Thursday, May 2, 2019

DETERMINING THE REAL ESTATE VALUE OF RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE AS AN INVALUABLE CANVASSING TOOL

Article: Berna Daly (CEO - ERA South Africa)



Time to face the music. Effective, sustained canvassing has become a threatened strategy.

In the age of POPI and the CPA, is has become more and more of a challenge to implement canvassing strategies and run extensive e-campaigns. Knock & drop canvassing campaigns pose even more complex challenges as a result of security and accessibility of properties, relevant to free standing properties, Sectional Schemes and Estates alike.

To add insult to injury, Owners simply do not like being contacted without a reason that included a definite value proposition to themselves, hence they are easy to dismiss or even challenge every source or form of contact initiated by Estate Agents.

But, as the saying goes... When the going gets tough, the tough gets going, therefore, it is time to dust off a tried and tested time-proven success recipe for canvassing, implementing it with the professionalism befitting of a Professional Practitioner of Real Estate in the year 2019.

Read more... https://1drv.ms/b/s!AiSlAPPNSj2wgxPJmgmNtYPucmG5 


Wednesday, January 30, 2019

CROISSANT DAY - 30 JANUARY 2019

croissant-dough.jpgIn celebration of Croissant Day, here is an awesome 
croissant dough recipe for you to try out!

Credit: Epicurious


YIELD - Makes about 1.25kg
ACTIVE TIME - 1 Hour
TOTAL TIME - 14 Hours


INGREDIENTS:
• 1 & 1/2 cups whole milk, heated to warm (40C - 45C)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 tbs plus 1/4 tsp active dry yeast (from two 7gr packages)
• 3 and 3/4 to 4 and 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
• 1 tbs salt
• 1 and 1/2 cups cold unsalted butter
• 2 kitchen towels (not terry cloth)
• 1 ruler
• 1 pastry brush

Special Equipment:
• a standing electric mixer with dough hook, 2 kitchen towels (not terry cloth)
, a ruler and a pastry brush.


PREPARATION:

Make dough:
  1. Stir together warm milk, brown sugar, and yeast in bowl of standing mixer and let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes. (If it doesn’t foam, discard and start over.) Add 3 3/4 cups flour and salt and mix with dough hook at low speed until dough is smooth and very soft, about 7 minutes.
  2. Transfer dough to a work surface and knead by hand 2 minutes, adding more flour as necessary, a little at a time, to make a soft, slightly sticky dough. Form dough into a roughly 4 cm-thick rectangle and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, until cold, about 1 hour.
Prepare and shape butter:
  1. After dough has chilled, place the butter on a work surface. Pound butter with a rolling pin to soften slightly (butter should be malleable but still cold). Scrape butter into a block and put on a kitchen towel, then cover with other towel. Pound and roll out on both sides until butter forms a uniform 13cm by 20cm rectangle. Chill, wrapped in towels, while rolling out dough.
Roll out dough:
  1. Unwrap dough and roll out on a lightly floured surface, dusting with flour as necessary and lifting and stretching dough (especially in corners), into a 40cm by 25cm rectangle. Arrange dough with a short side nearest you. Put butter in center of dough so that long sides of butter are parallel to short sides of dough. Fold as you would a letter: bottom third of dough over butter, then top third down over dough. Brush off excess flour with pastry brush.
Roll out dough:
  1. Turn dough so a short side is nearest you, then flatten dough slightly by pressing down horizontally with rolling pin across dough at regular intervals, making uniform impressions. Roll out dough into a 38cm by 25cm rectangle, rolling just to but not over ends.
  2. Brush off any excess flour. Fold in thirds like a letter, as above, stretching corners to square off dough, forming a 25cm by 13cm rectangle. (You have completed the first "fold.") Chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, 1 hour.
Make remaining "folds":
  1. Make 3 more folds in same manner, chilling dough 1 hour after each fold, for a total of 4 folds. (If any butter oozes out while rolling, sprinkle with flour to prevent sticking.) Wrap dough tightly in plastic wrap and chill at least 8 hours but no more than 18 (after 18 hours, dough may not rise sufficiently when baked).
Start baking! :-)



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