I was recently in Scottsdale, Arizona for the Cyberstar Convention, which is a group of top producing real estate agents who have a special interest in technology and the internet. While there, I was interviewed by Michael Krisa (known as “That Interview Guy”) on increasing your referrals from other brokers. Michael has a great real estate site for brokers to get new and relevant information to increase their business. The interview turned out to be a good plug for CRS (Certified Residential Specialists); I’m glad I was wearing that shirt. 

Star Power, the leading real estate education and training association was sold from Howard Brinton to Alex Charfen. Alex is very sharp, a good businessmen, and a great speaker. I am very happy this powerful organization will continue.

Our company, The Corcoran Group, has created a new free app for iPhone users. The Corcoran app will allow you to search Corcoran listings in Manhattan, Brooklyn, the East End of Long Island and South Florida all with full photos, property details and the agents contact information. Also, using the iPhone’s GPS, the Corcoran app will identify your location and will let you know how far away you are from a listing!

If you would like to download the new Corcoran iPhone app or learn about all its features click here!

It has been awhile since I posted last.  I apologize, but I’ve been on a whirl-wind since Thanksgiving.  I was working as hard as I could in December eliminating almost all social activities, including blogging.  We were very busy and I had to preare for the three weeks while I would be away for the holidays.

I went to South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Ethiopia for three weeks with an intensive itinerary, returned immediately to the CyberStar convention in Scottsdale, came back to work for a week of catch-up, then collapsed from exhaustion and been in bed for three days.  I’m feeling rested, hence today’s blog.

So what did that flurry of activity produce, outside of a life out of balance?  I had my first million dollar GCI (Gross Commission Income) of my career, which is especially rewarding in this challenging market we face and was a goal I’ve had for the past five years.  My goal for this year is to increase my GCI by $200,000 and have a life in balance.

My trip to Africa was amazing.  I went on safari for a week and was steps from lion, cheetah, leopard, elephants, monkeys, zebra, giraffe, hippos, rhinocerous, crocadiles, impala, cape buffalo, wart hogs, hyenna, wildebeest, you name it; spent New Years in Cape Town which is an amazing city, and spent Ethiopian Christmas (Jan. 7th) in Lallibela which was very powerful.

The CyberStar convention has already resulted in three referrals, so the New Year is off to a good start.

Wednesday I went to the DMV to exchange my Jersey driver’s license for one from New York state, which was a good idea since my license was expiring in a few days.  The main DMV office is in Herald Square at the Manhattan Mall; how suburban.  Typical DMV:  long lines, attitude, ugly interior, some people who care, others who don’t.

What fascinated me was how strict they are in identifying one’s self post 9/11.  I had to provide my active New Jersey license, my original social security card, my original birth certificate with its seal, a bank statement and a utility bill.  My social security card was so old I had to get two supervisors’ approval.  It seems they haven’t made that card in decades; it makes me feel so young. 

I still have to register my car.

REBNY (The Real Estate Board of New York) had a luncheon on Tuesday and my company, The Corcoran Group, bought a table and kindly offered me a seat.  It was mostly New York commercial brokers who were there to hear a panel of commercial experts.

Lunch was at the Hilton and was your basic hotel luncheon:  salad, chicken and desert; but the chicken was moist, so the food was better than most.  The crowd looked like a convention of Vaudeville agents, older men with comb-overs and rumpled suits.  The speakers were expected, yet one, Richard LeFrak was mesmerizing.  Mr. LeFrak and his family are the developers of Lefrak City and Newport area of Jersey City.  He did everything wrong that a panelist should do.  He constantly looked at the floor, made faces when he was bored or in disagreement, and constantly fidgeted.  I loved him!  He was down to earth, highly opinionated, smart and straight out of central casting.  He could have easily been a character on Seinfeld.  If you ever get a chance to hear him speak, go.  You will not be disappointed.

So what did I learn?  Commercial financing is much tighter then residential; and if you have big bucks there are major deals to be made by purchasing government owned assets through the FDIC.

I’m in San Diego for the 2009 National Association of Realtors  (NAR) Convention.  I go to quite a few real estate conferences each year to find out what other agents are doing successfully in their markets, what is new and hot technology wise, and to drum-up some business.  When I speak, I usually get a couple of referrals that week.  I’m not speaking this time, so it has been more relaxing connecting with old friends and rumaging through the expo which is the best collection of vendors catering to the real estate trade in the world.  The number of vendors focusing on short sales  has dramatically risen, which is another indicator of the national real estate market.

Condoleezza Rice was the featured keynote speaker.  U.S. realtors are politically conservative for the most part, so she was welcomed as a hero receiving multiple standing ovations.  Being the good New Yorker, I was skeptical.  After playing to the crowd with references to our country’s greatness and her gratitude for our servicemen, I was pleasantly surprised to hear her express her views on our viability and security as a nation.  She strayed from the ex-administration’s policies and put forth her beliefs that our security depends on finding a way to make life better in the most depressed areas of the world, for that is where unrest and terrorism thrives, especially if those countries’ governments cannot control their boders; and, the American Dream of improving your lot in life, or your children’s lot in life, is key to our continued viability.  She focused on quality education for the economically depressed in our country as the means of keeping the dream alive. 

On a side note, both the keynote speaker and the current President of NAR, Charles McMillan, are African Americans.  Times are changing.

I’m reading a great book on the early history of Manhattan:  The Island at the Center of the World, by Russell Shorto.  It is well written and a page turner…yes, a page turner.  I’m not sure I’ve read an historical page turner before.  What I find fascinating is how the winners write history.  Most people, including myself, have little knowledge of the Dutch influences on our present day Gotham; the English did a good job of minimizing their story.  Shorto sets the record straight with zijn (Dutch for his) revisionist tale.

About six weeks ago I changed my eating habits.  Instead of wheat, potatoes, corn and sugar, I’m subsituting yogurt, green vegetables, fruit and honey.  Basically it is complex carbs out and simple carbs in.  Why?  Well I am over weight, but the driving emphasis is excess gas.  Maybe that is why I am single.  And I might add that the new diet has done wonders with the gas issue, so in my own way I am helping to prevent the warming of our planet.  Too bad I’ve only lost 8 pounds.  How I suffer for the betterment of mankind.

Anyway this post is not about my diet or at least mostly not.   Lela, my maid (acually she is an apartment cleaner, but for some pretentious reason I love calling her my maid), was cleaning on Tuesday as usual and I didn’t have an appointment till 11am, so I decided to get out of her hair, have breakfast at a diner and read the Times.  Since I had just cancelled my subscription to the Times which I had since the 80’s to save some trees I had to pay retail and was shocked to find the Tuesday edition cost two dollars.  How did that happen?  Last time I bought the Times it was 50 cents.  I felt like George Bush bumbling with the price of milk.  How out of date am I?  Clearly this paradigm shift did not bode well for the day.

So I took my $2.00 paper to that very trendy, post-retro diner at the corner of 11th Avenue and 43rd Street.  Sat down, asked for an omlette without the potatoes and toast and could I please substitute a small green salad in their stead.  No Substitutions!  I must pay extra for that small green salad.  Doesn’t a green salad cost less than potatoes and toast?  Aren’t I saving them money?  Has the value of lettuce increased while potato futures have fallen?  Does this have something to do with the Times costing $2.00?  What about costumer service?  God knows I obsess about making my clients happy.  Shouldn’t they be grateful I am eating there in these challenging times?  Don’t they want me to be a satisfied customer and tell all of my friends how fabulous they are?  Clearly I’m not in my happy place.  Despite my inner rantings, I calmly informed the waitress that their policy was absurd and I’d eat elsewhere.

Off I went to the neighborhood standard at 9th and 44th; they will understand.  I was told that a small salad was not available, but for a fee of 60 cents I could substitute sliced tomatoes for the potatoes and toast.  You mean I get the pleasure of eating out of season tomatoes for 60 cents more instead of consuming your bread and home fries?  I think not.  And while it was not a scene out of the titled movie, I did manage a huff or two upon leaving.

A third diner had the same results.

I skipped breakfast that morning, indignant and hungry.  If  only I had a Vespa to ride off on.