So earlier tonight, I asked a simple question on Twitter: Question: How many of you Realtors have a business plan? How many years does it cover? The answers I got were somewhat amazing. The replies ranged from “I have a 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year business plans” to “Business plans are too complicated”. What an amazing … Read more
The annual Brokerage Performance Report put together by REALTrends is one of the most useful and important studies for the real estate brokerage industry. Unfortunately, the last report was released in 2007, and nothing has been released since then. The trouble with the 2007 Report, as valuable as it is, is that it uses 2006 … Read more
(Part 1, 2, and 3 of the Lessons from Counterinsurgency Series) Final Thoughts from Gen. Petraeus Finally, we always must strive to learn and adapt. The situation in Afghanistan has changed significantly in the past several years and it continues to evolve. This makes it incumbent on us to assess the situation continually and to … Read more
(Part 1, Part 2) Petraeus on Unity Another major lesson from counterinsurgency is the importance of coordination and synchronization: It is also essential that we achieve unity of effort, that we coordinate and synchronize the actions of all ISAF and Afghan forces — and those of our Pakistani partners across the border — and that … Read more
In part 1 of this series, we discussed Information Operations and the importance of integrity in counterinsurgency strategy. I took lessons from the U.S. Military, and the author of those doctrines Gen. David Petraeus, and applied them to the real estate industry. In this installment, I’d like to take a look at another key principle … Read more
It may be completely inappropriate to compare the life-and-death work of our military in Afghanistan to the buying and selling of real estate ensconced in our safety… but I could not help but read this with interest: We also must strive to be first with the truth. We need to beat the insurgents and extremists … Read more
Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning. – Sir Winston Churchill . One of the true pioneers of the new generation of real estate companies, Redfin, has launched a new partner program: Redfin released a sprawling, glorious update … Read more
After a recent Lucky Strike Social Media Club dinner — the very first one, as a matter of fact, in which the club was formed — I had the pleasure of riding in a car with two realestistas. Sarah Bandy (@sarahbandy) and Perri Feldman (@perrifeldman) are two NJ-based realtors who are just a joy to … Read more
First of all, let me give a shout-out to Hey Amaretto, aka, Diane Guercio, whose blog I just read for the first time. She’s got an amazing voice for the web: personable, yet relevant, with useful information mixed in with humor and an overall fun voice. Really, check her out for one example of how … Read more