Experiencing the Real Estate Master's Event

The Masters golf tournament held each year in early April is, without doubt, the premier golfing event of the year. Its legacy and traditions in many ways define the very game of golf.

The American residential real estate industry also sponsors a defining "Masters" level event. It is known as the "Gathering of Eagles" (sometimes just the "Gathering"). The responsibility for hosting this event belongs to the now 29-year-old Real Trends organization that hosted the 2015 edition of the Gathering of Eagles event in mid April at the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver.

Over the past few years, the rate of change and transition within the American residential real estate industry has been nothing short of historic. Virtually every element of the industry, the marketplace, its demographic and its transaction has been or is being recast and repositioned. Accordingly, perhaps more than ever before, the task and challenge of defining the parameters of the contemporary industry through the eyes of the Gathering event approached herculean.

Without question, Steve Murray and his impressive Real Trends cast of thousands (actually just 14 in number) rose to the challenge. The 2015 edition of the Gathering of the Eagles event did indeed provide attendees with a finely tuned and spectacularly accurate portrait of the leading edge of today's industry environment.

The event was launched with a presentation by national award winning Director of Marketing for Coldwell Banker International, Sean Blankenship, who established the fact that defining the industry in 2015 meant taking another look at the configuration of the housing inventory, especially as it relates to the ideas of the "smart" or (for the cool set) the conscious structure. Sean's comments set the stage for a Coldwell Banker produced seminar on that same subject that took place later that day.