We have safely arrived in San Diego at The Grand at Del Mar. Familiar faces are starting to appear as associates and friends begin to arrive. We just enjoyed a delectable lunch. The salad had watermelon radishes, a new experience for the taste buds. We are looking forward to the next few days.

Once again the luxury real estate network of brokers from around the country and globe are gathering for a meeting of the minds to discuss the real estate market, industry trends and advancements.  We are enroute to San Diego for the biannual Luxury Real Estate conference to take place at The Grand del Mar, a fabuous San Diego resort.  Approximately 220 brokers and agents from 7 countries will be in attendence this year.  Larry, Ron and I will all be going to represent Lawrence Realty and Squaw Valley to the broader real estate market.  We are looking foward to the exciting collection of speakers, discussion panels and social events.  As in years past we intend to return with knowledge of the current real estate market at an international level as well as ideas to implement into our business.

Larry just returned from the worldwide Luxury Real Estate Spring Retreat held in Miami Beach, FL.    Attendees at this year’s spring retreat included brokers from from the US, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean, Europe and all the way from Australia.   These Luxury Real Estate conferences allow us to sense the pulse of the real estate market at a global level.  The general consensus from the attendees is they have seen a pickup in sales activity in the 1^stquarter of 2010 and are expecting activity to continue building in 2010.  Most felt that the bottom of the luxury market was hit during 2009.    Most felt prices of real estate are beginning to show signs of recovery with some areas posting record high sales price hit their markets this year.   We are looking forward to the Fall Conference in Seattle, Washington.

Our office is making a concentrated effort to expose Squaw Valley to the worldwide luxury real estate markets.  We are building our network with the 80,000 worldwide members.  The real estate brokers of this network are among  the top 5% of real estate markets in their respective areas in the United States and in foreign countries.  We are working to exchange referrals with them for both buyers and sellers in our markets.   As a result of our participation in this network, we can refer our existing clients from Squaw Valley to top brokers in their primary home and multiple vacation home locations across the US and the world.   We have already begun this by referring our existing clients to brokers in: the East Bay Area of San Francisco; Steamboat Springs, Colorado; Portland, Oregon and as far away as the Turks and Cacaos Islands in the Caribbean.  If any of you reading are interested  in learning more about this please let us know.  We may be able to help you, your family and associates find a reputable broker in other parts of the country and world.

I just returned from the annual fall conference for Luxury Real Estate and can report it was a success.

The first half of this week, approximately 150 real estate brokers from 7 countries around the world gathered in the exclusive ski resort of Bachelor Gulch.  The group contained repeat attendees mixed in with first time attendees, all gathering to network, share information and brainstorm about the current real estate hot topics.

The speakers were great covering topics such as marketing and branding, effective communication, a virtual office and the new luxury mindset as it applies to buying real estate.   As I listened to each of the speakers I planned to take a few points and immediately apply them to my business practices.  It is easy to go to conferences and gather great information and tools, but if you don’t apply them in real practice then what is the point. 

As always, with the Luxury Real Estate conferences, the networking opportunities with brokers from around the world is great.  I may actually create some business from this visit. 

I have attended all 3 of the Luxury Real Estate conferences this year (European one in Paris and the Spring Retreat in Las Vegas).  Each one has sparked me to do something new in our Lawrence Realty office, but I think this time I have a bit more to do.

Thanks to LRE for another successful event and thanks the my fellow attendess, our collective effort is what makes this organization work.