Now I am the Seller, not the Realtor - eye opening!

My family and I own a home at Lake Eufaula. The concrete surrounding the garden has my grandfather's initials "WTB" and the date 1972 etched beautifully in it. The roses my grandmother planted before she died in 1982 have survived every storm and still smile at us every time we arrive. My grandparents built this home a year before I was born. It is the only house my family owns that all these memories can be easily brought to life. With both grandparents gone and many other friends and family members who have come into our lives and this house having moved on, it has been a memorial to our family of good times and large gatherings.

Bottom line: we have kept it too long.

Changes in our family’s lives have made it less accessible for us to go as often as we used to. It is a large home on two lakefront lots and the mowing alone is overwhelming. We have paid too much over the years for not going often enough to enjoy it. Several months ago, we made the decision to sell it.

I accepted a referral from an acquaintance and listed the house with a Realtor who lives in the area. Listing my house with another Realtor has been an interesting road for me to travel. I believed at the time and still believe this was the right choice as she has brought us an offer and as of Sunday, our home is under contract and will close in July. Our Realtor single-handedly made the whole transaction possible. Her networking and being tied into the community in Eufaula is what got it sold.

My own feelings about the transaction have been mixed. I am happy to have a Buyer but I am dreading packing 36 years of family memories and all my life changes during that time and close that chapter of my life. The day we accepted the offer, I cried throughout the day at different intervals. I have been looking at this as simply a real estate transaction and had my Realtor hat on until it finally became reality that we were selling our family home. It has been good for me to experience this so I can stay sensitive to our Buyers and especially Sellers as they go through this sometimes very emotional process. I am blessed to have Alan as my husband and partner through this. He stepped in yesterday and handled a lot of the real estate side of things so I could continue my grieving. I know I will feel good about this and look forward to no longer maintaining a second home but the process will continue to be a time of emotions and memories coming alive.

I really honor the experience this is giving me and the perspectives to be a better Realtor and friend in the future as others are going through this.

LIfe changes when real estate is busy

This past winter I found myself bargaining... if real estate activity will pick back up, I promise I will not complain about showing until 9PM at night, doing computer work after a full day of being "in the field" or my battery dying on my phone midway through the day because I have been on it constantly. I promise, I promise, I promise!

I found myself this week exhausted and complaining about how I no longer have a life because real estate has taken it over! How quickly we forget! Attitude readjustment - time to reflect and reposition how I feel about this. So I am not making it to Pilates or enjoying evening walks with neighborhood friends as often as I would like, a meal is a quick something we throw together or eat at 4PM as some kind of lunch/dinner combination. It's all OK. I am tired but thrive on the excitement and adrenaline that comes from this level of activity. Surrounded by people all day and each morning, the possibilities are wide open of who could call, who might show one of our listings and bring an offer, and all those wonderful spontaneous things about our business. It truly is fun when it is at a high time.

After 16 years in the real estate industry, I feel pretty good about my ability to balance and during this time of year, we usually stay in town and work because the business is here. We look forward to a break in September when the State Fair and Back to School make everyone disappear for a couple of weeks. Until then, I will be on the hamster wheel. Bring it on!

Limbo world...

The last few days have been a little challenging for the fact that we have been super busy but haven't made it to the finish line on several of the things we are working on. The market is supposedly slow and we are running like crazy to get our offers in and it appears we are in a trend of multiple offers again. I love that the demand from OKC is back after a little dry spell at the end of '08 and first of '09 but the main problem is that people are not listing their homes. It is a great time to sell, especially if you are in an area that has seen appreciation before the recession. I wish more people were comfortable in that idea.

We are looking forward to a busy rest of the year and watching OKC shine over the rest of the nation.

Maybe this week will bring us good fortune in getting our buyers and sellers in a first place position for the house they want to buy or sell. I have to admit I love the adrenaline of it all and makin' deals!

What's for dinner? Oh... you just got a call to show one of our listings?

It's Sunday night around 6:30PM and Alan gets a page to call a Buyer about a condo we have listed for sale. It is great place but there are many other condos for sale in the complex and it has had a hard time selling. We are all anxious to show and sell it but times like this remind me of how flexible we have to be as Realtors and how during these instances, I am thrilled to be married to another Realtor who understands.

We had just finished business for the night and were discussing dinner when the call came in. "Pasta for dinner?" says Alan. "Sure," I said. "I will get it going." One call changes dinner in a hurry. Don't get me wrong, I am not put out by this. I have lived this life all my adult years. I am fine with one of us going or both of us when we are in mood. Showing when Buyers are available is what we do and we are happy to do it. I just laugh at how our lives can never be planned and luckily we are able to jump up and go when the time comes.

So, Alan is showing and loving every minute of it. He loves that part of the job! I am at home inspired to start this blog.

Oh... our dinner? Well it is going to be Chili's TO-GO! Sounds fine by me!