August 5th, 2026
The Most Valuable Thing I've Never Used
Have you ever owned something valuable for years, something you genuinely loved, and never quite figured out what to do with it? A vintage guitar in the closet. Your grandfather's watch in a drawer. A lakefront lot you keep meaning to build on.
Mine doesn't sit in a drawer. It doesn't sit anywhere. You can't hold it or hang it on a wall, yet people keep trying to buy it from me.
More than fifteen years ago, I bought the website address ParadiseValley.com. The name itself. Our town's name, on the internet.
I always intended to do something wonderful with it. Then my real estate business grew, and grew some more, and the years slipped by the way they do. The most valuable thing I've never used just sat there, patiently waiting for me.
Others noticed. Every so often, someone tracks me down with an offer. You'd guess the biggest checks would come from real estate companies. They didn't. You'd guess next a major corporation wanting to put its luxury brand in front of a town like ours. Several tried. Good offers, too. But not the biggest.
The biggest offer, well over $1 million, came from a company in an industry I won't name. It had nothing to do with real estate, luxury goods, or Arizona. I stared at that offer, genuinely puzzled. Why on earth would they want it? Then they explained, and I learned that “paradise” means one thing to our town council and something else entirely in certain corners of the internet. I felt about a hundred years old. I'll leave it there, except to say that our town's good name can't be bought for a million dollars, and it's staying in local hands.
While I’ve turned down every offer, I’d partner with the right person tomorrow if they had a great idea and the time to execute it.
I don't want money for ParadiseValley.com. What I want is for it to do what it was born to do: sell this town to the nation the way no community website ever has.
Picture it. Someone in Chicago or Seattle searches for luxury homes in Arizona, and the first thing they find is ParadiseValley.com, showing them the most beautiful community in America and making the case, space to breathe, mountain view by mountain view, that there is simply no better place to live.
It could even feature Paradise Valley homes whose owners might consider selling, whether publicly listed or not, and listed with anyone at all. This isn't about my business. Not one dollar needs to flow my way. It's about doing something special for the town I love and intend to live in for the rest of my life, which I'm planning on being a long one.
What I lack is time. So I'm looking for an idea. Maybe a partner. Someone with a great idea and the ability to execute it. The only requirements: the site must make Paradise Valley shine nationwide, it must be genuinely engaging, and it must serve this community first. Done right, it would lift the value of every home in town simply by telling the world what we already know.
So here is my invitation. If you have an idea for ParadiseValley.com, along with the time and skill to execute it, email me at [email protected]. And since this column now travels well beyond our town limits, to about 100,000 readers across the country, let me be clear: you don't need a Paradise Valley address to raise your hand. Great ideas don't check zip codes.
Fair warning: I receive over 200 emails a day, so give me a few days. But I answer every email I get, and if you send me an idea, I guarantee you'll hear back from me.
Fifteen years is long enough for something valuable to sit in a drawer. With the right idea and somebody to help, it’s time to lift it out.
