Tucson AZ Real Estate Realtors
August 7, 2007
Post Tags: Barbara-Lasky , Tucson Real Estate , Tucson-Realtors
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Have you been wondering at all who are the people behind this site called Tucson AZ Real Estate? If so today that question will be answered.
I’ve been writing daily post on this blog since it began on July 15, 2007. We have provided you with contact information and a contact form. But we haven’t introduced ourselves until now.
Most of you know my name since I author the posts for this site. I’m Dave Smith. I’ve mentioned Barbara’s first name a couple of times but never her full name. This has not been an oversight. It has been intentional for reasons you will see in a moment. Her full name is Barbara Lasky. She wouldn’t kill me if I told you her middle name. . . but, she might do some serious damage.
Barbara and I talked a long time before building this site about Tucson. We have a website I built almost two years ago. We started the Tucson Real Estate in The News blog in October 2006 so we could get information out quickly on the web. Until the creation of this site these were our primary means of getting information out about Tucson Real Estate.
After almost a year developing the Tucson real estate news blog we decided we wanted to do more. We wanted to build a great site about Tucson Real Estate and add a lot of information about Tucson Living, going beyond the typical real estate site. We like living in Tucson (most of the time). The more I write about what we take as an everyday part of our lives the more we find people interested in what it is like to live where their are bobcats in the backyard and wild pigs in your garage if you leave the door open at night. We want to help buyers, sellers, and people living in Tucson make knowledgeable decisions about buying and selling Tucson Real Estate. But more than that we want to share with everyone what it is like to live in Tucson, Arizona.
I hope you have already discovered this isn’t a typical real estate website where it is all about the Realtor. You won’t find any self promotion like: “Top Producer in Tucson” or “Number 1 Realtor in Tucson”. Our personal philosophy and beliefs are this: it isn’t about us and how many homes we can sell, or how many plaques we have on a wall, or how many designation we can accumulate. It is about providing the most positive experience we can for what is often a very stressful time and process.
We are both involved in Tucson Real Estate for one reason; to do the best we can to help people sell or buy Tucson Real Estate. We measure success by the number of families and individual we help find or sell a home not by the number of houses we can sell each year. Honestly, there are easier ways we could make a living, especially in today real estate market.
We will share our knowledge and experience with those wanting to know about Tucson and Tucson Real Estate. If there is ever a topic you would like covered just let me know. I’m the photographer and writer. Barbara does a lot of research and spends most of her time working with our clients. I’ve built this site so it is interactive. Please feel free to comment or ask questions.
We are married, but have different last names (I know some of you really wanted to know about this, but are too polite to ask : ) Being married with different last names is becoming more common these days. Barbara had built her real estate business on her name and reputation before we ever met. I told her when we got married; “The world doesn’t need another Barbara Smith, and I’m quite capable of dealing with being called Dave Lasky from time to time. Everybody knows you as Barbara Lasky not Barbara Smith.”
I’ve been an ordained minister for more than 30 years and was active in ministry for most of those 30 years. Trust me, no one was more surprised at my becoming a Realtor than I. We view our work with families and individuals in real estate as a service. Barbara is one of the best negotiators I’ve ever met. I’m proud of the way we represent our clients. We have made some very good friends over the past few years and we look forward to making more in the coming ones.
Finally, Yes, our picture at the top is current. This is really what we look like right now.
Barbara could not locate her first business photo for this post.
You will have to live with only my early business photo.
When we find it, I’ll add it right here beside mine.
We like working together as a team. I have a background in computer programming, web development and database administration and photography in addition to ministry.
Barbara was a para legal for more than 22 years, working most of those years as a Real Estate Para Legal, before becoming a Realtor.
Together we make a great team, we are partners in life as well as Real Estate.
It is our privilege to provide this site Tucson AZ Real Estate for all who want to know more about Living in Tucson. Maybe we will have the opportunity of meeting in person someday.
August 7th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Nice introduction, Dave.:-) Yeah, I figured you and Barbara are an item since you write on her website ;-), but didn’t know she was your wife. Beautiful wife you’ve got!:-) The mix of church and real estate is quite surprising, though, I have to admit.;-)
Keep up the good work! A lot of people, me included, appreciate it. Are you not going to update the other blog anymore? Just wanna know which one to check…
August 7th, 2007 at 8:20 pm
Hey, you found us : ) I will update it with statistics for a while yet, but for the most part it is going into archieval status. I hadn’t intended that when I started this one.
I thought I would keep them both going strong, but find there isn’t that much going on in the news to and the statistics only come out once a month so I might have a post a week, but the day to day goings on are going to be here.
The mix of ministry and real estate is definately a strange one. I never figured I’d be lead to Real Estate. I guess the Lord needed me more as a Realtor to help people right now than he did in formal ministry.
Personally, I like it better, I get to meet real people this way. Before as soon as someone found out I was a minister they stopped being themselves and started being what they thought they had to be in front of a minister. : )
The MLS Statistics should be out this next week, maybe, . . . It was really discourageing to see them pull 3000 listings and then enter them back into the system. I hope they have a plan for this action not to skew the statistics. But I will be suprised if they did.
Barbara and run into so many people in situations that should have been avoided if they just had some guidance and professional advice. This is why I try and provide as much information in posts as I can to help people make good decisions when it comes to buying or selling their home.
Concerned, I’m glad you found us. I certainly left a trail of bread crumbs for anyone looking to follow.
Have a great evening. I hope to hear from you often.
Dave
I really love the focus and energy on this site.
August 7th, 2007 at 10:18 pm
He-he, I’ve found anything there is to find on real estate nation-wide, state-wide, and city-wide (that can account for my constantly stiff shoulders lately ;-)), so finding you was a duck soup, Dave.;-) I can even contribute with my findings.;-) And I don’t mean only fluff, panic, cheerleading, but well-buried economic, financial, and other reports and statistics. Still can’t arrive at a comfortable decision, though. Having a set price and rates out of your control coupled with everything else going on can be quite unsettling.
Yeah, TARMLS did quite a few strange moves in these crucial times… As I said, they’re hardly the only source for my research, though. You probably saw in today’s AZ Daily Star how we get those “highest ever” average prices…;-) Sure, I eat potatoes, you eat meat, and we eat meat with potatoes on average.;-)
It might be a good idea to have a forum on this site. Making comments on existing topics is fine, but not everybody wants to post something irrelevant (I’ve got no problem with that ;-), which makes me not particularly loved by moderators ;-)). On the other hand, they may want to share something or ask questions. A little local community with common interests could be beneficial. Not sure if there is any liability issue regarding the exchange of more specific information - like opinions about builders, agents, lenders, etc. But, hey, there are already plenty of sites like anybuildersucks.com, so they won’t hear anything new.;-)
It’s funny that people change their behavior around ministers.;-) I used to watch the show “7th heaven.” It portrayed the picture-perfect minister, if you haven’t seen it. He was this poster child for a husband… You almost wonder if such guys exist for real.;-)
Well, last month the MLS report was out kind of late. Let’s hope they’re quicker this time. I think I’ll give it a shot and purchase Strobeck’s report this month, too. It’s pricey, but it’ll be interesting to see if there is a substantial difference.
You have a nice evening, too!:-)
Concerned (I’ll keep it at that in the current situation…)