Everything seems to be about real estate when real estate is both your profession and your obsession.
For example:
A few years ago my coworker went out to dinner with someone she had just met. The next day she filled me in on the date but the conversation really got rolling when she mentioned where he lived. "What do you know about Melrose?" she asked. Very little at that point, but I leaped on MLS and started going through the listings. Great houses! I went to a brokers open house in Melrose the next day, fell in love with the town, and now track it regularly as an option for buyers. I'm heading there tomorrow for a tour with a new buyer.
Recently I sold something on etsy and when I printed off the sale info it turned out the buyer lived in Massachusetts as I do. So what's a real estate obsessive with access to the MLS do in that situation? Scope out her house online of course! It turned out to be a very interesting antique house. After I confessed to her that I had peeked at it she told me she had been consumed by real estate during her search so understood completely.
One of my favorite books that I finished recently was Dewey: The Small-Town Library Cat Who Touched the World. In addition to writing a great story about a very special cat, the author is also an extremely effective booster for her town of Spencer, Iowa. I was ready to move there by the time I finished the book! Not really - I'm a city girl and a lifelong New Englander but that didn't stop me from looking at every Spencer listing on realtor.com as soon as I put down the book.
Most of our buyers become similarly obsessed during the time they're looking for a new home. But for many of us, immersed in real estate every day - it's a lifelong obsession as well as a career. I'm betting that plenty of those late night MLS users are there for fun instead of business - poking around, investigating, dreaming...
But the line blurs between business and pleasure - because this business *is* fun.
What a way to make a living!
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