San Antonio's Rockstar Turned Realtor®

photo courtesy of Tony The Misfit

All real estate is local.

Its a mantra repeated daily.  Especially here in San Antonio, where we have fared better than some other spots in the country.  Whenever I'm speaking to people about real estate, you can sense the elephant in the room and eventually someone says it.  Foreclosure.  Short sale.  Listings aren't selling.  The bad news.  The news that is on the news every night.  Night after night after night.  Twenty four hours a day if you turn to the news channels.  Its permeated every corner of the globe and is the topic on many lips in many languages.  We deal with it everyday and try to explain why our local area is different than the one's they see on the news.  Its an uphill battle sometimes as evidenced by Amber Noble-Garland's recent blog post on the subject (the photo is actually a nod to her state of New Jersey).

The light bulb over the head comes on after a little bit of reading.

I was flipping through my latest issue of Texas Realtor magazine and reading through the articles, when I saw the most amazing quote, that I actually rushed straight to my computer to write this post.  It summed up everything we try to explain to people (and sometimes spend time on convincing ourselves when we're feeling burnt after watching the news after a long day of talking with consumers on this very issue), but in such a way that it made that little light bulb glow like mad over my head.  I think I blinded myself with it as I sat in front of my computer and it reflected on my laptop's screen (which by the way, needs a good cleaning).

Don't keep it to yourself Matt - what did you read?

Ready for this?  Its so simple, that if you've never thought of it this way, you may just smack yourself in the head in a true "I could have had a V-8" moment.  In an interview with our the new Chairman of the Texas Association of Realtors®, Brooke Hunt, she talks about the her history, the issues we all face, what her goals for the Association are and in the midst of it all - dropped a bombshell of simplicity on this agent's head.  When asked what message she would give to every Texas Realtor® if she could grab our attention for a few moments, she went through the typical "its a great time to buy" stuff and said this:

"Remember, all real estate is local.  You don't watch the weather in Boise, Idaho, to decide what to wear tomorrow, so why watch the national news to make your real estate decisions?  This is the message we need to get to the consumer."

Go back and read it again.  Its so simple and so easy to see when you explain like that.  Its clear as a bell and sums up what we all want to show the world.  Our mantra.  Our way of life that we hope everyone can understand so that we can help them buy and sell the homes of today and tomorrow.  I'm still reeling from the simplicity of it.  Thank you Brooke Hunt.  With that simple quote; you've inspired me, given me a reason to believe in our Association under your leadership, and (hopefully) inspired a few people outside of Texas that may not have seen your brilliant message.