Secret Job Opportunity You Won’t Find on Any Job Boards

We have some exciting opportunities for you to join our team. Find out how we can help launch your new career.

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Hello raving fans! What better way is there to start the New Year than with a great opportunity? To find out all the details of our secret opportunity, watch this short video!

Right now we have hundreds of customers already committed to using our services, and due to our system of providing personalized, strategic plans, we have developed a large pool of future clients who will need to be guided through and protected from the shark-infested waters of real estate.

So what are we looking for? We’re looking for individuals who will protect our client’s real estate assets and guide them through the buying and selling process. Here at Cardano Realtors, we have the most high-tech systems, the most creative marketing, and the most up-to-date real estate tools.

If you are committed to learning our way of working real estate, want to wake up every morning excited about helping people, and earn predictable consistent income, you may be a good fit for the Cardano Realtors team.

You won’t find these opportunities on a job board. Take a look at what we offer.

Real Estate Consultants: In just 90 days, we can show you how to earn over $100,000, all while going home every night with the knowledge that you are helping and leading people with their largest asset in their financial portfolio.

You will be on the ground floor of a quietly surging real estate market, and you will learn from a well-respected company comprised of real estate experts that work with the best technology available for real estate. You’ll also have a professional team that supports you 100% while you are catering to your clients. Our unconditional support and fabulous systems will allow you to increase your income without sacrificing time away from your family and friends. Imagine that!

Additionally, here at Cardano Realtors, we don’t make cold calls. After training with us, people will look for you, as your commitment to them and their real estate assets will be unmatched.  

Now, how are we going to manage all our client needs in 2017?

We need an Executive Administrative Expert. The Executive Administrative Expert will assist consultants out in the field and work directly with clients to make sure they have an outrageously good referral experience. For this position, we are looking for an experienced administrative assistant. This position is salaried with bonus potential as the business grows.

To apply go to www.CardanoJob.com

We will teach you everything we know, and we know a lot.

Thanks again for being a loyal blog listener. If you have any questions about the job opportunities or other real estate needs, please feel free to give me a call or send me an email. I can’t wait to hear from you!

Market is Hot for Home Sellers

It’s winter, but the real estate market is not slowing down! Today, I’ll go over your latest market update.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

I’m here with your latest real estate market update!

As the weather gets colder and the holidays approach, most home sellers think, “It’s December and the market is going to slow down. I’m not even going to think about putting my home on the market.” However, that’s not a good idea.

Why? Right now, the market is actually swarming with buyers. In fact, there are so many buyers that I just sold two homes that weren’t scheduled to hit the market until April! Inventory is incredibly low, so even if you’re not planning on selling til next year, pick up the phone right now to figure out what your next steps are. Now is still a great time to be on the market, as interest rates are still low and buyers are highly motivated.

Now, first-time buyers probably think that they need to put 20% down in order to buy a home. However, the average down payment for first-time home buyers has dropped down to 6% in 2016, while repeat buyers are putting 14% down. In fact, some first-time buyers are able to get in a home for less than 4% down. You don’t need to get an FHA loan; there are other loan products out there that allow you to put 3% down.

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Our winter market is swarming with motivated buyers.

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Right now, mortgage interest rates are at 3.5%, which is still incredibly low. Over the next 12 months, they’re expected to jump to 4.2%, which is quite a difference. Mortgage credit availability is also very good right now, so it’s easier for more people to get a mortgage.

As for what FICO score you need to buy a home, in 2016, 53% of closed loans had FICO scores between 600 and 748. In fact, 30% got a loan with a credit score under 700. This combined with low mortgage rates and increased mortgage credit availability makes now a great time to be a first-time buyer.

As for our sellers, you should know that inventory is extremely low right now. By putting your home on the market, you will be able to maximize the profits from your home sale.

That’s it for our winter market update. Keep an eye out for our next Home Selling Shark Seminar on Saturday, January 21st, 2017. We will also have a buyer conference next January. Check out HomeSellingSharks.com for more details.

In the meantime, reach out to me with any real estate questions you might have. I would be happy to help you!

Secret Strategies to Making Your Real Estate Great Again

Home sellers face many challenges in our current market. Luckily, I have a list of eight secret strategies that can help them sell quickly and for top dollar.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

One of my greatest passions as a Realtor is getting my home sellers the best possible price in the least amount of time with the least amount of hassle. In short, my biggest concern is making your real estate great again. 

Today’s home seller faces many challenges in our current market. For one thing, our market is complicated. You can’t just put a sign on your lawn and expect it to sell. Currently, the average days on market is 80 days, which isn’t great. In fact, it’s bad. Taxes are also high, and they’re only getting higher. This makes it difficult for buyers to afford homes, which is causing home values to go down every single year.

Another problem is Realtors making false promises about selling your home and then using slipshod tactics like taking its listing photos with a cell phone. That’s not what a professional does! It only takes about $600 to get a license, so, unfortunately, not a lot of training goes into handling such a large asset.

How can you avoid these problems when listing your home? I’ve put together a list of eight secret strategies to help guide you through the process. You can learn these strategies by visiting 8secretstrategies.com. Whether it’s through me or another agent, this list will tell you what you should do to sell your home. In short, there are two main things that can make your real estate great again: having both a marketing expert and a negotiating expert on your team.

Why am I telling you this? Because houses today are selling quickly–for those whose house is priced right and staged properly. It’s now November, which means if you plan on selling in the spring, you need to make a plan now. Don’t make the mistake of waiting too long or not hiring an expert Realtor. 

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Only houses that are priced right and staged right sell quickly.

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If you have any questions about how to make your real estate great again, please don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. Remember, we’re having our next Home Selling Sharks seminar on January 21st at the Hilton Garden Inn. To register, all you have to do is visit homesharksseminar.com. In the meantime, I hope to hear from you! 

Before & After Photos That Show the Effects of Staging

Today I have some before and after photos that really illustrate how much better your home can look with some simple staging and easy fixes.

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Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

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It's officially fall and the holidays are right around the corner, so I wanted to show you some things you can do to increase your home’s resale value. 

Let's take a look at some before and after photos to see how important it is to concentrate on two areas that most people don't think about that can get spooky–your basement and garage. You want your home to look like a model home that no one has ever lived in, so you don't want any cobwebs creating a creepy feeling!

Let's start with a living room example. In the video above, you can see the difference that 15 minutes of decluttering can make in making this living room more marketable online.

In the next photo, you can see another 'before' photo of a messy living room. We removed everything but the desk from the room, painted it our secret color and painted the woodwork white. How much more beautiful is that room now? Now, this room will attract buyers; it wouldn’t have before. 

Next, take a look at this small galley kitchen's 'before' photo. We simply moved everything in the kitchen to the dining room table and now we can actually see this kitchen and its real size. We took it a step further by painting the cabinets the same color and adding hardware, and it looks like a brand new kitchen! This house sold one day after coming on the market! 

Our next example is another kitchen. The whole kitchen was messy and cluttered and the cabinetry was outdated, so we painted them a nice color called 'mocha,' added hardware, and painted the trim white. Brown trim does not sell in today's market!

In the next example, you can see a basement before it was staged. We got rid of everything in the room but the foosball table and changed the walls from a bold red to a neutral color. This shows just how important it is to clean out your basement, closets, and garage. So let's take a look at a garage in the next example. They actually used this 'before' photo on the MLS before we took the listing over. We cleaned out the garage and painted it, and buyers loved it! 

In this next basement 'before' photo, you can see an awful basement that was moldy, dark, and dreary. We cleaned up the floors and brightened the walls with some paint, and you can easily see how much better it looks. Our final example shows how much better a basement looks after replacing outdated dark wood doors with some white six-panel doors.

These are the things that will cause a home to sell. The houses that I showed you today were all on the market for around 150 days, but after some of my creative marketing, I sold these homes for the same price.

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A little bit of marketing went a long way with these homes.

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Our next home seller seminar is coming up in January if you're interested in learning about the best ways to maximize your home sale. Click here for more information.

In the meantime if you have any questions about buying or selling a home, give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to helping you!

Philadelphia Market Update for October 2016

There is a lot of confusion in the market lately due to misinformation about real estate market numbers. Today I’d like to clear this up for you.

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There is a lot of confusion in the market right now, so I’d like to alleviate some that confusion for you today. If you’ve kept up with the market around the country, you may have read headlines from major media sources like “California Home Sales Come Tumbling Down to Earth” and “California Home Sales Gaining Momentum,” which only adds to the confusion.

To paint a clearer picture for you, I’m going to show you what’s really taking place in our market with facts and data.

When talking about the market on the whole, many people will only look at the years that really took off, usually between 2003 to 2005, when sales were extremely high. If you look at the numbers from the years before that, however, you’ll see that those numbers are much closer to the kinds of numbers that we’re seeing today. Many people wonder when the next big peak or valley is going to happen in our market because of the most recent crash.

If we look at data from a little further back, though, we see that from 1990 to 1999, home sales steadily increased almost every year. Why did this happen? It’s because populations naturally increase. The most recent crash occurred because these numbers shot up much too quickly.

Interestingly enough, if you look at the graph above that removes the numbers from 2000-2013, you’ll see that home sales today are sitting almost exactly where they were in 1999, before the bubble and the crash. This means that we’re almost exactly where we should be!

Is affordability a challenge in the current real estate market? Let’s look at the housing affordability index. This index measures whether or not a typical family earns enough income to qualify for a mortgage loan.

In the graph above, you’ll see that the higher the score is, the easier it is to buy a home. When people say that home affordability is down right now, they’re right if we compare it from 2009 to 2015. However, from 2009-2012, we were faced with a whole bunch of foreclosures and short sales, which also lowered the value of other homes around them, resulting in homes being sold at a major discount. So, of course prices were lower then and people were able to buy more! Since home prices are coming back today, the housing affordability index is shrinking.

If we go back all the way from 1990 to 2000, we’ll see that today’s affordability index is higher in number. The index may not be as high as it was in 2009 or 2015, but the homes that were sold during those times were sold at major discounts. If we compare the numbers from this year to the previous decade, you’ll see that we’re doing just fine when compared to earlier years.

This means that right now we’re in a very healthy market. With interest rates as low as they are, a family with a household income of less than $45,000 can afford to buy a median-priced home. Isn’t that amazing?

If we look at inventory of homes on the market, we see that we have much less inventory this year than we did last year, and this is reflected in the low numbers for foot traffic. I don’t necessarily that there are fewer buyers on the market looking for homes; there are simply fewer houses to look at! When more homes are listed, the market will balance itself out.

What does all of this mean to you if you’re thinking about selling your home? Now is a great time to list your home on the market because there are many buyers out there who are looking to buy homes.

This is an even better time to buy a home since interest rates are still under 4%. It’s also important not to let a low credit score deter you for applying for a mortgage; over 50% of buyers with credit scores between 500 and 750 closed mortgages this year. Don’t put yourself on the sideline because of your credit score.

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Now is the perfect time to buy or sell a home.

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Also, don’t forget about our next Home Selling Sharks Seminar on October 22nd at the Hilton Garden Inn at Port Washington. Register for your seat here today!

If you have any questions about buying or selling homes in our market, don’t hesitate to reach out to me by phone or email. I’d be happy to help you!

Keep More Money in Your Pocket When Selling Your Home

I’m very passionate about helping people keep money in their pocket, so I wanted to give you a few tips today on how to have a successful home sale this fall without losing money.

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Fall is here and houses are coming back on the market. One of our seller seminars is coming up on October 11th, and I’m going to show you a little bit of what I’m going to teach at the seminar.

One topic I’m very passionate about is helping people keep money in their pocket. I have eight strategies to help you do just that, and one of those is to make sure you have a vision. Your house is one of your largest assets; you want to net as much money as possible and have a stress-free real estate experience. Imagine how great that could be.

There are three important things you should keep in mind when envisioning your ideal home selling process:

Start earlier than you think. People are often so busy right now that they wait until the last minute and call me only five days before they want to get their home on the market. That is not enough time to implement home selling strategies that will keep money in your pocket. I have people calling me in September who want to get on the market in April—they will have plenty of time to select the best paint colors and make the necessary repairs to sell for top dollar.

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Start preparing your home for the market sooner than you think you should.

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Envision crushing the competition. The average days on market is 120 days, while my average is 26 days on market. You don’t want to have your house on the market for 120 days—you want to crush the competition and step over all the other homes that are on the market.

One of my ace strategies for crushing the competition is the ‘Coming Soon’ strategy. You can come to the seminar to learn all about it, but the basic idea is to build up demand for your home while spending the least amount of money in the shortest amount of time. That way, you can net the most money on your home sale and get the edge over the competition.

Finally, imagine a line of people waiting outside your door the first day your house is on the market. They have their checkbooks open and are ready to offer asking price or more. That is the ideal situation you should aim for when preparing your home for the market.

Those are the three things that you want when selling your home. Visit HomeSellingSharks.com for more details on our upcoming seminar. I hope to see you on October 11th. If you have any more questions in the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me!

Initiating the Home Sale Process

How should you start selling your home? When should you start selling your home?

You should start once you have the slightest thought of moving. Once that happens, get out your staging booklet and start thinking about how to maximize your budget.  

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Start preparing once you have the slightest thought of moving.

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After that’s done, start a relationship with a real estate consultant. Not right before you list—now. There’s a right way and a wrong way to hire a Realtor. The right way involves asking questions over the phone. You don’t need to bring someone into your house to hear what they have to say. Remember—if you’re not a coachable seller, Realtors won’t want to work with you.

The next step is getting your home pre-inspected. Any potential buyer will be conducting their own inspection, and they can nickel and dime you on trivial issues if they find any. Getting a pre-inspection nullifies this possibility by informing the buyer of any and all issues with the house before they make their offer.

Finally, you need to compile a staging team by making a list of competent contractors to get any repairs made. If you’ve been in your house for a while, you’ll likely need carpenters, roofers, painters, electricians, plumbers, etc. Learn the names of these people, because they’re the ones who will make or break your home’s value.

If you have any further questions about how to start selling your home or about real estate in general, just give me a call or send me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

August Real Estate Market Report

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

My team and I are loving every minute of this summer season. Our phones have been ringing off the hook, and buyers have been banging down our doors. Don’t get caught up in the idea that because the overall economy isn’t doing well, our real estate market will follow suit. Right now, the opposite is happening. The economy’s not so hot, but the housing market is booming.

Since the beginning of January, mortgage rates have fallen by .5%. The Brexit will probably keep those rates down for some period of time, but that is no guarantee. Mortgage rate projections show that interest rates will creep up over the next 12 months and, at that same time, interest rates will be almost a full point higher. No one knows for sure, but I wouldn’t guarantee that the great rates we’re seeing now will still be there six months or a year down the line.

There was a slight drop in the last pending home sales report, and it caused quite a concern among the talking heads on all the news channels. But this concern is much ado about nothing, because this dip will fix itself. If we look at the buyer traffic by state, we see both buyer traffic and demand for housing has remained very strong. The reason the pending home sales numbers went down is because there wasn’t enough buyer traffic. In the majority of the country, however, the rate of seller traffic also dropped off dramatically. In other words, the reason for the dip was inventory, not demand.

Is now a good time to sell your home? Yes it is! The rate of housing supply in May dropped almost 10%, meaning there is an increase in the number of people looking to buy a house and a decrease in the number of homes available for sale. While prices are continuing to increase, those interest rates will eventually begin to creep back up. Once that happens, buyers won’t be able to offer you as much money as they can right now.

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Is now a good time to sell your home? Yes it is!

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If any of this gets you excited, pick up the phone and call me so we can work together to sell your home fast and keep money in your pocket where it belongs. Keep enjoying your summer, and we’ll see you back here in a few weeks!

Marketing Tips for Philadelphia Home Sellers

Buying a home? Click here to perform a full home search 

Selling a home? Click here for a FREE Home Price Evaluation 

Call me at (215) 576-8666 for a FREE home buying or selling consultation

Our Home Selling Shark Series is designed to help sellers get top dollar for their homes. We have some hot tips for marketing your home and determining if your Realtor is savvy enough to create demand before your home even hits the market.

First off, SEO optimization is crucial. You want your home to pop up first when someone Googles “homes” in your area because there are so many other Realtors marketing other properties. There is a thing called “Pay Per Click,” where you pay for someone to click on your house.

On our team, we pay the money for that because it just makes sense to drive more traffic to your home. If you work with someone who sells five homes a year, you should know that three of those sales are buyers and only two are properties that the agent lists. That means they are probably not going to spend a lot of money on advertising. I have 100 homes on the market, so I can make sure that your home stands out.

You also want to get your home on every site that populates current listings on the MLS. Syndicating your listing allows sites like Yahoo, Realtor.com, and more to pick up your listing. Homes that use this marketing tool sell in an average of 30 days versus the MLS average of 90 days.

We have seen a little surge in the marketplace over the last few months but it is slowing down a bit now, so pricing is key. Keep in mind that you want to sell your home within 3% of the market price. Think of pricing as a grocery line: there are 10 other people in line, but you want to be up front. There may be 10 other homes in the area on the market and you want to jump in front of them pricing-wise.

You do have to put some time in and determine whether or not those competing properties are overpriced. You don’t want to underprice your home; you just want to make sure that your home price is right for the market you are in.

If you’re planning on selling your home, be prepared. Come to one of our monthly Home Selling Sharks seminars. We can help you sell for 18% more than other home sellers. Go to www.homesellingsharks.com for more information and to sign up for the next seminar. I look forward to seeing you there!

The Latest Trends in Our Local Real Estate Market

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Summer is here and the market is hot! In fact, my predictions from last month seem to be gaining popularity with many other experts in the real estate field. I told you that we’re in a five-year pivot and on track to grow market sales strongly over the next five years, and it looks like that’s what’s happening.

If you look at pending home sales from January of 2016 to April, you can see that pending sales are dramatically increasing month to month. In fact, the April numbers far surpass the March numbers! There is tremendous demand for homes out there right now, and that demand will lead us to a phenomenal year (and a phenomenal 2017)!

I am not the only one who thinks that. Lawrence Yun, the chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, says, “In spite of deficient supply levels, stock market volatility and the paltry economic growth seen so far this year, the housing market did show resilience and had its best first quarter of existing sales since 2007.”

That’s right - this year we had the best first quarter in a decade! Freddie Mac agreed, stating that “Home sales typically rise in the spring and summer months, and we anticipate an acceleration in home sales that would surpass 2007 by late summer.”

For racing fans out there, we had a Triple Crown of April home sale reports - existing home sales, new home sales, and pending home sales were all very positive. Again, the fact that home sales have increased so much simply indicates how strong demand is in our market.

That said, there are some naysayers worried about home prices. The home price expectation survey asked a panel of 100 economists, real estate experts, and investment strategists to identify the primary driver of real estate home values in the United States right now. Of those, 50% pointed to low inventory while 20% thought low mortgage interest rates are driving the market. In other words, 70% of experts say the market is dictating home prices. It all boils down to supply and demand.

We’re eventually going to get enough supply to match the demand. In fact, we’re already starting to see that in our local market. Sellers that have been waiting for the market to settle are anxious to finally make their move. That is why I’m so sure that we will see a skyrocket in the number of home sales but not in home prices.

If you have any questions, please give me a call or send me an email. If you are thinking about selling your home, check out www.homesharkseminar.com. Our next seminar will be in October. I look forward to speaking with you!

June Update: The Market Is On Fire

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Summer is nearly here and the housing market is on fire! In today's June edition of the hot off the press market report, I'm going to be a little controversial right off the bat. I believe we're in a five-year pivot in the real estate market right now. Some so-called "experts" like to say it's a seven-year pivot in recessions.

I think if we isolate the real estate market itself, it's in a five-year pivot based on the last 15 years. From 2001-2005 there was a boom with prices skyrocketing and the market was strong, even too strong in some places, allowing greed to replace integrity. Lending standards and appraisals standards might not have been where they needed to be, and, of course, it caused a market correction, causing the crash. The five years after, we had a very slow recovery coming back in the housing economy. We never really gained strong momentum.

I predict that the next five years are going to skyrocket. I'm not saying prices are going to skyrocket - I think sales are going to skyrocket.

Home price gains have clearly been a driving force in building positive equity for homeowners. Longer term, I anticipate a better balance of supply and demand in many markets, which will help sustain healthy and affordable home values in the future. Right now, we're starting to build a supply again. Prices went through the roof recently because the demand exceeded the listings on the market, and as people start to build equity in their homes, what we'll see is more people start to put their homes on the market. That will temper prices to a certain degree, and that's good news because it will lead to a healthy housing market. It's actually stronger than the stock market right now.

According to a recent Gallup poll, Americans view real estate as the best form of long-term investment in all income categories. This is really an incredible time for the market. If you're considering selling your home in the next six months or even the next two years, you need to call me right now! Don't forget to share this blog with your friends, family, and social circle, and be sure to join us at the next Home Shark Selling seminar. Click here to learn more.

5 Things That Will Bite You When Selling in Philadelphia

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June is here and that means it’s almost time for one of the biggest and best home selling Shark Seminars of the year! I wanted to take a minute to tell you about how to get your home into the best shape possible, whether you’re downsizing, relocating, or looking for your dream home. The most important part of selling your home is the marketing to prospective home buyers! In this age in real estate, this is a big challenge. There are a lot of things that come along and try to steal your equity - I call these the home selling sharks. Why? Because they bite when you least expect it. They don’t warn you before they bite!

Sharks are things that come up that you don’t think about, and your Realtor might not even think of them either.

1. Staging
2. Pricing
3. Marketing
4. Negotiating
5. Overseeing details

These are things that can come up out of nowhere when you least expect it, and cost you a thousand dollars here and there. Before you know it, you’re out $20,000 or $30,000! The key to making the most money when selling your home is to swim with the sharks. To do this, you have to concentrate on these 5 factors.

For a limited time, I’ll share with you my 8 secret strategies, which are normally only found in my seminar or my home seller toolkit. Viewers of this blog get exclusive content by going to www.8secretstrategies.com and watching eight short videos to help you fight the home selling sharks and keep your money where it belongs - in your pocket.

I hope you find this information helpful for avoiding the sharks! To learn more, visit my next seminar. You can get info at www.HomeSharkSeminar.com.