Landmark Group Interview Tips

Landmark Group Interview tips:

1. Learn about the company. Learn as much as you can about the company's mission, objectives, goals, and future plans. This shows that you are informed and interested in what the company is trying to achieve. Also when asked “why do you want to work for us” you can answer in an educated manner.
2. Fill out the application completely. Leave nothing unanswered or blank. It is always better to write in that you don’t know the answer or that it is not applicable than to leave it blank.
3. Be 10 minutes early to the interview. There is never a good excuse for being late to an interview and could cost you the job. If traffic is a concern be sure to leave early.
4. Turn your cell phone off during the interview. Applicants should focus all of the attention on the interview and cell phones (even left on vibrate) are a huge distraction.
5. Dress appropriately for the job. Always be neat, clean and presentable. The employer will look at you as a representation of the company.
6. Don’t babble or make jokes. When answering questions don’t babble on and on, keep your answers short and direct to the question asked. Also don’t make jokes as an interview is not the place to try out new material.
7. Don’t bad mouth former employers. You may have had bad experiences with a former employer however an interview is not the place to discuss this.
8. Maintain good eye contact. Staring at the floor, ceiling, or wall when speaking or listening makes you appear disinterested or untrustworthy.
9. Ask questions. At the end of the job interview make sure you have some questions to ask. It will reinforce your strong interest in the job.
10. Be aware of your body language. Based on your body language it can be seen if you come across as insecure or self-assured. It can also show if you are a busy or a quiet type and it helps give an impression of whether you are speaking truthfully or not.

Click here to see all available positions with Landmark Group and Dino's Storage.

Risk

I know this is not the kind of advice that I should be giving, but I will give it anyway: Go to work today and quit your job. You are thinking, "What?" You heard me. Go into work and tell your boss you quit.

Have I fallen off my rocker? No, I have not. I think that we should all be self-employed. Not only that, I think you should take the greatest possible risk you can find. People who make a lot of money look for business opportunities with a great amount of risk. Truly the time to start a business is when you are younger; the older you get the less time you have to make up for a big business loss. Here are some tips for what you should do when you start your own business:

• Get married. Studies show that married people are happier.
• Learn to live off of just one income not both of yours and your spouses.
• Work for someone else in the business you are going to start before owning one. For example if you want to start a pizza business, go to work as the manager of a pizza business.
• Cut your living expenses to the bone.
• Rent don't own, try to find a landlord that will agree not to raise the rent or sell the house you are living in
• Find a business that you love to do.
• Build up a cash savings. You will need a down payment for the business.
• Educate yourself about the business. Read everything you can.
• Talk to a lot of people who have done what you are planning to do.
• Develop mentors that you can bounce ideas off of.
• Surround yourself with like-minded people.
• Develop a support group of people that you can go to in confidence with your problems.
• Read the book E Myth.
• Take some accounting classes.
• Hire a really good CPA.

What is a Good Economy for a Real Estate Investor?

Recently I was reading through Dave Paladino's blog and I came across a post that really caught my eye. It correlated with everything I've been reading about what a great buyer's market we are in and how the able-bodied should seriously consider investing in some form of real estate.

Dave wrote this post on Sept. 20, 2009, which is eerie because it sounds as if he's describing the Omaha we know today. A good economy for real estate investors, he suggested, looks different than a good economy for the rest of the business world:

1. High interest rate environment. Landlords compete with house payments, so the higher rates our competitors charge, the more we can also charge in rents.
2. Tight lending standards. If it is hard for people to borrow money, they are more likely to rent.
3. Less new construction of apartments. All business is supply and demand. The lower the supply, no matter how small, the less competition you have.
4. Big employment growth/low unemployment. [This wasn't in his original posting, but just to put Omaha's standing in this area into perspective, our unemployment rate is 4.7% and the U.S. average is 9.1%. Although our job growth, according to Sperling's Best Place is .09% - not very high.]
5. Net population increase. The more people looking to rent, the better. [According to the Greater Omaha Economic Development Partnership, Omaha has grown 12.8% in the last ten years and a 5.5% growth is projected for the next five years.]
6. High foreclosure rate. People have to live somewhere. It's not as if the demand for housing goes away.
7. Families living separately. This one is hard to measure, but it is really good for our business. Say a family has five adult children and they all live at home. It is definitely better for property owners if all these people live in separate units.

What Journey Are You On?

As most of you know, we are in the process of filming a reality show called "The Super," which will be on HdNet starting in October or November of 2011. The production crew took a two week break from filming and they will be back on September 6. Once they are back, it will take about a month to finish filming.

The first episode will be about a female tenant and how she cannot get her bad-news boyfriend out of her life. This episode is close to my heart because I see so many girls that both have worked for me and who I rented to who have a man in their life that is a deadbeat. Because they do not think they deserve any better, they cannot get rid of them. This episode is 100 percent non scripted. Meaning: IT'S REALITY.

Last week, the key people at Landmark that will be on the show and the production crew went boating. Most people just don't see this, but if you love adventure, Landmark Group is an amazing place to work. Charles Little II is one of the producers on the show and while were tubing, he said, "Dave, this is living!", as he was watching me throw Roger, Cody and Phil around behind the boat on a beautiful warm Midwestern day.

I never realized what an amazing journey God has put all of us at Landmark on until Charles said that. I love to live life on the edge and push myself every day to experience the most I can. If you are looking for the kind of job where you can step outside your comfort zone, experience things you never dreamed of doing and hang around with amazing people, Landmark is the place to work. We are in a big push to grow our sales staff. If you know of anyone that wants to live life at its fullest, have them get contact me - (402) 553-8111.