2012 was quite a year for me. One of the best years of my entire life was bookended by the death of my mother and grandmother... In chronological order, here we go!
In January I sold a mobile home on Gieger Key. It was listed for only a few months and I went all out on the multimedia part - videos, high end digital photography, virtual tours, etc. Did some very interesting showings, including a couple of drifters who were probably setting me up for murder, robbery or something. Apparently owning a bright red Mercedes Benz and only having one listing - an old mobile home - can cause some problems. Sold the house and later sold the car. From now on I'm an "everyman's agent" and rock the 2002 4Runner to cart my clients around in.
February brought the death of my grandmother. She was 90 years old and had lingered for many years after a crippling stroke. The wake and funeral were in Beacon, NY; my Mom's old neighborhood. It was cold and dark - very depressing. The worst part of a wake is knowing that some in the room is bound to be next. We all feared that it would be my Mom who was battling trough her 7th year of Cancer treatment. I'll never forget the cold morning of the funeral where my brother, cousins and brother-in-law were the pallbearers. Waiting for the hearse to pull up in front of the church, a snow flurry erupted. Maybe I look for signs too much but it was touching.
In March I started working for Lisa Ferringo. She's incredible at what she does and it has been an eye opening experience to say the least. Reserved, calculating individuals like myself should never go into sales because we lack the most important piece of the sales puzzle - outgoing personality. But once we get that going in the right direction, I hope to be unstoppable. Lisa and I have had a few miscommunications along the way because I'm willing to give up when the situation seems impossible. She's taught me to never give up, never be embarrassed and that a good frame of mind is key.
In July Mary Jo and I went to Turkey! It was absolutely incredible. Here are 500+ photos! Life changing to say the least. MJ and I spent the last two days trying to figure out how on earth we could describe our adventures to our friends and family back home and realized we couldn't. So we didn't. But the pictures sure are cool! We spent a few days in Istanbul site seeing (Hagia Sophia, Blue Mosque, Grand Bazzarre, etc.) circled the country on a brand new tour bus. We stopped and checked out underground cities, hiked enormous canyons, partied with Russians, explored the land the land bridge between Asian and Europe that has been crossed by so many humans over thousands of years. Hot springs, salt lakes, ancient battle grounds, museums, insane food - it was great. We spent a night in Kusadasi at a five star resort, top floor, corner suite over looking the Mediterranean ocean. It was amazing. Made lots of friends with the Aussies.
August and September were comprised of some tough real estate moments for me. Endless inspections, deals falling apart left and right. I wasn't ready for this kind of stuff and made a ton of mistakes. Lisa is fearless and can fix anything. I learned a lot about not giving up and pushing through to the end.
October began the down hill path of my Mom's health. The chemotherapy was frying her brain and not stopping the cancer's advancement. What had begun as ovarian cancer in 2005 was now everywhere, pushing against her digestive organs and lungs making life very difficult. There were many things going wrong at once and the oncologist made the decision to stop treatment and change gears to Hospice care. Mom checked out mentally but never stopped trying to communicate with family. I spent two weeks helping my Dad transition my Mom from normal life to ... well... not so normal life that included being stuck in bed. My sister and brother also came. Hurricane Sandy ripped through the state while I was there (Connecticut) and downed a bunch of trees in the back yard. We were very lucky they fell the way that they did...
I returned to Key West in a daze in early November. I was worthless and depressed. My brother Tim stayed to help my Dad and my sister would spend her weekends at my parent's house. This made it bearable for me but only barely. Watching a loved one come to terms with the end of their life is the worst. That's what I thought anyway until I witnessed the end of life.
To cheer me up, my wife brought me to the NASCAR finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. We really enjoy the racing and it did help to take my mind off of everything that was going wrong with the world. To sweeten the pot MJ bought us tickets to the Patriots/Dolphins football game in Miami in early December. While driving up to the game I got a phone call from my sister who hinted that things were going downhill pretty quick now. Talk about difficult decisions.... I skipped the game and flew home. From the time my sister and I spoke to the time I got to the front door was less than 12 hours.
My mom's death was difficult to witness. I'll spare the blogosphere with the details but at 3:17am on December 7th I texted my sister "We are getting close Karen, Say a prayer for quick passage." Anything but quick, she hung on for another five hours which incredibly was the exact amount of time it took for my sister to travel 300 miles from her home in upstate New York to my parent's house. Mom passed surrounded by her husband, daughter and two sons.
The wake was difficult. I was surprised by my college friends and a few friends from high school too. People that really care about me. It was very special to see them. The funeral was very nice and well orchestrated at St. Joseph's. My brother-in-law delivered a eulogy that was beautiful. It was good closure.
Somewhere along the way I closed on the Shark Key house that I first listed back in 2010! Finally sold for $1,025,000. What a roller coaster that was! As always, couldn't' have done it with out my boss.
MJ and I spent Christmas in Key West this year. It was nice to see our local friends on Christmas eve and enjoy time away from family. That sounds bad but I needed a holiday of peace and comfort. We painted the apartment and had lots of cocktails! New Years was a blast too. I think we watched the shoe drop? Who knows. ;o)
Here we are - at the beginning of 2013. NOTHING BAD WILL HAPPEN THIS YEAR. Only good stuff. I'm very excited about the possibilities and looking forward to getting a lot of listings and closing on a lot of deals.
Happy New Year everyone!
Thursday, January 3, 2013
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Lisa Ferringo, FKCC
This past March I joined forces with Lisa Ferringo, a supreme sales agent out of our Big Pine office. She does a ton of business and was trying to expand into the Key West market. I'm Lisa's full time Key West Real Estate assistant and take orders and do business directly through her. So far, so good, but it's imperative that I drum up some more Key West listings. To do this we've expanded our Key West marketing campaign, done a bunch of open houses and have started touting our Real Estate Videos. You can check them out at http://www.youtube.com/FerringoRealEstate
I'm close to mastering the video tour but now I need more properties to take a video of. I've made some videos out of still photographs that were taken before I came on board. It gets the job done and the more videos up on YouTube, the better. Especially when it comes to the Coldwell Banker channel.
With my new venture with Lisa, I've found it incredibly difficult to maintain a steady schedule with Florida Keys Community College. The greatest thing I ever did at the college was create a visual tour of Lagoon Landing with my real estate listing skills. Occupancy will be at or near 100% this Fall and it's in large part due to the tour I created. AWESOME! I'll miss my FKCC friends but won't be too far away. I hope to visit often and rejoin the family a little later on.
Enjoy your Summer and wish me luck with having the most productive one ever!
-Brian
I'm close to mastering the video tour but now I need more properties to take a video of. I've made some videos out of still photographs that were taken before I came on board. It gets the job done and the more videos up on YouTube, the better. Especially when it comes to the Coldwell Banker channel.
With my new venture with Lisa, I've found it incredibly difficult to maintain a steady schedule with Florida Keys Community College. The greatest thing I ever did at the college was create a visual tour of Lagoon Landing with my real estate listing skills. Occupancy will be at or near 100% this Fall and it's in large part due to the tour I created. AWESOME! I'll miss my FKCC friends but won't be too far away. I hope to visit often and rejoin the family a little later on.
Enjoy your Summer and wish me luck with having the most productive one ever!
-Brian
Thursday, January 5, 2012
Shark Key - Best Price per square foot!
Happy New Year!
To get 2012 rockin' and rollin' we've lowered the price on 12 Cannon Royal Dr., Shark Key. At $1,275,000 this is the best price per square foot on the island. Please help me spread the word and remember, this year I'll be donating half of my buyer side commissions to charity so I'll need all the buyers you can refer.
Thank you!
www.KeysToGiving.com
www.12cannonroyal.com
To get 2012 rockin' and rollin' we've lowered the price on 12 Cannon Royal Dr., Shark Key. At $1,275,000 this is the best price per square foot on the island. Please help me spread the word and remember, this year I'll be donating half of my buyer side commissions to charity so I'll need all the buyers you can refer.
Thank you!
www.KeysToGiving.com
www.12cannonroyal.com
Monday, December 12, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Friday, October 28, 2011
The Keys To Giving
I'm proud to introduce a new charity program that I hope will make a difference in my community and propel me into the next echelon of my real estate career. It's called, "The Keys To Giving" and you can visit the website: www.KeysToGiving.com
Through the end of 2012 I will donate 50% of my buyer side commission to the local charity of my buyer's choice! This incentive is for my friends in the Florida Keys to think of me first when they know someone is contemplating buying property and refer the business my way. My excellent knowledge and service is known only to a few previous clients so this incentive is for all of my friends who ha
ven't done business with me and will find out just how good I am.
I'm not new to charitable giving but definitely haven't attempted to ever do something on this level. The possibility of donating tens of thousands of dollars into local charities that need the help is an amazing concept. To this date I've donated time and money to a handful of local charities and non-profits including but not limited to; Coldwell Banker Schmitt Charitable Foundation, Easter Seals and Habitat for Humanity. That's always been under the radar and while I enjoy doing the right thing it won't manifest into more business.
It's a revolutionary business plan - the more business I get the more I can give back to the community which hopefully will create even more business! If I can pull it off, it'll change the way real estate gets sold in the Florida Keys. Help me spread the word!
-Brian
Through the end of 2012 I will donate 50% of my buyer side commission to the local charity of my buyer's choice! This incentive is for my friends in the Florida Keys to think of me first when they know someone is contemplating buying property and refer the business my way. My excellent knowledge and service is known only to a few previous clients so this incentive is for all of my friends who ha
ven't done business with me and will find out just how good I am.I'm not new to charitable giving but definitely haven't attempted to ever do something on this level. The possibility of donating tens of thousands of dollars into local charities that need the help is an amazing concept. To this date I've donated time and money to a handful of local charities and non-profits including but not limited to; Coldwell Banker Schmitt Charitable Foundation, Easter Seals and Habitat for Humanity. That's always been under the radar and while I enjoy doing the right thing it won't manifest into more business.
It's a revolutionary business plan - the more business I get the more I can give back to the community which hopefully will create even more business! If I can pull it off, it'll change the way real estate gets sold in the Florida Keys. Help me spread the word!
-Brian
Friday, October 14, 2011
280 Scopio Ln - NEW LISTING!
I'm pleased to announce that I landed a new listing this week. This one is a single wide mobile home on Geiger Key. Check out this visual tour:
Geiger Key is a pretty cool island. It's located due East of Naval Air Station Key West on Boca Chica. Fighter pilots from all over the world come here to hone their skills. From time to time it can be noisy but the bumper stickers exists... "I Heart Jet Noise."
Located on Geiger Key is the Geiger Key Marina which has a claim to fame as being World Famous and unchanged since the 1960's. Fishermen still fish and the Marina still cooks it up for them! Boat Slip monthly rentals are very reasonable and for a small fee you can use their boat ramp. The Geiger Key Marina is less than a sixty second car ride from my new listing.
More about the mobile home: Two bedroom, one and a half baths with a large screened in porch. Not counting the porch, it is about 1,000 square feet. Current owner has been spending her Winters here since 1985! It sits on a deep water canal that has been plugged. Rumor is, the water is so shallow on that side of the bay that they (the govt') plugged the canals to stop boaters from getting stuck. Dinghies, Jet Skis, kyaks, canoes can all maneuver through the plugged portion and into the bay but I have to advertise it as a swimming canal. That's why it is so important that the marina is less than a minute away!
Key West is about twenty minutes west of Geiger Key. It's a wonderful location for those looking to experience the perfect weather in the Winter months without having to live in the gridlock of Key West proper. Very relaxing and tranquil (when the jets aren't taking off). The mobile home is from 1980 so there is some normal wear and tear. It got a new roof in 2000 and has been kept up. Very clean!
 |
 |
Geiger Key is a pretty cool island. It's located due East of Naval Air Station Key West on Boca Chica. Fighter pilots from all over the world come here to hone their skills. From time to time it can be noisy but the bumper stickers exists... "I Heart Jet Noise."
Located on Geiger Key is the Geiger Key Marina which has a claim to fame as being World Famous and unchanged since the 1960's. Fishermen still fish and the Marina still cooks it up for them! Boat Slip monthly rentals are very reasonable and for a small fee you can use their boat ramp. The Geiger Key Marina is less than a sixty second car ride from my new listing.
More about the mobile home: Two bedroom, one and a half baths with a large screened in porch. Not counting the porch, it is about 1,000 square feet. Current owner has been spending her Winters here since 1985! It sits on a deep water canal that has been plugged. Rumor is, the water is so shallow on that side of the bay that they (the govt') plugged the canals to stop boaters from getting stuck. Dinghies, Jet Skis, kyaks, canoes can all maneuver through the plugged portion and into the bay but I have to advertise it as a swimming canal. That's why it is so important that the marina is less than a minute away!
Key West is about twenty minutes west of Geiger Key. It's a wonderful location for those looking to experience the perfect weather in the Winter months without having to live in the gridlock of Key West proper. Very relaxing and tranquil (when the jets aren't taking off). The mobile home is from 1980 so there is some normal wear and tear. It got a new roof in 2000 and has been kept up. Very clean!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)