The call to my Real Estate office in Venice Florida is from a lady in Chicago. She wants to purchase a villa in Sorrento East and is flying into Sarasota airport in two days.

I write down her airline, flight number and time of arrival. She ask me to pick her up when her flight comes in. Then she follows with “You will know me, I’m good looking and will be wearing a plaid jacket”. Beautiful!! She has a good sense of humor. This is going to be quite enjoyable!

As soon as I get off the phone with her I go to an office computer to pull up the Sorrento East villas for sale in our Venice Multiple Listing Service we commonly call MLS. Much to my surprise, every villa listing has a “sale pending”.

OK FLO! DON’T PANIC! WELL……there is only one thing to do. I have to find some one in Sorrento East who wants to sell their villa. And I have to FIND THEM FAST! There are two separate villa sections in Sorrento East. There has to be some one in here who wants to sell. So I slowly drive through the villa area on the north side, looking each way along the street for some detection of a possible listing, when I notice a garage door is up and there leaning against the wall is a “For Sale by Owner” sign!

Apply the brakes! Back up! I ring the door bell. A man answers. He looks friendly enough. So… I proceed to tell him my story and that if he will list with me, I can sell his villa to this lady buyer I have coming in.

He smiled as he said “I’ve heard that story before”. This is going to take some convincing, but he didn’t shut the door in my face and he finally lists his villa with me.

Back in my office I place all the listing details in the computer, take an office “for sale” sign with my name rider attached and place it in the yard in front of the villa.

Within minutes back in my office, a lady who lives in a house (shown above) in Sorrento East calls and asks to see the villa. She had just driven by and saw my sign. I call the owner, set an appointment and meet her and her husband at the villa. In Sorrento East villas are under condominium rules but houses are not.

She is barely in the door, her husband still outside, she stops, gives a quick ‘look-see’ and says “I’ll take it!” I say “Would you like to see the rest of the villa before we leave?”

Back in my office I write up their contract full price, the owners sign it and I am heading for a closing with what in Real Estate is known as a “double whammy”. All the seven percent commission going to my office and I get sixty percent of that for selling my own listing. Pretty good days work!

OH! BUT FLO!……Have you forgotten? You still have to FIND A VILLA for your lady in the PLAID JACKET!!! So… again….I am slowly driving through the north villa section and finding nothing, I go to the other villa section. No matter how long it takes, I have to keep looking until I come up with someone in here who wants to sell their villa.

It has been a long day so far, as I slowly drive through looking this way and that, when: I couldn’t believe my eyes! How could this happen to me again and so soon. Have I gone whacky and am I seeing things? NO! IT’S FOR REAL!

Tell you one thing for sure Flo, some one is looking out for you today!!!! There is a man putting one of the most beautiful “For Sale by Owner” signs I have ever seen, in the yard in front of that villa. He had to have paid a pretty penny for that! This is gonna take a while. I just have to hang in there!!!!!!

So! Brakes! Back up! He is a builder and much harder to convince he should let me sell his brand new never lived in villa to my lady. However you can be assured I wasn’t about to leave until I got his signature on something. Believe you me, I stay with him until at long last, it’s getting late in the day, he says “I’ll give you a one time showing to this lady only and pay your office three and a half percent commission for selling.”

THAT WAS ALL I NEEDED! I met my lady at her gate inside Sarasota airport. As she came through the door, she looked at me and smiled. She knew me from the picture in my realtors magazine add where she had found me before calling my office. I knew her by her PLAID JACKET!

She was so excited to be getting a brand new, never lived in villa! We closed on that villa with my office getting three and one half percent commission and I got one half of that.

I don’t know how I got so lucky!! But I’ll take that kind of luck any time I can get it!

Foot-note:
I had not had my license to sell Real Estate very long when the above happened. Soon after that, as I was leaving a Friday morning Realtors meeting a young girl, who I didn’t know, came over to me and said, “You have come up in this business so fast! What did you do before you sold Real Estate?”

I replied “I SOLD ICE CUBES TO ESKIMOS”. The DEVIL in me was ALIVE AND WELL that day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FRF ♥