Thank You for Reading My Real Estate Columns for Almost Forty Years

As many of you know, I began my real estate career with the goal of making enough money so that I could quit work and write poetry.  Poets are inevitably poor and I grew up in a midwestern factory town which manufactured Maytag parts and where my Caucasian grandfather punched a punch press until the noise made him deaf.   For a very long time, I was also the only mixed race kid in a town of 6,000 people. Diversity wasn’t a noun anyone knew or understood. We all come from humble beginnings even if it is a generation or two removed from who we are today. I share this backstory with you because selling, owning and developing real estate  has been the most rewarding experience of my life and it is every bit as creative as writing a poem.   

Writing is a solitary experience but when you sell a home, you become part of that buyer’s family and friends. You know who does the cooking and what goes in the man cave. Owning real estate is also an opportunity for building wealth. Buying muni bonds or equities doesn’t give you the social interaction of neighborhood BBQ in your backyard. For decades, real estate has also been the only leveraged wealth builder. Our immigrants know this because they work two or three jobs to buy their first home. It is the American dream and the dream of those who are denied fee simple ownership in most parts of the world.   

There is one real estate brokerage franchise that participates in building those dreams better than all others and that is Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices. Warren Buffett is respected worldwide and represents Trust, Integrity Stability and Integrity which is what Dwell Realty has strived to follow since its creation eight years ago. Now, I am proud to bring Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices to all 663,300 square miles of Alaska. We will soon be joining one of the world’s fastest-growing residential real estate brokerage franchise networks, with more than 50,000 real estate professionals in nearly 1,500 offices throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe and the Middle East bringing new opportunities for our buyers, sellers, builders and our realtors. 

This was not an easy decision for me personally or professionally. After all, I am as independent as all of you. It took many months of research and thought, even before Covid-19 brought the world to Alaska’s front door step. Our signs will change in the next few weeks but I promise you we will continue with our commitment to Alaska in assisting all our buyers and sellers. But now with more technology, market resources and connectivity to the nation and global reach with international website at www.bhhs.com. We will also bring you new geographical, commercial, luxury collection and relocation opportunities as we expand our reach to the entire state of Alaska.

So stay tuned. Coming soon is Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Alaska Realty. And for those of you who thought I was going to tell you at the beginning of this column I was retiring or selling Dwell Realty. It’s ‘Good to Know’. There is, instead, a New Beginning.