Industry Tales, Tombstone Find Inspire 'True Real Estate Stories'
by Tom Everitt
December 14th, 2010 12:31 PM
I’d had several jobs in sales by the time I was 31, but had never come across more strange stories than in my rookie year as a Realtor.
About 10 years ago, I got my real estate license. Everywhere, I told my now wife, fellow Realtors saying that there were so many odd and quirky stories in our industry that someone should write a book. “Not me,” I thought. “I don’t have time to breathe, let alone write a book.”
Two years later, as Kerrie and I were beginning our home renovations, I heard her yell, “Honey, there’s a tombstone in our backyard!” She had discovered the grave marker of a World War I veteran.
“Honey, we’re writing that book” I replied.
I had finally decided that there were far, far too many stories in the real estate industry that people didn’t know about – stories that would show how the career of an average Realtor can be much more difficult than you might imagine.
Off we went on a two-year journey of publishing an anthology called True Real Estate Stories. Buyers, sellers, renovators, brokers and agents from around the world contributed a cornucopia of real estate madness. A “Chicken Soup for the Real Estate Soul” if you will. And, yes, we used a picture of our tombstone on the cover.
After sending out the call for stories, we received hundreds of the strangest stories you can imagine from all over North America and Europe. Without question, however, the most intriguing were always the stories from the real estate agents, which show a side of the real estate profession that goes largely unappreciated.
Realtors like Adrienne Corbett, a retired Burnaby Realtor, who once was invited to a listing appointment in East Vancouver but ended up leaving early after seeing a pair of South American honey bears in a tree in the living room, a massive tarantula crawling about and five boa constrictors, the largest of which, Cleo, was currently missing somewhere in the house. She declined the listing.
We got a fabulously scary story from Kim Castleton, a retired Realtor currently living in North Vancouver, who, during the days when cell phones did not exist, found herself trapped in the root cellar of an old house without any form of escape. Were it not for her client showing up and hearing her cries for help and pounding fists on the door, she might still be there today.
There was Katie O’Sullivan, a Realtor in Houston, Texas, who, as an unwitting rookie, was assigned by her real estate company to cruise the aisles of a local department store and engage unsuspecting customers in what were certainly undesirable discussions about their current home situations. After many complaints, she was asked to leave immediately and never return.
We received an unbelievable story from Kim Thom, a wonderful Associate Broker with Sutton in North Vancouver. While difficult for some to read, it shows that the role of a real estate agent might not be fully appreciated sometimes, especially when Realtors never quite know what’s behind the door at each and every different showing until they open it…and, by then of course, it’s often too late. Her story was her terrible discovery of a suicide of a distraught owner at a property in foreclosure in Surrey, B.C.
As the fall market approaches and the crystal balls are burning bright with people trying to figure out where our real estate markets are heading, remember your Realtors are there to help. They have the local statistics and market conditions at your ear’s reach with one simple phone call.
And behind those smiles there’s a great deal of experience with all kinds of situations.
Tom and Kerrie Everitt run ThinkTom.com Realty, and no longer have a tombstone in their backyard. www.ThinkTom.com The first volume of True Real Estate Stories can be found at www.Chapters.ca
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Oct - Nov 08
About 10 years ago, I got my real estate license. Everywhere, I told my now wife, fellow Realtors saying that there were so many odd and quirky stories in our industry that someone should write a book. “Not me,” I thought. “I don’t have time to breathe, let alone write a book.”
Two years later, as Kerrie and I were beginning our home renovations, I heard her yell, “Honey, there’s a tombstone in our backyard!” She had discovered the grave marker of a World War I veteran.
“Honey, we’re writing that book” I replied.
I had finally decided that there were far, far too many stories in the real estate industry that people didn’t know about – stories that would show how the career of an average Realtor can be much more difficult than you might imagine.
Off we went on a two-year journey of publishing an anthology called True Real Estate Stories. Buyers, sellers, renovators, brokers and agents from around the world contributed a cornucopia of real estate madness. A “Chicken Soup for the Real Estate Soul” if you will. And, yes, we used a picture of our tombstone on the cover.
After sending out the call for stories, we received hundreds of the strangest stories you can imagine from all over North America and Europe. Without question, however, the most intriguing were always the stories from the real estate agents, which show a side of the real estate profession that goes largely unappreciated.
Realtors like Adrienne Corbett, a retired Burnaby Realtor, who once was invited to a listing appointment in East Vancouver but ended up leaving early after seeing a pair of South American honey bears in a tree in the living room, a massive tarantula crawling about and five boa constrictors, the largest of which, Cleo, was currently missing somewhere in the house. She declined the listing.
We got a fabulously scary story from Kim Castleton, a retired Realtor currently living in North Vancouver, who, during the days when cell phones did not exist, found herself trapped in the root cellar of an old house without any form of escape. Were it not for her client showing up and hearing her cries for help and pounding fists on the door, she might still be there today.
There was Katie O’Sullivan, a Realtor in Houston, Texas, who, as an unwitting rookie, was assigned by her real estate company to cruise the aisles of a local department store and engage unsuspecting customers in what were certainly undesirable discussions about their current home situations. After many complaints, she was asked to leave immediately and never return.
We received an unbelievable story from Kim Thom, a wonderful Associate Broker with Sutton in North Vancouver. While difficult for some to read, it shows that the role of a real estate agent might not be fully appreciated sometimes, especially when Realtors never quite know what’s behind the door at each and every different showing until they open it…and, by then of course, it’s often too late. Her story was her terrible discovery of a suicide of a distraught owner at a property in foreclosure in Surrey, B.C.
As the fall market approaches and the crystal balls are burning bright with people trying to figure out where our real estate markets are heading, remember your Realtors are there to help. They have the local statistics and market conditions at your ear’s reach with one simple phone call.
And behind those smiles there’s a great deal of experience with all kinds of situations.
Tom and Kerrie Everitt run ThinkTom.com Realty, and no longer have a tombstone in their backyard. www.ThinkTom.com The first volume of True Real Estate Stories can be found at www.Chapters.ca
Copyright North Shore Magazine Issue Oct - Nov 08
