Yo-Yos! Champagne! Massages! Oh, and … real estate!

SAN FRANCISCO -- Flashy yo-yo tricks, free massages, booming Motown music spun by live DJs, bumper car video games and even a bit of consumer advocacy assaulted the senses of some 25,000 Realtors as the trade show at the National Association of Realtors' San Francisco convention kicked off Friday evening. More than 550 exhibitors from a wide (and wild) assortment of real estate sub-industries strove to outdo each other with sprawling exhibits ranging from shoeshines to surf shops. The trade show is only one element of the Realtor trade group's four-day-long annual convention. Realtor.com, Chase Home Financial, GMAC, Kodak, HP, Stewart Title, RE/MAX International and others, spanning nearly every niche known to the industry, competed for attention on the exhibition floors of both the north and south buildings of San Francisco's Moscone Center. "I've been in real estate 20 years and this is my first NAR convention," said Cathy Collins of Stanberry & Associates in Austin, Texas. Colli...