Jonathan Miller, president & chief executive officer, Miller Samuel: Jonathan Miller: the man who knows.

His name has become synonymous with the real estate industry. If the media needs trend analysis, they turn to Jonathan Miller. If a judge requests an expert witness, Miller and his team are there to address the jury. If a real estate agent wants to keep tabs on the industry, they turn to Miller's blog and market reports. So it is surprising that someone so well-versed in the industry does not have a straight answer when asked how he came into his career in the first place.

"I have no idea. I've been asked that question a lot and it's not a straight path," he said.

The 46-year-old president and chief executive officer of Miller Samuel, a real estate appraisal and consulting firm, was raised in Rehoboth Beach, De. until his teens when his family moved to the Washington, D.C. area. He attended Michigan State University, where he met his wife Cheryl, originally planning to build a career in the hotel industry. But after deciding that hotels were not his ideal fit, Miller began working as a sales agent in Chicago.

"I did pretty well in a short amount of time and decided to try my luck in New York," Miller said. While working in Manhattan, Miller said he noticed that many appraisers seemed to be without direction and, as a result, he co-found Miller Samuel in 1986 with his sister, Dina Miller, acting as executive vice president and his wife, who is the vice president. The firm performs valuation assignments in various areas of the industry, and for the last 14 years Miller Samuel has been doing independent research for Prudential Douglas Elliman, releasing reports every quarter and also producing a 10-year market report.

"We provide analysis from a neutral perspective," he said. "We really try to be a consistent and trusted resource. Our studies are widely read and covered because we're trusted."

Miller also writes several neighborhoodspecific market reports with the goal of covering such once-overlooked topics as Manhattan townhouses and the Long Island/ Queens and Hamptons areas.

He has become such a trusted source in the industry that Miller has often been called into court to stand as an expert witness on the local, federal and state levels, and also act as a neutral appraiser in matrimonial trials.

"It's one of my favorite things to do. It's a lot like chess, there's a lot of strategy behind how you deliver information," he said, adding that everything he and his team produces involves the same strict scrutiny. And as if creating market reports and acting as an expert witness aren't enough, Miller is also dedicated to dispensing market information via the Internet.

"My natural inclination is to be curious and push content into the public domain," he said.

Ten years ago, Miller conceived and launched Millersamuel.com as a one-stop-shop for residential market-related content ranging from recent articles to reports and research. The Web site also provides links to his blogs, Matrix. Millersamuel.com and Soapbox.Millersamuel.com, which he created two years ago as a personal outlet.

"I started it because I was very upset because of the pressure appraisal was under from the lending community," he said. "But I didn't want to talk about just appraisal issues. Matrix looks at the economics of the industry and puts it in real terms."

Miller said the process of developing and maintaining his online presence has helped keep him on his toes about issues and news surrounding both the appraisal and financial aspects of the industry. "It's almost like doing your homework on different topics," he said. "With these last two years, I've been more prepared than ever in my career."

The newest venture that has caught Miller's excitement is his affiliation with Radar Logic, a technology-driven data analytics company that produces daily spot prices for residential real estate for 25 different Metropolitan Statistical Areas (MSAs) in the United States. Miller's firm will provide research support, and Miller will serve as chairman of Radar Logic Research and director of Research for Radar Logic, Inc. As his firm grows, Miller said he is looking to further develop what he has already established rather than stray toward a new path. "It's really fun to look at the analytical aspect," he said. "There's a never-ending need for ideas."

In addition to being busy in his professional life, Miller also has his hands full at home. Between cheering on his sons, aged 8, 14, 16 and 18, at their sports events and making time to bike ride, Miller is gearing up to undertake a new hobby--lobster fishing.

"I tend to focus on things that I'm passionate about," he said. "It's not hard to do a lot of things if they're fun."