We have a bonus Sunday this month! I’m tired of the boring stuff, so think I’m going to do a segment called, ‘Adventures in Real Estate-ing’. I’ve been doing this a really long time and have countless stories of the good, the bad, and the funny. Here are two of my favorite stories, starting with a funny.
I was working with a lovely older couple looking for a smaller home more manageable for their later years and I loved watching him dote over her every need. We had just gone into our 5th or 6th house of the day and I was really hoping the water was on so I could use the facilities, but alas it was not. I went about the house turning lights on ahead of them and when I came back to join them he let me know she was in the bathroom. I updated him on the water situation, so he walked over to the bathroom door and very, very loudly, she was hard of hearing, said, ‘DON’T POOP OR PEE!! THE WATER IS NOT ON!!’. To which she replied, ‘Too late!’. I have no words for how difficult it was for me not to laugh out loud. The look on his face was priceless. Long story short we borrowed buckets from the next-door neighbor and used their hose to rectify the situation.
On to one of the good. A few years ago, I worked with a couple buying their first home. He was a veteran and she was cutting her work hours back to part time in order to take care of her mother who was battling cancer. They needed enough room for all three of them but were on a fairly tight budget given her restricted work hours. We looked and looked, found the perfect home that she absolutely fell in love with! The caveat was we were in a multiple offer situation and the price went higher than what they could do. Frustrated and discouraged we continued our search, and I encouraged them in the knowledge that everything happens for a reason and a purpose. Guess what? I was right! A little over a week later I got a call the contract on the house fell through and we were able to purchase it for their original offer price which was lower than what we had ultimately pushed our offer up to during the bidding war! At closing with tears in her eyes she let me know this was not just the first home she had ever bought, it would be the first home she had ever lived in as she and her family had only been able to rent apartments her entire life. Then I had tears in my eyes, and think I even heard a sniffle from her husband.
These are quintessential examples of why I do what I do and love doing it. I’m sure any agent you speak with has similar stories and motivation to get themselves up and at it every day to help change people’s lives, one showing at a time.
Melissa Berube, 2019 MBOR President
