Persistence is a Mantra for Elk Grove Realtor

Confidence and persistence go hand in hand. While there are those who will certainly disagree, I happen to believe that persistence is a good thing, especially when it applies to Sacramento real estate. How important is it to be a person who finds a way to get things done and who doesn’t let adversity spit in her face? That’s what I ask. I’m one of those people who will do just about whatever it takes to accomplish my goal or the objectives of my clients. You will never hear me say something can’t happen if I can figure out a way to make it happen, and it’s within my power, then that thing will happen.

I preface my blog today with that statement because it will help to explain how I almost became the newspaper headline: Elk Grove Realtor Found Dead Speared to Gate. I had just closed escrow on another home in Elk Grove and had given the buyer’s agent a couple of days to get the keys out of the lockbox before I drove over to Stonelake. I paused on the front porch when I discovered a contractor’s lockbox attached to the fence. How convenient, I must have switched out the lockboxes at some point, which I often do. I tried several times to enter the code but it would not open. Hmmm. The reason it will not open has got to be that it is not my contractor’s box. Therefore, logic dictated that my own Bluetooth iBox was most likely in the back yard on the gas meter. Except, I was denied physical access by an electronic gate, which was closed and would not budge. Dilemma.

This was the pivotal point at which another Elk Grove Realtor would have shrugged her shoulders and elected to come back at some other time when the occupants were home. But not this crazy person. Oh, no, I was not leaving without my lockbox.

First, I am not completely insane nor illogical. I texted the buyer’s agent and asked if he had the code for the contractor’s box. Sure enough. My heart pounded with glee. I opened the contractor’s box. Uh, oh, the key was not there. Empty. Rats. OK, I am not tall enough nor strong enough to hoist my body over the iron gate with spikes. I’m in my 60s for crying out loud. But if I had a ladder or some big guy to assist, I could do it at the low point because an electronic box attached to the house could serve as a stepping point to the ground.

I texted the seller. He directed me to a relative’s house but she was not home. Anybody else? Oh, yes, there was Lisa, who lived a few doors down. I knocked on her door. “Hi, I am Elizabeth Weintraub, your neighbor’s Realtor,” pointing toward the house with the for sale sign still in the yard, “and I’d like to borrow your ladder so I can climb over his gate to get my lockbox.” Surprisingly, she gave me her ladder. Well, she first called the seller to verify because I probably looked like a crazy person.

I stood in Lisa’s front yard while she made the call behind closed doors. All of a sudden, a tiny hummingbird flew up to me and hovered within 6 inches of my face. I wondered if I resembled a flower because why would anybody be standing still in the front yard if she wasn’t a botanical of some sort? Hummingbirds generate a lot of noise up close, in case you’re wondering. A school of hummingbirds would be almost deafening. This was a female hummingbird. Suddenly the neighbor came around the corner and thrust the ladder into my hands. Eureka.

Trying not to break off any branches of a shrub, I positioned the ladder at the low end of the gate, and carefully squeezed my body around the corner, trying not to let my foot slip. One slip and I’d be gored by a spike. One tiny misstep, major injury, if not death. I considered the headline: Elk Grove Realtor found dead speared to gate. Nothing horrible happened. I grabbed the lockbox, and hauled the ladder back to the neighbor. Her parting words to me were she was sorry she had to make the call because “you totally look like a Realtor.” No makeup, jeans, a t-shirt, wild curly hair and Chanel flip-flops. Yeah, right. Perhaps it was my Italian roadster parked next to the sign.

Glancing down at my cellphone, I spotted an email from the president’s office at Quicken Loans. Quicken had located an appraiser who could go out to Anatolia yesterday to complete an appraisal, after every other appraiser in Sacramento was booked and at least a week out, and we were up against contingency deadlines. This is how persistence pays off. I do what it takes to get the job done, and that persistence is why my sellers are happy to pay my commission.

The photo on this page is of my sister, Margie, but the ladder photo was shot yesterday at the home in Elk Grove. Photos by Elizabeth Weintraub.