Mary McKnight asks for our crazy real estate story - How about Crazy Reator?

The one showing that sticks out in my mind was last August.  I think, not sure, but I think while I was showing I had a nervous breakdown.  Oh - not a typo.  I actually broke down into tears in front of my customer.  Ok ok, I am not on Prozac, so let me explain the whole situation.

At the time, I was a manager in my company's second office.  I had just hired three agents and all three started the same day.  I was also running some other training classes that night, for both of the offices.  I was CrAzY busy...

My father in law works in my office as a rental agent.  He happen to become very ill and wound up in the hospital, he was actually so sick that his prognosis was not looking to good.  He had a huge list of customers waiting to view apartments and he is the top guy for a management company so he was getting about 20-30 calls a day from this Management company to show their vacant apartments (there was 11 at the time). 

So me, trying to be helpful and super efficient I thought that I could run my training, have a meeting, take his showings over and still do my work in the office.  This lasted for about two weeks. 

Ok - wait - that was only the set up... I want you to feel my pain that very day.

Anyhow, this particular night I worked in the office all day, had a training meeting and was taking his customers out through out the day.  By 9:00PM I was finally at my last appointment, and I just wanted to get home.  So I am waiting at the apartment for my last customer.  I was there for about an hour showing other customers so the doors were already unlocked, the lights were on and I was just waiting.  I see the customer walking up the walk and "oh, man I am almost done".  I have a rule about how I show vacant apartments.  I never walk up steps before my customers.  I am afraid that they might close the door behind us - and I don't want the door shut in a vacant apartment at night.  Silly safety rule, right?  NO. 

As she approaches the stoop to the apartment, my phone rings - its my mother in law calling from the hospital.  She starting shooting out bad news about my father in law and my customer is standing right there.  So I motion her to the apartment and we go up stairs.  I am in front of her as we go up the stairs.  SLAM!  The door closes behind us.  "Umm Mom, I will call you back". 

I go back downstairs to open the door while she is viewing the vacant apartment.  THE DOOR WILL NOT OPEN.  My heart drops.  I am turning the knob every which way I could and NOTHING - it feels as if it is locked - not jambed. She comes back down the stairs and starts asking me questions about the apartment as I am standing in front of the locked door.  I just start crying.  I can not stop the tears, I can not look at her, I can't speak.  She asks if everything is ok, with fear in her voice and I just look at her and start spilling my guts, like I am doing here, but in hysteria. 

Once I gain somewhat of composure, I open the tiny window at the base of the stairs and I figure I have to climb through it.  I will have to squeeze my ARSE through this window and get us out.  OH MY GAWD.  OK, I turn to her and explain to her what I have to do.  So she is helping me climb through the window and I have one leg out and she is pushing me from behind.  As I am half way out of the window, other tenants come walking up and have NO IDEA what I am doing.  I am crying, I am climbing through the window and they have no idea who I am. 

As they open up the front door, with me still semi through this window I can feel bruises forming as I look at my customer as ask her "so, do ya want the apartment?"  She answered with - "that will be a no".

I am not exactly sure where I lost her, do you think it was my hysteria, my having her help me climb through the window or fear that she was dealing with a nut job?