A Christmas Miracle: told by Endre Barath, Jr. a Beverly Hills Realtor....
I have always been a firm believer that a great deal of frustration can be avoided in any real estate transaction if people would simply do what they should be doing.
One of my top priorities is timely and quality communication. Of equal importance is not adding personal issues into the mix, instead focus strictly on the client’s needs. Diane and I could be having a heated disagreement, the phone will ring, and I immediately switch to real estate mode without my client ever suspecting there was something brewing in the background. Once done with client business, we could resume the disagreement right where we left off.
All of this to say that in spite of what is going in my life, I manage to take care of business at hand. Now that I’ve shared some background, let me share my Christmas Miracle story.
The year was 2007 just before Thanksgiving. Since I was already a member of Active Rain and other portals some of you may already be familiar with the story. I was trying to be supportive from afar to my father as he shared with me that my mother was not doing well. Hence, I flew to Hungary and made it just a few days before she passed away. As you can imagine, my father and I were not in the holiday spirit and it was the first time since 1967 when Thanksgiving was not important to either one of us. Nor did we have an interest or desire to decorate for Christmas. (I stayed with my father through much of December helping to get things in order and keeping him company through Christmas and the New Year.
Although I had my laptop and cell phone with me, the internet access was a bit challenging, so I had to venture out to internet cafes and a few neighbors’ houses who had internet in their homes. One thing I did have in my cell phone was an international Sim card, so I was able to conduct business relatively seamlessly in spite of the time zone differences.
Just before Christmas Eve, my father went to bed while I stayed on the couch reading a book, thinking of my mom, and reflecting on the happy times we all had as a family. I also noted that I needed to get back to Los Angeles by the beginning of the year. As I started arranging my return flight, the phone rang. It was a potential buyer calling from Florida saying that she was flying into Los Angeles to start house-hunting the first week of the January. She would be staying at the Marina del Rey Ritz Carlton; small world because at the time I too was living in Marina Del Rey so it could not have been more convenient from a realtor’s perspective. These were the days when it was common practice to drive with your clients for house hunting.
As it turned out, she was an ‘all cash buyer’. As I drove her all around the greater Los Angeles area, she realized that $3 Million does not buy you a lot of house in Los Angeles! But after one solid week of concentrated touring, she fell in love with a house in Toluca Lake designed by the architect Robert Lee Byrd (check out his works via Google). We closed in a mere week or so and she did a great wonderful job of remodeling to her taste before moving in.
This was my Christmas Miracle Transaction in 2007 all thanks to answering my phone even when it was a challenge to do so (and maybe a little gift from Mom too). Thank you Andrea Bedard and Carol Williams for inspiring me to participate in this Challenge and sharing my Christmas Miracle Transaction
Wishing you a safe and healthy life and I look forward to your comments. If you are looking for a knowledgeable, focused and goal-oriented Realtor in the Beverly Hills area who will help you achieve your Real Estate goals, please reach out to me directly! If you are looking for a pet friendly Beverly Hills Realtor who can handle and sell the most difficult properties that no one else could, please reach out to me directly!! If you are considering buying or selling a home, a luxury home, luxury investment real estate, luxury vacation homes, or luxury beach properties in Southern California, Los Angeles, Century City, Westwood, West Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Marina Del Rey, Venice or Malibu, feel free to contact me at 310.486.1002 ( m) homes@endrebarath.com or visit one of my websites at https://www.endrebarath.com I contribute a portion of my commission to local animal rescue organizations. Endre Barath, Jr. Realtor at Berkshire Hathaway Home Services
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