Real estate closing brought lots of smiles

Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Yesterday I had the pleasure of attending a closing on the purchase and sale of a property. This particular property had been on the market for many months. The owner must have wondered if a buyer would ever come along. It's easy for sellers to despair of ever selling their property, but we REALTORS know this: There is someone for every property. Eventually, that buyer and that seller find each other. In most cases they are introduced by a real estate professional.

That's what we REALTORS do; we bring buyers and sellers together and help them reach an agreement. Believe it or not, the real pleasure for most of us is seeing the smiles on the faces of the buyer and seller when they have completed their transaction. To know that we real estate agents had a role in making it happen is priceless. (Of course, we are happy to be compensated for our efforts, too, so we can pay our bills.)

In the transaction yesterday the buyers were a young couple buying their first home. They were obviously happy about it. The seller likewise was delighted to finally have sold his property. The seller was off to the bank with his check, and the buyers were off to their new home and their future together. The two REALTORS involved, one working with the seller and the other working with the buyers, shared the joy of the occasion as did the attorney and his co-worker who prepared the legal documents and closed the transaction. Everybody won.

If you were one of those involved, and you're reading this, you know who you are. Thanks very much for making my day. And, yes, thanks to the mortgage lender at the bank who provided the buyers' mortgage loan and made it all possible.

I am writing this while sitting in the swing on my back porch. It's another beautiful day. I worked in the yard earlier today, and noticed that we are very much in need of rain. There's a 30 or 40 percent chance of it predicted for Thursday. I surely hope it materializes.

As soon as I finish writing this blog, I'm going up to Concord in Schley County to take some pictures of an old house. It's the house I lived in for the first five and a half years of my life, and it its dear to my heart. The house served as both a dwelling and a post office from 1888 to 1905, and it is on the National Directory of Historic Places. It was called the Schley Post Office when it was first opened. Eventually it became known as the Patton-Hill Post Office. The Americus Times-Recorder is planning to publish a story and photo of the old post office and house in an upcoming edition of the Ellaville and Schley County Scene section of the newspaper.

Some baby birds are learning to eat seeds at the bird feeder in my back yard. Looks like a good crop of new songbirds coming along. The squirrels are having a fit to get into the bird feeder, but they can't. They will have to be satisfied with the seeds that the birds scatter on the ground.

OK, off I go to Concord.