The Long Road from First Meeting to First Paycheck

Last week a new teller at the bank looked at the check I was depositing and and said, "Oh, you're so lucky to get to look at beautiful houses all day, and make great money too."

Whoa, no one makes any money if all they do is look at houses. As I walked away, I realized an air of glamour and easy pay still surrounds my career even after three of the most difficult years in the housing industry since the Great Depression.

Granted, there are moments of glamour, intrigue, and great fun. Handing the keys to a new buyer ranks high on the fulfillment list, but there are usually many challenging days between writing the offer and moving in--not to mention months of house hunting!

So if you're curious about what I do all day long, here's an invitation to tag along and experience the highs and lows of life in the real estate trenches during the month of September.

Day 1: 6:30am smoke from wildfires held the sunshine at bay and allowed me to sleep an extra hour after some late night negotiating with a fellow agent. A few minutes later I'm checking emails to see if I've been successful in putting out any of the "real estate fire" I have burning. Let's see there's a title issue, contingencies in need of removing, and a cancellation of a purchase contract looming on the horizon to mention just a few.

Later at the office and ready to walk out the office door with broker open house list in hand, my son and business partner, said, "Mom, are you expecting someone?" No, but this business is full of the unexpected. We changed plans, conducted an interview and showed property to a delightful young walk-in couple searching for a home in Palos Verdes.

Showings completed and I shifted into high gear to still try and see several open houses for a variety of clients. Whee, the tours are completed with five minutes to spare. Lunch, then back to the office for an afternoon of paperwork, ordering client gifts, giving status reports to sellers and reminder calls to agents for documents still needed for files. The new buyers receive an email and are entered into the auto notification program.

Later in the afternoon, it's back to those fires in my files. One goes up in flames (okay, the purchase contract was canceled) another promised email does not arrive and a second remains unanswered. The stack of prospective buyers and sellers files on my desk are in need of various degrees of attention.

If I want to see the new bank teller anytime soon, I need to get busy.

Norma Toering & Team RE/MAX Palos Verdes Realty
(310) 493-8333 / Office Phone: (310) 831-0800

PalosVerdesLifestyle - Nominated by Relocation.com as one of the top ten Los Angeles area real estate blogs. Ranked by Technorati in the top 1% of all blogs. As seen in the Daily Breeze newspaper.

South Bay Los Angeles cities I sell real estate, property, houses and homes in: Palos Verdes Estates, Rolling Hills, Rolling Hills Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, San Pedro, Long Beach, Torrance, Lomita, Redondo Beach, Hermosa Beach and Manhattan Beach.

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