Cleveland a smash at the Salzburg Festival!

The past 17 days here have been really special! Not only is this a beautiful city surrounding by picturesque mountains, the Cleveland Orchestra's performance here have been truly great. The critics have been united in their highest praise for the orchestra and it's Music Director, Franz-Welser Most. Simply put, we are the "hit" of the festival. The opera, Dvorak's "Rusalka", was exquisite with unbelievable singing. Last night a post-concert dinner reception was held in St. Peter's Keller, which is a restaurant founded in the 800's. It was quite lavish and the food delicious. You can imagine the sense of history here since Mozart and Herbert von Karajan were born here and you can tour their childhood homes. Johann Doppler of the famous Doppler Effect was also born here.

A few days ago I went on a very physical 5-hour hike on top of Untersberg Mountain, outside of town here. The next day my legs were SO SORE, but it was worth the views from 6000 feet up! Tomorrow we move on to Linz for a few days and then on to Lucerne. Make a special effort to visit Salzburg-- it's a really neat place.

More later....

Back in Salzburg with the Cleveland Orchestra for a Real Estate Time-Out

I am back in Salzburg with the Cleveland Orchestra for two weeks, then a week at the Lucerne Festival, and then concerts in Turin and Milan, Italy. It's great to be back in this beautiful city of music and today we had a six-hour rehearsal on Dvorak's opera "Rusalka". The singers are are world-class and acoustics of the renovated and redesigned Mozart Haus are fabulous. This is normally the summer home of the Vienna Philharmonic and rumor has it that they (or at least their fans) ARE NOT happy that we have such a long stay here, but I suppose the controversy about it will generate publicity, which is ALWAYS a good thing. It's been a long time since we played in Salzburg and this residency is A BIG DEAL for the Cleveland Orchestra. Of course this is good for the Cleveland real estate community because it proves what a good quality of life can be had in our area.
Although I have email over here, my real estate activities are mostly on hold for three and a half weeks, but a fellow agent is covering for me. These next few weeks are likely to be very slow anyway. It gives me a good chance to recharge my real estate "batteries"!
While on tour I've been reading the many responses to an AR blog about the value of broker's opens. It was good to read so many opinions and I've learned a lot. More opinions from the Cleveland area would be appreciated. I think they are great to get to know the inventory, but I'm not sure about the value to sellers, other than making them feel good. (They would feel REALLY good if I sold their homes for them!)
More posts from Europe to come......
Scott Haigh, Realty One, Shaker Office

Teaming up with business partner

As the weather has improved and the real estate market has begun to inch forward things have gotten pretty interesting for me in the last month. The most important thing is that I teamed up with fellow agent Tom Gron to handle listings together. It will be interesting to see how our strengths and weaknesses complement each other. It's sure nice having two people working on projects instead of one and it seems there is a synergy there. We wrote two new listings in the last few weeks so things are picking up. I had the chance to write "on the spot" offers on two bank-owned properties and that was a learning experience! Actually in retrospect they seem fairly easy since they are "as is" and there are almost no contingencies.

Things with the Cleveland Orchestra are still quite busy as we wind down the season with a performance of Dvorak's opera "Rusalka". We're taking it to the Salzburg Festival in August for 10 days, then on to the Lucerne Festival for a few days and then on to Milan and Turin. I look forward to this long tour but I don't look forward to being away from my family for so long.

My teaching at Oberlin College is done for the year so I'm finally getting a chance to unwind and get caught up on things.

Today is barbecue day and honor our soldiers and vets day. I hope you have a good holiday!

Check our sites: http://www.tomgron.com/ http://www.scotthaigh.com/ www.realtyone.com/scott.haigh
www.realtyone.com/tom.gron