I recently read a great blog post by technology expert Matthew Ferrara titled: "Five Reasons Realtors are Losing Market Share"

Matt makes an argument that many Realtors in today's market are disconnected from today's consumer.  He points out five key statistics in his blog that may be to blame for this overall issue:

The statistics are telling, but overall he points finally to the fact that most Realtors, whose average age is now their mid-fifties, aren't adapting to the needs of what is soon to be coming...and that is a major wave of "first time" Y buyers and "move up" X buyers.  Buyers who expect instant communication and speedy replies and whose information demand has the possibility to bury any agent who can't keep up.

Matt's blog is a good one, and I agree with his major stance on the issue, but I also think there's an unseen aspect to what many are failing to realize is going on and what really needs to be looked at, especially for the future:

I think it's important to note that in order for "Real Estate" to catch up to what Generation X and Y are bringing to the table, Brokers need to be hiring the X's and the Y's, and finding out how best to train them as sound and professional agents.  Agents who can make it, who can motivate their own minds, and become successful, not only for themselves, but for the companies and franchises they work for.

X and Y agents would have NO problems keeping up with needs of X and Y consumers.  Quite frankly because they easily understand the overall fact of technology today and how it is mandatory to survive in the business world.

Unfortunately, the recruitment of young people in this business is dying in my eyes and right now, it's simply not happening to any great degree, at least in our neck of the woods.  It's not due to a lack of recruiting attempts, believe me.  Over the past 5-6 years I did see quite a few young people enter the business, even a few recently...but sadly, virtually all of them have ended up leaving due to not having the motivation or the ability to generate enough business.  

We live in a time of expensive EVERYTHING.  More so now than ever before people need stability, especially with income, and especially if you are a 20 or 30 something trying to make it out in the world.    If those X's and Y's trying to become a Realtor don't have a stable cash reserve or a spouse who can support them, at least initially, they are usually doomed within 2-3 months as a Realtor.  Bills and life responsibilities don't stop in a down market, let alone any market.  New agents, especially young tech savvy ones, without a monstrous circle of influence and absolutely phenomenal sales skill usually cannot find a strong way to compete in today's business world of Real Estate.  Sure, there are always a few exceptions here and there, but it sure isn't the majority in my opinion.

The agents that are surviving, in our market, are mainly the ones that have been at this business for many many years, who I see continue to tap their R&R (repeat and referral) business.  They may not be keeping up with the latest technology, but they have the experience and skills that are key to keeping the growing market fear off the table with a old or new client.

Overall I do agree intensely with Matt's post, but in the same breath I don't see how the industry as a whole is going to manage to revitalize this career field without young tech savvy blood.  Again, as Matt states, the average age of a Realtor is roughly 50+ years old....the key question the entire industry needs to ask is how do we change that? 

If motivated young new people don't enter this business to affect that statistic of age, we're looking at a major dying off of not only agents, but entire franchises and companies who sooner or later will have to face the fact that there's no agents left in their company.

So I pose a final question...is your company managing to hire these young fresh 20 and 30 something X and Y agents?  And more importantly are you keeping them?  Are they becoming successful?  Or are they being stampeded out of the business due to lack of experience?  

As a X'er myself, making my way in this Real Estate world...I'm all ears.

Late last night, to the horror of my eyes, I discovered that our beautiful new kitchen granite countertop had somehow become stained in multiple areas with what appeared to be some form of red color!

It took me a few minutes to calm down, but I realized that the previous day we had strawberry dessert with our dinner.  Somehow the darn mess must have eluded my wife and I once we cleaned up and went to bed.  So, there, in front of my eyes, roughly 24 hours later stood this bright red cluster of red spots sunken into our beautiful new kitchen counter, hideously laughing at me as I attempted all I knew trying to clean the redness away.

Nothing, and I mean NOTHING, we attempted to use managed to even budge the stain away.  The professional granite cleaner, soap and water, and hardcore rubbing of the sponge or towel.  NADDA.  Hell, I even SPIT on the damn stain.  YUCK!   (yeah, that didn't work either)

After about 20 minutes of head pounding frustration I thought of only one possibility, GOOGLE.   I went ballistic online searching for tips on cleaning granite, specifically stains related to wine or fruit.

What I found was astounding, and it worked like a CHAMP!!

What could this miracle cleaning cure be you ask????

PLASTER OF PARIS (molding plaster) and BLEACH

THAT"S IT!!!  Simply mix a little bit of the Plaster of Paris, available at any hardware store, with a little bit of bleach until you get a good paste.  You don't want the paste too watery and you don't want it too thick.  A little runny will do, but not so thin it doesn't scoop up with a spoon.  I'd recommend using an old glass dish for mixing, as you can easily clean it afterwords with warm water, even if the plaster hardens.

***IMPORTANT!!!!  DO NOT THROW THE UNUSED PLASTER MIX DOWN THE DRAIN OR TOILET.  I highly recommend just dumping it into a garbage can bag or tossing it some other way that doesn't not involve your plumbing.***

Once you have enough to cover your stain, just plop some on and wait approximately 30 minutes.   After 30 minutes, take a very wet sponge and wipe away the hardened plaster.  I held my breath during the first application, but I must admit, this literally cleaned up everything!!!   One of our stains took 3 applications to get up, but low and behold eventually the red stain was gone!!!

There you have it!!!  According to what I read this works great on wine stains and fruit stains. Hopefully this comes in handy for anyone who may have an unfortunate granite countertop spill of this nature to deal with.  The sheer ease of cleaning it was astounding and I would have never guessed it would work!

I finally took the plunge about 2 months ago and upgraded my personal home desktop computer to Windows Vista. The term "upgrade" isn't entirely accurate in this case though, as I actually built myself a new computer. While my existing PC was almost 5 years old, a Windows XP monster of a machine, and more than sufficient for all of my basic needs, I really was overdue, especially as an I.T. professional who prides himself on staying in touch with all the latest techie stuff.

Buying a new computer from a major dealer isn't an option for me, as I pride myself in building my own, part by part. Building a PC from scratch is definitely not for everyone, but I've always done so and this time was going to be no different. Personally, it's a hobby I enjoy, and more importantly, I love knowing exactly what is being placed inside my PC in case something goes wrong.

So..Being in the I.T. field I figured I finally better see first hand what all the hub-bub was about concerning Vista, as well as put the system through my own tech-gauntlet to see if all the of the negative hype was truly justified.

I'm happy to report that my Vista experience has been phenomenal.

This new behemoth of a machine literally blows through anything I throw at it, specifically multiple tasks. The bootup time is lightening fast, the slick nature of the visuals is extremely impressive, and the overall aspect of the changes definitely raised my eyebrows.

I sat and wondered, "how can this be? shouldn't it have crashed or screwed up something by now??"

I mean we all probably have seen the numerous negative reviews online, the many personal comments from people we know who have "tried it", or read the magazine articles comparing Vista to Microsoft's horrid Windows ME operating system. You start to wonder at this point, am I just a lucky one?

Frankly...I don't think I was lucky. I just think I was smarter than the average retail company or user....and I think my method of building a system from scratch proves why it's been so bad for Vista and for so many others.

Ya see I researched. I read. I scoured the online forums and websites trying to figure out how to avoid such a potential disaster with Vista. How? Simple, very simple:

I specifically built my machine with known VISTA compatible parts. That's right, I sought out and made sure to buy parts that were Vista Certified. One other MAJOR key so many manufacturers get wrong with Vista is MEMORY.

Windows Vista is a HOG, a GIANT 800lb PIG, when it comes to system resources. I am constantly amazed when I run across a laptop or personal computer of someone who bought a shiny new Vista computer, only to discover it shipped with 512MB of MEMORY. 512MB!?!?!? Windows VISTA?!?!!?

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? 512MB?!?!?! WINDOWS VISTA?!?!?!

Companies SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED to manufacture and sell Vista machines with less than 2GB. That's right, 2 GIGA-BYTES!!!!! It's a travesty that Vista machines are being sold with less.

I literally just worked on a laptop, manufactured by a major brand name, that only had 512MB of memory. IN-SANE. I turned that thing on and I might as well have come back 24 hours later, as that's when the desktop would come up. Disgusting.

So, to come full circle, what should you be concerned about if you are considering an upgrade to Vista? Maybe your XP machine has seen it's day, maybe you just need a new toy, or maybe you just have no other choice?

Here's a few simple hints on how to properly convert yourself to the "Vista Experience":

1. CHANGE IS HERE - You must first accept the fact that Windows Vista is going to be a change from what you have been used to. It's not entirely different than previous version of Windows, but believe me...it's different in ways that will drive you loony if you are not prepared. For example: the START BUTTON is gone, replaced by a simple logo. Windows Explorer looks eerily like Apple's OS. Catch my drift? Little nuances like that will unglue your brain if you are not willing to accept that Microsoft changed a few things here and there. Overall, if you face that fact, and enjoy learning something new, you will find Vista quite appealing.

2. MEMORY...REPEAT AFTER ME...MEMORY....2 GIGA-BYTES OR MORE OF MEMORY!!! If you want any chance at a successful experience with Vista, throw as much memory as you can at it. 2GB, 3GB, or even 4GB. The sheer performance increase going from 512MB or even 1GB to 2GB or more is astounding.

3. FORGET ABOUT UPGRADING an old machine, including a fairly new Windows XP Machine. Save yourself a headache and don't attempt an upgrade. Either buy a new machine or, if you are a techie, build your own. First off, upgrading a machine is sometimes a death sentence. There's too many intangibles that could render your PC useless or you may fudge the upgrade and wipe everything....I've seen it, believe me. Personally, I think this is the # 1 reason Vista failed at launch. Too many people thought they could upgrade an old PC with a shiny new version of Vista and didn't realize their HARDWARE was outdated or didn't have enough MEAT to properly run Vista (the way it was meant to run). If your XP machines does what you need it to do and is fast enough for you, STICK WITH IT. If you still want to upgrade, trust me, give the old XP machine to a family member and buy a new computer that's already Vista ready.

4. PROCESSOR(CPU) - Get yourself a QUAD-CORE processor. You future proof yourself, even if only for a few years, and you WILL notice the difference while multi-tasking. Having multiple windows, browsers, programs, etc, will be almost instant. If you can only find a DUAL-CORE cpu, that's ok too, but again, shoot for a PC with integrated QUAD-CORE technology.

5. VIDEO CARD - If you want all the shiny bells and whistles, make sure the PC has video that can handle the Vista Aero Interface. While they do sell Vista in a "BASIC" version....ask yourself, why the heck even upgrade? If you want the true VISTA experience, make sure the video solution for the PC can handle Vista's slick new interface.

Other key items which may not be entirely necessary to enjoy the Vista experience would be a nice decent sized hard drive for all of your data, maybe a 19 inch or higher LCD monitor, and why not a cool surround sound set of speakers? While not entirely necessary, you can truly benefit from such additional considerations.

There you have it. If you do your homework, whether you build your own machine or buy from a vendor, make sure to feed Windows Vista LOTS of memory. Also, prepare yourself for some "change" and a bit of a minor learning curve in getting used to the new features. But once you do, moving over to Vista is quite a refreshing breath of fresh air. It's been a great experience for me so far and I would recommend Vista to anyone.

a·ban·don - to leave completely and finally; forsake utterly; desert: to abandon one's farm; to abandon a child; to abandon a sinking ship.

While I haven't abandoned any ships lately, it's been roughly 3 months since my last entry here on Active Rain.  After initially tearing into my new found passion of blogging, I believe I blew my "blogging gasket".

Too much, too soon, and I think I tried to drink the AR juice too fast.  

My summer kicked off with an immense amount of non-real estate related issues popping up and there simply has not been enough time in any given day to sit back and blog.   Anyone else have this happen?  Maybe I got to overzealous, maybe I burnt myself out, or maybe even it was just inevitable to have outside personal tasks keep me occupied and mentally drained.

I'm sure we've all been there.

Here I am now, trying to get back on the horse.   I'm hoping in the following days I can share a personal story, real estate related, to one of the most shocking things I've had to go through - an abandoned apartment unit of mine. What a friggin disaster....more to follow later.

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CNN's Fortune Small Business is proud to present the top 100 places to "live and launch", a 2008 study by Fortune to find towns with the best mix of business advantages and lifestyle appeal.  I'm proud to say that our own Lehigh Valley city of Bethlehem comes in at number 58!  Below is the full summary of Bethlehem's synopsis and you can see the entire TOP 100 list HERE. 

OFFICIAL BETHLEHEM PENNSYLVANIA WEBSITE!