Kendall told me that he was quitting real estate. After a 20 year successful career, he's had enough. In front of 10 gay men and Leslie, relaxed by the most beautiful $2.8 m spec house in the Nashville hills, he regaled a summary list of being exploited as a realtor...
He didn't want to be treated like that anymore! With minimal words (I admire that) he summed it all up: it is not worth it...."If you care about your clients at all, then your life is miserable if you also need to support yourself....fine if you have someone else supporting you, but life for a successful realtor is horrible."
He meant that it is more rigorous, less rewarding, and looked down upon more than any other profession. Listen, I know: I come from a long line of car dealers....Realtors are treated like urchin children by many...in some crazy self-flagaration way I must like it.
I love my friend Felipe's comment: "quit complaining, Coco. You've made more money at this than anything else you could do!" He's right; I was "downsized" from so many careers! I mean, we went to real estate school for 3 weeks. (there were however, over 400 hours of continuing ed.)
Mr Wonderful, in a rare frustrated moment said, "you are expected to be an expert on everything." Here are some of my areas of "expertise" in real estate:
- All aspects of construction, framing, roofing, drainage, codes administration...* i mean I have had to go referee w/an inspector vs an engineer over Joist Spans. and then I have to explain the calculus to the client...I barely passed calculus
Liability and lawsuits- Marketing & how to get buyers to buy
- How to bribe other realtors into seeing your listing
- FSBOs - also called "realtor-haters" - how to work successfully w/them
- Human nature and subtle implications
- Writing protective contracts
- There is a whole category for dealing with big egos: country music artists, lawyers & doctors, not nec in that order
- managment of staff
- latest decorating trends
- database managment
- contracting repairs in a very very short time period
- working on worse deadlines than a daily newspaper (I've been there)
emotional counseling, including, but not limited to: fighting spouses, crying first time buyers, - anger over equity loss, and manic spending (over spending)
- babysitting
- entertaining including but not limited to knowing who is playing at the Bluebird and what they are famous for
- foreclosures: both taking advantage of a good deal for my buyer, and helping a seller with future credit and stop loss
- rental markets
Amy Says to me about a friend; this friend Annie had a liver transplant and quit being a lawyer: "Annie B. is just a cool chick. I always meant to send her a note when all that happened but was too caught up in myself... It was awesome to hear someone much smarter and better in Court to say, 'I just couldn’t do it anymore'. Egotistically, it’s always hard for me to admit that. I told her I came to terms with it when cousin Cathy said,
'Who do you think is going to change your diapers, the law firm, or Catherine?'"
Apparently, the woman is thriving as a teacher at the boy's school here and is very healthy and happy....
The reason I mention all of this is because I got the news that I definitely have to go on Dialysis Soon. Looking at all of the options. I feel pressure to decide which way I want to go before I meet with the surgeon. Very upset over the weekend and felt bad. Didn't know which caused which. Was unable to complete anything on Sunday. Computer crashed. My computer guy says i may have lost everything (contracts, photos and most importantly database of 20 years...) i have some backups somewhere, but the very expensive backups system does not seem to be working yet....they are still checking it out...yet really noone is here.
Have lots of work to do for the clients that are grateful. Unfortunately have decided to do more free work for the clinets that not so grateful. I really think that I work just as hard for either type of client.
The "Horse People" decided to go FSBO. This is after the 3 hour consulting I did with them to get the house ready and to price the listing. Another reminder from God to focus on work-life balance.
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