My Tea Cup Runneth Over

I listed this really cool house at 224 N Bowling Green way, and because it was a Tudor redone in a very English style, we thought it would be fitting to have a tea party and invite the neighbors. Lots of them came, full of curiosity, as they had watched the house being worked on for some time, and it was wonderful to hear their stories about this house and the family who used to own it. They were particularly pleased that the current owner did not tear it down, and instead decided to do a beautiful and creative remodel with lots of colors, patterns and details, as well as some very fancy upgrades, and it was so much fun showing the place to them. Among the visitors was the guy who grew up in the house! I was a little nervous showing the place to him, but he was so kind and he told me that the upstairs room in the guest house was his bedroom, which made me think about how cool it would have been to have that room when I was a teenager, and he told me stories of how his parents tore down the old garage in the 60’s and built the guest house, and why the bricks in the fireplace were angled a certain way, and he told me how they later added the pool, and that his brother jumped from the upstairs bedroom into the pool, but he himself was less of a risk taker. His stories made the house come to life for me. Knowing the story of the people who lived there made it not just a beautiful house, but a part of the story of this family and the neighborhood. Seeing this man introduce his daughter and grandchild to his old neighbors and hearing them tell each other stories and catch up on their lives made me feel good about continuing the story of this house — a story that started in 1935, and now that it's been revamped, it has a nice long life ahead of it with its next people.
Second good story: I’ve been trying to help a family buy a home in a very specific location for several months now, and finally we found a good one and submitted a strong offer, but it turned out 8 other people also thought this place was pretty great, and we found out we were outbid. Later that night, as I was feeling my clients’ disappointment, I got a call from the listing agent telling me the people whose offer they had accepted got cold feet and backed out, and they were coming back to us! It sure is a lot more fun to call people and say, “Guess what? You’re getting that house after all!” Anyway, the moral of the story is that you just never know what’s going to happen, so if you haven’t gotten lucky yet, keep hope alive!