I have been keeping an eye on the numbers of active agents in our neck of the woods (King County)  for some time, and things are really starting to turn to a downward trend.  From June to end of July,08 there has been a 17% drop in numbers of active licensed agents.  Over 16,000 down to 13,800 in King County.    

              My small company is no exception to this change as I have sent two more licenses back in the last week.

              I am also signing up another agent that is changing companies because that company is shutting down and merging with another. 

              Weather we like it or not, this will continue for at least the next six months.  Cost factor, lack of actual training, not enough help from experienced agents are just a few of the problems companies are experiencing  with regards to retention of good people.

             It seems sometimes we are back to  "only the strong will survive".

         1.    Please do not write anymore happy--"I went to a seminar"---"and the business is great."...
                           Because it is not!!!!!

         2.    No matter who you are....you are no better than anyone else around here...
                           That's just the way life is!!!!!!!

         3.    All of us need to take a step back once in a while and reflect on the quality of our life....
                           Because it is too short to think we can "will ourselves" into a better place.

         4.    Living in today takes consistency and effort every step of the way.
                           Making small mistakes along the way is the maturity process that creates 
                                          wonderful human beings.

          5.   Fear of tomorrow stops us from enjoying any part of today.
                           Clients need their agents to walk them through the mess we work in.

                             Just a few thoughts as I get ready for Inman.

          There have been times in my life and in business when something would happen to the success and flow of things working, that I could not understand the reasoning behind the results.

          In a past life it was easy to just blame someone or something when this occurred. Never would I look at myself as the problem.

          After changing literally everything in order to live on this planet (as explained here) I searched for new meaning in every aspect of my life and work.

         About 16 years ago after some time swimming in trial and error,  I ended up changing one basic small, dumb ( to me at the time) thing, that changed everything, and set me off to enjoy a better life each day.

         I took the word " try " out of my vocabulary.  I either "do it or I don't" and then live with the consequences of my action or inaction. 

         When we say " I'm trying to do something", we just gave ourselves a really neat escape route to not do anything. 

         In our busy lives and in our business today, time is a precious commodity, and must be utilized to the best of our ability.  "Trying" to do something is a cop out of the first magnitude.  It holds us back.

         Some of you might give this a "try".....What have you got to lose?

        Sometimes I feel as if I have walked thru so many new ideas and trends about Real Estate that I just want to jump off the train and let it head on down the road without me.    

        Embracing new technology in our business is a given.....but is all of it really necessary in order to just do the best we can do each day.? 

        I love some of this social networking stuff....it's fun and entertaining and cute and happy and makes people feel for a moment or two comfortable, happy and connected with another part of the world.    But I only have so many hours in a day to work and live;  personally I do not want to spent all of that time Twittering, Flickering, My-Spacing, Face-booking, etc., etc.  A few moments in the evening works for me.  Active Rain produces more income for me than all other above mentioned sites combined.

        I have a business to run and income to generate and to do that I must be consistent in what I do to make it happen.    

        Over the past four years over 90% of sales for Ardell and myself have come from blogging. That is the priority for me in maintaining a consistent ideal of working in my business.   

        If open houses, assorted mailings, door knocking, hanging out on a street corner with a sign,  whatever it is...work for you, then do it with a passion and fervor you may not have utilized...and be consistent.  Don't get yourself sidetracked in office politics or judging yourself by some "top producer" you know.  Do what works for you and keep doing it until it doesn't.

        Find yourself in this business.......and be open to new technologies and trends.

          But do not let them run your life....our sanity is a precious commodity.

      There seems to be a subtle shift in the air with regards to how sellers and buyers are reacting to the constant movement and change occurring in our business.

      I am not writing about buyers that always want a deal at 10 cents on the dollar; but the actual buyer who desires to own perhaps their first home or upgrading to another.  They are still gun shy and will not commit to a purchase, until every small detail in a home is answered, before a contract is written. Several agents have mentioned to me lately that they have had buyers that have cancelled on items or info that normally can be worked out among parties involved. They are very quick to cancel.  It is not about price. It is about commitment during these confusing times we live in.

      At the same time sellers are finally listening to agents and pricing their homes correctly.  They have a pretty good handle on the lengthening time frames to be on market, and what needs to be done in order to sell, at the optimum price, reflected in recent activity, in their respective areas.  I have actually had a few sellers recently mention they understand and appreciate what we do for them!!!

    What a concept!!!!

   Have anyone else noticed these shifts in their respective markets?

       This post is not about Real Estate---and yet it is.

       This post is not about love and family and friendship---and yet it is.

       This post is not cute and pretty and filled with wonderful photos.

       This post is about how a very ugly part of my life changed me to become the man I am today.

       The "Most Positive Experience" in my life culminated in 1984 in the back of a tour bus where I overdosed from heroin/cocaine and vodka. I was pronounced DOA and then brought back to life on the way to a hospital.   When I "came to" a few days later there were two shapes hovering over me and one of those shapes said : "you use again you die, for good!"  And I believed him.....

      For many years I lived " The Rock and Roll Life ".  I looked good, got along with everyone I met, was very successful in business, had a home on the water, boat out in front, Mercedes in the garage, etc., etc....and lost it all due to my addiction to drugs and alcohol.  12 Step Programs and a few caring men helped me start my life over completely.

      My Most Positive Experience occurred 22 months in recovery.  For several months I took a meeting into several different drug rehab centers in Long Beach, Ca. where a couple of us would talk about our life experiences to people who were living zombies, one or two breaths away from death. It was a way of "giving back what had been freely given to me". Many months later, I was making coffee at a meeting when this beautiful young woman came up to me and said "hi; you don't remember me, do you?" I said "no, I think I would remember you".( She looked like a young Sophia Loren).   She then said, "I heard you speak last year at ________, and you changed my life!" " Today I have one year clean...thank you for being there".

      I was overwhelmed with joy and utterly speechless.

      I will soon have 24 years clean and sober.  All this means is that I live, work, and treat people I meet with the respect and care necessary to be the best man I can be on a daily basis. This "one positive moment" put me into a journey of service, faith, care and responsibility, that works for me each living day I spend on this beautiful planet. I have been thru stuff in my life that would make a nun "blush".

    But some of that might be another post.....And so it goes.....     

        I very seldom talk or bring up the past. In my years of living I concentrate on today and usually nothing else. So today an exception.

        This past week I have been thinking a lot about my late father. Born in 1927 and died at 44 years of age in Feb.1971.  He never talked about himself or much of anything at all. Typical for his generation to grow up, serve during WW2, get married and work. He seemed like a nice guy when I was age 5 to 12. Taught me how to do things around a house, how to play basketball and his favorite ( and mine), baseball. We never really talked about life, love, pain, loss, anything of a personal nature.

        By age 12-13 I was turning into some punk rebel kid hanging out with older kids who wore leather jackets and smoked, drank, etc.  My dad stopped being a dad at this time. I guess he didn't know what to say or do. His way to handle me was to yell, hit, and leave.

        At age 14, he did leave for over 2 years and didn't tell my mother or me where he was.  My mother tried to find him to get back together and finally did.

        I on the other hand had had enough family life and started living on my own at 14.  I saw my parents maybe 6 times until I was 18. Was having way too much fun in SF. at the time.

        I received my draft notice on Xmas Eve 1965 and was soon in the military. After 2 tours in Viet Nam I came home "changed"   I shut myself off from everyone, turned "hard" and "cold". Destroyed my first marriage, found drugs and alcohol, and worked around the clock, so i wouldn't have to think or feel anything.

        2 months before my Dad died (heart attack- pneumonia) he asked to talk to me. Out of nowhere he tells me about his life; how he road the rails during the Great Depression, worked out in the ocean on fishing boats at 16, was signed with The Saint Louis Browns, as a first baseman at 17, and was in the Navy by 18.  He told me in detail about the Battle of Okinawa in 1944 where his 12" gun station was hit with a Kamikaze and watched many of his friends perish. And so on....

        He had never talked about himself until this day.  I have come to terms with many things with regards to my dad. He saw himself in me and my behavior, only his generation was not allowed to talk or process anything.  I have had some great talks with him at his grave over the years and for some reason this Father's Day I miss him.  It seems that he is with me these past years more now than when he was alive. He was a pretty good dad after all......

       And I have written way too much about this--------Happy Fathers Day to all.

George asked in his recent post what was the first song that impacted me in life and when did it occur. 

When I responded in the comments of his post, "George, This kind of stuff makes me feel so old sometimes.  Since most of my life has been spent in the music business the first song that changed me is still of importance as it was the driving force for over 5 decades of work and life.  It was 1956, I was listening in my bunk bed to my new transistor radio and heard The 5 Satins " In the still of the night ".  For some reason this song sent me to a whole new place in time. To this day I listen to it with the same feeling. There have been many instances in my life when a certain song fit the moment and remain apart of me." George asked me to post the YouTube Video.

I don't know if I can post a YouTube in his comments, so I'm posting it here with a link to this post in his comments. 

Here you go George!  It's a bit cheesy, but it's the best I could come up with.

     I am writing about this wonderful business we call REAL ESTATE.

     For reasons sometimes unknown we have allowed our livelihood to slip away from the core issues and daily factors that propel us to do our job. 

     I have had conversations with countless Realtor's, agents and brokers about the continuing dilemma we face to either finish a transaction in place or work with new seller's and buyers.

     This is not a post about lending, or mortgage. This is about how we have allowed the public and other business conditions to dictate how we function in today's world and still maintain some type of credibility for ourselves.

    So:  I'm tired of having to pick up and redo a transaction by an inexperienced or otherwise incompetent agent to make something work for my client or one of my agents.

           I'm tired of having to explain to new clients that their selling price is off the mark based on what they have researched.  A little knowledge is indeed a dangerous thing.

           I'm tired of watching great Realtor's/agents frozen in their careers because the news, internet sites, and the public in general still believe that what we do is not worth the price, commission or cost. We have been buried in this for so long that people I have seen successful for many years are now questioning their very own existence.

           I'm tired of "agent speak", about how great someone is and how busy they seem to be; and then I check their sold/ listing stats in the MLS and they haven't sold anything since last year.

           For this business of ours to continue we need to say NO more than YES to future clients and ancillary business arrangements.  We need to think in a longer time period than next month or so because the bills are piling up.  The bills will always be there.

           It is time for all of us to not just say we are Professionals, but to behave like the Professionals we wish the public to see.  Not once in a while but every day.

         And so it goes.......and yes more will be revealed.

        Here I am reading some blogs and making a few comments when I notice how slow the system seems to be today.  Thought it was me; then I look and notice that there are 11,266 on line at the same time!   Membership almost 89,000....

        Yes, I remember when there were only so few here.......

         I find myself daily mentioning This great site to other agents, lenders, and clients.             

         Active Rain in itself has become a true success story.

         I was actually ready to write a post, and once again it can wait till anther time.