Luxury Real Estate

By John Brian Losh

I am currently watching John Adams on DVD, it is a seven-part biopic miniseries about John Adams and the story of the first fifty years of the United States. The miniseries is based on the book “John Adams” by American historian David McCullough. It is one of best history films I have ever seen, and has received lots of critical acclaim.

It has given me a whole new appreciation for our founding fathers, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution of the United States of America. Many of the scenes from this miniseries were filmed in historical sites throughout Philadelphia, like Constitution Hall. Join us this fall in Philadelphia for our conference in October, and see for yourself! It’s a real-life history lesson!


Editor’s Note:
John Brian Losh is the CEO/Publisher of LuxuryRealEstate.com and the President, CEO and Broker of Ewing & Clark, Inc. in Seattle. He tirelessly trots the globe meeting with members of LuxuryRealEstate.com and getting the scoop on industry trends. The Founding Fathers are some of the best people who ever lived. They are some of my biggest heroes, especially George Washington. There’s a great movie about the creation of the Constitution called “A More Perfect Union,” which I highly recommend.

By Robert Lockard

I hope this doesn’t sound too prideful, but I really like what I write. And I do a lot of writing as the Public Relations & Media Specialist for LuxuryRealEstate.com.

While my blogs on ActiveRain and the LuxuryRealEstate.com Blog are sometimes quickly written and they don’t have the benefit of as much outside editing as I usually receive for my other work, I think they give you a taste of my writing skill and style.

My mind is constantly working before, during and after the writing process. I think about what is interesting about the story I am currently writing about. I ponder why my target readers would bother to read what I’ve written. I try to decide which points are most important and how best to convey them. I only have a limited amount of time to create my news releases, newsletters, magazine articles and other works, so I need to make quick decisions.

For the Week in Review newsletter I create each week, I receive a lot of news releases from members of the LuxuryRealEstate.com network. I am very grateful for that fact because it helps me keep our newsletters filled with great material. Many of the stories I receive are really interesting while others are about new employees, anniversaries and other topics that don’t seem too interesting at first. However, once I go through a news story, I can usually find something remarkable in it and I usually rewrite the headline so it’s much more eye-catching.

With these thoughts in mind, I’d like to talk about my recent experience writing a news release on a seemingly average topic: a Ewing & Clark, Inc. broker celebrating her 20^th anniversary. I don’t mean that the broker, Jane Powers, is average; I’m just saying that I’ve read many stories similar to hers. As I approached this story I tried to remember that this is an important moment for her, and she has many great stories to tell after 20 successful years in the Seattle luxury market.

So I sat down to write about her story. Many times when I write I have a sudden inspiration that I know did not come from me. This time was no different. I suddenly had a thought that I should look up remarkable events that occurred in July 1988, when Powers started with her company. As it turned out, I discovered that a little movie called “Die Hard” debuted in theaters the same day that Powers began working at Ewing & Clark.

I was ecstatic by the creative opportunities opened up by this coincidence.

I am a big movie buff and I couldn’t pass up this chance to add some really unique flavor to Powers’ story. So that’s exactly what I did. You can see the final product here. I wrote the first and second-to-last paragraphs first and then worked on the rest of it. I had a blast writing this story.

I got butterflies of nervous excitement when I showed it to Powers herself for approval. Luckily, she liked my take on her story and I got to distribute it through my usual PR sources.

I believe any story can be interesting to read. I could have written Powers’ news release in a really boring, run-of-the-mill way, but I found that little something special that turned it into a great story. I hope that you can find the greatness in your stories and, as long as you’re a LuxuryRealEstate.com member, I’d love to post them in the Week in Review!


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. By the way, John Brian Losh is the Chairman/CEO of Ewing & Clark, which is a member of the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents. The copy of the “Die Hard” movie poster is from www.flickr.com/photos/nickslidepics/442646618 and it is the copyright of Nick Slide.

By Robert Lockard

I recently read a wonderful story I would like to share. It’s about a 70-year-old Cora Bett Thomas Realty sales associate named Nash McIntosh, who swam for five hours from Tybee Island, Ga. to Hilton Head Island, S.C. I’m about one-third of his age and I can’t imagine swimming that kind of distance. In May, I ran for a little over two hours in my first half-marathon and that left me sore and unable to walk for several days. So five hours of physical exertion seems nearly impossible to me.

I found this story on the Cora Bett Thomas Realty Blog, and they got the story from an article in Savannah Now in the Savannah Morning News entitled “’Forrest Gump’ swims from Tybee to Hilton Head Island.”

The reason why they used Forrest Gump in the title of the article is because McIntosh compared himself to that fictional character who kept working at everything he did, even when it seemed hopeless. McIntosh is just as dedicated and he actually attempted this long swim three times before he finally accomplished it last week. He turned 70 in May, and that apparently motivated him to finally take the plunge and make it the whole way.

He had quite a few adventures along the way, as you can imagine. He bumped into a few not-so-friendly animals during his swim, including a small shark. Yikes! Luckily, nothing bad came of that dangerous encounter. Check out the full story for all of the amazing details about his journey.

To follow my own blogging advice, I’ll point out that the photo of McIntosh above is the copyright of Cora Bett Thomas Realty.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. This story is also found in the July 8, 2008 Week in Review. Cora Bett Thomas Realty is a member of the Luxury Real Estate Board of Regents.

By Robert Lockard

The 13th Annual Luxury Real Estate Fall Conference is coming up on October 11-14, 2008 in Philadelphia. That’s right – Rocky Balboa’s old stomping grounds. I love the character of Rocky because he’s such an archetypal underdog, fighting against all odds to do something special. His triumphant run up the many stairs to the Philadelphia Museum of Art is a wonderful cinematic scene that speaks volumes about striving against all odds.

I hope you’ll join us at this event where hundreds of luxury real estate agents will come together to boost the underdogs and help everyone triumph in the face of tough markets. Contact Events Coordinator Yvonne Harvey for more information and to sign up.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of Luxury Real Estate’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. I welcome your input on this story.

By Scott Rudolph

…Are meant to provoke, stimulate, to encourage investigation and generally challenge our conventional thinking. The “buzz” cultivated with a healthy provocative statement generates dialog and creative thinking. So I appreciate a good provocative statement. Each year, EDGE.org's John Brockman asks a new provocative question and the world’s intellectuals contribute. Ben Stein, our recent guest speaker, often writes provocative statements and he significantly contributed to a provocative new film entitled “Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed.”

Maybe Cyril Moulle-Berteaux, a writer for The Wall Street Journal, enjoys them too, judging by his recent opinion piece titled “The Housing Crisis is Over.”  All this being said, I think there should be some fundamental ground rules. I suggest that before we make a provocative statement we analyze:

• The consequences of the statement
• What the benefits would be
• What special circumstances would make it a sensible solution
• The principles needed to support it and make it work
• How it would work moment-to-moment
• What would happen if a sequence of events was changed

By Robert Lockard

On Saturday, April 25, 2008, my younger brother and I decided to make a rare visit to our local movie theater to watch a film we both felt a great desire to see. That movie was “Expelled,” a documentary starring and co-written by the great actor and economist Ben Stein. In addition to starring in this movie, Mr. Stein actually had some incredible insights that he shared on the current luxury real estate market at the 6th Annual Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat in San Diego two weeks ago. He is an incredibly brilliant man in a variety of fields.

I really enjoyed this movie. It brings up so many interesting points that I’ve often considered. It basically encourages us to keep an open mind and not close our hearts to true concepts, even if they present new challenges. I highly recommend this film to everyone who would like a balanced perspective on life.

One key idea I took away from this film has to do with something said at the Spring Retreat, which Staci Colville quoted in her April 24, 2008 blog entry. Patricia Hoferkamp, President and CEO of Burgdorff, Realtors ERA, led a breakout session entitled “A Culture of Service." During this session, she said, “No one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.”

How interesting. Selfishness is not as effective as we might think when it comes to being successful. Caring for those who are weaker than us is quite preferable to our consciences than taking advantage of them.

I find it ironic that we live in a society bombarded with the idea of “survival of the fittest” being the rule, and yet we go to great lengths to help our weak and lift up the downtrodden.

For example, yesterday morning I was on the bus going to work and at one stop, a woman in a wheelchair was waiting at the front of a long line of people waiting to get on the bus. I don’t think that she was the first to arrive, but no one cried foul when she went straight to the front of the line.

The bus driver lowered a lift so that the woman could roll onto it and then be lifted into the bus. The process took more than a minute. Then the bus driver, who was elderly, slowly rolled up five seats so that they would not be available for regular bus riders to use in order to make room for a single wheelchair. The bus driver took a few minutes to properly strap the woman in. She had trouble with the seatbelt and I was sitting nearby so I was able to get it loose for her and help a little.

While all of this was taking place, the people outside the bus patiently waited in the cold morning air, waiting to enter the warm bus and get to their destinations.

None of this was selfish. The scene was filled with inconvenience for dozens of people to offer this bit of kindness and convenience to one person. Despite the seeming injustice of this all, there is actually nothing unjust about it. There is something profoundly right about it.


Editor’s Note:
Robert Lockard is the Public Relations & Media Specialist with LuxuryRealEstate.com. I am Robert. I create all of LuxuryRealEstate.com’s newsletters, write the editorials in LuxuryRealEstate.com Magazine and much more. Yesterday was my birthday and I started writing this blog then. I love kindness. I hope that we will all have soft hearts and be able to accept truth. Be sure to check out Ben Stein’s movie “Expelled”! The photo above is copyright of Ilya's Photography.

By Allyson Metters

Every morning I walk through the historic Pike Place Market on my way to the LuxuryRealEstate.com office. I get in really early in the morning, so most days it is just me passing by the produce vendors who are setting up for the busy day of shoppers and tourists.

Today was a bit different. As I turned the corner onto Pike Place, I noticed that the entire street was closed to traffic and there was security everywhere. I asked the produce vendors what was going on, and they told me that Aaron Eckart and Jennifer Aniston are in town to film a movie called Traveling.

As someone who lived in Los Angeles for awhile, and even worked for a time as a nanny to a family with very close connections to the industry (that could be a whole series of unrelated blog entries!), the actual sight of a film set is not incredibly fascinating to me, but I was excited to see that Seattle is going to be showcased.

Seattle is truly an amazing, beautiful city. In fact, according to “Talent Markets: the Importance of Location in the Competition for Human Capital,” a collaboration of the Human Capital Institute and Monster.com, Seattle was in the top 10 preferred U.S. metropolitan areas of job relocation. Judging by the number of transplants that we have in our office alone, the city’s appeal is quite evident.


Editor’s Note:
Allyson Metters is the Relocation Manager for LuxuryRealEstate.com. She helps people who are moving to find a perfect broker to meet their needs in their new area. By the way, you can find some more information on this new movie in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. I hope that this movie turns out to be good! The right place for you to live is based upon many factors, and this list by the Human Capital Institute and Monster.com could be quite useful for many people as they seek a new home. Luxury Referral Services is another excellent resource for you to find a top broker in new areas.

By Jason LeMoine

WADSWORTH
One of us slipped through the same secret passage—

PEACOCK
Again...?

WADSWORTH
Of course! Back to the study!

As a child, “Clue” was one of my favorite movies, and back then I could think of few things more essential to a home than a series of secret passageways. I would design elaborate floor plans of mansions with square footage rivaling the Louvre (modest for an eight-year-old), and be sure I had easy access from my palatial bedroom to my 1,000-seat movie theater.

However, despite their frequent appearance in fiction (and eight-year-olds’ imaginations), secret passages have a very real history. Since ancient times, secret passages and rooms have been used for everything from evading persecution to smuggling to playing key roles in revolutions. Secret passageways were used in Egyptian pyramids to deter grave robbers. Pope Clement VII used the Passetto di Borgo to escape the Vatican City during the Sack of Rome in 1527. Anne Frank and her family evaded capture for two years during World War II by using a hidden room in her father’s office building.

These days, whether you want to escape intruders or tiresome dinner conversation, secret passages and rooms are making a big—albeit, less grand—comeback. Several companies such as Creative Home Engineering provide the chance for home owners to install and customize their own passages and rooms. Store game room accessories out of the way, protect your family and other valuables in case of emergency, or just get away for awhile—the possibilities are nearly limitless, and they’re almost certain to raise the resale value of your home.

Whether for convenience or security, a secret passage or room could be a valuable addition to your home—and your kids will think it’s cool.


Editor’s Note:
Jason LeMoine is a Technical Account Manager with LuxuryRealEstate.com. His ideas and hard work have helped create many innovative and effective Web sites for LuxuryRealEstate.com and its members. By the way, can you imagine how cool it would be during an open house to turn a candlestick in the study and see the fireplace twist, revealing a secret passage to the kitchen? Now I’m starting to feel like an eight-year-old.

By Scott Rudolph

Marketing the world’s finest real estate is an inherently global endeavor. Now that I think about it, this reminds me of the 1971 film, “Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.” In the film, Wonka’s golden-ticket invitation was marketed globally in order to secure an excellent candidate to represent his precious chocolate factory. We undertake a similar initiative daily on behalf of our Luxury Real Estate affiliates and their private clients.

Representing one of the largest networks of luxury real estate professionals ever assembled via our seven-year “Forbes Favorite” website viewed by more than any other in our niche, and our globally distributed magazine, our scope has truly always been global. We represent the highest-caliber experts in the luxury real estate industry. They consistently achieve strong results, whether the market is “weak” or “strong.”

In the end, aggressive global marketing works. It’s expensive and it’s not for amateurs, so I encourage you to apply what you know and prepare yourself until you are an expert. Willy Wonka made one family extremely happy, and our hand-picked Who’s Who in Luxury Real Estate professionals can make you very happy, too. Please feel free to contact me directly at Scott@luxuryrealestate.com to learn more about specific tools we use to assist you. I’m 99 and 44/100 percent sure you’ll be pleased with the results.


Editor’s Note:
Scott Rudolph is the Director of Business Development with LuxuryRealEstate.com, which means that he works with companies in a variety of luxury industries to expand the LuxuryRealEstate.com influence. He’s excellent at answering questions, too.