As usual, I turned on a true crime YouTube video to watch while I had my morning coffee. OMG yet ANOTHER husband murdered by his wife, who had some skill hiding his body, apparently. I heard the same words and phrases. Like 1) smell of bleach; 2) new mattress; 3) new gun purchase a couple of months before the murder; 4) help moving the body; 5) help cleaning the crime scene; 6) extra marital affair; 7) children; 8) mapped the drive while carrying a corpse (okay that’s my turn of phrase); 9) DV accusations against the dead guy (yeah, my phrasing again). I said, “Are you kidding me??? Again???”
The point is this. PEOPLE, future CRIMINALS, listen UP! There are millions and MILLIONS of true crime fans who know how to use the internet and cannot WAIT to help take you down. We assist law enforcement all the time. ALL the time. And we are everywhere…even in the dark! I know! We sit there with our fingers poised above our keyboard just waiting to come after you. What PLANET are you on, what rock do you live under that you do not know this?? Have you not heard, “It was a YouTuber who gave us the tip we needed”? If you don’t know that, you are an idiot and clearly not smart enough to pull off the murder of your spouse, your boyfriend or girlfriend, your partner, your mother, your child, your whole family or your DOG. We’re gonna get really, really, REALLY upset with you. You don’t want that, you really really do not.
We can tell you did it just by looking at you, and then by what you say, and by you rocking back and forth and eating your lips. You broadcast your lie without even talking. And you know, often, it is the privileged ones who try to pull off this horror. Your god is money. Or sex. Extra marital affairs apparently make people freaking STUPID. But hey, that won’t matter in prison. Your God will become your commissary fund. I wish I had a nickel for every time I heard a prisoner whining about their commissary fund. All of a sudden your new squeeze, your fancy car, your mansion are replaced by BOO HOO COMMISSARY.
So. We have the following to catch you:
THE INTERNET
Body language experts
Profilers
Crime scene investigators
Medical examiners
Really really good detectives and police officers
Luminol!
Experience watching a thousand others like you who were already caught
Map time
GPS
Infotainment
CCTV (that is closed circuit tv)
Ring and other such doorbell cams
OTHER cameras
Dash cam
Cadaver dogs!
DNA testing capability
Helicopters
Really fast cop cars
Microscopes
ELECTRON microscopes
Plant scientists
Anthropologists
Okay computers
Triple digit IQ
Tenacity
Ingenuity
Compassion and passion
A love of humanity and the law
Oh this is huge: cameras in Walmart. hahaha. Walmart somehow gets on the radar most of the time.
Credit card records
Receipts
Grizzly True Crime
Hidden True Crime
Crime Talk
It’s a Crime
Gray Hughes Investigates
Plunder
Law and Crime Network
Court TV
Nancy Grace
Harsh Reality
Explore With Us
Surviving the Survivor
And a thousand more
Eye witnesses!
Kick Ass attorneys
And that’s just a FEW THINGS we will use to take you down. Listen if you cannot control your urges and think you need to kill your spouse, first, you’re an idiot and you’re going to prison. And second, we will catch you. We won’t give up until we do. We’ll find your spouse (or child) in the landfill, in the mountains, in the forest, in the swamp, on the side of the road, in your drains, in the water, under your concrete patio, above the ceiling tiles, bricked in the WALL. We’ll find them and then we will lift our eyes to you. You’ll recognize the look in the eyes of the detectives at that time, for sure. Then you’ll cry when you are found GUILTY and sent to that scary prison and you’ll realize that all of your friends won’t take your calls from, nor visit you, in prison. You’re gonna lose everything. And by the way if we have NOT caught you yet, don’t blink. Millions are coming for you and we are PATIENT.
One last thing. That woman with a magnifying glass at the top of this post? That’s an AI image. My first. Looks pretty good, doesn’t it? So yeah, you can add AI to that list up there.
What you are about to read are MY opinions, to which I am ENTITLED. If it bothers you, just go away NOW. I will not miss you. I want people around me who can hear others’ opinions without going hysterical. That’s how YOU LEARN. And I especially like people with humor in their DNA. Get this:
While Janet Yellen, US Secretary of Treasury, cowered behind a lectern seemingly dreading press questions, her emblem fell off the lectern. Fell off! HOW HARD is it to hang a decoration? Forget about the gloom and doom being yapped our way from Yellen; the emblem fell OFF. I am shaking my head. And I’m laughing. Yep, laughing. This is a perfect, PERFECT demonstration of our entire country right now…and dare I say it…the world.
Yay! Everybody gets a trophy! We don’t grade tests, heck we don’t GIVE tests! We are allll okay, nay we are allll FANTASTIC. Oh and did I tell you? We are alll geniuses!! Isn’t that great? Let’s all clap our hands together! That, my friends, is the problem. Why? Because excellence matters, quality matters, logical thinking matters. As in…don’t use a puny little hanger certified to hold .5 pounds of weight and then hang a 2 pound emblem on it. For God’s sake, that’s NOT rocket science. Who was the dumbass who did that?? I want pictures. PICTURES, I say! Hold on to your little hat now: NOT EVERYBODY IS QUALIFIED TO HANG DECORATIONS. I can hear wailing and gnashing of teeth. WHO CARES??? Wail away. While I laugh, by the way.
Elon does rocket science. People who work for him do rocket science. Why? Because they actually learned something. They actually cared about excellence. And by god they are smart! Yes, that’s how you put rockets into space! You don’t dye your hair blue and scream at the ceiling demanding respect. You actually EARN respect. That’s how it works. You study, you actually read, oh and forgive me but you THINK. Hey, do you think the wheels might fall off of your car as you drive? Hahaha. Oh they will. They will. Well, not if you drive a Tesla. If you DON’T drive a Tesla, I bet shit is breaking on your NEW non-Tesla car! Hahaha. I know the look on your face right now. By the way the great unthinking ran from Twitter like rats from a sinking ship when a THINKER bought the company. That’s how it works. Do NOT come at the little special children who never had a cogent thought, expecting them to use logic. I laughed my ass of at that too. Laughing now just remembering it.
Listen, I’m watching economic news this morning hearing about more and more bankruptcies, more businesses closing and I swear, I’m actually laughing. I PREDICTED THIS CRAP when the idiots started making hard work and studying unnecessary…when they started making the laziest smooth brain the benchmark. WHAT DO YOU EXPECT?? Oh I’m being logical. I just lost half of you. Think about having a glass…real glass…in each hand and banging them together. Then you say, “HEY they broke!” Welcome to America.
Look, a college degree used to mean something. But the smooth brains monetized the degrees, handing them to anyone who could pay for one, or have ME pay for one FOR them…and now people show up waving their diploma screaming, “Hire me or I will throw a fit!” and I just sigh. What a freaking waste of paper. BS degrees, or even BA degrees are not worth the powder to blow them to hell. Same thing for masters’ degrees. Thank you, Smooth Brains. I actually EARNED my degrees. I lost sleep studying, I read books and books and books, I took tests tests tests and oh yeah, I LEARNED. By the way, I will NOT hire unqualified people, I don’t care what color you dye your hair.
I went to one of those doc-in-the-box places a few years ago when I had bronchitis. The ‘doctor’ shuffled in (yes shuffled) wearing bedroom slippers. BEDROOM SLIPPERS! Not kidding. And people wonder why I don’t automatically genuflect at the sight of a white coat. I want to know if THAT person graduated at the bottom of the class. Pretty sure my doc-in-the-box did.
Let’s talk about yelling and screaming in support of the ones who want to behead you WITH A MACHETE! ON TV! I’m shaking my head while it is still attached to my body. Somebody show these idiots that video for God’s sake. Never mind, it won’t do any good at all.
Why am I finding this shit funny? Hahaha. Well, what else am I going to do? I have a fully functioning brain. I was able to see this disaster coming YEARS ago. Still laughing. Pepsi closed their Chicago operation? Well I wouldn’t want to make sugar water in a war zone. Good for them! Oh and they gave no notice? Well if they HAD, the entire factory would have been razed by mad little children who have zero coping skills. In other words: WE DID THIS TO OURSELVES. Still laughing. And the instantly unemployed say, “I don’t have a job now!” Well what the HELL did you expect?? Whom did you vote for?? How much violence are you willing to tolerate? Well apparently all of it until it costs you your job.
I had a friend who had a spoiled grandchild who loved to get in the family gatherings and have screaming temper tantrums. Most of her family members just looked uncomfortable. Not my friend. She put the kid in a bedroom and told her to scream as loudly as she wanted in there, and then she closed the door. Well, holy shit, the screaming stopped. No audience. That’s called being a parent. That’s called intelligent thinking. That’s called not letting the children take control. In America, or whatever this country is called now, children with zero talent, nothing to contribute, are in control. And people wonder why shit is going upside down.
There’s no WONDERING here!! Somebody predicted this and that somebody wanted it to happen. And the general population were too dumb to see it coming. Well, not ALL of the population. Some of us actually have intelligence and foresight. But we also have no power, so we’re tied to the the tracks upon which the idiot train runs. The only solution is for all wheels to come off and have the idiots unable to move forward. They won’t know how to put the wheels back on; that requires thinking and SKILL. I’m picturing an ape scratching his head.
We have people in charge who cannot do basic math, who have JUST NOW discovered Venn diagrams. How can any marginally smart person think you can hand out billions of dollars to criminals and expect hard working people to support that to their own detriment? Everybody has a limit. Everybody. Yeah, look out the window, pal. It’s happening. Oh yeah, let’s hand the reins to people who wear the right clothes, who are in a super minority, who have no idea what the rest of the world even LOOKS like. Let’s put THEM in control. This train is about to run out of tracks and the ‘conductors’ are too dumb to look beyond the control stick or whatever you call that thing.
The worst thing for me is knowing that people are so dumbed down, they will continue to vote in other dummies. Nobody, not ONE of them, had better cry around me when the shit hits the fan for good. Because at that time, there will be no reason not to clock them. I probably won’t be laughing when this happens and it will.
My country used to be the place everyone wanted to come to, everyone wanted to copy. Now, my country has ‘aspired’ to mimic third world countries. My country seems determined to have bullet ridden buildings, unpaved streets, criminals lauded, children abused, a greater and greater lack of things we have come to expect and enjoy…like food…, and a dictatorship with a double digit IQ at the helm (I may be giving too much credit there). Why? They’ve never been anywhere else, so they can’t know what we have here in America. Countries all over the world are struggling to survive rampant stupidity, and that’s what it is. There is an effort to instill mass slavery and yet the anti-slavery crowds cheer for this movement. THEY CHEER!!! Zero critical thinking skills. Well, it is said that you don’t know what you’ve got ’till it’s gone. That, my friends, is true. And we are about to learn something. By the way, a double digit IQ is AVERAGE AND BELOW, for the ones who don’t have a clue what that means.
Speaking of gardens…For the first time ever in this home, I had nesting birds in one Loropetalum and nesting birds in the bluebird house. The Loropetalum is pruned into a tree shape and resides in the corner of my garden as an anchor plant. The Bluebird house is on the other side of the yard and has never hosted Bluebirds, ever.
This year I had a Cardinal pair nesting and a Chickadee pair nesting. They were a determined set of bird parents, building nests in earnest in order to lay eggs, which they did. Then they took turns guarding the dwellings from Zach my cat, and from me. Zach has an injury to his eye, which was there from the time I adopted him as a tiny little guy; the vet isn’t sure it didn’t happen in the litter, or during birth, but it doesn’t seem to slow Zach down or need any medicinal attention. I think it gives him character…as if he needed any more.
Zach’s kingdom is my fenced yard, from which he has no desire to escape. I planned to take him out for walks, so I leash trained him as a kitten, which turned out to be a good thing. More to come on that. But when it was time to venture out for a real walkabout? Nope, he wasn’t having it. So the vest and leash went on the shelf. But it came in very handy while my bird parents were nesting. Zach suited up in his ‘uniform’ twice a day, morning and evening, and we went into the little garden kingdom, with me holding him in check with the leash. This kept the birds safe but gave Zach the excitement of watching the birds and smelling the fresh air. It also gave me the joy of watching the bird journey.
I had a chance to learn the alarm call of Cardinal parents, and those of Chickadee parents. Later on, after the chicks had flown, I got to hear the songs of happiness. I loved this journey.
Both bird pairs fed their chicks when the eggs hatched. The dad Cardinal didn’t do much other than guarding and alarming before the eggs hatched, but once they did, he got busy, alongside the mom Cardinal. And both Chickadee parents worked equally hard throughout. Chickadees lay a LOT more eggs, by the way, than Cardinals. So I put out feed for the moms to keep their energy up.
The Chickadees were fun to watch because the food they brought to the chicks was nearly as big as their head and they were very wary of me and my cat. They checked us out thoroughly before entering the house, and they peeked out, often with a worm dangling from the beak. Very funny. One of the Chickadee parents peeked out and looked ALL around before flying out for another meal for the kids. I don’t know whether it was mom or dad, but it was adorable either way.
The first morning I went out and did not hear the Cardinal alarm cry, the silence seemed odd. I said, “Where are the mom and dad Cardinals?”. Zach didn’t answer. It was very quiet. I couldn’t get a look at the nest but I knew the babies were gone. Next day, no Chickadee noise either. Oddly, all of the other bird chatter was gone too. So they must have had all of their friends watching us when we were outside.
It was sad. I took a picture of the birdhouse Chickadee nest just to be sure, and yep, no baby birds. But now that I know how the saga works out, I’ll be watching. It was great getting to know the birds and Zach even got used to sticking close to me, hearing “NO BIRDS, ZACH!”, so much so that the first day he was allowed out without his leash, he stuck by my side anyway.
I hardly visit my small garden without pruning shears of some kind in hand. I don’t know the standard names for all of them; I just know some need to be tough and some need to be easy on the plants. This morning and most mornings these days I use the ones I call snippers. They are good for deadheading and for threatening plants back into the footprint I allow them to occupy.
My sister calls me the impatient gardener, laughingly, because I’m always ridding the garden of shriveled leaves, dying flowers, wayward branches; you get the drift. I realize that the real gardeners have the vapors when I talk about pruning at the ‘wrong time’; but I find that my plants love to be pruned. They always respond well, and maybe it is because I love them and it is important to me that they be healthy and lovely. And yes, I have sacrificed annual blooms for the sake of a healthy plant. That’s okay; they come back stronger and happier.
The garden behind my townhouse is tiny. I fenced in the yard and promptly built raised beds all around. Each year for the first several, I widened the beds farther into the grassy area, hoping to have many flowers, few grass blades. It worked. In the center of my tiny grassy spot I have an 8 foot tall maple tree in a pot. I grew the tree from a twig, pruning it into what I call a Japanese shape, as it grew. It is taller than me now, so I’ll need a different strategy going forward. When it gets too big, I will donate it and start over. I guess I’m fostering the tree.
I prune away branches growing inside and across other branches, in part for the health of the tree and in part to keep it from becoming a sail…thus tipping over, pot and all. This tree came into my garden because I needed to shade part of the garden from the harsh afternoon sun. So it does double duty: It is beautiful and gives me joy, and it shades the plants that used to suffer because there was no shade to protect them.
Because my little garden is tiny, I can keep it weeded and mulched, and it is easy to deadhead the flowers. Nearly every square inch of space is occupied by a beautiful plant of some kind. I had a hellebore binge, a conifer binge; I have irises, lilies, peonies, calla and canna lilies, asiatic lilies, ferns, roses, hostas, gardenias, geraniums, hydrangeas, elephant ears, bear breeches, alliums, vinca, verbena, cone flowers, begonias, to name just a few. Yes, there are many more. I plant petunias, pansies and vinca seasonally with the intention to have color all season long. My conifers are dwarf or exceptionally slow growing, to save space. And I use a lot of vertical space too, so I have pots on columns, on the ground, in plant stands. I watched a young man with a garden smaller than mine, growing only green plants of different shades and textures and it was lovely. That sent me off on another tangent I’m glad I explored. I planted a cryptomeria during that phase, because of its texture.
The thing is, you never learn all there is to know about gardening. New hybrids come forth each year, changing everything you thought you knew, and creating excitement among us gardeners. There’s a brand new boxwood this year, did you know? Probably not available to mere mortals like me, but it will be all the rage, I’m sure.
The nice thing about gardening is that you go a long time before you age out of it. The only hard part for me is lugging in all of the pots for winter. I used to have no problems with that, but now, it’s a chore. Has to be done, though, because the plants can’t move themselves and I want them to live out the winter on the enclosed porch.
This season I’ve planted Kentucky Wonder beans on my arbor, to entertwine with the honeysuckle already there. I’ll be able to pick beans under the arbor, smelling sweet honeysuckle, in a couple of months and I can’t wait. Squash adds nice foliage to a flower bed, too, and you have the benefit of a yummy vegetable along the way. My sister says my beds are “Jurassic Park” beds because my plants leap out of the ground and vegetable plants go crazy. It’s all about soil amendment, really. Once you get it right, gardening is easy. Most of the time.
A well tended garden adds value to your life and to your property. Nothing looks sadder to me than a beautiful home left bare of plantings. If you don’t know how to grow plants, my guess is that someone like me would love to landscape your home…you pay for the plants of course. Because. Gardeners are addicts. Don’t say I told you.
I’m Brenda. I’m a real estate agent and I help folks buy and sell homes with my company, The Premier Advantage Realty. You can find me online at http://www.thepremieradvantage.com.
I’ll bet you thought I was going to tell you to Take A Class, or Mail Out Postcards, or Beef Up Your Social Media Presence….didn’t ya? HA! Fooled you again. Here’s what you do first: Examine yourself. Ouch! That might hurt some folks. Still true.
Hey, Socrates said the unexamined life is not worth living. And yeah, that’s a bit harsh, but I’m guessing he was surrounded by narcissists and psychopaths. I feel his pain if that was true. Those types can definitely make you feel that way. And they’ll make terrible real estate agents, but they’ll be great owners and managers. That’s statistically proven. Apparently many CEOs are psychopaths or have psychopathic tendencies (what’s the freaking difference at the end of the day, is my question). Probably why I’m not a psychiatrist. And can I just say? I agree with Socrates. Self examination is the easiest thing you can do. DOING something about the things you find is the hard part. Acknowledging that you have things to fix is important. If you don’t find any, you’re a narcissist. Don’t go into real estate.
I have probably said this before, but real estate agency is about RE-LA-TION-SHIPS. Relationships, for the slower brains. Listen, it doesn’t matter how many classes you take; if you’re an ass, you’re going to fail. Why? Because you will not make connections. Connections; that’s the key. If you make good connections, real ones, the client will come back later and bring their friends.
But here’s the key: Learn to stop chasing the almighty dollar and LISTEN to your client and CARE about what they want and need. Real estate is a service business. Service. All of my clients can spot moneymongers a mile away. And then they call me. I actually care about my clients and guess what, if I cannot care, I don’t work with them. Why?
Because I cannot be a good real estate agent if I can’t connect. My clients very often become close friends, similar to family in some cases. It never fails that several of my clients invite me to their holiday dinners! Touches my soul, I’ll tell you. Such a compliment. But my clients know they are heard, that it is THEIR needs at the forefront, not mine. Take off the hardhat, put down the clipboard and cattle prod, put down your CALCULATOR, and listen to your clients.
How do you examine yourself? Well…let’s start with coping. How do you cope with stress? What are your coping mechanisms? In real estate, you’re going to have to cope yourself, and also help your clients cope. This is a stressful business. If you end up in some kind of conflict with ever single real estate transaction, then the common denominator is…wait for it…YOU! Figure out what you do, every single time, that upsets your clients so much that sometimes they just outright fire you. You need to do this; you need to know it and you need to FIX IT. Meaning fix YOU, not them. I you’re a narcissist you’ll blame it on them and ultimately you will fail at being a real estate agent. There are no secrets in real estate; it’ll get around the your are a tasmanian devil.
If your modus operandi is to start pushing your clients to do things your way, you are wrong wrong wrong. You work for them. NOT the other way around. Show some respect, get to know their fears and stressors and try to HELP them. If you can’t do that, you are in the WRONG business.
Notice I’m not talking about logistics. New agents have to learn the ropes, post classes. The real world is not what you learn in class. The PEOPLE part isn’t taught because it’s complicated. I’m not sure why people rush to be real estate agents, because many fail at it, but if it’s all about money…too bad. There’s more to it than that. You need to know yourself, and learn to read people. It helps to study age cohort influence on behavior. That is golden. It will help you a LOT if you actually study it.
Let’ talk about social media. First LinkedIn has become an ad spot. So I ignore it now. People do not shop for homes on Facebook; are you kidding me? If someone wants to connect with me it’s for the sole purpose of loading my inbox with ads. Nope, not gonna happen. You can tell people you are a real estate agent and they will promptly ignore you. There are tens of thousands of such messages out there. Post cards? What do you do with the ones YOU get? I toss them, ESPECIALLY the narcissistic huge ones. Those go in the bin first. Pop-bys? That’s a 20 year old concept. Doesn’t work. MAKE CONNECTIONS, PEOPLE. And THEN give a gift if you like.
By the way, I said social media is not effective; I did not say the internet isn’t. MOST clients go online. I’m going to say 99%. So definitely have a website, and please, remember it is for business, not tictok, not Onlyfans, not look at me look at me. Be a professional, a leader…but only if you want actual clients. No way I’m hiring you if you’re probably going to hit on my spouse. There, I said it. And some people are not impressed by expensive, matching handbags and shoes. They’re gonna imagine themselves not being able to afford those things and giving their money to YOU so YOU can afford them. See how this works?
And listen, the minute I figure out I’m a JOB to you, or I’m on your checklist? You’re out. In other words, be genuine. Does this take time? Yes. News flash: You’re going to have to put in the work. Don’t treat clients like homework. They will know.
Wanna chat about this? I’m with The Premier Advantage Realty at 919-210-6113. Call me. I actually talk to people.
We live in an age of DON’T YOU DARE STEREOTYPE. In case you were wondering. But somehow picking on older people is okay? No, it is not.
It seems baby boomers have been discovered by a new generation, one who never knew anything about boomers until now and hey, we need a new group to bash. Plus, the name is kinda cool, because creativity was alive in the age of the boomers. Younger buyers have a letter. But let’s say it, let’s make fun, let’s attack, let’s act like all boomers are 90 years old and have no value. That’s stereotyping and it’s also wrong.
I just saw a headline about ‘younger buyers’ wanting baby boomers to redecorate. Deep breath. Calming down. Don’t tell other people to redecorate. You’re not shopping DECOR. Your agent should tell you that, unless they are inexperienced and not good at their job.
First: Younger buyers have no business telling anybody else how to decorate their home. I dare anybody to come in my house and tell me to redecorate. Wow.
Second: Who made you an interior design specialist? Stacking stuff on the floor and building a colorless, characterless home is not decorating.
Third: Do NOT dare to tell anybody how to live their cultural social existence. As long as they are not chasing you around with big old knives or shooting at you, it’s NONE of your business.
Let me clue you in on real estate wisdom, younger buyers. You are not buying decor. You are buying real estate. If you do not have the ability to look beyond some else’s decor, maybe you should wait a while before you try to buy a house, because you are shopping decorations and that’s not actually ‘home buying’. In case you were wondering.
I get it. Jewel tones and dark red paint are out out out. SO buy some PAINT. And if you don’t know how, well I just don’t know what to tell you: It’s not rocket science. I did rocket science; this ain’t it. But if you absolutely can’t do it, then ask the seller to make a concession so you can HIRE someone.
And let me also say, boomers who ARE on the front of the generation, might just tell you to kiss off, only in more colorful language. Boomers don’t whine and cry. They hit back.
You know, insulting an entire group of people out loud, in print, is wrong, unless you are God and I’m thinking you’re definitely not. Real Estate agents writing articles, I’m calling YOU out on this. Boomers might want to block all ‘younger buyers’ from viewing their homes. And it is your job to encourage your buyers to ‘look at the bones’. And if they like the house, for God’s sake, don’t insult the sellers.
This is the most important bit of information: EVERY generation of sellers AND buyers has its own needs, behaviors, goals. New agents, you CANNOT treat older buyers like they are dumb and out of touch. They are nuclear physicists, doctors, attorneys, scientists. Don’t insult them; rather, learn how to RELATE to them. Insulting them should NEVER be done. Never. Chances are you can’t hold a candle to their body of work and life.
I’m incredulous about that article. Incredulous. It’s an out loud, in print sign of stupidity and lack of professionalism.
I’m pretty sure we can all agree that politeness is harder to come by as each day passes. And every business is morphing into a different character, trying to adjust to constantly changing social landscape. But here’s one thing that should not change.
When you are allowed to enter the home of a stranger to walk your buyer clients through, to test cabinet spaces and check out closet size and configuration, peek into the crawl space, walk the property…the very least you can do is send feedback to the agent who lists this property for sale for these seller clients. After all, they have just let you stroll around their home.
You are doing a good thing for your buyers, and you are also getting paid. And you are also in the business with the listing agent who needs your feedback. Realize that these sellers want to know your opinion of the home because they may be able to make changes to make the home more appealing.
And if you ignore your obligation to provide feedback, you create more work for the listing agent, who now has to track you down, has to inform their seller clients that you didn’t provide feedback, just more annoying time sucking activities that would not be necessary if you, buyer agent, would do your job.
And it is the polite thing to do regardless.
Your friendly reminder from Brenda Briggs, Coldwell Banker Advantage. Find me online and by the way, I will let you know what my clients thought of your home if I am in buyer agency. That’s a promise.
Have you thought about the “New World Order” and what that means? Ever given that a second’s thought? Do you think it’s global hugging and loving? Think again.
A (New) World Order sounds refreshing and light, doesn’t it? Not old, not grandpa’s way (even though it is grandpa talking it up). New. Young. Better. Okay, but what about this? Out with the old…but wait, it is the ‘old’ who are chirping about this as they shuffle about and drool while counting their money and eyeing ours. Nah, this tale can’t work at all.
How about (New World) Order. That one scares me. One world, a new world, all together, all individual cultures erased, all religions erased, anything divisive erased. Melded, unified, without borders, boundaries. Gotta get rid of Christianity and Judaism and Islam. How can that even HAPPEN? Well that gets its own chapter for sure.
In ORDER. Order from where? Well from the ones pushing this NEW WORLD notion. But wait, they are old. But they must be the only ones who have great ideas. But they don’t talk to the people, they think people are dirty and deplorable. And nobody knows whom they are. They are invisible, above the clouds. Nobody would follow the agenda of invisible rich people, right?? Rats, I need to edit the story.
Okay let’s get the focus on one thing: climate. Everybody looking up? Okay now divide and conquer. Hurry! Sounds like a good plan, get ’em while they are distracted. Maybe throw some cash at them while we’re at it. Everybody knows the love of money is the root of all evil. Let’s do it. The story is getting interesting!
Divide. Good plan, but how? Race, gender, religion, the biggies. Get a few large mouths to start the angst, then sit back and wait for it to run its course. But what do we do while we wait? Well we could make rules to get people in line, obedient! Afraid! Yeah, fear is a great idea!
But wait, individual cultures have value and beauty. And as for religion, people like to choose. There is grandness and beauty in diversity! Oh it will be hard to get people to give up their individuality. But if they hate one another, they will take care of that issue FOR us. But how will this fit into the tale?
The notion of a New World, without nations, without divisions, without cultures…will take eternity. Look at Muslims and Jews. That’s been going on for centuries. How will those people ever mesh? Well, only if they are no longer allowed to practice their individual religions, of course. What do you think the plan will be to solve that problem? That’s a question worth pondering. Particularly if you are either one of those groups. First I think we need to stir up the antagonism…but won’t that threaten the whole world? Gotta rethink the tale.
Let’s say everyone hugs and sings peace loving songs together. Okay. Then what? Well, the word ‘order’ comes into play, because along the way we’ve been training the masses to follow the piper. Without thinking or paying attention to the hands holding the puppets, follow. We will be good slaves, won’t we? If you live your entire existence under ‘orders’, what would that look like? No choices. Being told what to do. Like, oh I don’t know, slavery. Hmmm, that’s been done before and it was terrible. But it hasn’t been done on a WORLD scale, right? Will it fit into the tale in this ‘new’ way?
But first the right to bear arms has to go because we can’t have the herds fighting back, now can we? How? Encourage criminality, because it is true that humans are not basically ‘good’. Don’t punish crime and while you are at it, defund and dehumanize police. Utterly destroy the existing order. From the ‘inside’, destroy the system. Oh that’s not a new concept; ask Saul Alinsky and anyone who studied under him or admired his ‘activism’. That might be important to the tale.
Once crime takes over, time to institute military control, the ultimate ORDER. But it has to be military controlled by a leader, the one giving orders. Oh I know, a military wearing all black and wearing arm bands? Ones willing to eliminate competition of ones insisting on being their own culture? Anyone who has something the ‘leader’ wants? Like that? That could make the story work. But…has that happened already? I think it has. And that didn’t go well either, did it? Maybe this tale isn’t a good idea.
And all of the ones screaming and protesting, burning and looting along the way? Well they won’t fit into a sweet, melded and unified society. Hmmm. Where will the fit in? Oh they won’t. Another story problem.
Now…all of the elites authoring this story, this NEW WORLD order let’s think. Only one gets to be the leader of the NEW WORLD order. Uh oh. OH no. Hmmm. How do we write THAT chapter to finish this fictional tale? I don’t know. That part has not begun to unfold. But I encourage you to write this chapter. Look around, check out the changing landscape, and write that last fictional chapter.
My followers know I am always thinking about something deeper than what is on the surface. I live in the depths where the interesting information lives. I’ve also become a fan of the true crime genre, which opens a whole new world to contemplate, most obviously, the truth about a large part of humanity that I’ve long suspected existed among us anyway.
I’ve been going to church almost all of my life. I believe I started at the age of 9, being dropped off for Vacation Bible School, aka, free childcare. Aside from being the first opportunity for me to overcome my excruciating shyness at that time, VBS gave me a chance to meet Jesus and the others. Hmmm, this Jesus guy seems like someone I’ve sung about before. Oh yeah, Jesus Loves Me, This I Know… Well we can talk about religion another time. I will just say religion is not the same as God; religion, ALL religions, are man-created. And if you are inclined to blow a gasket because of that sentence, think about it first. But Jesus: This guy, stuck in my mind. He kept coming back from the depths of my psyche and tapping on my door. But back to the topic.
I used to believe people were basically good. Basically trustworthy. Ha. I guess I didn’t actually read the Bible closely then. The Bible clearly states that humans are sinful creatures. We are ‘wretched sinners’, in fact. What?!? Welllll I found that a bit harsh…until I looked around me. Most people are NOT basically good. People, as it turns out, are MOSTLY not ‘basically good’. A LOT of us will get away with exactly as much as we can get away with. We the people will lie, steal, kill, misrepresent, leach off of others, brutalize others, attach as parasites to a host, BE a host (me), overestimate others, UNDERestimate others, have sympathy, not know the meaning of the word sympathy, even empathy, tell little white lies, big old gooey ones, and on and on. It’s complicated, in other words. Learning about this stuff is a long, actually never-ending, process.
First, I thought about left versus right brain dominance. Oh that explains it, right? No. It doesn’t. It’s one part of a 1000 piece puzzle. But you don’t KNOW that until later on in the learning process. Still, if you are left brain dominant, as I am, you go for data, facts, truth, you analyze. And I’m going to venture to say most of US (the left brainers) can keep emotions to a minimum. We’re not robots, we do have emotions but we don’t have to broadcast them! As such, VERY often, people think we are ‘fine’ because we don’t hop around in a circle and wail when things go sideways. No, we go deep and analyze. We line up the data, figure out what the hell happened and how do I keep this from happening again? The surface dwellers NEVER understand us because they are hopping around waving flags and wailing, sometimes having feelings that obliterate facts, and floating around in the glitter and rose petals at the surface of the pond (It’s a good life). Well, not always, but watch the news, will you? This wailing and gnashing of teeth is getting more and more prevalent…which scares the crap out of me because you cannot reason with someone who is trying to set you on fire. But back to the point: Depending on how many puzzle pieces we’ve acquired, we just might not care whether anybody gets us. Why? Because we know caring about that is a colossal waste of time. Oh here we go..
I’ve had some occasions to be screamed at lately, like, in a ROW. hahaha. What the hell is going on here. Am I diabolical? Or…do I give the impression that I can take verbal abuse? Do I LOOK like a punching bag? Where is my mirror and can it go with me into the depths? Okay I CAN take verbal abuse because I understand it and it usually doesn’t get inside me. Depending on who delivers it, it can set a drill bit into my soul, but I always thwart that effort now. I didn’t always. It’s about putting the puzzle together. For me, I know I can drive people crazy if they are not like me, and SURPRISE most people are not. But here’s the thing: When you verbally abuse someone, you say a thousand more things to that person, aside from the words you shouted. And those messages are the ones that break the bonds.
This I know: I know what I feel; I know what I say and do not say, know what I believe and do not believe. My pet peeve is when people try to tell me how I feel, what I think, what I believe or do not believe or try to talk down to me as though I am unworthy of respect. I am not better than anyone, but nobody else is better than me either. My pet peeve is when someone says to me what I said when I know what I said. If you get it wrong, you’re gonna get an argument. I know what I say. Never tell me my opinions are ‘wrong’. An opinion is an opinion, a belief is a belief, both of which I am entitled to, and by the way…a left brain dominant person doesn’t not reach a conclusion or opinion frivolously. We analyze the crap out of it. And many of us are able to say, “I don’t know.” It’s not hard. Often it is the truth.
Well, I am going to surprise you here. Ready? I am not perfect! I do stupid stuff too, just like everyone else. And (puzzle piece) I am a first-born. Psychologists say that although I have a slightly older brother, he did not assume the role of first-born in the psychological scale. I did. I was the built in babysitter, the one in ‘charge’ of cleaning the house, making sure my younger siblings didn’t play in the street, making sure my older brother didn’t burn something down, doing laundry along the way…that stuff. First born.
As such, being born into the unit I was born into, I had no guidance, nobody to copy. So I found my way with my hands outstretched, feeling around in the nebulous and moving forward until I either hit a wall or fell off a cliff. That’s ANOTHER thing. Parents, give your first born children some guidance, will you? Like hey, there’s a wall really close to you or WATCH OUT FOR THAT CLIFF! I didn’t have that. I had parents who were largely unconnected but they did carry a big hammer for punishment for the two firstborns. I temper that by adding in that I didn’t shout and wail when I was hurt or confused so they may have thought I was just fine.
But my M.O. was to move by trial and error, although now I am able to suss out the environment pretty well most of the time. Glad I’m learning all of this complicated crap, just in time to kick the bucket. By the way, I will leave the mortal coil not having completed this puzzle. Humans don’t have the capacity to finish it, Garden of Eden notwithstanding. If you THINK you have all of the answers, wow, you are probably a narcissist. Why? Because the more you actually learn, the more you realize you don’t know. Even Einstein said that. Moving on.
Back to true crime: If you delve into this genre, you will be introduced to psychopaths, narcissists, malignant psychopaths, malignant psychopaths with narcissistic tendencies, and all of the infinite combinations therein. You will be introduced to people who do horrific things because mommy didn’t love me or mommy loved me too much. Or you were allergic to formula when you were a baby or you were breast fed. Or you never got to go to Disney (a blessing in my mind). So now you look around with wide eyes thinking you are surrounded by weirdos. hahaha. Just picture it. And shock of shocks: You’re one too! There are so many crimes that are committed by ‘the nice guy next door’ that it changes your perspective of humankind. And it should. Why? Because we have crime shows that give you step by step instructions on how to commit the perfect murder! hahaha. Never works though. Don’t do it.
I’m the kind of analyst that wants to know why. Why should be the word on my tombstone; it defines me. So when some people go off the rails, I realize they were abused as a child, or they are deeply wounded and therefore carry around a huge weight of anger JUST below the surface (hence the shouting), or they were NOT a firstborn and therefore think life is supposed to be easy, like a path cleared before you by the battered and bruised firstborns, or they were not breast fed, no Disney. Like that. So right out of the gate, I am TRYING to give abusers a pass, an excuse. That’s stupid. But listen, sometimes there’s an explanation that is true, and makes sense. There. Problem solved.
HOWEVER: There are some wounded ones who will not set down the buckets of putrid sewage they carry around in their own psyche, always planted by someone else. The first step is turning on the lights, picking up the mirror and ‘know thyself’, if you are capable. Some are not. And then you have to go to work throwing away the bad stuff forever, letting it go. If it has come to define you? Not an easy task but still possible. Once you see that a person wants to cling to their ‘disorder’ for example, just move along. You are probably not going to even be able to love them.
Anyway, I’m wired to look beyond the event to try and figure it out. The thing is I now try to weed out the tendencies I see coming my way so I don’t have to deal with them. Mostly, I succeed. But the bottom line is that every single human being on this planet is wired before they are born, and then their environment begins to trim, cut, pressure, reshape, destroy the person they were intended to be. So I try to love the person they were INTENDED to be, by God. Not always. If they have a hatchet behind their back, not so much. So it pays to know something about a person’s history. But the WIRING…you can’t change that. Now this goes back to why I don’t usually fight back or want to, nor try to mend fences, that kind of thing. If, for example, you are dealing with a malignant narcissist, say. Here’s what you get (in part).
First, they want you in their life so they can 1) get something from you; 2) use you as a step to get higher on the ladder, obviously higher than you; 3) beat somebody up and you can take it; 4) you always agree with their amazing intellect and insight (God help you if you don’t). That’s a partial list, but basically, to a personality type like that, you are a tool in their kit and by the way…once they have used you up, you’re toast. hahaha. Just remember that when they throw you away with shouting and spittle, that will be a GOOD thing, because you cannot change them, you cannot reason with them, you are done, finito, garbage in the can to them. You can either mope about it, or you can understand the system in which the event occurred and move on. And these people, I firmly believe, are the reason so many womens’ bodies are found in shallow graves. Their purpose was served. Frightening.
Oh and this is important. Watch out for RETALIATION, because that’s what malignant narcissists like. They like to hurt you, they get pleasure from it, “even if you don’t know they did it”. That quote came from a psychologist telling me about someone who liked hurting me and I was, well, clueless. I didn’t have that puzzle piece then. So if you cross a malignant narcissist, just watch for the flying tomahawks, beer bottles, you know, that kind of thing. In my case, the retaliation was financial, diabolical, and it nearly DID destroy me. But I’m still here. I’m like one of those punching bags that keeps popping back up. So far.
And there are SO many influence styles, personality types, DISORDERS, and there’s society who give you malignant messages on top of it. You become invisible after the age of 50. Once you become a senior, you are a ‘burden’ and no longer valued. If you are not oh I can’t say that word here, but basically if you are not sexual, GOODBYE. There is agism, there is racism, there is gender-ism, cast system prejudices. The love of money IS the root of all evil, more and more as time goes on. Everyone can be bought; everybody has a price. Here’s a true one: Most people are not smart enough to vote or drive. hahaha.
Then there’s intelligence. Money trumps it. Some of the dumbest people are in charge of the world because daddy had money. That’s frightening. Bill Gates got money and suddenly he is telling the whole wide world allll about viruses. Bill Gates should not be talking to anybody about viruses, or chemistry, or physics. But you get the idea. Money and intelligence are two more puzzle pieces. Don’t forget ‘disorders’.
I guess what I’m getting at here is this: Life is complicated, but it is fascinating if you pay attention, take a deep breath and dive below the surface, away from the glitter and flower petals floating there, and see the rest of the universe. I was given a bit of knowledge the other day: I have a tendency to want to maintain toxic connections. SHOCK. Why? Because of a childhood thing, related to a wait for it…narcissist. Holy cow that was a GOOD puzzle piece. And if you are someone who likes to retaliate when you get mad, go see a counselor. Or run for office. And don’t have kids.
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