BloodhoundBlog

There’s always something to howl about.

Archives (page 87 of 372)

May 16, 2010

In Remembrance of a Stealthy Icon – The King

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

I remember one day back in early 1974. I was sittin’ at my desk, a 22 year old pondering the future, as it was the first full time day after being part time since a teenager. We were in a recession, but I had less than a clue what that was. It was about six weeks ’till I was to be married, and I needed to figure out what to do no later than 4:30 PM yesterday afternoon.

As the son of the boss I had no dearth of available mentors. Hell, he spawned more successful new brokerages from 1964-75 than almost any two companies. Back in the period 1964-70 his East San Diego office was akin to the freakin’ ’27 Yankees for Heaven’s sake. Problem was, most of ’em were busy runnin’ their own firms now. Dad had hung up the semi-permanent Gone Golfin’ sign on his office door. He’d downsized from six offices plus an escrow to one office and no escrow.

What was left? Me, and the 8-10 loyal agents for whom he’d kept that lone remaining office open. So I started calling the OldSchool guys who’d mentored me as a snot-nosed teen who knew everything (not a damned thing). A couple hours later I was faced with a dilemma. Though the flavor of their advice had differed slightly, the crux had been the same — work harder than you ever have at anything, and see more people who can tell ya to ‘go to hell’ than the other guy. Lord only knows what magic elixir I was expecting them to serve up, but that certainly wasn’t it.

Of course, of all the agents who knew the generic answer before asking the question, I’d been given that answer countless times. Why even ask then? Cuz it’s human nature to want the easy way, when, paradoxically, the easy way is only easy to understand — not necessarily to execute. Lookin’ back, I guess a 22 year old searchin’ for the EasyButton isn’t exactly unique.

I got tired of hangin’ with the leftovers from a bygone era, and moved my Read more

May 15, 2010

The Desperation Waltz

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

A Ramblin’ Gamblin’ Willie story

“Hey, Tommy,” Jimmy said without looking up from the newspaper he had spread out on the bar, “what’s Reubenesque mean again?”

“Jeesh! It means ‘fat’. How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“Statuesque?”

“Fat.”

“Weight proportionate?”

“Fat.”

“Full figured?”

“That means really fat. Whaddaya doin’ that for? We got a whole club full of babes here. How do you expect to get next to a girl in the personals?” He thumbed his own chest. “Tommy Klein, he knows better. Tommy Klein is an operator. You just stand back and watch me work.”

This is the truth: I don’t even like bars. I can go for years at a stretch without taking a drink, and the last place I’d be tempted to drink would be a bar. But I had come to a club that is not but ought to be called Desperation to see a singer and songwriter, a chanteuse named Celia Redmond who is making a name for herself.

Desperation is her name for the dumpy little country bar stuck right in the heart of the big city. The real name is “Country City” or something equally forgettable. It’s a costume bar, really, as phony in its way as a gay bar or the tap-room at the American Legion Hall. Country transplants and the children of country transplants and would-be country transplants put on clothes they don’t wear all day, speak in an affected diction and dance and drink until the house band strikes up “The Desperation Waltz” at midnight. Desperation is a place to escape from the real life of the big city: Office work, factory work, construction work — and unemployment.

Jimmy and Tommy were not untypical of the crowd, just more immanently pitiful. Jimmy’s a gentle giant of a man, as broad as he is tall. His hair was cut down to the scalp and he had a fringy little mustache and his neck was very, very red. Tommy was dapper. If Jimmy had asked me what dapper means, I would have told him: “Short, and overcompensating for it.” He was trim and toned without actually bearing muscles and his Read more

May 15, 2010

@tcar’s manifesto: “Toothy chumps of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your brains.”

by

Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

Author website

Witness: “The next big project from 2nd Century will be Realtor University. A fully accredited educational institution[.]”

I do not for one second hate to say I told you so:

We know sheep will follow a Judas goat to their slaughter, as will cattle. Now the NAR is testing the idea on lemmings…

Todd Carpenter becomes one with the Borg and the charming little lemmings elbow each other out of the way to dive off the cliff head first.

One of two things will happen: Todd will discover he’s made a terrible mistake and will quit this job with dispatch — I hope very loudly. Or: Todd will deliver us to our slaughter.

Anyone who expects anything other than evil from the National Association of Realtors has either not been paying attention, or, much worse, embraces that evil.

In any case, this is not something to be celebrated, not even to affect to be “nice” in chorus with the rest of the lemmings.

The NAR may want to infest our world in order to destroy it. More likely, they want to take it over.

What they certainly do not want is to approach the public as we do — openly, authentically, concealing nothing. The entire edifice of residential real estate is founded on secrets and lies, and, as long as it is, the NAR will be nothing but a cesspit of tyrannical motives and vendorslut con games.

And — more is the pity — Todd Carpenter cannot take their money without being their shill and their Judas goat — or worse.

I’m saddened by this, because of all the gutless big-name real estate webloggers, Todd has more guts than most. But nothing good for us will come of this, and the only good that can come of it for Todd is for him to escape with his scruples intact as quickly as he can.

Too late for that now. If you’re in for a penny, you’re in for a pound.

Four years ago, almost, when I started this little project, I had huge hopes for a newer, cleaner style of real estate, one based on integrity and transparency. I’ve watched as Read more

May 14, 2010

Dawn in America: The American Evolution

by

Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
Structured Debt and Equity
Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

Author website

I’ll say it out loud;   I like that Arizona Immigration Law.  I was initially unclear about it but I read the text , alongside the text of the 4th Amendment.  For me, it boiled down to what  an “unreasonable search” is and what is “reasonable suspicion“.  At the end of the day, I have to trust that the law enforcement officers will follow both the letter and the spirit of the law.

That’s not why I like this law so much.  I support open borders.   As far as I’m concerned, let anyone come into this country…only after we have abolished all the silly federal subsidies like health care, public education, and welfare for all.  Until we do that, we have to ration those silly programs and the litmus test of citizenship seems a reasonable enough hurdle for that rationing.

I like it because a state had a problem, couldn’t get the Federal Government to enforce its laws, and decided to take matters into its own hands.  This law was more powerful than nullification or secession because it asserted the state’s sovereignty, while being in full compliance with the Federal statute. It worked within the system and exposed the system for the folly that it is.

I like it because it is the Bunker Hill of the American Evolution.  Notice I didn’t use an R in that word.  I’m optimistic that reason will triumph over irrational thought in The American Evolution.  There will be no violence nor bloodshed in the American Evolution but there will be a test of wills.  I’m watching it unfold right now:

Arizona made a law.   A few California cities and a Texas city decided to boycott Arizona, for enacting that law.  No conventions, no trade, no money whatsover, from these “progressive” cities, for the “racists” in Arizona.  Sadly, my city followed San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Austin in the boycott.  Pretty stupid, huh?  Well,  California politicians live in a narcissistic bubble.  The past California influence on the world’s economy has afforded them the luxury of doing what they want, in SPITE of local businesses.

…until today.

San Diegans are yelling  “Psyche” to Read more

May 14, 2010

Turbocharge Your Income On A Steady Diet Of 3-0 Bases Loaded Fastballs

by

Real Estate Investments Broker

Author website

Here’s what hasn’t missed for me since Reagan was in office — a super narrowly defined database, from which you can call or write, and eventually email. Stop rollin’ your eyes, as this isn’t what you might be thinking. The concept of ‘narrowly defined’ has taken a beating, to the point it means almost nothing these days. I mean a concrete set of parameters, ALL of which must be present for a home to be in the database.

Who’s most likely a potential seller in your market? What facts will be in evidence on tax assessor records? It’ll be a little different for each region, each neighborhood. Sometimes you’ll need many factors, while other areas might need only a few.

For example, in my neck of the woods, San Diego, my Virtual Farm contains real estate investors who share ALL of these factors.

  • They bought in the spring of 2003 or earlier
  • They haven’t refinanced — OR — LTV is 70% or less
  • The property(s) is 1-4 units
  • They’re located in a small subset of zip codes
  • They live outa town

    • You can mail all these folks every month for less than $100. Budget super tight? Do it quarterly, or monthly, or to half of ’em each month. When I used to do this, before I stopped doing business in San Diego back in late 2003, it produced like clockwork. Rarely did a letter generate nothing. My best year produced six figures — from 104 names. When I had their phone numbers, my batting average zoomed, big time. But then, I don’t cry when folks reject me, so I’m willing to make those calls. 🙂

    Let’s use a baseball analogy.

    When constructed as narrowly as I’m advising, this database will be populated by nothin’ but the kinda reduced velocity, straight-as-a-string fastballs delivered on 3-0 counts with the bases loaded. What’d’ya think the batting average is for hitters on that particular pitch — especially since even Grandma knows exactly what’s comin’ — and where? I don’t know, but my experience watching MLB since the fifth grade, plus my years of umpiring at a relatively high level, leads me to Read more

    May 14, 2010

    Unchained melodies: You either get Glee — or you will.

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    A fun bit from Mother’s Day was agreeing with my mom, on the phone, about the intense and comical excellence that is Glee, the FOX-TV musical teen melodrama. The melodrama is hugely repetitive, but still very rude and pomo, but the music is often simply breath-taking.

    There is this: They harmonize the voices, so everyone sings with perfect pitch in a slightly mechanical tone. But the song choices — coupled with the dancing, the meta-melodrama, and the incredible quantity of incredible vocalists — serve to deliver the aural equivalent of a Broadway musical every week.

    But that’s not right: I hate Broadway musicals, and I love Glee. The whole thing just works. I make time for it somewhere in my week, every week.

    Here’s a fun contrast, playing off of last week’s episode. First up is Total Eclipse of the Heart, as recorded by Bonnie Tyler. This song was written by Jim Steinman, who wrote all of Meatloaf’s hits. The tune has melodrama of its own to spare, but it’s still a totally killer rock ballad, maybe the last chapter in the story of The Seventies.

    Glee took this song and wove it into its plot — not without consequences. Take this, for example, from the original lyrics:

    Once upon a time, there was light in my life.
    Now there’s only love in the dark.*

    That’s painfully simple, but it works as poetry because it’s so excruciatingly full of pain. But to make Total Eclipse work in the context of the Glee story arc, that lyric was cut.

    Not cool. But still… This is a searing cover of the song. When Rachel soars upward on her second time through the chorus, I’m ready to take flight with her.

    Sadly, my mother doesn’t love South Park, my other weekly TV obsession. But if you will give Glee a chance, it could be you’ll see why so many seemingly sane people are raving about it.

     
    *She sings it right in this video. A mystery…

    May 11, 2010

    WP Cache plugin creating firesavez7 Virus Zombie?!

    by

    Mortgage Systems Samurai

    Author website

    If you have no idea what i’m talking about, you’re one of the lucky few!

    This weekend my sites were attacked by a virus trying to install maleware and redirecting visitors to URL that started with firesavez7.com/ and then a long line of characters that led straight down a path to virus hell.

    I have enough computer prophylactic mechanisms in place that I did not download anything but the job of cleanup is just beginning.

    I was out of town at a conference this weekend and was unable to be in front of my computer, but while frequently checking my analytics with my iPhone app I noticed my daily traffic, bounce rate and time on site were WAY down.  Like almost non-existent!

    My sites are hosted at Bluehost, and with a little research discovered that they were indeed a victim of this attack along with many other providers.

    The Solution was not that bad

    To initially resolve the problem, I had to restore my entire public_html directory to a previously backed up version from about a week ago, this was Sunday night.  That seemed to solve the problem.

    I went the entire day yesterday with no occurrence of the dreaded redirect notice and anti-virus alarm.  Site traffic, time on site and bounce rate (vitals) were normal….whew, that was close.

    But the dead rose to feed again

    Tuesday is my marketing day.  The day that I send an update to my entire consumer and agent database (9,100 recipients of this email update) to notify them of the articles I wrote this week about claiming California’s tax credit.

    Initially, there were no issues….and then it started.  One, then two, then three emails came rolling in warning me that I was sending out a virus!  HOLY S%&T!  This isn’t happening.  I saw my reputation being flushed before my eyes.

    I screamed through my site with absolutely no challenges, no virus, no warnings, no redirects….what the hell was going on?!

    I jumped on the phone with the smartest and nerdiest guy I know, Ryan Hartman.  He mentions that it’s common for viruses to attack your .htmaccess file in WordPress – so we look at it.

    Ryan saw some stuff in there Read more

    May 10, 2010

    Obama’s iPad review: Dear graduates, iPads are a threat to our country

    by

    Realtor, Media Mogul

    Author website

    Due to social media, I prayed for Anna to have the grace of god with her this morning.  I did not feel like I was damaging the fabric of our country by my simple action.  So, I was surprised to learn our president laments that the new media is not “a tool of empowerment.”  I translate his words to mean that such things are not yet a tool of his empowerment.  If you haven’t seen his comments, here they are:

    BlackBerry-loving President Barack Obama declared war on technology, singling out Apple’s super-popular iPods and iPads for criticism at a commencement ceremony in Virginia, the New York Post reported Monday.

    Obama — whose election was credited in part to his skillful use of modern media, from smartphones to Twitter to Flickr — on Sunday told college graduates that high-tech gizmos and apps were straining American democracy.

    “With iPods and iPads and Xboxes and PlayStations — none of which I know how to work — information becomes a distraction, a diversion, a form of entertainment, rather than a tool of empowerment, rather than the means of emancipation,” Obama said at Hampton University in southeastern Virginia.

    Obama described the most popular offerings of companies like Apple, Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo as distractions that are putting unnecessary pressure on the country.

    Obama also lamented the spread of social media and blogs, through which “some of the craziest claims can quickly claim traction.”
    “All of this is not only putting new pressures on you,” Obama said. “It is putting new pressures on our country and on our democracy.” – FoxNews

    Do you think patriots should drop their iPads?

    May 8, 2010

    A Home that’s Worth at Least a Million

    by

    Realtor, Rabble-Rouser

    Author website

    Sometimes location, location, location isn’t the key to defining the value of a home.  Often times its God’s providence.

    When I relocated home to Dallas last July, my brother and his family decided to put their home on the market – they wanted to take advantage of a soft market and ideally get a deal on a property not far from their current location.  They had two offers but neither stuck.  It just seemed like they weren’t destined to move.

    Their existing place was fine but rather than sell, they decided to stay put. An extensive renovation was in order, however, there was one feature of their home that simply couldn’t be changed – their home’s  best feature transcended any physical characteristic, it was a metaphysical connection – or rather a spiritual one.  A bond they shared with their neighbors – Dave, Carol and their daughters Patrice and Anna Basso.  The Bassos aren’t really just neighbors, they’re more like family.

    I believe there was a far greater reason why my brother’s house didn’t sell.

    Just a day before Thanksgiving, 2009, Anna, Dave and Carol’s youngest, was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, a very rare and terribly aggressive form of cancer that typically strikes children to young adults between the ages of 10 to 20.  So rare that only a handful of cases are diagnosed in a year.  Anna’s cancer was diagnosed at Stage 4.  The tumors were identified on her pelvis and the cancer had spread to her bone marrow.

    While the news was devastating to Dave and Carol, the impact was almost as severe to my brother and sister-in-law – they’ve seen Anna grow up.  She was simply part of the family.  There is perhaps no stronger or more overwhelming sense of helplessness felt by a parent or loved one when the there appears to be no hope for a child.

    But again, this is God’s providence.  Where there is faith, there is always hope.

    My brother Mark knew he had to do something for Anna.  While Anna’s health was in the hands of the medical professionals, her emotional and spiritual well-being – as well as her family Read more

    May 8, 2010

    Mastering the Art of Active Listening

    by

    Realtor, Surfer-in-Training

    Author website

    Yesterday I was in a meeting in which relevant information was disseminated yet some people just refused to LISTEN.  I know they could hear what was being said, but for whatever reason they either chose to ignore it or don’t have the mental ability to understand (I really hope that it was the former of the two).  This is not meant as a rant, a diatribe, a denunciation (or whatever other label can be attached), but rather as a reminder to those who hear what others say but still don’t listen.

    It takes much more to be a participant in a discussion than to just spout off opinions.  To some, being a good communicator means being able to speak in public or BS’ing your way through a conversation.  Well, actively listening is becoming a lost art.  And let’s make clear the difference between “listening” and “hearing”.  Hearing, in a nutshell, is having the ability to perceive sound.  Listening, on the other hand, is understanding, interpreting, and assessing what is being said.  Sometimes you can even see when a person stops listening, you can see the wheels turning in their head as they prepare a rebuttal and just wait for their turn to speak.

    Well, for those people, I have a few suggestions:

    *  Start out with blank, neutral slate and let the speaker have their say;  it might even be something that you agree with or new ideas/information that could benefit you.  In doing so, give them your undivided attention (yeah, that means no doodling or daydreaming, at least not for now).

    *  Use non-verbal communication, it will let the speaker know that you are listening.  Maintain eye contact (no, not in a creepy stalker way), nod and gesture as appropriately, and use body language.  And this is much less disruptive than interrupting.

    *  When appropriate, ask relevant questions.  This allows the speaker to explain their points further (in case they were not clear in their Read more

    May 7, 2010

    The Kumbaya School of Real Estate Brokerage Values Service Over Results

    by

    Real Estate Investments Broker

    Author website

    For all you real estate boys and girls out there, if you haven’t had the pleasure of going to an Apple Store to buy something, or have a problem solved, I heartily recommend a field trip. Find the biggest most trafficked Apple Store in your area and go there just to watch, listen, and learn. And learn you will. I’ve had what Dad taught me about the difference between service and results reenforced every time I walk through their doors.

    These pages have, pretty much from Day 1, screamed about delivering service, a concept with which nobody, including this company owner would credibly disagree. But results are what BloodhoundBlog is all about. Some, however, have screwed up the order of importance of the two. (Has there ever been a better place for a that said?)

    That said, and this is what I’ve been sayin’ since Dad’s fiercely burning eyes so congruently highlighted the dripping tone of sarcasm when he spit out the words to me — it’s about producing results, genius. I’ll take a gruff, mildly rude manner and give back a thank you if it comes at me hand in hand with timely, stellar results. Yeah, I know, you’re muttering ‘duh’ under your breath. You’d think that would be universal knowledge, right? We all know that’s ultra malodorous crap.

    What many refuse to allow unfettered into their consciousness, is that world class service is as effective as a gelding trying to generate the next Secretariat when it’s not complimenting equally world class results. Think about it. “Yeah, Bob said your service was the best in town. You hardly ever produce results, but your service is without rival.” When was the last time you heard that?

    Think of any service company or store selling product — would you use them again if the results were fabulous, but the service not so much? On the other hand, would you return if the results were uniformly disappointing, but the service on the way to the predictably inferior results was orgasmic? I know I’m risking the tag of heretic, but I’m gonna say it anyway.

    Those who Read more

    May 4, 2010

    A Salute To All The Unprofessionals Out There

    by

    Instigator, anthill kicker.

    Author website

    The word unprofessional has no meaning.  It’s designed to be vaguely insulting, and to be an ad hominem attack on someone that inconveniences a busy Realtor in the course of his or her day.  Nobody wants to be unprofessional. Folks sling it around on twitter on a daily basis.  Follow the #RTB hashtag for details.  It’s an insult below the surface: any agent  that doesn’t immediately cater to the irrelevant demands of a competitor risks being called unprofessional.  When I was a mortgage broker, I was first called “unprofessional” when I didn’t want to listen to the pitch of a dumpy salesperson that walked unbidden into my office.   I see it coming: another coercive assault on innovation, on hustle, on passion.    Anything that rocks the boat is to be called unprofessional.

    Unprofessional.

    What, then, is a professional?   Congenial, and cowed.  They wear the yokes of the big brokers proudly, making nice at the big agent meetings and the Barcamps and the other exercises in irrelevance that show that they are people people. These professionals sell but few houses, but dog gone it, they do it in a way that their other professionals don’t object to.  They attend their board meetings and they advocate rulings that help one another…and in the name of more standards (for others), they add paperwork and tedium to the job of representing buyers, sellers and borrowers.

    And if you glance askance at any idea, you run the risk of being called unethical in addition to unprofessional.

    The real aim, of course is to have a cushy job that requires little.  To not adapt and help.  To innovate so very slowly, and of course to prevent anyone else  from entering into their space.  Of course, they all stick together.  People are professionals because they say they are, not because they care about their clients, innovation or anything else.  What is a real estate professional?  Probably someone that sells 3 homes in a calendar year and returns calls 40% of the time.  That’s probably a higher standard than 80% of the NAR reaches.

    Our #RTB movement (which other word often precedes “movement”) Read more

    May 4, 2010

    How An Activist Government Destroys the Environment

    by

    Commercial Real Estate Finance Expert
    Structured Debt and Equity
    Licensed Real Estate Broker in AL, CA, and FL

    Author website

    Sarah Palin is so suspiciously quiet this week as is President Obama.  We’re all kind of holding our breath, as the oil spreads throughout the Gulf of Mexico, with hopes and prayers that it doesn’t reach the Panhandle beaches.  This oil spill is big and its effects might be catastrophic.

    This is not a failure of the free market rather it is a failure of government.

    Greg Swann beat me to this yesterday, encouraged by an email from Sara P,. Miller, but I’ve been talking about this on Facebook for a few days:

    There is no need to ban offshore drilling. Present BP with the cleanup bill and hold them responsible for the secondary damages, and other oil companies will think long and hard about the costs associated with offshore drilling. If the US Gov’t “bails out” BP by socializing costs, it will be one more example of how gov’t makes the world a less safe place than the free market can

    This may be a hard pill for government groupies to swallow but the response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill (more government regulations and a limit on liability) is what caused this disaster.  Regulations offer a false sense of security.  Moreover, when the State manages risk for private industry, private industry will take as much risk as they are legally permitted.  It happened in the housing market and now its happening to our environment.  This is what free market supporters call “moral hazard” which is a fancy way of saying “with reward comes responsibility”.

    We didn’t like the Valdez oil spill but let’s face it:  that was in Alaska.  It affected far fewer people and its cold there so you (and I) didn’t think too much about it.  Now that the chocolate milk is threatening our prettiest beaches, in a warm clime, with millions of people affected, we’re nervous….and it might have been averted had the State not encouraged what might be VERY risky behavior but we’ll never know…

    …because that risk was socialized by the taxpayer.

    Let me show you how it happens:

    Senator Sara  is elected from a Read more

    May 4, 2010

    HDMI and me: A Mac mini turns out to be the ideal TV set-top box

    by

    Suburban Phoenix Real Estate Broker

    Author website

    I’ve known this was doable for quite a while, but last Friday I finally got around to doing it: I took an old Mac mini we had lying around, remapped it to OS-X Snow Leopard and then set it up as an HDMI set-top box for our very small big-screen TV.

    Why? Because I hate TV — the censorship, the editing for content and for image size and especially the commercials. Lately, most of our TV viewing time has been either movies on-demand from Cox Cable or DVDs from Netflix. We’ve both watched Netflix on-demand, streaming movies to our desktop or laptop computers, so going the HDMI route was not a long leap.

    What do we get for our trouble? The cabling is kind of a kludge, and for now I’m using a wireless keyboard and mouse to drive the Mac mini. But shortly I’ll use Rowmote on my iPhone to control the computer, connecting via Bluetooth. But by using the Mac mini as a de facto set-top box, we gain access to Netflix’ library of on-demand movies, along with the on-demand services available from shows like South Park and Glee.

    That is: We get to watch only what we want to watch, only when we want to watch it. We can stop and start at will, as calls from clients and calls of nature demand. And we suffer neither censorship, editing or commercials.

    The cost? I bought pricey cabling from the Apple Store, but you can do this for twenty or thirty bucks. And the Netflix subscription? Ten bucks a month, both for the DVD ping-pong and for unlimited on-demand streaming. The video quality is not Blue-Ray perfect, but it ain’t bad for ten bucks.

    Plus which, we have a Macintosh driving our TV. If I need to look at an email or a web site, I’m there. If I want to play games from the sofa, I’m there. If I want to kill spam comments on BloodhoundBlog — Zap!

    And think of this: Really good big-screen TVs are selling for $650. Mac minis cost nothing, and used Macs or cheapo Windoze boxes cost even less. Read more

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    Inventing Real Estate 2.0

    Welcome to BloodhoundBlog, the national real estate industry marketing and technology weblog written by, for and about real estate professionals. Better yet, welcome to the wired world of real estate. We are busily inventing Real Estate 2.0 – technology, marketing, service and salesmanship. Like all Bloodhounds, we are smart, frisky and fiercely independent. We've built a spot on the earth – beloved over all – where each one of us can be who we are, no matter who that might be. We are committed to an idea of excellence that will flush the bums, the con-men and the crybabies out of the real estate industry. If you yearn to have your failures excused, your moral lapses absolved or your boo-boos kissed, seek elsewhere. But if you are sick to death of mediocrity – welcome home. Read all about us, subscribe to our feed and steel yourself for the hunt. We work hard, we play hard, we learn everything we can – and we bow to no one.

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