I was given a basic outline and I set about designing a course schedule with 2 days of brokerage management and one day of sales training per their request.

With reservations made; my passport at the ready and with one small suitcase plus my computer packed, I was set to go.

Friday 3/22/08 My adventure starts. First to Seattle to stay overnight to catch the early plane down to LA for the trip half way around the world. Smooth flight. So far I am calm.

Saturday 3/23/08. I get to the airport in Seattle 3 hours early for my flights – with all the flying I have done I know that it helps to get there early to make sure that the international flights are squared away. My journey today will take me from Seattle to LA to Heathrow to Tbilisi, Georgia. Overall the journey takes about 18 hours in the air; then add in the time waiting in airports and my total trip time will be somewhere around 30 hours.

Monday 2/25/08 I am finally about to land in Tbilisi! It is around 6 am and I am unbelievably actually “on” their time zone; they are 13 hours ahead of us. Quite a change! Upon arriving in Tbilisi, Lela Shatirishvili, the translator for this part of the journey, meets me at the airport and takes me to the Marriott Hotel where I will be staying. (By the by Tbilisi is pronounced ti-bli-si with no accents on any syllables. Lela tells me that the Georgian language does not have accents on any syllables. It is originally from the Samarian language which may be the oldest language in the world). The hotel is gorgeous – very old world European. At first glance it looks in excellent condition for a building that is over 200 years old. It is only when you spend the time looking around that you start to see some of its faults. But it is beautiful and I am in need of a shower and some food.  After I eat breakfast I work through the day on my courses making sure that I added notes where reasonable for a non-English speaking audience. Lela has the only title company in Georgia – now don’t get excited they are just getting started understanding how important it is to have a chain of title and the need for a title policy when transferring ownership. Lela is familiar with many aspects of real estate in the US but I know that there will be many questions for me at the courses and I want to be ready.

Wednesday 2/27/08   Lela picks me up at 8:30 to make sure that we are there early enough to get the room set up. (By the by she does not drive. Although women have been allowed to drive for 25 years in Georgia, few women do. Most hire a driver. Interesting – I can see that driving would be an interesting adventure). We get the LCD projector and my computer ready, and then set up the chairs for the participants: about 25 people.  Lela has prepared books and name tags for everyone. About 9:45 most of the people are there so we start. Day 1 starts off well; however from the questions they are asking I quickly figure out that the participants have no idea how REALTORS® work in the U.S. I spend the next hour explaining what a real estate license is, how they get it, and that each state in the US has different pre-licensing education standards; and that then they have to take a test, and then they have to work for a broker for a set period of time before they can take the education, pass another test and go off and work on their own. I also explain the 3 levels of licensure in the US in general; as well as what an independent contractor is. I go back to the program, and then stop to explain how we in the real estate industry use contracts and what they are: listing, buyer agency, earnest money agreements, addendums etc. I then need to explain the different types of listing contracts (with an emphasis of the importance of the exclusive right to sell agreements). This leads me into an explanation of the MLS system. We also discuss the differences between working with someone as a client versus a customer. I go back to my program and I am impressed by the number and variety of questions that they ask. Next I stop to explain what property management in both residential and commercial real estate is and how each state has special laws that outline how the tenant and landlords of residential property must act. Plus I explain how we use contracts in these areas. Lunch and breaks occur with many people coming to me to get more questions answered. We end that day about 6:30 pm

Friday 2/29/08 Lela picks me up again about 9 and we head to the seminar. Lela anticipates possibly a different group of people coming which we indeed did have 5 or 6 different people today. Because new people are there, I go ahead and explain some of the basics of being a REALTOR® in the US: from licensing through to brokerage. It is a good thing that I did as several of the people who were there from before thanked me for helping to explain again what they see as a very different way of doing real estate. Day 3 once again goes well with lots of questions. This time there are people there who are very interested in property management so I tailor my presentation to insure that I help them to understand how this is done. Lunch and breaks go as planned. Good questions at all the breaks and at the end of the day. I head back around 7.

Saturday 3/1/8 It is time to say Madloba (thank you) and Nakhvamdis (good bye) to Lela and the group and head to Baku, Azerbaijan. It is only about a one and half hour flight from Tbilisi and I am looking forward to a bit of a change. After arriving in the Ambassador Hotel, Nargiz (the coordinator for Baku) calls and we arrange to meet that evening. We meet about 9 pm and she introduces me to the translator, Farman Imamguliyev. He and I arrange to meet at 8:30 the following morning.

Monday 3/3/8 Farman and I meet at 9.   I am told that some people will be in and out. We actually start just about on time today. As I go through the program I again get many questions, and for those that are new I go over some of the basics of becoming a US real estate licensee. This group cannot believe that people who sign contracts in the US actually honor them. First they do not have any contracts. Second if they did they say no one would honor them. We have a morning break and a lunch break. Day 2 also is very interesting with good questions. They decide to skip the afternoon break and end up breaking at 5:00. I stay to answer questions until 6:00. Many of the questions are about the differences between a customer and client and how and more importantly why we disclose this. I am also asked to visit the Real Estate Registration Project after the last class. I agree.

Tuesday 3/4/8 Farman and I meet at 9. The handouts are on the tables. We have closer to 40 people today although I am told that once again they are going to be floating in and out. We go through the materials for Day 3 with many questions; many questions on back to the basics of how we work, the independent contractor relationship, property management, client versus customers and the exclusive right to sell contracts. A couple of the attendees corner me to discuss more about how to set databases to track customers and clients. We end about 5:30. I am asked to write an article on Alaska real estate for their local magazine. I agree to do that upon my return. After the course, Farman and I go with Shahin Panahov, the Project Manager for the Real Estate Registration Project, to visit his office and to meet with Gulhusseyn Kazimov, Head of Staff for the State Service for Registration of Real Estate.  Their interest is to find out what we think of their progress towards title registration (in the very early stages) and their mapping of properties (very early stages). They also want to know what we think of their real estate professionals and to ask what they can do to improve what they do. I am very careful in my comments to commend them for their hard work and to encourage them to continue towards title registration and forming legal descriptions for all properties. Sagolun (pronounced sa-oul which means thank you and goodbye) everyone.

Thursday 3/5/08 A day of rest before I pack and start the two day journey home. Some thoughts that I am pondering: the IRPF and in turn NAR are trying so hard to provide people in other countries education on the real estate profession, however in trying to be respectful of their experience we sometimes forget their point of reference is far different from ours. They still want to understand the very basic way our real estate industry is regulated; from licensees, to title, to land/legal descriptions, to appraisal, to the mortgage and banking industries. Next we need to help them understand the uniqueness of our profession; from our independent contractor status to our payments structures (in general of course), supervision; plus the importance of the use of standard contracts throughout the industry.

Real estate people throughout the world are really very similar -- they all have a burning desire to find out how to “do “real estate better and more efficiently; and they want to know how to create loyalty between themselves and the people and companies they help. They are addicted to their phones (although in Georgia and Azerbaijan are more addicted to texting than most of the REALTORS® in the US) as they are to their cigarettes.

And if you are thinking about traveling to either country: Georgia’s food: is “interesting” (bring your own food for dinner); wines are rough but drinkable. Azerbaijan’s food: is better; Ka-Bobs are very popular (but do not eat the chicken as this country has problems with the “bird flu” which is supposedly carried by chickens); by all means try the wine – especially the cabernets – they are wonderful.

These real estate professionals in both countries are wonderful. I have learned so much from them. I feel lucky to have gained so many new friends who also love the real estate profession. This was an amazing experience and I thank the IRPF for choosing me for this adventure. I look forward to other opportunities to travel to other countries to give seminars on real estate and to share some of our experiences with those who, like us, have chosen real estate as their profession.