Elizabeth Newlin - Arizona Real Estate Agent

So I just got back from my first time ‘walking the neighborhood.’ I have a new subdivision I have been marketing to for the last month or so with a couple of other agents in my office. It’s a cute little neighborhood in Chandler called Twelve Oaks. We split the 700 or so homes in the subdivision up among the three of us and have put together monthly marketing ideas that we’re currently carrying out. This month, our idea was to deliver candy in small bags with our business cards in a sort of reverse trick-or-treat.

In the real estate business you hear of lots of agents who walk their neighborhoods monthly delivering information or goodies to promote themselves. You also hear of lots of people who pay someone to do this for them. I have done lots of mailings, but hadn’t yet attempted a large door-to-door campaign, until today.

Oh my lord, those agents who do this every single month are either saints, masochists or liars. I had exactly 244 houses to cover. The other girls and I assumed this task would take a couple of hours. It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes, almost exactly. Um, ow, my legs hurt. And also? The place on my arm where I tied a tape dispenser so that I could carry a box full of almost 250 bags of candy and still be able to get a piece of tape off to attach the bag to the door without setting everything down at every house (one of the other girls brought a rolly suitcase, she’s so smart!).

And just in case he’s reading, I would like to let the man who at first refused my candy because his sister-in-law is and agent and he has to use her, and then took the candy when I told him I had one for every house, and then when I came back around the block to do the other side of the street, complained that the candy was melty because I’d been walking in the heat too long, that I hope his sister-in-law has a hearty constitution and God love her for having him as a client. I have this feeling he’d be the kind of client we like to call “High Maintenance.” (And if I see him ever again, he will receive no candy from me.)

Anyway, it was an interesting experience. I do feel like I have a better idea of my clients in this neighborhood, and of their homes. It’s a neighborhood with large lots, RV gates and even actual RVs (there is no HOA!). It’s a neighborhood where the majority of people have Halloween decorations out and kids play football in the cul-de-sacs. It’s right next to a park, a school, and airpark (Stellar) and not far from Chandler Mall. I feel like I would like to live in this neighborhood (just not next to the melted candy guy). So I guess it was a good day after all. But next time I do it I’m going to enlist the help of my husband. You think he’ll take payment in homemade eggplant lasagna?

Don’t you hate when you’re too busy to blog about something that you wait so long to do it you’re totally bored with the topic? Yep, me too.

Basically here’s what it comes down to:

I enjoyed being on the reunion committee (or The RC, as we liked to refer to it) because it was really fun and interesting to meet people who I’d only heard about in high school. I actually like the snotty cheerleader I just assumed I would hate. I remembered why I enjoyed the company of one of my best friends from Jr. High. And that girl who was friends with lots of my friends, who I hadn’t really known? Well it turned out we probably would have been friends if we’d really known each other.

I also liked knowing exactly who was coming and hearing from people even before the reunion. It was fun to know that people were excited to come back and see other people from our class.

Being on the RC was a loser deal for a couple of reasons. Number one, there was just so much time and planning involved that getting excited about the actual event wore off after awhile. By the time I’d spent three hours sewing the tablecloth to put on the memorabilia table, I was ready for the whole thing to be over. Secondly, on the actual weekend of the event, we spent every waking hour picking up supplies, decorating, setting up, partying and finally cleaning up and recuperating. The entire experience was so exhausting that it’s a little difficult to look back on it and feel like it was really a fun time.

Regardless, it was fun to go back and see everyone. I hung out with the dancers from the company (most are married and pregnant or trying, a couple are making it big in New York or Hollywood), the nerds from my AP classes (doctors and lawyers or financial consultants who confessed they are tired or working so much and wondering if all the schooling was really worth it), the slackers I hung around with for entertainment value (still slackers, still hilarious) and ran into various other people I remembered a little bit, or not at all. Also, somehow, I didn’t see my husband for the entire 6 hours the reunion lasted. I’ve heard he hung out with the other husbands he knew and smoked cigars. Figures.

Me and My Girls Before the Reunion Madness

Laughing with The Dancers At the Slideshow (We used to be so flexible!)

With Friends (That’s Roxanne from The Apprentice!)

Yep, I know it’s been awhile. October has been the month that Fate designed as a reminder to me to not take on more than I can handle. We had the reunion the first weekend (don’t worry, stories and pictures to follow), a family vacation to California to watch my sister finish her second marathon the next and a wild, adult-only jaunt down to Rocky Point that we just got home from (oh and I definitely have pictures of that one, just wait until you see the mechanical bull riding that took place!) the last. Throw in a family-wide bout with the flu, the closing of my house on Jupiter Way and like five soccer games and you’ve pretty much gotten a clear picture of my month so far. So excuse my absence.

Anyway, I just wanted to pop on and post some pictures of my latest listing that went up just last week:

This is 6091 W. Shannon, Chandler. Such a cute house! The owners (James, Brandy and their cute little dog, Karma) are moving to Portland for work and therefore have to sell.

Before they put it on the market, they re-tiled the kitchen and baths, re-carpeted and put in granite tile counters. It’s gorgeous!

Don’t forget the pebbletech pool in back!

We are asking $390,500. It’s a great family neighborhood and a dream of a layout. Call me to see it!