In my own evolution to support my family, life a good life, and have a good career, I started out in real estate sales, and then I went to law school and practiced real estate law for 20 years.  I killed myself and never got rich.  I also didn’t get to spend the quality time I would have chosen with my family.  What would I do different?  Well who wants to go back with, “woulda, coulda, shoulda?”

I can tell you that I truly am convinced that in the present tense I am exactly where I should be doing exactly what I want to be doing.  I think the opportunities to make good money and have a very rewarding career in real estate sales has never been better, but there’s a catch.

With the wrong business model, the wrong brokerage, the wrong tools, and the wrong associates, you can still fail miserably.  There is one real estate business model that is so far ahead of the pack, there’s virtually no comparison.  The business model is already very similar to one I have been using successfully, but it takes my little one man show and morphs it into a national brokerage that is the first true Web 3.0 Virtual Real Estate Brokerage.  Don’t get this confused with some of the other brokers who are trying to bridge the gap from the traditional brokerage to the future brokerage.

I was attracted to eXp Realty not just because I could multiply my base commissions with revenue sharing, but also because of the quality of people involved, the daily virtual training, and the phenomenal Internet tools they already have in place.  I know other brokers are bragging they have these things, but they do not.  I promise.  I did my research like a lawyer gathering evidence for a trial, and eXp Realty won hands down.

One of the best ways to do your own due diligence is to join me on one of our Webinars where we explain exactly what we are doing, how you would make money and built a successful business, and answer your questions.  Call me on my cell at 360-775-5424, or email me at chuck.marunde@exprealty.com so we can schedule you for our next Webinar.  You’ll be glad you checked us out.

1. Are you content with where you are now doing what you are doing now?  If yes, don’t go any further.
2. Are you convinced that buyers are using the Internet and that you need to have a deeper and wider presence on the Internet?
3. Do you want to reduce your business expenses, work out of your home (or share a low cost office), and maximize your commission split?
4. Are you inclined to use technology to grow your business in the years ahead?
5. If you are not highly tech now, are you at least willing to learn?
6. Are you interested in diversifying your income by adding a revenue sharing component by recruiting other agents?
7. Do you crave more training and mentoring to beat the competition and get serious about making money in real estate?
8. Would you like to be part of the teaching and training in the future?

Second, I would encourage you to contact me so I can register you for an online webinar where all your questions will be answered.  It’s absolutely free, and there’s no obligation and no pressure.  What you will get is information that could change your life forever.  What have you got to lose?  Email for the next webinar chuckmarunde@yahoo.com.

I decided to go to law school and specialize in real estate, which I did in Spokane.  While working my way through law school I worked for a large real estate brokerage.  Same story.  Big brick-and-mortar and the broker gave me 50% of my commissions.  I got a cubicle.  Wow!   The only one who got rich in that office was the owner.

After practicing real estate law for 20 years, I came back to my first love, real estate sales, and at first I went to work for a hot new real estate model where I could earn 10% of the commissions of agents I recruited.  I got to keep 70% of my own commissions.  I got a cubicle.  Wow!  The problem with this business model was that there wasn’t enough income for the broker, and he actually went belly up.  Of course, the fact that he treated everyone like dirt might have had something to do with his failure, but many of these brokers have struggled to survive, and the agents have not done well.  Of the offices where morale is good, the brokers were making big bucks, but agents are struggling to survive now, and I think many of the brokers are running in the red hoping upon hope that the market will rebound.

Another great brokerage model that made the founders very wealthy and a lot of early top recruiters has hit the skids lately.  The problem with a “profit sharing” plan is that when there is no profit, there ain’t no sharing going on.  One top recruiter with over 300 recruits to her name only made $11,000 in profit sharing income for all of last year.  Wow!

The last franchise I worked for boasted the largest educational network and the fastest growing real estate company in the world, or something like that.  I got to keep 60% of my commission, instead of 50%, but that was probably because I had more experience in real state than the owner and his wife.  But I also got to pay annual corporate management fees and monthly corporate management fees.  Oh, I also got a cubicle.  Wow!  By the way, they never used the so-called large educational network.  I tried it once, but it was useless and exceedingly weak.  Meanwhile, the founders of that franchise are so rich no one really knows how wealthy they are, but the agents are struggling to survive in this recession.

In each of these traditional brokerage models many have left the business entirely, and others are on life support.  Some are fortunate enough to have working spouses, so they will survive off their spouses for a while.  I know of one agent literally washing dishes to survive.

Is anyone else starting to figure out that there’s a serious problem with the traditional brokerage model?  The traditional brokerage is definitely NOT the business model of the future.  Realtors who hang on to that model will find themselves in serious financial trouble, and at that point they may not be able to stay in the business because they won’t have any business.

Realtors who are paying attention to what is happening in the consumer market, including the real estate industry, marketing, advertising, technology and the Internet will have a sixth sense that they had better make a dramatic change, and that change must be now before it is too late.  Actually, it does not take a prophet to recognize that the print advertising business, including newspapers and magazines, is on life support.  Those mediums no longer sell real estate like they once did, and they are more expensive than ever.  Go figure!

I started my own brokerage and built a large Internet presence, because I recognized that is where buyers are.  It wasn’t exactly rocket science, but it did seem like the writing was on the wall.  In the past two years I have been abundantly blessed with my leads generated on the Internet, and I’m making a good living.  But the best part is that I knew I had a bright future if I could make a good living in the worse real estate recession in 30 years.  When the market rebounds, I stand to be in a great position because of my Internet sites.

Even though my business has been going well, I kept racking my brain to figure out a way to increase my income, to diversity my income.  Then I found something that did exactly that.  I found eXp Realty and attended a webinar that explained everything about their business model and how I could earn more income by recruiting other agents in any state where there is an eXp Realty broker.  The realization that I could continue to earn my current commissions and build a income through revenue sharing with a formula that really worked got me excited.

But it wasn’t just the income potential that persuaded me to join eXp Realty.  When I saw the most incredible virtual conference rooms where daily training and mentoring goes on, no matter where you happen to be sitting, I knew there was no broker or franchise that came even close to what this company offers.

I strongly recommend you take a look at this company, and if I could have the pleasure of being your guide, I would love to.  You can email me at chuck.marunde@exprealty.com or you can call me on my cell phone at 360-775-5424.

Don’t get left behind.  This company is light years ahead of the competition.

]]> http://www.futurerealestateagent.com/traditional-brokerage/my-experience-with-traditional-brokers/feed/ 0 http://www.futurerealestateagent.com/virtual_agent/become-a-virtual-agent/ http://www.futurerealestateagent.com/virtual_agent/become-a-virtual-agent/#comments Thu, 01 Apr 2010 03:40:19 +0000 Chuck Marunde http://www.futurerealestateagent.com/?p=128 If you are like me and want the freedom and the tools to build your real estate business using cutting edge Internet tools and extraordinary support from experts, then I recommend you check out eXp Realty.  I am recruiting agents and state brokers who want the opportunity to get on board with the virtual real estate brokerage of the future.  I firmly believe this is the place to be now and in the next few years and beyond.

eXp Realty is looking to eXpand our market presence around the United States. Are you looking to lower your monthly fees and take your business to the next level? You owe it to yourself to take a glimpse of what the future of Real Estate looks like today. Here at eXp Realty we have taken the  catch phrase “thinking outside the box’ to a whole new level.  By losing the “Bricks and Mortar” costs, we are able to offer more to our agents in savings and tools.

We are the World’s First Fully Immersive Web 3.0 Real Estate Company.

1. Our offices and meetings are online in 3D Virtual space. Cut out the travel and redundant expenses.
2. We are a Green company.
3. We have an 80/20 split with no franchise fees.
4. We are the industries most aggressive revenue sharing model.
5. We have an amazing and powerful innovative training platform to help you get to where you want to be.
6. We have high ranking organic sites, including first position in the extremely competitive “Seattle Real Estate” phrase (SeattlePowerSearch.com).

Do your business literally from any beach in the world.  Quite driving on those crazy rush hour traffic highways to go to and from the office and office meetings.  Stop paying so much for office sharing and overhead.  Increase your commissions with the best revenue sharing model in the world.

Don’t you owe it to yourself and to your family to check this out.  Contact me by email and let me know what time is good to call you.  I will invite you to a webinar where we will show you what we are doing and why this could make tremendous sense for you.  My email is chuck.marunde@exprealty.com.  My cell phone is 360-775-5424.

I’ve talked to friends in the business, and some have said, “I’ve not done anything in real estate in months.  I’ve been home with my (husband or wife), and frankly, I have no idea what’s going on in real estate.”  Many agents have left the business in favor of a salary so they can pay bills and support their families.  Nothing wrong with that.

Inman Real Estate News reported that brokers have been “Changing names, merging, consolidating, filing bankruptcy and closing branches . . . as literally thousands of real estate brokerage companies went out of business during 2008.”

The Seattle Business Journal reported that “Since the end of last year [2008], about 2,800 Washington agents have abandoned the business, a decrease of about 9 percent, and hundreds more have put their licenses on hold, according to the state’s Department of Licensing. . . . Many others are toughing it out by moving from well-known brokerages to smaller firms that allow them to keep 100 percent of their commissions.

On a website called “Housing Crash” we have this 2009 report.  “In Cape Coral, Fla., where only 30 percent of agents sold even a single home last year, real estate agents are ‘dropping out’ daily, says local Realtor Ginette Young. The Oregon Association of Realtors reports an 11.5% decline statewide of licensed agents in the past year.  Many of those who leave quietly shelve their signs. Others go out big: In Gilbert, Ariz., the fastest-growing city in the fastest-growing state, RE/MAX 2000 closed 13 offices throughout the Valley of the Sun, laying off at least 20 employees and scores of contract agents right before Christmas. The company couldn’t meet its expenses.”

A large Portland Broker with 56 agents filed bankruptcy recently.  “The office expansion and billboards? . . . Those expenses turned into the company’s biggest unsecured creditors.  . . . ‘We ran out of money to pay them,’” Haskins said. “The business just wasn’t viable.”1

“Jack Jentzen never saw it coming. Four years ago, as a real estate agent in Elgin, Ill., he was enjoying the rewards of the most frenzied U.S. housing market in decades, and money poured in. Now he’s fighting to keep his home. . . . Tens of thousands of agents have been forced to quit the industry in the past couple of years. Some are enduring their own agonizing foreclosures. Agents who had staked their fortunes on galloping home sales now struggle to afford health care, utilities and other basics.”2

What will happen in Sequim and Port Angeles?  Unfortunately, more of the same.  This is a nationwide experience, and real estate brokers in Clallam County are not exempt from the market downturn.  Fortunately, our real estate market has not suffered as greatly as many others.

A business can operate only so long in the red before it is forced to close its doors.  When fixed and variable expenses exceed income for too long, there is trouble looming on the horizon.  A ship can take on some water, and it can take on small amounts of water for longer than most people think, but eventually the ship begins to tilt, and it slowly sinks.  It doesn’t matter how persistent the captain tells his crew, “We are in this for the long haul.  We will survive.  We will not sink!,” the laws of physics and of nature will prevail.  A sinking ship sinks.

For real estate brokers that have taken on massive quantities of debt, and who have huge monthly fixed expenses, these expenses are water filling the ship.  I think one of the great burdens on a brokerage today is expensive traditional advertising that no longer is as effective as it used to be.  The wise broker threw those heavy burdens overboard long ago to survive.  The foolish broker is still telling his agents, “We are in this for the long haul.  We will survive.  We will not sink!,” but the laws of economics will prevail.  A failing business fails.

Ignorance of reality will not save us.  I love this quote from Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia:

There’s no difference between a pessimist who says, “Oh, it’s hopeless, so don’t bother doing anything,” and an optimist who says, “Don’t bother doing anything, it’s going to turn out fine anyway.”  Either way, nothing happens.

Let’s face it, real estate commissions are drastically down, and there is no reliable data to indicate that real estate commissions are suddenly going to save these brokers and their agents.  While some agents will leave the business entirely, other agents who can weather the storm will transfer their licenses to brokers who have less overhead and where they can keep more of their real estate commissions.  I predict more agents will be working out of their homes or low cost office sharing arrangements.  The other possibility is an entirely new brokerage model.

I’m pleased that my own brokerage is one of the  lowest overhead brokerages in all of Sequim and Port Angeles, and at the same time I believe I have the largest Internet presence of any agent on the Olympic Peninsula.3  While my business model has great promise for this market and even more so when the market comes back, I fear for some of my colleagues.  Some ships appear to be taking on too much water.

This recession is not good news for real estate agents, but when the dust settles, consumers of real estate services will be left with agents who are full time professionals committed to their clients.  For consumers this means agents with more experience, better track records, and  greater longevity than the “flock” of licensees who got licensed and made money in easier times.  I also believe that more consumer oriented brokers will evolve, which is also to the benefit of consumers.

Our free enterprise system has a way of cleaning up imbalances.  The system is often harsh, but in the long run prices find balance, poorly managed brokers quietly go away, outdated business models fade, and slowly health to the real estate industry returns.  This too shall pass, and in the long run we will all be glad for the results.

Buyers are cherry picking the best houses in the best neighborhoods at the best prices. This makes 90% of the existing inventory irrelevant or not part of most Buyers’ universe of potential homes. Since the cherry picked homes are not part of the 90% of remaining homes for sale in the MLS, the available inventory that is suitable for a particular buyer is really quite small, perhaps only 10% of the actual inventory.

In Clallam County, we have about 800 single family residences in the MLS for sale. If I am right about this cherry picking process that is going on right now, that would mean there are probably only 80 homes that might actually be suitable for you. But then we both know that you would narrow that list of 80 homes down very quickly, because that includes all homes at all prices in all neighborhoods. So by the time we filter that list of 80 homes based on your parameters, that will leave something like 20 homes on the market that might be suitable for you.

How long do you think those 20 homes will last when all other buyers like you are doing the same thing you are doing–cherry picking the best homes in the best neighborhoods at the best prices?

Imagine a private setting just outside the Sequim city limits on three gorgeous acres. Then add a 2,100 square foot, 3 bedroom, 2 bath custom built home with genuine hardwood floors, high ceilings, tiled kitchen and bathrooms, away from traffic and noise, and listed about $100,000 below its replacement value at today’s low prices. This home was just cherry picked off the market by a wonderful retired couple from Salem, Oregon. Above is a photo of this incredible find, and my clients are very fortunate to have found it before it crosses the radar of other buyers arriving here in the busy spring months starting in March. There simply are not very many homes like this in this small market. That’s why I refer to “cherry picking” homes in Sequim.

By the way, there is much more to this home than this photo or my brief description. There is also another house on the property, a 650 square foot guest home that matches the quality and appearance of the main home, and it also has a garage. The driveway is all asphalt, too. All I can say is my clients have stolen one of the finest homes at an incredible price. How much did it sell for? Well, let me just say this. The listing price was $397,500. My clients bought it for less, and it would have been a bargain at the listing price. Today’s replacement cost (land, excavation, electric, well, septic, driveway, main house plus guest house) would be approximately $519,000.

You can search the most powerful MLS online website for your retirement home right now at Sequim Homes For Sale.

I don’t have a crystal ball, and I’m not the seventh son of a seventh son, but I would like to share the collective wisdom of many retirees who have gone through this process and ultimately made a decision, some to buy and some to wait.

This is a photo of my son, Jesse Marunde. I took this photo at a strongman contest years ago. Jesse became the second strongest man in the world when he took second place in Chengdu, China at the World’s Strongman Contest. Jesse was my first son, and I spent a lot of time nurturing him as a young man and later encouraging and supporting him as a pro athlete. I traveled to events as his photographer and biggest cheerleader. I helped him learn how to talk on the microphones during events and how to develop his business plan. Our garage never had a car in it–only weights and strongman implements. We were very close, and I was always deeply proud of him as his father. Two and a half years ago while working out in our Sequim gym, Jesse had a heart attack and died suddenly.

Why do I share this with you in the context of your planning to retire, move to Sequim, and get on with your life in the midst of great uncertainty?

When my son died, it shook my world. Losing someone you love is hard, and it puts some things in perspective. One of those things is that we don’t have forever. I don’t have forever, but even those I love don’t have forever. Another thing that is put in perspective is that life isn’t about money and things–it’s about relationships. Take away all my things, and I’ll start over. Yes it would be difficult, but a man does what a man has to do, right? But take away the ones I love most, and you take my heart and purpose for living.

Retirees are telling me that they don’t know what the future holds, they are uncomfortable with the uncertainty, their retirement funds are way down, they may not be able to sell their homes where they are at now, but . . . and here is where many retirees are collectively in agreement, they are saying,

“Look, we don’t know what the future holds, and things could get worse, but we are in our sixtys, and we are not going to put our lives on hold forever. We don’t know how much time we have, whether it is 30 years or 3 years, but we want to spend our retirement years together in our dream home in the most beautiful place we could live, Sequim. We could be wrong on the timing, but we won’t find that out for years. It might turn out our timing to buy now is perfect. But we aren’t making our decisions based on the so-called experts’ opinions or the condition of our retirement fund. We are making our life decisions now based on what is best for us, and whether that turns out to be good or poor timing is just further down on the checklist for us. We’re not going to live our lives in fear. We are going to celebrate the time we have together, and we are moving forward to enjoy our retirement years. Period.”

I think there is wisdom in this approach. Admittedly not every single retiree thinks like this. Some need to sell a home where they live now before they can buy a home here. And some just feel it is best to wait. That’s all perfectly good. Each person should make the decision they feel is best for their family. But I also think there is great wisdom in the collective thinking I summarized in the quote above. I know for myself, I wish I had more time with Jesse before he passed away. While we like to think we are in control of our lives, our finances, and our destinies, the truth is there are many things we never will control. People older and wiser than me are suggesting that it is okay to make a decision based on what seems best now, and not to worry about the exact timing. Life is too short to be controlled by a thousand variables over which we have no control.

In the past three decades we have seen several real estate business models grow rapidly and make their founders and top producers millionaires.  In the past few years we’ve seen those same corporate behemoths lose franchisees, lose brokers and agents who figured out they were paying the corporates too much.  The real estate recession was the catalyst that is breaking the back of the traditional brokerage models.  Traditional real estate brokerage is struggling to survive with massive brick-and-mortar  overhead.  Telephones are no longer ringing off the wall as they did in 2005 and in times of plenty, and print newspaper ads no longer sell real estate as they once did.  That certainly isn’t front page news.

The growth of technology and the power of the Internet has revolutionized the business, and eXp Realty has built a huge Internet infrastructure that gives agents the powerful tools to connect with clients and give them better customer service than the competition.  But the best part of eXp Realty’s business model from my perspective is that it builds in a residual commission structure that can substantially increase one’s base commission.

Founder Glenn Sandford explains, “eXp Realty owns and operates some of the most eXposed high-trafficked real estate websites in the industry.  Every month our network of branded sites in major metros across the country receives over 50,000 targeted visits from Real Estate Buyers, Sellers and Professionals.  On each of these sites consumers find neighborhood reports, read market news, browse featured properties and search the MLS.”

Interest in how our business model pays you commissions and residuals?  Learn all about what we do and how we do it at FutureRealEstateBroker.com.

For a long time now, the Internet has been used by real estate agents to post their listings in their local multiple listing service (MLS), and while that was originally only accessible by members of the MLS by subscription, it has become searchable by the public through what is called an IDX accessible database through real estate agents’ websites.  It doesn’t include all of the data available to agents, but at least it is a nice way for the public to plug in their parameters and be able to see what active listings are available.  The Internet also has become a powerful tool to advertise listings on agent websites and blogs, as well as numerous subscription and online classifieds.

FSBO’s have many for-sale-by-owner online services to promote their own homes for sale.  While this is a move in the right direction, and using the Internet to sell real estate makes eminent sense in this technology age, FSBO sites are still many years behind the curve ball.  Most are not optimized for the search engines, and they are far from a comprehensive Internet marketing strategy.

Do FSBO sites work?  Sometimes a house sells on a FSBO site, so the site owner will shout from the mountain top that their FSBO site works.  But the majority of homes do not sell on FSBO sites.  Of course, properties simply posted in the MLS with traditional agents are not selling well either, if that’s all they do for marketing.

I have read from reliable literature many times over the past 5 to 7 years that approximately 85% of all FSBO’s end up listing with an agent.  My 30 years in real estate would affirm that is probably not far off.

Why don’t FSBO online sites work well?  First, a FSBO website is generally owned by a businessman who created a business model that he hopes will make him money by posting your home for sale for a flat fee.  Such services are rarely owned by top producing agents with the kind of experience to give you great counsel, and sometimes they are owned by good people who never bought or sold real estate.  They may have no experience in marketing and sales.  Not exactly a warm fuzzy, is it? The FSBO companies are also rarely owned by good writers and technology experts, which means they typically fall far short of having great websites with persuasive scripting, outstanding graphics, good navigation, rich content, and powerful SEO.

But there is another far more significant reason why FSBO online sites are not so effective in selling homes.  Buyers are NOT primarily going to FSBO sites to search for homes.  Oh, sure, once in a while they will, but guess where and how buyers are searching on the Internet?  What do you do when you want to do some research on the Internet?  Like you and me and millions of Americans, they simply pull up Google or Yahoo or MSN and type in a phrase and hit search.  The search engines don’t always turn up the FSBO sites in a particular area.

The Internet is definitely the most effective tool today to advertise and to find real estate.  But creating the Internet presence to do that is no small task.  It is a tremendous challenge to learn what is effective, what tactics should be used, how to balance the different advertising mediums, and how to implement all of the ingredients of good selling, which includes good scripts (language must be persuasive and concise), good graphics, good navigation, and rich content.  And it takes years to develop a substantial Internet presence.

Consumers don’t like hard selling in traditional media, but they do like the free flow of information made easily available on the Internet.  That’s what the Internet does best.  Consumers want and demand consumer-friendly information, and that includes free information on the Internet that they can access 24/7.  This is what “permission marketing” is all about.  The Internet has facilitated a shift from force fed and obnoxious advertising to custom tailored information that quickly responds to a consumer’s inquiry.  You’ll hear me say often that the Internet is empowering consumers like never before, and they love it.  So do I.

The Internet has empowered me to give free educational materials to consumers, and this is fulfilling one of my personal passions, which is helping consumers to make wise decisions and avoid traps for the unwary.  It has given me the privilege of sharing 30 years of experience from the school of hard knocks in real estate law and sales, and my hope is that you will benefit.

This book is about helping you make wise decisions in all aspects of buying and selling real estate in Sequim and Port Angeles.  One tip on negotiating could save $10,000.  One tip on selecting an agent could save you months and a lot of money.  One tip on selecting a home builder could save you thousands of dollars in cost overruns, tremendous stress, and even litigation that could last two years.

The great trap for the unwary consumer is a lack of awareness that there actually are traps for the unwary.  It’s one thing to know you don’t know.  It’s another and much greater danger not to know that you don’t know.

In this book you’ll read about key insider realities unknown to  the public, including the truth about open houses, foreclosures and short sales, the functionality of our two MLS services and how they compare, dual agency, and advertising.  You’ll also learn about home builders and how you can save money by understanding how they do business.

It has been said that if we forget history, we are doomed to repeat it.  Well, think of this book as hundreds of clients going ahead of you, having both good and bad experiences, and now sharing those experiences so you can benefit.  I did not want these valuable experiences to be lost.  Now you can be the beneficiary of the experiences of hundreds of people who have gone ahead of you to buy or sell real estate in Sequim and Port Angeles.

I will also share with you in this book what I believe is the future of real estate, a new and exciting business model that puts the consumer at the center of the Universe, places the most powerful Internet technology at the consumer’s disposal, and creates a virtual real estate office with more back office support, and more education and training than traditional brokers have ever been able to offer their own agents.  Nothing like this has ever existed before, and I’m privileged to be the first to write about this new business model in a book.  Not only will consumers benefit from this new model that is bridging the gap between the old and the new, but when real estate agents find out how this new model works, it will revolutionize the industry over the next five to seven years.  More about this later.  Before we can comprehend the future of real estate, we must understand our history and traditional practices.

This book has two goals.  The first goal is to help you avoid nightmares and stress that will cost you time and money.  One of the first great motivators in this life is the avoidance of pain.  I recommend you avoid traps for the unwary.  They can hurt.

The second goal of this book is to give you positive tips and recommendations with solid and honest information that will help you achieve your goal of buying or selling at the right price and terms.  The second great motivator in this life is the pursuit of pleasure.  You’ll find tips that help you accomplish your goal and pursue a good life, too.

If you enjoy this book, you may also enjoy a free online resource I created for you, SequimRealEstateNews.com.  That site is focused on Sequim and Port Angeles real estate and includes hundreds of articles on local real estate issues, market data and charts, free tools to help you search the Internet for homes and land, educational videos, audio recordings, and lessons I’ve learned in three decades in the real estate business as a real estate attorney and Realtor.

If you find this book helpful, please let me know.  You can email your comments to chuck@sakalpublishing.com.