#1- FREE TIME: While fairly minimal at all points in my life, free time has become one with the dinosaurs. When I am not working as a REALTOR, I am helping with homework, driving, cleaning, doing laundry (dratted laundry), cooking, grocery shopping, taking out the trash, watching yet another iCarly (barf), reading a cute book with the girls (yay!), helping with homework (because it still isn’t finished!), issuing a grounding, fetching a snack or any other in the number of “normal” activities that moms do.

#2- CLEAN: I have discovered that clean is relative. Clean before kids was white glove stuff. Clean now is,well…let’s just say an ever changing barometer is used to determine the proper level of clean. There is “I am fried this is clean enough clean”, “It is cleaner than it WAS clean”, “I will finish cleaning it tomorrow clean”, and the ever amusing “I am cleaning this until it shines clean and you will all help me goshdarnit clean”.

#3- PHONE TIME: There is no way to make a phone call when there are kids around. They can be napping, watching TV in the zone, playing contentedly but as soon as they see a phone in your hand they are needy , loud and insistent.

#4- ENTERTAINMENT: You used to see R rated sexy movies. You used to see mature comedy. You used to go to grown up concerts. Now you watch Disney movies and are grateful for the peace and quiet and the last concert you attended was the Wiggles or maybe Hannah Montana, if you were lucky.

On the flip side, you never realized how much you really really really need:

#1- HUGS: given for no reason, at a moment’s notice or upon request, there is nothing sweeter than a hug from your child.

#2- UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: What is better than “Mommy, you are so pretty, I love you”?

#3- PURPOSE: There is nothing more motivating than children. Each day I think I might give up and then I don’t. They are why.

#4- BEAUTY:Children slow you down and force you to see the beauty in things you would overlook. Suddenly you are peering at a caterpillar in a whole new light.

#5- PRIDE: I know, this is meant to be a sin, but I am so darn proud of my kids and that makes me happier than anything.

My mothering is imperfect and flawed, but I am happiest when working as a mother. I learned from the best of the best…my mother: Shelley (Sheila) who learned from her her mother and my kindred spirit: Myrtle Ryan.

These women sculpted me and are with me always. When I struggle as a mother I do one of two things: I call my mother or I ask myself, “What would Grandma Myrtle do?”.

Often I find the answer within myself, but I know who planted the seed of that answer…Shelley and Myrtle.

So, they weren’t perfect, but they loved me and did a great job. I am really, really not perfect, but I hope I will, too.

Enough with the deep , here is a bit of Mother’s Day Fun for you:

So, Happy Mother’s Day all you members of the “MUTHAHOOD”. Keep busting caps on the toothpaste!

By the way, if you were having a hard time deciding what to get me for Mother’s Day, I can help out….send me a referral! I love helping new people buy and sell their homes in Western MA!

I love everything about gardens. I love exploring garden centers, selecting my special new additions to the landscape, getting into comfortable gardening clothes and spending a day in the sunshine getting muddy and tired. I even like the soothing monotony of weeding, once in awhile!

Here in Western Massachusetts we have lots of inspiration and ideas to be found in area gardens in parks, historic estates and neighbor’s yards.

My weakness is perennial flowers, but my daughters love annuals and we usually focus on the flowers that butterflies enjoy. Our favorite shopping destination is Meadowview Nurseries in Southwick , MA which is only open a few short months, but has a huge selection and good prices. We can spend hours (and a lot of money) bonding over our flowers and I tell them what each flower is best used for and what the names mean. It can get busy, but the check out lines move fast and the selection is worth it! Just remember to bring your checkbook or cash, no credit taken here.

A great resource for learning some fun facts about flowers is this post from The Gardening Channel, for example, did you know that Tulip bulbs can be substituted for onions in a recipe?

As a real estate agent in Western MA, I can tell you that an attractive landscape will go a long way in the saleability of your home. If you are currently selling your home it has been proven that yellow flowers attract more buyer attention.

Do you like gardening? What kind of gardening do you do in Western MA? Where is your favorite place to buy plants?

When entering a distressed property, I am always nervous and make sure that someone knows exactly where I am. I haven’t yet run into a circumstance where I have met a person squatting in a property, but often when doing occupancy checks on foreclosed properties the immediate past owners are still there and can be hostile.

I don’t feel a pressing need to carry a firearm in Western MA, but I can understand why a real estate agent in other parts of the country might have a higher concern.

Fellow REALTORS in Western MA and beyond, remember to stay safe.

If you want to listen to the story that I heard this morning it is here.

photo courtesy of floodllama on flickr

I had the pleasure of helping a great couple who was relocating to Western Massachusetts this month. Their college friend is a real estate agent in Chicago and he used Facebook to post his referral and read this blog to research me before sending his friends to work with me. I love when a fellow REALTOR sends me a referral because other agents are very often more critical than clients.

These buyers, Doug and Judy were living in temporary housing hours from work and without their pets. We spent some time searching and negotiating, but last week we closed on a terrific house that they were very excited to move into.

Here is what Doug had to say the day of the closing:

Recently there have been several events within the real estate community both nationally and locally that have made me exceedingly aware how lucky I am to be part of this amazing community.

Let me start first with the story of my very good friend Clint Miller.

I’ve written already about Clint’s sudden experience with cancer and how it impacted our community and me in particular.

Clint’s story begins years ago when social media was new and he reached out to the real estate community because of his business with Real Estate Client Referrals.

But it goes so much farther than that.

Clint helps to create and foster and nurture a community where real estate professionals from around the world could converse, share and encourage one another. The recent events gave me a realization.

Real estate agents are much like siblings. We may scrap at each other and have our differences and sometimes even full-blown fights break out, however, if someone from outside of the community steps in and ridicules us, threatens us or tries to put us down then we band together any force that is to be reckoned with.

Which brings me to my thoughts on what’s happening to my social media friend Daniel Rothamel.

Known as the Real Estate Zebra, Daniel has been a leader in the real estate space and is an agent that I have watched and learned from for years. He has recently been hit with a lawsuit regarding his use of the real estate zebra by a group called The Lones Group.

The Lones Group states that Daniel’s use of the real estate zebra and his blogging confuses consumers because of their use of a zebra theme. This may or may not be true but what blows my mind is that The Lones Group target audience is REALTORS. Daniels friends are REALTORS. It gives one pause…

More important than whether the zebra sign is something that you can trademark and whether Denise Lones has a case or not is the issue of thinking about your target audience. It’s my opinion that they have made a serious error. This opinion is shared by many real estate professionals. But we REALTORS bonded together. My friend Jay Thompson created a defense fund for us to help Daniel with the costs of defending himself. Someone created a #savethezebra tag on Twitter. Many people adopted Zebras as their avatars. Now whether The Lones Group wins their case or not it stands to be considered that they’ve lost already.

I put a comment on a blog on the topic telling the leader of this case that I thought what she was doing was making her seem self absorbed, stubborn, and even a little bit silly. But what is not silly is the power of the real estate community standing behind Daniel. I am proud to number in that crowd.

Another recent experience that I’ve had that was much more local than the previous two is the case of my friend Tom Skrodzki.

Tom’s house unfortunately burned down several weeks ago. His wife (who is pregnant) and their seven children have been misplaced for weeks.

Another real estate friend Heather, reached out to me the day that the fire happened and asked me to help her get the word out that Tom and his family needed some help. Since that time there has been a huge outpouring of help from the real estate community in my area. People have brought clothing toys gift certificates cash sympathy and concern to this family in need.

Another REALTOR, Michael, has never met Tom in person but organized a fund-raising drive for his office and they will be presenting a donation to the family to help defray their expenses. Truck loads of donations have been dropped off at Park Square Realty for this family. This kind of support for a fellow real estate professional and neighboring in the community makes me sincerely proud and grateful to live in western Massachusetts.

So my hope is this:

May Clint recover from this awful episode even stronger than he already is. You have to talk to this guy yourself to really get the picture of the influence he wields. He is a wonder and I am blessed that he is a friend. I pray daily for your speedy recovery, Clint.

May the Skrodzki family recover from their tragic loss sooner than later. They already know how blessed they are to have each other. I am so glad to know them.

So thank you, my real estate siblings and community..You done me proud.

After showing houses in Northampton, we took the back roads to Chester, Massachusetts. The drive from Northampton through Westhampton and into Huntington was simply breathtaking. The fresh snow was highlighting and outlining the beautiful vistas along these country roads. At one point we turned a corner and on my left was a grove of apple trees covered in snow; their twisted old branches were made more graceful with the blanket of snow and beyond the apple orchards was the valley opening up below.

It is no secret that I am a big fan of all things social media and technology in real estate. Using location-based applications is no exception. I have been using applications like Brightkite, Foursquare and Gowalla for a couple of years now in Western MA and have spent a lot of time thinking about how I can utilize them to help with exposure in the local Western MA real estate market.

Last summer I wrote a post on this topic for Agent Genius magazine geared toward sharing some of my thoughts on how location based applications like Foursquare can be used in a marketing and branding sense to expose real estate agents to a new market.

I was beyond flattered when REALTOR Magazine emailed me and asked if they could use some of my post as a quote in an upcoming article on the same subject. Yesterday my broker presented me with the magazine and when I saw the article I was even MORE excited because I shared space in the story with Todd Carpenter, NAR’s social media manager. Todd and I have had the opportunity to meet a few times and I am so honored to be quoted in the same story!

If you want to take a look at the REALTOR Magazine story, click here. I am so proud to see my quote followed up by says Lesley Lambert, a sales associate with Park Square Realty in Westfield, Mass!

If you are interested in learning more about social media, technology or location-based applications you can contact me. If you want a REALTOR who is using new media techniques to help her clients achieve their home-ownership dreams then definitely contact me!

Today was the Park Square Realty Awards Breakfast at Tucker’s Restaurant in Southwick, MA. Agents from both the Westfield, MA and Feeding Hills, MA Park Square Realty offices were honored with awards for production, loyalty and some special awards for all kinds of amusing reasons.

One of the reasons that I like working for Park Square Realty is that in addition to being a group of high producing, hard working professionals – we know how to have fun, too!

I was proud to have met my 2010 goal and to have placed in the Platinum Circle and top 5 agents in the company. I also received a loyalty award for five years of working for Park Square Realty.

I made this video to share with you so you can glimpse the inside of Park Square Realty…there is a reason we are number one in our area!

You conceived of the song during the housing boom times, but it wasn’t released until 2010. Did the dramatic changes in the market affect the song’s meaning in any way?

Douglas: A house is not simply four walls or a financial investment. It becomes your heart. It’s still the dream for most people, regardless of whether the real estate industry is booming. Having our own home is what we aspire to, whether it’s a trailer or a mansion on a hill.

Home ownership is so emotional and Douglas gets it right when he points out that it isn’t four walls. We all bond with our homes for different reasons. People often choose a house because it “feels like home”. Over the course of my 23 years as a real estate professional in Western MA, I have seen this time and time again. For reasons unknown to me, one house speaks to the buyer and gives them that “warm and fuzzy” feeling that tells them they want this to be home.

I grew up in Southwick and Westfield, MA and still drive by my childhood homes to catch a glimpse of my youthful memories. It is amazing how imagining my homes at certain points in my life is evocative of so many emotions. When I drive by I see the lilacs that my grandfather planted and the pool I loved to swim in. I see the lawn I mowed each week as a teenager and the spot where I parked my car. I remember the family room that hosted so many slumber parties and my lavender bedroom with the most expensive carpeting in the house. Just thinking of these spaces brings back a rush of memories and my mind’s eye can see things the way they were.

As Miranda Lambert sings her song, I realize that we all share those attachments to our homes and I am humbled to be part of the process that puts people into their home.

Here is the video for Miranda Lambert’s “The House that Built Me”…enjoy!