Although the recession ended in 2009, the aftermath, or ripple effect, reverberates for a time until stabilization, and until the media is finished with the drama. Luckily, in many sectors, the recovery rate is experiencing an increase.

With real estate being one of the top performing sectors in 2011 (the S&P/TSX Capped REIT index was up by 15%, or 24 percentage points above the return for the S&P/TSX composite), many have argued that real estate performance will continue to solidify this year, making way for a strong introduction to the spring of 2013.

Jeffrey Olin, a former real estate executive turned investment banker and portfolio manager at Vision Capital Corp. shares the same sentiments. Mr. Olin, who co-oversees the three property funds that are home to about $100 million in assets, believes the fundamentals continue to be attractive.

“The prospect of low-long-term Japanese-style interest rates for the foreseeable future bodes extremely well,” said Mr. Olin, citing a 2.85% 10-year mortgage recently given to one of the country’s largest apartment rental companies. In addition, Mr. Olin argues the supply-demand balance for commercial real estate is positive. “Across the country, we have single-digit vacancy rates for virtually every property type in virtually every region versus double-digit in the U.S. You will start to see rent increases this year,” said Mr. Olin, who at a recent conference heard that cap rates will soon start with a four and not a five.

It is also believed that real estate companies will be helped by a move to new global accounting standards that should mean an increase in net asset value.

Many analysts are also bullish. “The publicly traded commercial REITs in Canada have all reported healthy and stable operating metrics in the most recent quarter. For instance, operating income from the same properties was up by about 1.5% on a year-over year basis,” said Jimmy Shan, from GMP Securities. “Investors desire for yield plus cap rate compression were a big part of 2011′s performance.”

Denise Lones of the Lones Group prepared a case study forecasting 2012 predictions for Washington State. “I am predicting that the Washington unemployment rate could drop to between 7.5-7.9% in 2012 and the national unemployment rate below 8% by September..” speaking of the local dormant labor force, and the new developments in the Seattle region at Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, and the new construction industry.

Mr. Olin, favoring real estate funds, puts it in these terms. ”Look for value. You have got upside and you have got a cushion on the downside if and when the world falls apart,” said Mr. Olin, who co-manages the funds with Frank Mayer, a veteran real estate analyst. As for downside protection, Mr. Olin says it comes provided stocks can be bought at 50¢ on the dollar in “terms of value.” These real estate assets “are bricks and sticks for which there are lots of buyers,” he said.

For more information on investing in real estate hedge funds, click here, or contact us to learn more.

With the holidays come the holiday shopping; bustling malls filled with great gifts, and of course, for those willing to get out of bed early, black friday deals available at the break of dawn.

Fortunately, technology has played an important role in commerce. Consumers benefit with online only deals, the ability to compare and match prices, and one click ordering for last minute shopping. For the discount shoppers, there are some great resources that will let you enjoy the experience of the retail store or mall, while comparing prices right at your fingertips. Of course, these tools require smart devices like the iPhone or iPad, Blackberry, or Droid. We’ve highlighted a few that will ensure a smoother shopping experience, and help you determine the best prices.

1. Redlaser: this application is available for your iPhone, iPad, and Android phones. While shopping, you can launch the application, scan barcodes of items and compare prices throughout Google, Amazon, and more. Want a better price? Just check it out! Want to buy later? Scan and save to buy when you’re ready.
2. ShopSavvy: another mobile application for iPhone and iPad users, as well as Android phones. This application is Redlaser’s newest competitor and allows users to scan products and compare prices with Google, Amazon, Walmart, Target, BestBuy, and BN.com to name a few.

photo credit: our friend Anya taking full advantage of the holidays!

Mobile shopping has empowered consumers to become smart buyers by making technology easy and useful, right at your fingertips. Possibly the best feature of the tools is the price – they are both 100% free!

Now your shopping experience can be a little more efficient and while you’re saving money, you can spend more time with our great friend Anya at one of our favorite Seattle based hangouts, Starbucks! You know that the holidays are upon us with their signature Christmas Blend coffee, holiday red cups, and seasonal drinks!

Here’s to the holiday season!

1. If you have a little leftover pumpkin in the can, and happen to be in need of gorgeous skin: Skip the jack-o’-lantern face and try a honey pumpkin exfoliating mask.
   

   Pumpkin Skin!

2. This rough recipe for a really good stuffed pumpkin comes from doriegreenspan.com. This recipe for cornbread-stuffed pumpkin with sauteed greens. No serving dish required.
   

   Stuffed Pumpkin!

3. Some may call it hedonistic, but slathering yourself in a luscious DIY pumpkin body butter made of pumpkin puree, coconut milk and cinnamon is as good for your skin as it is for your senses.
   

   Pumpkin Body Butter!

4. All those pies, pumpkin desserts and holiday cakes; all that dairy-ness! Go animal-loving with this  vegan pumpkin pecan pie.
   

   Pumpkin Pecan Pie!

5. Illuminated jack-o’-lanterns are kid-cute, DIY floating pumpkin candles are adult-cute.
   

   Floating Pumpkin Candles!

6. Harvest pumpkin soup with things like leeks, apples, and ginger–a blast of autumn in a bowl. Yum.
   

   Harvest Pumpkin Soup!

7. Sometimes you just need to have a pumpkin mask. Read about the spa treatment pictured at the Treats to Share blog, or use this super simple DIY formula for a vitamin rich pumpkin face mask.
   

   Pumpkin Mask!

8. Pumpkin biscuits. Try these from the Farmer’s Almanac, or this recipe for perfect pumpkin biscuits from James Villas’ Biscuit Bliss.
   

   Pumpkin Biscuits!

9. Martha Stewart has these directions for pumpkin pie potpourri, we’ve expanded on that with a DIY fresh-pumpkin air freshener
   

   Pumpkin Pie Potpourri!

10. Remove the top from pumpkin, scrape out slime and seeds, toss. Or, wait, don’t toss! Use the scraped pulp in soup stock or to feed the birds, and make this lip-smacking, bursting-with-nutrients snack: Slow roasted pumpkin seeds.
    

    Roasted Pumpkin Seeds!

11. It’s nice to know there’s a way to sneak pumpkin into chocolate cake. The best of all worlds? Chocolate pumpkin bundt cake. Mmmmm.
    

    Chocolate Pumpkin Bundt Cake!

12. A favorite at Empower, PUMPKIN CARVING PARTIES!!!


Pumpkin Carving!

Now for some fun… SMASHING PUMPKINS!!!

Surreal News.

An email from Apple CEO Tim Cook, to all Apple employees.

Team,

I have some very sad news to share with all of you. Steve passed away earlier today.

Apple has lost a visionary and creative genius, and the world has lost an amazing human being. Those of us who have been fortunate enough to know and work with Steve have lost a dear friend and an inspiring mentor. Steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple.

We are planning a celebration of Steve’s extraordinary life for Apple employees that will take place soon. If you would like to share your thoughts, memories and condolences in the interim, you can simply email rememberingsteve@apple.com

No words can adequately express our sadness at Steve’s death or our gratitude for the opportunity to work with him. We will honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to continuing the work he loved so much.

Jayson Burton, Empower COO: “Steve Jobs was one of very few people who could be called a legend in his own time. The college dropout co-founded Apple in 1976 and grew it into one of the most valuable firms in the world, while inspiring countless entrepreneurs along the way. Since its inception, Apple has been the model of Empower’s structure. The innovation, creativity, and strict committment to perfection will live on through Empower as he has inspired us to make a change in the world.”

Straight from his mouth

On Technology

“But it’s a disservice to constantly put things in this radical new light — that it’s going to change everything. Things don’t have to change the world to be important.” [Wired, February 1996]

On Design

“Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people.”

On Business

“Being the richest man in the cemetery doesn’t matter to me … Going to bed at night saying we’ve done something wonderful… that’s what matters to me.” [The Wall Street Journal, 1993]

On Life

“I’m an optimist in the sense that I believe humans are noble and honorable, and some of them are really smart. I have a very optimistic view of individuals. As individuals, people are inherently good. I have a somewhat more pessimistic view of people in groups. And I remain extremely concerned when I see what’s happening in our country, which is in many ways the luckiest place in the world. We don’t seem to be excited about making our country a better place for our kids.” [Wired, February 1996]

“No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” [Stanford commencement speech, June 2005]

Moving Commencement Speech by Steve Jobs. Stanford, 2005

Read what fans, friends, and leaders are saying about the passing of one of the most gifted visionaries, Steve Jobs.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO: “Steve, thank you for being a mentor and a friend. Thanks for showing that what you build can change the world. I will miss you..”

Bill Gates: “I’m truly saddened to learn of Steve Jobs’ death. Melinda and I extend our sincere condolences to his family and friends, and to everyone Steve has touched through his work.

Steve and I first met nearly 30 years ago, and have been colleagues, competitors and friends over the course of more than half our lives. The world rarely sees someone who has had the profound impact Steve has had, the effects of which will be felt for many generations to come.

For those of us lucky enough to get to work with him, it’s been an insanely great honor. I will miss Steve immensely.”

Barack Obama:“Michelle and I are saddened to learn of the passing of Steve Jobs. Steve was among the greatest of American innovators – brave enough to think differently, bold enough to believe he could change the world, and talented enough to do it.

By building one of the planet’s most successful companies from his garage, he exemplified the spirit of American ingenuity. By making computers personal and putting the internet in our pockets, he made the information revolution not only accessible, but intuitive and fun. And by turning his talents to storytelling, he has brought joy to millions of children and grownups alike. Steve was fond of saying that he lived every day like it was his last. Because he did, he transformed our lives, redefined entire industries, and achieved one of the rarest feats in human history: he changed the way each of us sees the world.

The world has lost a visionary. And there may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented. Michelle and I send our thoughts and prayers to Steve’s wife Laurene, his family, and all those who loved him.”

Sergey Brin, Google Co-founder:“From the earliest days of Google, whenever Larry and I sought inspiration for vision and leadership, we needed to look no farther than Cupertino. Steve, your passion for excellence is felt by anyone who has ever touched an Apple product (including the macbook I am writing this on right now). And I have witnessed it in person the few times we have met. On behalf of all of us at Google and more broadly in technology, you will be missed very much. My condolences to family, friends, and colleagues at Apple.”

Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO:
“Once in a rare while, somebody comes along who doesnt just raise the bar, they create an entirely new standard of measurement.”

Reactions to the death of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs has been remarkable. His inspiration and wake of success has been the motivation for many. We will all miss you Steve Jobs.

How much do you know about your team? The best managers, and the best teams, are those that function with high levels of Emotional Intelligence (EI). Whether your group is focusing on executing a simple procedure, or designing an innovative service, all teams go through four specific phases to function at their highest potential.

These phases are: Forming, Storming, Norming, and Performing. Teams that reach the performing stage are like dancers from the Royal Ballet- seamlessly integrating their diverse strengths into one cohesive power-performance.

Unfortunately, few teams spend the majority of their time at peak performance, and this is for many reasons. Often, members do not agree upon expectations, norms, roles, and/or fail to develop shared trust. Even exceptional groups need to maintain awareness of their team processes, to ensure their dynamics remain healthy over time.

The good news is developing high-performing teams is not expensive or mystical. Research shows that superior teams result from mature norms of constructive conflict, elevated standards of cooperation and trust, synergistic coordination, and a strong sense of group identity. In short, such teams play varsity in Emotional Intelligence. Let’s look:

• Forming: This is the stage of nervous excitement where team members are optimistic about their success in the group, yet cautious about committing themselves to a new tribe. Members tend to ask a lot of questions to determine what behavior is expected of themselves, what they can expect from their peers, and whether the costs of
  membership outweigh the benefits. More than productivity, this is a time of discovery.

  To accelerate this process managers should conduct an “assimilation” session, as pioneered by GE. The session should be lead with a facilitator present and the group manager absent. This creates a safe space for members to address their first
  impressions, concerns, hopes, and questions without managerial pressure. This feedback is then relayed to the manager with anonymity through the facilitator. Afterwards the manager can engage the team in an open dialogue of the issues, also sharing his or her feedback to the same questions. This kind of open dialoguing is;

• Storming: This is the most difficult period in a teams’ life cycle. Marked by interpersonal conflict and tension, members may proactively instigate conflict as they compete for various team roles. The teams that make it through this phase do so by learning to transform emotionally volatile conflict into engagements of active listening

  This paradigm shift is essential to Storming because it releases members’ insecurity from personal attacks on their self-esteem and resources. In exchange, the climate of relational conflict gives way to productive task conflict.

• Norming: This is the first time cohesion enters the scene. Until now, the group was a mere cluster of individuals. Beyond now, they are a unified taskforce of creative dreams and shared aspirations. Each person has finally accepted their own, and their peers’ membership to the group. This creates a sense of harmony as members begin to confide in one another and form friendships. Furthermore, peoples’ individual agendas
  are replaced by team norms, goals, and values.

  With their differences put to rest and common mental models in place, a spirit of cooperation takes over, allowing the team to produce their highest-caliber work yet.

• Performing: Paradise found. The team is now an efficient, resilient unit of common minds. You’ll know your team is Performing when their productivity and work-place satisfaction skyrocket. Characteristics of this stage include members understanding and complementing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and insight into how to continue developing the team as a whole.

I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.

Jimmy Dean

Now, we can’t always expect smooth sailing, but an Emotionally Intelligent team can be counted on to respect their commitments, and eventually right their course. There is one caveat, however. As loyal as a team is to its peers, managers must be equally steadfast to the team itself. This means providing the appropriate training, resources, and compensation to equip and motivate their workforce. Once a team has those three things, and EI, there can be no challenge big enough to deter their- and your – success.

Elizabeth Joy Smith is studying business at the University of Washington. Elizabeth has a broad range of passions including entrepreneurship, behavioral economics, and finance. Between school, work, and her internships, Elizabeth pursues her favorite hobbies of trying new things, and meeting new people. Also, very important, her bicycle is named Seabiscuit.

Today the world’s largest social network has announced it wil partner with National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce to provide tools, resources and up to $10 million in Facebook Ads to help small businesses in the U.S thrive.

According to the PR Newswire joint press release, the effort is to help small businesses acquire and retain customers, assisting them in building a community interested in their brand while extracting new opportunities to reach new customers.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the American economy and we believe that Facebook can be a tremendous tool to fuel their growth and success,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook Chief Operating Officer. “Our goal is to give small businesses a boost by helping them find customers the best way possible – through recommendations from friends. We’re proud to be working with the NFIB and U.S. Chamber in this effort.”

Image credit TED Conferences, LLC; Speakers, Cheryl Sandberg profile.

The initiative is hopeful to increase the number of workers within the private sector, which have accounted for more than 64% of new jobs over the past 15 years, helping drive the U.S economy forward. The effort will see Facebook, the NFIB and the U.S. Chamber provide webinars, marketing collateral, case studies and tips.

The joint initiative will also see cross-country roadshows, which have been coordinated with state and local chambers of commerce, allowing business owners to meet with experts to ask them how to get the best results in attracting new customers via Facebook.

The three primary functions of the cooperation are:

• Resources: Providing American businesses with webinars, collateral, case studies and tips. These materials will educate business owners on how to improve their connection to customers and reach new customers through the use of free Facebook tools like Pages and Platform, as well as other marketing options including Ads and Sponsored Stories.

• Roadshows: As a part of this education effort, the program will include a cross-country roadshow coordinated with state and local chambers of commerce and regional NFIB offices. At these events, experts will meet directly with local businesses to discuss how to get the best results in connecting with customers on Facebook.

• Facebook Small Business Boost: Facebook Small Business Boost: Starting in January 2012 and following the education effort, Facebook will begin awarding businesses up to $10 million worth of free Facebook advertisements. The goal of these ad credits is to give 200,000 businesses across the country a $50 boost.

Resources developed by the collaboration will begin to become available in the coming weeks. You can also find dates and locations for roadshow events. For more information, visit: www.facebook.com/smallbusinessboost.

For more tips and tricks for business owners who have Facebook pages for business, visit Best Practices for Pages.

Remembering September 11th – a perspective from Empower’s Inertia internship program.

By Elizabeth Joy Smith, Michael Douglas, Rashmi Joshi, and Jonathan Hineline.

On this day, over 3,000 people died, and even more were injured. An attack such as this on the United States was, until then, unfathomable. Less surprising was our reaction to it.

We, the free and brave, have learned from these attacks and have grown infinitely stronger as a country in their aftermath. Like my mother used to say, (or rather Kanye West)- What doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger. After this depraved experience, Americans embraced and cared for each other with majestic vigor, defeating hatred with powerful compassion.

Moving forward

Ten years have passed, and now it’s time to make something of it – something tangible and celebratory in light of the strength and unity of our United States. Graham Roberts and Henry Fountain have produced two videos outlying the wonderful plans replacing the iconic twin towers.

The memorial plaza, with fountains among the largest ever created, is at the heart of ground zero.

Architects, engineers and construction workers have worked to fit many projects together underground.

Elizabeth Joy Smith is studying business at the University of Washington. Elizabeth has a broad range of passions including entrepreneurship, behavioral economics, and finance. Between school, work, and her internships, Elizabeth pursues her favorite hobbies of trying new things, and meeting new people. Also, very important, her bicycle is named Seabiscuit.

Cause and affect, karma, consequences - whichever you want to call it, we pay for our decisions in one way or another. Sometimes, our decisions pay us. Rewards are always available – it’s more a question of will we take the reward right now or wait till later?

As a whole, banking institutions chose their reward ‘now’. One bank decided to be more aggressive with their risk analysis, and the next bank followed, and began the domino affect we know as the subprime market.

Unfortunately, loan officers have been brutally battered for selling the products the banks chose to risk in. No one genre of profession should be blamed, only those who acted fraudulently, and those responsible in making grossly over leveraged products.

The reality is that we all make decisions based on what is best for us – so finding ‘fault’ and pointing fingers really does nothing for anyone. Still, all decisions have consequences… like really big fines…and termination…and permanent dissassociation from the industry…

Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC), the largest U.S. home lender, agreed to pay a record $85 million fine to settle Federal Reserve claims it steered borrowers into costlier loans and falsified data in mortgage applications.

Employees at Wells Fargo Financial, the lender’s consumer- finance unit, pushed customers who may have been eligible for prime interest rates into loans carrying higher rates intended for riskier borrowers, the Fed said today in a statement announcing the settlement.

Separately, sales personnel used false documents to make it appear borrowers qualified for loans when their incomes made them ineligible.

Wells Fargo will “work closely with the Federal Reserve to provide restitution to customers who may have been harmed, and to reinforce our internal controls,” Chairman and Chief Executive Officer John Stumpf said in a separate statement.

The company shuttered Wells Fargo Financial in July 2010, eliminating 3,800 jobs and ceased making non-prime home loans. The business was overseen by Mark Oman, 56, who has announced he will retire by year-end. The San Francisco-based bank didn’t admit wrongdoing in agreeing to today’s action.

The civil penalty is the largest issued by the Fed in a consumer-protection case, according to the Fed’s statement. The accord requires Wells Fargo to re-evaluate qualifications of borrowers who received a subprime, cash-out refinancing loan between January 2006 and June 2008.

Compensating Borrowers

Wells Fargo must compensate borrowers harmed by the practices, which may exceed 10,000, according to the Fed. Less than 4 percent of the about 300,000 mortgage loans made by the lender between January 2004 and September 2008 are eligible for restitution, the company said.

Wells Fargo said it will submit a plan to the Fed within 90 days laying out certain oversight and lending procedures.

The Fed also issued consent orders against 16 Wells Fargo employees that bar them from working in the banking industry, the regulator said in the statement. The employees have been fired, Wells Fargo said.

Story by Dakin Campbell, Bloomberg

Original Link: click here

Gerry Stewart, a veteran real estate broker from Salem, OR, reflects on over 30 years in the Real Estate industry. He comments on how we can use yesteryears experience in todays life. The key ingredient? Embrace change.

“In December of 1900, The Ladies Home Journal published an article titled “What May Happen in the Next Hundred Years.” It is fascinating. The author, John Elfreth Watkins, interviewed the “wisest and most careful men in our greatest institutions” and arrived at 29 predictions they felt would happen by 2001. One of their predictions was titled “Man Will See Around the World.” It read, in part: “Persons and things of all kinds will be brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span.” To me that sounds like the Internet.

It is prediction season. It’s that time of year when prognosticators everywhere wax eloquent on what might happen this year and beyond. Looking back, history is full of predictions from silly to bizarre, and from incredibly wrong to amazingly correct. Of course, the economy is continually predicted to implode, explode, crash and skyrocket — sometimes in the same year. In early 1929, a Yale economics professor said, “Stocks have reached a permanently high plateau.” Oops. Then there was William Thomsen, who was the Royal Society President in the late 1890s. He hit the prediction trifecta: “Radio has no future.” “X-Rays are clearly a hoax.” “The aeroplane is scientifically impossible.”

So history has proven that it’s a tricky business to predict anything. Yet much has been written this year about the housing industry and its demise. As someone who works in this industry, I do not believe the naysayers. In fact, I have history on my side. I think about the famous Kierkagaard quote: “Life must be understood backwards; but… it must be lived forward.”

Predictions will always be just that. But if you study history, you can usually find data that will help you understand the future. After all, history does repeat itself.”

Gerry Stewart is an ambassador for the Salem Chamber. Gerry has been a licensed real estate broker for over 30 years, State of California instructor, NEDCO instructor and owner of several difference franchises. His passion is working directly with people and experiencing the joy with them of the American Dream. He is an active member of his Church and lifetime blood donor. – Salem Chamber