RE/MAX of Thomasville sponsored a golf tournament on August 25, 2007 at Country Oaks Golf Course in Thomasville to raise funds for Children’s Miracle Network at Shands Children’s Hospitals. Sponsors and players made this a huge success by raising money for the children’s hospital which is the network hospital for the Thomasville community. RE/MAX of Thomasville was able to present Stephanie Andrews,CMN Project Coordinator for the Tallahassee area, a check in the amount of $5,270.00.

After touring Shands Children’s Hospital at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla., RE/MAX Associates, including Broker/Owner Julie Bryan observed, “It really makes you realize how important the funds we raise each year are when you are able to see the faces of both the families and the staff at the hospital. We are really thrilled at the huge success that this event was!”

About RE/MAX:
As the exclusive real estate sponsor and partner of Children’s Miracle Network since 1992, RE/MAX Associates have raised nearly $75 million for the cause. In 2006, RE/MAX of Thomasville associates raised more than $4,000 for Children’s Miracle Network.

The Miracle Home® Program, exclusive to RE/MAX International, allows a RE/MAX Associate to donate a portion of every transaction to Children’s Miracle Network. The partnership underscores sales associates’ involvement in the communities where they live and serve.

RE/MAX Sales Associates are unique in that a majority of the donations received by Children’s Miracle Network from RE/MAX are the direct result of Associates’ hard work rather than solicited from customers.

A variety of methods are employed by RE/MAX associates and offices in raising money each year. Some associates contribute on behalf of each real estate transaction, often identifying listed properties as “RE/MAX Miracle Homes,” while others make annual contributions.

Many offices, such as the one in Thomasville are known as “Miracle Offices,” with every associate in the office making some type of contribution commitment to Children’s Miracle Network.

The RE/MAX franchise network is a global real estate system with more than 6,100 independently owned offices engaging 115,600 member sales associates who lead the industry in professional designations, experience and production while providing real estate services in residential, commercial, referral, relocation, and asset management. For more information, visit www.remax.com.

About Children’s Miracle Network:
Children’s Miracle Network – the alliance of premier hospitals for children – is a non-profit organization dedicated to saving and improving the lives of children by raising funds for children’s hospitals across North America. Each year the 170 Children’s Miracle Network hospitals provide the finest medical care, life-saving research and preventative education to help millions of kids overcome diseases and injuries of every kind. For more information, visit www.childrensmiraclenetwork.org.

About Shands Children’s Hospital:
Shands Health Care is one of seven hospital affiliates in the state. With more than 9,300 admissions in 2006, Shands Children’s Hospital at UF was one of the leading referral centers in the state, treating kids from throughout Florida and the nation. Funds raised help children in your community by purchasing life-saving medical equipment and diversionary items, funding pediatric research, and producing patient education materials. For more information visit
www.Shandskids.org.

On Monday, September 17th the Thomasville Area Board of REALTORS enjoyed a presentation by Commercial Bank of a new relocation DVD “Welcome to Thomasville.” The DVD was professionally produced by a company from Atlanta and features a wonderful introduction to Thomasville and the surrounding area. There is also a website www.welcometothomasville.com where you may get more information about our area.

If you would like a copy of this DVD, please contact RE/MAX of Thomasville at 229-226-3911 or Toll Free at 877-226-1655 and we will be glad to send one out to you.

Sam and Julie Bryan, Scottie Thompson, and Sarah Ruddell with RE/MAX of Thomasville, Inc. recently attended the Georgia Association of REALTORS 2007 annual convention and trade show held at the lovely Grove Park Inn and Spa in the Smokey Mountains of Asheville, North Carolina.

The theme for the convention was “Travel the Road to Opportunity” The convention offered many top-notch instructors bringing lots of updates on topics ranging from Respa to investment strategies to “green building.”

The convention also had a golf tournament in which Scottie Thompson participated…and his team won 1st place! The group learned a lot, had a great time enjoying the Grove Park Inn and look forward to the next convention at Hilton Head.

RE/MAX of Thomasville Agents attend training classes to obtain the SRES (Senior Real Estate Specialist) designation through RE/MAX University on the RE/MAX Satellite Network. Attending this class are, Julie Bryan, Sam Bryan, Lynn Robinson and Jay Lattay.

The SRES Council trains REALTORS® to meet the special needs of maturing Americans when selling, buying, relocating, or refinancing residential or investment properties. The Council tracks senior-specific lifestyle and housing issues and educates REALTORS® who are making clients age 55-plus a part of their overall business plan. By earning the SRES® designation, REALTORS® are prepared to approach mature clientele with the best options and information for them to make life-changing decisions.

It’s happening again. It’s always happening, but lately my inboxes have been filled with them as if the spammers in all of us have been awakened. What’s that, you don’t spam? Never! You may be an indentured spammer but don’t know it! Trying to pass along a boycott of gasoline to bring prices down? Or you think that 3 die-hard competitors made an announcement on the news that you can make money forwarding emails? So you pass along these chain letters because it’s hard to resist the part of you that wonders if it’s true. I think we’ve all been there.

As people in an industry of service, we want to help people…clients…or potential clients. So we forward these emails to our entire address book, because we think, “hey, who wouldn’t want to know what they can do to help lower gas prices “, right? What ends up happening is that you just gave yourself your own bad press. You did not investigate the truth of the claim on any of the popular email hoax verification websites, you just forwarded it along. And, if you didn’t BCC (blind carbon copy) everyone, then your entire address book is now being forwarded to millions of others who continue to pass the message along.

What’s the harm, really? Well, aside from clogging email servers with these messages, and increasing the cost of managing email, you increase the risk to your computer, and the computers of others. The risk becomes a little more clear when we realize that the majority of these emails originate from spammers trying to get the message around and back to them enough that they will be able to gather some good email addresses to which they can send their junk email. Each time you hit that forward button, you are helping them win and clogging your own inbox! This is why using the BCC option is important whenever you send any email. Protect your family, friends, colleagues, and clients from more SPAM by simply deleting the email. As a courtesy, you may first want to reply to the person who sent it to you and refer them to an email hoax verification website such as Snopes.com (which is where we found the popular “gas out ” email used in our example today). Other risks include the ability for people to begin attaching viruses to the emails. So, your “virus warning ” could become a virus email itself.

So, how can you be sure an email is a hoax? The first step is to be on the lookout for these characteristics:

The email says, “This is not a chain letter ” or “This is not a hoax ”
The email says to send it to “everyone you know ” or to “as many people as possible ”
The email contains technical sounding language to sound more credible
The author of the email identifies him/herself as a leader of a foreign country or part of the leader’s family or staff
The author of the email claims that the original email was sent to them by someone who works for the company involved or is a lawyer or doctor or some professional who supposedly “backs ” whatever is said in the email
The easiest way to check on a hoax if you are unsure is to visit a site like Snopes.com and search for the subject matter of the email. For example, we found the gas out email by searching for “gas prices ” in the Snopes.com search engine. Another great site is Symantec.com where you can see a list of hoaxes collected by email subject line.

So, the next time you get an email promising $800 from Microsoft for forwarding an email, think twice and use the delete button instead of the forward button. The people in your address book will be happy you did!

You’re welcome to forward this email to others for educational purposes…but alas, there will be no special reward for forwarding this to as many people as you can in the next 10 minutes.

On Tuesday, September 11th, Lee Fogelman (Senior Broker Services Consultant) and Heather Robinette (Internet Support Coordinator) from RE/MAX of Georgia held a training session with the agents at RE/MAX of Thomasville for LeadStreet. LeadStreet is the new RE/MAX Internet based lead generation and distribution system which gives agents a contact management system as well as distributes leads from the REMAX.com website. RE/MAX is now working with MLS systems nationwide in order to show ALL the listings to consumers, no matter who has the property listed.

Agents were also encouraged to take the new REALTOR designation E-PRO class which is the only technology program offered by the National Association of REALTORS. This program offers complete instruction on how to communicate effectively with the online consumer and get the most out of one’s online real estate business.

Thursday, September 5th, RE/MAX of Thomasville enjoyed a visit by The Red Hat Ladies.

According to their website, “The Red Hat Society began as a result of a few women deciding to greet middle age with verve, humor and elan. We believe silliness is the comedy relief of life, and since we are all in it together, we might as well join red-gloved hands and go for the gusto together. Underneath the frivolity, we share a bond of affection, forged by common life experiences and a genuine enthusiasm for wherever life takes us next.”

Congratulations Lorraine Jackson & Paula Barrett on being named RE/MAX of Thomasville Agents of the Month for August 2007.