THE INTERVIEW?

Front Lanai view at beautiful Stoneybrook Golf &CC Villa
Newly listed! $324,000!

     I had stopped in the coffee shop on my way to meeting Rhon, my blue haired friend I had grown to be quite fond of in my very prestigious job with Coldwell Banker Residential Real Estate. 
     This wasn’t just any job with Coldwell Banker.  This office was on Siesta Key!  Right in the “Village” where things were happening!  People from all over the word came in to buy property at one of the World’s #1 beaches, Siesta Key Beach.  And by all over the word, I mean Canada.

     This was a job I was most fortunate to get through a Realtor, named Pam,   Pam landed in that office, by what means, I have no idea. But, she liked the office, liked the broker, Steve, and thought I should come work there.  Of course!  Paradise!  
     The door was flung open each morning to allow us to hear the live guitar and steel drums  playing at the nearby restaurant, and to allow a passersby the golden opportunity to  search for visitor guidebooks, maps, golf magazines, golf handbook and golfing maps.  This allowed US the opportunity to strike up a conversation with them in the hopes they would also accidentally  purchase a half-million dollar one-bedroom condo they would one-day leave to their grandchildren that held they most beautiful view of the gulf of Mexico if you tilted your head a little to the left.

     Rhon and I became friends during our "Friday Office Training" with Steve, our Broker.  Every Friday, Steve was generous enough to invite the new agents in real estate into a conference room and discuss things we had difficulty in grasping.  Like contracts. Or, as  Urilenke put it,  "what is all this legal mumbo-jumbo?  I don’t get it,  Does anyone here get it"?  Her thick German accent caused me to strain in comprehension.  I couldn't imagine she was ever going to get it.  I actually took law classes in college and I was having trouble getting it.   

     When Steve wasn’t on the golf course, he was quite helpful.  Steve is a former lawyer who quit that profession to enter real estate. He started in Massachusetts.  Steve typically reminds all of us dejected Realtors "there is a lot of wealth out there" while tapping his pencil on the shiny cherry wood table he sat at the head of.  Then, would add,  "you can make a lot of money in this business," to which all of us would stare, silently wondering when, indeed, that would happen.  
     As the managing Broker, he collects money from his agents in the form of desk fees and commissions.  The number of agents in his office is nearing 100.  Steve is happy all of the time. 

     In real estate, they have a thing called broker tours.  Where, they will highlight an area and invite real estate agent to caravan around so they can see the unique features of the area (on the water!) or property (it’s a mansion!)  Rhon was kind enough to say she would drive to the tour of homes in the subdivision located at least 15 minutes away –so I told her I would get us coffee. I told her to text me her order.  
     While waiting for our order, I insisted on speaking to the manager of the local green apron for a few moments—if, of course, she wasn’t too busy…..