| February 1 | ||
| February 2 | Dana Dermody Nowell's birthday today--what ever happened to Dana?? | |
| February 3 | Go Pats! The New England Patriots finally won the Superbowl. This was a very exciting game and it all game down to the final 5 seconds of the game to break the tie and win it all. Too bad the commercials didn't live up to their usual standards. | |
| February 4 | In the process of trying to clean up my home office space, I ran across my old timesheets from AspenTech. Every one of them from when I had to fill them out, dating back to my first day of work there in August 1986. It was very funny to see these but it is time to let them go. The stack must be about 2 inches thick there are so many of them, especially because at one point we got paid weekly so there is a time sheet for each week. Now if I can just throw away all my old pay stubs! | |
| February 5 | We had our sales meeting today which was very interesting. Seems there has been some major backstabbing going on and the person being backstabbed called them on it. He was nice enough to not give names but he was furious about what they were saying or something like that--ignorance is bliss--I'm so glad I had no idea what he was talking about. Good for him for speaking up, though. Very interesting place. Then we had our caravan--3 houses today. | |
| February 6 | Today was the marathon caravan! 12 houses in 3 hours. Every house was in Walpole, which I have never been very familiar with. This caravan was sponsored by a different real estate firm and they provided breakfast in the morning and then lunch was catered at the last house on the list. It must be quite a sight to see about 25 real estate agents driving madly from one house to the next and then running through the houses like it was a contest. It's even funnier when you're in one of those older homes with the narrow staircases and you have to stand there waiting for a break from the people going in the opposite direction before you can get on the stairs. One of the neighbors of one house stopped us to ask if it was a funeral. It's also fascinating to see how different the houses are, depending on which year they were built, which neighborhood they are in, etc. Some of them are the brand new large colonials with the open floor plans that I just love. They tend to be about 3 floors of living space and just massive. Then there are the small capes and ranches that are so tiny but also quite expensive sometimes. | |
| February 7 |
Yet another caravan today. This time there are only 5, though I didn't go to one of them. However, one of the houses is just so fantastic but I can't even describe all the little details that make it so wonderful. It is definitely a mans house though--you could spot it right away, though it's a man with incredible taste. In the living room, there is a projector on the ceiling and the pulldown projection screen along the wall for the LARGE TV. The stereo equipment was floor to ceiling and piped into all the rooms of the house on a room by room basis. Sports memorabilia everywhere, amazing artwork, detailed ceilings with hidden lights around the perimeter of the ceilings and on and on. It's an amazing house. The last house on the caravan served lunch--ceasar salad wraps, potato chips, soda and sparkling water, and cookies. This is the funniest job ever. If I didn't need money so badly I would absolutely love it. I get to walk through peoples million dollar homes and see all their stuff and I get free lunch to boot! Isn't that hysterical? Of course, this part doesn't pay... |
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| February 8 | Things you do when you're broke...it's amazing what the lack of money can reduce you to. Scams start to sound like real money making ideas and I almost bought into one. Luckily, there is still a small part of me that knows better than to believe these get rich quick ideas--but when you really need money they start to sound believable and intriguing. No wonder the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. It's not for lack of motivation! It's just misplaced. Today I'm actually making my own soap. I bought a soap making kit a while ago just for fun but now I'm making the soap purely because I need soap. And I have something else to confess.... I was looking for something to make for dinner a few weeks back and didn't have all the ingredients to make anything that sounded appealing so I started scouring my cupboards for anything. Score! I found a box of Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. This sounded good so I started boiling the water and reading the directions (yes, I still need the directions for something this simple). That's when I happened to notice the date stamped on the box. Should I really admit to this? The box was stamped 1991..... and yes, I ate it anyway! I figured anything that is this brightly colored orange must have a longer shelf life than most food. And it was fine, at least as far as boxed macaroni and cheese can be. After that, I went through my cupboards some more and found all kind of cans of food from that same year and through all those away. That's also the year I bought my house so I must have really stocked up on staples that year. And before anybody gets really squeamish thinking about this--when I have people over for dinner I always buy everything fresh, even if I already have it in my cupboards. I wouldn't do that to anybody I know. Well, there are a few people but I would never invite them to my house for dinner anyway. There! I feel better having cleansed my conscience (though I suppose I could have used my home made soap instead...). That's what you do when you're poor.... or is this actually my SSB (Secret Single Behavior)? | |
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| February 10 | ||
| February 11 | First day of real estate training--finally! It seems like such a long day since I'm not used to sitting in one place all day long anymore. Or getting up that early anymore either. Which is funny because I used to always be one of the first people at work in the morning for years. I usually got to work between 7:00 and 7:30 am. Now, however, getting up around that time is not unusual. | |
| February 12 | The training class is great and I'm meeting a lot of really great people. | |
| February 13 | No training today. | |
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| February 17 | ||
| February 18 |
Another day to attempt cleaning up my home office. What am I supposed to do with all my old art projects? I hate to throw them away--I worked too hard on these to just toss them. But, on the other hand, they aren't exactly wall art. After all, how many drawings of nudes would you really want to frame and hang up without seeming like a pervert? Or how about my 3 foot by 2 foot painting of a pencil? And all those self-portraits we had to do (not nude!). At least I can finally walk through the room now and should soon be able to move my computer back up there and use it as my official home office. R.A.s birthday dinner at the Outback. |
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| February 19 | Back to training class. It feels like I've been attending this class forever already. | |
| February 20 | Dinner with S.P. at Vinnie Testa's in Dedham. Good to see S.P. The last time we tried to get together (also with F.Z.), she missed the exit ramp to get to Buff's Pub and decided it would take too long to loop back around so just went home. It was good to catch up on our lives. | |
| February 21 |
I just finished my training course for real estate. It was the best course
I have ever attended. They taught us every phase of the business that
we would ever need to know and it was extremely comprehensive. The best
part is that no other real estate companies offer this kind of training
so I believe it should give me an edge. Little suggestions to help sell
houses--like putting up brightly colored tape (from Home Depot) at the
corners of lots to give people a better visual of where the boundaries
of the land are, having the owners put together a collection of pictures
of the house in different seasons, that sort of thing to start with. Based
on what the trainer told us, we will be making a lot of stupid mistakes
and have bizarre experiences that should make for great stories in my
journal. Geez, can't wait. She told us some of hers--like the time they
were doing an agent caravan--20 real estate agents going through a house
where the owners have agreed and also would not be home. As the agents
went through the house, about 8 of them opened up the bathroom door and
there is Grandpa on the toilet reading the newspaper--the owners forgot
to mention to Grandpa that anybody would be coming over. He just looked
up from the paper and said "I'm not finished." Or the time a
real estate agent took some buyers into a house and the owners dog decided
it was his duty to guard the house--the buyers were close enough to the
door to escape but the real estate agent got cornered in the living room
by the dog and couldn't move for about 45 minutes while the buyers stood
at the window and watched! Finally the owner came home and saved the agent.
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| February 22 | First day of floor time at work! This is where I get to take any cold calls that come into the office and hopefully find buyers and sellers. I hate being new--that feeling of being so completely stupid you wonder how you got dressed in the morning! I'm supposed to answer the phone "Good afternoon, DeWolfe Westwood" and the first call I got I said "Good afternoon, Westwood" like I"m the operator for the entire town of Westwood. And I definitely feel like an operator. Not sure how I like this part of it yet. Luckily the other person at the desk with me is fantastic and he has been showing me what to do and walking me through some of the process. My shift is 4:00 to 6:00 pm which means I close the place up. I'm really surprised that we close up at 6:00. It seems that most buyers or sellers must work and can't show up until after that. I get to show a house tomorrow with a co-broke. Apparently, if I just show the house and that person buys it, I get a 10% show fee. Of course, that is really 10% of 50% of 50% of 5% if that makes any sense. But, at this stage, I'll take anything. | |
| February 23 | Opened up at work today with another shift. It's really odd to be doing work and not getting paid for it. I really don't like that part. I don't have to show the house after all today. It's on a lockbox so the co-broke doesn't need anyone to bring the key over. Oh well. And I'm also starting to find out who the good brokers are and who the bad ones are--wow! | |
| February 24 | Another day at the desk. It's feeling a bit more comfortable. I finally got an "up call." An up call is a cold call coming in. This woman wants to buy a house in a particular town. Unfortunately, there are only 2 houses available in her price range. They are new construction and look fantastic. When I talked to her again later in the day, she had already been by them and said that there is no way she would take one of those. It's not the houses themselves, it's the location. (remember the old saying? Location, location, location). For some reason, builders take any plot of available land and try to build on it. These 2 houses are right on Main St. and are right next to power lines, very close together, and are practically the only residential buildings around. Also difficult to get in and out of due to traffic, etc. | |
| February 25 | ||
| February 26 | ||
| February 27 | My first real estate convention at the Hynes Convention Center. What a long day! Bruce Jenner was the keynote speaker and half the day was presenting awards to brokers and employees. | |
| February 28 |
Great article in the Boston Globe today about the company I'm working for--The DeWolfe Companies. Pretty cool. Another caravan today. Small but really nice house in Dedham (and actually affordable at $299K), then 2 houses in Westwood. The first one in Westwood was mediocre and they were serving lunch for us. However, we knew the next house was also serving lunch and we figured since that one is selling for $4.2 million dollars, we decided to try their lunch instead. Isn't that a funny way to decide where to eat lunch? It was definitely the right decision. And this house is gorgeous! About 6,000 square feet of living space. Absolutely incredible! The house down the road happens to be 17,000 square feet of space! That's about 17 of my house rolled into one! It looks like a hotel, only beautiful. Anyone interested in buying a new home? ha ha. |
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