My job in Baghdad was a civil affairs team chief with the mission to “improve the governance, economics, and essential services” for my district of Baghdad. As unqualified as I felt to accomplish this mission, I found myself and other captains in this position who, like me, were called to active service from the civilian world were relatively qualified compared to our professional soldier-peers.

I could write more about the daily tasks and challenges, but it would take me far off-topic. The bottom line is that our work was mostly carried out in the day when the local business people, city council members, and utility workers were available. This left significant time in the evenings which, if left idle, would result in too much thinking and commiserating. Napoleon wrote that “it is a soldier’s right to complain” but complaining only begets more complaining.

Different people occupied their mind with varying distractions: movies, video games, reading, exercising, or the internet. You should know that your soldiers in Iraq are receiving wonderful support. The food is great and most bases have internet access which is very significant. Even though the cost was high and the speed was very slow, I cannot describe how important that this connection to the civilized world was to me.

For me, I used this time to lose the 30 pounds that I had earned in 5 years of real estate, write to my family, think, and to keep a long-distance connection to real estate. I missed real estate and I also had persistent anxiety that I would be passed by if I did not stay current. I realized that for the first time since college, I had the opportunity to just sit and think about things that I enjoyed. Since college, I never sat under a tree and just allowed my mind to dart around and get lost in ideas. Reclaiming this was the one thing that I really enjoyed about being in Iraq. I had never read a blog before, but I found one called the Bloodhound Blog through a Google search while researching for a real estate startup (www.zolve.com) that came to me while in one of my thinking times. As is the nature with blogs, that one article linked me to other articles on other blogs and I found myself in a new world that I didn’t know existed. It was really engaging and fun.

The Bloodhound Blog led me to an article by Marc Davidson who was writing for Inman News. I loved his tough messages, always written from unique & interesting angles. I also enjoyed Future of Real Estate Marketing, Real Estate Tomato, The XBroker, Transparent Real Estate, the Rain City Guide, among others. These blogs were enjoyable because they all seemed authentic, smart, and thought provoking.

It was an interesting period to discover real estate blogs because all of the new things that were coming on the scene. Zillow & Trulia had recently launched and, if there is any question of where they are going today, they were even far more mysterious about a year ago. Then, it seemed like on almost a weekly basis that new emergents were coming on the scene. It became evident to me that real estate industry online had significant pent-up energy and Zillow’s launch uncorked the bottle.

The vibrant real estate blog community is special. For me, having my RSS feed list is akin to picking 20 of the smartest people in the world about the subject that I a most interested and having the opportunity to talk with them on my own terms on a daily basis. If you have ever had a brilliant friend who made you better just by being around him/her, then you know exactly what I am talking about.

My college roommate was a Marshal, Truman, and Rhodes Scholar as well as a marathon runner, leader and all-around great guy. When we talked about philosophy, I thought a little longer before I spoke. When we worked out, I pushed myself harder to keep up. You always play your best game when you are playing your best competitor, even if you lose, and that is how I feel the real estate blog community affects me — it ups the ante for professional competence and well-thought conversations for everyone who wants to participate.

The next part will be my perspective about today’s real estate technology landscape after being detached for so long.