Holtz Realty

I received a call last night from a good friend inviting me to breakfast this morning.  I couldn’t refuse since I hadn’t seen him in months so we set a time and place.  The parking lot of the restaurant was about half full when we got there so I figured we wouldn’t have to be waiting for a table.  While looking over the menu, I was noticing all the more people arriving.  I mentioned to my friend how busy they seemed to be already, which therefore meant their breakfasts must be noteworthy.  We ordered, drank coffee, and played catch-up while waiting for our plates.

While we were visiting I couldn’t help but over-hear some women at the next table bickering away about trivialities in their lives.  I said to my friend, “They’re getting pretty wound up already this morning and I hope it’s not the beginning of a cat fight.”  He laughed while adding, “Hey, have you noticed something a little different about the people here?”  I scanned the crowd and suddenly noticed a pattern with nearly every male that was there.  I looked at him and said, “Good heavens!  Nearly all the males are wearing baseball hats.”  “Yup, you got it!” he said.  There were young ones, old ones, and those in between wearing baseball hats while being served in a restaurant!

You all may think me terribly persnickety when it comes to what I believe is socially acceptable and what’s not, but this is the first time I’ve seen a group of men eating with their baseball hats on inside a restaurant.  I’ve decided I really don’t get out enough to see the changes that are taking place in society. The standards are certainly falling like a rock. First it was the excess facial hair and now it’s the baseball hats.  What next?

I had a friend a number of years ago who had the onset of male pattern baldness early in his years and was terribly sensitive to that fact.  He wore a baseball cap E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!  Teasing him a bit once about that cap being glued to his head all the time I said, “How does your wife like you wearing that cap to bed?”  That question wasn’t very well received, but at least he started taking it off more often.  We quietly parted ways several years later due to the both of them growing exceptionally religious as well as trying to induct me and likely everyone else into their newfound religious community.

I’m a firm believer people should be left to find their own forms of faith and leave it at that instead of trying to evangelize everyone they come into contact with on a daily basis.  As I’ve said to many, “For me, outward signs of faith are superficial, but real faith grows quietly within.”  I’m reminded of that on occasion whenever I meet someone who has the ability to weave in and out of the “crowd” while doing great things for others and rarely ever noticed.  I was again reminded of my belief when speaking to a woman not long ago who during her long career was at many a bedsides of the dying.  She simply held their hands and prayed quietly with them.  While most would run from death, she freely went to them so to ensure they’d not be alone while making their journey to the other side.  Her selfless concern for another’s dying, is just one of my examples of real spirituality.

Late this morning I was called out to look at a home that’s undergoing an extreme make-over which would likely be worthy of a feature story on a prime time channel.  As far as I’m concerned, the relationship that family has within is reminiscent of how families from generations past would work together for the common good of their household.  Since I hadn’t been there to see it for over a month, I was again shocked at the amount of work they’ve done since my last visit.  I laugh to myself in knowing how most of us work to have our weekends free for playing, while those two work all the harder on Saturday and Sunday with their own projects.   There’s no question they’d be considered two people who freely holding down two jobs and liking it.  It’s vision and hard work of people like them who’ll be making their own personal America great again.  If only the rest of our country would look to them for direction.

My public open house at 422 S. Tennessee Place was a bit slow, but at least I had one party arrive who seemed somewhat interested.  We’ll see what happens this coming week.  If only we would get more homes on the market in that 80K – 120K range, I’d be getting more buyers placed in their new homes before Spring arrives.  The jury is still out as far as what I believe this year’s market is going to be like.  I’ve been encouraging sellers to get their homes on the market as soon as possible just because we’re now experiencing a shortage.

While coming back from showing an acreage late today, I happened to notice high above at least four flocks of Canada geese flying north.  At first I thought I was seeing things because this is too early for them to be migrating.  The 18^th of February and the birds are flying back?  Hmmm, it makes me wonder if they know something we don’t.  Or, it could be because we’ve been experiencing above average temperatures during this month.  I’m just going to stay hopeful they know what they’re doing more than we by returning so early.

It seemed as though the day went flying by when I looked at the clock and found it to be 6:00 pm.  I guess it was one of those days where all the little chores were filling time slots in a non-stop fashion.  What gave me a near jaw drop was hearing someone speak today who’s voice was a dead ringer of Truman Capote’s.  When I turned around and looked, the young gentleman’s overall demeanor was also reminiscent of Capote’s.  If he weren’t a perfect stranger, I would’ve likely said something to him about his likeness, bit I think that would’ve been a bit too forward on my part.

Early this afternoon I received a phone call from one of my dear friends.  He was very much beside himself after hanging up from a conversation with one of his relatives. From what it sounded like, the caller was being beyond crudely rude.  The only solace I could give was,  “It sounds like your relative was having a few too many glasses of giggle water before you picked up.” At least I did get a “giggle” out of him.  Before hanging up I said, “You know there are laws against drinking and driving, but I think there should be similar laws against drinking and dialing.”   What I firmly believe about giggle water is that it’s also a truth serum.  Some of the deepest secrets and darkest hatreds are illuminated when someone’s all “giggled up” and spewing out their guts.  So terribly pathetic don’t you think?

My early morning appointment took me on a most delightful drive to show an acreage.  Since I purposely arrived there early enough, I did some exploring on my own before the buyers arrived.  What I noticed first off were the exceptional views from nearly every window in the home.  Another feature I really liked was there being no close neighbors.  When the buyers arrived and walked thru the home, the wife teasingly said to me while looking out over the countryside from the second floor windows, “Wow!  I think you could walk around in this bedroom naked with all the shades up and nobody would see you.”  I must’ve turned fifty shades of red when she said that.  Yes, she does know how to get a blush out of me.  But she was right about the privacy.

While at the Post Office today, another customer whom I’ve been working with on and off over this past year mentioned how she and her husband will be getting in touch with me about looking at acreages again come Spring.  Of course the foremost requirement is not to have close neighbors.  She said, “The point of living in the country is to not have another house across or close down the road.”  I did mention her requirements are very much the consensus with nearly all of today’s acreage buyers.  They also don’t want to live on gravel unless it’s only a short stretch.  I still don’t understand why the counties of Iowa won’t just go ahead and bite the bullet by blacktopping all our State’s gravel roads and be done with it.  Just think how our Counties tax revenues would increase due to more people building expensive country homes.  Maybe some day they’ll be forward thinking enough to do it.  Cerro Gordo County would certainly put itself on the radar if all our gravel roads were blacktop.

Today I was finding every reason to be outside including taking the last load of unwanted boxes from my office to the dump.  While waiting for the scale at the landfill, I looked and noticed it was 58 degrees outside.  It almost felt like a pleasant early April day without the Spring flowers blooming.  Speaking of Spring, I noticed there being a whole lot of trashy yards around our City, and I do hope the residents will be a little more pro-active than they were last year about taking care of their yards.  It bothers the heck out of me seeing lawns and shrubs being neglected.  When they get really bad, I’m not opposed to making my opinions be known to the public.

A home I had listed for rent about a month ago got rented today.  I took it off the market due to the extreme overload of callers to where there were several days when the phone was ringing nearly non-stop.  I’m glad I did stop advertising it because the new tenants just happened to stop by several days ago asking about rentals.  They both have been at their jobs for over a year, their court records are clean, and have more than enough in combined income to support their housing expenses.  I must say, some of the calls and emails I received about a month ago certainly brought me up to speed on how much of a shortage of fair-priced and clean rentals we have in our City.

Speaking of clean, please don’t forget about the public open house I’m having tomorrow at 422 S. Tennessee Place.  We just got a drastic price reduction on it so I’m looking to see it sold soon.  It’s all the more clean and maintenance free than one would ever expect.  It even has a balcony for pleasant evening’s enjoyment. And remember, there’ll be no more shoveling, so you’ll be able to ditch your snow shovel for good.  It really is a great value.