January 15, 2010

It was my pleasure to be invited to the Raincamp as a member of the press looking for some insight on the topic that I write about. At first blush this may seem to be slightly out of context for a real estate show as I am the New York Homeland Security columnist for Examiner.com. In reality though, real estate and homeland security go hand in hand, as we saw on September 11, 2001. The buildings in New York City present an enticing target to our enemies.

In addition to my writing, I am also the owner of a mortgage title company, Hallmark Abstract, so I hoped that this event would help me on that front as well.

Upon arriving, I was at first struck by the level of organization as well as the number of people who were attending. While I thought the event would be popular, I was surprised by the size and excitement of the participants.

Although I missed part of the morning session, I found the enthusiasm and knowledge of those who presented to be excellent, as well as the stature of some such as the President of Zillow. Speaking to various attendees at the breaks I was struck at the amount that they felt they were getting out of the program. Typically at events such as this you will hear the occasional griping about the program not being what people thought that it would be, but I did not hear that at Raincamp. I only heard comments to the effect of the value being received. That is the mark of a successful program.

To keep this brief I will say that I took away from the presentations an enormous amount of useful and actionable information that I will be able to apply to my business immediately. I appreciate the opportunity to attend, and would highly recommend future programs to anyone with an interest in real estate.