My First Listing!!

Sometimes you get the best customers. The ones who you establish an easy rapport with, and feel like friends from the get go.  My first listing when I started Real Estate was a small gentleman’s farm, owned by Pat and Mike. No, not this Pat and Mike.

pat and Mike

My Pat and Mike were living in Tifton GA. and had a home on ten acres in High Springs FL. they had been trying to sell for 3 years. Mike was an amazing guy who built his home from the ground up. He was not a builder, he was a retired cop from Gainesville, but one look at his handiwork and you could see he was more than a city cop. The house was  on a beautiful piece of land with a ton of unique characteristics.  As you walked in there was a large room just beyond the kitchen with a beautiful hardwood floor that he and Pat used for Texas two-step dancing classes and parties, and the lights in that room were  wagon wheel chandeliers he rescued from an out of business steakhouse. They fit that room like a glove. Mike thought of everything, roof top sprinkler system in case of fire, with tie-downs to withstand hurricane winds with a hard wired  generator. This home was a safe harbor through any storm! I got the call because I had shown his listing twice before it expired with another agent. I gave him my pitch, with comps and marketing ideas and he shook my hand, “See you next week with listing Docs and I will sign on the dotted line!”

When I returned the following week, he had a story to tell about another Realtor who showed up to give them his pitch. Mike said this guy could sell ice in Alaska. He came with graphs and marketing and a folder filled with Holy Cow, whiz-bang, I’m good! My stomach was falling down and rising up. I thought for sure he was getting ready to tell me he had decided against me and my company! “It was hard, that guy would not give up” he said, “but I shook hands with you.” I began breathing again and pulled out my listing paperwork.

Back at the office, I looked up the agent and I was floored by his numbers, he was one of the top Realtors in town! How did I win Pat and Mike’s trust? I recalled our first visit that lasted more than 2 hours and remembered how it went. It was not all whiz bang what can I do for you, but more Holy Cow, this is a neat place, I want to see more!  He was happy to show and explain all the systems he installed and the great shed and Koi pond that sat beside a beautiful gazebo he built to match the house.gazebo

His fields were well fenced and well-kept. He explained his “gang mower” system to mow the fields.gang mower

My enthusiasm for his property and his vision must have been palpable. We decided to drop the price a bit, (luckily, Realtor Slick come up with the same price as my market analysis) and we decided on a number.

The market was just recovering from the recession and it took a while, but the home sold to a couple who were done with city life and thought Pat and Mike’s place was perfect to raise their young family. We got full price, minus some concessions, and everyone walked away happy.

The lessons I learned from working with Pat and Mike were invaluable. You have to listen to folks, and even though I can talk a good game, that doesn’t buy much in Real Estate. The real deal is listening to what your customer has to say, whether they are selling or buying, and doing your homework, oh, and a little enthusiasm for their vision never hurts!  I am grateful that this green agent knew enough to just keep her mouth shut and listen. Since then Pat and Mike have moved back to Florida, not in my domain, but guess who they called, and yes, we got it done. They are enjoying life on Sampson Lake in Starke now, but that is another story!

 

….and beyond

My Side of Town

When an out of town friend comes in and reserves a site at Paynes Prairie preserve State Park, you just better put your binoculars and camera in your back pack and be ready to go! Dr. Seidl, (Barb) and I met  in Ocala in 1979. We can neither of us rattle off the exact circumstance of of our meeting anymore, was it a bar?  Was it a party? There was a pool table, and I do recall a 1979 New Years Eve shindig. I was 28 and she was 26. I was wanting to train racehorses and she wanted to be a large animal vet specializing in cows. We spent time going and doing, Bonnie Raitt at the O’connell Center, canoes, beaches and campfires, I think she even got me to fishing and on rainy or cold days we played backgammon with a couple of racehorse galloping friends. She was taking a course at UF, she hadn’t yet been accepted to Vet school.   It must have been winter because  in the summer  she was on Mackinac Island driving tourists around in a carriage pulled by the draft horses she cared for. Once she started vet school and I started training horses, we put our backs into the moment. Our visits became snap shots rather than home movies. And then ears passed until the day I answered the flip phone out on the porch and it was her voice again, some 30 years later. Now when she comes to town its like time stood still. There we are adventuring at the prairie, taking paths less traveled, happening upon nature as beautiful and as cruel as she can be. Going places because Barb says “Let’s go!” Since then I have lost and won the battle with alcohol, owned a farm, bought a motel in Ft. Lauderdale, traveled, and finally landed in Gainesville in 1995. Barb is now retired from her original life endeavor at a small animal clinic she owned with other Docs.  She worked for 35 years, now she is a part time surgeon, explaining to the clinic that hires her, she can help out reliably 8 months of the year, but when the cold air starts blowing, her and her husband Rick pack the R.V. and head to Florida. Lucky me.

What, my dear reader may ask, does this have to do with Real Estate? I dunno, except I get to go somewheres besides my side of town when Dr. Barb comes around.