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There are songs that better describe America and patriotism, I suppose, but I can’t think of too many other songs that mean independence to me more than this song. I’m biased, of course, living as I do in the Great Midwest. Some people love the ocean or the mountains. They look out at miles of water or towering peaks and feel something. I’m not one of those people. I confess I love acres and acres of plowed or planted fields standing as a proud testament to someone’s hard work and tenacity. When “the corn is as high as an elephant’s eye”, and “the cattle are standing like statues”, I find this magnificent, thrilling even. The earth itself is abundant and I see that most in evidence on farmland. On a quieter level though, sitting on my modest suburban patio on a sultry summer Ohio evening, I know that “the sounds of the earth are like music” because I hear that particular song in the thick, humid air alive with insects and birds, the crickets and toads operatically calling for a mate, or the delicious evening thunderstorms that bellow across the sky, and I’m here to tell you that this music is a love song. “O’ What a Beautiful Morning” is an American love song and I am enthralled with the ideas represented: being in love with a another person, in love with life, in love with the possibilities for independence that present themselves to you every single morning.

I leave a lot of musicals here, I know. I’ll not apologize. My heart often sings out and I’m compelled to share those songs, and our gracious host is obliging enough to humor me. Oklahoma though, is my favorite Broadway musical because it is so very American. Not only the cowboys and the ranchers, or the aw-shucks Americana. Oklahoma is wonderful because it freely shares that American idea of independence: The idea that simple people can own land and work and produce from that land, independent of the government. This is America, perhaps the one American thing I love most of all. This unfettered opportunity for freedom, for independence, is what gives Curly his exuberant optimism as he looks out at acre after acre of cornfield and sees it for what it truly is: Beauty, majesty, hard-work, independence, and of course, love.

To property owners of all types, to independent property owners everywhere, a love song for you all.

Talking with a client a few weeks ago. She’s been in her home for two years now, and her biological clock is beginning to tick tock. She’s nesting. It’s fascinating to see how property ownership impacts lives in a big way.

It is the husbandry of the land — each man to his own parcel — that most makes husbands of us, that sweeps away our willingness to live as brigands or rapists or thugs.

That applies to females as well, in case that needed to be explained.

This client was telling me that she was baby sitting for friends of hers, and the baby started crying, as babies are known to do. She didn’t know what to do for it, she tried this and she tried that with no luck, but then without a thought, she began to sing to the baby, and it worked. Singing is not something she’s prone to do. “I never sing” she told me. That little bundle of joy obviously needed comforting and singing was the key to calming the baby. My client learned what I’ve known for years- singing makes us happy and you probably figured out that I’ve pretty much always got a song running in my head as background music to my life.

All of this is my clumsy and roundabout way of working real estate and singing into one post so I can share a song I’ve been singing lately. It’s campy, it’s tongue-in-cheek, it’s awesome in its goofiness. If you are a newly minted Gleek, it’s okay to sing loudly and badly, as all the most fun show tunes seem designed for that very purpose. I’ve been accused of having a sense of humor and for not taking things too seriously, so it makes sense that for me, singing a show tune like this is as close as I ever get to an affirmation. “Money flows to me like a river.” Yeah, okay, but I’d much rather sing at the top of my lungs:

“I hear the sound of good
Solid judgment whenever you talk.

Yet, there’s the bold, brave spring
Of the tiger that quickens your walk.
(roar, roar!)”

I mean, yes, I am what I think about but, c’mon. Life is short. Let’s have some fun.

Robert Morse takes on the old guard with “I Believe In You” from “How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying”. Oh the irony.

A revelation: At this moment in time, my business is exactly where I want it to be. Is that weird? I don’t think so, as I’m getting exactly the business I’ve earned. That’s not to say it’s the business that would make you happy, and it’s not to say it’s the business I want in six months or six years, even six weeks from now, but today, when I stopped to think about it, my business is in direct proportion to the amount of work I’ve put into it.

I’ve been busy over the past few years, but I haven’t always been busy on work. Some of that is my own fault, I’ll own that, I always have owned that, but the fact remains that the business I’m getting is exactly proportional to whatever I put into it, and that’s the good news for the day, because I know that whatever I put in, I’m going to get out.

I haven’t talked about my dad in a long while, but everything I know about work, I learned from him. I think you’d like my dad- he’s a Bloodhound. He grew up in a hardscrabble part of town, in a Catholic orphanage where the nuns let him be as much as they could. He is a kinesthetic learner. He’s one of the smartest people I’ve ever known, but not in a bookish way. He can teach himself any sort of thing, but only if he does it and the nuns allowed him to follow the plumbers, the maintenance people, the doers, around. He’d ask them questions about what they were doing and hand them tools when they asked. Other kids were off playing pick up games or getting into neighborhood fights, Dad was learning, always learning stuff.

When he had a family to support, Dad became a salesman which allowed him to get out and talk to people. A desk job? No thanks. My dad needed to live unchained, so he headed out- an independent sales rep for tool manufacturers. It wasn’t an easy life for him, but he was used to that. He loved to work, can’t sit still, to this day he can’t sit still.

He once told me about his early days on the road as a sales rep. When things were really tough and he had no money, he’d pull into a motel parking lot and sleep in the car. Back then, when a motel guest was checking out, they’d leave the room key in the door as a signal to the maid to come in and clean. If things were really tough, Dad would sit in the parking lot and wait for a guest to leave, run in and quickly use the shower to clean up. That’s kinda gross to think about, isn’t it? Yeah well, it’s also hard work and what needed to be done and the way he survived, and it fed me and my brothers. Fortunately, that didn’t happen often and he didn’t live that way for long because hard work pays off and he began to earn business in exact proportion to the amount of work he put in and eventually he was able to put four kids through college. Dad can look back at those times and smile. They now represent an extraordinary marker of how far he has come- how hard he worked and how much his hard work paid off for everyone in his life. You and I have our own markers of success.

I bring this up because I’ve been thinking about different real estate markets around the country and how there must be agents in booming parts of the country who didn’t have to work too terribly hard on their business the past 10 years. I’m assuming, tell me if I’m wrong, that in a boom town, with people moving in, you might could work in real estate without having to work too hard at the business side of real estate, and perhaps today you are looking back at the past few years wondering what happened? Business isn’t where you want it to be? Easy come, easy go, but I’m here to give you a nudge to get to working, seriously working, because the good news for me is also the good news for you- whatever you put in, you will get back and it while it probably won’t take long, it will take work. My dad would be proud.

So this is the year that time management is going to be crucial for me. If I cannot gain control over my time, then I’m likely to stay mired in my own particular mode of real estate mediocrity, and that would suck rocks.

But, not to worry for I have found a tool that I think will be helpful to Realtors, and while I’m just getting started with TimeDriver, the response from clients and colleagues is “Wow! I love that.” And that’s plenty reason to keep a tool around, but I’m beginning to see how I could use it for a lot of real estate applications. Bloodhound Disclaimer: I don’t get any kickbacks for sharing this. There’s no affiliation program that I’m aware of, and I’m not in contact with the company except I signed up and use it. I simply want to share a tool that I’ve found useful.

TimeDriver is called a personal scheduler. From their site:

TimeDriver is a revolutionary appointment invitation system that will compel your customers and community to schedule time with you. By embedding a “schedule now” button in email messages and on Web pages, you’ll drive more appointments with fewer hassles than ever before.

Basically, it’s an online calendar that you set up to schedule time as you want. Your clients can then access the calendar through a unique url, and they can schedule time with you themselves, bypassing the flying email and phone tag time sink. It gives the client control and that’s a good thing in a real estate transaction, right? You can also push clients to schedule their own appointments with “Schedule Now” embeddable buttons. TimeDriver will then sync the appointment with your Outlook or Google Calendar, with plans to bring SalesForce and Lotus Notes on board as well. Butwaittheresmore! TimeDriver will then send you an email, alerting you when an appointment is scheduled, and reminding both of you when the appointment is approaching.

The first time I saw TimeDriver was when I called a photographer to schedule an appointment. She sent me the link to her TimeDriver calendar. It was an empowering experience to schedule my own appointment, and that’s been the reaction of people with whom I share my TimeDriver links.

I can see using this in real estate applications to schedule phone calls, office meetings, property showings, closings, inspections. I’m preparing to list a property that is going to require some maintenance prior to listing. I’m going to try it as an individual property calendar, creating a unique calendar url for that property, and send it out to anyone who needs to schedule time at the property, also keeping the client in the loop, as I create and share Google Calendars for my clients.

There’s a 90-day free trial waiting for you, after that it’s a reasonable $29.95 annual fee.

Anyone else using this? What’s been your experience? If you do use it, now or in the future, please let us know your thoughts.

To date, I’ve not paid a lot of attention to RPR™, the REALTORS Property Resource^TM, because so far it’s just a big roll-out hoo-ha PR wingding, which I try to ignore, so the pros and cons and discussions about this being a game changer or not and how are brokers and local MLS going to respond, are online, you can read those yourself.

If you haven’t seen the RPR™ demo yet, go grab a cup of coffee and take a look. At 30 minutes, it’s a nice overview of some of the best features the RPR™ has to offer, and I’m sure there is other stuff for us to discover. Features are nice: Market stats, the ability to keep private and public property notes online, the ability to add layers of information- like a sidewiki- about property, neighborhoods, etc. It’s rich with data, and invites sharing more data and information with other professionals, as well as with our clients. That’s powerful, and empowering if you stop to think about it. All this real estate information that we compile in our heads could be shared with each other online.

But, I’m a simple girl with simple needs. What I want to know right now is this: Does RPR™ offer anything of value for me to share with clients? And the short answer is, yes, it does appear that way. You’ve been doing this for awhile- researching information, compiling that information, presenting that information, and what RPR™ does it make it super simple to research, gather, present, and share property, neighborhood, and market information with our clients, in a very professional, complete, concise manner. In a matter of moments I can compile a professional report to either email or pdf for my clients that includes market stats, neighborhood info, property info, a glossary… Informed clients make the best clients. This is good for consumers.

I know, I know, the path ahead is rife with uncertainty. All that transparency is both liberating and chafing at the same time. Should the NAR mess with this at all? Are there turf wars involved? Why is this information still behind a wall? I’ll leave those discussions to bigger brains. Here’s what I see impacting us grunts right now: Consumers are going to demand this type of indepth information and educational tool from here on out. We can only go forward. Realtors are going to have to cough up facts and information like never before, if not through RPR™, then through the next mash-up of real estate information, and I, yes even I, have to applaud the NAR for trying to make this process as complete and simple as possible.

2009 beat me up.

Oh sure, I’ve been beat up in other years, but this is different because I’m not able to look back and say, “Well, thank god that’s over,” and move on, because it’s not over. The body blows that 2009 delivered are coming along with us into 2010 and we will be dealing with them indefinitely, which isn’t what the New Year is supposed to look like, is it?

When I sit down to make resolutions and plans, something I love to do, I now have to factor in time for unknowns, time for emergency trips to hospitals, time for staying put and just… waiting. But really, how do you factor in unknowns? How do you schedule trips to the ER on your calendar? How do you plan for the unplanned-but-inevitable?

I’m not sure, truth be told, but I think it has to do with using your time wisely, something I can do, but typically don’t. It has to do with flexibility, something I do fairly easily, and it has to do with focus. Um, huh? Focus? What’s that? I twitter, remember? I’m an awesome friend to ask a question of because I’m the person who will drop everything and help you find an answer, because what can be more fun (key word) than finding new fun things to do, because who knows what new fun things will come from that discovery, leading to more new fun things… and well, it’s much more fun than it sounds.

Don’t judge. I have strengths and I have weaknesses just like you, I simply need to learn to work with them under the 2009 rules. I can do this.

I’m going to have to become more mobile. Mobility is flexibility is productivity for 2010. But bigger than that for me, and I suspect I’m not alone, is using time wisely. It’s not a hard thing to do, but for me, it can be difficult to master. Using time wisely in an unstable environment means I get to always ask myself the big question: What is the best use of my time right now?

And here’s the thing: The best use of my time might be real estate related and that requires me to plan what I can and focus when I can, mobilize what I can, but this year also taught me that sometimes the best use of my time is to simply to sit quietly and hold someone in my arms.

So my resolution for the New Year is to make the best use of my time, at any given time, and to have the wisdom to understand what best use really means.

Here’s to Happy Healthy and Productive New Year for all of you, but I wish for you more than that. I hope that you spend your time in 2010 doing the things that are truly important, whatever they might be.

I heard it, but thought my ears were deceiving. Nope, it’s there, at about :22.

No word yet when the Fourth Horseman will make his entrance…

I. am. not. BawldGuy. And I don’t play one on this, or any other blog. Okay, now we’ve got that (not-so) deep dark secret out into the open… If you are approaching BawldGuy status, God Bless You, and keep on truckin’ and you go girl! You can move along, because this is for those of us who are working on real estate at the ground floor level.

I’ve been given the gift of time in 2009 and looking back and looking ahead, I see some obvious truths about the real estate business. Some of these are based on mistakes I’ve made, but as long as we learn from them, I’m okay with sharing.

Truth #5: I like twitter. I don’t like facebook. But who cares? Without a goal-driven plan to use either for a very specific reason, then I’m wasting time on both, and I’ve wasted time so you don’t have to. Use them to chat, or use them to market, or use them to sell, but understand the difference and if you are going to use them for business, have a plan and follow the plan. Don’t get sidetracked, and do stay focused. If you are a lender or a vendor then you might want to network with real estate agents, but if you are an agent, then stop talking water cooler and find people who can tell you to go to hell.

Truth #4: You don’t need social media to do a great job in real estate. You don’t need to  blog, or twitter. You don’t need to go to conferences. You can. You might learn a nugget or two, but it’s entirely unnecessary to your success, and it just as likely will be a huge waste of your time and energy.

Truth #3: To be successful in real estate, you need to meet as many people as possible. Lucky us, people are everywhere, and we can find them through any means- the method is really unimportant to getting to close. What’s important is that everyday you get up and do something, and if you do the same thing every day- blogging, or door knocking, or postcard sending, open houses, or google ads, or chatting folks up at the local coffee shop- if you do this every day, and you pay attention to responses, you are going to close something. Hooray.

Truth #2: If you are not satisfied with the “close something” part but would like to close something specific, then you have to apply some marketing.  So we put our thinking caps on: Who is your perfect client? Go find them. Everyday. Find your perfect client everyday. Are they twittering? Are they really? Or do you just hope they are?  Are they on facebook? Are they at the synagogue? Are they on the golf course? In the local book club? Just go find them and talk to them.

Truth #1: Talk to people appropriately. Market to them effectively. Sell to them in ways that add value to their lives. Don’t be ashamed to be a salesman. Apply as needed, which means consistently. Lather rinse repeat.

Here’s to making 2010 the best year ever!

On a personal business note: I’m actually looking to team up with some sharp savvy souls who would like to share goals and keep each other focused for 2010. I don’t want people who will cut me slack, so if you are nice and sweet, that’s not going to work out for this. It’s just about making and meeting weekly, monthly, quarterly goals, nothing more, but nothing less. If you are interested, drop me line.

I watched C-SPAN last night.

Now I feel dirty.

Saturday I took a mini vacation and visited my daughter Rian, who was taking a longer vacation in the Hocking Hills. If you are from the Mid-West, you may know about the Hocking Hills. It’s beautiful land- old forests, rolling hills. It was a treat to take a day away from normal life and I love driving through Ohio with its farmland and small towns. I’m a Realtor. Under all is the land.

Ohio is still, and always has been, an agricultural state. Our biggest business is agriculture- that’s large expanses of productive real estate- income producing dirt. I am, even in my inner ring suburb, surrounded by cornfields and soybean fields and small roadside farm stands and pick-your-own strawberries. And when I was a kid I hated it! Hated it. I was once much more cosmopolitan than the hayseed you see before you. I was once a citified mohawk wearing rabble-rouser. I was once on the fast track out of the Mid-West and onto somethinganything more exciting. And then I grew up.

I spent time with people who came from the same gene pool. I was accepted by the most gentle and loving people I’d ever met. Their quiet wit, their infinite love, their simple lives woke me up and let me understand that I could take the girl out of the country, but I never really wanted to take the country out of the girl. My mohawk grew out, my attitude softened- just a bit- and I learned to love the sight of a pristine barn rising out of tidy rows of cornfields. I know with the tiniest whiff on the breeze, whether I’m smelling cow, pig, or horse shit, and my husband Jamie, who has farming in his blood and spent his youth as an assistant to a large animal veterinarian, says that the dumber the animal, the better the smell. Hint: Pigs stink almost as much as humans.

We have beautiful land in Ohio, and no time is it more beautiful than now, in the fall, when the trees become a spectacular raging colorfest, and the farm fields are golden, and the skies are the bluest they will be all year. It’s glorious in Ohio in late September and October, and I, for one, don’t mind the impending winter. I love Winter. The quiet, the calm, the anticipation of Spring. We are not only in touch with our weather here, of which we have quite a bit, we are also in touch with the land here. Even in the city or the suburbs, we watch the local farmers. Watch them as they harvest, as they prep their land for winter, as they turn the earth and plant in the spring. Every season brings a change in the landscape, and I’m quite unapologetic about this, but it’s breathtakingly lovely to watch.

An unchained life in the country: A photo of the Hocking Hills on Saturday, and Eva Cassidy singing “Fields of Gold”.

-Amazing Grace, I once was lost, but now I’m found. This was a goner in the meltdown and for some reason I didn’t keep a copy. Thank you, Cheryl Johnson for finding it in the Google cache. It’s not brilliant writing, but it is something I’m pleased with, so, I’m reposting. Thanks for your indulgence.  -TL

A letter to Brian Brady, sent via private courier since the government has seized control of the internet.

Dear Brian-

So sorry to hear Maggie didn’t get into the college of her choice. It’s okay, though. I’m sure the government school she’s in will give her the education she needs to function well in our new society. Never forget we need highly-skilled workers, Brian.

I don’t know if you are aware, communication being dicey right now, but we have moved to some acreage in a remote part of Ohio. Like so many Midwest cities, ours went bankrupt, was taken over by the State and our neighborhood was rezoned as a Construction Reuse Reclamation Area under eminent domain. Thousands of our brick homes were recycled for government buildings and stimulus projects. We were given free homes within the city of Dayton as part of it’s Vacancy Infill Plan, but we chose to move elsewhere. We can manage as a small self-sufficient farm and are hidden from the road, since our carbon offset tree plantings are located there. We’ve begun bartering with neighboring farms, and use horseback to travel, as our carbon emissions quota is limited and we need them for our farm equipment, and our cows keep farting. I won’t complain, though. We get to see the land this way.

The only problem we have is when the Czarina of Food Safety shows up to our farm. I know she thinks she is doing the right thing, but the problem is that she grew up in southern California and never set foot on a farm until she was Gulaged decommissioned relocated here to be an inspector. I’m not sure, but it feels like she is unhappy living in Ohio farm country and takes it out on us. I guess when she pushed for control over farming methods in Ohio, she didn’t realize she’d be in charge of Compliance. Anyway, we take excellent care of our animals, Brian, but she doesn’t seem to understand that livestock are not house pets.

My parents have moved onto our land as they didn’t want to live under ObamaCare in the last years of their lives. All neighboring farms are multi-generational, so we share the services of a visiting Nurse Practitioner- the daughter of one of our little community of farms. She works on a barter system so the Health Czar doesn’t know about her. She’s very knowledgeble about natural medicine and has contact with an old doctor who has access to pharmaceuticals. We have all joined together to purchase a lot of medical equipment, so far things are working out pretty well. The elderly among us have all made the decision to live free or die…

Oh! Did I mention that our kids are here as well? Brian, I brought them up to be independent as possible and when the Education Czar didn’t like either of their mandatory 3rd year Change I Can Believe In essays describing how they would make the world a better place for all, the Compliance Czar got a copy. Blacklisted as ideologically undesirable, which you are familiar with, unable to work since many corporations actually belong to the government, so they live with us and are as happy as… Well no. I can’t lie. They are unhappy. They had such dreams and hopes for their future. They don’t mind the farm, but they both wanted to be able to choose their own way through life.

Anyway, Brian, we are isolated, but things are pretty good. We have a place that allows us to live as independently as possible, our land is remote so it isn’t on the Government Water Acquisition plan, and we are surviving. What more could you ask for?

Fondly,
Teri

Got any thoughts about REbarcamp? I’m not even sure how to spell it. But I went to REbarcamp in Columbus OH-I-O, and had a mahvelous time. The venue was nice, clean, easy for the navigationally challenged to navigate, no waiting lines at the Ladies Room. What more could we ask for? It was well-organized, and the organizers were accommodating.

A question came up while I was there: Would I go to another rebc? It gave me pause. I like to meet people, so I would certainly be looking for another opportunity to do that again. But rebc? I’m not so sure. I really dislike conferences in general, and on the drive home, just like I did after BHBU, I pondered what I would do to improve my rebc experience.

I did get it wrong about rebc sponsorships, btw. No one pays any attention to who is sponsoring anything, so that is a total non-issue. If you are using sponsorship as advertising, well, um, yeah. Of course the highlight was meeting people I only know online. Meeting face-to-face is one of the best reasons to go to most real estate functions, and rebc is no exception to the rule. What was so wonderful about rebc/OH-I-O is that the vast majority of people there were corn-fed Ohioans, just like me. My people. We have a common bond, we speak the same language, there is an ease and familiarity that follows. I really loved that more than I can express, so I would look for opportunities to get together locally and share ideas- that’s all barcamp is about, right? So here’s where it gets a little sticky to me. What is the big deal?

Call it Midwest practicality, but it’s local Realtors. And we are talking about local real estate. Think about it. When did this become hoopla-worthy? When did you need a name, an umbrella organization, a fancy venue, a nearby hotel, a website, a logo, sponsors, organizers, nationally known speakers, in order to share ideas about local real estate?

And so. Come with me to a little meeting with Jesus. I want to get together with other Realtors who are working in the same sort of conditions I am. I want to share things in an as efficient manner as possible. I want to learn as much as possible. That’s really all rebc is set up to do, isn’t it? Unless. Unless I have a product to promote. But if I don’t have anything to promote, then it’s not a big deal, right? I had a good time, but my brain didn’t explode, so would I take the time again? I don’t know.

Okay, untwist yer panties. I understand that several rebarcamps are Inman appendages of sorts, and they need to be a big deal, designed to accommodate a lot of people, and bless the organizers for getting those done so quickly and efficiently, but this is you and me, we are just folks, just Realtors out in flyover country, in little towns and small cities, no legends in our own minds. We don’t need a venue. What we need is to actively seek out a few like-minded folks in our area, a wifi, and the desire become better Realtors, because all the snazzy tools in the word don’t add up to squat if I’m not doing the best job I can. And here’s what I realized on the way home- I can do all this without months of frenzied organization, and corporate approval, and the beauty part is, the simpler it is, the more likely it will be to continue on a regular basis. So, little me is thinking that what I should be doing is contacting those local folks that “get it”, to use the cool kid’s vernacular, and say something along the lines of “Hey, we are both concerned about quality real estate, Panera has wifi, wanna do coffee? Cool. See ya then.” Done. Next.

Back to rebc, here’s the thing that has me flummoxed, whatever good intentions rebc started out with, something about it becoming a movement- an rebc in every town- doesn’t quite make sense, and in the back of my head I can’t shake this little bit of tin foil millinery: Either I really don’t get it, highly possible, or, maybe there is something being promoted that would require a captive audience. Because when you think about it, a local rebc is just real estate professionals talking about real estate, which really isn’t such a big deal after all.

Waits sings about The Part You Throw Away, and I did plenty of that once, but today, it’s about the part you give away.

For many reasons, I’ve been hesitant to discuss this except in the most general terms. It feels both invasive and self-indulgent to discuss my personal life here, but this post is about the part you give away.

I have a child who has been in and out of the hospital most of the summer, and she’s back there again. I’m not sure which is more strange- having a child in the hospital or, knowing exactly what to pack for the stay, and getting it packed in 20 minutes.

Things happen. We deal. And we deal. And we deal. And each time we deal, we grow stronger.

A mother becomes tempered steel, because she’s given away so much of herself that what is left, perhaps all that is left, is the very best. She’s dumped all the baggage, everything worthless, useless. What’s left is her essence.

I am now inside out. Stronger than I was two months ago, reduced and forged to my very essence.

I don’t want pity. I don’t want anything really, except to show you, and myself, that the part you give away is the part that creates the most strength and beauty in life.

I am able to generate business- both real and potential business, but I find myself in a situation where I want to team up with another Realtor. I’d like to partner with someone to share the work load, and keep transactions running smoothly.

To that end, I’m asking the Bloodhound family: What advice can you give me? How do you create a partnership? Formally or informally? Do you have a clear distribution of tasks and jobs each person performs? Is everything delegated ahead of time? And even as I write this, I’m answering my own questions, so perhaps better questions are these: What do you know now that you wish you knew then? What were the best mistakes you learned along the way? What one thing do I most need to prepare for?

I want the real dirt about partnering in real estate. If you want to email me privately, I’d welcome that. I can keep a secret.

I’ve had reason to be contemplative for the past few weeks and it’s given some small inklings an opportunity to germinate and link together into bigger ideas. Given the nature of BloodhoundBlog, I’m hoping a couple of bigger brains who read and write here, will help me get a better grasp on what is still a bit foggy in my mind- help me fill in the gaps.

My brain has made a leap of sorts, into the future of the business, and I think we are getting it wrong. That is, what we think about, if we think about the future of the real estate business at all, may not be quite right.

First, the real estate industry is a bit behind, no offense, but I’m thinking that we bluster and bellow about stuff that really isn’t relevant, or, by the time we grasp the idea, another idea has pushed that idea into the past. What am I talking about? I’m talking about information and how it’s driving us to change the way we do business. Here’s what I’m thinking: We are not in control of information, I believe information is in control of us. That is, we are becoming conduits for information- I don’t know how else to describe what I see happening, but maybe a few examples.

Remember transparency? Transparency has nothing to do with pulling down your boxers. It’s simply about information. But not information about you. See, it’s not about you. And it’s not personal, so don’t panic, and it doesn’t matter if you like it, don’t like it, wanna share, don’t wanna share. Nope, none of that matters, because what is happening is that with or without you, information about how we do business, everything about how we do business, is about to be shared. Again- it’s not about you, it’s just information, but it’s all about information, and we are not in control of information. We are conduits, pathways, carriers of informational memes. That’s all, and it’s not about you personally.

Except. It is about how valuable you are at sharing information. How expert you are at giving away information. How transparent you are at sharing everything you know. That’s the only thing that’s going to make you valuable in the future, because what is happening, indeed what has happened and we don’t realize it, is that our value will only lie in how quickly and openly we can disclose valuable information to those who are looking for it, and when they are looking for it.

Does that make sense? I’m never sure if everyone gets this stuff before I do, or if I’m the crazy person hollering about stuff that no one else sees. In this case, I know a few people see this, have seen it for quite awhile, but do you really see it?

Do you see why blogs, social networks, twitter, are so vital? So important? But here’s the thing: It’s not connecting with people that make it so important, contrary to popular belief, it’s because of the ability to share information rapidly- the back and forth, the conversations, the 140 characters, that makes networking so valuable. It’s not about social, in the way we have traditionally thought about social, because, remember, it’s not personal, and it’s not about us, it’s only about how vital we are at sharing information, spreading memes. You think you get this, but I’m not sure you grasp the enormity of this.

Everything we, as people, are beginning to hold valuable, is only for the purpose of sharing information. Don’t believe me? What’s the greatest thing about rebc? Meeting people? Yeah. So we think it’s the physical hug? Nope. It’s that we can blast a whole lotta info back and forth much more quickly in real life. We can share ideas, information, themes, memes in a heart beat, and that is so fulfilling to us, isn’t it? It’s like great sex. Wow. Information satisfaction. I looked that person in the eyes, and we talked. I saw their facial expressions and watched them laugh and frown, but all the while we were giving valuable information back and forth in rapid fire pace, and that’s where the satisfaction comes from.

But that’s great, and you can say, “See Teri? It is about IRL.” Not quite. You still have to connect. We want information satisfaction, don’t we? Have you ever met someone IRL, that you’ve known online, and there still is no connection? Why? Why no connection? Because you are not sharing information that either of you cares about. Your memes are not connecting. You are in each other’s twitter stream. You’re BfbFF (think about it) but you don’t really talk, do you? Your memes, your themes, your value as informational conduits are not meaningful to each other. Now you see where I’m going?

So take the NAR, please (ba dum ching). Tom sat down with some of the people who we might consider the best and brightest informational conduits at the NAR. He made a connection. They shared their memes. And now we know that the NAR has meme issues- “messues” we might call them- on a large scale. Why? Because people do not gain value from the NAR, and it’s not a perception issue. That is, it’s not that the NAR is perceived to be something it isn’t, it’s that we understand the NAR, and they are not truly open to transparency. It doesn’t share well with others. And it is going to die, because, by protecting information in the name of benefiting members only, much of its most vital information is locked away behind a veil. Here’s where it gets interesting: We, as conduits of information, as consumers of information, find this idea repellent. We, even as protected members, do not want to conduct our lives this way- it’s anathema to us as theme/meme messengers. We can’t get no informational satisfaction. A consumer friendly NAR site? We might consider that an informational tease.

Have I got this figured out? Almost? Kinda?

What if the real estate industry didn’t control the real estate market? Let’s stop with this “if” nonsense, because your value as an agent will be in your ability to share information- give consumers good informational satisfaction not “if”, but “when” the industry doesn’t control real estate. And it’s not personal, and it’s not about you, or blog, or your social media prowess, except in your ability to connect with memes. Tom understands that evolution is happening- but the NAR cannot participate is this evolution revolution. You, on the other hand, can evolve as quickly as the rest of the world, and that’s exciting.

Okay. That’s all I got. Am I on the right track?