Thoughts on Leadership: Altruism amid Tragedy

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me first in San Diego for the 2017 AREAA National Convention. The conference focused on how real estate can better serve buyers and sellers of diverse backgrounds and I was honored to participate in a panel discussion about the Fair Housing Act, created to ensure homeownership for all. The onstage dialogue was detailed and thoughtful, meant to get to the core of the Fair Housing issue and figure out how we can create a better way to protect renters and buyers from unlawful discrimination.

Next, my itinerary would’ve taken me to Las Vegas for the Zillow Group Broker Forum. The event is invite-only and happens each year, bringing together the nation’s largest brokers to meet with Zillow Group executives and industry leaders to share ideas about trends in real estate. It would’ve been enlightening and informative, I’m sure, but Monday morning I received an email the event was cancelled, and the cancellation was of course the right thing to do.

As you know, Sunday night marked the largest mass shooting in our nation’s history and on behalf of our organization, my thoughts and prayers go out to all those affected by the awful tragedy in Las Vegas. This entire week has felt expectedly heavy on our hearts as the country mourns great losses, consoles and slowly, somehow attempts to heal.  

Continue Reading

Thoughts on Leadership: Love What You Do

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels found me in Las Vegas and then Phoenix, meeting with iconic broker, Mark Stark, CEO of Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Arizona Properties, Nevada Properties and California Properties, and his teams at Arizona Properties and Nevada Properties. As usual, I’ve been traveling a lot lately and with the upcoming holiday weekend, airports have been more crowded, roads filled with more traffic and getting around has been just a little bit harder. It’s during these somewhat stressful times I must constantly remind myself how much I absolutely love what I do—serving our network brokerages and helping people achieve their goals faster than they would in my absence.

I’ve often said I love what I do largely because of who I get to do it with, and that means working with great leaders like Mark, whose energy, enthusiasm and dedication to his agents is beyond compare.

Continue Reading

Thoughts on Leadership: Follow the Leaders

By Gino Blefari

This week my travels first found me in Washington, D.C. to meet with the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices PenFed Realty team and Kevin Wiles, their talented president. I spent the day speaking to these fine agents and managers then traveled to New York City for RISMedia’s CEO Exchange. This annual event is a can’t-miss opportunity to gather with real estate’s preeminent minds as they discuss all things from mortgage regulations and data control to sustainable success and broker best practices. Each year I depart the Big Apple with incredible insights and a renewed sense of purpose in the direction our industry is headed … and this meeting proved no exception.

Continue Reading

No more posts.