A Most Embarrassing Experience

I might not look like the picture of health, but over the years, I have tried to take my health seriously. Since I’m not a morning person, I like to find simple ways to balance rushing around in the morning that includes getting my caffeine intake and breakfast. The caffeine is mandatory. Breakfast tends to be optional. One of those options includes protein smoothies since they are healthy and portable.

One particular morning, I made myself a smoothie that included a protein powder and fresh blueberries. My dual cup holder in the car is perfect for this. Driving to my first appointment, I alternated between the two. By the time I arrived at the house, I was happily caffeinated and the smoothie was gone. Perfect start to my day…. Or so I thought.

As is customary when I pull up to a house, I knock on the door and introduce myself as the professional that I am, do my best to make them feel comfortable by informing them of how I will be proceeding with the inspection and giving them a rough estimate of how long I expect it to take me. Traditionally, I do my measurements and take my pictures of the exterior first. Once completed on the exterior, I proceed to the interior. I will start with the main level, work my way up if there are more levels and then conduct my inspection of the basement last. Once I’ve seen everything, I will set my tablet up on a kitchen counter where I work my way through my checklist while asking them all the important questions such as when they might have replaced the roof last or how old the furnace is. This conversation usually lasts about 5 -10 minutes long. While having this conversation with the owner, it usually involves a small amount of chit chat just to be personable and this was no different. Once completed, I thanked them, gave my typical “have a good day” and walked back to my car.

As I get back into my car, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror and to my horror, saw myself staring back at me with bits of blueberry skins from my smoothie stuck all in between my teeth. I couldn’t help but laugh at myself and wondering about what must have gone through their mind. If it had been me in their shoes, I would have argued intensely with myself as to whether or not to say something. Say nothing won the argument. Lets just say that I look in the mirror before leaving my car now.

If you have a real estate funny story to contribute, please send it to me and I would be more than happy to add it to my blog.

Some Lighthearted Humor- At My Own Expense

In real estate, we often have some funny circumstances happen to us. After speaking with one of my administrative assistants about a particular incident that happened today, she suggested that I should someday write these things down. Over the years, my staff have been quite entertained by a few of these stories. This gave me the bright idea to have a subset of articles written about my own calamities and the funny circumstances we find ourselves in as appraisers.

This particular morning, I was running a little ahead of schedule which is not typical for me as most who know me will verify that I am not a morning person. It takes a bit of caffeine to get my brain in gear. Upon pulling in the driveway of my first appointment, knowing I was early, I turned off the car and unrolled the window. The breeze and temperature was especially enjoyable this morning and with the price of gas, I figured I would take advantage of the sunny cool morning, not waste my gas and maybe go through some emails. After a few minutes, since no one had yet showed up to open the house, I decided to get out and grab my cleaning supplies so that I could wipe down the inch of dust that had collected on my dash board. It wasn’t much long after accomplishing this that I was able to get into the house.

After completing what I was there to do, I returned to my car only to find that my door was locked. I was a little puzzled and confused as to why it was locked. I didn’t remember locking it. Since it was a quick in and out, I had left the keys in the car which should have prevented it from locking. But then I realized the window was still down. This should be easy- I’ll just unlock it from the interior of the door. I reached in, pushed the unlock button.…. nothing. At this point, I tried the other 3 doors to find they were also locked. I could see the keys in the cup holder and figured I could just reach in and grab them hoping I would be able to unlock the doors with the key fob. However, I’ve been accused of having Tyrannosaurus Rex arms. Add that to my 5’ 1” height and it is apparent this will not work. Unless I was to wedge myself through the window up to about my waist, I was never going to reach them. That was not going to be ideal so I figured there had to be another way.

Now what is one to do when they need to get in the car and the only access is the open window? The thought went through my head to try a “Dukes of Hazard Style” climb through the door. As I stood there and contemplated the feat (I even tried to lift my leg to get it up over the bottom of the window frame), it was clear this would never work. First, the bottom of the window door frame is well above my hip and just the thought of trying to swing my leg up over the edge to straddle the door and climb in sent nightmarish images of me either falling flat on my back or somehow getting wedged stuck halfway hanging out the car and halfway inside the car.

It then occurred to me that the hatch might still work since I had previously stepped out of the car to obtain and return my cleaning supplies. I hastily said a quick prayer that it would open. Going through the window would have been my only other resort and it wasn’t going to be pretty. As it was, the hatch opened and crawling through the car over the seats wasn’t very pretty either, but I am still in one piece and made it to my next appointment on time.

Lesson learned- never leave your keys in the car.