Ever entertaining: I just wasted half the afternoon cruising through neighborhoods in Moon Valley and North Central Phoenix, ogling real estate. By dayum! Saw house after house after overpriced house, marveling every inch of the way. Prices here are making their way through the cosmic roof, with no indication of any slow-down.
{chortle!} I love looking at real estate. Must be in the genes: my mother became a Realtor when we lived in Southern California. She got caught up in the Salton Sea boondoggle when she went into partnership with a woman who was selling property (such as it was) in those parts. Didn’t do too well there…I think if she’d gone into home sales in Long Beach, where we lived, and if she’d hooked up with a decent Realtor as a partner, she might have had some success. She had an ingratiating personality and people tended to like her — making her a natural for sales.
But…it takes more than personality and dutiful work to succeed in real estate.
Salton Sea was a stagnant puddle outside of Palm Springs, one of the Great Boondoggles of the American West. My father was off at sea when she became involved with the Realtor who enticed her into that scam — he was in the Merchant Marine. When he got home and discovered the nonsense she’d gotten up to, he…well, let us say he was NOT a happy camper! By then she was fully entangled, though, and there was little or nothing he could do to get her out of it.
Eventually the Salton Sea scam collapsed, ô hallelujah, and that did get her out of it. I was still in high school at the time, and therefore did not have my nose in the parental financial affairs…soooo…have no idea how much she lost in that venture, if anything. She certainly didn’t make anything, though. WhatEVER: you may be sure my father was less than perfectly happy with that interlude.
She desisted from her real estate…uhm…career…after that. Took to selling cosmetics door-to-door. 😀 One gold mine after another, eh?
Briefly, I daydreamed of taking a job in real estate — not sales, but PR and journalism. Even went so far as to take the semester-long community college course that was supposed to get you through the state’s real-estate licensing exam. By the time I’d finished the course, though, I’d lost interest in that endeavor…never did sign up for the exam. Probably…more time NOT wasted. 😀