Realtor Life

The Search for Inspiration

by mattwroughtonrealtor

This blog, I’ll start off in a very unconventional way.  I had no clue of what to write about, so I Googled topics for a Real Estate Blog.  There were so many that I didn’t feel fit me.  I didn’t feel that they would represent me the way that I would hope.  Out of about one hundred or so topics, I found three that I hadn’t already thought about.  Of those that I had thought of, I didn’t feel that this was the right time to write about, for example, sports.  Many of the sports that I follow are over or aren’t starting until Spring and Summer.  I could have talked about NCAA Basketball, but I’d rather wait until March so I can talk about March Madness.  I’ve already written about playing winter kickball, but during the warmer months I play more sports, which lead to many interesting stories.  I just realized that, so far, I am writing a blog post about not knowing what to write about.   Interesting.  Google suggested writing about dealing with difficult clients, but I haven’t had one yet.  If any of you have suggestions on topics, don’t hesitate to let me know, and I’ll do my best to fulfill my self-imposed obligation.  I guess I can write about what I was planning on now.  An attempt to be inspirational. 

Inspiration, is “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative, or a sudden brilliant, creative, or timely idea” (Oxford Dictionaries).  My latest bit of inspiration came from a fortune cookie that came with my dinner when I ordered Chinese food.  My girlfriend opened hers first and thought it should have been for me, we usually seem to get fortunes that fit each other better.  My fortune was “You will obtain your goal if you maintain your course.” This was a very timely fortune for me since I was wondering if I am doing anything wrong or if I needed to make a life change to reach my goals.  I know these fortunes are purely chance and random and not an actual fortune, but I got it at the right time.  Anything can be viewed as an inspiration.  The next morning, I didn’t want to get out of bed and go into the office, but I made myself, and am very happy that I did.  It allowed me to maintain the course that I have laid out for myself.  I know that I am putting in the work and am certain the good times will come.   But there are days when you feel like you are just treading water and/or stuck in the mud.  Now is a perfect time for the pitch.  If you know anyone thinking about making a move or who has a question regarding Real Estate, tell them to Call Matt for their Real Estate Chat.  Ok, back to the point now.  In the comment section, besides topic ideas, tell me what inspires you.

I try to post motivational posts on my social media daily, I think I’m going to start posting things that are meant to inspire.  If more people feel inspired to reach their goals, then the world should become a better place.  Here is a challenge to everyone out there, I challenge you all to inspire someone to be great, whether it be family, friends, co-workers, or even a random stranger.  Find a way to make the world a better place.  Writing this post has, honestly, inspired me to be better; to be a better person all around and to spread my happiness and motivation to those around me more. 

What do I find inspiring?  Hmm, seeing others succeed inspires me to work harder and to learn from them to pick up tricks that can help me be more successful.  Another is when I see someone who has been severely injured come back and regain the strength and capabilities that they worked so hard to achieve.  For example, when someone is thought to be paralyzed regains the ability to walk.  I don’t know how you could not be inspired when that happens.  In fact, seeing someone making the effort to overcome adversity in spite of all the obstacles is inspiring, regardless of their apparent success. It makes me feel that there is no excuse for me to just sit on the couch and watch TV; it makes me feel that I need to get out there and do something worthwhile.

You can literally find inspiration anywhere, from a poem, nature, online, people, possibilities, and even in yourself. 

A poem that I found inspiring:

A Smile 
Poet Unknown 

Let others cheer the winning man, 
There’s one I hold worth while; 
‘Tis he who does the best he can, 
Then loses with a smile. 

Beaten he is, but not to stay 
Down with the rank and file; 
That man will win some other day, 
Who loses with a smile.

(https://www.wow4u.com/playingthegame/)

If you are looking for inspiration from nature, go for a walk and attempt to zone out and just enjoy the sounds of nature.  Listen to the birds, listen to the water, and listen to the wind rustling the leaves on the trees.  Doing this can mentally reboot your system and can allow you to forget the obstacles that are pulling at you in life.  When you are online and are looking for some inspiration there are many places you could look.  You could watch a TED video and see how motivated the speakers are and how they are trying to help others succeed.  You could go to social media and search for the hashtag #inspiration.  This will bring you many posts other people have found inspiring.  Use it and take advantage of other’s inspirations.  When you are talking to those you love, ask them what they are grateful for or what they love most in life.  This will bring you closer together and find out what inspires them.  This could allow you to find ways to help them feel inspired in the future.  When they tell you what they are grateful for, try to mentally get in their shoes, and attempt to experience it from their perspective.  It’s a great way to gain inspiration in a new way that you may have not thought of before. 

One of my favorite ways to inspire myself is to create a bucket list of things that I want to do or achieve in life; there are some crazy things on my list that I’m not fully convinced that I want to do, for example, skydiving.  When I was doing research on what inspires people, I came across an idea of a way to get inspired, ‘submit your resume for a dream job.’  I do think that this could be inspirational, but it reminded me of one of my friends from college.  When he was applying for colleges, he sent an application to Harvard, just in case he would be accepted, but fully expecting a rejection letter.  He told us all that he applied just so he could frame and hang up the Harvard rejection letter.  I now think of that story in a different light, he was reaching for the stars to see if he could reach them.  Another way to find inspiration is in yourself.  I am, honestly, feeling inspired right now as I am writing this post.  I have disconnected myself from my other responsibilities and have fully immersed myself in my writing.  I need to do this more often.  Another thing to do, especially if you are feeling down, reflect on everything that you’ve learned and accomplished.  You will feel much better and realize that you are improving and making the right steps to achieving your goals.

What do I find inspiring?  I’ve been thinking about this the whole time I’ve been writing this post.  The biggest source of my inspiration is my family, starting with my parents.   They, literally, will do anything for my brothers and me.  When we are struggling, they will give us a shoulder to lean on, to cry on, to hug, and someone to talk to.  Starting out in Real Estate is a financial investment and since I decided to jump into the deep end with no other income, they have helped me out more than I could explain.  My brothers and I have learned that trait from them.  When any of us needs help, we don’t hesitate to offer to help, assuming we are able.  My girlfriend inspires me, she has set goals and is so determined to achieve them that she gets upset if she veers off the path.  She is very opinionated, which I find to be a great attribute as she has strong beliefs that she is very passionate about.  Somehow my dog even inspires me.  When we get home and he shows us absolute joy and happiness, it immediately puts a smile on my face and makes me envious of the pure joy he lives with.  When he is playing with his toys it takes me back to my childhood when I didn’t have a worry in the world and enormous dreams that I was certain that I was going to achieve.  The other people in my office inspire me with their willingness to help me achieve my goals and have experienced the same challenges that I am facing and have come out the other side and are achieving their goals.  There are so many more places where I draw inspiration and I could keep telling you about these things, but I know that I would just start (continue?) to ramble and not make any sense.

Here are a few things that inspire me and things that you could use to find inspiration yourself.  Find happiness and joy in your life that can help you achieve your goals and dreams.  Remember, dream big and find a way to get there.  I have many dreams, they have changed a little since I was a little kid, but I now know that I can achieve many of them, and I truly believe that I am on the right path to those goals.  This post has inspired me a lot more than I had thought it would.  It began with me not knowing what to write about and it turned into something special, at least for me.  I hope you enjoyed the read, and that you will accept the challenge to be someone’s inspiration.  Have a great day and let’s go see some houses.

Kirkwood, Missouri: A Great Place to Live

by mattwroughtonrealtor

I like to call myself a Neighborhood Specialist in the world of Real Estate.  I feel that I truly know and understand many of the neighborhoods in St. Louis considering I was born and raised in St. Louis and continue to live here.  We’ll start this Neighborhood Background Series with a town that is near and dear to my heart, Kirkwood.  This is where I grew up, played, and went to school.  I have so many great memories of Kirkwood, from my older brother’s wedding reception b in our backyard, many high school football games, both playing and watching my brothers, wiffle ball games in the backyard which lead to many baseball games throughout my life, and many, many more.  Now we will begin to talk about what makes Kirkwood, Missouri great.

According to the city’s website, Kirkwood describes itself as: “Turn-of-the-century homes and a thriving business community await you in the City of Kirkwood, Missouri. Established in 1853, Kirkwood has long been known for its down-home charm, community pride, nationally recognized schools, vibrant business community, and its involved residents” (http://www.kirkwoodmo.org/).  This description says it all to me.  When I was growing up, I felt the community pride and definitely noticed how involved the residents are.  If you happen to venture into Kirkwood, you’ll see an abundance of the color red.  That is the main color of the high school.  During football season, you’ll find much of the community at the high school football game.  Go Pioneers!  I still have Kirkwood pride and always will.  Growing up, my parents and our little neighborhood were very involved in the community.  Every year Kirkwood has a parade called the Greentree Parade.  I couldn’t tell you how many times I was in that parade with our neighborhood ‘float’; although I do know that I marched in it twice as part of the Marching Band and once with the football team after we won the Frisco Bell, the trophy for winning our annual Thanksgiving Day football game against Webster Groves.  In my high school career, I was 2-1 in those games, sadly losing my senior year. 

Kirkwood originally was created around the train station, where people were able to take the train into St. Louis City for work every day.  It was the first planned satellite suburbs of St. Louis.  I remember growing up and occasionally hearing a steam engine still coming through town, which my Dad made my brothers and me run down the street to see it and get ice cream.  It was really cool. 

The houses, when I was growing up, were more of the older traditional houses.  The house I grew up in was built in 1883.  Around my childhood house were many other houses near that age, but not quite.  Sadly, now some of the older houses are getting torn down so builders can build newer houses on the lots.  I truly hope they don’t ever tear down my childhood home.  I would be heart broken.  My brother and I have always joked about buying it if it ever goes back on the market.

The ambiance of Kirkwood has made it a highly attractive community in which to live, with a vibrant Real Estate market.  The high-quality schools, easy access to major highways, and the mixture of old homes with newer construction create a unique community in which to live and raise a family.  The continued development indicates that it remains a solid investment for real estate. Downtown Kirkwood is what I consider a movie set downtown.  Lots of little stores and great restaurants.  If you want any suggestions of where to eat, just ask.  It reminds me of a small town’s downtown with a bigger town’s activities.  Its location also makes it easy to get to all the major attractions in the St. Louis area as well. There is so much more that I could tell you about Kirkwood, and I might someday, but before I keep rambling and miss living in Kirkwood even more, I’ll say have a great day and let’s go see some houses, in Kirkwood.

Winter Storm(s) Real Estate

by mattwroughtonrealtor

Wintertime is a tough time for most industries.   I can’t even imagine the difficulties of being on a road construction crew during this time of year.  Real Estate is not as tough as that, maybe, but it sure has some hard times.  Think about it, preparing to hold and holding an Open House when a snow storm is sweeping through town.  That happened to me, not once, but twice.  The first storm actually brought some snow, approximately 9 inches.  I ended up cancelling my Open House that weekend.  Luckily, I had picked up my directional signs and got home right as the snow started to fall on the Friday.  This past weekend, I decided not even to bother scheduling one, as it was supposed to be super frigid with a good chance of ice — it just rained.  Trying to maintain your normal weekly schedule for your business through the tough days of winter are a challenge.

Snow Storm Gia, #1.  This was a storm that impacted much of the country.  The only impact to me was at home in St. Louis.  On Sunday or Monday, before the storm, I had planned on holding an Open House the following Saturday.  Within the next day or two I had placed all my directional signs, put up the Open House rider, and advertised the Open House all over my Facebook page, and then it happened; a major snow storm was on the forecast.  I was, honestly, pissed off.  I was looking forward to this Open House; I was supposed to have someone shadow me on this one, which I took as a challenge to be better.  The predictions kept getting worse and worse, but since I’ve grown up in St. Louis, I understand this prediction of 8-12” of snow could just as easily be a light dusting of snow.  I waited as long as I could before I eventually cancelled the Open House, as I didn’t want to be out driving in the snowstorm if I didn’t have to.  My car does not handle the show very well.  I was actually happy that there was significant snowfall.  I would have been more upset if the snow ended up missing us after I officially cancelled the Open House.  You can read about what I did that weekend on the previous blog post, beware, you will feel worn out just by reading it.

Snow Storm Harper, #2.  This was another storm that was supposed to impact St. Louis.  It wasn’t supposed to drop a lot of snow on the city, but originally it was supposed to have the daily high temperature in the single digits, which would have been brutal.  It was still supposed to snow up to 4”, which would have caused enough issues.  I was watching the forecast like a hawk, deciding whether or not to attempt to hold an Open House last weekend.  I did not.  It wasn’t until Thursday or Friday that the forecast called for a slightly warmer temperature and basically just rain.  I felt that it was too late to properly market an Open House and to put out the directional signs, so I started to market an Open House for this coming weekend.  I noticed that there were a lot of people who went and viewed the house, which was obviously great.  That is what you want when you have a listing, the more people who view it, the better the chances of finding the buyer.  Although this storm wasn’t too bad on Saturday, it did decide to snow Sunday afternoon which was a pain for me.  Attempting to drive home from playing Kickball, my car couldn’t make it up a hill, the road was super slick.  I ended up having to turn around and go a different way to avoid the snowy roads.  It might have snowed an inch, but the roads weren’t treated so they were a little hazardous. 

When I got into the real estate business, I never thought about the challenges of trying to work through snow storms.  Now I’m wondering how I am going to put out directional signs when the ground is frozen.  I guess I’ll find that out when I get to it.  I’m sure I’ll think of something.  As much as I enjoy the cold and snowy weather, I am definitely ready for Spring.  More people are looking for houses or wanting to sell their house then.  I hope you all stay warm and if you feel like daring the weather, let’s go see some houses.

My MLB Hall of Fame Ballot

by mattwroughtonrealtor

If I had a Vote

As a lifelong Baseball fan, I have an opinion on who I believe deserves to be in the Hall of Fame from this year’s class.  I know don’t have a vote, and my opinion means nothing to the actual Hall of Fame, but I felt the need to write who I think should be in and why.  I used to be against the players who were attached to the steroid era, especially if they were accused of using, but I have moved past that; those were the times.  There are non-pitchers who are in from the dead ball era, the times should dictate the criteria on which the votes are based.  If there was a committee that could go though and look at all the players in the Hall of Fame and re-judge them by today’s standards, I truly feel that many of the Hall of Famers would not make the updated list.  When making my choices I used my gut opinion from watching them play through the years, I looked at their stats over their careers, I looked where they align with other Hall of Famers, and I even used the newer Sabermetrics to come to my conclusions.  With my list of ten players, which I have ranked, I did have a few that were on the cusp of making my list.  I will break down why I did not include them in my top ten for this year.  My list, in order, is:

  1. Mariano Rivera
  2. Barry Bonds
  3. Roger Clemens
  4. Sammy Sosa
  5. Roy Halladay
  6. Edgar Martinez
  7. Todd Helton
  8. Manny Ramirez
  9. Scott Rolen
  10. Fred McGriff
  11. Andruw Jones
  12. Omar Vizquel
  13. Billy Wagner
  14. Miguel Tejada

There you go.  Those players listed 1-10 are who I believe belong in the Hall of Fame from today’s ballot.  Andruw Jones was very close in my mind to making the list, but I felt that Scott Rolen and Fred McGriff were just barely more deserving of the right.  I believe that Andruw Jones will make the Hall of Fame eventually, I just ran out of room on my imaginary ballot.

Mariano Rivera.  He is a Hall of Famer to me because I believe he is the best closing pitcher the game has ever seen.  He is the All-Time leader in Saves, won the AL reliever of the year five times, and has a career WAR of 56.3.  From my eye test, every time I saw a Yankee game, and he pitched, I knew the Yankees were about to win the game.  He was dominant for 16 of his 19 years in the MLB.  One of those years he was recovering from a torn ACL, when he was 42.  The other two years were his first two in the major leagues.  All of these factors tell me that he will be a no doubt Hall of Famer.

Barry Bonds.  I think he should already be a Hall of Famer d.  He is the All-Time Homerun leader, both career and single season, All-Time leader in Walks and Intentional Walks, He was a seven-time NL MVP, eight-time Gold Glove winner, two-time NL Batting Champion, and has a career WAR of 162.8.  He was a beast when he was in the batter’s box.  There was a time where he either walked or it seemed he hit a Homerun.  His most notorious season where he hit 73 Homeruns, he also batted .328 and had 137 RBIs.  Yes, I know he has been accused of using steroids, and I believe that he did.  I also believe he was going to be a Hall of Famer before he ballooned up.  Before the season when he hit the 73 Homeruns, he was hitting 25-45 homers, around 100 RBIs, and hitting around .310 every year.  He was also a factor on the bases; he stole 514 over his career.  All these factors tell me that he is definitely a Hall of Famer, and shame on the Baseball writers for not including him in the hall.

Roger Clemens.  This is another player who I believe should already be a Hall of Famer.  He is undoubtedly one of the best pitchers of all time.  He won 20+ games 6 times in his career, leading the league four times, lead the league in ERA seven times, lead the league in strikeouts five times, he won the Cy Young award seven times, and even was an MVP once, which is rare for pitchers to do.  In his career his win/loss record was 354-184, with a career ERA of 3.12, he amassed 4672 strikeouts, and had a career WAR of 139.0.  He is another player who was extremely feared when he was on the mound.  He too has been tied to the usage of steroids, I don’t doubt that he used them.  It was the times, and I feel that if you weren’t using them, you were at a major disadvantage.  I think he used them, not to get better, but to extend his career; he pitched until he was 44 years old.  He is a player that when I watched him play, I knew he deserved to be a Hall of Famer. He will be someday. 

Sammy Sosa.  This one is hard for me to say, but Sammy Sosa should be a Hall of Famer.  Growing up a St. Louis Cardinals fan, I absolutely hated Sammy Sosa, but respected him for what he was doing on the field and for the game.  He deserves to be a Hall of Famer purely for the run he went on from 1996-2002.  He was one of the most feared batters in the game during that time.  He finished his career with 609 Homeruns, 1667 RBIs, .273 batting average, 58.6 WAR, 1 MVP, and 6 Silver Sluggers.  His stats line up with other Hall of Famers, not many players have hit over 600 Homeruns.  He would have more MVPs if he didn’t play during the Barry Bonds era.  For how he helped save the game of baseball during the 1998 season with his Homerun race with Mark McGuire, (who I also believe deserves to be in the Hall of Fame), is enough of a reason, to me, why he deserves to be in.  I believe Sammy Sosa will eventually be a Hall of Famer, but probably not until the veterans committee votes him in, with most of the big names from the steroid era.

Roy Halladay.  He should be elected to the Hall of Fame because he was a special pitcher and dominated the batters he faced during the steroid era.  He was never accused or attached to any steroid scandal but maintained his excellence over the league.  He won 203 games over his career, struck out 2117, had a career ERA of 3.38, won the Cy Young award twice, would have been more if he wasn’t battling Roger Clemens for the award.  The cumulation of all his stats, and how he dominated the league during his playing days, tells me that he is deserving of being a Hall of Famer.  I’m not sure if I’d say he’s a top 10 pitcher of all time, but he is definitely a top 3 pitcher of his era.  That, to me, makes him worthy of the Hall of Fame.

Edgar Martinez.  He has been growing on me, I didn’t get the chance to watch him play often, as he was in Seattle and his games were rarely shown where I grew up.  I do remember the name though and thinking that he was a really good player.  Being a DH has handicapped his Hall of Fame selection over the years.  It is hard for a pure DH to be elected, however, he was the best pure DH, until David Ortiz.  I believe if it weren’t for Edgar Martinez being so good and so important for the team as the DH, then David Ortiz could have fizzled out and not become the super star that he is.  Martinez redefined the position.  The award for the best DH in the league was named after him, that alone tells me that he should be a Hall of Famer.  He won this award five times and won the batting title twice.  He will be elected this year, as voters have steadily increased their support for him over the years.  Although this is his last year eligible, I believe if he does not get voted in now, the veterans committee will vote him in in a few years.

Todd Helton.  My favorite stat about Todd Helton is that Peyton Manning was his backup Quarterback at University of Tennessee.  Yes, I know that’s not related to his MLB Hall of Fame worthiness, but not many baseball players can say they were ahead of a future NFL Hall of Famer on the depth chart at any level of football.  On the baseball field he was a force for the Colorado Rockies.  Over his career, he hit 369 Homeruns, drove in 1406 RBIs, batted .316, with a season of hitting .372, had a WAR of 61.2, won three Gold Gloves, won four Silver Sluggers, and one Batting title.  He is hurt for playing in the thin air of Colorado, but I feel where a player plays should not hinder their Hall of Fame status.  If that were the case, move the Rockies out of the Denver.  I remember him always being the most feared batter on the Rockies and one of the most in the league.  He was an amazing First Baseman and with all of this, I believe he should be in the Hall of Fame.

Manny Ramirez.  The Hall of Fame needs a player like Manny Ramirez.  He was so entertaining, and so good at the same time.  He was one of the most feared batters during the time he played, amassing 555 Homeruns, 2574 Hits, 1831 RBIs, .312 Batting Average, and a .585 Slugging Percentage.  Besides those stats, he won nine Silver Sluggers, one Batting Title, one World Series MVP, and was in the top-5 of the MVP voting four times.  He was a major part of the Boston Red Sox team that ended their World Series Championship drought and was always great.  He was one of my favorite players and I always thought he was a little different, in a good way, and a step above the rest of the players on the field.  With all this, I feel that he deserves to be in the Hall of Fame.

Scott Rolen.  Although he did have a few years where he was a feared batter, he is more known for being one of the best defensive Third Basemen ever in baseball.  Offensively his career was still pretty good, hitting 316 Homeruns, 2077 Hits, 1287 RBIs, and batting .281.  His offensive numbers would be better if he wasn’t battling injuries during the tail end of his 17-year career.  Speaking of his defensive stats, he won eight Gold Gloves and had a career Fielding Percentage of .968 which is insane considering he had 5745 chances to make an error, of which he only made 186.  Other awards that he has collected over his career are the NL Rookie of the Year, one Silver Slugger, and chased after a few MVP awards.  I might be a little biased because he played for my hometown team, but I always was beyond amazed at how he played Third Base.  It made me want to play Third Base growing up, and I still do play in when I play softball.  His defensive skills were a major inspiration to me.  Again, I know that doesn’t matter to his Hall of Fame worthiness, but it demonstrates how good he truly was.

Fred McGriff.  This player was another of my favorites growing up.  I remember him always being so good.  Over his career he amassed some incredible stats, 493 Homeruns, 1550 RBIs, 2490 Hits, and a .284 Batting Average.  I believe if he had hit seven more Homeruns, he would already be a Hall of Famer.  He also brought home a lot of awards over his career, three Silver Sluggers, one All Star Game MVP, and he was in the Top-10 in the MVP race six times.  In reading up on Fred McGriff, I feel that the fact that he played for so many teams is hurting his Hall of Fame chances.  I’m not sure if he will get in on this ballot, but I hope that he will get in through the veterans committee eventually.  He was one of the best that played the game and deserves this accolade.

Well those were the players that I would vote for, for the MLB Hall of Fame, if I had a vote.  Now it’s time to talk a little about the players that were on the cusp of my ballot.  Andruw Jones was the player who was the closest to making my ballot, basically being vote 10b, with Fred McGriff being 10a.  I honestly gave Fred McGriff the nod over Andruw Jones because it is McGriff’s last year on the ballot and I believe that he should be in the Hall of Fame.  Andruw Jones’ stats are very similar to Scott Rolen’s, but I liked Rolen more when he was playing.  I believe Andruw Jones should be in the Hall of Fame, and I just ran out of room on my imaginary ballot.  Omar Vizquel was next, he would be going in purely on his defensive merit, and I don’t think that he was good enough on the offensive side of the field to deserve the right to be a Hall of Famer.  I do believe he is close, but he didn’t make my ballot this year.  The next two players I remember them being really dominant for a few years, but their peak years did not last very long.  These two players are Billy Wagner and Miguel Tejada.  These two players are at risk of falling of the ballot for next year, purely because there are so many great players ahead of them in many actual voters’ minds.  Miguel Tejada was one of the best players in the game for a few years, but he needed that to last a bit longer.

Well, there you have it, my ballot, if I were to have one, for the MLB Hall of Fame.  I wish that the actual voters would put out a breakdown like this, so the general public can see where they are coming from and to see why they made the decisions that that they did.  I feel that it would make the Hall of Fame process run smoother and create a lot of interesting conversation.  If you have any thoughts about my choices, feel free to leave a comment and start the conversation.  I hope you all have a great day, and let’s go see some houses, and talk baseball.

Ugh, Colds

by mattwroughtonrealtor

Cough, Cough, Sneeze, and Repeat

This past week I have been battling a bad cold.  I know I promised you a more exciting post this week; I honestly tried.  I had a great one planned, but I could not draw the energy to put the appropriate effort into an exciting blog last week. I am still feeling lousy but have enough energy to tell you all the struggle of being a REALTOR® when you are sick.

Since I am a solo agent, I can’t rely on a team to pick up the slack when I am not feeling well.  I had to struggle through it.  I decided to stay away from the office: nothing worse than a bad cold sweeping its way through an office.  I figured everyone else would rather I kept my misery to myself.  I did manage to go to my weekly meeting Monday morning, but left soon afterwards when I started to not feel good.  My colds start off differently than most, feel OK for a few days and then, BAM, feel like total crap.  I tried my best to power through.  I had a good day, just in time for the office Holiday Party.  Luckily it was during lunch, so I was feeling better. Mornings and nights are the worst. I have never understood that, but that has always been the case with me.  Of course, I had scheduled to hold an Open House on Thursday evening during this week; my body has a cruel sense of humor.  It felt the need to be sick during a week when I had a lot to do. 

The Open House went well, despite me not feeling well.  I almost called another agent to hold it for me but decided that I needed to power through and show up.  It was fairly slow, only one visitor, but the one person loved the house.  Fingers crossed that it works out in the future. I would not have received this good news or met the potential buyer if I had decided to stay home and pity myself. During the down time, I utilized my time and planned out what my social media was going to be over the weekend, I searched for newly expired listings,tried to write an exciting post on the Winter, and yes, I played a few games on my phone.  This time I finally learned. I brought a folding chair with me, so I could actually sit down during the Open House; I didn’t want to stand for three hours. 

The biggest struggle for me during the week was not writing letters to people.  I didn’t want to lick the envelopes, and yes, I know there are other ways to dampen the strip on the envelope to make it stick.  I focused mainly on going above and beyond on my social media content to keep me going.  I tried to have fun with it;putting a post on Facebook about chicken wings, asking the public where their favorites are.  I found some that I need to try.  There will definitely be a future post about chicken wings.

Now we’re to the weekend. I don’t think I made a smart decision on Sunday.  I chose to go play four Kickball games.  Yes, I know it was super cold outside.  Yes, it was outside.  Yes, I know I was fighting a cold.  I don’t feel worse now, and actually might feel better.  That is probably because I was dead tired and went to bed early last night.  I am glad that I went out, it was a morale boost to get back to my normal routine.

Well that was my week of having a bad cold and trying to do REALTOR® things.  I didn’t think I was very productive last week, until now.  I actually did more than I thought.  I am proud of myself for getting so much done, except writing letters, which I am working on now.  Writing this blog has been a break from letter writing, so my hand can un-cramp.  I hope you all stay healthy and let’s go see some houses.