I’ve had the opportunity to meet some extraordinary people over the years as a jet charter pilot. Jay Leno is a good tipper and all business. Reese Witherspoon is even more beautiful in person than on film, as are her children. Kelly Clarkson is bubbly, happy and carefree. Patric Dempsey is courteous and inquisitive. Mary J. Blige is reserved and quiet. I’ll share more celebrities I’ve met in a moment.

My wife calls me a professional vacationer. Since I do call her from some of the nicest and most expensive places in the world, I guess I am.

George Lopez is courteous. Seal is humble. Charles Barkley is even bigger that I thought. Justin Timberlake, in his spare time, likes to play golf.

Even with all the celebrities I’ve flown though, the only time I’d ever been truly nervous was when I had to pick up Sir Paul McCartney and his girlfriend in Sedona, AZ. I’d already flown many multi-millionaires but never a billionaire or someone who had been knighted by a Queen. Most of my passengers had been known nationally, but Sir Paul was in a different league altogether.

Crazy thoughts crossed my mind before we taxied out for takeoff. Is an engine going to fail. Is a dear going to run across the runway at the worst possible moment? Is the airplane going to perform the way it’s supposed to? It had thousands of times before. Why should this be any different? Why the hell am I even thinking these thoughts?

I don’t know. I guess I just wanted to avoid the notoriety of being the guy who “bought it” with the biggest name in music history. I wanted the flight to be over before it had begun.

I envisioned the aftermath of such a catastrophic occurrence. Scores of foreign and domestic tourists coming to Sedona every year to pay homage to McCartney and his memory. A monument erected where he died. Hotel expansions, bus tours, gift shops, cheap mementos etc… No thanks!We made it to LA uneventfully.

Peter Coors, of Coors beer fame, is distinguished. Larry King likes baseball and shows his love to his children even through their tears.

I once asked Merv Griffin what his secret was to a long and happy life. He said “Never looking back, always looking forward.” I’ve tried to apply that in my own life.

I had the pleasure of flying Carol Shelby, of Ford Mustang and Cobra fame, in his own plane, for years. He is a living legend and still going strong in his mid eighties. Often wearing either a cowboy hat or a Ford baseball cap, a new heart and an organ donation from his son haven’t slowed him down too much. On more than one occasion, I thought a $4,000 investment in a portable defibrillator was worthy of consideration, given his age and all. Then, it occurred to me. His heart is probably younger than my own. Why bother!

Once, while flying Carol Shelby, his wife, and Wolfgang Puck to Pontiac, Michigan, Mr. Puck came up to the cockpit and offered us some of his homemade fare. The food was quite good. But, more importantly, Wolfgangs’ hospitality and humility were extraordinary. That was a memorable flight for another reason though. The weather in Pontiac was miserable with heavy snow, low clouds, night landing conditions, and questionable results that I could expect from a contaminated runway that was shorter than I Iiked.

It was a seminal moment in my flying career. Do I continue on or do I divert to Detroit and inconvenience my passengers with the change in plans? The greater inconvenience would be if we wound up arriving in Pontiac stepping out of a snow sled with wings instead of a real airplane.

I had made my decision. We diverted to Detroit.

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We’ve all heard the expression, “You get what you pay for.” Does that mean what it used to? Well, yes and no. When it comes to rental property advertising, the choices are varied and numerous.Free has generally equated to lesser or poorer quality. Same for their results.

If you look hard enough though, that’s not always the case anymore. Some of the best rental information out there now is free and on par with the websites that do charge. Free has turned out to be a powerful marketing weapon.

I had read a blog post recently that had really caught my eye. A property owner had complained about the dangers of listing a rental property with one of those free rental advertising sites. The title of the post was the eye catcher for me. It said, “Free rental ads. More harm than good?”

A title like that could give someone the mistaken impression that any of these free websites are just not worth the risk. It worked! I believed it myself, for a moment.

What was interesting though, was that none of the harm had been caused by the website itself, but by the information the property owner had submitted to it! Go figure.

Renters want properties. Property owners want results. Will you get the same results listing your apartments or properties with a free site as with a paid site. Maybe, if you’ve done your homework.

Many of the free sites are just not that old or as established yet. But, that’s changing. Although they have a ways to go in capturing more market share, inroads are being made. Probably the biggest obstacle they have to overcome though is building consumer trust.

What builds trust? For a rental listing site, there are several things: The total number of rental property listings they already have, the number of new listings they are getting daily, word of mouth and proven results.By the way, website quality doesn’t play as big a role as you might think in capturing customers. A certain “……..list” site has over 13 million views per month.

The sites that do charge continue to provide solid results for their users. For many, peace of mind is worth the extra cost.

These are just some of the items people take into account when deciding where to advertise their apartments and rental properties. If the traditional sites are going to maintain their competitive edge though, further improvements may be required.