The Process of Starting Over

Last fall I helped some friends/clients find and purchase a new home. I was excited and thankful that they called me, not because I needed the commission check (which I did), but because they felt I was a Realtor good enough to use a second time. In fact, the home I sold them 6 years ago was my very first real estate transaction!

Usually, when a client owns a home and wants to move, you help them buy their new home and sell their existing home in turn. But, this was not the case. They decided that the market wasn't good enough to sell and they would instead turn it into a rental investment. At the time I thought to myself sarcastically, "maybe I'll be your renter", but did not let on that I would ever be in such a situation desperate enough to rent from a client. After all, I am a successful Realtor and that would be humiliating.

As we drove around Newberg yesterday shopping for rentals, we drove by their rental house. It hadn't yet been rented and there was a rental sign in the yard. Earlier I told Brian it would be too hard to tell them about our situation. They would lose respect for me and I would lose a client. But, after a day of searching, as we sat parked in front of their house, I dialed their number and made an appointment to look inside. Eventually. we found out that it had all the space we needed at a price we could afford, I told them about our situation, laid out the sad story and swallowed my pride. After all that, we found out that they didn't allow pets. So I swallowed my pride for nothing?

Today they called and said they would make an exception for us. We didn't have to pay an application fee and they were very encouraging and supportive. So, we found our new "home" and we can begin a new process--the process of starting over!

God has a sense of humor and a plan...it just took a few months for Him to convince me of this. Each day I find myself telling more and more people our "story" only to find a friendly smile, words of support and encouragement or people in the same ugly boat with us.

I think I will change the name of my blog to Starting Over.