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tance. That said, my greatest joy was helping
the husband carry his wife in and out of the
properties. We did, after about three tours,
locate that perfect home. The rest is history. I
keep in touch with them often to make sure all
is well. What an amazing couple!
Stephanie Scheu Coss
Keller Williams Classic
Properties
My most memorable experience
of last year occurred
when I was showing some
of the old mansions in downtown Columbus.
There, all alone in the basement of one of
these buildings, was an antique Lionel train
set! It was down in the cellar, just waiting for
someone to turn it on. The sign read “Welcome
to Magic Mountain.” It was unbelievable!
I thought how much my children would
love to see this and the joy this train set had
brought to the children who lived in this
mansion many years ago. It was truly a “wow”
experience for me and my clients.
Shari D. Carroll, CRS
Keller Williams Capital
Partners
When I have my first buyer
or seller consultation, I work
at finding commonality with
them. I ask a lot of questions and in those answers,
usually find something in common with
them. I ask the city they are from, what side
of Columbus they grew up on and what high
school or college they attended. The most
fun question for married couples is, “How
did the both of you meet?” That usually gets
the best response and conversation. So I was
working with this really nice, very quiet couple
many years ago as a rookie agent. Neither
one of them said much or offered many
details when I tried the question thing with
them. With that, I decide to just move on and
start working with them. Weeks of looking at
properties pass and still there is not much
conversation about even the homes we are
viewing. One day, we walked into a home that
had an accordion case sitting in the living
room. I commented that my mother played
the accordion in high school with a group
of students who would go around Ohio to
various veterans’ organizations and hospitals
during World War II to entertain soldiers and
their families. She always spoke of it proudly
and continued to play the accordion when we
were kids at home. The buyer spoke up and
said his mother also played the accordion
in high school and did the very same thing.
I asked her name and, you guessed it, his
mother and my mother played the accordion
side by side in the 1940s. My mother
even had a photo of the both of them that I
shared with my buyers. Good golly, our moms
were friends in high school! From that point
on, communication flourished and looking
at properties became much easier because
now they felt they knew me. Their trust in our
relationship finally developed. The moral of
the story for me: Be real with people. Share
yourself and your interests with them. You
will find common ground if you look for it and
once they know you, the trust and friendship
begin. At that point, you will have earned the
privilege of being their REALTOR® for life.
Terri L. Jones
Signature Real Estate
In sharing stories with new
agents I always reflect on
the time I listed a mobile
home for $30,000. I had
recently sold one for $9,500 and had gotten
the title of “the Trailer Queen” among a few
agents. Upon completing the sale of the mobile
home, the daughter of the seller referred
me to her employer, who in turn bought a
$515,000 new build property. Needless to
say, you never know where your next lead will
come from when you treat everyone equally!
Sherri Fowler
Dickey-Beckley Team
Realtors®
The most memorable event
in my real estate career
so far has been during an
inspection with my buyer on a single family
home on which he and his wife had made
an offer. During the inspection, the property
inspector found a patch of carpeting in
the master bedroom that was replaced. He
checked the seam of the carpeting and found
the carpeting hadn’t been pieced in. It was
just laid to look that way. Once he pulled up
the pieced carpeting, he found wood that
we surmised was laid over a concrete slab
foundation. The wood was loose, so the
inspector pulled it up to make sure there
weren’t any potential problems for my buyer.
Underneath the wood flooring was an open
concrete pit about six feet by eight feet. I
immediately looked at the Sellers Property
Disclosure and nothing was mentioned about
this concrete pit in the middle of the master
bedroom floor. I contacted the listing agent
and was told that the sellers had a pedestal
bed in the master bedroom and didn’t think
a buyer would mind if it wasn’t filled in. My
buyers immediately requested remedy for the
sellers to fill in the pit so that there wouldn’t
be any potential weight-bearing issues later
for them. The sellers agreed to remedy the
situation and we did end up closing on time.
It was an unexpected find for the property
inspector, my buyer and me as well. That was
the first and hopefully last time I come across
something like that. I now listen to the sound
of the flooring as I walk across it.
Sherry Looney
Keller Williams Greater
Ohio
One time many years ago,
I showed a home to a
gentleman and his mother.
This was a phone call appointment and
for some reason, I had an uneasy feeling
about it. I asked my husband to take me
to this showing, something I’d never done
before. When we arrived, the buyer, his
mother and I looked through the home
together. In the master bedroom, we walked
out onto the balcony to take a look at the
view. As the buyer’s mom went back inside,
I turned around to very quickly (but not
quick enough) ask her not to shut the door
just as it went “click.” I knew the door was
locked. I tried the handle and, sure enough,
it was locked shut. I started to laugh. What
else could I have done? I tried to see if
my husband was still waiting out in the
road but I couldn’t see his car so instead,
I looked at the buyer and said, “Well, how
do you like the view?” I was in a skirt, high
heels and hose so I suggested that he was
more appropriately dressed to shimmy
down the wood posts. He did not find that
humorous. My husband came driving down
the road so I leaned over the balcony as far
as I could and waived my hands and yelled
for him. I was making quite a scene. He
finally looked up through the windshield
and noticed me. Then, with a very puzzled
look on his face, he got out of the car so he
could hear our dilemma. Thank Heaven the
front door was open. Needless to say, he
came in and released us from the balcony. I
learned there are many people in this world
with absolutely no sense of humor. I never
spoke to that buyer again. The funny thing
was, it was his mother that shut the door
and had us locked out on the balcony!
Oh well. That is what makes this business
interesting!
www.ColumbusRealtors.com • In Contract Magazine • May/June 2010 • 13