One of the best traits of success that I've found is resiliency
and having the ability to bounce back or stay balanced during the natural cycle of ebb and flow. 

Being resilient prepares you for anything and everything life throws your way. In a life full of ups and downs my motto has become a simple word which helps me get past the bad on on with life..."NEXT!"

The past month has been a month of NEXT's!  Here's just a few examples of what we put up with in Real Estate...

Buyer's who think they are about to own a new home, only to have the seller's pull out with little or no explanation...NEXT!

Wasting 3 hours having traveled to a listing to show it, waited and waited for the buyers to turn up and getting stuck in traffic on the Tappan Zee for over 2 hours when they failed to show up..NEXT!

Sending an Offer to Purchase into a NY city attorney of our clients' choice, who promises to send out contracts the same day, only to discover a week later that it hasn't yet been done. The buyers need to lock into a mortgage and decide to move on....NEXT!

Various IT issues, including a super-duper new computer, which costs a fortune to buy and install, only to discover that the something isn't working causing no end of angst, time, and frustration...NEXT!!!

Losing a listing because a potential seller doesn't understand the new face of real estate and insists on having an agent who is local. Doesn't matter (apparently) that the person they chose is a buyer agent and has never marketed a listing! NEXT!!

Spending over an hour explaining that a Certificate of Occupancy is essential if you want us to include the living space you created in our marketing. Spending hours at the town's building office ensuring we get it without any repercussions to our clients'...NEXT!!

Plus the usual slew of stressful conversations which seem to ensue on a daily basis...

"Your narrated tour isn't working."

"Our listing isn't on Zillow."

"A tree just fell on our roof."

"We are locked out - Can you come and let us in?"

"Can't you tell them our house is much better that the one down the street?"

"How often do trains like that go by?" "Do they always make that noise?"

"Would you mind running over and feeding the cat?"

"We left the bed unmade, be a dear and make it before the buyers arrive!"

"I know I'm not supposed to, but no one knows my home better than I do, so why don't I show you guys around?"

"We drove over your sign with the lawnmower - again!"

"Just calling to let you know we are thrilled that we finally found the home of our dreams!"  Where? Do you want to go and see it? - Oh no, we already have an accepted offer, it's in New Jersey!

"Sorry for the short notice, my buyers just called and decided to go to the beach instead. Can we reschedule?"

"No showings today, please cancel them all."

"I know you have buyers coming in from China this weekend, but the weather's so gorgeous, we are throwing a pool party, can you reschedule?"

"Sorry the underwriters just can't make this one work." Then why give them a pre-qualification, allow them to go to contract, do an appraisal, give their landlord notice, hire a moving company? And what about the poor sellers???

Enough and NEXT.....

Real estate is a combination of meeting lots of people, some nice, others not so nice. It is a life full of stress, constant changes, sometimes rewarding, and a  lot of the time it's like chasing rainbows. NEXT!