The Subconscious Mind of Real Estate

Ever dream about your job?  Rest assured, it's pretty common. When I waitressed a billion years ago, I had consistent nightmares of trying to serve everyone at the same time, usually moving in slow motion. The weirdest recurrence in each dream was my inability to remember a glass of milk.  I'd get all the food served, proud of the fact I'd remembered everyone's order, only to be reminded by someone in the group, "Miss, I still need my glass of milk."  Damn that glass of milk! Wonder what Freud would've thought.

Any way, after working as a full-time real estate consultant for 5 months, last night I had my first official "real estate" dream. No surprise because hubby and I had just had a lovely dinner with some friends and naturally, our conversation got around to real estate.  It came up when "John & Kate" told me how unhappy they were with their real estate agent. According to what John shared, here's their scenario:

• Before John and Kate got married, each needed to sell their homes.  Kate sold her condo as a FSBO, while John used an agent.

• His chose his agent, "Val" based on the fact she was local and had her face plastered all over the city. Little did John realize that branding oneself had little to do with efficiency and professionalism and due diligence. It was 3 long-real-estate-years ago, and houses were selling almost as fast as an iPhone does at your local Apple Store does today. Nonetheless, things were beginning to slow down a bit, thus one would think an agent needed to put forth some effort, right?  Not so much. It was John and Kate who made their own flyer's and displayed them, among other things. Guess Val couldn't be bothered. Selling too many houses at once and not enough time to make flyer's for her sellers? 
  

• In the end, John's house took about 3 months to sell. In the meantime, the newlyweds needed to find a new home.  One evening after work, John drives by a home he really likes. Likes it so much he calls Kate. She sees it the same night and loves the house too. As they get out of their car and begin approaching the house, a woman is watering some plants in the front garden. John and Kate briefly introduce themselves, and the woman, happy to meet some prospective buyers, are impressed with John and Kate's sincerity and invited them in to look around. By the time they head home, John an Kate are ready to buy. And soon.

• John calls Val and says he and Kate had found a house they love and are ready to make an offer. Sounding annoyed, Val helps them with their offer and they eventually get the house, notwithstanding poor service from their agent.
  

A great lesson for this newbie was learned last night.  Without imagining how one could be so amiss in attending to a client, I'm more determined to pay attention and actually do my job and work.   Speaking of which, about that dream of mine...

As I drive down a nearby street where I live, I noticed a few new listings.  Driving further, there's more signs.  By the time I reach the end of the street there are too many new listings to count!  Are any of them my listings?  Where are my listings? The thing is, none are my listings. I feel ashamed, appalled, deeply discouraged.  What happened? I had planned on letting those neighbors know I'm an agent, I just hadn't gotten around to it.  I'm confused. I've been working diligently on my SOI, taking friends out to lunch, e-mailing my regular newsletters, etc.  But what about my neighbors? They're not on my SOI list, yet I'd love to help them too. Why don't I pay more attention to what's right in front of me...?  

Wake up time.... literally and figuratively. Time for me to wake up, smell my real estate surroundings, and become more alert. Here's to many more real estate dreams in the future. I can learn a lot. Hope I don't forget the milk. :-)