Real Estate Should Be FUN!

Raise your hand if I’ve ever been driving you around to look at houses and you’ve heard me say, “So, uh, heh, heh, I really thought it would be great if we took a quick tour of the neighborhood before we see the house.”  If you were all in a room together, you’d see that you are among a large group of people who have had no choice but to interpret that “joke” as, “Where in the world are we?  I can’t believe she is lost again.”

So I don’t have a super-great sense of direction.  But its not my fault!  I have very poor vision and it went uncorrected until 5th grade.  By that point it was too late for me to develop the habit of actually looking around to identify landmarks and notice where I was, so I had to find other ways to cope.  For instance, whenever I walk out of a store in the mall and turn the wrong direction I have perfected the nonchalant quick detour into another store and out that door going the right direction without any other shoppers noticing me fumble around.  Of course, this can be dangerous because I get turned around easily and could end up going the wrong direction again when I exit the second store which compounds the problem. 

Malls are bad, but streets are worse.  I dream of the day when hovercraft technology arrives and you really can get from point A to point B “as the crow flies.”  In the meantime, thank goodness for GPS, and thanks to all of you buyers who have spoken up and led me to your perfect home!  And didn’t we have fun getting there?

What’s a girl to do when she has clients and work and a snazzy office and an AGENDA of tasks all screaming to be done, for goodness sakes, AND an adorable 11 year old son who is off track?  For those of you lucky people out there who don’t know about year-round school, it means that your kids will be at home, bugging you and begging to be entertained for the ENTIRE month of December because they are not in school.

If I had almost any other job I’d have to take time off work or leave my son at home to fend for himself while I’m off slaying dragons for clients. But since I’m a Realtor,  I’ve been able to spend all afternoon at Planet Play while Jake and his friend Josh eat their combined weight in pizza and cookies, and then run off to play endless games of Lazer Tag and mini-golf and bumper cars, while I sit in the cafe area working my smart phone and laptop (Santa, please get me an iPad for Christmas.  Please?). Is the overly loud Christmas music annoying?  Yes.  But there is Coke Zero on tap nearby, and I am diligently making it through my To Do list.  So, all in all, I’d say it’s a great day to be in real estate.

If you are having a hard time  trying to fit your real estate goals into your crazy holiday schedule, give me a call!  We’ll work it out over pizza and Coke Zero.

Several years ago I was taking some very nice clients around on a home tour, showing them different houses around Salt Lake City.  One particular property was advertised as “Vacant” and seemed great on paper– it had the right amount of square footage, beds/baths, within the price range– all that good stuff, but no photos (never a good sign).  When we arrived, the first thing we noticed was, well, all the junk.  The front yard was the receptacle of all kinds of kid toys, a few picnic tables, some scattered clothes and garbage bags.  The owners of this house had definitely never watched a tutorial about curb appeal, but I advised my clients to look past the mess and try to envision the house and yard cleaned up and looking nice.  There was no keybox on the front of the house (Fellow Realtors:  Why you gotta make it so hard?  If you want to sell your listing, put your keybox on or near the front door and make it easy for us to walk in!), so we picked our way around to the back yard. 

If the front was ‘a little messy’ the back was a TOTAL AND COMPLETE DISASTER ZONE.  Through the advent of reality television, I have come to understand this phenomenon as HOARDING.  Unless you’ve seen shows like “Buried Alive“, it will be hard to envision, but imagine junk and garbage (old tricycles, wading pools, clothes hampers, dish racks, ratty towels, eyeless dolls, #10 cans, fingernail clippings, holey socks, wigs, prom dresses, car parts, etc) piled up about 3 feet high and formed into tunnels like a maze. 

Wide-eyed, I realized that I had no realtor-speak (you know: “charming” instead of  tiny bedrooms, “step-saver” instead of suffocatingly small kitchen, “fixer-upper” instead of money pit) at my disposal to re-frame the circumstances, so I simply opened the back door and we walked in.  The interior was much like the back yard. All the hallways and walls were lined with piles of stuff and you had to tighten your core to improve your balance enough to navigate over, around and through without accidentally touching anything.  Eventually we located the kitchen (nice big windows, lots of light) and commenced to debrief the situation. The buyers and I were looking around and pointing out positives and negatives, when the husband sort of jumped back in a startled fashion. I looked down and realized that he was staring at a taxidermied turtle (tortoise?  I can never remember…oh, here is the answer) that was about 2 feet in diameter and about 18 inches tall.  As I was examining it, I also jumped back in surprise!  It moved!  This poor creature was abandoned and living alone in this hoarder’s haven.  We gave it some water and called the listing agent to make sure he was aware of the situation (he wasn’t– believe me, it was not easy to spot a live tortoise in that house).  

The tortoise lived to see another day, and my clients and I eventually found the perfect house for them (no pets included).  I can help you find the perfect house, too!  And the journey to find it will be fun and full of hidden surprises.

RE/Max Overland

I loved opening, owning and running my own real estate brokerage, GateHouse Real Estate Company, from my home office.  I loved working in my pajamas, only wearing heels when I met with clients, hanging out with my dog, Simon, all day– the whole thing.  And then, I got lonely.  I missed the high drama of working in a full service real estate office– you know, chatting with colleagues, sitting at an actual desk, having a receptionist, brown bagging my lunch, all that good stuff.

So I have traded in my PRINCIPAL BROKER title for Associate Broker at RE/MAX Overland.  What are the perks?  Well, I have  so many more resources at hand, including support on buying and selling vacant land and real estate investing.  I have contact management software, a snazzy new listing presentation and cool new business cards.  Am I happier and more motivated?  YES!  I love being here and doing my real estate thing in the big time.

Do I have to wear heels and do my hair everyday?  Sigh. Yes.  Plus, I may have to take out a loan to pay for all of  the guilt-based treats I bring home to Simon every day.

Simon-- he's so cute!