Monday Miscellany – Sales, Death, Directions, and Broker Classes

Monday Miscellany – Sales, Death, Directions, and Broker Classes

Another Monday and lots of things are floating around in my mind. This week’s Monday Miscellany thoughts surround selling a home, death/life, giving directions and taking broker classes.

These are the miscellaneous thoughts that are taking up brain space at the moment:

Trials and tribulations of selling a home. Every real estate professional should have to sell a home once a decade or so. Even though we’ve done it before and know what’s involved, the reminder of the emotional and stressful aspects of home selling can certainly make us more empathetic. And I’m not even talking about the emotional aspects of memories although that’s a factor as well. I’m referring to the need to constantly keep the home spotless. To remember to put everything away before any trips out of the house “just in case!” Or to keep a handle on where you hid items. The anxiousness after someone has seen your home. Did they like it? Will they make an offer? The state of limbo. When will this be over? The annoyance about feedback you might not be happy about. “They weren’t wow’ed” (well, then look in a higher price range) or “The ceilings are too low” (uh, they’re normal sized ceilings; how big is the buyer?). When sellers get a little testy during the home sale process, there are most likely good reasons for it. Selling a home isn’t easy!

Thoughts on death (or life). I attended another funeral this weekend, this time for an older cousin of my husband. As we get older, this occurrence will definitely continue to increase in frequency. In fact, a recent glance at the obituary page in my newspaper included many people my age or younger. Yikes! Where does the time go? Anyway, I tried thinking a little differently about the subject of death this weekend. Instead of thinking how sad it was that this person passed away, and how much his family will miss him, I considered how happy I was that I had the opportunity to get to know him. And how amazing it was that his family had 89 years to enjoy his company. And forcing myself to think about it in those terms made me grateful. Not that he passed away of course, but that he lived, smiled, loved and laughed. What a wonderful thing that the world was blessed with his presence.

Providing directions. On an entirely different subject, most people who work in real estate use GPS. In fact, maybe ALL real estate professionals do, but others don’t. There are still people who drive around using a map, or their knowledge of an area, to find something. And sometimes GPS doesn’t work properly. People who buy houses might need “old fashioned” directions. Or they might want a quick mental view of where something is located without having to check the map. That’s why real estate agents should always include detailed directions for their listed homes for sale. I’ve seen a few listings lately where under directions it says, “Google it.” As real estate professionals, we are supposed to be making the process as simple as possible. Telling someone to use Google is not helpful.

Real Estate Broker Classes. In order to get a broker license in Montana, I need to take the broker test when I’m physically out there. Since I’m already licensed in NY though, it’s not necessary for me to take the 60 hours of broker classes. That being said, I’m doing so anyway because there are differences in the real estate process out west and I’d rather know everything before I move. The course is done online, and it’s timed so you spend the proper amount of time on the material. Right now I’ve completed 10 hours of the 60, and I can say this. The classes to get a license are not focused on how the job is done. It’s mostly (so far) about archaic information that isn’t needed to do the day to day job of real estate. For example, one of the questions on the assessment at the end of a chapter had to do with how many employees are needed before the FMLA is something you’d need to worry about. You need 50. That’s not relevant at all. There is also a lot of repetition. And because it’s timed, you need to wait until each screen has timed out before you can move on. So far it’s been frustrating and I haven’t learned much. But we’ll see what the next 50 hours bring.

And with that, I wish you a wonderful week!