Thanksgiving leftovers courtesy of Realty Takes. Do not surrender to stuffing yourselves with worrying, whining and woefully wishing. Just make it happen. It will!

All that follows is from the fact that multi-million dollar properties are selling out east, and there are some people around with lots of discretionary money. Since almost all of these are oceanfront, pond front, South of the Highway multi-acre estates - prime is prime. They are the last things to go, the least susceptible real estate to market vagaries, unless if there were, for example, a severe down turn in the economic and/or national environment.

Property listed wiht REMAX/Beach Properties

It does not follow that our market is robust. Not many of the overflow realtors out east are selling $18 million dollar homes. Unit sales are down. So what do you do?

Stay in action, my friends. Stay in action. Get all the free mentions (as in Realty Takes) that you can. Tell a story, strut your stuff, keep your name out there for clients and customers to recognize and remember when the market turns.

What else? Keep on advertising but get creative. Ads related to market conditions, perhaps about great investments, great buys, excellent values, your competent professional staff will keep your name out there. Give the public information! They want to know what's going on from the insiders in the industry.

If you want to be part of the action and not simply watching the one guy sell the jackpot home, there's more to be done than phoning. And if you are phoning, tell us the "market" responses you are getting. Share the information. Use it in designing and targeting your ads. (Now is the time for FLEXIBILITY!)

Okay? Like Lucy: five cents, please.

From Melinda Potosky, our Texas fan after reading Realty Takes pieces on co-exclusives, she asks, "How come no MLS out there?"

We asked for her arms length opinion and we got George Simpson's, Suffolk Research honcho. George, who always holds back says, "About MLS on the East End - lots going on. Hanfra [Hamptons and North Fork Realtors Association] is starting a MLS – and hope to be off and running by January 2008. John Nickles, a great guy, is running Hanfra. HREO with their RealNet listing system has an automated co-broke system which in my opinion is a serious violation of anti-trust law. The Hanfra system is much better than the RealNet or MLS system that LIBOR [Long island Board of Realtors] uses. A key thing about an MLS is it allows members to have their listings on Realtor.com - "God" in the Real Estate industry - except in MLS hold out markets like the Hamptons, North Fork, and Manhattan. I expect that within a few years, most real estate agencies will either be Hanfra/MLS or LIBOR/MLS - HREO and RealNet will disappear."

Then our Texas fan replied: "I would think everyone would take advantage of all the services offered to make the marketing of one's home easier. I can't imagine any market so exclusive you wouldn't take advantage of all tools available." And later, "guess no one cares about the benefits of MLS. Too bad it is just the super-realtors who get the exclusives. MLS equals out the market and gives benefits to sellers as well as buyers."

And now we hear from Michael Daly, who ventured off on his own: "Wanted to tell you that we, at RE/MAX BEACH PROPERTIES are celebrating our One Year Anniversary in Southampton - and what a year it's been!"

"We've grown to nine Associates and are picking up steam as we head into 2008, looking for a location in East Hampton followed with either a Sag Harbor or Bridgehampton office. Then, onto Manhattan!" he continued.

Lessons Michael Daly learned, showing a rare ability to change. Seeing that the traditional RE/MAX logo was not "up to snuff" for high-end Hamptons real estate, he adopted the upscale RE/MAX Collection logo for all of his advertising and collateral material. (FLEXIBIITY!)

Noting that the shared office expenses model for compensation does not work out East, RE/MAX Beach Properties turned to the area's widely used split business plan for their associates. The only difference claims Daly is, "We are able to offer splits between 10 percent to 20 percent higher than other agencies empowering our associates, not treating them like employees, and offering a broad range support."

Sounds like an invitation to me. Nice going, Michael.

My last words this week? Get your name out there and advertise (smartly) because East End real estate is a strange and challenging business.