Real Estate Nostalgia

Real Estate Nostalgia (The Bus)

By Thomas O. Berge, Sr.

Would you be interested in riding a caravan bus today?

To find out about new listings, a REALTOR® had to come to the weekly MLS meeting to pick up your listing sheets for your loose leaf notebook (later a bound book) together with a "hot sheet" showing listings taken in the past week. Then after the meeting if you wanted to see listings "on caravan", a large chartered bus was waiting at the door of our old auditorium on South Palm Avenue to take 25 to 35 agents on tour. All brand new agents were "required” to ride the bus once in order to qualify for MLS membership. The bus had a large banner on the side which indicated that it was the Alhambra District Board of REALTORS® (our old name) home tour.

After stopping at each listing, (there were a dozen or less), the riders were asked by the listor to estimate the ultimate sale price of each home. They were totaled by the Board office, averaged, and the listing agent received a letter from the Board which he could use in marketing or to get a price reduction. In later years, lawyers told the Board that this "averaging" was not legal. The caravan bus would alternate going one week to Alhambra and Monterey Park and then the next week to San Gabriel and Temple City. Rosemead could be put on either week. Occasionally, if there was room, the bus would go to a home in Arcadia or San Marino but San Marino would give us a bad time (permits) and so we discontinued that.

Agents would vie to get their listings "on caravan" as it was a great marketing tool and impressed the sellers, as well as the neighbors. Sitting on the bus was a great opportunity to network with other agents and to learn from the old timers. Unfortunately, the bus was discontinued in the eighties for economic reasons. Several later attempts to revive it failed. Anyone interested today?

Thomas O. Berge, Sr.

35 year member of the WSGVAR Board of Directors, Past President, C.A.R. Director for Life, 1997 C.A.R. Distinguished REALTOR® Award winner

Thomas O. Berge, REALTOR® and Chairman of the Ethics and Professional Standards Committee of WSGVAR, C.A.R. Director for Life, 1997 C.A.R. Distinguished REALTOR® Award Winner and 1975 WSGVAR President