S.E.C. Real Estate Observer

Welcome to the summer issue of the S.E.C. Observer! Steve Eustis, 2008 S.E.C. President, reminds us that although times have changed, many things remain the same; Jim Brondino illustrates why listening is the most important part of counseling; and Steve England demonstrates how real estate brokers can sometimes get in the way.
Hunter Quistgard presents his [...]

Normally, during the summer months of a presidential election year, the ongoing top news story is about the candidates and the upcoming party conventions. This year, however, there is one ongoing news story that is topping the charts above politics: the price of oil and its effect on all products made from oil. [...]

In one way or another, we have encountered and/or studied something about counseling. We have then been told how important, in fact crucial, counseling is to a successful real estate practice. But alas, the most important ingredient to effective counseling is often glossed over, underrated or just plain forgotten - LISTENING. But what has THAT got to do with counseling?! [...]

In over thirty years of the real estate business it becomes evident to me that sometimes we real estate professionals are the problem, not the solution. Many of us spend so much time on our real estate education that unintentionally we think we know everything. [...]

Now that a year has passed since brokers realized the 12 years of free-flowing cash and lenders has disappeared from the R.E. market, some have learned to be good client counselors in order to be able to put closed transactions on the table. The first multi-leg transaction I ever put together (right after taking weeklong “The Reno Class” = Modern Real Estate Exchanging, which was a requirement in those days for an invite to S.E.C.), caused me to name the technique “STONE SOUP”. [...]

Our clients, whether they are brokerage clients or investors, are reading the same thing in the newspapers and hearing the same TV reports that we are. The world is falling apart. The sky is falling. It is the worst real estate market in two decades. There is no money available to finance our purchase of [...]

The S.E.C. National Invitational Marketing Session will be held in Hartford, Connecticut, September 14-17, 2008, at the Marriott Hartford Downtown, 200 Columbus Boulevard. The cutoff day for hotel reservations is August 24, 2008. Call (866) 373-9806 for reservations. [...]

This successful New York commercial real estate conference was co-hosted by S.E.C., and NYSCAR (New York State Commercial Association of Realtors), along with the CCIM and SIOR Chapters of New York, at the Turning Stone Resort in Verona, NY, on June 16-18. [...]

For those of you who did not know Rosebud has a middle name — that name is Lefebvre. That does not sound very Texan. How does someone living in Houston, Texas, have such a middle name? Well, Rosebud’s father was born in White Plains, NY, to French-Canadian parents, and was raised in a convent in Montreal, Canada, for seven years after his mother died. Then, after only an eighth grade education, he started a very successful plumbing business in the basement of his house during the depression. [...]

There are, of course, many uses for land, and of land, and all competent exchange counselors know that there are several formulas to be applied in handling land unencumbered or “free and clear.” [...]