Watching the buzzards circle.

Our managing broker, Cornelia Steffes, recently announced that she was retiring before the end of the year, and introduced us to her replacement.

Cornelia has been the managing broker the entire time that I've been here, and well prior.  I think she's been here some 30+ years.  She's phenomenal, and is a walking real estate encyclopedia.  In additional to her vast real estate knowledge, she's been doing this nigh onto forever, so she knows everyone's stories, and knows where all the skeletons are buried.

She's also a welcoming shoulder to cry upon, and we've all (myself included) plopped ourselves down in her office chair and bared our souls, while drenching them in tears.  And somehow she manages to smile that caring smile, and listen to our woes.  We have over 80 prima donnas in our office (and yes, I'm one of them), and she listens to our gripes, keeps our confidences, and metes out balms, salves and real world solutions, whether they be real-estate-related or not.

She will be sorely missed.

Meanwhile, I'm sure you're wondering, what's going to happen?  Well, Cornelia has chosen her succesor in Barbara Kleban.  Barbara is a wonderful new addition to our office. She's smart, energetic and well-versed in many of the things that we need to drag our sorry asses into the 21st century.  She understands many of the new technologies, has schooled us on the uses of things like Facebook, Yelp, Trulia, Zillow, Realtor.com, Hootsuite, Pinterest and is bringing the ship around to include modern methods of presenting at listing opportunities, including smart-phones and tablets!  We're going to survive nicely, thank you.

Being the premiere office in our area, many have seen this transition as the perfect opportunity to pillage our directory, and recruiting has taken on a frenzied fervor.  Anyone who's "anyone" in our office, has been approached by the other offices in the area, and offered riches galore if they'll jump ship.  Higher splits, marketing money, premium parking spaces, signing bonuses... believe me, the world is being offered.

I, however, will not be one of those jumping ship.  I still believe in our office, and our new leadership.  Barbara Kleban has shown some tenacity and business know-how beyond her years.  I'm going to hang around and see how it goes.

Meanwhile, I'll watch the buzzards circling.

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