Good ole' AACAR Convention

Ah...Realtor conventions. Before I start, I must say that there are many Realtors out there that I have great respect for and I have friendships with a couple dozen Realtors that I highly value. Still, being trapped at a conference with hundreds of Realtors has never been an experience that I've enjoyed. Maybe it's not the Realtors themselves, as much as the whole environment. Okay, imagine this: stand in a room with hundreds of people who have has their very goal to have a 10-second to 5 minute interaction with you that is so memorable that you are going to remember them the next day when you might need to give them a call. Forget the fact that I have a lender who treats my clients and myself like gold, a home inspector who is very good and very professional, and a title agent that takes care of business and who is well-liked by my clients...I'm going to use you, Mr. Convention-Attender, because you gave me a notepad, a stress ball with your logo on it, and a blinky pen and allowed me to spin your "wheel" that gave me a chance to win a 3-day vacation but instead I got a coupon that I can give to my clients to save money on your services. Right. (I apologize for the run-on, but the desired effect of that sentence would have been lost otherwise :) ).

So, that's breaks at the AACAR convention, and the breaks serve as the over-riding structure that brings continuity to the different continuing education classes that you take. I actually missed my first class ("Fair Housing"), because I ended up having some work to take care of before I left the house; unfortunately, that was the only CE req. that I have left to fill before the end of the year, and the rest of the classes I took were really optional. :( The first class I attended was called "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Realtors," but it should have been called, "Come Watch This Guy Creatively Sell You on All of His Technology Products While Hoping You Don't Realize What He Is Doing." The next two classes were at least interesting. The one was on the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) that is going to have a drastically positive effect on the real estate market in Anne Arundel and the surrounding counties for years to come (22,000 jobs are being created at Ft. Meade, which will in turn bring even more jobs to the area; there are major concerns about this whole process, especially in regards to school capacities, but people are working hard to ensure that the BRAC happens as smoothly as possible). The last class was on selling water-front properties which was somewhat useless, even if it was informative; the woman was like, "Here are all the things you need to worry about," but then gave no practical advice on how to "worry" effectively in gathering information, etc.

All in all, I had some good times re-connecting with some of my old colleagues from Odenton. As expected, they are busting my chops about coming back to Odenton, now that I lost my office manager. Several times yesterday, agents in my old office that I wasn't especially friendly with (not that I didn't like them, but that we just never really built a friendship) would come over and say, "So, I hear Dean left?," with some smug grin. Seriously, they might as well say what they really want to say: "Don't you feel like an idiot for leaving when Dean left?? HA!" Yeah, yeah. For my part, instead of saying, "Look, dummy, I learned more from Dean in 6 months in his office than you suckers will learn in 6 years where you are!," I just smiled and nodded and said, "Yeah...I've got some decisions to make." And, of course, I do...in a few months, as reacting too quickly would be a mistake.

Anyway, I'm going to cut myself off here, although it's surprisingly tough. Sara is in Florida for the weekend, so maybe I'm bored tonight. But even beyond that, I've started to have several trains of thought that are recycling through my brain as I go throughout my day that I feel would make some good material for this blog. So, you'll have some good things to look forward to in the next couple of weeks, likely starting with either a rant about "Redfin," or a story of how a potential seller-client totally shocked me by calling my character into question over an e-mail I wrote. Goodie, goodie.

Well, thanks for reading.

Peace,
Greg