If you ask this Sacramento short sale agent what she does besides sell short sales, the answer would be very little. I start work sometime between 5 AM and 6 AM every day. I end at 9 PM, at which point I either read for a while or immediately fall asleep. Unless I have some awful thing happen during the day that I can bend my husband's ear yakking about. It wouldn't surprise me to learn that he wears earplugs to bed and has just never told me.
I work 7 days a week, too, because I also write for About.com about homebuying. So, you agents who are barely making it in this business, pay heed. There is a price to be paid for success. That price is your time.
Of course, I love love love what I do, so it's easy to get sucked into working almost 24 / 7, especially if it doesn't feel like work to me. Every short sale is different, and every short sale has a person or a family behind it. People who need help, mostly. I feel a personal responsibility to each and every transaction to give it my best and get it closed.
But there is only so much time in life; I have decided to make some changes. I'm not changing my commitment, drive nor enthusiasm for my clients. What I am changing is I am taking off 3 Sundays a month, and I'm gonna strive for four. This means I won't answer my phone or sit on the computer, even if I am home. I need a little bit more unplugged time, like MTV did in the 1980s. Hey, you may laugh and say taking off Sundays is a no-brainer, but I've always worked on Sundays. I'm no longer working past 7 PM, either. I start work earlier than most businesses and I end later than most businesses, so if you can't reach me past 7 PM, it's not the end of the world.
This should make me an even better Sacramento short sale agent. I strive for superior service. I'm damned good at what I do, and if you don't want me to represent you, you're a fool. Of course, I would say that. Most important though, if I accept a person as a client, that person can rest assured that like that Allstate commercial says, they're in good hands. Plus, hopefully, from here on out, when somebody asks me what I do, I can describe an activity that is in addition to selling short sales in Sacramento.
Girls just wanna have fun. Hey, ask Cyndi Lauper. We all need balance.
Photo: Elizabeth Weintraub, taken with my BlackBerry Bold of Jackson at 18 weeks.
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Certified HAFA Specialist
My Sacramento Real Estate Listings
Elizabeth Weintraub is an author, home buying columnist for The New York Times-owned About.com, a Land Park resident, and a Land Park real estate agent who specializes in older, classic homes in Land Park, Curtis Park, Midtown and East Sacramento. Weintraub is also a Sacramento Short Sale agent who lists and successfully sells short sales throughout the four-county Sacramento area. Call Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759. Put 35 years of real estate experience to work for you. Broker-Associate at Lyon Real Estate. DRE License # 00697006.
The Short Sale Savior, by Elizabeth Weintraub, available at Amazon.com.
Lyon Real Estate is not associated with the government, and our service is not approved by the government or your lender. Even if you accept this offer and use our service, your lender may not agree to change your loan.
Photo: Unless otherwise noted in this blog, the photo is copyrighted by Big Stock Photo and used with permission.
The views expressed herein are Weintraub's personal views and do not reflect the views of Lyon Real Estate.
Disclaimer: If this post contains a listing, information is deemed reliable as of the date it was written. After that date, the listing may be sold, listed by another brokerage, canceled, pending or taken temporarily off the market, and the price could change without notice. It could blow up, explode or vanish. To find out the present status of any listing, please go to elizabethweintraub.com.
