Reality Stories

The Real Estate profession is a mystery to those who are not in it. In casual conversations they wink and say things like, “well, you certainly got into the right profession”…as dollar signs emanate from each wink. They also want my professional assurance that they bought the right house at the right time. And they love to hear stories from the trenches.  I am like their own personal local reality program. I like talking about Real Estate, I have lots of stories and enjoy telling them – at least the ones with the happy endings!

 

But Real Estate is hard sometimes too.  The stories I don’t tell have to do with the daily doses of crumbling deals, offers that come in low, scary home inspections, sellers who die a thousand deaths each day their properties don’t sell, and the mere suggestion that they lower the price spurs the inevitable suggestion from the seller that I adjust my commission.

 

But the cruelest of all is when a homeowner with whom I have a longstanding cordial relationship, chooses to work with another agent out of expedience or financial gain. If I’ve developed a relationship with someone, if they’ve been to my home and I to theirs and, through the years, they’ve thanked me profusely for putting them where they are, then to discover they’ve listed with the competition – it stings!  It doesn’t even lessen the blow much when they eventually confront the issue and tell me that in no way is this decision to be interpreted as a criticism of my very real talents – No, of course not.

 

But I’ve learned that I have to suck it up and move on because there are other clients waiting who don’t need to know that this is a bad day for me. Over and out with that relationship. In with the new. That’s what keeps me going in this business. That, and the loyalty and affection of most clients, through thick and thin.  That’s what makes the happy endings.