My Crazy, But Hard To Believe It's True Real Estate Story...

~ My Crazy, But Hard To Believe It's True Real Estate Story... ~

My crazy story goes back to the summer of 1993.  I was fairly new in real estate.  Our company would tour the new office listings every week after our office meeting.  As a new agent, I enjoyed tour.  It gave me the opportunity to view listings, familiarized myself with neighborhoods and learn pricing.  I thought it was an invaluable tool for new agents.

After the meeting, we would pile in cars and go.  Each listing would be on a separate sheet where we could write comments for the listing agent.  I was a passenger in a with "seasoned" agents.  Cathy was driving.  I didn't know her very well.   Gary was in the front passenger seat.  He was this big teddy bear in his late 40's; about 6'2" tall and a fun guy who just loved laughing.  Karen & I were in the back.  It was up to Gary to direct us from one house to the next.

I was having fun.  I got to know these 3 people better.  Somehow Gary flipped 2 pages of the tour sheets.  By the time we realized what Gary had done, we were half way to the wrong listing.  We had to backtrack to get the the correct house.  When we caught up to the rest of the group, most of the agents were either in their car or walking towards their car.  The house was located on a cul-de-sac.  Cathy quickly parked and the four of us walked up to the house.

The last agent that came out was nice enough to leave the door open for us.  As customary, we announced ourselves.  The owner was home.  Apparently she couldn't wait for all the agents to leave.   The couch was pushed away from the wall and she vacuuming her baseboards.  She  popped up from behind the couch.

We apologized for not being with the rest of the tour group and that we had gotten lost.  But it wouldn't take us long to view her home and then we would leave.  She had a confused look on her face.  And then she shook her head and slowly stated, "I'm confused.   Ahhh, my house isn't for sale."  Oops!  We all couldn't get to the door fast enough.  We apologized for the confusion and left.

When we got to the car we were all laughing.  I don't remember if it was Cathy or Karen, but one of them said, "We were in such a hurry.  How did we not see that there wasn't a FOR SALE sign in the yard?!"  As we looked at the other houses in the cul-de-sac, we saw the sign....2 houses down!

I don't think I have laughed that hard in awhile.  Seriously, how can four people, RELATORs I might add, miss a real estate sign?  And then walk into some poor lady's house and scare her when she pops up from behind her couch  to see 4 strangers in her living room and wanting to walk around her house?  I can still hear Gary's laugh.  He had such a deep belly laugh.  As we got in the car we laughed even harder.  As Gary was getting in the car, he was laughing so hard that he hit his head on the roof of the car. And I think Karen said something about drive fast becasue she was gonna wet her pants!

But my story doesn't end here.  Since we were so far behind now, we decided to skip the next house and meet up with the tour on the next house (which was the last house).  We arrived, on time.  Double checked the address and looked for the yard sign all the while laughing.  We weren't there too long before the tour caught up.  To play it safe, we let the others from the tour enter the house first.   Then we followed suit.

After touring the lovely home, Gary was getting in the car, Karen started laughing and pointing at Gary.  I believe it took her several minutes to regain her composure.  Finally she said, "Gary, we will need to drop you off at your house first."  And then she broke out into laughter again.  Cathy and I were laughing too...laughing at Karen laughing.  Finally she got the words out, "Didn't you feel a breeze?  You ripped the back seem of  your pants!"

That was one day I will fondly remember for quite some time.