Benefits of being a real estate agent: No commute

After a thirty year career in Corporate America, I switched gears and started a new career in real estate. As I complete my second full-year in my new business, I am realizing there are many more benefits than I ever thought there would be! Today I’m going to share a big benefit – there is no commute!

During my thirty years, there were many years that required a five day a week trip to work. When my job was located in New York City, my commute was at least an hour and a half each way with no traffic, and when I worked in Westchester, there were many years of a nearly one hour commute, again on a good day.  I drove in all kinds of weather, from sunshine to ice and snow and through post-tornado wreckage.  I remember clearly one specific ride home, a trip that was normally 45 minutes.  It took me over three hours and was one of the most treacherous rides I can recall, with one specific sports car spinning in a 360 degree circle right in front of me, and my mind saying, “don’t brake, don’t brake, just go around.”  I successfully missed the spinner and made it around and safely continued on my way with jackhammers banging in my chest.

And then I became a real estate agent.  This morning as I took the seven mile ride to my office (which was far- I usually work from my home office), I heard on the radio that many of the roads I would have had to take if I were still working in my last career, were not only busy, they were jammed.  Traffic was stopped. And as I sent some patient thoughts to the people stuck in those traffic jams, I grinned.  While I do a fair amount of driving in this career, it’s not commuting driving; it’s appointment driving which is an entirely different type of adventure.

So I grinned as I thought how happy I am with this specific benefit of being a real estate agent….  There is no commute!