I've never had the pleasure writing a blog before, but thought I'd pick a topic that is a part of my daily life and see how it goes.
I have a 9 year old daughter who is diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) and High-Functioning Autism. She currently attends a school for children with Autism and Asperger's Syndrome and is doing pretty well lately.
It wasn't always easy. I've been selling real estate since 1993 and have built a great business based on striving for repeat business and referral business from satisfied past clients. When Lydia was born in 1999, I knew that there would be some sacrifice of my time for being a dad and helping out at home. This was just fine and it was working out just great until we started Lydia in daycare at about 16 months months old.
Daycare had problems at the get go with Lydia. She was very fidgety, would bite other kids, and was disrespectful to teachers/staff. By age 2, we had to switch her to another daycare and were told that we should have Lydia tested. We did get her tested and were told that her fine motor and gross motor skills were lacking. We were also told that she may have ADHD. We enrolled her in another daycare where she lasted about another year and a half. During that time, we also signed her up for a early childhood developmental classroom(through our school district) and started weekly therapy (Occupational, Physical, and Hippo-therapy). Although the staff at her new daycare was patient and forgiving, eventually we were told that it wasn't working out with Lydia. During this time, in 2002, our son Luke was born and was placed at the same daycare. By fall of 2002, we ended up transferring our kids to a new daycare that was opening up in the area called POKO LOKO in Libertville. We were truthful with the owners about Lydia and they seemed enthusiastic enough to give it a try. Things worked out extremely well there and Lydia finished daycare until she was ready for public school.
It hasn't been easy selling real estate with Lydia around. She has many quirks, temper outbursts, extremely high energy, is messy, clumsy, socially unskilled, and talks ALL the time. I've tried to find ways to concentrate on real estate even with all of this going on the background. I've taught myself how to be more organized, efficient, and how to multi-task. It's not easy trying to complete to-do lists, talk with clients on the phone, and stay on task when I'm around Lydia, but also have always maintained that my family comes first before real estate. Thankfully, I've discovered that most of my clients wouldn't have it any other way with me and TOTALLY understand. In fact, many of my clients have become good friends because they've also gotten to know Lydia, Luke and my wife Donna.
I've found that the majority of people hire Realtors because they want a good person who they know they can trust. Yes, they also want to hire a competent, professional and hard-working pro, but they also want a "go-to" person who they feel comfortable with, like a good neighbor or friend.
I switched real estate firms back in 2005 and found it to be the best move I had ever done. Baird & Warner helped take away so much burden from my daily work list. Although I could get a better commission split at other 100% companies, I also needed a company who would take my marketing, client communication, and professionalism to a whole new level, thus taking some of the burden off of my time demands with Lydia and Luke. I find that I now have more time for family than I've ever had before; my business is booming; and my clients are extremely happy with my marketing.
Can anyone relate??
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