So my last post was May 23, 2006...

...I've been working!

Here's a brief re-cap of what's been going on with Optimum...


Bangkok was awesome...not necessarily the city but the conference and connections. After the FIABCI World Congress, we headed to a small island called Koh Chang for a few days...and then on to Tokyo for some business.

Tanya (my real estate assistant) decided to take a break from real estate mid-year. We miss her...she was a great assistant. I decided not to hire again until 2007. 2006 was kind of a wrap-it-up year for us. I really wanted to just focus on the clients I had and finish the renovations that we had started - Coconut, the office building, our condo. Since this did not include taking on more clients, Bianca (our office manager) stepped up to the plate to take on the additional responsibilities. It's worked great so far.

We did welcome on Sandi K, our new in-house bookkeeper. Sandi is actually a friend of the family and she has really helped to get us where we need to be in regards to everything Quickbooks. If there is one thing I learned - you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you've been. Plus, I'm a numbers/reports/stats kind of girl.

In October, we went back to Dallas in search of properties for our investors. The DFW market is ripe but Hilton and I felt there was a little unknown looming. Dallas reminded me of Honolulu in 2005. I am not talking about residential but the real estate market vibe in general...front page news, very high prices in comparison and everyone you know is either slinging loans or homes. I could be wrong about Dallas but for Honolulu that was the peak and the start of the decline. The good thing about Honolulu is the decline was in the number of sales and the pace (days on market) not necessarily the price. Bottom line is that Honolulu is still paradise...and Dallas?

November took us directly from Dallas to New Orleans for the National Association of Realtors Conference. I was bummed that it was there at first (mainly because we had both already been there before) but it was actually alot of fun. We met up with many of our friends that we only see a couple times a year - Ursula, Angela & Nicole, Tashia, Doug, Manfred, Tony, Debra, Jenny. We also met many more - Joe and Ignacio.

December is the season for us to receive guests. When there is snow and ice storms on the mainland, everyone is travelling to the sunshine and waves. It's a standard equation. We love when people visit...not necessarily when they stay in our home...but we never get tired of the circle island tour. December 2006 brought us Tom & Lianne, Tony & Jennifer, Josh King and a few of my clients and counterparts surfaced as usual. We actually took a weekend trip over the island of Kauai with Tony & Jennifer for New Years. I will be selling nine acres in Lawai/Koloa so we went to view the land and for a little R&R. Poipu was the same as it was ten years ago (the last time I was there). North Shore/Hanalei is still my favorite place to be in the world. We spent the day snorkeling at Tunnels...clear conditions and TONS of fish. You cannot visit Hawaii without checking out North Shore Kauai.

So...this brings us into 2007 :o)