The Dog Ate My Cellphone… and There Went the Easy Money!

October 4th, 2007 categories: About Us, For Buyers, For Sellers

The Flu is no excuse for taking a day off.A Day in the Life of a Realtor’s Day Off!

Ok, I’ve got a roaring cold. The dreaded flu. One of those kind that everything you take for it tastes so near-nauseatingly awful that one gets well quicker out of the absolute terror that you might have to take it again.

This is one of those frog in your throat, head pounding, red nose rubbing, bronchial wheeze maladies that is far too pedestrian for any human being. Yet we all get them… and we all know what it feels like.

So Sunday morning, I’m in bed, of faint enough consciousness to know that the TV is on, and that it’s still football season, but could care less if the truth be known. It was one of these states where nobody has, or would ever care about having a favorite team. Today was no Sunday at the beach. Grumplestilskin just wanted to be left alone.

And then the phone rang. “Hello,” the frog throat voice growled, wishing he had never even heard of a real estate license, much less had two of. It was an agent driving in from Sacramento who wanted to see one of our listings. He was calling me on his cell phone and would be here in about 3 hours.

“I’ve got a bad cold,” I said as cheerfully as the situation would allow, “tomorrow morning would be better.”  The agent was only coming in for the afternoon. We set at appointment for 4:40 pm., exchanged all appropriate contact information verbally, even though he already had my number on his cell phone records. 

I called him back to confirm about a half hour later, then I set my alarm and went back to sleep for a spell, tossing and turning, trying to decide if it would be easier to just go ahead and commit suicide now than make this showing appointment.

Nevertheless, and frivolous self destruction thoughts aside, when the alarm went off like a jackhammer against my frontal lobe at 3:30 pm, I got up, groaning, took a shower, got dressed, swallowed some more of that disgusting cold medicine and went out into the world with my game face on. It’s showtime, and I was doing everything I could to get on top of it, practicing what it’s like to smile, and hating every minute of it.My Dog Ate My Cellphone.

I got to the house, it’s a nice one, and went through the 30-minute ritual of turning it on. Blinds and curtains up, every light on, doors leading to the lake open, soft music droning, and the ceiling fans purring on low.

And then I waited. 4:30 pm came and went. And I waited some more. I checked my main office phone. Nothing. I looked at my cell phone. It was as dead as I felt. I called his cellphone. No answer, which is common in these mountains. And then I waited some more. I sat on the couch, and then got scared I would fall asleep. I fought that for a while, then checked my office phones again. And there it was.

“I’ve got bad news for you,” the agent I now loathed most in this world said, “my wife wasn’t feeling well and I turned back to Sacramento… and I would have called you earlier, but I lost your phone number.”

“The Dog Ate My Homework” is the first thing I though of, other than what are the mitigating circumstances for justifiable homicide. Maybe his wife did fall ill, I certainly was, but I couldn’t help but wonder how someone can call me on a cell phone that had both inbound and outbound records of my phone number… and lose it? And then somehow find my office number some time later?

Driving back, battling primal urges to exceed the speed limit… a lot, I decided not to call that agent back, “If someone is that dumb, or irresponsible, how can they represent a million dollar plus sale?”, I concluded. Then, for some inexplicablIs there anything such as easy money, really?e reason, my mind, in explode mode, ignited the fuse of another tangent.

“Easy Money” is where my head-cold-throbbed thoughts went. I pondered the often public perception that ours is easy money made. Today’s no-show is just one example of just how easy our job is.

We do have control over our lives, but sometimes it’s a delicate balance between client care, the care of our families…. and… taking time off for ourselves. Particularly when we are ill. There are some, but not many guilt free days off in our easy money world.

I thought about how easy it has been for the family of the house I went to show. These are remarkably nice people, but it is a family in crisis. Friends now, it started with their first phone call to us more than three years ago.

Since then I have recommended and provided counsel for marriage counseling, individual therapy and 12-step programs for both parties. I have talked with the directors of four different rehabilitation and recovery centers, and through all of it maintained a fair, fully disclosed and equal balance to both parties as well. Both trust us.

We’ve been through two listing periods, four price changes, an appraisal, a re-fi, two contractor estimates and numerous recommended maintenance workers… and two vacation rental companies.

Head cold flu or not, this client, at this time, needs help and our full attention. Every dollar we can get for them absolutely counts. Fiduciary duties owed, we have them, and they are precisely defined, but in addition to that we feel that what we do comes with the responsibility of empathy and compassion as well.

When life looks like easy street... you know the rest.You see, from time to time we know about things other than real estate, and it is always our intention to be helpful when ever and where ever we can. Not only is being of service our job, it is one of the great joys of it.

By the time I got home, I had pretty much forgotten about the other agent’s “the dog ate my cellphone” excuse. The last tangent had taken me to a better mental place, though I still felt like near death warmed over.

By the time I got back in bed, I was already trying to think about tomorrow being another day. Maybe I’ll feel better, maybe I’ll write a post about it, and maybe the post will be cathartic.

Maybe by then I’ll call that other agent and ask how his wife is. Maybe he’ll come up next weekend… and buy that house.

But not today though, I really need to get over this dreadful cold… before I start making easy money again.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 4th, 2007 at 3:58 pm and is filed under About Us, For Buyers, For Sellers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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