The year that was 2006

I’m tired,
sick and tired of love,
I’ve had my fill of love,
from below and above,
tired,
tired of being admired,
tired of love uninspired,
let’s face it, I’m tired!

--Lili Von Shtupp of Blazing Saddles



Yes, Lili... I hear you. Loud and clear in fact. 2006 marked a long year for me personally. Rewarding and yet frustrating. Some goals were met, while others were missed by miles. I made great efforts to each goal though. "Failure is success... if we learn from it," a wise person once said. I'm looking for the success part in the new year and hope to have learned from prior failings.

While I may be 'tired' from all the events of 2006, I also want to hand out several shouts of appreciation to the following...

To my clients of 2006, thank you very much for the opportunity to serve you. Thank you for the smiles when the transactions were finished as those smiles are as important to me personally as the fees that are collected for the service you paid for. I hope to see more smiles in the coming year.

A hearty thank you goes out to my fellow Realtors in my local Association. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to serve as president for 2006. What a year it was... right up to the end. I gladly take the highs as well as the lows from the entire experience. You trusted me with an enormous responsibility, one that wasn't taken lightly... not one single day. Often I felt like a teenager that was left in charge of the house while the parents went away on a vacation. Well I may have partied a little or even had a few friends over, but never touched the booze locker and didn't burn the house down.

I especially want to thank anyone and everyone in the real estate 'blogosphere'. Thanks to the many fine folks who have inspired me to create and publish my own blog. Blogging has been a great experience for me this year. It has helped me in so many ways from education, expertise, using new technology, grammar, sentence structure, and critical thinking. Blogging has expanded my confidence and my resolve in this business in a very short time as compared to the day to day experience or any continuing real estate education classes ever could.

I won't bother to link to the many names that have helped my blogging over the last year. I'll simply forget someone and I'll hate myself for it. Feel free to click on any of links to other blogs on the right for a good start on the list of folks I need to thank.

Lastly, I want to thank my wife Gail for supporting my quest for 2006 every step of the way. Without her love and support I simply would not be where I am right now. She is a perfect partner for me in every way. It is cliche, but she does 'complete' me. Thank you for everything sweet baby!!

So it is now 2007 and while I remain 'tired' I am looking forward to what 2007 has to bring. I'm looking forward to continued momentum from the previous year. Looking forward to capturing new business with my flat fee buyers program. Looking forward to serving on two state level committee's (Governmental and Professional Standards), serving as Committee Chair for the KGVAR Government Affairs Committee, local RPAC Chair for 2007, and one more year serving on the Board of Directors as immediate past president.

Of course I am looking forward to what the real estate 'blogosphere' has in store for me, as well as continuing to meet incredible people via the Internet who make a big difference in my career as I move along, and desire to offer as much relevant information to the readers of this blog as I can on all things real estate related local and otherwise.

Wow... looking at this post again... I'm pretty sure that Ms. Von Shtupp will be visiting again next year 'round this time. Thank you to all!!