Real Estate Vision takes over Burlington, Vermont
What an amazing trip it was to spend the last few days in Burlington, VT to attend the Real Estate Vision (REV) national conference, where 183 of the top REALTORS in the country gathered together to celebrate content, community & heart. Everybody in attendance was there to share and care, and it was truly a heartfelt experience all around. Our 1st morning started off with Alan Mah teaching a lesson in photography and how to better capture the moment through pictures. Of course as many students of the craft will tell you, it’s best to learn out in the wild rather than the classroom.
With that in mind, this “course” consisted of a sunrise walk at 6:45 a.m., where we headed down to Lake Champlain to soak up the early morning fall colors. Along the way, we learned about proper staging and lighting, which are some of the most important steps to take before the actual picture, whether you simply have a smartphone, or fancy DSLR. We, a group of about 20, learned some of the best techniques from Alan, and spent those couple hours walking the shoreline and shooting properties in various neighborhoods, before ending up at a nice lakeside cafe for breakfast. It was a fantastic start to the conference, learning more about a tool that can be sometimes overlooked in our industry.
We had a short break after breakfast and started in the “classroom” around noon, where we were welcomed by Patrick Lilly of New York, NY the organizer of the event. Following that brief introduction were rapid fire sessions by other realtors on how they’re taking their businesses to the next level, some new techniques they’ve been implementing, as well as some of the things they’re doing to make differences in the world philanthropically. Again this topic of how to take care of the community that has given you so much really harped on REV’s mantra.
Some of these sessions included: “What are you gonna do?” – Leigh Brown, Concord, NC; “Tradesmen as part of your team” – Donna Elder, Lexington, KY; “Helping your team prosper” – Pat Wattam, Baton Rouge, LA; “Essence & purpose for team members” – Martin Eiden, New York, NY; “Relationship Selling” – Robyn Erlenbush, Bozeman, MT; “Facebook sneak previews” – Sasha Farmer, Charlottesville, VA; “Guide dogs for the blind” – Judy LeMarr, Mill Valley, CA; “How small can be huge” – Bryan Bomba, Hinsdale, IL; “Client power point presentations” – Linda Hall, Fort Mill, SC; “The art of seeing” – Joanmarie Curren, Seattle, WA; “Kick a$$ direct mail” with moderator – Melinda Estridge, Washington, DC, and a panel featuring Nate Martinez, Glendale, AZ, Sven Andersen, Winchester, MA, and Leslie McDonnell, Libertyville, IL; “Team operations to set you free” – Noel Bittinger, Canton, MI; “Best new apps” – Marsha Sell, Marietta, GA; “Spotlight on success – An Interview with Jennifer Ames, Chicago, IL; “In the works” – Patrick Lilly; LeeAnn Heinbaug, Denver, CO; Cheryl Freeman, McLean, VA.
After a nice first day of seeing old friends and meeting new, Wendy and I headed over to the Hen of the Wood restaurant, which highlights farm-to-table dining. We were lucky enough to be sat at the counter fronting the kitchen, where all the food was being prepared, so that we could see each of the fresh ingredients being prepared before our eyes. It was all very exciting to witness the chefs working so briskly to fill their nightly orders, and more importantly, plating beautiful and very tasty food.
From there we walked up Cherry Street to the pedestrian street of Church, where there is lots of shops and restaurants, and epitomizes the friendly and cool vibe of this wonderful city. After that, we walked down to the picturesque Flynn Center of the Performing Arts, where a personal favorite band, Los Lobos, were playing. They have been together for 40 years now, with Wendy and I both having followed them for pretty much this entire time as they are based in East L.A. just 10 minutes from where we were born and raised in the San Gabriel Valley. We met a couple good friends there, Nate Martinez and Pat Stracuzzi, and the 4 of us had great time in this beautiful, classic theater.
The next day’s sessions featured a very heartfelt presentation honoring Jean Shine, who is based out of Fort Hood, Texas, and has helped over 8,000 families buy homes. During her talk, she shared her passion was with her community, and honoring those troops coming back from war by caring for the families in all way’s possible. It was quite touching to say the least. After that, I had lunch with Alan Mah, Dawn Thomas, Maria Babaev, Raziel Ungar, and Nate Martinez to discuss working closer in the China market. Alan has extensive experience in that part of the world having preciously worked for a developer in Shanghai, and is actually originally from Singapore, but lives in Vancouver now.
After a full day in class, it was time for some fun—Wendy and I walked from our boutique lodging at the Hotel Vermont (which we highly recommend by the way!) along the shore of the lake. We strolled underneath the stunning fall leaves and colors, down to the Spirit of Ethan Allen, a boat where we were to take a 3 hour cruise around Lake Champlain. This trip was again highlighted by the beautiful colors and super nice people aboard, as well as an incredible sunset. There was also a tasty buffet dinner, with all of us laughing, having fun, and catching up after an amazing day of learning and sharing together.
Our final day started with presentations on favorite charities—one person was building houses in impoverished Guatemala through From Houses to Homes, another was helping teach inner city kids grow their own food, and Scott Panella taught us how we could give a goat to help feed those in need in Uganda. These were just a few, but all the charities mentioned featured incredible stories of giving back to the community. We also had a presentation from Jeff Scislow of RE/MAX Results in Apple Valley, Minnesota, who is working on a country wide MLS in India—very exciting!
After the morning session, we were to vote on where next years event was going to be held, with the 2 finalists being Denver, CO and Seattle, WA. The majority voted for the great northwest in September, so that’s where it’ll be next year, much to the delight of Joseph and Randi Brazen who are from nearby Bellevue! They actually own the 520 Bar and Grill, which will surely play host to a few events next year.
This conference will feature the core group of REV, still in place for the mastermind sessions, but also become a bigger entity, with more people invited—potentially up to 800! That part will be dubbed Real Estate Success Rocks and it’s very exciting to see Patrick Lilly take his vision of sharing content, community and heart to a bigger audience. He also suggested that we in the room choose 3 or 4 people to be a part of this next year’s gathering.
Finally, it was time to wrap up an incredible 3 day session and I want to thank all the people who worked so hard to put together this event, including Brian Jackson and Nancy Jenkins, who are from Burlington. All in all, it was fantastic time networking and brainstorming at the REV Conference 2014 with some of the best in the business in America, and I already can’t wait for next year!