It's amazing how the dots connect in real estate transactions.  Two of my most unusual transactions involved improbable situations.  Chris, a young man barely turned 18 approached me because he had heard I sold real estate.  No one wanted to take the kid seriously, and I could tell that he was bracing himself for the same brush off from me.  When, I told him that I was willing to work with him, his face lit up with excitement!  A couple of months later, he bought his first home and a couple of years later sold it for $24,000 in profit! 

It was Chris' mom, Sue who told me about Willie.  She worked with Willie in an Automobile Used Car Sales Lot.  Willie was one of the salespersons on the team.  She indicated that she had told the folks at work about her son's experience & Willie wanted to see if I could assist him with the purchase of a new home.  She also wanted me to know one more thing...Willie was legally blind.  Hold on...Rewind...A Blind Used Car Saleman???

We met Willie at the lot.  We waited until he had finished with a customer & then he greeted us warmly.  Not a hint of self-pity in his voice.  I peered at this man with the thick spectacles.  Was he really blind?  How in the world do you sell cars when you can't see them? 

Willie began to tell us his story.  His successful career with the Grand Rapids Parks & Recreational Department had been cut short when he began to loose his eyesite.  Doctors were never able to pinpoint what caused the degeneration of his optic nerve, but over a short period of time, Willie became legally blind & unable to continue his job.

Now, for most people, that would be the end of a sad story.  But not for Willie.  Willie decided that this was the chance to pursue his lifelong dream of selling cars.  He persuaded the owner of the Roberts Auto Shop to hire him & give him a chance.  Willie proceeded to memorize every car on the lot, using his hands to feel out the features.  A special computer which he demonstrated to us allowed letters to be enlarged 6-8 inches so he could painstakingly make out certain items.  While he did not complete contracts, I did actually witness him use that computer  & was amazed!

Willie found his dream home and became one of my most grateful & loyal clients.   He was grateful for the fact that we respected him & looked out for his interests.  He was grateful that we took the time to locate a home which he could walk to from work. He was grateful that his ranch style home was on one level.  He was grateful that he would be able to fix up his home.  Another double-take for me.  I asked this question to myself, "Willie, How are you going to handle tools to fix up your home"?  But he did!  And when he had finished painting, creating a Nascar Room & building a deck, he invited us over for a Celebration; pointing out all the things he had done himself with help from his wife & friends.

Since the sale of his home, Willie has called every Christmas or New Year to wish us well.  Recently, he called with some sad news.  His old boss had died, and Willie was being forced out of his job.  He sounded so folorn.  I was taken with the distress in his voice...so unlike Willie.  But, by the end of the conversation, the old Willie began to emerge as he talked about his dream of opening up his own garage.  This time, I knew better.  Nothing is impossible with God...and Willie's life has certainly proved that.  A few months passed and I received another call.  This time he said, "Lola, I'm doing it, I'm getting my own shop!" 

A few days ago, I stopped by to see Willie at his new shop on 7364 S. Division in Grand Rapids, Michgan.  Assistance from the Association of th Blind had enabled Willie to make his dream a reality!  The Grand Rapids Press & several syndicated news outlets picked up on the story & featured Willie & his family.  Willie's wife Betsy is deaf & they work together as a team.  She is his eyes & he is her ears.  Their daughter Delores is the delight of their lives.  Willie was so pleased to greet me.  I took  a picture of him in his office and said "You look like you should have been doing this all your life!  We both laughed.

My experiences with Chris & Willie have taught me a few important things.  First, never underestimate anyone, ever!  Chris remains the youngest individual I've ever worked with.  But he achieved his goal because someone was willing to come alongside & believe with him.  Secondly, a blind man taught me how to look beyond limitations and truly see the power of faith & potential.  Willie rarely indulged in self-pity or blame, even when he was fired on a pretext from a salesperson job that he had held for several years as a legally blind man for...get this...loosing his sight.  He used this experience as a stepping stone to acheive his goals.  In Willie's words, he sees it like this.."Any day that we're above ground is a good day!"

So, what are your limitations?  Why are they stopping you? 

*Related Article in the Grand Rapids, Press:  Gallery of Photos of Willie & his family

*Original Grand Rapids Press article by Pat Shellenberger

*Related Article in Lansing  State Journal, "Use Car Dealer says Wife's the Eyes, He's the Ears."

Living Outside the box!  Part 2

Read Part 1 of Living Outside the Box

I entered the Grand Rapids, Michigan real estate market just before the markets began its remarkable upswing.  In 1995, faxes and e-mail scans were not the primary means of delivering an offer.  Face to face negotiations required patience, persistance, and a thick skin.  If it was NOT a particularly attractive offer...well, let's put it this way, the dining room table in the home of a disgruntled seller could easily become hostile territory.

I tried to heed the advice of my trainer who urged us "Rookies" not to take things personally.  The challenge for me was this:  How do you NOT take it personally when you are embarrased and/or humiliated during an offer presentation?  How do you NOT take it personally when another Realtor's rudeness or incompetence turns an otherwise uncomplicated transaction into a nightmare?   How do you NOT take it personally when the appraiser walks up the steps of the house you have listed to conduct an impartial appraisal and BEFORE even entering it announces that he has decided he does NOT like this house and won't pass it? (Yes, this actually happened to me.)

Overtime, as I have been involved in more transactions, I have dealt with  a number of challenging and unfair situations.  I realized that if I allowed bitterness and resentment to color the lens through which I viewed my transactions, I would soon find myself living in a very small box. It is not uncommon during conversations to hear others refer to an agent with whom they had a difficult transaction in disparaging terms. This grudge bearing is not limited to agents...buyers and sellers sometimes offer to regale me with tales aboutf horrible transactions.  At first I listened, but eventually came to understand that I can just as easily become the subject of their next story. I soon learned that the best response was to say " I appreciate your concerns, but we must know focus our attention on the task at hand."

 Initially, I misunderstood how to implement my trainers advice.  "Don't take it personally."  I thought that if I didn't think about these incidents, the pain of perceived slights and insults would simply fade away.  They didn't.  Overtime, I noticed that I began to recoil at the thought of calling to show certain homes or meeting certain people as I harbored disspointment and resentment.  These choices simply relegated my distress to a deeper level of my subconscious. This was definitely short on positive results; my mental, emotional and physical well-being all being adversely affected.

A more mature understanding of the prinicples emobdied in the Greek Definition of the Word for Love, reveals its immense practical relevance.  Agape love is powerful when directed towards a friend, but it goes into stratospheric levels when focused on those by whom you have been mistreated.  For starters, they can no longer place you in a box!  Whenever, I make the decision to release someone who has wounded me, my healing starts...I am no longer on their timetable. 

I am learning to engage and practise a Few Simple Transformational  Business Principles. Here some suggestions I am using to  Keep My Heart's Love Account Balanced.  Perhaps they can be of assistance to you as well.

Keep Short Accounts

• It is a form of Irrational Emotional Accounting to alienate professional & personal relationships because of a perceived slight or insult. Remember that someone else, somewhere on this planet,  is probably seeking therapeutic assistance for some of your misdeeds to them!.   Sometimes, I wish we were able to get a look at the ledger which revealed how much we had forfeited because we refused to release another's debt of offense. We would see that there are transactions which we missed because we did not have the creative energy reserves for them, opportunites which we were blind to, all because we carried excessively long accounts. So let it go, no one is perfect.

Keep focused on the task at hand.

• Will this really matter in 1 year? I honestly cannot remember what irritated me a year ago, can you?  If what is being done is unethical or unjust...yes, it will matter in a year.  In a year, the individuals impacted will have suffered needlessly. If the answer is YES, then no commission is worth the compromise.  If the answer is NO, then let it go.  The price of losing focus is a luxury we cannot afford.  Remember that another's well-being is ultimately somehow inter-related to your own.  We are all connected!

Keep It Polite...Mind Your Manners.

• Practice being polite before you find yourself in a difficult situation.  Practise saying thank you for the little things, particularly with members of your family.  Practise simple acts of respectful kindness like holding the door open for someone else.  Practise honoring people by calling them "Sir" & M'am...it has a way of getting you into the habit of acknowledging and reinforcing in your subconscious mind the importance of others. 

Keep Your Love Channel Clear...This Really is What You Need!

This is not easy, but living in a rapidly clustraphobic box because you choose to nurse a hurt is infinitely more difficult.  Sometimes we ignore the indicators which signal a blockage in our love channel. When you find yourself wincing at the mention of someone's name...there is an interruption of the flow of love.  When you avoid showing a certain person's listing...there is an interruption of the flow of love.  When you wince at the prospect of meeting someone...there is an interruption in the flow of love.  Learn to honor this message.  You can't always change the other person or the situation...but we can all make a choice to move forward with our lives rather than stagnate on life's stage because we choose to hold on to that which we must release.

Click to Read Part 1 of "Living Outside the Box"

© 2007 Audu Real Estate  All rights reserved

Living Outside the Box!

Approximately two years after I was born, in June of 1967, the Beatles released their famous song, "All You Need is Love".  This was the context; racial tensions were super heating in the United State and the Vietnam War was  creating a quagmire with fading hopes for  a peaceful resolution.  A nasty tussle over oil and land engulfed Africa's most strategically important and populous county, Nigeria on the West coast  of Africa in the Biafrian war in which millions lost their lives and Israel launched the 6 day War under threat from its neighbors.   Against this backdrop, the message of the song seemed incongruous and naive.  Was all we really needed love?

In these early years of my childhood, I was too young to understand what was going on.  By 1970, the war in Nigeria had ended, and left millions starving.  My mother had started working for the Sudan Interior Mission and became involved with a relief operation to take food, and clothing to war ravaged area in Eastern Nigeria.  I remember staying with family friends while my Mom would fly on missions to drop off these clothes and food supplies. 

I had little awareness of how dangerous and heroic my Mother's efforts were.  As we grew older, she would tell us stories of how she had to take her own chair into military aircraft;  they would then fly and land on airstrips where they met people who were so devastated by destruction and starvation that her heart wept.  (If you are interested in some more information about this, this article entitled Thunder Road is an extraordinary collection of stories from this period...be forewarned it is a long and big file.) Why does a young woman with small children leave her family and go into dangerous territory to deliver relief supplies?  Perhaps, it's because instinctively she knows that what her corner of the world, brutalized  by the despair of war needs most is Love

The need for love remains just as urgent today.  I have found it increasingly relevant in my real estate career in Grand Rapid, Michigan. It is not just a requirement for resolution of global and international conflicts, it also impacts and is needed in our daily lives. The Beatles turned out to be modern day prophets.  There are certain phrases in the song  "All You Need is Love" that seem amazingly optimistic:

 There's nothing you can do that can't be done
Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
It's easy

Nothin' you can make that can't be made
No one you can save that can't be saved
Nothin' you can do, but you can learn how to be you in time
It's easy...

All you need is love
All you need is love
All you need is love, love
Love is all you need (x2)

But it's true!  Nothing is impossible that can't be done through love. Yes, it is something that must be learned but I wouldn't say it's easy.  Love is much bigger and much more powerful than our common everyday usage suggests.  The ancient Greeks understood the profound depth of this word and had 3 different words to describe love, Eros, Phileo & Agape.  The implications and power of each of each of these words differs immensely. In the biblical literature of the New Testament, one of the Greek words Agape is illustrated by self-sacrificing, giving love to all--both friend and enemy. This is NOT easy...but we must pause to ask ourselves...what is more difficult...the horror and devastation of war, strife and hatred, or choosing to learn to embrace the principles embodied in Love?

Read Part 2: 

© 2007 Audu Real Estate  All rights reserved