My Best Close Ever and Forever

This is a love story… so how do I relate it to blogging and real estate? I guess you could call this the “take away close.”

When I was very young and very single I was working at the hospital with a friend named Sandy, who was very bright and very cute. She too was a registered nurse just like me. Sandy came in one day and said “I’ve got someone really special that you have got to go out with.”

Well I had a policy back then: No Blind Dates. My social calendar was full. I said to Sandy, "If he’s such a catch why don’t you go out with him?" She answered, "I would love to, but he wont even give me the time of day." So I was intrigued, and wondered how she ever talked him into calling me?

The first time Lee called we talked for more than an hour. I found out that he was much older, he had been married, he was divorced, had a 12 year old son, and flew an airplane. He figured if any one of those things was a turn off, he would find out right up front. (I later found out he had a No Blind Dates policy also.)

We made plans for Tuesday for a late date to go out for a drink. Why waste an entire evening on a blind date? If we didn’t like each other, we would only have to spend a short time together. But then my plans changed. A former boyfriend, Steve, who I had not seen for almost a year, came into town and stopped by my Pediatric clinic. Now I knew this guy, I really liked this guy and I was still interested. He was just in town for the day. So we made a date for Tuesday…yep, that same Tuesday night.

So I had to call Lee and tell him about Steve and ask if he was interested in Thursday night. Lee thought he was out of a date, but I think intrigued that someone would actually break a date with him. He agreed to Thursday night.

Well Steve stayed in town another day and then another and asked me out for...you guessed it…Thursday night. Again I broke a date with Lee. We finally went out on Friday night for a late drink and what we both thought would be a short date. We wound up closing up the joint. We talked for hours.

Lee and I dated for almost two years! But he said he would not marry again, would not use the word "love," would not buy another house, and was not interested in having another child. Now understand that I was a Pediatric RN, I adored kids, and wanted four boys! Two years we went out together, and two years I continued to see others. The more together we were, the less I wanted to be apart. My friends were telling me to "fish or get off the yacht." I knew that an ultimatum would not be the answer and I was not willing to push him away. I thought I would have this talk with him, but one evening when Lee showed up instead I began to cry. This was a first, he had never seen my tears and it upset him. He spoke the now famous words, "You have to let me get used to loving you." I remembered that "Love" was a word he thought he could not use again.

So with that one sentence, I started discussing dates for our wedding. Lee never did ASK me to marry him. Well, not until our 25th anniversary, and I still have not given him an answer! We have been married 14,675 days. You can check it out at www.redate.com

So how does this relate to real estate? Be prepared. Listen to those signals. There are many ways to CLOSE the deal. Are you listening??