Transparency, Socrates and the Red Pill

"When people feel information is being withheld from them, they become even more skeptical and their trust begins to wane."  -- Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md.

For months he demanded greater transparency from AIG. And for months information regarding who benefited from the $173 billion bailout of the insurance behemoth were withheld. Regulators feared providing too much information to the public would further cripple the financial system.

Well, those fears now appear to be exaggerated.

As more and more bailout disclosures ensue, as information continues to leak across the wire and as transparency now begins to rear its righteous force, it appears to me that the world isn't ending like everyone thought.

Sure things are bad. And they may get worse. But...

The truth will set you free

The Matrix was a film filled with religious, social and philosophical symbolism suggesting we humans were being fed false sensory information by a giant virtual reality computer. Not that much different from the false information the public had been fed for the last decade. 

We all sensed something wasn't right. Yet we all bought stock in unsustainable companies. And homes we couldn't afford. Or helped folks buy homes they couldn't afford with bad loans backed by the likes of AIG.

We were a Blue Pill society.   

As Neo reaches for the Red Pill, Morpheus warns, "Remember, all I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more."

As the film proved, the truth hurts. But it also sets us free.

Transparency

As the opaque veil of false bliss is ripped off everything around us, truth and rationality stream in. Virtuously. At every turn.

It's painful no doubt. But it leads us to the sort of examined life Socrates envisioned, one created from the positive results that stem from the excellencies of rationality.

The goods of that experience are the greatest and highest goods of all. 

A Red Pill of transparency now finds its way across all mediums. As a result we are slowly, painfully, unhooking ourselves from our Matrix. And though we all seem to be somewhat shocked by the realities of the world around us, we are also realizing that the sky is not caving in. 

And this is precisely what happens time and time again when the shit hits the fan. People come alive. We thrive on real. And honestly, we haven't felt real in a long time. So despite the troubles, the pain, the loss of equity, the devaluation of our business, the truth is, we are starting to feel alive in a way we haven't for a long time.

And the positive effects ripple ever so slightly. 

Red pill

Take one every morning. And strive towards greater transparency. Seek to achieve it across everything you have. Your website. Your business card. Your blog. Your Twitter bio. Your collateral. Your market reports. Your core values. 

Socrates was right.
As was Morpheus.

It will set you and those around you free.

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Replaced

Nicole sat across the dinner table from us Friday night. She was not her usual positive self. Something happened. I decided to pry.

Replaced

A former actress, Nicole followed her true calling behind the camera. She did film. Music videos. And stills. The latter is, IMO, her best work of all.

Her son came twelve years ago. A daughter, sever years later. So she ditched LA and set up a photographer's studio here on the Central Coast.

Many of her stills adorn the walls of my home. Family portraits. My kids. Wife. Dogs. Taken at different times over the last ten years.

Nicole closed her studio on Friday. 

I assumed the economy took its toll. Nicole believes it goes deeper than that. "Everyone is a photographer today," she said. "They own digital cameras, enhance them with Photoshop (or picnik) and post them on Flickr. The value of a professional is no longer recognized I suppose."

That hit home. Big time. Especially as it relates to real estate.

Maestro

In 2004, I presented twenty-five very far-out predictions in a speech given for a large Realtor association. Slide nine read as follows: In the future you will no longer "own" any listings. A nice 3-D rendering of a product box was placed below the title. Across the top of the box the word "Maestro" was printed in bold. Underneath, it read: Orchestrate the entire process of selling your home - yourself.

Maestro included: 

• A turnkey blog site that featured your home
• A unique URL based on your home's address
• Map mashups with local data 
• A huge photo library and video player
• Direct syndication to every listings site on the planet

Maestro was real estate marketing in a metaphorical box. It provided the homeowner tools to recreate everything an agent does -- the many photos they should be taking, the compelling copy they should be writing and the web distribution they should be executing. 

The premise behind Maestro fed into the notion that in the future, by virtue of handling all of their own marketing, homeowners would retain ownership of their listing and simply hire agents to coordinate the sale -- i.e. show property, hash out paperwork, etc.

The audience booed. "There's more to selling a home than that," they barked. I knew that. Just like there's more to capturing a moment than saying cheese and properly framing your SureShot. The problem was, four years ago, when homes were selling like hotcakes, I wasn't sure the real estate consumer knew that.

And I'm not so sure that the consumer knows any better today.

Nostradavison

Several predictions from my presentation have now come to pass in real estate. And honestly, most of what I predicted seemed inevitable anyway.

A few, however, veered towards absurd.

Consider:

"Holographic Search" that allowed consumers to walk through a listing projected from a computer while sitting in their own kitchen.

"Caravan" was a device agents provided to their buyers. Think listing alerts meets GPS (I got this idea one evening waiting at a busy restaurant that handed out devices to patrons that lit up when your table was ready).

And of course Maestro.

I know they are borderline silly. They were offered to stimulate conversation. 

But then today my inbox received a press release sent from the U.K. announcing the launch of EstateCreate, a self-publishing website built to help consumers list their home and market it everywhere.

Holy shit.

Blinders

You'll think the product is simple. Regard it as a basic template website. With few bells and whistles. Much like most agent and broker websites are now. You may also shuck this as silly, much like some of my predictions, pay it no mind and think to yourself, well... even if a seller uses this, they'll still need to sign their listing over to an agent for full commission.

Blinders. 

Products like EstateCreate are trying to tap into the gaping holes left in the consumer mindset all the dog branding, bad websites, lack of transparency, poor search experiences, misguided marketing and lack of professionalism created and continues to create.

These are the gaping holes that today's real estate brands continue to avoid filling with better information. Higher standards. These are also the voids that real estate innovators are trying fill with solutions offered to real estate folks who continue to shun the idea of spending a few dollars a month for new technology.

If vendors can't sell their innovations to real estate professionals to help the consumer, my guess is they are going to start targeting the consumers themselves in greater numbers, tapping into their motivations to market, buy and sell their homes.  

Think TurboTax.

I hurt for Nicole. Being taken out by the economy is one thing. But being replaced because the marketplace misunderstands your value proposition is something entirely different. I'm showing Nicole how to change that and save her business. 

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Literature of the doomed

BoingBoing highlights some poignant boom artifacts found on Amazon. Caveat emptor and all that, but excuse me while I go barf.

-- Brian Boero

Lost and found: Surviving real estate reality

You're thinking, "Not another Top 10 things to do to survive in '09 list!"

Relax. That's not my style. I'll offer two simple ideas below.

But first:

Lost

I am a big fan of the show, which follows the fate of a group of people stranded on a remote island following a plane crash.

But I could care less about the Island, time travel and all the hooks and secrets woven into the story lines. What grips me most is what unfolds as the layers of each character's personal onion are slowly, agonizingly, frightfully, peeled away.

Jack Shephard is a charismatic doctor and natural "take charge" guy. He commands the entire group's attention with a passionate plea at the onset of the first season: "To survive," he says, "we are all going to have to work together".

Jack emerges as the appointed leader. Over the course of the show's five seasons his decisions are carved from a strong and stubborn point of view. He never comes to grips to the realities the Island presents. And despite numerous opportunities, fails to let go of preconceived notions that blind him to the true nature of what his experience is all about.

John Locke, another survivor, was wheelchair-bound when Oceanic flight 815 took off. He was an otherwise regular guy with a regular job -- the antithesis of Jack. Laying on the sand yards from where he was thrown from his crashed plane, John discovers his feet move. As do his legs. Almost instantly, he recognizes something about his new situation Jack never does. As a result, John's path is completely different, and more meaningful.

I often wonder what type of Lost character I would be. How I might play out if I were ever dealt the type of hand that faces the castaways.

Would I lead? Would I follow? Would I continue to apply an old set of beliefs to a new set of circumstances? If so, how long would I persist in the face of obvious signs that those beliefs were useless?

Most of the survivors follow Jack. The obvious choice. Few, if any, follow Locke. And why would they? He never presented himself as a leader of any kind. Their choices determine how their lives unfold. Some, including Jack, must wait until it is almost too late to realize they followed the wrong person.

What it takes to survive

Two simple ideas:

Mark Burnett, the British producer of the hit show Survivor, believes success does not depend on where the pot of gold resides or finding the right path to get there. For him, what's most important is the companions with whom you choose to take the journey.

Watch Survivor and you will see that played out each and every season. Alliances form. The strong ones prevail. And yield a winner.

Mark explains that no matter how focused your eye may be on success, if you are surrounded by stubborn, "stupid people" who don't get it, they will drain you of your energy and derail your attempts to win.

Perhaps your stupid people are your agents, your broker, your employees, your boss, your association executive -- anyone who, as Burnett says, is an "energy sucking loser that acts like a cancer in your organization".

Mark would tell you that the only way to survive an ordeal like the one we are all facing today in real estate is to fire, detach, gravitate away, shuck or let go of all the "stupid people" around you.

It's not the classiest statement, and it sounds better with his English accent, but it's the truth.

Les Stroud is a Canadian filmmaker and survival expert who drops himself into remote locales with only his wits, a knife, a harmonica and two cameras. In order to survive, Les shifts his thinking completely and uses the natural elements around him in creative ways.

Out in the wild, Les survives alone for seven full days living off whatever the land offers him.

What would Les would do to survive inside the wilds of the real estate business? What would he do if he ran an MLS, a brokerage, or a legacy technology firm? What would he do if he were an agent trying to survive in the barren desert of today's market?

He'd look for sustenance in unfamiliar places. Source water from faucets that may not appear as such. And stop trying to milk the dried up udders of a dead value proposition.

Good companions and fresh eyes.

Most in our business are in survivor mode right now. Lost. Strewn across the sandy beach of this island called real estate. This is real. Hard. Depressing.

But it is not hopeless -- if you find yourself some powerful new alliances with folks who see things just a tad differently.

- Davison

Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Brushing the sands off a brand

This was one of my last posts of 07. It's one of the many posts I wrote last year about branding, a subject I have a particular expertise in having worked for 20+ years in show business building personal celebrity brands. I often find myself struggling to understand how real estate people set out to build their brands just posting away, blogging away, Twittering away with no set plan in mind. They may achieve a certain degree of name recognition but they are not building a brand. I think this had a few novel ideas in here brokers might benefit from as they seek to build their brand in 09 ...Marc

I've always wanted to be an archaeologist. Ever since I was a kid. My first discoveries were found beneath the cushions of my grandparent's sofa. Candy wrappers, hardened tissues, playing cards. The occasional utensil was a treat. For a 6 year-old these things were a real find. 

At an early age I learned that a superficial examination of anything reveals little of real value.

Nothing is at it seems. A landscape might hold natural beauty, but it's underneath, sometimes mere inches below the surface, where the real treasure is found.

Today, I like to excavate great companies. I'm fascinated by extremes. I want to know why some companies leave their customers feeling pained, sickened, stressed or empty (AT&T comes to mind) while other companies elicit a feeling something like euphoria (say Katz's Deli in NYC).

Today, I'm standing at the site of Starbucks. My latest dig. I'm trying to figure out why I and millions of others remain loyal despite the abundance of competing cafe's. The coffee is not the best. Their retail shops are starting to look like department stores. Yet something draws us back each day, sometimes more than once. 

This morning my pickax hit paydirt. I leaned in and brushed away the sand. Here's what I discovered: The Starbucks Job Application.  

Allow me to draw your attention to some of the questions on this application:

Have you ever visited a Starbucks Coffee Location? Describe your experience.
What do you like about coffee? 
Why would you like to work for the Starbucks Company?
Describe a specific situation where you have provided excellent customer service in your current position. 

Brokers: When you recruit an agent, do you ever ask these questions? Do you ever ask a recruit if they have used your company, and, if they have, to describe that experience? Do you ever ask what they truly love about real estate? Do you ever require them to scroll back into their past to reveal something special they did that could help you determine if they are suited to extend your brand experience?

Or are you just recruiting for the sake of growing? Are you just recruiting for the sake of saturating a marketplace? Are you just recruiting for the chance to get one deal from anyone with a pulse? Or are you trying to landscape the marketplace with an experience that is bankable?

Agents: Have you ever really sat down and wrote out why you're attracted to the broker or the brand you're looking to call home? Or are you joining a firm just for the split? Or because you get a corner office? Or so you can have the freedom to do whatever you please? Or is there a deeper desire based on something intangible but ripe with meaning?

As my archeologist fingers sift through the chalky soil of wayward brands, I have found that their cultures are built on chaos. They have been bled of meaning in an entropic mercenary swirl.

Starbucks employees start out at less than $10.00 an hour. The work is hard. The hours are hard. Yet they are drawn there and picked based on certain virtues. This is what built their brand -- passion. Passion to serve. Passion to push the Starbucks experience. It's a passion that begins at the top and extends to the newest recruit. Everyone in Starbucks knows why they are there. Interview them as I have. Dig deep and gain an understanding that the foundation of any great company is a solid culture, experience and brand.

Those in real estate who have neglected to create such a foundation should take notice. Stick to what you're doing now, allow yourself to be run by fear and complacency, and in years to come, I and others like me might uncover your artifacts and find little by which to identify you. You will have been lost. Unknown.

Don't let that happen.

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

I believe in Father Christmas - Holiday cheer U2 style

I couldn't resist posting this.

Whether you love U2 or not, this rendition is simply gorgeous. And frankly, there is no musical sound more beautiful to me than The Edge playing his 12-string Rickenbacker, piped through a Korg SDD3000 digital delay (or a TC 2290) and out through a vintage 1960's Vox amp.

This track was recorded for the launch of (Red)Wire, the newest addition to the Product (RED). (Red)Wire is a digital music magazine promoting new music. Fees from memberships (see home page for free trail membership) are appropriated towards purchasing life saving medications and helping fight against disease in the world's poorest countries.

As a long-time member of the One Organization, and a long-time musician, this is something particularly near and dear to my heart.

I know many people prefer not mixing music with politics, but even from my early days listening to Phil Ochs as a kid in the 60's, the Clash in the 70's and U2 since 1981, this is how I tend to mix my musical drinks.

And honestly, I think these four Irish guys truly do the work of angels.

I thought it wise to take a minute and bring something sweet to the otherwise hard boiled tone of real estate that often takes place here.

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Dissolving the bars of your mental cage

I wrote this in October of 07 after watching the Wizard of Oz with my kids. During the flick I found myself comparing Dorothy to the traditional agent and her manifestations - the Scarecrow, Tin man and Lion - to the self-imposed limitations these agents place on themselves. Since I wrote this, so many agents have pushed beyond their self-imposed limitations. They have adapted to new ideas. Built better brands and utilized social tools to the max. This piece honors them but also calls out those those folks who attend sessions that teach these progressive things and leave midway through in a puff of disgust. ...Merry Christmas, Marc

Many have said that when L. Frank Baum first conceived the story, "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz," a child asked him what the name of his marvelous fairyland was. His eye happened to catch sight of his filing cabinet, which read "O-Z".

This story, published in 1900, chronicles a young girl's adventure in the Land of Oz. Over the years, many, including political scholars, have suggested that the story is an allegory for the political, economic and social events of America during the late 1800s. Most point to both Baum and his illustrator W.W. Denslow's active involvement in politics.

In this formulation, Dorothy serves as a metaphor for the common man. Her trials and tribulations are lessons in the power of self-confidence and positive thinking.

Lions, Tigers and Bears … oh my

Fear grips most of us daily. The Dorothy inside us struggles with insecurities and self-imposed limitations – the lions, tigers and bears that lie hidden along our own yellow brick roads. They emerge often, conjured by imaginations that present themselves as real roadblocks before our desire to reach our personal Emerald City. They are a cyclone of circumstance.

There hardly was a real estate industry during Baum and Denslow's time, but looking back, I suggest that their story is instructive for anyone in the business today.

The Scarecrow, Tin Man and Cowardly Lion

These characters are all parts of Dorothy, her insecurities, her limitations. Her scarecrow is stuck on a post at the edge of the real estate cornfield, confused over which direction to take and unaware of her greatest assets. She is unsuccessful at fending off "interlopers" -- the crows swoop by her field, land on her shoulders, pick at her brain, laugh in her face and steal her straw.

Real estate's Dorothy has a Tin Man galvanized by his own inertia. Caught in mid-chop just as the rain of innovation came down and rusted her solid. The Tin Man keeps Dorothy holding on to a traditional axe while others have moved to power tools. Dorothy's Tin Man is stuck in processes that grind and seize her. All she can do is watch as others flourish.

Dorothy's Cowardly Lion is a whimpering, complaining, antagonistic, sniveling creature. This once almighty King of the Jungle is now suppressed by its own reflection and fears, its lack of comprehension and distrust of outsiders, change and risk.

The Yellow Brick Road

This is our life -- the paths we choose. It meanders through places and exposes us to experiences that are at times forbidding. For the Dorothys within real estate, the road is riddled with wicked witches, flying monkeys, poppy fields and scary apple trees.

Little do these Dorothys realize that everything needed to unravel every riddle lies deep within themselves.

Dissolving the bars of the mental cage

When Dorothy faces the Wizard flanked by her three fears, she soon learns that her Scarecrow always had a brain, that her Tin Man was actually the James Brown of soul, full of heart and passion. And the coward in Dorothy was really a hero after all.

Sometimes we need an adventure to dissolve the bars of our mental cages -- like getting caught up in the cyclone of a housing market slump that takes us from the safe and easy comforts of our personal Kansas to a land where everything is unfamiliar.

The great and powerful Wizard of Oz presented the Scarecrow with his diploma, the Tin Man his testimonials and the Lion his medal. These are the documentations of a lifetime, the things so many Dorothys already possess.

The Dorothys of real estate don't need a wizard to take them home. They just need to close their eyes for a moment, click their glass slippers, drop their fears and believe in themselves.

- Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

A couple of things, a few ideas and well wishes

As 2008 winds down, the news continues to distill fear, confusion, and sepulchral predictions for 2009. 

No doubt, there will be challenges in the coming year. But so what? When aren't there challenges? Since I've been working inside this industry (1998), I've seen it face off with plenty. For the most part, minus a few scars, a few bumps, grinds and stammers, it has remained intact.

Recap

The 1990's. The birth of online real estate moved the industry through the three stages of Schopenhauer's truth. First it ridiculed the Web. Mocked it as folly. Then it violently opposed it, buckling at times over fear of disintermediation. But then, self-evidence took hold. Acceptance.

In 1999, only 20% of real estate agents had websites. By early 2001 that number quadrupled.

The 21st century. First half of this decade. The stock market dove. Dot-coms tanked. This presented the industry with a golden opportunity -- and plenty of challenges -- as a real estate gold rush brought hundreds of thousands of new Realtor miners to its banks armed with pans, picks, cradles, hydraulic hoses and a lust for commission riches. Once again, real estate endured. The best invested in their businesses amid the craziness. Enhanced their brands. Made every effort to secure market share before the river would, inevitably, run dry.  

The 21st century. The latter half of this decade. Today. A weak economy. A confused consumer. The pending death of traditional marketing. Bloated brokerages engorged with needless operating expenses burdened by agent overpopulation and ridiculous splits. And no clue how to end them. Yikes!

Challenges galore.

The most nimble among you shift. Adapt. Discover, as this 39-year veteran has, that new opportunities are not hidden in some dimly-lit corner. They abound. Evidently clear. And ripe for the picking.

Real estate's greatest folly is the truth Schopenhauer spoke of. And the time it wastes dabbling in doubt and opposition to new ideas and processes. Some, such as David Schubb, the veteran agent above, proved how adapting early is the key to success during down times. He is busier and more successful than ever. Brokers like Benn and Lani Rosales proved that embracing Web 2.0 early could help build a new age brokerage and launch a successful new media enterprise. 

Older firms like Windermere uprooted themselves from the depths of tradition, bonsaied their online presence, and forged a nimble approach to tomorrow.

New companies like Sawbuck proved the viability of the virtual brokerage.

Some tips

I decided not to make a top 10 list of ideas or predictions because there are so many other writers who have beat me to the punch. Maybe I'll just publish a top 10 list of the best top 10 lists in real estate.

I also have no interest in making predictions this time around. I'd rather offer a few simple things I think will get help you find your way through next year. 

1. Sharpen your efforts to communicate your value. Dispense with the old cliches and try speaking with a real voice that tells truths. Discard slogans like "I deliver dreams" unless you can actually enter your clients' sleep and choreograph them each and every night. Seth Godin published this gem not too long ago. It's one of those posts that should be printed and taped to your computer. Question every bit of copy you write. "Now is the right time to buy" may be a truth but if you don't back it up with compelling reasons, it will fall on deaf ears. Back up what you say with a showcase of your knowledge. Denny does that one way here. Noah does it a completely different way here. Both work. How are you doing it?
2. Get critical on your website's ass. Ask yourself one question: "Does my website address the needs, the fears, the concerns of my users and correspond directly to what is happening in the marketplace?" We've seen too many sites with happy go lucky images that feel, look, and read in a way completely disconnected from the world outside. Why appear oblivious, insensitive and out of touch if you don't have too? Real estate is our economic ground zero. Do not be afraid to confront it. You can do truth without being negative. I continue to love how PMZ posts real market trends on their home page. Creating content and copy that resonates with the times, tells the truth and builds trust is the best move you can make in '09.
3. Perform a full vendor audit. Big brokers: You could be overspending hundreds of thousands of dollars needlessly with legacy vendors providing expensive and dated applications, content, data, advertising and services that can and should be negotiated down and/or replaced with newer, and better, options. Long-time vendor partners who have failed to lift the hood on their product, overhaul it and provide you a better price with better service are basically telling you they don't care much about their own business. How much could they care about yours? There are some great vendors out there. And APIs that can replace expensive components on your site. And tactics you can easily employ that can save you tens of thousands on needless SEO expenses and drive traffic and, dare I say - leads - to your firm. How deeply have you investigated these opportunities? 
4. Increase your use of social media. And more effectively manage your current efforts here. The agent posing with the dog of yesteryear who Twitters about their dog today is simply broadcasting the same shallow, meaningless message. There are some fabulous ways to use new media but this requires a re-education about how to broadcast your value and your brand. I continue to recommend what Tracey has done with video. Others outside the industry, such as Dan Hesse, CEO of Sprint, have used new media well. Be different. Get more creative. Talk with people rather than at them. Amid all the blogging and Twittering, how about offering one solid, comprehensive benefit to working with your firm that anchors your reason for being. Promoting your brand is one thing. Building it, expanding on its value, is quite another. Post less. Make every word you write worthy of quotation.

That's that for that.

As for 1000watt...

2009 is year two for our firm. In 2008 we worked with some smart folks who won Innovator Awards, released ground breaking products and altered real estate in positive ways. Some were start ups. Some were large, established media companies. Some were brokerage companies, MLSs or associations.

All of them have one thing in common: They are not standing still.

The reason I bring this up is too offer you an alternative to the depressing news and tunnel vision it can cause. These firms and others are aware of the times, but are surging forward nevertheless, committed to not shutting their lights, not closing their doors, not cowering in the corner and not giving up.

Our association with them fuels our optimism.

Recently, Brian and I participated in a "fireside chat" hosted by one of our clients. They regularly invite their agents and agents at competing firms to talk about things meaningful and inspirational. One participant questioned the notion of transparency and believed in guarding her knowledge so it would not be stolen by others in the business.

1000watt believes otherwise. Presenting your knowledge, wearing it out in the open is the way of the future. Today's consumer rely on it. The next generation of customers will demand it. We have been deeply committed to this ourselves. Give and you get. That works for us.

Currently, we are working on a new 1000watt site. We're sticking with a simple, clean look, more white space and a few more features. We are planning to redo our newsletter and putting the final touches on a few new content offerings we hope you will like.

We're getting lots of invitations to speak at association events and know that many of our readers have been recommending us. Thank you for that. Maybe I'm old fashioned but spending an extra hour after a speech answering questions as I did at Triple Play two weeks ago in Atlantic City, or enjoying a meal with attendees as I did at a conference in Bermuda a few months back offers me privileges Twitter and Facebook will never grant me. I am grateful for that.

On behalf of Brian and I, have a peaceful, special holiday time. We are both shutting down as of tomorrow and getting back to the things most precious in our lives: Our families and our well being.  

After New Years, we are off to Connect in NYC where 1000+ people from all walks of this industry gather in one place to learn, to give, to meet, and to partner with one another.

Finally, we have triggered a few vintage posts to auto publish while we're gone. They are some of our faves from the early days, when we had few readers.

We look forward to coming back refreshed, rekindled and ready to help you kick ass.

Marc Davison
Twitter: 1000wattmarc

Life 1.0: The killer app

In a time past

We looked before we crossed.
We checked our change.
We spent only part of what money we had.
The rest we saved.

In a time past

We read books from cover to cover.
And articles from headline to closing paragraph.
Because most writers were credible.

In a time past

Friends had a vested interest.
They were few but sincere.
Who they were said much about you.
At a drop of a hat they'd come to your rescue.

In a time past

People we knew could get us on the phone.
If they needed a job, they didn't reach out to our connections.
They called us direct.
Because anything else would be considered rude. 

In a time past

When we did something, we just did it.
We didn't write about it or call friends.
By keeping our thoughts to ourselves we preserved a part of us that made us seem ... dignified.

Today

Pedestrians have rights of way
We use credit cards
And spend OPM.

Today

We scan.
And cite opinion as fact.
And get those facts from the greater depths of fiction.

Today

We have a friend named Natasha who attends college in Minsk.
She found us on a social network and thinks we're hot.
Blake's a friend too.
He's friends with 286 of our other friends.
Including Natasha.
She thinks he's hot too.

Today

We are all connected by six degrees of separation.
But we can only reach them through some third party's website.
Or pay to get access to these otherwise strangers.
Who will hardly ever hear, feel or care about the drop our of hat.

Today

People do things then run to the computer to publish it for all to read.
Or they write fiction so the world believes they're doing something they really aren't.
But what they're doing (whether they're really doing it or not) has no impact on our lives.

Going forward

I'm not living in the past. Or knocking the present. But looking forward in the future, I hope we don't let technology or the euphoria we place on Web 2.0 replace the preciousness of real life or our accountability within it.

Personally, I've scaled back on some things. I only LinkIn with people I really know. And accept Facebook friends after we've exchange meaningful dialog. I don't publish what I'm doing right now. Frankly, it's none of it's anyone's business. I will, however, write meaningful missives based on what I'm doing if there is consequential benefit to those who care. 

Also:

I started counting change again.
And only spending my money.
And after 8:00pm, I shut down my computer and business phone.
And become available only to my wife, children, business partner and closest friends.

I know:

There's a place for Web 2.0.
And there's a way to use it to your advantage.
But, personally, I also believe in Life 1.0.

I think that's one heck of a killer app.

-- Davison

A huckahula real estate

My red-eye left Honolulu last night.11:00pm.
Touched down this morning. 7:00am. LA time.
I waited 20 years to take a full week's vacation, I promise I won't wait 20 more.

For the most part, I detached from all things real estate. A friend suggested I call an agent friend of his who lives in Waikiki. Said she would love to show me around. I opted out. Those favors are never one-sided and I needed to really not discuss work for the week.

I did however, drive around the entire island courtesy of family who live up in the rain forest (Tantalus) above Honolulu. We went all around the Island. The North Shore blew me away. 

Big waves.
Amazing shaved ice stands. 
The set of Lost.

I snorkeled at Sharks Cove. But unlike the rest of the folks there, I ventured out beyond the reef. Out into the deep blue. Wish I had an underwater camera. 

I saw for sale signs everywhere. Especially before and after Diamond Head along the stretch of coastal highway.  Big, fancy, expensive homes. I tried hard to grasp the the fleeting ocean views between but the real estate itself kept pulling me in.

I made one, brief mental note. Many opposing real estate brands stood side by side representing. C21, Coldwell Banker, Sotheby's, KW, Realty Executives, Prudential... but no one individual brand seemed to own the  marketplace. At least that was my observation. I also didn't see any local brands although I'm sure there must be an Aloha Real Estate company or something to that effect in Hawaii but I saw no sign of them anywhere.

The brands all seemed to be intertwined based on my observation of so many million dollar homes listed side by side by all brands. Maybe Hawaiians aren't picky. Or maybe every brand does the same great, medium or lousy job. Who knows. I never once stopped to ask anyone. Or maybe, in the hukahula world of real estate, it's not about the brand at all but about the agents themselves. Who they are, who they know - their personal brand etc.   

I did notice and feel an overwhelming absence of online technology. Most of the yard signs I saw failed to promote URL's or point to anything web based for online viewing which, as it turned out, mattered little to those in the car with me. I suppose I was the only person wondering if the local C21 "Internet Listing Gurus" hadn't quite gotten the missive yet. Seems there are yet so many ntapped opportunities here for someone to differentiate themselves if only they tried a little. 

Or for that matter, cared.

But I was on vacation. And I needed to cease trying to turn my observations into an article. Or an agenda. I was there to relax.

It's good to go away.
It's great to come back.
And view real estate with a fresh perspective.

But then there was the matter of selling my investment home on the mainland which ultimately invaded my quiet time. But that's a story left for another post. 

- Davison