Last week, I got back from my vacation from San Miguel de Allende.  This beautiful city is located about 250 miles north of Mexico City.  If you read my MeMe a few weeks ago, you know I like travel to different places around the world.  My friend Michael rented house there for the summer because he wanted to get away from the heat in Palm Springs.  He invited all of his friends to come down for a visit, and my turn was July 25^th- July 31st.   I think Michael only has one week where he is actually by himself.

As all good vacations must come to end, I had to go to work the next morning.  I attended my weekly Realtor Board meeting, and the guest speaker was Morgan Levine of Desert Adventures.  Morgan Levine is one of the tour guides for Desert Adventures, which is a company that has been providing Jeep eco-tours all over the Coachella Valley for the last 18 years.  She was talking about the different tours available:  The Faultline Express Tour which explores the San Andreas Fault, or the Indian Cultural Tour which takes a fascinating look at the Cahuilla Indians that inhabited the area for hundreds of years. 

Then it hit me. In the 8 years I have been living in Palm Springs, and I have never taken this tour.  It made think about all the traveling I have done, the places I have seen, and I don't even know what's in my own town. 

How many times have we taken for granted all the wonderful things right in our own little hamlets or metropolis?  There are parks, museums, cultural events, and historical buildings that I am sure that some of us here have not been to.

To be effective Real Estate professionals, we need to be well-versed in negotiations, contracts, and market statistics.  But we also need to be knowledgeable about the events & places that make where we live special.   We need to be able to genuinely tell the consumer why we love living where we do. 

Tomorrow, I am going to call Morgan Levine and book a tour with Desert Adventures.  Then I will write a list of all the places I have not gone to, and write about my experiences for Localism.  That leaves me with one last question for all of you,  "What's in Your Backyard?"