The Girl, the Homes, the Stories

You know that episode of Friends where Monica and Chandler go on their Honeymoon but there’s another honeymooning couple who beats them at every turn and gets the upgraded flights and then the upgraded suite? At the hotel that couple says “we don’t need all the stuff, we are just happy to be together”. Monica and Chandler look at each other and say to the hotel clerk, “We need the stuff!”

I need the stuff. When I was little I reveled in gold shiny ⭐️ stickers at school, scratch n sniff stickers on my tests, and I was always hopeful for the elusive and rare puffy stickers. As I got older it was different things I craved… atta girls from teachers, words of praise from bosses, words of encouragement from professors… In other words I’m a sucker for external reinforcement. The goal is to always be happy with intrinsic motivation. Not me. I fail there. I want the stuff. The awards, the numbers, the rankings, the reviews, the STUFF. I don’t know why. Call it a personality “quirk”.

Anyhoo….. this week I got the biggest gold shiny ⭐️ ever. It’s maybe silly for me to be SO excited about it, but it means that I did something worthy of noticing, and I’m pretty proud of that.

I was featured in an industry magazine called Real Producers. The article talks about why I became a Realtor. It all started with a children’s book….

If you are a Realtor you hear the same question all the time from strangers once they find out you’re in real estate: “How’s the market?”

The truth is that if you are a great Realtor the market is great. If you are a crap agent the market will feel like a crap market.

People will always be buying and selling homes. People die, they get divorced, they have kids and outgrow, they lose jobs, they get promotions, they get transferred, they downsize, upsize and right size. The great agents are out there seizing opportunities. The crap agents are waiting for things to fall into their lap. Newsflash. They won’t just fall into your lap. I don’t care how much money you spend on Zillow.

So if you ask me “how’s the market?” I’m going to answer you truthfully. It’s great. It’s really popping and there’s a TON of buyers out there and not a lot of inventory. If I were a seller I’d be all over it and get myself listed ASAP. Even things that have been sitting are going into multiple offers. For goodness’ sake if you are a seller GET IN THE GAME RIGHT NOW. You won’t regret it.

If you are a buyer, understand there are great houses to be had, and still deals to be made but you need to get your game face on and hire a GREAT agent who can get you in to see houses BEFORE they are listed. That’s the ticket in a market like this. I just sent a client a new listing that’s not on the market yet. Maybe she’ll buy it before you even know it existed. True story.

In a land far, far away you used to have to try not to make calls on evenings and weekends because it cost more. The commercials all tried to get you to purchase plans that gave you more evening and weekend minutes. Fast forward to 2019 and we live in an “unlimited” world. There’s no such thing as separating out evenings and weekends.

Unless, of course, you are a Realtor. Our world is like the long distance carriers of old except in reverse. Evenings and weekends are our jam. You’ll find me on a Tuesday morning in my jammies still drinking coffee from my couch at 11 AM, but evenings and weekends? I’m gone.

I wouldn’t trade for a 9-5 M-F. I’d die of boredom and repetition. I love that I’m never doing the same thing twice. Hopefully hubby saves me some dinner though.

I think the one sentence I’ve heard more than any other is “I don’t know how you do it”. It always cracks me up, because it’s not like there’s an alternative. I can’t just “not do it”. Having 4 kids is definitely not for everyone. Mine are spaced so far apart that it’s really not been *that* hard. Show me a mom with 4 under like 7 years old and I’ll bow down to her and kiss her ring, because that shit is HARD. My kids are now 21, almost 15, 12 and 7. At one point in my life I had a kid in preschool, elementary, middle and high. That was difficult logistically. Can’t say it was ever boring.

Someone told me to write a blog post about the “hostage situation “ that was my house this past week due to the Polar Vortex and schools being closed. It wasn’t so bad. Had some serious cabin fever. I am looking forward to Monday. For real. I want these people OUT OF MY HOUSE for a little bit. Everyone needs a break from each other.

It’s Saturday night and almost wine time and Celebrity Big Brother y’all. So goodnight and I hope you fellow parents out there enjoy the coming week with the small humans in your house back at school.

A lot of people try their hand at real estate and then are faced with a rude awakening. A good agent makes it look easy, but it’s anything but. Once you’re good at it the benefits of what you reap emotionally and financially far outweigh the negative aspects. Make no mistake though, you can’t just leapfrog over the hard part and skip to the good part. To have long term success you have to put in your time. Real success comes when the past client referrals roll in, not the flash bang success a new agent might find by sheer numbers in their sphere or good luck. To last in the long run you need stamina and an understanding that nothing is just given to you. You want it? You work for it. No cheating. No ethical rule bending. No trying to fool anyone. The agents out there doing those things won’t be here in the long run because people will see through it. The only way to REAL success is through honesty, integrity and loving what you do. Winners never cheat, and cheaters never win.

So, what do you need in order to be successful? If you interviewed agents you’d find common threads. Many were teachers or caregivers like nurses. Wanting to teach and care for people is a good start.

You also need to actually LIKE HOUSES. If you don’t give two hoots about the actual houses, good luck to you. Try car sales instead. If you’re after a buck and that’s it, move along. You’ll be squashed like a bug. People aren’t dumb. Authenticity can’t be faked.

Agents are often people who are bored easily, who crave change, who don’t need to know or even want to know what’s around the next corner. I have a gambler’s personality. I love not knowing what’s going to happen next. That’s why I’m good at rolling with the punches. I know not everything will work out. I also know my phone could ring three minutes from now with a big surprise.

Agents are workaholics. Morning till night we work. We know something doesn’t come from nothing.

I’m happy I chose the career I did. But remember, nothing worthwhile is ever easy. It’s a roller coaster but roller coasters are fun. If you don’t think they are fun, you may want to get off the ride.

Despite the title’s name, not surprisingly, my intention to write a blog post every other day has laughably failed. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say, it’s simply that I keep getting faced with surprises much like when one tries to stand up in the ocean after getting hit with a wave but as you are getting your bearings another wave comes and knocks your ass over. I love surprises. I LOVE surprises. I don’t love bad ones. At all. Hear that Universe? It’s cool. 😎. I forgive you, let’s move on shall we?

Anyhoo….. there’s been a lot going on here in the Weaver household, hence no recent blog. Sick kids, family health issues, just stuff. Life happens. I’m thankful that I have a job that allows me to roll with the punches a bit when the bad surprises hit.

However, I’m calling Uncle. Let’s get 2019 rolling with some HEALTH, HAPPINESS, and POSITIVITY. And get those listings ready for me. I’m ready to rock and roll and I’m ready to show 2019 who’s #momboss.

I might not blog every other day like I originally thought, because you know, LIFE. But I love writing this blog and will continue! Just not every other day as I’m not done with my cloning machine yet.

When you are a Realtor, or really work in any sales related job, the “rule” is that you shouldn’t discuss religion or politics because you may alienate some of your clients or turn off potential clients. However there’s a second rule: always be authentic. Problem is, I simply can’t do both simultaneously. I can’t be authentic and also never talk about religion or politics. The beliefs I hold are PART of me. They make up my identity, my authentic identity. Could I hold it in and keep quiet and never rock the boat? Yes, I certainly could, but I would no longer be presenting my most authentic self to the world and that’s not ok with me.

I’m a passionate, opinionated, easy to rile up, dramatic defender of Love. I believe in the value of education, and that our country is woefully pathetic when it comes to caring for our the health care needs of the poor, the young, the elderly, Veterans and pretty much all the people in between.

I am a believer of Truth.

I am a believer of Science.

I am a believer in health care being a human right and not a privilege extended only to the privileged.

I am a believer in not allowing old white men having legislative power over my body, or your body, or my daughters bodies.

I am a believer in God and all things spiritual. I believe in angels. I am Jewish but don’t really think organized religions are where it’s at. I believe in the “Religion of Being A Good Human Being”.

I believe people who don’t put shopping carts back are terrible people.

I believe that the government has not one right to legislate love.

I believe in leaving the quarter in the cart at Aldi for the next person.

I believe in adopting homeless dogs who need a home, not shopping for them.

I believe that if you sexually abuse a child or rape a women you should be incarcerated for the rest of your life until you die.

I believe in Karma.

I believe that no human being is “illegal”

I believe all races of people are created equal by God and should be treated as such by all of us.

I believe no regular civilian needs to own an assault style rifle. I believe in your right to own a hand gun for protection if you can pass a background check and have never hit your wife or children.

I believe that people shouldn’t talk about things they don’t understand. If you don’t understand, read until you do understand. We can disagree but an argument is no fun if you don’t know what the hell you are talking about. I believe in educated debate.

Those are the things I believe. If any of them make you not like me, or make you not want me to be your touchstone for buying or selling a house, that’s ok with me because I’m just being me and I’ll never, ever apologize for that.

This is a trick. There’s no time off. Except there is. Sort of. It’s complicated.

Yes, if I’m sick or my kids are sick I don’t have to “call off” to anyone. Great. But I still have to work. No sick days, because if I don’t do my job real actual repercussions happen to real people that involve their money or their home.

Vacations? Hahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. The Realtor joke is “if you want to sell a house, just go on vacation”. See paragraph above. The work that needs to be done happens primarily on its timeline. Not mine.

Hours? All of them. If my eyes are open I’m pretty much working. If you ripped my phone out of my hands at any given time you’d see I have zero or almost zero emails in my inbox. That’s my choice. Other agents don’t work like that, but I do. Responsiveness is my gig, and I can’t imagine it otherwise. The idea of not taking care of something right away makes me crazy.

Movies? Again, hahahahaha. Yes I go to movies. Do I need to check my phone? Yep. See also birthday parties, family gatherings and dinner. I’m working on it. One of my internal resolutions is to give myself breaks and not constantly be working.

Is it better than a 9-5? Yes!! But it’s a ying/yang kinda thing. I work 12 hour days instead of your 8. But I can do a lot of it in my jammies drinking coffee watching Bravo. I have working vacations, but the job paid for my frequent and awesome trips. There’s no time off in real estate. But I never needed daycare, I always take my kids to school and pick them up. I can volunteer at school. The trade off is that I’m never 100% with my fam. I’m always thinking about work. Again, I’m working on it. And at least I’m honest. I have to go make dinner, so not even gonna spell check this because I like to live on the edge, and everyone’s hungry.

Long, long ago, I went to show a house to a potential new client in Birdland (a section of Scott Township in which all the streets are named after birds.

I arrived before my clients and went in to turn on all the lights and get the lay of the land. It was absolutely terrifying. The house was empty. There was nothing to see that was out of the ordinary. Just a house. But I was so scared I ended up sitting on the floor in the CORNER of the living room because I couldn’t stop feeling someone RIGHT BEHIND ME.

I was seriously a mess by the time the people got there. It turned out they didn’t speak a lick of English so they just walked through the house and I stood basically at the door trying not to cry. (I’m serious). They didn’t like the house and left after only 5 minutes. I couldn’t get out of there fast enough.

Fast forward YEARS, and I’m at my daughter’s Girl Scout meeting and chatting with a fellow mom. She mentions where she lives, and I just offhandedly remarked that I showed a house right across the street from where she lived. She was like “ooooooh I assume you know the story about that house?” I was like NOOOOO. What story? I had not told her I was scared or that I thought it was haunted.

She says to me that there were two elderly people who lived there and they both died in the downstairs room off the living room. The wife died and then the husband soon after.

Couldn’t believe it. Except I could because I FELT THEM. They were not happy campers having people in their house at all. Hey sellers, if you do end up dying, can you please do me a solid and just GO TO THE LIGHT????