As A new real-estate agent, I
had just been given my first beeper. Eager to show it off, I went to visit my mother. She
was much impressed and jotted the number down in case she ever had to reach me. Then she
invited me to dinner. While she finished preparing the meal, I went shopping. I was
waiting in a checkout line when I got my first "beep." Feeling important, as
everyone in line looked on, I pushed the beeper's call button to hear my mother's voice
loud and clear: "Supper's ready!"
SOME time after our top salesman, a man by the name of
Holme, handed in his
resignation, he asked me if I had anyone in mind for his job. I told him I had decided on
a young woman named House. At this he quipped, "Do you really think you can replace a
Holme with just a House?"
WHEN the last of their three children was about to leave
home, my parents decided to buy a smaller house. The real-estate sign went up. A week
later, a second "For Sale" sign appeared two doors away. "Soon you'll have
new families on either side of you," my mother remarked to the neighbour whose house
was in the middle. "We're thinking of putting up our own sign," she
replied wistfully. "It would read: 'Was it something we said?' "
OWNER to a house hunter: "Yes, the kitchen is a bit
small, but with a mortgage like this you won't do much cooking anyway."
WHEN A real-estate agency hadn't sold our house, we decided
to do it ourselves. I placed ads in the local papers, spray painted a "For Sale"
message on a sign board and posted it outside.
When my husband came home that evening, he told me, laughing,
that my sign was the most truthful one he had ever seen. Confused, I rushed outside to
take a look. In my haste I had printed - "For Sale by Ower."
THE dance we were going to was formal. Elegantly
dressed, I headed downstairs, picking up in passing a wastebasket that needed to be
emptied and a mop that had to be put away. The door bell rang. I answered it, still
clutching mop and wastebasket. The young man gave me a startled look. "My
wife and I were interested in buying a home in this neighbourhood," he began,
"but if this is the way everyone dresses to clean house, I'm not sure we want to live
here."
WHEN we put our house up for sale, I stressed emphatically
that my sons make their beds each morning. I left for work before they left for
school, and I wanted to be sure that the house looked presentable when the agent showed it
to prospective buyers. I was surprised and impressed that my 15-year-old son's bed
was made perfectly each day. One night when I went into his room, I discovered his secret
he was fast asleep on the floor in his sleeping bag.
A FEW years ago we were desperately trying to sell our house,
which was situated on a busy thorough fare. Our Real Estate agent decided to have
open-house inspection nearly every day to promote the sale. We instructed the
children not to talk to anyone about the house. One evening a man took our
seven-year-old daughter aside and asked if our house had any secrets he should know.
Her first reaction was to smile and ignore his question. But he became more
persistent and, finally, she confessed there was one secret but she could not tell it to
him. "Now we're getting somewhere," he said. "Tell me the
secret. I promise I won't tell anyone." Debbie looked him straight in the eye
before blurting out, "We have monsters in our sewer."
MY FRIEND Marilyn, a real-estate agent, had difficulty
getting a listing from a customer whose theory was that "there is no substitute for
experience." After he asked her a third time how many years she had been in the
business, she told him: "Sir, there is a little-known historical fact that Moses
brought three tablets down from the mountain - two were the Ten Commandments and the other
was my real-estate license!" She got the listing.
As PROPERTY manager of single-family residences, I was
showing a unit to prospective tenants and asking the usual questions: "Professionally
employed?" "We're a military family," the wife answered.
"Children?" "Yes, nine and twelve," she told me proudly.
"Animals?" "Oh, no," she said earnestly. "They're very well
behaved."