Captain’s Blog 9-18-09: A new version of HawaiiLife.com

We just launched Version 5.2 of HawaiiLife.com last week. The new site is a huge improvement.  It’s interactive, smart, and stable (well…it will be stable soon).  Our Customers, Clients and Realtors can create Property Galleries, share information, and stay current on what’s happening in the local market and around the State.

Realtors are often a self-congratulatory bunch. We give ourselves awards, invite ourselves into the “Million Dollar Club”, or the ‘Top-Producer’s Circle”, etc. Sometimes, the flare for all of these type of outside-in “awards” can mask the real power of acknowledging hard work, commitment, and dedication.

In a previous professional life I was a restaurant manager. I always loved the contrast between the ‘Front of the House’ and ‘Back of the House’… Black Sabbath and loud chefs in the kitchen to Vivaldi and attentive waiters in the dining room. Hawaii Life has its ‘Front and Back of the House’, too. They correlate to our Core Values: Smart Marketing and Solid Representation. We do a good job at acknowledging the waiters (and they receive tips).  Now, the chefs deserve to be celebrated:

Yacine Merzouk, aka “Dungeon Master” (seriously) and/or “Yax”, Hawaii Life’s Lead Programmer: Yacine has been masterminding Version 5.2 for a LONG time. While Hawaii Life went from a Buyer’s Brokerage/Referral Model… to adding Advertising… to finally becoming the “traditional” real estate brokerage that it is, Yacine has been working diligently in the background to make sure that the most powerful real estate search engine in the State of Hawaii maintains its functionality, usability, and downright awesomeness.  The User-Created Galleries, Customer and Client Interface, and Hawaii Life’s amazing ‘back-end’ are all held up and glued together by Yacine.  Countless hours of testing, de-bugging, and listening to whiny Realtors (myself included) have gone into HawaiiLife.com, and Yacine has more than risen to the occasion.  We are hugely grateful for his commitment, and his mad skillz (yes, with a z).  Mahalo nui Yacine.

Justin Britt, Head Web Head

If HawaiiLife.com has a kitchen, then Justin is the Executive Chef. The innumerable ingredients that Justin has utilized have won HawaiiLife.com awards and accolades from thought-leaders in both real estate and web-design. His borderline obsession with our search engine dominance had yielded incredible, tangible results… especially for our clients who have hired Hawaii Life to market and sell their property. Justin’s masterful execution of search engine marketing and his intense focus on the function of the site have brought millions of page views, and a community of users.

Winston Welborn, Creative Director

Smart Marketing is a big production. Winston’s job is the the entire gamut of real estate marketing… from the design and production of the website(s), to print, photography, graphics, copy writing, tools for agents, all the way to our custom organic cotton tee shirts… because of Winston, all of it represents. Winston helps us keep our core values in everything we do, and helps us to earn the trust of hundreds of our customers and clients.

The amount of time, energy, and tenacity that our ‘behind-the-scenes’ crew has put in is incredible. Their vision for what’s possible in the world of real estate keeps us light years ahead of the curve HawaiiLife.com is an incredibly dynamic site, so it’s always a work in progress.  But this launch in particular is such a big deal, inviting collaboration from visitors, clients and agents.

Congratulations on this milestone.