Year 28
It’s insane thinking about the world that was when I wrote this same article last year. The boys couldn’t even pull themselves up yet. Couldn’t walk or talk or chase Hillary down the hallway with their perfect laughs. They couldn’t walk up and grab my hand so that I could walk in circles around the living room with them; wild stuff. I was doing zero business in real estate while working my tail off to find clients. Oh, and then there’s the little part of our current lives called COVID. It was a world that a pandemic didn’t exist, along with all of the terrible parameters of such a crazy thing that none of us have ever experienced. The impending election- and the inherent division that comes along with it- felt like it was forever away, and now it’s on the doorstep. All of that included, when I get near a birthday, I like to spend some time reflecting on what has transpired over the last twelve months in my life and the world around me personally.
First off, while far from most important, it’s been a pretty transformative year for my business. Last year, I went full-time with my real estate career around May. It was horrifying to think about, but I knew that it would never be what I wanted it to be and that I’d never be the perfect advocate for my clients if I didn’t make the jump. In 2020, I feel like I’ve really hit a groove that I am comfortable in. It’s looking like there is a good chance that I’m going to quadruple my business from 2019. While I might fall the slightest hair shy of my goal that I set for myself in January, I can’t be too upset about that with the ridiculousness that has been 2020. If you’ve allowed me to walk alongside you in a real estate deal this year, thank you. Seriously- it’s a huge deal to me that so many people around me have trusted my judgement, advice and knowledge with such a gigantic decision and step in life. My game is first-time homebuyers. While it usually comes with more stress and teaching and I initially thought that I was going to want to get out of that demographic ASAP, I’ve grown to love it. Setting up my friends in a great living situation, helping them not only save money when buying a house, but putting them in areas that are going to grow their equity and set them up for financial success for the rest of their lives? Sign me up every damn time.
It would be really edgy of me to give an opinion about COVID, right? No one has ever done that in the history of the written word; I can assure you of that. On March 20th (happy birthday, Bailey), I was kicked out of Retrograde for the first time due to John Cooper’s order that all businesses and restaurants were to shut down immediately. Hillary was already working from home that day. It was pouring down rain and I remember sitting down at the kitchen table to start working again thinking, “Well, it’s going to be an interesting couple of weeks at home.” LOL. Sports leagues had already suspended play, and I was wondering how I was going to mentally cope with missing a month of sports. Fast forward nearly six months, and we’re finally getting to see some normalcy return. Unfortunately, there is devastation in the virus’ wake. Businesses everywhere have closed over the span of the virus and don’t have the ability to open their doors. Millions of people are still out of work, unsure of where money is going to come from to be able to live. And who knows when major events will be allowed to return. There’s plenty of room to speculate the actual severity of the virus -especially for young people- but I think that, at a certain point, enough is enough. Millions of lives have been wrecked by COVID, whether it’s by the actual sickness or the repercussions of it. It’s time to put the pieces back together. I know there is a lot of uncertainty about future side effects, but the economic side effects of this could be even more far reaching. If it takes wearing masks for 30 seconds while I order my coffee, get seated at a table or a few minutes while I am in Kroger (I work at the pace of Dale Earnhardt when I’m grocery shopping), then so be it. I’ll do what I have to do to help get the economy back on track and get sports back. Being asked to wear a mask in a private business for 30 seconds is far from an infringement on my “rights”.
I would be remissed if I didn’t discuss my perfect children and how much they’ve changed over the last year. All parents do a really good job of documenting their kid’s first year of life with photos, little snippets of what they’re learning to do and how they’re growing. But once you get past a year, I guess it’s true that life just moves way too fast to even attempt to be able to keep up with it. Callahan and Sebastian are full throttle 100% of the time. I utilize Toy Story every now and then if I need them to just sit down for a few minutes to try and catch their breath. They pick up on new words and phrases every day and are finally getting to the point to where they can sort of play with each other without it becoming a wrestling match for the heavyweight belt. Hillary and I both have gotten to spend a lot more time with them this year than the last, and it has been so much fun watching them become toddlers and soon to be just your standard human children. It’s going to be really strange one day when they’re reading history books discussing the ridiculous year that we’ve had.
That’s about it. Year 28 has been full of selling houses, dealing with Corona/ trying to avoid political opinions on social media like they’re the actual virus, and enjoying hanging out with my wife and kids more than I probably will ever have the chance to again for a long time. If I were to give one piece of advice, for when the world gets back to normal- TAKE YOUR BIG VACATION. Don’t contemplate it for months and try to figure out if it’s a good idea. If you have the financial means to do so, leave the country. We were blessed that we got to go to Jamaica less than a month before COVID. Had we hesitated and made our trip a couple of months later, we would have literally gone insane. So, the next time wanderlust hits you and you start looking for flights and fun adventures to go on, book it. Get travel insurance so that if something does happen you have a contingency plan. Small price to pay to have life to actually look forward to. Life is about so much more than saving for a house or paying your mortgage and bills without some goodness to look forward to. Yes, that is pretty counterproductive to my line of work but life better when it consists of the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, or a pub in Dublin compared to discussing mortgage rates and net equity. But whenever you are ready to buy or sell that house, I want to be your first call.