Ken Montville -- the MD Suburbs of DC

I know I should have bought a camera to take in the long lines and such but I just plain forgot. Luckily, I was intuitive enough to know to get their early in order to trade in my old Supra lockboxes, old Supra key and old Sentrilock key card (it's old already???). So I had plenty of time to hang out and read the Wall Street Journal while I waited for the training to begin.

Bottom line. All went well. A little bit of a wait in line at the end to pick up my new Sentrilock lockboxes and new keycard.

Oh yeah. The serial numbers on the lockboxes probably won't be in the "system" until tomorrow. That's OK. I was able t get the lockboxes back on my listings and if anyone has been through the conversion they can get in. If not, they'll have to wait until sometime tomorrow (I hope not later) to get the infamous "one day code".

We'll all look back on this is 6 months and have a good laugh. Just like the new MRIS tokens.

Tomorrow, I walk into a hotel ballroom in Greenbelt to convert all my Supra lockboxes and key access to Sentrilock lockboxes and key access. Woo! Hooo!!!

Neighboring jurisdictions have converted long ago (and one will convert a little later this year or early next, I understand). So I went and got my Sentrilock key and card reader several months ago. I wasn't going to forgo showing property in either Anne Arundel County or Howard County just because Prince George's was running out the clock on their Supra contract.

I'm see a lot of pluses to Sentrilock, not the least of which is that they will trade me one-to-one for all the Supra lockboxes I have. Lockboxes aren't cheap and being able to maintain my personal inventory without breaking the bank is important. I'm just hoping they accept the key cards from all the neighboring jurisdictions. I guess it's that reciprocity thing.

Luckily, I only have three listings that will be lockbox-less for about 24 hours. I'll run around late this afternoon to pick up the old Supra lockboxes and then run around again tomorrow after the exchnage to install the new Sentrilock lockboxes.

Hey, I guess it'll give me something to do!

In the never ending line of chain blogs, I've been "tagged" by fellow CRS Chapter member and Realtor Extraordinaire, Rich Mielke to write about why I'm in this wacky business. Rich got "tagged" from fellow Rainer/Realtor Sandy Shores from Melbourne, FL (can Sandy Shores be a real name for a Realtor in Florida?? Evidently so.), who was "tagged" by Fred Chamberlin, a mortgage guy, in the Eugene, OR area.

It never ceases to amaze me at the widespread connections we tend to make on Active Rain. It just shows the awesome power of networking, writing, and experience...from a variety of different fields. It is this diversity of experience, both in terms of years and in terms of expertise or "niche", that keeps me engaged in the real estate profession and on Active Rain. Where else can you find fellow professionals so willing to share knowledge about everything from technology to marketing to the requisite "war stories" of houses and clients and everything in between.

When people ask about what I did before real estate, it's gotten to the point where it almost doesn't matter. I was in the tech field (think Intel, Apple, software companies) from the early '90s until I got my license in 1999. I wasn't a techie. I was a marketing guy but I had to know nough about it to be able to interact with the engineers and end users who would buy the stuff. All that stuff doesn't mean much today. Technology has advanced so far, so rapidly (and continues to do so) that anything I knew in 1995 is totally worthless today.

I got a little tired of it and thought I'd stick my toe in the real estate waters. I started as an unlicensed assistant to the Realtor who sold me my first condo. I thought is might be fun. I found out real estate was fun but the Realtor I was assisting was, er, not as much fun. I will say, though, that she taught me the things that the pre-licensing classes never touch - how to fill out contracts, the flow of a transaction from offer to settlement, how to keep in touch with clients.

I eventually got m license and left "assistantship" to go out on my own. My first stop was with a Coldwell Banker franchise in Bowie, MD. I had a great time, worked with a great manager and learned a lot. I eventually got a call from a Broker/Owner of a RE/MAX franchise in College Park, MD and decided that the RE/MAX system was definitely the way to go. So I transferred my license and lived happily ever after for the next 8 years until I decided that it was time to move my license, once again to another RE/MAX franchise in Fulton, MD (aka Maple Lawn) - this time a larger, multi-office franchise that has a few more bells and whistles and a very nice physical location.

Along the way, I've gotten involved in my local Realtor Associations and organizations. As Rich Mielke points out, I'm the Immediate Past President of the MD/DC Chapter of the Council of Residential Specialists (which is where we met). I'm currently the Treasurer of the Prince George's Association of Realtors, sit on their Grievance Committee and Maclin Scholarship Fund Task Force, I sit on a couple of Maryland Association of Realtors committees as well including Leadership Academy and Communications (read: magazine and website for the Association).

So, yeah, it's been a fun ride. I am never bored. I get to meet lots of interesting people. Some actually become friends. I get to see lots of different houses in all kinds of conditions from HGTV to unfit for human habitation. I've met some really neat people in the profession.

If there was ever a time when I would even entertain the thought of bailing out to try something new, this would be the time. A lot of people who had been in real estate have now left the profession.

Real Estate is a good life and a good livelihood, though. So I think I'll stick around.

I'll tag someone I met on Active Rain. I'll be getting to meet Teri Deane of RE/MAX 100 in Columbia, MD in person for the first time in a couple of weeks. Exciting stuff.

I saw this as I was floating around on Facebook and I was both inspired and impressed. I'm a more of a Boomer myself and I find myself really hopeful that the next generation is considering itself the WE Generation. This is a great little video...and only four minutes and forty five seconds.

This is a little off the real estate topic but it's something that started to bother me yesterday.

Recently, my wife and I have had a run-in with various ailments, most notably my wife came down with asthmatic bronchitis, which was both annoying and painful because of the shortness of breath and constant coughing. Luckily, she works for the Federal Government and has great health insurance. She dutifully wen to the doctor who gave her antibiotics. When her condition didn't abate she called back for a more in depth consultation. Unfortunately, the primary care guy was now out-of-town and she was referred to a local health center (as opposed to an emergency room at a a hospital).

The heath center took close to six hours to see her, treat her at the center for short term relief and they pile her on with prescriptions to be filled when she left. That was bad enough but here's the kicker. We took the 'scripts to the pharmacy at our local grocery store (Giant) and they have a little promotion going on: you get a 5% discount on groceries after every fifth prescription filled.

That's right. The more drugs you can get your doctor to prescribe to be filled at the grocery store's pharmacy means you get slightly cheaper food.

Is it just me or is this a truly bizarre way to run a health care system?

First, it indicates to me that food is 5% too expensive from the git go.

Second, it encourages more trips to a physician to load up on drugs which drives up health care costs.

Third, it encourages greater drug usage which drives up health care costs and may not be beneficial anyway.

Somebody please show me why this is a good idea.