(And it wasn't pretty)
Does anyone remember the first contract you ever wrote as a real estate agent? Well mine was in 1975, and the Texas Real Estate Commission did not promulgate forms back in those days. Instead, we got "tablets" of forms from the title companies and used carbon paper to make copies. The one-page contracts were very basic, and had a big "blank" space in the middle to fill in the terms. Of course, the title company was pre-printed into the fine print toward the bottom of those babies . . . who remembers them?
(Yes, 1975. I was recently in a meeting of RE/MAX broker/owners and mentioned that I started my first real estate company in 1978. My friend, and owner of RE/MAX Cityview, Eric Gage, turned around with a shocked look on his face and said, "1978? Omygod, that's the year I was born!" (Really, Gage?)
Anyway . . . I digress. So that first offer I wrote up the best I could and delivered it to the listing agent (no fax, no email in those days) who was Shirley Brakefield (a man, by the way) broker of Century 21 Brakefield and Associates over on Telephone Road, across from Hobby Airport.
Later that afternoon, my broker and dear friend, Mae Peden, approached me and said "let me see the contract you wrote." She and my mother had a big laugh over my attempted verbiage, then showed me the "correct" language clauses for the form. Apparently, Shirley had called her and they all had a big laugh over my humble beginnings. But I learned.
And now as coach and mentor, I have two brand new agents I'm working with who've had similar experiences over night. One is a listing agent and the other a buyer agent. So, helping them both through their first transactions reminded me of mine. They'll learn as I did. (Need to learn too? Join us for excellent coaching and mentoring! www.BecomeATopAgent.com
And I think about the words of one of my recent coaches: "the real estate business is basic." Maybe so, but it sho' ain't easy! How did your first contract go???
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