Bad Career Move: Becoming a Real Estate Agent

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The guys that wrote Freakonomics have an interesting article in the New York Times Magazine about real estate agents.  Not surprisingly they see real estate agents’ business being blown up by the internet much like stockbrokers and travel agents in the recent past.  What is surprising is that they think being a real estate agent in one of the hottest housing markets ever in the US was also a bad idea.  Here’s why:

As it turns out, however, most agents don’t make very much money during
a boom, because of one simple fact: the boom attracts way too many of
them. Over the past 10 years, membership in the N.A.R. has risen by
more than 75 percent. And why not? Compared with most professions,
becoming a real-estate agent is quick, cheap and relatively painless.
In economics, this phenomenon is known as free entry…

From 2002 to 2004, during one of the hottest real-estate markets in
American history, the median income for Realtors actually fell — to
$49,300 from $52,200. This is not to say that some agents haven’t
become rich. As in most sales professions, whether the product is
diamond rings or crack cocaine, the people at the top of the pyramid
make an awful lot more money than those down below. It’s just that the
base of the real-estate agent pyramid grows significantly during a boom.

So if you’re looking to get into real estate I’d suggest becoming a fixed-fee broker or some such thing.  But that’s just me and I don’t know much.

Childhood Heroes are Human Too

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When I was growing up in the late 70s the tennis craze was going hot and heavy and the greatest player at the time was Bjorn Borg.  I loved the stoic Swede and I will never forget his matches against John McEnroe.  I still believe that if Borg hadn’t retired at 26 then McEnroe would be considered an even greater player by tennis historians because he would have been pushed by the Swede and their intense rivalry and that probably would have prevented McEnroe from taking a hiatus during his prime.  For those who don’t remember McEnroe was so dominant in the early 80s that it took over 20 years for someone to have a season comparable to one his (Roger Federer last year).  The man got bored and burned out, and love him or hate him, he was a genius with the racket.

Well the bad news today is that Borg is auctioning off his trophies due to financial problems stemming from some failed businesses.  I hate it when reality intrudes on my childhood memories. 

Here’s a thought: maybe McEnroe will buy the trophies and put them in the Hall of Fame or maybe even let Borg keep them until he can buy them back. 

Always dreaming.

That Little **** Is an Idiot

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I’m not going to name names in this post because I don’t think it would be fair to blast a defenseless 12-year old, as much as I’d like to.

Here’s the deal:  a beautiful, brilliant girl who got lucky and was not cursed with her father’s looks, or ADD, came home and sought out said father.  This conversation ensued:

Father: "Hey honey.  How was your day?"

Daughter: "Okay…well not that good."

Father: "Why?"

Daughter: "Well, <little **** she has a crush on and is ‘friends’ with> said he knows lots of girls prettier than me."  Her eyes start to well up.

Father: Tongue almost bleeding from being bitten because his first instinct is to say, "That little MF-er doesn’t know what he’s talking about and you shouldn’t even think about what that little, no-good s***head thinks."  But of course he doesn’t.  Instead he says, "Well, do YOU think you’re pretty?"  Brilliant, huh?

Daughter: "No."

Father: "Well you are.  In fact I’ve had friends tell me how pretty they think you are."  It occurs to him that this might sound a little creepy to a 12 year-old girl so he digs the hole deeper in an effort to de-creepify it. "And you know we all have been around a long time and have known lots of pretty girls so we know a whole lot better than <little ****>."  He’s worried that he’s really making it worse, but she’s beginning to smile so maybe he’s doing okay.  "Look," he says, "I know it doesn’t mean much coming from me or my old-fart friends but you really are a beautiful girl.  Really.  And on top of that you’re smart, kind, friendly and a lot of fun to hang out with.  The problem is that boys your age just don’t know what they’re doing (thank God he thinks to himself) and so they say and do really dumb things."

Hitting his stride he continues, "Let me ask you this: Do you know boys that you think are better looking than <little ****>?"

Daughter: "Yes."

Father:  "See it’s just an opinion and what does it matter because you still like <little ****> even though you know other boys that are better looking, right?"

Daughter: "I guess so."  Smiling.

Father: "Okay, so don’t worry about his or any other boy’s opinion.  If you know you’re pretty and a good person then it doesn’t really matter what they think.  And if they don’t treat you the way you want to be treated just ignore them and don’t give them the time of day, okay?"

Daughter: "Okay…thanks Dad!" She runs out with a big smile on her face.

Father, utterly exhausted, mutters to himself, "Where the sam-hell is that bottle of Scotch when I really need it" and sincerely hopes he doesn’t meet <little ****> in the near future.  He is also very, very afraid of the next decade or two.

North Carolina 2006: Human Trafficking…Really

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The Winston-Salem Troublemaker has a story about human trafficking in North Carolina, and how the FBI is looking for help in combating it.  He also highlights some cases tied to the Piedmont:

Does human trafficking exist in the Triad?

In May of 2004,
Greensboro Police uncovered the State’s largest Human Trafficking case
when a Home Depot Security Guard reported a large number of vehicles
and scantily dressed young Hispanic girls being delivered to a van.
Over 20 people were held by authorities. Prostitution trafficking
charges followed.

Greensboro Police have investigated several
Hispanic brothels within the last few years. Gurrant Street, Phillips
Avenue, Rainbow Street and Freeman Mill Road have hosted Hispanic
brothels.

A Greensboro strip club catering to Hispanics is  currently suspected for having human trafficking connections.

In
Winston Salem, local authorities shut down a Hispanicic brothel on
Country Club earlier this year. Several people were charged and
deported.

I guess we can’t say this kind of thing only happens in other places.

Tivo Love

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So last night I sat down in front of the TV and flicked on Tivo to be greeted with a screen message saying that Tivo had added some new features in the last update.  So I check it out and here’s what I found:

  • Games from Yahoo! – There’s a marble game that’s kind of like Tetris (I’m already addicted) and another game loosely based on Scrabble.  How will I ever find time to watch TV?
  • Streamed radio broadcasts from an unbelievable number of radio stations (I think there are podcasts too, but I’m not sure).  The stations are organized by genre and I’ve only had time to check out the "Alternative" folder but I found quite a few college stations there that should be fun to listen to.  My favorite was the station that had the tag line: "Maine’s ONLY Alternative Rock Station."  Who knew?
  • Rocketboom!  Yup, you can subscribe to the groundbreaking V-Cast, or video podcast or whatever they’re calling it, and it is saved to your Tivo watch list to be viewed at your leisure.

Feels like Christmas in March.  Now if they will get that deal with Netflix going I’ll be a happy camper.  Speaking of Netflix the Greensboro News & Record has an inside look at Netflix’s Greensboro distribution facility.

**Update** Tivo does indeed have Podcasts, lots of them, and it even allows you to put in your own URLs if you don’t find one you like.  Over lunch, just for kicks, I listened to one from someone (no idea who) about cities coming back from disasters.  Fascinating.  At this point my Tivo-love knows no bounds.

Birders Should Be Recruited for War?

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Okay, the title refers to the war on the H5N1 virus (Avian Flu virus), but I figured it was a little more provocative this way.  There’s an opinion piece in the International Herald Tribune (found via Loose Wire) about the fight against the avian flu and how the spread of the virus shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone since it is following known migratory patterns.  The author, Laurie Garrett, suggests that government officials should recruit birders to the cause:

One of the best untapped resources in this epic battle against
influenza is bird-watchers, who are among the most fanatic hobbyists in
the world. The major bird-watching organizations and safari clubs ought
to work with the World Health Organization and OIE, the World
Organization for Animal Health, to set up Web-based notification sites,
where birders could report sightings of groups of dead birds, and the
movements of key migrating species.

Until a little over a year ago I wouldn’t have paid this any attention because, quite frankly, I didn’t know any birders.  Now I do and I’m finding that the birding community is as fanatic as the author describes. What makes this a particularly good idea is that birders are freakishly attentive to detail and to logging the birds they see, where they see them and how often they see them.  That makes them perfect for this effort.  As long as we don’t ask them to get in front of a camera (these aren’t typically extroverted people from what I’ve heard) the author’s plan should work swimmingly.

Mother’s Day Gift?

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Shotgunshell_chairSee that chair to the left?  It’s made with shotgun shells and besides looking quite interesting the brass of the shells is supposed to provide a very pleasant massage effect (more info here).

I’m considering this as a mother’s day gift, the irony of which will be appreciated by all in our family.  You see when it comes to guns my Mom makes Cindy Sheehan look conservative  by comparison.  My brother and I weren’t allowed to have toy guns, although exceptions were made for water guns.

I’ve taken the opposite approach with my boys: they have a gazillion toy guns and my oldest has an air rifle.  He also tromps around the house in combat boots and cammies, and has decided that he’ll make his fortune designing tanks, helicopters and armed Hummers. Actually his drawings are quite good and he’s pricing them below a million since he’s done pricing research online and has figured out that at $750,000 he’d be severely undercutting the competition. I don’t have the heart to rain on his parade with things like production costs, but my heart is all a-twitter at my budding little entrepreneur.  I’m a little concerned that I might have bred a mercenary, but I’ll deal with that when the time comes. You’ve heard of grandchildren being a grandparent’s revenge?  Well I’ve turned this one on its ear haven’t I?

Anyway, back to the chair.  I might get it even if I don’t give it to Mom (she’d break into hives if she ever actually sat in it).  You see I have this pathological fear of guns, what with the childhood brainwashing, and I’m trying to break myself of it with my own weird immersion therapy.  A couple of years ago I shot skeet while on vacation (got two with one shot I’ll have you know) and I figure if I use this chair at my desk I’ll continue my de-programming.  This might also help increase my masculinity score on the PersonalDNA test I took yesterday.  I’ll keep you posted.

Carolina-Duke: It’s Great Being in Carolina

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After my last post about my declining interest in sports I better come out with another sports-positive post.  The one sport I still get really juiced for is college basketball and there’s no better place to live to satisfy that jones than in North Carolina.  This week is particularly good because we have the end of the ACC regular season and we have Carolina/Duke playing on Saturday.

In anticipation of that Ed Cone has continued a debate about the ACC Coach of the Year that started over at Patrick Eakes’ blog and includes references to a column in the W-S Journal by John Delong. Ed’s arguing for Roy Williams at UNC and I’m agreeing with Delong (not in all the details however) in supporting Coach K at Duke.  Since I’m a Wake fan (and NC State after that) I feel that I’m a little more objective than all the UNC partisans, but then I would thin that wouldn’t I? Either way it’s really fun stuff.

Quick aside: One thing I’ve noticed since moving to NC is that while much of the country dislikes Duke, all non-Duke fans in NC seem to have a special level of hatred for that program.  Seriously all Carolina, NC State and Wake fans can agree on one thing: they hate Duke. 

I do understand what big business that college basketball is, which you would think would put me off like the crass, greedy nature of other sports has, but there’s still something wonderful about watching very talented athletes who aren’t yet as polished as their professional brethren.  And I think the passion of the coaches, players, students and alumni give the games a special atmosphere.  That comes through pretty clearly in the debate at Ed’s place.

Holy Cow…A Positive Sports Story

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I’ve always been a sports junky, but as I’ve gotten older I’ve begun to lose interest.  It isn’t that I find the sports themselves less interesting it’s that I find the athletes less compelling and quite frankly I think ESPN has killed the sports star.

But just when I think I’m ready to throw in the towel I read stories like this one that ran in the Washington Post and was posted by bookofjoe. It is nice to know that even in the over-hyped and completely crass events like the Winter Olympics a flicker of that which can make sport majestic still appears. Here’s a sample:

Sara Renner was skiing the cross-country race of her life when she looked down at her pole and saw it had snapped.

She flailed and struggled uphill as the field passed her in seconds.

And then something happened, maybe the most serendipitous, skin-tingling moment of the 20th Winter Games.

Another pole.

Out of nowhere.

Given to her by a person she would call "my mystery man."

Renner was back in the team sprint relay final, trying for her first medal in three Olympics, thanks to a stranger.

The stranger turned out not to be Canadian.

Bjornar Hakensmoen is the Norwegian cross-country coach.

His skier had just passed Renner and was now in medal contention.

He didn’t think twice about helping a competitor.

"Winning is not everything in sport," Hakensmoen said.

"What win is that, if you achieve your goal but don’t help somebody when you should have helped them?"

Hakensmoen is genuinely surprised people even want to talk to him about his deed.

"I was just helping a girl who was in big trouble. If you saw her, you would do the same."

Sadly I can’t picture Bonds, Sosa, Iverson, Jordan, Kobe, Gretzky, Lemieux, Manning, Gruden, Coach K, Larry Brown, Roy Williams, Gibbs, McEnroe, etc. doing the same.  Can you?

Benevolent Inventor?

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There’s a neat little personality test out there called PersonalDNA.  It’s a little like the Myers/Briggs but it utilizes new web technologies that allow you to use ranking sliders and charts instead of answering multiple choice questions.  What’s really different about this one is that you can invite your friends and family to evaluate you using the same test.  In other words instead of answering the questions about themselves they answer the questions as they see you.  Could be creepy, but I think it could also be really informative.

I took the test and it says that I’m a "Benevolent Inventor."  Here’s a link to my full report. I have to say that the one thing that bothers me in looking at my 13 personality traits was when I saw the "femininity" and "masculinity" scores.   According to this 60% of the 3200 people who have taken the test have scored a lower "femininity" score than me and only 52% have scored a lower "masculinity" ranking.  Does this mean I’m some kind of girly-man?  Is this why I really don’t want to see Brokeback Mountain?

I’m going to invite some people I respect to evaluate me as well, and hopefully I’ll have my fears put at ease.

Go here if you want to take the test yourself.