Elizabeth Newlin – Arizona Real Estate Agent

So my head-shot is outdated. It’s weird to me that this is an issue; a photo I had taken 18 months ago looks too little like me now that I can’t use it on advertising materials, but apparently it’s true. I went on a listing appointment a month or so ago that I scheduled because of an ad I run in a neighborhood paper. When I showed up at their door they looked at each other confused and said they’d expected me to look different.

The big problem is that I had just cut my hair short before I had that picture taken. I probably haven’t cut it since and now it’s pretty long. It makes me look younger, I think. On my business cards I can pass for someone who’s been in the biz as much as 10 years, I think (it’s a tiny picture) but in person I think I often come off looking closer to high school age.

I’m going to schedule professional photos, but until then, Jason and I tried to capture a decent professional looking photo for an ad he was putting together for my high school reunion’s memory book. It did not go well. I was conscious of the fact that when I smile big my eyes get very small, so I was trying to keep them open. It ended up looking a little serial killerish. Plus the flash and indoor lighting projected a sweaty sheen on to my face.

Hott, right?

It didn’t help that I had a little urchin clinging to my legs the entire time:

Man, I hate having my photo taken. Sigh.

OK, no blood (or pictures of blood) in this post. But I have been meaning to do this for awhile:

1. This cheap and cute Chandler listing:

is under contract to close on Thursday. Woo!

2. This nice one also in Chandler:

just went under contract this weekend, and real estate gods willing, will close September 7th.

Those are just to let you know that when the papers say that the market has bottomed out and nothing is selling, they’re wrong. The market’s feeling a bit lazy, but those buyers are still out there for the right price and the right house.

3. This East Mesa charmer:

is still hanging in there but has be dropped even further to $214,900. It’s a great deal!

4. I have a new listing as of this morning.

Such a great house! I’m thrilled to have it in my repertoire. It’s 2366 square feet, 4 bedrooms, 2 baths and a 3 car garage in Gilbert (Guadalupe and Lindsay). The subdivision it’s in is a unique little 60 home neighborhood with privately owned streets. It used to be a pecan grove and most of the lots still contain one or two of the now massive, 80-year old trees. The landscaping is lush and perfectly manicured and the lots are all over-sized with nice big RV gates. They have a huge diving pool in back and a 12-seater in-ground spa in the back. We’re asking $425,000.

Check out the pool and spa:

Call me if you want to see it!

I know, I know, I’ve totally turned into one of those bloggers I hate. The ones more blah than blogger because they go weeks without posting.

OK, so in attempt to win you back, I have a gross story for you (because everyone loves gross stories, right?).

Last Thursday Jason was working from home (he usually works from home Thursdays) when he got called in for a meeting. Ben was at school (first grade! Can you believe it?) and Gray was following me around taking notes on what drives me more insane: when he flushes toy cars down the toilet when I’m on the phone with a client, or when he pulls my faxes off the fax machine as they come in and dances on them. He’s writing a self-help book for toddlers. The working title is “The Day My Mom Lost All Her Marbles: The Dissertation of a Journey to Crazy”, but we think it’s a little long.

Anyway, I was talking to a potential client about a listing presentation I was preparing for her and pacing around the house. (I pace, it’s weird, but I can’t not.) As I was walking through our bedroom I stubbed my toe on something under the edge of a giant pile of laundry that’s threatening to take over our bedroom. It hurt, but not that bad and I didn’t want to interrupt my conversation. I picked up the laundry and saw that it was the claw end of Jason’s hammer hiding under there in wait for my baby toe. I made a mental note to have a conversation with Jason about where his tools do and do not belong (and also to avoid the fact that the laundry I hadn’t done was an accomplice to the crime) and hobbled out into the living room.

I was still wrapped up in my conversation when Gray ran over, poked me in the thigh and said, “Mommy, what wrong? What wrong?” I looked down to where he was pointing on the floor and saw this on the floor under my right foot:

Yep, my stubbed foot was bleeding freely from some wound I couldn’t see under my foot. And, well, bleeding quite a bit. Like more than I’ve ever bled from a wound before.

I need to stop right here and explain that I’m not so good with injuries, mine, or anyone else’s. I’m actually pretty OK with pain in general, but blood, cuts, open wounds of any kind are pretty much my panic button. Jason’s always cutting or bashing parts of his body cooking or working on the car and I think my hysteria over the situation is probably the big reason he’s been to Urgent Care three times in the last year.

So, you can imagine that even though my foot didn’t hurt that bad, the sight of my life force draining out of the bottom of my foot onto our hardwood floors sent me from work mode to oh-my-god-I’m-going-to-die mode in nothing flat.

I pretty much hung up on my client and hopped into the kitchen to grab a towel, leaving a trail of blood drops the size of quarters behind me. It was like a CSI scene, I swear. There was spatter and I swear to God you could even tell which direction the victim, ahem, I mean I was moving by the length and shape of the blood drops! It kind of made we want to email CBS and say ‘Good job on the realistic looking crime scenes!’

At that point I was sitting on the floor of the kitchen with my phone still in hand and Gray standing next to me freaking out in his own cute two-year old way (What wrong, Mommy, what wrong?) and I had a little bit of a brain freeze freak out. I just didn’t really know what to do. I was worried that my toe was going to fall off or something and equally so that Gray was going to start finger painting with the gore on the walls… So I called Jason.

He was already annoyed in general with work and not thrilled about the idea of turning around mid-drive and coming home. But he did, and when he did, he just stood in the doorway for a minute and marveled at the scene. I wish we had better pictures of the room. We didn’t think to take them until most of the mess had been cleaned up and only the big puddle remained.

Jason cleaned my wound and said it wasn’t that bad (I couldn’t look, still too freaked out). He bandaged it and said we would look at it the next day. He started cleaning and I got up to help him. About two steps in to helping the bandage on my foot was soaked in blood and dripping on the floor. GROSS. I began freaking out anew and I think Jason did a little too. We decided I should go to Urgent Care (or as I like to refer to it, our second home).

Because Jason was busy with work I called my dad to see if he could take a quick break from work to drive me in. He did and we showed up, bloody towel wrapped around my foot and all. They got me in quickly, gave me a tetanus shot (EW, rusty hammer!), said it wasn’t that bad and re-bandaged it. The doctor told me to keep it up for a few hours. This time the bandage stayed white.

Later that evening after I was much calmer I actually looked at the cut for the first time. It’s about a centimeter long under my foot between my pinkie and next toe. It barely looks worse than a paper cut. So basically, I dragged my husband AND my father out of work for a tetanus shot.

Gray’s pretty sure his book’s ready to come to it’s conclusion.

I’ve been out of town. It was the big trip of the year, and it involved quite a bit of planning, packing and finally, flying with crazy, exhausted children. I’ve actually been back since late Monday night, but it’s taken me a few days to get back in the swing of life. I think I’ve finally gotten enough sleep to think straight and most of our mountains of laundry have been done. Anyway, this trip had it’s ups and downs, which I tend to think that most trips do. It was a full week from the time we left our house until the time we walked back in the door and a week away from our house, and normal sleeping and eating routines was bound to throw us out of wack at least a little. Here’s the basic rundown:

The Ups:

Visting the cutest little Amish town and riding on a horse and buggy (plus I scored with some beautiful locally spun Alpaca yarn).

Riding ATVs through rows of apple trees, blueberry bushes and corn. It was easy to feel far away from stress of all kinds riding on the back of an ATV when all you can see is soy bean fields and queen anne’s lace.

Learning that the beach at Lake Michigan really isn’t that different from the beach at San Diego (weird!).

Spending time with family.

The Downs:

One of my new listings canceled on day two of our trip (I hadn’t even posted it here yet). The wife called me and said that due to family problems, they needed to take it off the market. Two hours later I got a call from an agent wanting to make an offer. Oh bitter irony!

We had decided to try the red eye out to Michigan from Phoenix. What a mistake! No sleep was had by anyone but Ben, because he could nap for a couple of hours through his little brother’s screaming. We went roughly 40 hours with no sleep when all was said and done.

Bugs. ‘Nuff said.

One bathroom, 10 people. Also, ’nuff said.

Our travel home got totally screwed up in so many ways it’s hard to describe. There was weather, airline error, and traffic. Suffice it to say that we ended up taking a 4 hour bus ride (where we actually had to get off and change busses with the kids and our 800 pieces of luggage halfway through) and finally missed our connecting flight in Chicago and had to stay an extra 24 hours.

Which brings me to one more final good:

We were lucky to have two dear friends who just happen to live outside of Chicago to come pick us up and let us crash for the night. It was so great, because I’d been wanting to get out and see their house and meet their new boyfriends and it was the perfect opportunity.

Check out the midwestern glory:

And how cute are they?

So we survived it all. And we even got to visit the horse farm I lived on as a child. But that’s a story for another day.