Real Estate Career: Week One

Hi. This is me and my son Sam at his confirmation last Easter. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. And it also says a lot about me.

I am a mom and have been for the past twelve years. When he started school, I started working part time. Now that he's almost a teenager, it's time to start working full time. I've had many careers: social work, ministry, administrative assistant, bank teller, and, a long time ago, Crew Mate at Long John Silver's Seafood Shoppe. But when I looked for the options in Crawfordsville, Indiana, where I share parenting with my ex-husband, I decided to give into a long held secret passion.

Real Estate.

My dad was a contractor and we grew up going to open houses. In fact, once I was older, I staffed a couple of open houses for him. We went to every home show, and read whatever we could find about real estate. I stuffed envelopes with his fliers. I put stamps on his envelopes back in the day when you had to lick them. I got to see the joy on people's faces when they bought a new home.

I've never given it up. Kroger means both the Private Selection Hot Cider Mix and "The Home Connection." Sunday drives mean looking at for sale signs. The internet means home searches and television means HGTV. Of course, I have other interests, but real estate had started to dominate more and more of my time.

So I signed up for an approved course, got my license to practice real estate in the State of Indiana, and joined the agency that I had used when I bought and sold my homes, RE/MAX Real Estate  Associates here in Crawfordsville. I chose them largely because of the owners, who I've known for thirteen years. More specifically, I chose them because of Leslie Cooper Pyle, who educated me about what it means to be a real estate professional both by word and example. All my fears about selling real estate, tied to the idea of real estate agent as "salesperson," turned out to be unfounded. Real estate is about agency. It's a fiduciary relationship. It requires us to put our clients first. It's not that different from any of the other professions I've been in, and it is probably closest in terms of ethical requirements to the ministry or social work.

I'm excited and scared. Scared because it is a big change, and it means running my own business for the first time, though with the extra support of the team at my RE/MAX office, where if you add up each agent's time in real estate, you'll get over 100 years of experience. But excited because I can't wait to help people buy their new home and/or sell their old one. There is no place like home, it is the single largest purchase most of us will ever make, and I look forward to helping people walk through that process to find a place they can both love and afford.

I plan for this blog to be a little different than some other real estate blogs. I'll try to share personal stories and practical knowledge with some sort of balance. I want this to be a place where people can learn what home means for me, and think about what it means for them. I want this to be a place where people can get good information about real estate and real estate agents. And I want this to be a place where I can answer your questions. I can't promise I'll know the answers, but I do promise I'll find out for you.

Someone told me they didn't think of real estate as an adventure, that it was more of a grind, but in a good way.  In the way that building something beautiful happens one brick or one plank at a time, repeating the same process over and over until the goal is achieved. I'm sure there will be days that I'm tired of it all, days that closings go bad or inspections prove someone's dream home is a nightmare. And there are days I'll love it. But hopefully we can learn together. And I promise to give you as much humor as I can. Something tells me this is the wrong profession for anyone who can't laugh. I think real estate agents should take their clients seriously; themselves, not so much.