rising from 13 percent in 2005 to 26 percent last year.
Sophisticated Solutions
Remarkable software systems are transforming how the
corporate sector does business, regardless of the product or
service. But the real estate industry seems to be enjoying an
abundance of riches from the tech trend. In fact, analysts
from The Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University have
identified more than 900 firms that currently produce
real-estate related software.
Applications range from routine operations, such as accounting and business administration, to more sophisticated mobility and multi-list functions. While it's impossible to explore all the possibilities in one article, a few product categories are worth a second look.
- Mapping software. No one needs to know where a property is located - and the best way to get there - more often than a real estate pro. For under $10 (and up to $300), realtors can access comprehensive road atlases and detailed maps on lap- or desktop computers, as well as on their PDAs (personal digital assistants). Users likewise can combine demographic databases with mapping software, thus providing one-keystroke access to additional details about geographic areas, such as resident profiles, average area income, school information, retail patterns, churches, commercial activity and more. This sort of bundled information comes in handy when potential buyers have questions about neighborhood particulars.
- PDA perks. PDAs have been the realtor's friend
for a long time now, but today's software add-ons really
can launch handhelds into orbit. Besides the traditional
programs that come (e.g. calculator, scheduler and
synchronization software) with most models, some brands
boast full-feature mini-versions of top-name operating
systems, such as Windows. The big news, though, is the
assortment of newer programs designed expressly for PDAs.
Functions include financial analysis, MLS utilization,
graphic display (for property viewing), loan calculation
and property appraisal. Prices for the most popular
products start at under $20 and top out at about
- Multiple Listing Services (MLS). Today's MLS - a database that allows brokers to share with realtors information about sellers' properties - is an Internet tool critical to the industry. Though realtors must subscribe to MLS, typically for a fee, a wide range of Web-based software is available to help them maximize the service's usefulness. One of the most innovative products on today's market employs a voice recognition component. Here's how it works: A potential buyer spots an attractive home for sale, either on the street or on a realtor's Web site. He wants to know more, so he picks up the phone and dials the listed number. The customer then is prompted to say the street address and MLS number or listing code of the property in question. The program matches this information to the appropriate listing, and the caller gets the information he's after. Not only can realtors determine exactly what they want callers to know, they also can add customized comments. Changing settings, information and passwords, done via the Internet, is a simple process. In fact, most service providers offer generous technical support.
Hardware Happenings
If avant-garde software is changing the real estate business,
hardware development clearly has kept pace - with "mobility"
the operative word.
- GPS technology. Probably the most familiar of these tools is the GPS, for which mapping programs serve as the foundation. GPS units operate from signals beamed from satellites to cars. Drivers then receive verbal directions guiding them from one location to the next, a particularly valuable tool for agents who handle listings in large geographic areas. Some models even include large screens that superimpose street maps to accompany spoken instructions. Many newer cars come with factory-installed GPS, but add-ons are relatively inexpensive. Prices start at less than $200 ranging to more than $1,000.
- Smartphones. A smartphone typically integrates the features of mobile phones, PDAs and other electronic information tools, allowing real estate agents, in effect, to carry their offices with them. Wireless functions like calling, secure e-mailing, text messaging, instant messaging and Web connection play an important rule when a realtor needs to get a potential buyer property data on the fly. The basic smartphone features miniature keyboards and touch screens, though some brands offer full-size keyboards with slide-away storage. Depending on the choice of hardware and software, costs run between a few hundred dollars and to around $1,000.
- Mobile printers. These lightweight, wireless printers likely are the handiest gadgets to come along in the last few years. Realtors don't have to leave their cars to print contracts, floor plans and reports from laptops and PDAs. Many models even allow photo printing directly from digital cameras and memory cards perfect for showing property pictures to a client. These units are affordable, too, some costing as little as $225.
Sales & Marketing [top]
The high-stakes game of selling property attracts many people to the real estate profession every year. Despite the job's fair number of demands and challenges, the potential payout often lures sales-savvy folks into the business. At last check, the U.S. Department of Labor counted approximately 460,000 real estate brokers and sales agents nationwide. While the industry appears stocked with workers, only the best post "SOLD" signs on a regular basis. The latest data from the Department of Labor lists the median annual earnings of salaried real estate sales agents, including commissions, at $35,670.
Currently, some of the most experienced real estate outfits rely on hi-tech marketing techniques to pump up their sales figures. Particularly in commercial property, certain firms use interactive CD-ROMs to promote already-existing buildings and future projects. Simply by loading the CD-ROM into their computer, potential buyers take a virtual tour of the structure at hand. These popular tools, often created and sold by Web design companies, help real estate firms showcase a property's architectural features and amenities. In addition, the CD often provides vital information, such as floor plan dimensions and pricing options. In short, the targeted buyer possesses all of the selling points in a convenient, portable format.
In some cases, real estate firms include the CD-ROMs in media packages, while others download the presentations onto their Web sites for easy client accessibility.
Taking the Lead
A number of real estate associations and organizations offer
lead generation services for agents looking to
dig up potential business. Essentially, home shoppers visit
the industry group's Web site in search of available
properties, or an agent in their area. The visitor usually
lists their name, current home address, phone number and
e-mail. The association or organization then sends the info
to the agent subscriber, who may pick and choose the leads
they wish to pursue.
Before purchasing a lead generation service, however, agents should find out the number of monthly visitors to the site. Moreover, make sure the lead provider filters the information, ensuring only quality leads. All too often, agents order such services only to experience a low conversion rate. In certain instances, this occurs because the provider does not frequently update the leads or verify their credibility.
Accelerated Marketing
Since real estate professionals spend a share of their work
week driving from one sale property to the next,
customized vehicle magnets let them advertise
on the go. Sometimes called magnetic tags, these removable
signs usually post an agent's Web address, logo or firm's
name. Either way, many industry pundits say the marketing
tools present an affordable way to brand an agent or company.
Depending on the design, customized vehicle magnets usually
cost about $40. Marketing companies that provide such tags
usually work with the agent to select font type, color, size
and more.
A Picture is Worth
For decades, real estate agents and firms have used listing
brochures, post cards, flyers and other printed materials to
show available homes and buildings. Today, these methods
still represent a practical approach to drawing interested
buyers. Folks in the market for a house, condo or commercial
space usually turn to these resources in their search.
Real estate printing companies sell a wide
range of products designed to shine the spotlight on
available properties, as well as agent services.
As far as postcards go, most real estate printing companies sell them by bulk, usually for less than $400 for 1,000. This fee tends to include design, materials, printing and mailing. Listing brochures and flyers often cost more. On average, these printed documents sell for no less than 75 cents per page. Still, they provide the potential client with much more info. For instance, brochures and flyers usually list room dimensions, types of construction materials, the year the house was built, amenities, pricing, the address and more.
Outside Help
According to recent findings by the Department of Labor,
about six out of 10 real estate agents and brokers were self
employed. Challenged by a competitive industry and a
fluctuating real estate market, most don't even have time to
set up the proper sales and marketing infrastructure. For
those faced with such a predicament, real estate
assistants aim to lend a helping hand. Such
professionals, usually associated with a larger PR firm,
provide a range of services. These might include:
Office Support: Real estate assistants often handle appointment scheduling, calendar maintenance, courtesy calls to clients, correspondence emails/ mail, and much more.
Marketing Plan: Real estate assistants sometimes establish a sales strategy based on the specific market at hand, send promotional mailings to prospective clients and update Web promo content and design.
Database Management: Depending on the extent of the services, real estate assistants might create or handle already-existing databases. With this, they constantly update client information, verify data, set up address labels for mailings, trouble shoot to reveal how they can improve the current system and more.
Listing Support: Real estate assistants often help the agent or broker coordinate listing services. Usually, they research publishing options and handling all contractual dealings with the listing service. They also work with the publication to provide the necessary materials; current property photos, info, etc.
Closing Support: Real estate assistants sometimes provide guidance for agents looking to close a deal. This tends to involve clerical work and file maintenance from contract to closing, as well as coordinating all closing process activities.
Customer Service [top]
Any company aiming to stay in business must make its customers happy. In the real estate industry, this can be a thorny process, because selling or buying a property means big bucks, legal intricacies, and often lengthy client-realtor relationships.
Even so, the basics of solid customer relations haven't changed much over the years. The difference is, today's realtors can enhance client service with a few high-tech tricks. The most successful real estate operations consistently employ key strategies blending both cyber and personal elements.
- Use CRM software. While customer relations management software has been around a few years, some products specifically target the real estate profession. The best of these gives brokers everything they need to know about their customers in easily accessible databanks. The goal: To enhance client service by increasing an agent or broker's accuracy, efficiency and productivity. Functions may include asset and lease management; client contact information, financial records and transaction history; correspondence and document generation; automated telephone and electronic communication; and synchronicity with hardware such as desk and laptop computers. As is the case with most software genres, prices fluctuate widely - starting under $100 for off-the-shelf programs and running into the thousands for Web-based, subscription and fully supported systems.
- Go for a customer-friendly Web site. The great majority of real estate companies own Web sites, but not all achieve the same standard of customer service. In addition to full information regarding agents and listed properties, some of the most effective pages give clients (both existing and potential) free, value-added benefits. Some leading companies, for instance, allow registered users to review, critique or comment on any of the properties listed on their Web sites. Besides providing valuable feedback to the realtor, the input also serves as bargaining leverage (and sometimes, a reality check) for the potential buyer or seller. Other firms offer a free downloadable tool designed to display property information directly on a computer's desktop. After entering specifications on exactly what type of real estate they're looking for, buyers receive the latest listings without the bother of time-consuming Internet searches. Certain real estate firms even offer mortgage payment calculators, weekly real estate tips, loan status updates, neighborhood and school district information, community calendars and local government resources. Web page content providers usually offer these sorts of upgrades on a subscription basis, with prepaid annual fees starting around $50 for single components, and more for partial or full packages.
- Be courteous and professional. Industry research has identified several characteristics clients seek in their realtors, brokers and agents. These are reliability, assurance (that is, trustworthiness and competence), empathy and responsiveness. Customers want to be comfortable with their real estate company's image, as well. Employees, office space and PR materials should always reflect the business in a positive manner.
- Require that employees build customer satisfaction. The biggest producers in the real estate business enlist their staffs in improving client relations. This isn't hard to do when bonuses or other rewards are the incentives. But sometimes, sharing client feedback, good or bad, is what it takes to improve the bottom line. Some of the more successful firms, for example, distribute comprehensive surveys to all customers at the end of every completed transaction. After reviewing the findings with managers, the results often are passed along to the sales force. By seeing the responses firsthand, agents know exactly how to gear their performance for optimal client satisfaction. Other firms use survey results to cultivate positive client relationships. When feedback is unsatisfactory, the firm's owner personally reviews results with the appropriate agent. Then, the two collaborate on strategies to either improve the situation, or to make sure it doesn't happen again.
- Handle irate clients graciously. In a perfect
world, business carries on without a glitch, and the
customer's always happy. The truth is, however, even the
best companies must deal with disgruntled clients from time
to time. The key to navigating these situations unscathed
lies in a few simple tactics:
Never ignore complaints. Even a minor grievance from a single client may indicate a habit or behavior the realtor needs to address.
Take the client's perspective. Some customer complaints lack validity from the realtor's point of view. Nonetheless, clients wouldn't be griping if they didn't think they had a point. Rather than react defensively, the savvy realtor will try to see the issue as the client does.
Listen. Clients appreciate a sympathetic listener, even if their complaint is unfounded. When the customer is right, an open mind and a closed mouth can help a realtor learn from mistakes.
Promise carefully. Too often, realtors dealing with angry customers promise solutions impossible to deliver. Thorough research of a problem or complaint before taking action allows more focused, realistic and effective corrective measures.
Staffing & Employment [top]
What type of Real Estate business do you have or want? Did you purchase an existing firm or start from scratch? Have you ventured beyond the residential real estate market in any specialty transactions like commercial property purchases or leases? Distressed/foreclosed properties management? Have you added property management to your residential brokerage book of business? Marketed yourself as a consultant for real estate investors? Have you formed a strategic alliance with an architectural firm, especially if you are in the renovating/flipping business, too? Have you ventured into being a licensed Appraiser? Mortgage Broker? Your answers to these real estate business "scope" questions will greatly affect how and where you start looking for the talent you will need to be a successful real estate firm.
Unless you have a clear idea of what your real estate business' "sweet spot" is or will become, it will be difficult for you to plan and build for the future, including determining the number and types of people and the skill sets you will need to support your anticipated book of business. As was hinted in the above questioning, you will need to decide if you want a covey of Real Estate Agents who can do almost everything or if you will engage specialists because you want to have a diversified offering. In the geographical market you serve, how have you made yourself different form al your competitors? Is there a segment of the market you serve better than your competition? Have you capitalized on this advantage? Is there a geography or type of property that you do well at representing because it is your "sweet spot"? Are there other brokers or agents "out there" whom you admire? Have you "gone after" them?
Unlike a lot of other small businesses, real estate is different in two ways, especially as it relates to your people costs. First, except for maybe an office assistant who helps you keep track of the business end of your brokerage and do things like compiling and mailing documents to clients, brokers, lawyers, mortgage companies, etc., all of the people you "hire" are on commission and act as independent contractors, so you don't have to worry about payroll, taxes, benefits, and the legalities of being an employer with your agents. Also, most agents have their own cell phones, lap tops, I-pads, etc., and do not need or work from an office. So, the size of your physical gathering place may be just enough for have a couple of client meetings going on simultaneously and doesn't have to be sized to accommodate the 25 agents who are part of your brokerage The biggest challenge you will have is keeping all your agents satisfied as they learn about the different terms & conditions each of them have with you (and, by-the-way, this knowledge of what everyone's deal is with you will become "common knowledge", so you are encouraged to have a defensible "rhyme & reason" why one agent gets a bigger percentage of the "sales price commission" than another—usually based on length of experience or a "running" earned commission/sales record). Truly, being paid a commission is the original form of "pay-for-performance", so just make sure to keep it consistent and you will avoid lots of problems with your agents.
The key position in any real estate business is the Real Estate Broker. If you are starting the office (or buying an existing business) in all likelihood you have been a licensed/practicing real estate agent for some time and have decided to take the next big step. Sometimes, though, owners are not licensed real estate brokers, so one must be hired. Of course, without a licensed real estate broker, no business can be legally transacted in most states.
Next is the office assistant—the one position that may be a "classically paid" employee where all the issues of the employer/employee relationship arise (taxes, benefits, wage reporting to the state, etc.). Don't underestimate the need for someone who is there to make sure everything gets done that needs to get done to keep your business (and probably your marketing campaign/image) running smoothly.
Agents—where and what kind of people are you looking for? If you're just getting started, you'll probably want experienced people so that your firm develops a sterling reputation in terms of your ability to successfully conclude both sides of the real estate transaction. Once established, you may want to add new/trainable agents so that you can both "mold" your team in your own image as well as having more favorable commission agreements with the newer agents for that the firm's cash flow from transactions is better than paying up to 75% of you sales price commission to the agent.
All the other "specialties" associated with some brokerages, are things that you can decide to make a part of your business offering or not. Usually, so as to minimize the start-up cost of acquisition/training, once you decide to get into a specialty, you are more likely than not going to go out and recruit the "specialist" you need (who has an established reputation in your market), so that you have instant credibility and capability. Again, because most of these "specialist" have earned, commission based compensation, so as long as you are getting a piece of the action and the marketing/start-up costs can be recovered in a reasonable timeframe, adding new capabilities is not a huge gamble because the cost is in the expert you engage on a commission basis to add the capability to your firm.
Once you have defined the talent you need, it is time to assemble the "agents" who will make you successful. If you have been in the real estate business in the geography you are now serving, you know who the good ones are. Go after them directly. Also, with today's social media, using your private list of key contacts by simply letting them know you are looking for good "agent" talent will probably satisfy your needs faster than you might imagine. The same is also probably true for your office assistant. You can also use your search engine to query "employment agencies near {zip code}". Not only will you get names of a variety of hiring agencies (aka "headhunters") that can relatively quickly provide you with suitable candidates at a reasonable cost, but you will also see a number of boards on which you may post your "opening" at virtually no cost. If you use this tool, be prepared for an avalanche of candidates—the point being, be selective.
In today's world, it is also a "must" to make certain that every person you are hiring (or engaging) is fully fluent, functional, trained, and adept at using today's tools to perform work in a virtual world. This training should include knowing how to maintain the integrity of e-files, systems, e-storage, and all forms of communication medium so that the integrity of your clients' and business' information/data, especially financial information, is uncompromised.
How do you find the talent you need? Please refer to the Human Resource for suggestions. This information provides additional ideas on where and how to recruit the talent you need.
Billing & Accounts Receivable [top]
The billing process garners most of the money that feeds American business and industry coffers. But in real estate, cash flow all too often chokes up somewhere between property sales and commission checks, leaving accounts receivable ravenous for the next meal. This frustrating state of affairs plagues large and small firms alike, and the numbers bear this out.
Cash Crunches
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, both
brokers and agents nationwide made decent money in 2005,
averaging $76,930 and $52,090 respectively. Yet some sources
estimate that the annual turnover rate in the industry as a
whole runs from around 45 percent to as high as 80
Certainly, long work hours, market fluctuations and legions of competitors scrambling for commissions contribute to the problem. Nonetheless, a number of industry insiders suggest that inability to effectively manage cash flow in a business that rides on commissions can leave agents and brokers out in the cold. The news isn't all bad, however. A few solid strategies applied to cash flow management can keep a real estate company solvent across the sales cycle.
Start On The Inside
From realtors and brokers to economists and analysts,
pundits agree that steady cash flow begins in the office.
Fortunately, getting on track typically means making a few
simple adjustments. The following tactics are excellent first
steps toward solvency:
- Put finances on paper. List all monthly fiscal activity, including revenue sources, receivables, expenses and debts. Hundreds of software accounting programs – some less than $100 – make the process relatively simple, even for agents with limited computer savvy.
- Watch the pennies. Industry insiders say
tracking small, sometimes unnecessary, business purchases
can go a long way toward plugging budgetary leaks. On the
long term, limiting administrative expenses for a
predetermined period – a year perhaps – can
help boost and stabilize cash flow.
An example: Advertising costs can drain company operating monies. Experts suggest going with those media that produce the biggest return (i.e. leads) on the investment. - Look at bank charges. Fees and surcharges may seem negligible on a month-to-month basis, but over time, these nibbles take big bites out of the operating budget. Contribute more cash to the flow by shopping for lower rates and for small- or no-fee deals, sometimes available to established businesses.
- Distinguish between bank and cash balances. Relying on bank statements to manage cash flow is a great way to go out of business. Always reconcile actual payables and receivables to what the hard copy or online account statement indicates. Again, a range of business software packages now available can assist with this chore.
- Don't mix personal and business cash. This may sound simplistic, but a number of experts point out that smaller and start-up operations sometimes fall into the trap of using their own credit or bank accounts for business expenses. The reason – personal bank accounts frequently provide entrepreneurs the revenues required for start-up costs, while personal plastic pays for computers, software, furniture and other supplies. Continuing this unwise practice for extended periods muddies financial records – at the very least rendering it well-nigh impossible to analyze and budget cash flow.
- Make cash flow projections. Once every accounting "i" is dotted and "t" is crossed, it is critical to estimate and project cash flow for at least a six-month period. Doing so allows realtors to plan for peaks and shortfalls within a timely framework, thus diminishing the chances of a fiscal crisis down the road.
Facts On Factoring
In an ideal world, the proper financial maneuvers would
stabilize cash flow and keep the receivables column in tiptop
condition. But in the real estate industry,
"ideal" is not the norm. Now and then, a company
simply must spend money before the commission check
Several analysts suggest that factoring can free up cash even before a deal closes. In a nutshell, factoring is the buying of accounts receivable at a discount (by a finance company, for instance), allowing realtors to be paid on the spot rather than waiting a month or more for their earnings. Cash-flow assured, they can then (theoretically) refocus their energies on building sales and ensuring customer satisfaction.
Overall, factors typically pay in two stages: the majority of cash on the initial advance, and the balance delivered upon commission payment. Depending on the situation, fees can run from 2 percent up to 5 percent. On the rise industry-wide since the late 1990s, factoring is a boon for real estate professionals, mostly because financing options in this sector are otherwise limited.
Even so, factoring is not for everyone and definitely is not a quick-fix for nonessential or personal expenses. For these reasons, experts say that consulting a credentialed financial professional before entering into any agreement is critical.
The International Factoring Association Web site, www.factoring.org, likewise provides a wealth of information – including an extensive list of factors – and is well worth a visit.
Vendor Relations & Purchasing [top]
The business of selling property requires people skills, persuasiveness and plenty of marketing materials. At last check, the nation's real estate brokers and sales agents accounted for more than 450,000 jobs, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. While pros in the field technically are vendors – property vendors that is – they also must deal with a fair share of suppliers themselves. If only to stay ahead of the competition, realtors routinely place orders for personal campaign items. Brochures, postcards, Web sites, calendars and more – it's all about getting the agent's name in front of potential buyers.
Still, not every promotional supply vendor provides the same quality products as advertised. Much like the house that looks good in a newspaper photo, but disappoints up close – certain real estate marketing materials also amount to nothing more than a money pit. For this reason, real estate agents should be very careful when selecting a vendor to essentially brand their identity. Low cost does not compensate for poor quality when trying to make a good impression. All too often, agents order marketing supplies in bulk based on the cheapest price. In the end, they're stuck handing out sub-par merchandise, potentially lowering people's expectations of the houses that agent represents.
As is the case with nearly all property, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is just that. The bullets below highlight some good rules of thumb when shopping for a marketing materials vendor.
- First and foremost, make sure to review the vendors experience and portfolio. Some of the more popular promotional product suppliers offer customer referrals, a good sign. Also, find out how long the business has existed. The last thing an agent wants to deal with is a young company overwhelmed by a particular order. In the same regard, ensure that the supplies will be delivered in a timely fashion. In an industry based on flipping property as quickly as possible, punctuality is everything when it comes to marketing materials.
- There are many one or two person operations that claim
to provide marketing support materials geared toward the
real estate industry. While a good number of these smaller
vendors do provide the same high-quality products as a
major supplier, others clearly are in over their heads. In
short, anyone with fairly inexpensive software and a
printer can claim to be a guru in designing marketing
tools. Agents really need to research the business before
cutting a check. One method to gage a vendor's eye for
appealing merchandise is to log onto their Web site.
If it looks like an aesthetic disaster, there's probably a good chance their promotional products won't be any better. As self-proclaimed specialists in the field of real estate advertising, they should know that the layout of their Web site reflects on their product. If they fail to recognize this when it comes to attracting their own clients, what's to say they won't do the same when it comes to attracting yours? - Some of the larger online vendors serve as one-stop shops for all real estate needs. While they do sell marketing materials, they also offer Web design, provide lock boxes, calculators, clipboards, education books, etc. These all-in-one operations are perfect for the real estate newcomer that might not know where to search for materials, or what materials are even needed for that matter. Some of these suppliers also offer weekly specials and deals based on purchase size.
Take Advantage Of Great Bargains, Easy
Vendors catering to real estate professionals know that
their target market only looks to grow in the future. Still,
competition is fierce, and many online suppliers do what they
can to stand out from the others. Because of this, agents
need to shop around before settling on a particular provider.
Many suppliers offer special deals for registered shoppers.
Some even scratch shipping fees when a customer orders a
certain amount of product. To make the online shopping
experience all the more beneficial, a number of vendors now
tout monthly closeout specials, reducing the cost of products
drastically. By simply creating a personal account with
certain vendors, the realtor can shop, keep track of order
status and view past purchases in a matter of seconds. In a
hectic field that keeps its professionals running from one
sales property to the next, such one-click solutions make all
the difference.
Real Estate Insurance [top]
By Marita Bon
Real estate agents and brokers personify the phrase "small business" at its most basic. Typically flying solo, with perhaps an office worker or two, these professionals are on their own when it comes to protecting corporate assets and income from financial catastrophe. In fact, the most recent statistics from the National Association of Realtors reveal that fully 83 percent of its members act as independent contractors. This means a lot of folks with minimal benefits, no sick time and no insurance - unless they provide for it themselves.
Given this, real estate pros, especially newly-minted ones, should secure their interests with the same care as would any other entrepreneur. This means consulting a business-insurance expert long before planting a "For Sale" sign in front of that first home or office complex. Once the appointment is on the calendar, consider making the following insurance areas part of the agenda.
Business Owners Policies: Covering the Bases
The Insurance Information Institute, a nonprofit organization dedicated to public education on that topic, suggests that a Business Owners Policy or BOP offers a reasonably priced, effective means of providing key coverage for small real estate offices. Most BOPs include:
- Property insurance: Buildings, office equipment, inventory
- Business interruption insurance: Revenue loss when operations shut down or slow due to property damage
- Casualty protection: Physical harm or property damage ensuing from employee actions or products
- Crime insurance: Financial loss due to robbery, vandalism or in-house white collar criminal acts
- Liability insurance: Lawsuits due to accidents on company premises or during company activities
- Vehicle coverage: Damage to or theft of rented or borrowed cars and trucks
Keep in mind - BOPS offer solid solutions, but they don't take care of everything. Floods, earthquakes, owned vehicles and specialized liabilities typically don't make the cut. Workers compensation and life, health and disability insurance likewise require separate policies.
Property Insurance: From Soup to Nuts
In addition to protecting office structures and inside equipment, property policies can be expanded to include coverage of outdoor fixtures (e.g. storage sheds) and appliances such as snow blowers and lawnmowers. Other types of property coverage are:
- Ordinance or Law: Reimburses construction costs entailed by legally-mandated demolition of an unharmed section of an insured structure.
- Debris Removal: Increases the insurance limit (usually $5,000) to pay for debris removal (e.g. broken glass, destroyed shrubbery) on a covered property.
- Signs Coverage: Insures electrical signs against accidental damage.
- Boiler and Machinery Insurance: Reimburses loss or damage resulting from failure of air conditioning, electrical appliances and other equipment.
Liability Insurance: Blame Can Cost Money
While standard BOPS include liability insurance, the nature of the real estate business makes the purchase of specialized policies a good idea. Two additional options are:
- Errors and Omissions Insurance: Protects the insured when a lawsuit charges mistaken actions or failure to act, thus resulting in injury to the claimant.
Example: A realtor forgets to tell his potential buyer that the front porch has a loose floor board. The client trips and breaks an ankle.
- Umbrella Liability Insurance: Covers what BOPs or general liability do not. These policies kick in when underlying coverage runs out, with certain parameters required to qualify for purchase. According to an I.I.I. report, costs for the first $1 million in coverage run between $150 and $300 a year. Additional increments have lower price tickets.
Business Vehicle Insurance: Your Company Rides On It
Since realtors practically live in their cars, obtaining adequate vehicle insurance is a must. While it's true that personal automobile policies provide some degree of coverage for business-related driving, this does not apply when personal vehicles are primarily business "tools." By the same token, private policies do not protect company-owned cars and trucks, but business vehicle policies do.
Another consideration: When a realtor uses a personal vehicle to transport clients to listed properties (or to any job-related location), he or she is vulnerable to litigation in the event of an accident with injuries. It is imperative to have enough coverage in place to prevent a costly lawsuit from sinking the business.
Workers Compensation Insurance
Laws regulating worker's compensation differ somewhat from state to state, but one thing is true across the board: BOPs do not include this protection. While most realtors and brokers run very small offices, insurance industry pundits suggest that those employing three or more staff seek guidance from their respective state departments of workers compensation.
Health Insurance: Big Costs, Big Issues
Industry analysts have penned millions of words around the issue of health insurance for real estate industry professionals. Not surprisingly, the biggest challenge continues to be the prohibitive cost of coverage; and because most realtors run solo businesses, they do not qualify for lower group rates. Statistics from the National Association of Realtors reveals that of 1.3 million members, 28 percent do not have health insurance. The good new is that the NAR has made government advocacy regarding this dilemma a major part of its mission.
Because health coverage - indeed ANY insurance - is a major business investment, the right agent can make the purchase process both easier and less expensive. Look for a professional who is:
- Fully credentialed according to state and professional regulations
- Willing to explain policies in detail and answer all related questions
- Committed to finding the most comprehensive, cost-effective protection
- Agreeable to a regular policy review and update
- Easily accessible via telephone or e-mail.
Real Estate Communication [top]
By Marita Bon
Real estate professionals simply do not fear technology. Alright, that's a bit of an overstatement. But the fact remains - desktop computers and cell phones have been industry tools since the day they hit the market; and the numbers bear this out. A recent National Association of Realtors report reveals that 95 percent of realtors own and use a PC, while 95 percent use a mobile phone.
Moreover, what successful realtor hasn't used the Internet to list properties, post information and do research? Not many. According to the same study, a whopping 89 percent of these pros own or utilize a company Web site to conduct business. NAR research likewise indicates that most of its members plan their annual budgets with a line for technology purchases.
As a leading domestic diva would say, all that's "a good thing" - because today's mobile communications manufacturers continue to produce a dizzying array of hardware and software designed to go just about anywhere. Real estate pros hustling for the next sale no longer have to take calls in theirs car, only to rush back to the office to enter data or surf the Net.
Wireless PDAs, Smartphones and new, multidimensional software makes doing business on the road a matter of routine. Here's a rundown on the hottest products out there.
PDAs and Smartphones: Look Ma, No Wires!
Personal Digital Assistants, or PDAs, hit the market in the early 1990s, with Smartphones following a few years later. In a nutshell, a PDA is a handheld computer that manages a host of administrative tools, among them contact lists, appointment calendars, word processors, calculators and day planners. Wireless PDAs take these simple functions into a new dimension, featuring Web browsing and e-mail capabilities. Price points for these gadgets are reasonable, ranging from less than $100 to 400-plus.
A Smartphone (sort of a PDA on steroids) combines cell phone technology with features such as information access, scheduling, e-mail, pager, touch screen, text messaging, Internet, voice recognition, organizer, camera, video player, and the list goes on. Like their wireless PDA cousins, information entered on the road (an offer on a property for instance) can be synchronized with the office computer, often in real time. Several excellent models are available for $400 to $800.
Software: Watch What These Babies Can Do!
For tech aficionados, today's PDA software industry makes sure every day is Christmas. Real estate pros have hundreds of industry-related programs at their disposal, some starting for under $100. Better yet, many higher end packages offer free online support or subscription services for a nominal fee. Here are just a few samples of what the market has to offer:
- Client/Property/Transaction Management: This software genre, generally compatible with most PDAs and Smartphones, tracks listings, closings, sellers and buyers, as well as commissions and lockboxes. It maintains document files, records promotions and open houses, and tracks ongoing offer sequences. Some brands provide quick access to local MLS data.
- Commission/Accounting Management: Sometimes bundled with other products, this software automatically tracks commission details, and also handles franchise and referral fees, deductions and splits. Commission estimates are calculated on projected closing dates and estimated sales prices. A good number of programs offer fully functional accounting systems.
- GPS software functions by signals sent by the Global Positioning System, a network of 24 orbiting satellites which "talk" with ground receivers to pinpoint geographic location. GPS-enabled PDAs and Smartphones can provide voice-guided turn-by-turn directions; re-calculate missed turns; find gas stations with the lowest prices; save favorite routes and locations; display moving maps; and perform dozens of other navigator chores. Some leading providers offer annual subscriptions (including software) for around $50.
Get More Mileage from Your Mobile Gadget
Slick as mobile devices are, some real-estate experts are quick to point out that many realtors don't take full advantage of PDA and Smartphone capabilities. The following quick tricks can make day-to-day field operations much more efficient:
- Instant message. Communicate in real time with clients who shy away from phone calls, but love the written word.
- Do a "small screen" presentation. Put together a slide show on various listings using inexpensive presentation software (under $30). Have these visuals available for client previewing when on a "house-scouting" drive.
- Research. Don't waste time between showings. Visit http://ebooks.REALTOR.org to download hundreds of titles on a range of industry topics.
- File business literature. Save promotional materials on handhelds to print at a moment's notice - even when you're away from the office.


text:
Is your PC not running as "fast" as you expected?
Typically, most Window users who come to me regarding their computer running slow have too many programs running on start up (i.e. whenever the computer is turned on...). Whenever you buy a new laptop or desktop from companies like Dell or HP, they have a lot of their own software installed by default, and these programs run everytime you turn on your PC. Overtime, as you buy new software, or install free software such as Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, your PC's start up menu becomes a beastly list of programs that you don't need to run whenever booting up. Not only does this take longer whenever logging into Windows the first time, it makes the entire experience a slower one.
NOTE: You will need to be logged in with an administrative account.
For Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP:
1. Hit the start menu button in the bottom left corner of the screen or hit the Window key on your keyboard.
2. Type MSCONFIG and hit enter.
3. At the top of the pop up window, hit the Startup tab.
4. Uncheck any unwanted programs. This will not delete your program, but simply remove it from whenever your computer boots up.
5. Click Apply and OK. You will need to restart your PC. You should see the following prompt:
Once you have performed these actions, you should definitely see an improvement. If you still do not see an increase in your computer's speed, I recommend a hardware upgrade on your RAM (Random Access Memory).
NOTE: Please be careful and not remove any necessary system programs (e.g. System32 files). Peform these steps are your own risk. Z5 Concepts will not be held liable and is not responsible for the actions you take in following this tutorial.
Tags: Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Computer, PC, Computer Speed, Increase Computer Speed
Troubleshooting | Windows 7 | Windows PC | Windows Vista | Windows XP
Copyright © 2012 Z5 Concepts, LLC. All rights reserved.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Introduction: Music Patronage As a "Female-Centered Cultural Process"
1. David Schiff, "The Bounds of Music: The Strange New Direction of Musical Criticism," New Republic , 3 February 1992, 32-37. [BACK]
2. See Women in Music , ed. Carol Neuls-Bates (New York: Harper & Row, 1982); Women Making Music , ed. Jane Bowers and Judith Tick (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1986) Women and Music in Cross-Cultural Perspective , ed. Ellen Koskoff (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1987); Marcia Citron's wide-ranging Gender and the Musical Canon (New York: Oxford University Press, 1993); Women and Music: A History , ed. Karin Pendle (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991) and the rich bibliography therein; and the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers , ed. Julie Anne Sadie and Rhian Samuel (New York: Norton, 1994). A recent overview of the literature on women and music is Susan C. Cook and Judy S. Tsou, "Introduction: 'Bright Cecilia'," in Cecilia Reclaimed: Feminist Perspectives on Gender and Music , ed. Cook and Tsou (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1994)1-14. See also Margaret Ericson, Women and Music: A Selective Annotated Bibliography on Women and Gender Issues in Music (New York: G. K. Hall, 1996). [BACK]
3. Jazz, for example, shows—especially in recent decades—many of the features of an almost recherché "high-art" tradition, in the sociologist's sense of the term; rock music is performed in concert and is often, in its own way, serious; and many Broadway musicals and Hollywood movies rely on fully notated and orchestrated scores no less than do operas and oratorios. [BACK]
4. For further discussion of the terminological issue (and some arguments in defense of the term "Western art music"), see the first half of Chapter 10 below, or the fuller version: Ralph P. Locke, "Music Lovers, Patrons, and the 'Sacralization' of American Culture," Nineteenth-Century Music 17 (1993-94): 149-73, and 18 (1994-95): 83-84. Richard Crawford has recently offered a new dichotomy: Beethoven's symphonies are a "composer's music" as opposed to various types of "performer's music," such as jazz. See his The American Musical Landscape (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 41-107, 250-303. [BACK]
5. See excerpts from etiquette manuals, in Elizabeth Aldrich, From the Ballroom to Hell: Grace and Folly in Nineteenth-Century Dance (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 1991), 125-28; see also two articles by Julia Eklund Koza: "Music Instruction in the Nineteenth Century: Views from Godey's Lady Book , 1830-77," Journal of Research in Music Education 38 (1990): 245-57, and "Music and the Feminine Sphere: Images of Women as Musicians in Godey's Lady Book , 1830-77," Musical Quarterly 75 (1991): 103-29. The evidence gathered and sorted by Aldrich and Koza—and by Judith Tick in her magisterial American Women Composers before 1870 (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI Research Press, 1983), reprint, with a new preface by Ruth A. Solie (Rochester, N.Y.: University of Rochester Press, 1996)—serves to reinforce the basic arguments of Ann Douglas, The Feminization of American Culture (New York: Knopf, 1977), a book that focuses almost entirely on literary evidence (including sermons). Further on American women and "art" music, see chapters by Adrienne Fried Block and by J. Michele Edwards in Women and Music , ed. Pendle, 142-72 and 211-57 (additional chapters treat American women working in popular music and jazz), and by Block and by Bonny H. Miller in Cecilia Reclaimed , ed. Cook and Tsou, 107-33 and 156-82. Basic to any research on these topics are Donald W. Krummel, Jean Geil, Doris J. Dyen, and Deane L. Root, Resources of American Music History: A Directory of Source Materials from Colonial Times to World War II (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1981); Women in American Music: A Bibliography of Music and Literature , ed. Adrienne Fried Block and Carol Neuls-Bates (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979); The New Grove Dictionary of American Music , ed. H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, 4 vols. (New York: Macmillan, 1986); and the New Grove Dictionary of Women Composers . [BACK]
6. Harold T. Randolph, "The Feminization of Music," Music Teachers National Association Proceedings , 17th ser. (1922): 194-200, quoted in Catherine Parsons Smith, "'A Distinguishing Virility': On Feminism and Modernism in American Art Music," in Cecilia Reclaimed , ed. Cook and Tsou, 90-106. Among other distressed male musicians was the critic-composer Deems Taylor (best known today for his later role as the narrator in Walt Disney's Fantasia ): "this well-nigh complete feminization of music is bad for it . . . [and] aggravates our already exaggerated tendency to demand that art be edifying" (quoted by Smith, from Taylor's article "Music," in Civilization in the United States , ed. Harold Stearns [New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1922], 211). [BACK]
7. Among twentieth-century performers, singers often have written memoirs, e.g., Nellie Melba and Beverly Sills, and recent years have seen fine, detailed books published on Callas's recorded legacy and on the violinist Maud Powell. No fewer than three excellent books are now available on the pedagogue and conductor Nadia Boulanger. Performers in the nineteenth century were also often composers (and were often pedagogues, too). See Nancy B. Reich, Clara Schumann: The Artist and the Woman (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1985); also other studies cited in Reich's "European Composers and Musicians, ca. 1800-1890" and in Marcia J. Citron, "European Composers and Musicians, 1880-1918," both of which are chapters in Women and Music , ed. Pendle, 97-122 and 123-72. Oddly the twentieth-century chapters in Pendle's book (except those on popular music) focus almost exclusively on composers; the net result is that the book leaves unmentioned some of the most prominent, influential, and (to some extent) well-paid musicians, including world-renowned instrumentalists (e.g., Myra Hess, Clara Haskil, Marie-Claire Alain, women in string quartets) and opera singers (Callas, Marian Anderson, Kirsten Flagstad, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Christa Ludwig, Leontyne Price, Joan Sutherland, Marilyn Home). On the omission of teachers and patrons, see n. 18. [BACK]
8. Lubov Keefer's Music Angels: A Thousand Years of Patronage (Baltimore: Sutherland Press, 1976) is engaging but uncritical and error-ridden. (American patrons of dance, symphony, and the like are discussed on pp. 157-84. The earlier chapters owe much to standard reference works and perhaps also to Sophie Drinker's idiosyncratic but insightful Music and Women , a work discussed in Chapter 9 below.) Much shorter but more reliable (and carefully documented) is Linda Whitesitt, "Women's Support and Encouragement of Music and Musicians," in Women and Music , ed. Pendle, 301-13. The brief attention given various patrons of turn-of-the-century American composers in Nicholas E. Tawa's The Coming of Age of American Art Music: New England's Classical Romanticists (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991), esp. 17-19, 35-37, is a step in the right direction; see also Victor Fell Yellin's review in Music Library Association Notes 48 (1991-92): 1237-41. [BACK]
9. Several of these, including one by Marc Blitzstein, are discussed in Chapter 8, and several more (by Sinclair Lewis et al.) are mentioned in Chapter 10. Samuel R. Rosenbaum, an important figure in classical-music life in the 1950s and 1960s, shared with his readers a "popular anecdote" (i.e., a supposed rib-tickler) to the effect that in America the love affair between a musician and a wealthy woman results not in a baby (as would be the case in Europe) but in a new symphony orchestra ("Financial Evolution of the Orchestra," in The American Symphony Orchestra , ed. Henry Swoboda [New York: Basic Books, 1967], 172). [BACK]
10. The tendency of scholars to ignore, at least until very recently, unpaid "cultural work" in music (and also ill-paid work within the music profession, such as that of the private piano teacher, referred to in a later paragraph) is apparent at a glance in "An Annotated Bibliography of Recent Writings on Women in Music," compiled by Nancy Reich and others for Women's Studies / Women's Status , CMS Report 5 (Boulder, Colo.: College Music Society, 1988), 3-77. Some valuable work on music patronage through the ages (in Europe and America) is summarized in Whitesitt, "Women's Support." A fascinating collection of studies on patronage in and outside of music, in different times and places, is Paying the Piper: Causes and Consequences of Art Patronage , ed. Judith Huggins Balfe (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1993). Private arts patronage of course overlaps with several other topics that are receiving increasing attention from social scientists, notably the function of private foundations and the overall problem of arts funding (private, corporate, foundations, and government). See Dick Netzer's classic study, The Subsidized Muse: Public Support for the Arts in the United States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1978), as well as several more recent sources: James Heilbrun and Charles M. Grey, The Economics of Art and Culture: An American Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993); America's Wealthy and the Future of Foundations , ed. Teresa Odendahl ([New Haven?]: Foundation Center and Council on Foundations, 1987); The Costs of Culture: Patterns and Prospects of Private Arts Patronage , ed. Margaret Jane Wyszomirski and Pat Clubb (New York: American Council for the Arts, 1989); Who's to Pay for the Arts? The International Search for Models of Arts Support , ed. Milton C. Cummings, Jr., and J. Mark Davidson Schuster (New York: American Council for the Arts, 1989); and The Arts in the World Economy: Public Policy and Private Philanthropy for a Global Cultural Community , ed. Olin Robison, Robert Freeman, and Charles A. Riley II (Hanover, N.H.: University Press of New England, 1994). On women's art clubs, see n. 38 (studies by McCarthy and by Blair). [BACK]
11. See Rose Rosengard Subotnik, "Individualism in Western Art Music and Its Cultural Costs," in her Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1991), 239-64. An analogy may be seen in the area of social policy: ever since the Civil War, union leaders, veterans' groups, and women's voluntary organizations, although they take no part in the state apparatus, have helped shape—i.e., have to some extent driven or "made"—federal programs, for example by pressing the government to establish pensions for soldiers and their widows—see Theda Skocpol, Protecting Soldiers and Mothers: The Political Origins of Social Policy in the United States (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press, 1992). In this book, Skocpol moves from the "state-centered" model of her earlier writings to a "polity-centered" model, as Alan Brinkley notes in his review ( New York Review of Books , 26 May 1994, 40); should we, then, be speaking of music's "polity"—its whole network of interested and influence-wielding parties? [BACK]
12. Higginson's letters were published a year after his death, and Kahn's story has been often and well told in numerous histories of the Met, as well as in Mary Jane Matz, The Many Live's of Otto Kahn (New York: Pendragon Press, 1984) and John Kobler, Otto the Magnificent: The Life of Otto Kahn (New York: Scribner, 1988). Paul Fromm's activities have long been chronicled by himself and others (see, notably, A Life for New Music: Selected Papers of Paul Fromm , ed. David Gable and Christoph Wolff [Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Department of Music, 1988]). A not atypical example of how this gender imbalance in the historical record filters down is Milton Goldin's The Music Merchants ([New York?]: Macmillan, 1969), which divides the history of America's musical institutions into three ages, those of impresarios (e.g., soprano Jenny Lind's tours in the nineteenth century), patrons (who established the big orchestras and opera companies), and organizers (of such modern institutions as New York's Lincoln Center, or the National Endowment for the Arts). The patron is represented by two institutions, the Boston Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera; the former was founded and funded by a single man (Higginson), but here the Met, too, becomes the story of one male individual's (Kahn's) devotion, although the institution's continuing strength throughout the century can hardly be discussed meaningfully without reference to Mrs. August Belmont and the women of the Met Guild. [BACK]
13. Judith Tick, review of The Musical Woman , vol. 2, American Music 8 (1990): 238. [BACK]
14. The Musical Woman: An International Perspective , 3 vols. to date (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1984-). [BACK]
15. Organized music making in America today includes such things as group singing in scouts and teen clubs, hymn singing in places of worship, amateur and student choruses (including doo-wop and vocal jazz ensembles), gospel choirs, barbershop-type groups (e.g., Sweet Adelines), musical comedies in colleges and elsewhere, town bands, community orchestras, and amateur rock or country bands. This is not an insignificant list of activities, but it still involves as participants a small percentage of the adult population; a far greater number, one suspects, neither play an instrument nor lift their voices in song in the presence of another person, except on a few social occasions (lullabies, Christmas carols, karaoke and "Happy Birthday" at parties). And, of course, few of the activities listed in this note involve Western art music. [BACK]
16. School music programs, it is often said, may do more harm than good. But that is surely no reason to ignore them. Quite the contrary, we need to be better informed about the work that those who run such programs do, the circumstances in which they labor, and—to the extent that school music programs are detrimental—what we might do to renovate them. [BACK]
17. An article in the third volume of The Musical Woman does treat public-school music. Consistent with the emphasis in the series, it focuses on the increasing presence of music by women composers (e.g., Lili Boulanger, sister of Nadia) in the schools, rather than on the women teachers themselves and their efforts and struggles, much less the parents (largely female) who fight for funding (or, in certain towns, increasingly, raise the funds themselves) to keep the music programs alive. [BACK]
18. Similarly, but more explicitly, patrons, music therapists, and women active in music education, administration, publishing, and recording are excluded from J. Michele Edwards's chapter "North America since 1920" in Women and Music , ed. Pendle, 211-57; the reason given is that "additional research" is needed (p. 253). But at least their existence is noted, as it is not in analogous chapters on Britain and Europe. [BACK]
19. As the cultural historian George Martin has bluntly noted, "Some men like to mock the women's committees [of the orchestras, opera companies, and choral societies]. These men are fools. In the United States the role of women in the support and spread of music has been vital" (George Martin, The Damrosch Dynasty: America's First Family of Music [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1983], 135; and see detailed documentation on p. 455, n. 26). [BACK]
20. Barry D. Karl and Stanley N. Katz, "Foundations and Ruling Class Elites," Daedalus 116, no. 1 (Winter 1987): 38-89. [BACK]
21. See Nicholas Fox Weber's delightful, perceptive Patron Saints: Five Rebels Who Opened America to a New Art, 1928-1943 (New York: Knopf, 1992): "this book is about believers" (p. 363). [BACK]
22. Weber ( Patron Saints ) discusses Lincoln Kirstein and Edward Warburg's work for modern (visual) art but also, in some detail, their building of modern ballet in America (with Balanchine, Stravinsky, and others); he also explores at length A. Everett Austin's funding of the premiere of Virgil Thomson's widely heralded "Negro" opera Four Saints in Three Acts (to a text by Gertrude Stein). See also (on Kirstein and other German-Jewish and WASP members of "Uptown Bohemia") Thomas Bender, New York Intellect: A History of Intellectual Life in New York City, from 1750 to the Beginnings of Our Own Time (New York: Knopf, 1987), 324-41. [BACK]
23. Brooke Astor's campaign for Manhattan neighborhoods was explored in the New York Times Magazine , 17 November 1991, 40-43, 68, 72. Hull House even had its music and theater activities: see Hilda Satt Polacheck, I Came a Stranger: The Story of a Hull-House Girl , ed. Dena J. Polacheck Epstein (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1989), e.g., 80, 105, 107, 109-25. [BACK]
24. Under "networking" we would also include recognizing the obligations that come with one's privileged position. The first symphonic broadcasts of a major orchestra, the New York Philharmonic, took place in 1922 when Ira Hirschmann proposed to Felix Fuld, his boss at the department store L. Bamberger & Co. (which owned and operated station WOR) that $15,000 a season was a small cost for the good publicity it would generate. Fuld rejected it as "a damn fool idea," but Mrs. Fuld, having learned of the plan from her husband, phoned Hirschmann the next morning and told him to go ahead. "She ended the conversation with the admonition, 'Remember this, young man, men have no imagina- soft
tion.'" Part of what may have convinced Mrs. Fuld was her husband's report that a dozen young female members of the clerical staff had told Fuld that they would indeed listen to such broadcasts (Hirschmann, Obligato: Untold Tales from a Life with Music [New York: Fromm International, 1994], 6-7). [BACK]
25. See Judith Tick, "Charles Ives and Gender Ideology," in Musicology and Difference , ed. Ruth A. Solie (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1993), 83-106. [BACK]
26. Joan Wallach Scott, "Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis," in her Gender and the Politics of History (New York: Columbia University Press, 1988), 28-50, esp. 40-41, regarding Carol Gilligan. At the same time, though, we hope that the term "women's sphere" does not come to be rejected outright by scholars. Given that it clearly reflected, and reflects, many people's experience of social reality, it seems to us a "trope"—the term is Linda K. Kerber's—that may still be helpful. (Kerber, in contrast, goes on to argue that this trope's day is past: "Separate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman's Place: The Rhetoric of Women's History," Journal of American History 75 [1988]: 9-39, quotation from p. 39.) Jane Rendall explores alternatives to the "sphere" metaphor but then admits that it is particularly well suited to (and was indeed used by) middle-class people in nineteenth-century Europe and the United States ("Nineteenth-Century Feminism and the Separation of Spheres: Reflections on the Public/Private Dichotomy," in Moving On: New Perspectives on the Women's Movement , ed. Tayo Andreasen, Anette Borchorst, Drude Dahlerup, Eva Lous, and Hanne Rimmen Nielsen [Århus, Denmark: Århus University Press, 1991], 17-37).
Still, scholars must seek to locate the woman's "sphere" in a precise ideological or evidentiary context (as we endeavor to do in this book) and must never forget that the real divisions between men's and women's realms can easily mask the interdependence of those realms. Janet Wolff rightly emphasizes the constraining effects of the women's "sphere" on the lives of real (middle-class) women and argues cogently for the complicity of "culture"—literature, the arts, and leisure activities—in its construction ( Feminine Sentences: Essays on Women and Culture [Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990], esp. 12-33). On the interdependence of gender realms, even in such apparently male-dominated areas as foreign policy and the military, see Cynthia Enloe, Bananas, Beaches, and Bases: Making Feminist Sense of International Politics (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), and Gendering War Talk , ed. Miriam Cooke and Angela Woollacott (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993). [BACK]
27. See Myriam Chimènes, "La Princesse Edmond de Polignac et la création musicale," in La Musique et le pouvoir , ed. Hugues Dufourt and Joël-Marie Fauquet (Paris: Aux amateurs de livres, 1987), 125-45, and Jeanice Brooks, "Nadia Boulanger and the Salon of the Princesse de Polignac" Journal of the American Musicological Society 46 (1993): 415-68. [BACK]
28. Brief information on these and two dozen more of America's most prominent women music patrons (e.g., Marian MacDowell, Martha Baird Rockefeller) is given in Whitesitt, "Women's Support." Tully's largesse, it should be added, was often bestowed anonymously through the Maya Corporation, which she founded. Concerning Belmont, Patrick J. Smith writes: "[T]he [Met] Guild, the almost single-handed creation of the dynamic Mrs. August Belmont, helped shore up the finances of the house in the later 1930s and was vital in channeling the enthusiasm of less affluent operagoers" ( A Year at the Met [New York: Knopf, 1983], 71). Belmont's friend Mary Ellis Peltz organized and administered the Met Archive for years, without pay, and founded and edited the Guild's widely respected magazine Opera News . Dissertations on Minneapolis and St. Paul are listed in Women's Studies / Women's Status , 68-69 (nos. 189, 207); a dissertation on Elise Boyer Hall is no. 222 (p. 71). Another major figure is the composer Eleanor Everest Freer, who funded the annual David Bispham Medal honoring the best new opera composed in the English language; see Sylvia Miller Eversole, "Eleanor Everest Freer: Her Life and Music" (Ph.D. diss., City University of New York, 1992). Leon Botstein draws attention to yet another crucial patron, the founder of what later became the New York City Opera (a house dedicated to performing American opera and, in its early decades, opera in English translation): "Subjects for Debate: Women and Patronage in Music: Remembering Helen Huntington Hull (1893-1976)," Musical Quarterly 78 (1994): 641-45. [BACK]
29. "Unlike Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, Gertrude Clark Whittall is remembered less for fostering new music than for preserving old music. . . . [Her Strads, in their display cases in the Whittall Pavilion] have tended . . . to reify the traditional string quartet repertory played at the Library of Congress" (Joseph Kerman, "In Memory of Gertrude Clark Whittall," unpublished address given on the fiftieth anniversary of the concert series sponsored by Whittall at the Library of Congress, May 1987). [BACK]
30. See Anthony Rooley, "On Patronage: 'Musick, that mind-tempering art'," in Companion to Contemporary Musical Thought , 2 vols., ed. John Paynter, Tim Howell, Richard Orton, and Peter Seymour (London: Routledge, 1992), 1: 226-47. [BACK]
31. Nancy F. Cott, "What's in a Name: The Limits of Social Feminism, or Expanding the Vocabulary of Women's History," Journal of American History 76 (1989): 809-29. See also various detailed studies of aspects of volunteering and social policy: J. Stanley Lemons, The Woman Citizen: Social Feminism in the 1920s (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1973); Gertrude Himmelfarb, Poverty and Compassion: The Moral Imagination of the Late Victorians (New York: Knopf, 1991); Theda Skocpol, Social Policy in the United States: Future Possibilities in Historical Perspective (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995); and Michael B. Katz, Improving Poor People: The Welfare State, the "Underclass," and Urban Schools as History (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995). The literature on voluntarism generally is surveyed in William H. Brackney, Christian Voluntarism in Britain and North America: A Bibliography and Critical Assessment (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1995). [BACK]
32. Lori D. Ginzberg, Women and the Work of Benevolence: Morality, Politics, and Class in the Nineteenth-Century United States (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1990). See also Sarah Deutsch, "Learning to Talk More Like a Man: Boston Women in Class-Bridging Organizations, 1870-1940," American Historical Review 97 (1991-92): 379-404. More generally, Anne Firor Scott's Natural Allies: Women's Associations in American History (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991) well states the case for taking the work of women's institutions seriously, see review by Lois W. Banner, American Historical Review 98 (1992-93); 225-26. [BACK]
33. Wendy Kaminer, Women Volunteering: The Pleasure, Pain, and Politics of Unpaid Work from 1830 to the Present (Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Press, 1984), 5. [BACK]
34. Ibid., xvi. [BACK]
35. "About half of the 124 active volunteers on the Parental Stress Line are not parents. . . . And about 80 percent of them are women" (René Becker, "Volunteers," Boston Magazine 80, no. 12 [December 1988]: 204). [BACK]
36. Kaminer, Women Volunteering , xiv-xvii. Particularly interesting are two interviews by Kaminer with women who volunteered in the arts and then went on to political organizing (e.g., disarmament, desegregation, reproductive choice), 79-84, 113-21. Further comments from deeply committed (and/or self-glorifying—see Chapter 10 below) volunteers and social-agency board members are given in Susan A. Ostrander, Women of the Upper Class (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1984), 111-39. [BACK]
37. We are also disregarding for the moment the enormous contributions made in recent decades by the Ford Foundation, say, or the National Endowment for the Arts. The latter, we note, is no faceless bureaucracy but rather has often been guided and publicly validated by prominent and determined women, e.g., Nancy Hanks, Joan Mondale, and, recently, Barbra Streisand. [BACK]
38. Similar patterns are found in art clubs and other women's groups: see Kathleen D. McCarthy, Women's Culture: American Philanthropy and Art 1830-1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press), 49, and Karen J. Blair, The Torchbearers: Women and Their Amateur Arts Associations in America, 1890-1930 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1994). We might note an irony: women have had to fight the reputation of being unable to work cooperatively. This and other ancient prejudices were regularly noted and combated in Women in Music , the newsletter edited by Frédérique Petrides, the conductor of the pathbreaking Orchestrette Classique. All 37 issues are reprinted in facsimile in Jan Bell Groh, Evening the Score: Women in Music and the Legacy of Frédérique Petrides (Fayetteville: University of Arkansas Press, 1991). [BACK]
39. Symptomatic is the treatment of women patrons in New Grove Dictionary of American Music . The encyclopedia was originally scheduled to include an article on patronage, but the idea was scrapped, we are told, when the editors finally realized that not enough basic research existed. The justly praised article on "Women in [American] Music" by Judith Tick, though, does refer to the work of Jeannette Thurber, and there are entries on Thurber and a few other patrons (e.g., Coolidge, Gardner, Walton). [BACK]
40. Richard Crawford, "Studying American Music," Institute for Studies of American Music Newsletter 14, no. 2 (May 1985), 1-2, 10-13, quotation from p. 11. [BACK]
41. Pamela Perry, "The Role of Women as Patrons of Music in Connecticut during the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries" (DMA thesis, University of Hartford, 1986), [iv]; Catherine Parsons Smith, "Founding the Hollywood Bowl," American Music 11 (1993): 206-42. Another possible case of substitution is discussed in Vignette F, n. 10; the beneficiary in that case was Igor Stravinsky (in Europe), the money American. Of course, many women's contributions to American musical life and institutions have been honestly admitted from the start, .g., that of Jeanne Wynne Estes and Ruth Porter Doster, two early proponents of Bach choirs in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (see Raymond Walters, The Bethlehem Bach Choir: An Historical and Interpretive Sketch [Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1918], 44-46, 204, 212-13, 215; and, confirming Estes's importance, Robin Leaver, "New Light on the Pre-History of the Bach Choir of Bethlehem, Bach: The Journal of the Riemenschneider Bach Institute 12 [1991], no. 2: 24-34). [BACK]
42. In March 1990, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum lost a dozen precious art works in a widely reported burglary. The Tapestry Room, in which concerts have been held for decades, is the upper half of the original concert hall (see Chapter 3). [BACK]
43. This naming question (should we say "Mrs. H. H. A. Beach" or "Amy Beach"?) foregrounds the irresolvable tension between historically authentic terminology and present-day usage, as do analogous questions (e.g., "Negro," "Black," "black American," "African-American"). [BACK]
44. Carolyn G. Heilbrun, Writing a Woman's Life (New York: Norton, 1988), 22 (summarizing, in part, Patricia Spacks). [BACK]
45. Anthony Tommasini, Virgil Thomson's Musical Portraits (New York: Pendragon Press, 1986), 101, 110, 112, 115 (the "rock-bound"—Thomson's phrase—Constance Askew), 124, 139-40 (Guggenheim quotation), 151, 179, 196. Could Guggenheim have been amusing herself with the tart comments in Thomson's ch. 7 on the effects of private patronage on a composer's style? "Composers living on subsidies personal or impersonal [e.g., governmental], it reads, "tend to write introspective music of strained harmonic texture and emphatic instrumental style. . . . They think of themselves . . . as persecuted men. Appearing to be persecuted is, of course, their way of earning their living" (Virgil Thomson, The State of Music [1939; rev. ed., New York: Vintage Books, 1962], 90-91). [BACK]


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8" Matsunichi Digital Photo Frame $54
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Luxe Fit Tee
Item# 5052094
Free Shipping with $125 Purchase
- A wardrobe essential, in fashion and basic colors
- Soft stretch jersey with scoopneck
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- 95% Rayon/5% Spandex
- Machine wash, gentle cycle
- Imported
I hope this tee stays available forever. It is perfection. I have many, many of the white one and two in black. I have not yet worn the black one but the white one goes with everything and really flatters my figure. Runs a little small so I wear the medium.
November 2, 2013
Perfect Tee
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Thank you for the question! The length of this tee is 26 and 1/2 inches.1 week, 3 days ago
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-Gry- Sat, 07/02/11 - 11:22 AM
incase you didn't know here's Stephen by Ke$ha offical music video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk7vFBIm-kw I wish i was Stephen
Thanks for posting this I haven't seeen it yet. c:
I Love The Music Video!!!!
you wish you were stephen? the guy who wouldnt pay attention to her so she left him, wrote a song meant to degrade him, and calls him a "douchebag" with a "small penis" in interviews and on stage? lol


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Man Spends Life Savings To Look Like Justin Bieber
A Los Angeles man did something most of us would be unthinkable. He listened to an entire Justin Bieber record. Actually he never says if he has done that but what he does say is that Justin Bieber has the most flawless face he has ever seen. Yeah, well just wait until Justin hits puberty because then we will see how it looks. The man spent $100,000 which represented his entire life savings just to look like Bieber. The 33 year old man says he is thrilled with the way he looks and I'm sure 12 year old girls must be swarming over him now. I'm guessing that judging by his old photos that he spent his other life savings trying to look like a cross between Zach Morris and Andy Warhol with a splash of Liza Minelli.
Does heat least use a belt on his pants and walk without being carried?


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Home | What's new | Contacts
The ICRC mission in Japan
The ICRC's Tokyo office focuses on enhancing humanitarian debate in Tokyo, contributing towards Japan's foreign policy on humanitarian issues and seeking political and financial support from the Japanese government. It works closely with the Japanese Red Cross Society on public relations, to promote the teaching of humanitarian law and recruit Japanese delegates for the ICRC's international operations.
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Scholar and Honors Programs
Ithaca College students do tremendous things to shape the world around them.
The Office of Student Engagement and Multicultural Affairs recognizes the excellence, drive, and energy our students bring to the Ithaca College community.
We oversee several prestigious scholars programs that help prepare future leaders for their important work beyond their time at Ithaca College. Just as importantly, we strive to acknowledge the work they do while they are here.
To learn more about scholars and honors opportunities with the Office of Student Engagement and Multicultural Affairs, please e-mail email@example.com or call 607-274-3222.


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What evidence or studies suggest or confirm the idea that human multitasking, i.e. people attempting to perform several tasks at once, is harmful to productivity? Is there any evidence to the contrary?
Great blog post on this topic by Joel Spolsky: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000022.html Explains the concept of why multitasking damages productivity in a very clear way. | |||
Yes. Basically, everytime you are multitasking you are actually context-switching which is generally less productive in the long run. Have a look at: http://www.amazon.com/Myth-Multitasking-Doing-Gets-Nothing/dp/0470372257 | |||
You will want to read Flow. Basically, in order to achieve the state of optimum productivity, you need some wind up time in the beginning to get into it. Just as an example, let's say you need 20 minutes of windup to get to peak productivity. If you frequently switch between different tasks, that means more of your work time is spent on the "windup" rather than optimal productivity. The book has studies to back this up. | |||
Definitely harmful. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_multitasking:
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There are no user reviews for this movie. Be the first to review this movie!
JaneHellYeahFR Guilt trip was a great movie! Hahaha. Will let my kuya and mom to see this one.
11 hours ago.
katarnett Watched the Guilt Trip. Or as it will now be called "people who spied on my mother and made a movie about it".
5 days ago.
cashcabforcutie Just watched the movie Guilt Trip, whose basic premise was "What if your mom was a manic pixie dream girl?"
JakeFarnum117 @Jessluvsyhuu lol she was waking up on that movie "Guilt Trip" haha!
6 days ago.
Shawky1969 @whiskeyrich @ryanmoviefan @OldDarkHouse For me even After Earth was ok compared to this and Scary Movie 5, guilt trip and Texas C 3D
Holiday Movie Guide Check out what other films are in theaters this holiday season!


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Part 2: Fremont Peak
The lower third of the 12-mile climb is shaded and hot but cooler, much cooler than what's to come. Growing views of the valley below fade and pop. Moisture is sucked, stolen, lost. We are riding into the sky on a metamorphic path edged in craggy granite and marble. T i m e b e g i n s t o d r a g a n d b l u r w i t h n o e n d i n s i g h t. Cruel double digit grades rush to one-up each other with each next pitch. Tick-tack, pant. Greg and Ryan head off. Greg is riding like a champion. Unstoppable. Graceful, fluid and heroic. Aaron chases after them. Hahn and Cole, like a cruel carrot, float ahead then sink back, ahead, then back. It's not a mountain it's a mount, this climb is a pilgrimage. A paved catharsis.
The top comes slowly, so slowly, on the far side of several false flats and a number of misleading descents. It's crowded with trees, covered in shade and teaming with mosquitoes. But going down is a rush, like learning to fly or skiing for the first time. An hour of torture and hallucinations for this 10-minute bobsled plummet, full of rushing camber, bank and twist. The thinest of snaky roads between you and hundreds of miles of valley stretching out in every direction thousands of feet below you. Is worth it.
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"After the gravel road downhill we end up in an abandoned basketball court changing flats. And who should ride by, from a completely different direction than the way we had just come? The seven foot Sri Lankan." – Greg Johnson
"If that tall dude had been riding a Dutch cargo bike it would have been lighter. But you could see he was just having the time of his life. The situation was, is, a touchstone – I mean clearly equipment doesn't dictate or limit or necessarily enhance your ability to have a pleasurable or satisfactory bike ride." - Hahn Rossman
"With everyone already posturing for the climb and nobody likely to wait for me, I decide to eat everything in my pockets and drink all my water at once. And as soon as we come out of the trees and the road turns steep my legs and wits come back. The road is the closest thing to a European mountain I've ever been on. Crazy steep switchbacks and so narrow." – Greg Johnson
"Out in front it was the three of us, but then Aaron flated. Greg, the sleeper, just attacked it and it was all I could do to just hang on. I was feeling good but he just kept ramping ahead, eventually I had to let him go. I'm not sure when it was but it was sometime later that weekend, when I found out that he had switched his cranks to compact earlier that week. He was still superman but that at least explains his spin." - Ryan Thomson


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3 Meetup Groups match "HTML" near Lenexa, KS
Lawrence Coders is a group of web design and development professionals who either live or work in the Lawrence, Kansas area.
There are no upcoming Meetups.
UpFront aims to deliver real world examples of front end technologies that you can apply to your workflow today. By attending events, you'll become a better developer and can network with other likeminded people around Kansas City. UpFront isn't only for front end developers. Managers and back end developers may find the content of the meetings valuable to their own work.
There are no upcoming Meetups.
We are an official Adobe community. We focus on all web technologies and design. This includes CSS, jQuery, User Experience Design, Flash, Dreamweaver and much more. It is free to join, you must be a member to enjoy any swag or software from Adobe. We meet on the 2nd Tuesday of every month at JCCC at 12345 College Bvld, OPKS, 66210 on the 2nd floor of the Regnier Technology Center next to the new museum.
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3 Meetup Groups match "Punjabi Language" near Alexandria, VA
Meetup details are available only to members.
Calling all my punjabi friends in DC area. Where are you hiding? Busy with boring life or friends moved out of area or new to area? Do you feel like you are missing the old college time when you talked with friends for hours while havings a drink? Whatever your reason is to hangout with other like minded punjabi folks, come join us. Let us get together for dinner, outdoor activities, happy hour, movie, professional networking etc.
Open to all & everyone, who has love in his/her heart and interest in Pakistan & its affairs. This group's main focus would be to celebrate Pakistan's heritage, history, festivals, culture, languages, cuisine, national days etc. People of all ages, religions, cultures, nationalities are welcome. Meetings would be mostly held in public parks, restaurants etc Potlucks, Bhangra, Khattak dance, Ghazal nights events would be planned. Volunteering, fundraising, donations to send to help needies in Pak …
Several of us have now been in the US for quite a few years. We've learned about American culture and blended it in with our culture from home, but we've also managed to blend up English with our Hindi! The only time we ever speak Hindi now is when we don't want a stranger to know we're talking about him! Others of us are fond of India's rich culture but don't know any Hindi words beyond biryani, makhani, tikka and paneer! This group is for all of us! Too many educated Delhi-ites themselves have …
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