For twenty years, I leased a new BMW every three years. I was a German engineering person — precise, controlled, predictable. Then in 2017, I switched to a Tesla Model S and everything I thought I knew about control changed forever.
There is no engine. No heartbeat hum. Just software, trust, and the open road.
In Los Angeles, a three-mile drive from Santa Monica to Beverly Hills can take up to an hour. I used to white-knuckle it. Now I engage autopilot and arrive calm, hands free, thinking clearly. Not because I surrendered — because I did my research, understood how it worked, and chose to trust it completely.
Eight years later, I still feel that same quiet gratitude every single time I sit in that car.
Real estate is exactly the same.
The old way is exhausting
I have been a licensed broker since 1994. I know the old playbook by heart: cold calls, postcard campaigns, email blasts, lead conversion funnels. My realtors even willing to price the home high just to “get” the listing, and then kept reducing until it sells. It is a numbers game!
That is horse-and-buggy thinking in a Tesla world.
The more you try to control a real estate transaction — second-guessing every offer, needing to approve every comma, calling at midnight — the more stress you manufacture. For yourself. For everyone around you. And ultimately, for the outcome you care most about.
We are not in the stone age. We are not in the horse-riding age. We are in an age where you give a clear command, trust the system, and things happen for the highest good. Maybe that sounds spiritual. It is. It is also just thirty years of experience reading the market.
"Is the weather in Santa Monica always this nice?”
Ten years ago, an expat family was relocating back to Los Angeles from Hong Kong. Two young children, a limited window — always arriving during Easter, summer, Christmas — always landing in leftover inventory. Every trip to LA felt like forcing themselves to buy something they did not love.
Their sister, who had been my client since 1999, referred them to me. I made them a proposal: trust me. I will find you the perfect house. You do not even need to see it first.
We submitted an offer at $3.5 million in a field of more than ten competing buyers. We won.
The first time the husband stood in front of his new home — a house he had never seen before he owned it — he turned to me and said:
"Is the weather in Santa Monica always this nice? This is unbelievable."
Sixty days of escrow. Relatively stress-free. A family that still lives in that house today. That is what happens when you let someone who knows the road engage the autopilot.
"How will I know it is time?"
Three years ago, I listed a beautiful new build in Hermosa Beach at $7.2 million. The sellers had handed me the keys, two U-Haul trucks pulling away toward a new life in Oklahoma. They trusted me completely. The market, however, had other plans — summer was approaching, showings were sparse, interest was quiet.
The husband called me in early July. Should we slash the price? Do a concierge auction?
No, I said. We will wait for September. Lower it then and it will sell in multiple offers.
"How will I know it is time?" he asked.
It is an inner knowing, I told him. A deep knowing. Experience and market reading woven together over thirty years.
After Labor Day, I reduced to $6.9 million. Two weeks later: three offers. We sold in multiple offers, close to $7 million.
I love what I do for families like this.
The artist’s eye
I am also an artist. Watercolor, Chinese ink — fluid, abstract, large.
When I travel to Edinburgh, to Norway, to the Scottish Highlands, I notice something: beloved citizens have sketched their cities in soft pencil and watercolor, leaving behind a love letter in paper and paint.
I want to do that for Santa Monica. A sketchbook of gratitude — soft color, happy light, the city that has given me so much. Santa Monica is full of sun that lights me up every single day.
One of my Malibu clients, after I found them their home, commissioned nine large paintings from me. They hang throughout the house today.
I think of that often. The home I helped find, and the art that fills it — both came from the same place: deep care, an artist's eye, and thirty years of knowing what beauty looks like.
Final thoughts
If this resonates — if you have ever let Tesla drive so you could just breathe — you already understand my philosophy.
If you are moving to or from Santa Monica and you want someone who will find you the right home, protect your retirement, and maybe paint something beautiful along the way — let’s talk.
