A few months ago the lemon tree next to the pool had many beautiful yellow, ripe lemons on its? branches. This tree also serves as shade for our " Pound rescue " lab mix, Pepper. Because of her lounging under the dense branches I decided not to use any chemical sprays, fertilizers or pesticides. The fruit also seems to enjoy the gorgeous weather here on Fort Myers Beach. The lemons you buy at the store are picked green and hard and shipped from who knows where. It arrives in the store after being dyed bright yellow. Such is our expectation of what a lemon should look like. Small, hard and containing a small amount of juice for cooking or baking. The flavor is lemony enough with a slightly bitter aftetaste. They are all roughly the same uniform size. I mention this because it is what we have come to expect them to be.My lemon tree has beautiful dark green leaves in stark contrast to the ripening fruit. The ripe lemons have a sunny yellow skin, nothing like the yellow dye on the store bought variety. Being allowed to ripen on the tree also means they will be the size of a large apple and so much juicier. The scent is terrific. Such are the benefits of having your own tree. But the best surprise is the taste ! Tree ripening allows the wonderful lemon flavor to mature and develope as nature had intended. The flavor is much deeper with no bitterness and just enough tartness to wake up the taste buds. I pick them and give them to agents in the office and to my real estate customers. Everyone raves about the huge size and of course the amazing flavor.Approximately one month ago I noticed that " all the low hanging fruit was gone". Now I had to reach into the branches to get the prized fruit or to use a long handled fruit picker to get what I wanted. All the easy pickings had been plucked and now I would have to work harder to get my reward.Note to self: Nature has many lessons for us all. As a Realtor here on Fort Myers Beach I have enjoyed over the last several years a very strong market: lots of low hanging fruit was available. Many qualified buyers, cheap money and terrific appreciation. Today we are in a totally different market. Lots of great inventory, relatively cheap money - but far fewer buyers. In short: Realtors must now work much harder and smarter to find those elusive deals. Some will go back to the basics which have served them well over the years. Some will turn to new technologies to extend our reach for finding buyers. Some have found the market will not support them and leave the business. We all get emails promising to make us rich during this difficult market. Should we get back to traditional " open houses ", spend more on advertising our listings, spend more time and money developing our web sites or hone our skills writing blogs for our potential clients ?We are in a very challenging transition period for our industry. We will see many changes in business models, availability of information and the public face we as agents present to the public. Everybody seems to have an opinion on where we are going but for now all I know is that all the low hanging...