By Gino Blefari
This week I was in San Francisco at Inman Connect, an annual real estate technology conference that provides the ideal setting for forward-thinking leaders to discuss the technology transforming our industry today … and tomorrow. As I share highlights from Inman Connect, you’ll notice that each of these memorable experiences has something very specific in common (but more about that later). For now, here are some of my favorite moments from the event:
By Gino Blefari
This week my travels found me in Chattanooga, TN, for a visit with Vanessa Mercer and Ben, Karen and Byron Kelly, along with their entire Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Realty Center team. I had a fantastic time speaking to these professionals and left Tennessee invigorated by their energy and enthusiasm.
From my brief visit, I can tell you the people in Chattanooga are wonderful and just as charming as the location itself: Chattanooga is the fourth-largest city in Tennessee, a place where countryside meets commerce in green, rolling hilltops and high rises set among the broad bends of the Tennessee River.
By Gino Blefari
From every angle, millennials are shaping the future of real estate, whether they’re potential first-time buyers embracing homeownership or recent college graduates joining a brokerage, eager to launch real estate careers. For any business leader asking what the future looks like, the answer comes wrapped in a millennial bow. And even if this certainty is understood, how to reach the millennial is still muddled by a haze of social media, mobile marketing and other millennial-focused trends.
By Gino Blefari
When Barbara Wakefield received the call she’d won $50,000 in the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices $50,000 Sweepstakes—held in conjunction with HGTV and Fixer Upper stars Chip and Joanna Gaines—she thought the whole thing was a hoax. “It was too fantastic for words,” she told me over the phone today. “I just thought, ‘How could this happen? There’s only one winner and how could that winner be me?’”
By Gino Blefari
This week I have the 4th of July on my mind, a holiday always spent grilling with my family and watching fireworks light up the summer sky. It’s my favorite time of year, with a rich history as compelling as the patriotic celebration itself.
By Gino Blefari
This week my travels find me in the Hawaiian Islands for business meetings and my annual family vacation. The islands are nothing short of spectacular: pristine beaches, unspoiled landscape and a welcoming aloha spirit. This spirit is also evident in the history and local legends of Hawaii, like Duke Kahanamoku, whose life and achievements make for an incredible story I’d like to share with you now.
By Gino Blefari
This week my thoughts aren’t so much about my travels as they are about what happened while I was away. Nearly two months ago, on a rare rainy day in Southern California, I received a call from HSF Affiliates CFO Brian Peterson, (who also happens to be my neighbor), letting me know he had picked up a package at my door so it wouldn’t get wet.
“Thanks, Brian,” I said over the phone. “That’s interesting though because I didn’t order anything to my SoCal residence but it’s probably a book.”
In fact, it was a book, a very good book I’d like to discuss with you today.
by Gino Blefari
My travels this week took me to Washington, D.C. to help honor Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices’ top brokerages and hear impressive speakers gathered to provide brokers with new perspectives on real estate, politics, media, business practices and more. These speakers are leaders in their own right, including cyber security expert Joel Brenner, ABC News pollster Gary Langer, CNN senior political analyst Gloria Borger, and N.A.R. representatives Lawrence Yun, Bill Gilmartin and Joe Ventrone. I was also honored to meet Real Living At Home leaders Jason Sherman, Justin Levitch and their terrific agents at their Washington, D.C. office.
By Gino Blefari
This week, I found myself in San Francisco for a media interview via skype with Ilyce Glink, host of Big Money Real Estate, a weekly show on the Whatever it Takes Network. Episodes focus on a variety of topics including: real estate, mortgage issues, real estate investing, personal finance and consumer advice. However, I was video chatting with Ilyce about the results from the Q1 Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Homeowner Sentiment Survey, which assessed people’s aspirations and sentiments surrounding homeownership.
So, my interview began and I was asked this question: When compared to other generations, how do millennials differ in their home buying preferences? How are they starting to resemble previous generations?
By Gino Blefari
This week, my travels took me to Omaha, NE, a city smack in the middle of the U.S.A. and home to an organization we all know well, Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Before this year, I had only been to—or better yet, been through—Omaha twice before, years ago as a child on a family road trip from California to my home state of Massachusetts. I remember even then, as we drove along Interstate 80, Omaha was a study in contrast, a small, urban skyline surrounded by the quintessential Midwestern scape of flat, open land.
Now I’m a seasoned Omaha visitor, with three trips to the city in the past year, most recently to attend the Berkshire Hathaway Annual Shareholders Meeting and then, just this week, to visit Vince Leisey and his team at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ambassador Real Estate. Each time I return I’m struck by the distinctiveness of the city and I get the recurring feeling that this place is unlike any other; it’s easy to understand why Berkshire Hathaway would be stationed here.
Thoughts on Leadership 