A weekend with buyers

I haven't posted about being a Realtor yet.  I've spent a lot of time on my bike since I moved to FL so there wasn't much to report! Well, this past weekend I worked with my first buyer.  They are moving here from Michigan.  Obviously, I know a lot about moving from Michigan to Florida and buying a house!  Mr and Mrs Buyer have been coming to Naples for years and they had a really good idea where they wanted to live.  They wanted new construction and within a few miles of the Gulf (It's called the Gulf not the Ocean-so I've been told ;-) ).  Their only option for new construction and near the water was a neighborhood called Naples Park.  In preparation for their arrival I searched all the new construction in Naples Park and then took a tour of the neighborhood on my bike.  Multi-tasking at it's best!  When they arrived on Thursday we all hopped in my car and went on a house showing marathon of 10 new construction homes.  Mr and Mrs buyer found one they loved and we made plans to meet the next morning and sign an offer! 
The next morning I headed for Naples and met my buyer's at the house they loved. I could tell something was wrong as soon as I pulled in.  We went inside and they proceeded to tell me that they just had a conversation with a police officer and were no longer comfortable with living in Naples Park.  It is not a gated community and it is a community where small beach houses sit next to huge new construction homes. Very different from some of the high end gated communities in Naples.  I think we were all disappointed but I've been doing this job for 13 years and know and understand what a huge stressful purchase this can be!  So, no big deal for me, except we only have a few days and we are starting from complete scratch with their search! 
I headed home to get on the computer.  This time we decided to look at a little of everything.  Condo's close to the beach, older single family homes in gated communities, and new construction further from the Gulf.  These customer's were super fun to work with.  At one point we had tears in our eyes from laughing.  We had another agent give us a tour of a retirement community.  The thought of these guys going to all the retirement activities was hysterical.  It was an easy decision that retirement life was a long way off for them!
The bummer of visiting the retirement community was that one of the gates closed on my car!  We were leaving the community and traffic stopped in front of me as I was in between the exit gates.  Mrs Buyer says "Erica the gates are closing"  I was thinking yeah...but they always bounce back when they sense a car.  (similar to when garage doors automatically open back up if something is in the way). Mrs Buyer says louder this time, the gates are closing!!!!  Holy Crap, yup, the gates just closed on my car and scraped the heck out of it.  Sigh...definitely a bummer to the weekend.  We took photos and pried the gate off my car and continued on.  I am working with the association to get my car repaired.

After days of seeing different houses these guys found an incredible new construction home.  It is in a gated community and has an incredible lanai with pool and Jacuzzi.  It's located about 5 miles from the beach.

 
We had a great time getting to know each other and it was awesome for me to get out and learn all of these neighborhoods.  I'm finding that most of my knowledge and experience transfers to a different state with ease.  Neighborhood knowledge is my weakest link right now so this was a great experience.  My favorite part of my job is becoming friends with my clients.  I can't wait to have a cocktail at their pool!