Just freshly back from the Inman Connect Conference in New York City. The whole experience was interesting and enjoyable. The best part of all is getting to meet in person the terrific personalities that I've known on the 'net for so long. Being able to hang around and talk about the matters of real estate, blogging and life in general was exciting.
NYC is a very distracting place to meet. Not only is there is much to do and see, it's nearly impossible to get everything done. 24 hours in the day just isn't enough.
My biggest problem was navigational issues. Every time I set foot on the street, I headed in the wrong direction. It didn't matter if I was alone or with a group, the result was the same. Of course with so much to see and do, I didn't really mind. The whole experience was fun, it didn't really matter where I was.
One afternoon Mitchell Hall, a NY native invited me and Patricia Kennedy to join him touring Broker Open houses. I jumped at the chance to experience a taste of N.Y. real estate.
Mitchell was a gentleman and picked us up at the hotel (on foot). We took the subway to Soho, where the apartment for sale was located. Yes, apartments in N.Y. are for sale, unlike Denver Real Estate apartments are for renters!
The subway offers even more opportunities for navigational mistakes! Lucky for me, I just followed Mitchell. He gave Patricia and I a handy little siding-scale brochure. It was a helpful tool for deciphering the appropriate subway route vs. streets serviced. I'm sure after a proper education, BA, MBA and perhaps a PHD one could figure out how to operate it efficiently. :) Perhaps being born in the city helps. But for me, well I'll need further assistance, like maybe a GPS!
We found the apartments with Mitchell's expert assistance. I never would have managed to locate them. They
were both enormous and priced totally out of this world! I loved the artwork and the location for both. The neighborhoods were so colorful and chock full of conveniences.
On the return subway ride home, I plied Mitchell for tips on determining direction. Now please understand, I come from a simple place. When I look to the west I see mountains. It's so easy to figure out which way to go. When the mountains are on the left, I'm facing north. Behind me, I'm facing east and so on.
In NYC there just didn't seem to be any clues. The sun didn't even offer much assistance since the buildings typically obscured it. Well, Mitchell said for me to look for the tall buildings and that would mean I was seeing Downtown Manhattan. OK. Then the opposite would be the river. OK. That's nice, but that also assumed I knew where the heck each of those places were relative to where I was!
LOL! Ignorance is bliss. Instead of taking the time to learn, I decided to enjoy where I was and not worry about where I should be. I kept track of the hotel addy on my iPhone so not matter where I ended up I would at least know where I had to go to get "home."
Of course having a Plan B was helpful. Plan B was to hail a cab.
No, I never hailed a cab. I was having too much fun just being and doing where ever I was.
Thank you Mitchell for introducing me to New York City Real Estate! It was a great experience.
Read more about my NYC experience at Denver Real Estate and Relocation Blog
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Hi Kristal, That is fanatastic that you got to go and had Patricia K with you. Sounds like you had a blast. Yes we take it for granted how we can just jump in our cars and go places. In NYC I guess most people don't drive much. I'd be SO lost.