Holtz Realty

When knowing I didn’t have any immediate appointments scheduled this morning, I made a few rounds at my vacant listings, just to make sure all was well. While driving thru different districts, I couldn’t help but notice how scruffy the yards of many homes were beginning to look which made me sad, because a generation or more ago, there were all the more homeowners who really did take pride in how their homes appeared to the general public.

While at an office today, I couldn’t help bringing up the subject to one of the women who hails from a small town not far from Mason City.  She told two unfortunate stories about homes where once lived old relatives of hers, and now they’re looking not even close to their original grandeur, and to think that transition took place in less than 15 years.

She went on to say how close she came to purchasing her grandmother’s home, but was talked out of it by her siblings and parents because they believed they could get more for it on the open market.  She didn’t say if they did or didn’t, but years later, they all wished one of the family members had purchased it.  Her last words were, “I work hard at making sure not to drive down the streets of those homes because it sickens me.”

I can fully understand where she’s coming from because the “big farm” where we lived when I was very young, was a handsome enough place to call home, but years later the land was broken up and the acreage portion sold off, and the big house converted into a rickety up/down country duplex.  I drove past that place some years ago, and you can be sure I’ll not look for it again.

I’m in great hopes my “problem child” closing file is drawing closer to getting put to bed.  I think I have everything to the bank that’s needed from my side, so now I just have to wait for the selling agent and the buyers’ bank to get their act together.  I couldn’t thank the title attorney enough for moving as fast as he did on that file, and I didn’t even mention how problematic that sale had grown.

It came as no surprise when I received a call this morning from another Realtor on the acreage I just listed, and simply because it’s in a good price range, in great condition, and on a hard-surface road.  That agent will be showing it this evening and I’m in hopes those buyers will like it enough to make an offer on it.

My mid-afternoon appointment sent me over to Prairie Place on 1st so I could be there to open up a unit which the buyers wanted to see for the last time with their Realtor before they made an offer on it.  The selling agent thought I was going too much out of my way, but I reminded her that it’s my job to be as accommodating as possible for buyers, sellers, and other Realtors, but I did appreciate her noticing my little extras.

A wasted trip took me over to Clear Lake again today where I was supposed to pick up keys that weren’t where they were supposed to be, so back to the office I drove to place a call to the attorney handling it.  Hopefully those keys will turn up in the next day or two because the seller is getting exceptionally frustrated.

When I went back over to Prairie Place to lock up that unit, several of the owners were in the lobby, so I spent a little time visiting with them, and somehow we got on the subject of working too much by having our noses always at the grindstone.  Since she caught me without having my thinking/remembering cap on, I tried my darnedest to to recall that clever saying my grandmother had.   As much as I worked at remembering those lines, I finally exclaimed, “Now just you wait, I’ll remember those words, write them down, and give them to you the next time I see you.”  For sure she’ll be waiting.

Toward the end of the day, I really worked at remembering those lines until I finally did, and they go like this, “If you put your nose to the grindstone rough, and keep it down there long enough, you’ll soon insist there be no such things as brooks that babble or birds that sing, and then only these three things your world’ll hold, and that be you, the stone, and your darned old nose.”  The first time my grandmother said that to me when believing I worked too much, I laughed so much my ribs ached.  She was indeed quite the witty lady and certainly wish there were more the likes of her in our midst.

I believe our market is starting to pick up again now that we’ve entered August and the interest rates having been dropped by the Federal Reserve yesterday.  I’d say if someone’s thinking of buying, this is the time to do it.

Tonight’s one-liner is:  Intelligence is not to make no mistakes, but to quickly to see how to make them good.