Most of the time, the public sees us as what we do, hence the identity of a professional real estate firm providing Consulting, Education, Investment, and Brokerage services. The identifying hallmarks – our marketed mission statement, boiled down to 4 words.

There are core values to support that identity and our "mission statement" regarding the "best services available in the industry", to discuss as well.

I think you all know that I have written escrow instructions and battled all the way to the top of several title companies to get them trained to the new way of doing things. I don’t want you to misunderstand my heart on these matters.

You see, I believe the only way to change the world is one person, one minute, and one day at a time.

I love the beauty of the Pacific Northwest and the air when it is so thick you can taste it in the tropics. Trees are necessary and the provider of the other most precious thing to mankind – oxygen!

You may think I streamlined the closing process and insist on electronic copies uploaded to a transaction management system (Relay) just to provide you the fastest paycheck in the industry, but I had a much larger vision than that. That vision is one of the three core elements of the glue that keeps the company solid, no matter what.

That sharply focused vision included having the guiding principles solidly in place before dollar one was spent, as I launched this company.

That factor is to save thousands of trees a year - our corporate culture if you will, but not hiding behind the structure of a corporation. You see, I was born in Arkansas and raised in the home of my father a preacher for the church of Christ, where we learned to say yes, ma’am and stand up to the things you believe in, regardless of the consequences. Somewhere and somehow, I became a tree hugging, sandal wearing, Jesus loving old hippie of sorts, and well, the fight has been to follow my heart and insist on this way in business and to continue to inventory our use, principles, and core values as they apply to all we do over here.  At the home office, we only use for the company if we can reuse, recycle, and reduce waste via improvement and creation of new systems. All with a view to reducing the environmental footprint of our resource wasting old ways of hundreds of pages of paper wasted per contact, client, marketing, loan, title, escrow, and recording process. We have made a lot of  progress, and as soon as we convince the powers that be that electronic acceptance of signatures for recording purposes to be acceptable as secure digital signing becomes commonplace, we can provide completely paperless transactions. Please let that sink in. We also need to convince our Realtor associations to join us and immediately cease printing their monthly newspapers and newsletters and transmit their message only via email. We made the RMLS a completely paperless system beginning in the early 90’s. Remember when you had to learn to go online to access the listings because the book was no longer published? Well, it’s time to insist that our vendors, providers, and REALTOR associations to join the green revolution. That being said, I am ordering all printed advertising for the company that it pays for to display the Reuse/Recycle Emblem on each page. We have added it to our communications and web pages as well. All new business card orders are encouraged to choose from one of the many images available to support this cause.

My invitation to you is to join me in this and carry the message by adopting this policy and insisting that your REALTOR organizations, title companies, lenders, and all our print media providers including, newspapers and magazines join us in this effort. Here is the guiding principle in a nut shell, so to speak.

1) Priorities are God, family and community .

2) Service and self sacrifice to others, including Sponsorship of worthy causes in the community and course of our daily business practices from company profits, and

3) Take Bold Steps with a soft foot - walk gently on the land!

You will find a selection of images to use in part of this effort, courtesy of photobucket.com, by searching for reuse and recycle images.

Give it some thought and join the revolution! 

This just in... Brian Talent, my business partner, tells me we need to stress becoming carbon free, by buying carbon emission offsets and acting responsibly to reduce our use to further be environmentally conscious and true to our principles. Check back here for updated info as it becomes available. A good place to start is www.carbonfund.org. My commitment is to be carbon free certified in 2008.- tlb 10/20/2007.

Have a green day!

Timothy L. Bruce, Founder

Principal Broker - OR

Designated Broker - WA