Two Men Laughing

Sunday Musings + 2026

Sundays are days when I’m most likely to have time for some deep thinking and musing about the future. Given it’s the start of a New Year, I thought I’d drop you all a note to hopefully inspire.

The Real Estate Collaborative will be 3 years old in April of this year. I was reminded this morning that even though we officially incorporated in 2023, REC had been many years in the making.

It started in earnest back in 2018 when I pitched the idea of advocating for more housing to my-then BIG BOX Brokerage in St. Paul, Minnesota. And, by advocating, I meant that my idea was that this Corporate Broker would put money, time, and other resources behind vocally and publicly pushing for more housing - both affordable and market-rate. Given there had been a housing crisis brewing for decades, I thought it was a no-brainer. I was essentially laughed out of his office. I cried my way home. In the morning I awoke, more determined than ever.

This morning, I found an old journal that partly documents the journey of REC.

Below are a couple bits from this old journal ::

1) A drawing from 2019 - my first attempt at a logo - back when REC was just a dream.

2) The journal I found this morning was from the way back, started in 1993 when I was in Architecture school. Fast-forward to entries from 2019 (this journal has obviously had long periods of languishing deep in a dark box). Here is something I wrote in 2019 when I was *pitching* to yet another BIG BOX Brokerage in St. Paul, Minnesota the idea of the RE Industry advocating for more housing.

Only one local Real Estate company will be able to say that they were the FIRST to take an active role in advocating for more (affordable) housing. I would like to be a part of « INSERT another BIG BOX Brokerage name HERE » being the first. Thank you for your time and consideration.

The above was part of an extensive and time-consuming pitch (many meetings, emails back and forth, etc) to the Owner of different BIG BOX Brokerate. Looking back I think they were mostly interested in me moving my license from my then Brokerage to them and were merely entertaining me, rather than being interested in doing anything around advocating for more housing. To state the obvious, the pitch went nowhere. They mostly looked at me as if I had two heads (like the President and CEO before them, that I had pitched the year before).

I was devastated and utterly disappointed at the lack of interest, but obviously not deterred.

Had these two men not laughed me out of their offices, The Real Estate Collaborative (REC) would likely not have been created. So to them, on this Sunday morning in 2026, I say thank you.

Reach out to us at hello@therecollab.com or call +1 651-412-3765. We are here to make your home purchase or sale a transparent and successful experience.

REC. Real Estate. Radically Reimagined.