February 15, 2016

There is an old saying,
                   “It was so noisy, busy, yadda yadda,
                               I could not hear myself think.”

Lynnsy Logue, Broker/Charlotte, NC

That completely explains why early morning is best for me to write. I am fresh, out of my sleep and slumber, leaving another world in which there is peace, uncluttered with the noise of civilization complete with its humor, interesting dialogues and rich visual representations.
All or almost all engaging and curious.

I really want to share what I know and have experienced about being a real estate broker. In today’s climate, a riff with flotsam, I chose to stay away lest I be influenced. On waking, I felt the larger picture, summoned
by a line from Downton Abby:

 “The law of property is the cornerstone of all civilization.”

Bingo!

And coupling with that pronouncement, I recalled a recent conversation with a young man studying for his real estate license, when asked,
                                                     “How is it going?” replied, “It is all laws.”

Yes, it is. Real estate is a conglomerate of laws and codes, and restrictions, and applications and interpretations layered with layers from county, city, state and federal. And real estate is emotional, romantic, homespun, corporate tigers, menacing profiteers, gluttonous money mongers and ruthless profiteers.

 It is also the beginning or end of a rainbow sheltering a family, children, guests at holiday, a retirement nest, a studio, a tree house, a workshop, a swing and a garden, dog and bulbs from Grandma’s house. For me, it was and is the avenue to stay in a city I have always loved, Charlotte, and have the opportunity as a woman to earn a decent, livable wage.
 I just had to work hard and that, no stranger.

And at the same time I became enamored with a complicated, intriguing, ever changing industry with a constant cast of variable characters, profound shifts, ongoing diatribes and  sometimes even touching exchanges, and all of that with
memorable and teachable moments.

These are the true lessons upon which our years of experience are built.
At least in my case. I suspect most with those who have lasted.

I  am quiet when someone says, “I have thought about real estate, I love looking at houses.”  The task as a broker, as I see it,  is to examine everything seen and unseen.
 And therein, the puzzles.

So the dreamgiver has given me a platform from which to speak: of surveys, and titles, of lead and mineral rights, of asbestos, and flood plains, of contracts and of people  not as an expert, more as a guide and/or a voice of experience.