Captain’s Blog, 07.15.2009

July 16 marks the (fiscal) one-year anniversary for Hawaii Life as a “conventional” brokerage… and although we’re far from “conventional”, and the company was around before we decided to actually represent buyers and sellers… I’m incredibly honored and validated by what we’ve accomplished in these 12 months.  I’m sure I’m not the only one in our company who feels like we’re on a spaceship moving at light speed.

I’m not talking about our “stats” (as awesome as they may be)… we’ve broken the $100 million dollar mark in inventory, we now have 25 agents and two support staff, and we’ve represented 46 buyers and sellers who have closed transactions.  We’ve done over $21 million in business this past year, and we’ve been responsible for even more (we still don’t “represent” all of our customers, and some of our sales remain unreported).

What I’m more excited about is how we’ve challenged the industry. We’ve forced our competition to try to qualify us. I’ve heard some wonderful attempts by other real estate firms to pigeon-hole us as an “internet brokerage”, or a “boutique firm”.  Of course, they’re concerned. They’re losing market share wherever we go, and their brokers and agents are joining our firm.   Unfortunately, for a lot of real estate brokerages, the number of agents they have in their firm is still their most valuable asset.  Our model is different… our value to our customers isn’t dependent on how many agents we have.

No other company has brought marketing to the forefront of the industry like we have… and certainly no other brokerage in the industry is as engaged in the conversations about Agency, Value, and the way the real estate industry works (or doesn’t).  We’re not immune to the identity crises that the real estate industry is going through… but we certainly aren’t going to pretend like it isn’t there.

If you know us, you know that we play full out.  Our first year of business has definitely been an expression of that. We have some exciting new projects in the works… Hawaii Life Maui, some exciting mergers, and more.  I’m hugely grateful to everyone who played a part in this past year, our clients, customers, and of course all of the wonderful brokers and agents who have taken such a profound leap of faith and trusted us with their hard-earned business.

Mahalo nui, and go forth and prosper!