First of all let me say I'm a huge fan of parties. Especially the biggest party of the year. When my client called to ask me if I was holding an open house on New Year's Eve (which I had soooo NOT been planning to do) guilt got the best of me and I said well I wasn't, but that sure sounds like a good idea.
Good idea? Good Idea? I kicked myself as I looked at my schedule. Talk about starting the New Year off with a Bang or is it Ending the Old Year with a Bang??? Well I couldn't run an ad since it was past the deadline and would probably be a waste of money any way. I'd have to rely on catching traffic from the main streets and hoping someone would take pity on my poor lonely solitary realtor agent self.
I put my signs out, opened up the fabulous house, took in the fabulous view on the marina and selected some upbeat music. Rod Stewart's Baby It's Cold Outside wafted through all the rooms. Granted it's not so cold here, but we're all aware of what Denver is going through. Speaking of Denver, I hope our friend Kristal Kraft is safe and warm and home very soon!
Well I sat there for an hour and fifteen minutes and not a single soul walked in. Yep, I knew it, it was going to be a total bust. No one was coming to my open house, heck they were probably at their respective parties. I could here the firecrackers start to go off. You see in Hawaii, there was a tradition started by our local Chinese people, which is at the end of the New Year, you have to scare away all the bad spirits so you pop fireworks to get them to go away. Or something along those lines. Never mind that Chinese New Year is still weeks away and everyone including the grandma's gets out their 10,000 black cat firecrackers and strings them up to the moon so they'll pop and put enough sulfur out there to cloud our air for a week. Sorry that was a tangent.
At last, someone walking down the driveway, AHA! Another agent. Yay someone to talk to to make friends with to show me I'm not the only person left on the planet! Had a great conversation and I asked her what brought her in... She had to kill time between her last appointment and meeting the gardeners at her listing. That's okay, she loved the house and will remember it.
Then much to my surprise, the next 2 hours were filled with people. Wonderful clients who read my blog, came to my open and I will be helping them get acclimated in Hawaii and help them find a new home. Another, whose mother has just received her citizenship and will be looking for a new home, another relocating from Guam and needing to buy a new home. All told, 3 sets of clients, all buyers, wonderful people lookinng for homes in a great neighborhood . Hawaii Kai, whom I will help find their next home for.
Next time you think about taking New Year's Eve off, think again!
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