Yay! Shabbat is coming!

Where do I start?
Here I am blogging again, a little earlier than I'm ready to, but since two of my meshugeneh readers (you know who you are) guilted me into it, here goes!

My commercial client is on the plane back to Ireland now, and we had a very successful time together. I did a LOT of work for him prior to his arrival, and we viewed many commercial properties during his visit. It's so important for foreign --or any-- investors to get a good feel for the market before diving in, so I spent a lot of time educating he and his adult daughter, who has also become much more active in the process.

We had the closing on a small office condo yesterday, Hallelujah!! And though we were unsuccessful in getting an accepted contract on another contract during this trip, he did get a great feel for the market. In his absence, I will continue searching for properties that match his specific investment requirements. I also introduced him to:

• 2 international tax/investment attorneys to set up the LLCs (limited liability companies) as well as provide legal guidance
• 2 international commercial accounting specialists
• a fantastic int'l. commercial lender (who I sort of, maybe, might potentially like romantically)
• an insurance agent
• an internationally-oriented property manager

It was a full week. Between getting to the appointments, property showings, setting up all the appointments, getting the closing documentation all ready and so on, it has me worn out. But nothing that a good Shabbat won't fix! Yay for Shabbat!!

I haven't written about this before, but on a spiritual note, I think it's ridiculous that the church holds to the Sunday sabbath concept. How anti-semitic and filled with Replacement theology can you get-- "We don't want to share our holy day with Jews, so let's change it! Poof! It's changed!"

Humph, I wonder what G-d thinks of that logic. After all, G-d gave the commandments about Shabbat early on, and it applies to all people, not only Jews. So I advocate returning Shabbat to the correct day, please. As for me, I'm just going to follow the Bible. In the unlikely event that you're confused, Shabbat is Friday at Sundown until Saturday at sundown. There, I've said it. If you don't agree with me, well, I don't know what to say to convince you. Research it yourself, it's pretty darn clear.

OK, enough of my soap box; where was I? Oh yeah, so here's where my client and I stand: He feels that his family owes me a debt for my assistance, and must welcome me to Ireland! Well amen to that! Let's go!! I sent him off this morning with good investment reading material for the plane trip, and a packet to take to his brother, who is interested in buying a condo in the Walt Disney World area. Incidentally, I am very proud to say that almost all of my business is by referral, which means I must be doing something right! I'm grateful that my past clients know that I will take good care of their friends and family.

Do you see why I didn't blog for a week? Looking over this, I think, "Who wants to read this stuff?" And yet, it's pretty much all that's occupying my mind at the moment.

Of greater interest to the average person would be the whole real estate commission subject. As you can probably tell, I absolutely love helping people. I have a great time helping them get oriented in a new community-- it's one of the many things that I love about my job.

But there's another part of being a Realtor that I don't love, and many people outside the real estate industry do not understand it at all. I don't love being taken advantage of. And in real estate, it happens all the time. I mean, so often that I frequently consider just working as an investor, because I get sick of people-- my own clients-- taking advantage of me, my time, my work, my expertise, etc.

Consumers think that Realtors are greedy and dishonest-- and many are, but I certainly am not one of them. But much of the confusion also comes from Realtors becoming jaded and "sharkish" because so many people have taken advantage of them. I know a lot of people have had bad experiences with Realtors-- believe me, I've heard many horror stories on both sides-- and I don't mean to negate anyone's experiences.

Maybe this would be a good topic to flesh out in another post, as now it's nearly 3 p.m. and my house desperately needs a pre-Shabbat cleaning.

Shabbat Shalom, everybody!!