How does a real estate agent do business without electricity?

What an experience. It all started as I was driving to the office on Sunday morning on September 14, 2008. Thought to myself that the weather was weird the wind was picking up and the clouds were moving so fast. My open house was scheduled from 2-4 p.m.; it was extremely busy and many prospective buyers came thru heard the wind howling but had no time to look outside. Upon the open house completion thought it was strange that the front yard was totally covered with leaves and that numerous fallen tree branches covered the backyard. As I went back into the house all the lights were out, don’t remember turning off the lights. That was the beginning of the wrath of the storm’s damage.

Retrieving open house signs

It was a struggle to hold onto the open house signs in 75 mile per hour winds which almost blew me away. Driving home was a challenge all the traffic lights were out. Most Central Ohio drivers must have forgotten that when a traffic light is out you need to treat it as a 4 way stop, thought that I might be hit from behind many times, safely made it to my home which was without electricity. The first night is always fun without power; my husband and I joined our neighbors for a candlelight dinner of mac-n-cheese an easy meal to cook on a gas stove.

Day one of the power outages

Not sure what damage the storm has caused. Received a voice mail message from my office manager informing all the Worthington office agents that there was no electricity, internet, or phone service and that the office was closed. As luck would have it my cell phone is now out of juice, laptop needs to be recharged and I need gas in my car. Decided to venture out to see what was open, found a gas station that was doing a brisk business, by the end of the day that station was out of gas. Charged my cell phone in the car as I was driving, with a full tank of gas was comfortable with visiting my clients to make sure they were all ok. My first stop was to visit clients who live in Powell; they survived the storm and there was no storm damage to their homes, then it was on to Dublin everyone was a-ok. As I was on my way to Worthington was saddened to see how much damage the storm caused , so many old trees were blown down, streets were closed because downed trees were hanging on power lines. My clients and their homes fared well only one house had a branch fall against the house and there was no damage.

How do I deliver an offer to you?

Received a call from an agent who wanted to know how he was going to get an offer to me.  No e-mail, no internet access, no fax, no computer power. It was back to the basics the old fashion way of doing business the original tools of the trade, a pencil and paper. The offer was hand written and hand delivered just like in the old days when I first got into the real estate business; 15 years ago the fax machine was just becoming popular. Met the agent at Panera Bread which was one of the few businesses that had electricity it was a perfect meeting place because I could now catch up on my internet correspondence along with recharging my laptop. Glad that I found a gas station earlier in the day that was open it would have been shoe leather express or bicycle power to pick up the offer. Where there is a will there is a way to get a real estate deal done. Thank heavens for cell phone car chargers, pencils, paper and Panera Bread that had internet access, oh the wonderful world of technology. The electricity is now back on and its back to work in the usual way, receiving faxes by e-mail, recharging my laptop and cell phone using good old fashion electricity.