Went on caravan today--2 houses. One new home in a beautiful neighborhood in Westwood and another in Dedham in Precinct One, which is a very desirable neighborhood. It was a really nice, interesting house that just seemed to wander on forever. One of the agents asked me if I would do her Open House this coming up Sunday for our Day of 1,000 Open Houses. This is the same house I've done before so I feel pretty comfortable with it. And the price was just lowered to $299K so it should sell pretty soon. If it sells to somebody who came to the Open House, then I get a percentage of the commission. If the person buying it doesn't have a broker, I can become their broker and get a bigger commission. Somebody just HAS to buy it. I really need the money and a first success.

Met up with my other buyer to take him to see more condos in Franklin. We met up at the office at 6:30pm and set out on our way. The first place was adamant that we had to show up before 7:30 because they have small children and have to get them to bed. We brought a compass so they could check the direction of the entrance to the building. I finally asked which direction he was hoping for and he laughed and said he really didn't know but that his parents would know so he would be checking with them. The second condo was a townhouse. It was very spacious, really great layout. However, the decor was horrible--red everywhere. Red carpeting, red and silver wallpaper, red-orange kitchen floor tiles. But the space that you get for the small amount of money was incredible. But, of course, this buyer wants something in move-in condition so he didn't want it. Though when we got in the car to leave, he made a comment that because it was decorated so horribly, he could put in a low offer. I had to burst his bubble and tell him that decor is not a reason that someone will work with a low offer--after all, they live there and think that the decor is fine. So, another day shot. He still thinks he can close by the end of the month and hasn't found anything yet. Sigh.

Worked the 11-1 shift today. Unfortunately it's a VERY quiet day. Went over to Uno's for dinner with K.A. The Bruce Willis lookalike was in there. Geez--I see him everywhere.

I hosted an Open House in Norwood from 1-4. Long day but at least it was pretty busy. This was our "Day of 1,000 Open Houses." One guy seemed pretty interested so I'll have to give him a call. His brother lives a few houses away so it seems like he might buy it to be near his brother. They actually looked like twins.

11:30 - 2:00 shift today. Caravan first though. This one was interesting--at least the last one was. This was a condo in Sharon. It's absolutely beautiful. We were warned ahead of time to take off our shoes at the entrance before we go in. Everything was white--walls, carpets, furniture, tiles, everything. And everything was in it's place. The surprising thing is that the owner is or was one of the New England Patriots. I don't think he is anymore, though, which is probably why he is selling it. He was home, too, so we got to meet him. Very nice person.

My customer wants to go see some more condos in Mansfield tonite. I explained to him again that these condos instructions are that they need 24 hours notice before you can get inside. I suggested that he drive down there and get close enough to the condo to check the direction the entrance faces but not so close that he freaks out the owner. He agreed to do this and that evening I got a phone call from him. He was in the parking lot of one condo and said it faced the right direction and that he wanted to get in right now. I told him that was not possible and that we have an appointment for tomorrow already and that I'll see what I can do to get him in earlier in the day but that there was no way he'd be able to get inside tonite. Besides it was 7:30 and the instructions are also specific that there are no showings after 8:00 so it was already a little tight, especially if he expected me to drive down to Mansfield to let him in.

I can't believe I'm getting mad at schlepping people around--this is supposed to be my job. I guess I assumed someone would eventually actually BUY something! Silly me.

Good caravan today. Most of the houses were in the millions which I find a lot of fun to tour through. Especially the 2 new constructions. These are right next to each other and are amazing. You could easily ride your bike around the house--it's so open and airy and large.

Spent most of the afternoon waiting to hear whether my customer's offer for a condo was accepted or not. Finally around 5:00 I got the call and they had accepted a different offer. So...it's back to square one. Damn! Someday I'll sell something, hey?

I also found out that another customer is not only working with another agent but they had signed a Buyer's Agency contract with that agent. This means that they should only be working with that agent and, if I had found them a house, that agent would get the commission, not me. I know they didn't understand how this works because she said "but if we buy a house through DeWolfe, we'll buy it from you." Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

Don't even want to talk about the morning except to say that it was a very busy morning.

K.A. and I went for a walk around Jamaica Pond--absolutely beautiful day today--around 75 degrees. Then just hung out, discussed the meaning of life and other existentialist ideas, men, family, work--you know, the usual conversations.

(also finally caught the show "The Osbournes." Have you seen this yet? It's reality TV at its worst! But it's hilarious. It's actually Ozzy Osbourne and his family being videotaped in their daily lives. They are the epitome of dysfunction! You have to see it.)

Helped with an Open House today. Finally a different house. This one is in Westwood and is very charming and well maintained. It's amazing how different it feels to have people not want to leave because they want the house and really spend some time checking out every nook and cranny. There were about 4 groups of people that came in and really seemed interested, left, and then came back again. Finally one guy said he was ready to put in an offer so I met him back at the office right away to write up the offer. As soon as he said how much he wanted to offer, I knew he wouldn't get the house. Too bad, so sad. There were several other offers as well and I did find out later that someone else got it.

After the Open House I went home for a while then picked up C.B. and headed over for a carbo-loading party for M.T. She's running the marathon tomorrow and had a bunch of us over one of her friend's house for dinner. And M.T. cooked the whole meal herself! Not that cooking is tough but she's the real guest. I had no idea she was also such a good cook. I also got to meet her boyfriend--I wholeheartedly approve of him. What a doll! And they make such a great couple. Anyway, had a great time, lot's of nice people and it was so good to see M.T. again.

By the way, I have a new section on this web site about the stuff I discovered in my cellar years ago. I find it interesting--maybe you will, too? Click here to see: Basement stuff. I've got a long way to go before everything gets in there. It's all very old stuff--from the late 1800s and early 1900s.

Marathon Day. I tried tracking M.T. on the www.baa.org site and it worked for a while but it only showed her going through either the 2nd or 3rd checkpoint. What happened??? I'm assuming that the BAA stopped tracking online after a certain time period but haven't heard anything definite yet. By the way, that web site for tracking could use a LOT of improvement! With the technology that's available it should have been a lot better than that.

Morning shift at work (9:00 to 11:30). It's weird to have that shift on Tuesdays since we also have a meeting at 9:00 and then caravan at 10:00 and we are told to attend these and the admin staff will answer the phones for us. So, off I went to the meeting and then on the caravan, getting back to the office around 11:00 or so and one of the agents is sitting at the desk. She's not scheduled to be on the desk but she's the sneaky one and figured she could get some of the calls. I asked her about why she was there and she said that the desk was empty so she just sat down. She just ignored me when I said that the admin people answer it from their offices--of course, she knows all this and doesn't care. Anyway, she couldn't have been there that long so I suppose it's not a big deal. I asked the admin if there had been any calls and she said no, there weren't. Another agent was standing nearby and she gave me a look as if to say "there were but you won't get the calls." After the admin left the area, that agent came up and whispered that in her 8 years of working there, there had never been a call during those hours, "if you know what I mean." In other words, these calls get forwarded to the managers favorite people, instead of the ones schedule at the desk. The real estate world is a very flawed world indeed. And unethical.

Question for the day: What the hell am I doing with my life? In November I had created a plan for myself and I have been following it almost exactly but now I'm not sure if it was the right plan. At work, they tell me I'm right on track but..... I haven't made a penny yet this year! That is so bizarre to me. Occasionally I've seen a few job postings that sound interesting so I've popped over my resume but usually don't hear anything at all, not even an acknowedgement that they received it. Sent one over to Intuit today. I'm not going to hold my breath for this one though.

And there is still Primerica to think about. What? Oh, didn't I mention that before? Ha Ha. That's why last Saturday morning was so busy. I was invited and went to their Open House last Saturday to learn about the company. They are trying to recruit sales people. Not sure how I feel about it yet. I guess the biggest concern I have is that, even though I'm doing it right now, I don't consider myself a salesperson. And I'm not sure if I want to. We used to call sales people "sales scum." The guy who is trying to recruit me stopped over my house today to answer my questions since they knew I was not ready to commit to signing up. That helped a lot. I was concerned that it was just selling insurance, which I really don't want to do. Luckily it's more than that--also providing refinancing, mutual funds, Smart Loans, and insurance. I have to say, all the people that work there are extremely enthusiastic and absolutely, without a doubt, love their jobs. Yeah, that's kind of annoying--I'm not into perky--but it's also nice to see people excited about their job. They do have fun, too. And, if I only want to work 8 hours a week, that's fine. So, I can still work another job if I choose to. It might be a good way to meet people who want to buy/sell a house.... Does anyone have any advice for me??? AAAAHHHHHKKKKKK!! Somebody help reel me back into the real world.

I started whining again about my job and how I don't have any "real" customers, nothing is going right, etc. and then I checked my voice mail. I received a really nice phone call from a woman who had been to Sunday's Open House that I helped host. After the Open House I had sent out Thank You notes to everybody who had given a real address or phone number. Apparently this impressed her as she had been trying to work with other agents but they don't always return her phone calls and she was getting very frustrated. Then she got the Thank You note and she called me to thank me and told me that she wants to work with me because of that gesture. Cool! Not only does she want to buy a house, but she'll need me to sell her house in Charlestown.

Then I received a cold call while working the front desk that had a similar story. This woman had been trying to work with other agents and, again, they weren't returning her calls so she tried us. And she needs to sell her home in Milton, too.

I guess it pays to whine??

Oh, yeah--and get this. I had checked out DeWolfe's job postings and saw an interesting one for a Business System's Analyst and had sent in my resume even though I don't have direct experience. The HR person sent me a nice note back saying that she would forward it to the department but didn't think I was qualified. Today I saw an email from the head of that department that said he would like to talk with me about the job. You never know how life will turn.... I may not get the job but it's fun to think about the possibilities.

The weather was beautiful today--sunny and in the 90s. Had strawberry margaritas on the deck to kick off the wonderful weather.

Marathon session of "The Osbournes" tonite. You have got to see this. It's hysterical.

The Sky is Falling! The Sky is Falling! What a wild day today. I woke up early in the morning with my bed vibrating which is odd since it's not supposed to do that. My first thought was that it was an earthquake--but, wait...this is Boston, not San Francisco so it couldn't be an earthquake. Not quite awake, I assumed my legs were spasming but checked the close anyway to note the time and then rolled over and went back to sleep. Later that evening is when I discovered there really was an earthquake--about 5 something on the Richter scale. Looking back, I'm not sure why I thought my legs spasming was normal since they have never done that before. And I did check the time and assumed it was around 6:45 or so. You have to realize that most of my clocks are all set ahead and they are all at different intervals so I never really know what the exact time is.

Then, around noon, helicopters were circling my neighborhood for hours. I'm not sure how many there were--maybe 4? They just kept going round and round. Later I discovered they are doing anti-terrorist training. The odd thing about that is that it is now about 6 months after the terrorist activity and they are NOW starting training?? I can only assume there is more to the story than what they are telling us, even though they ARE telling us that all financial institutions in the Northeast are potential targets right now.

Went to Uno's in Dedham for dinner and ran into some former co-workers--D.G. and Y.W and their son T. Guess what? Yeah, they just sold their home and bought another--timing is everything, hey?

I didn't have to host an Open House today but took one of my customers (a new one) through several Open Houses. She, like so many others, is very serious about buying but there just isn't much on the market right now. We looked at 5 houses and only one is a possibility but two of the bedrooms upstairs are so small. I know that I don't work all day but I do work every day and I must say that I'm getting very tired. Not sick and tired, just tired. I need to schedule a day off but that seems so silly to even think since I am not making any money yet.

Hmmm. Our manager never asked about our lists. But, she did finally go over some forms and how to fill them out when making an offer on a house. It's good to have the bosses son on board.