Ira & Carol Serkes, Berkeley (SF East Bay) CA USA

You hit the nail on the head with one four-letter word. Tool I'm a big believer in using the right tool for the job. People think of me as a techie, but I'm actually a toolie. And in many cases, the right tool for the job is... a phone call .. or an email (I usually don't respond to them until at least 4-5 seconds have passed after they're sent to me). The most productive agents in the Berkeley market integrate people and tech skills... and I believe that the people skills are vastly more important. Malcolm Gladwell in Outliers referred to the concept "good enough". I recall he said that as long as you're good enough, being a whole lot better didn't really have a big effect on success. And interestingly, that brings up another point. Carol really likes the Kindle. I've read about 4 chapters of a book on it. The book I read on Carol's Kindle was "Outliers". If I had the paperback, I'd have finished it months ago. It's on the kindle (which I can also read on the iPhone)...and haven't gotten past a few chapters. So this is another example of the Kindle being the right tool for the job - for Carol - but not the right tool for the job - for me. The brightness/contrast just doesn't work well for me. I've a feeling that the theoretical Mac Tablet might just be the right tool for reading books. Ira Serkes

As a Chemical Engineer myself - one of my main problems with the forms is that their design and layout is horrid. Not California Realtors fault though, for instance - the form of the TDS - Transfer Disclosure Statement is defined by state law. Part of me wants to dot all the i's and cross all the t's, and the other part wants to do it within "slide rule accuracy" (yes, I'm that old) or "good enough for engineering approximations" So.. the example of removing a loan contingency AFTER the loan has funded and the transaction closed is a perfect example - the contingency was implicitly removed by the action of the loan being made. You raise up a common issue - agents NOT doing the necessary paperwork (i.e. completion of TDS or disclosures) in a timely manner. This can open up the 3 day right of recission - along with a potential can of worms. Then you're gonna need a bigger can. Ira

My somewhat random thoughts, probably easily disagreed with, and in somewhat of a rant format, but here they are: 10 - RANT START Branding - The brands which seem to be most powerful are the ones which are easily identifiable for one consistent product or service. Apple, CRS Designation, Pepsi, Coke, Jet Blue - yes many of them had mis-steps (New Coke?, Passengers on the Tarmac, Apple Lisa) but they to have come back to their prime objective. One of the reasons I hated buying Windows Computers when I had to have a Windows Computer was the plethora of choice - With Apple - You have your choice of only a few laptops or desktops - and several flavors of each. I knew I'd get a consistent product whichever Apple Computer I bought. And for real estate offices? VERY difficult for large or multi-region offices to have a consistent product. The ones which I feel will be most successful will be the ones which are regional or local boutique. There's such a wide disparity of expertise among real estate agents I see it very difficult to for real estate offices to provide consistent "product" to the consumer. And the product? Knock your socks off experience and results for the seller or buyer. Personal branding? I think that real estate companies can offer their agent valuable services, but I've never understood the concept of a real estate agent "working" for a company. It's the company which really works for the agent - and the real estate agent which generates the revenues which keeps their company in business. So while we've always been proud to affiliate with the real estate offices we've been with (different offices for different stages in our career) I think it's vitally important for agents to develop their own personal brand which will do its best when it's also congruent with the company. Or, put differently, if your personal brand is not congruent with the company you're supporting with your commission income, it's time to change companies or open your own. Our personal motto is "Handcrafted Real Estate" - personal attention to detail which strives to provide consistent and outstanding results to our clients. Not sure if Marc would consider it another vapid expression of non-Marc-eting blather, but I'm sure he won't hesitate to let me know what he really thinks. 20 - RANT END Ira Serkes Berkeley, CA USA