Do you know Kendra Todd?

I do! I met Kendra Todd at the 2008 Realtors® Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida.

Kendra is the Season 3 winner of Donald Trump's "The Apprentice" as well as the 1st female winner in the show's history!


Kendra, a real estate expert and host of HGTV My House Is Worth What?, is also the managing broker of the Kendra Todd Group, a real estate firm that matches buyers with properties that fit their goals and helps them achieve financial freedom. Her first book, Risk and Grow Rich has been an instant success, conveying the challenge and importance of taking risks to create wealth.

Worth mentioning is that we have mutual friends. The infamous Frank McKinney & Mark Evans, DM, both. In fact, Kendra is featured in, The Insider Secrets of the World's Most Successful Real Estate Investors, by Mark Evans, DM. Same book that Mark interviewed me.

This is Kendra giving a presentation at the Lowe's Display at the Expo. I was happy to finally meet with her & discuss the current Florida Real Estate market. Kendra lives in Boynton Beach Florida and is quite successful!

Welcome to the International 2008 Realtors® Conference & Expo

Earlier this month I attended the International 2008 Realtors® Conference & Expo in Orlando, Florida. One of the best reasons for attending this type of event is the ability to network with other Realtors® and vendors. Having recently attended a Realtor event in Chicago last month, I was fortunate to meet several Certified International Real Estate Specialists designated by the National Association of Realtors®.

At the Realtor® sponsored cocktail parties and education events I had the pleasure of meeting these CIPS's:

• Robert from Dubai in the United Arab Emeritus
• Chang, Jeff and Chandran from Singapore
• Jana the National Association Liaison to the Czech Republic
• Nguyen Lam Son from Ho Chi Mihn City Vietnam
• Jenny from Placencia Mexico
• Agencia from Sao Paulo, Brazil
• Kirkor from Nice France
• Edward and Larry from Roatan in the Bay Islands of Honduras
• Nittaya from Thailand
• Wilford from Boquete Panama
• Vekshina from Moscow Russia

I intend to keep in touch with these fellow Realtors®.

The Expo was fun and exciting. I attended a seminar given by one of my Real Estate Coaches, Rich Levin. He surprised me by telling "my story" to his seminar class. I am guessing approx 500 Realtors® heard about me that weekend!


Make sure to read my next post about a famous person I met at the Expo!
I'll give you a hint... Her initials are KT.

I spent the week of Oct 20th in school...

Douglas Doebler receiving his certificate of completion for one week of National Association of Realtors International Real Estate Education classes. Douglas will become connected with specially educated and certified Realtors around the World".

Marcus Wally to the left of Douglas, was the instructor of the course. Marcus is one of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS ® faculty members for the one week program & facilitates these classes all over the globe. His passion for International Real Estate has led him to a number of global cities including Rome, Paris, Riga, Puerto Rico and New York and a host of others. Marcus Wally was recognized at the 2007 NAR Convention as the "International Educator of the Year of 2007".

Chris Soester to the right of Douglas, is a Certified International Property Specialist and is also a faculty member of the National Association of Realtors' Certified International Property Specialist program. Chris was a guest teacher for one day.

My Palm Beach Experience with Frank McKinney

Thanksgiving is soon upon us and I'm reflecting about where I was last year... Almost one year ago I took part in a wonderful experience in Palm Beach, Flordia. For many months prior to the event, I helped to organize this event. We had weekly phone meetings and made some great plans! Many high profile people attended and the event was a huge success!

Do you recognize Don Shula with me?

We asked that each attendee donate a minimum of $5,000 to the Caring House Project Foundation. Why $5,000 you ask? With $5,000 you will provide shelter for one desperately homeless family. That's right, the Caring House Project Foundation can build a 500 square foot concrete home with metal roof, kitchen, two rooms, front porch and bathroom, all for $10 a square foot!

Should you build two homes by donating $10,000 or more you will be invited to a special lunch the day the event concludes inside a $30 million home.

Should you want to stay as a guest at Frank McKinney’s personal oceanfront home for the two nights ( there was room for 5 guests), we offered this opportunity by donating to build three homes, or a minimum of $15,000.

Rich DeVos (founder of Amway and a fellow Rotarian) with me.

Many of the hosts for this event have donated significant sums of money to CHPF and have seen the silver lining as they drove through the misery of extreme poverty in Cap Haitien, Haiti to reach the self sustaining village built by the Caring House Project Foundation that was inaugurated just a few months ago. A village that has touched over 1000 homeless men, women and children.

This is the famous painter, Michael Isreal, on the left. When I was on Haiti, I took a picture of this young boy. Michael painted this portrait of him & we auctioned off the painting at the event. Did you see the T-shirt that I designed as a birthday gift to Frank when I visited Haiti in February?

Michael Isreal does big charity auctions - paintings often sell for $50,000. Watch these videos to see some of his work... make sure to turn up the sound! This New York City video has had almost 8 million hits http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZFkZiwMLZ4

This video of his Big Brother/Big Sister painting in Tampa has had thousands of hits. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1bCKtX4uEc

This is Frank McKinney, creator of this event with the Haiti boy painting - this painting raised $45,000.

The event was a huge success and we raised close to $700,000. Yes - almost 3/4 of a million dollars! This money raised will help build next two villages in Haiti.

We did an interesting exercise to "leave your fears behind"...

With 300 people watching, I stepped into a coffin. It was a little chilling & eerie at the least, but made me think about my "fears" and how to overcome them!

This is our group touring Frank's Spec Homes

This photo of Mike Litman (Conversations with Millionaires) and some of the group

Mike talking to Kendra Todd's Mother

My good friend Mark Evans also helped us organize this event.

Click here to read the email I received from Frank last year after the big event.

See for yourself what Frank McKinney and I witnessed that very 1st day I spent in Cap Haitian, Haiti.

It was a true life changing experience for me!

Click on my link below or copy and paste it to your browser

http://www.dougdoebler.com/x/Haiti

I will always cherish my visits - my time well spent to help the people of Haiti

In light of the current economy and the upcoming elections,
I wish you all a Thankful and Happy Thanksgiving!

The Trump Tower in Chicago

I happened to be in Chicago last week for an international real estate class. Marcus Wally, of New World Realty and Property Management, Inc., from St. Augustine, Florida was the instructor. Marcus is one of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® faculty members for the CIPS program and facilitates these classes all over the globe. This passion for International has led him to a number of global cities including Rome, Paris, Riga, Puerto Rico, New York and a host of others. It was a great class & I look forward to another full week of international real estate classes with Marcus later this month - right here in the Fingerlakes, upstate New York, where I live! The colors of autumn will be in full bloom by then!

At the same time there was a "topping off" party of the Trump Building. People were buzzing everywhere! In addition, at the hotel I stayed, there was a seminar going on with some high ranking internet people there. I got to meet & hang out with a few of them. I have read about some of these internet marketers on the web & to meet them in person was exciting for me.

Note the photo of everyone in the street. Chicago doesn't seem to struggling with the economy, at least in the retail sector. All the stores were full. The stock market was down something like 700 points that day - but still the streets were full in the shopping district.


The Trump Tower soars 92 stories. This building of polished stainless steel and iridescent tinted glass is a sight to see.

Chicago’s skyline will never be the same.

Check out this Model at the Mandarin Oriental

While I was in Chicago last week for a Real Estate Class, It was a great time to visit a couple of pre-construction projects I have been working on. The developers at this project have all the permits & financing in place. Construction should be starting before the end of the year.

This is me standing in the sales center of the Mandarin Oriental Tower. We did some business here with an average sale price of about $800,000 per residence.

I was able to take some photos of the model while I was here.

Check this out - The city views through the windows are actually photographs!

Very clever to add the city views to the windows. This "view" is typical of the Chicago city skyline. The last time I visited the Mandarin Oriental in Chicago the models were not completed. This was a treat to be able to get photos of the model.