Don't be a real estate salesman if you can't take rejection. Having retired from the business after 30 years, I realize that not many people are cut out to show properties to clients, and find out along the way that they bought a house from another agent, went for a FSBO-- For Sale By Owner, or decided to sit tight, and just keep their rental apartment, after spending so much time, money, and extra-effort with them to purchase a home.
It caused me a lot of grief, headaches, and sleepless nights, when I was new in the business because you don't actually earn your commission, which is a lot of money (customarily 3% of the asking price, or $15,000 on a half a million dollar house, and double that amount if it's both your listing & sale-- meaning, you get both sides of the transaction,) until you closed the deal.
Overtime, after a number of honest transactions closed, I decided to work full-time as a realtor, got by broker's license (instead of the basic salesperson's,) and GRI or Graduate Real Estate Institute designation, while training and learning from successful real estate professionals, and being confident enough to gain self-esteem, not just personally, but in the business as well. I also slept soundly at night because if a client of mine bought a house from someone else, then it's their loss, not mine. In the same manner, if you unfriend me on Facebook, which is another form of rejection, it does not bother me, whether you did it with or without malice (like some of my classmates, relative, and in-laws,) because it's your loss, not mine.
Unfortunately, not everyone can take rejection, much more, being unfriended on FB, like Kuya Bert, which bothered him a lot when I did so, according to his wife Jobbelle, And, he is not alone, just like some of the people that I know who I deleted from my 'friends' list, even if I tell them that I did it without malice, which means that if I unfriended you on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, it's because I did not want enmity, judgement, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred, or anger to exist between us, because I love you, or I care about you. In fact, I even unfriended my own children because they were bothered by my Trump postings; while Claire-Voe unfriended me also when she was pregnant with Violet, in order to avoid getting stressed. And yet, we continue to video call each other, and they know that I will always love and pray for them, no matter what happens.
Besides, there are many forms of communications out there other than Facebook or Messenger, not the least of which is through direct contact, which is even better, or video calls like Skype, WhatsApp, Hangout, etc., which does not cost anything, unlike the long distance call of yesteryears which was not only cumbersome and expensive, but also frustrating, because my own brother would not let me speak to our Mom & Dad, sometimes, which I thought was selfish.
However, if my siblings prefer to contact me via Messenger, they can do so through Gie, who is their friend on FB, and I can communicate through her account because we are a couple, and I can't contact them, or don't know their cell phone numbers.
That is why we I had to unfriend one of my favorite cousins Ruby, who always brought flowers in Mama & Papa's grave on All Souls Day, because she kept contacting me on Messenger to friend my siblings on Facebook (through Ate Fel's insistence, I guess, because she always called me on my cell phone to pray for relatives who were sick, before she retired in the Philippines,) and connect to them via Messenger "before it's too late" according to her, and would not listen to what I was saying, that I already contacted them many times through Gie's Messenger, and they were not responding. Besides, we already know that Kuya Bert contracted the Wuhan coronavirus or COVID-19 through our cousins and nieces, and we'd been praying for him every night, but we're not telling her (although I believed that she already knew) because Kuya Bert was very secretive. So, we never told anybody, and deemed the information confidential, until after his recovery.
Kuya Bert is my brother, so I know his strengths and limitations; and that is why I named my son Osbert after him, and myself, because I'm also imperfect, like everyone else. Besides, he lived with us in a one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, together with my wife and 2 kids for three years, after getting him to the US by applying him for a Visiting Scholarship at Columbia University (which I did previously in order to come here,) and got him his first job at Prentice-Hall, where I was working, until he settled down, and got married.
After several years, and a flourishing career in real estate, our home was always open to him for rest and relaxation, while Claire-Voe babysat his children PJ & Robbie; and he even sought my advice when he was having problems with his first marriage, until he got divorced (which was a no-no for us,) and I sold him a studio coop in Fort Lee with my persistence (which he still owns today,) while he was renting alone in his apartment.
And guess what? I was the only one who came all the way from Las Vegas to the Philippines just to be one of his sponsors to his Catholic Church wedding to Jobbelle, four years ago. That is why his letter to Gie complaining about me didn't bother me a bit. Otherwise, I would have had a second thought about seeing him and his family for Christmas, while Gie and me were at the airport in Singapore for nine hours, after our cruise.
Neither did we ever have any sibling rivalry, or I became envious of him in high school. And, he knows that that was a cover up in deference to Gie's feelings, (she's ok now, and looks forward to both our high school reunions in the Philippines in 2021,) when I wrote in my Blog that I was jealous of him for being a cadet officer, with the beautiful Myrna Maniago as his cadet sponsor by his side, because they were two years ahead of us.
And, thank God! for healing Kuya Bert from COVID-19 or the Wuhan coronavirus, because I know how it is.
(TO BE CONTINUED...)
It caused me a lot of grief, headaches, and sleepless nights, when I was new in the business because you don't actually earn your commission, which is a lot of money (customarily 3% of the asking price, or $15,000 on a half a million dollar house, and double that amount if it's both your listing & sale-- meaning, you get both sides of the transaction,) until you closed the deal.
Overtime, after a number of honest transactions closed, I decided to work full-time as a realtor, got by broker's license (instead of the basic salesperson's,) and GRI or Graduate Real Estate Institute designation, while training and learning from successful real estate professionals, and being confident enough to gain self-esteem, not just personally, but in the business as well. I also slept soundly at night because if a client of mine bought a house from someone else, then it's their loss, not mine. In the same manner, if you unfriend me on Facebook, which is another form of rejection, it does not bother me, whether you did it with or without malice (like some of my classmates, relative, and in-laws,) because it's your loss, not mine.
Unfortunately, not everyone can take rejection, much more, being unfriended on FB, like Kuya Bert, which bothered him a lot when I did so, according to his wife Jobbelle, And, he is not alone, just like some of the people that I know who I deleted from my 'friends' list, even if I tell them that I did it without malice, which means that if I unfriended you on social media like Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, it's because I did not want enmity, judgement, bitterness, resentment, unforgiveness, hatred, or anger to exist between us, because I love you, or I care about you. In fact, I even unfriended my own children because they were bothered by my Trump postings; while Claire-Voe unfriended me also when she was pregnant with Violet, in order to avoid getting stressed. And yet, we continue to video call each other, and they know that I will always love and pray for them, no matter what happens.
Besides, there are many forms of communications out there other than Facebook or Messenger, not the least of which is through direct contact, which is even better, or video calls like Skype, WhatsApp, Hangout, etc., which does not cost anything, unlike the long distance call of yesteryears which was not only cumbersome and expensive, but also frustrating, because my own brother would not let me speak to our Mom & Dad, sometimes, which I thought was selfish.
However, if my siblings prefer to contact me via Messenger, they can do so through Gie, who is their friend on FB, and I can communicate through her account because we are a couple, and I can't contact them, or don't know their cell phone numbers.
That is why we I had to unfriend one of my favorite cousins Ruby, who always brought flowers in Mama & Papa's grave on All Souls Day, because she kept contacting me on Messenger to friend my siblings on Facebook (through Ate Fel's insistence, I guess, because she always called me on my cell phone to pray for relatives who were sick, before she retired in the Philippines,) and connect to them via Messenger "before it's too late" according to her, and would not listen to what I was saying, that I already contacted them many times through Gie's Messenger, and they were not responding. Besides, we already know that Kuya Bert contracted the Wuhan coronavirus or COVID-19 through our cousins and nieces, and we'd been praying for him every night, but we're not telling her (although I believed that she already knew) because Kuya Bert was very secretive. So, we never told anybody, and deemed the information confidential, until after his recovery.
Kuya Bert is my brother, so I know his strengths and limitations; and that is why I named my son Osbert after him, and myself, because I'm also imperfect, like everyone else. Besides, he lived with us in a one-bedroom apartment in New Jersey, together with my wife and 2 kids for three years, after getting him to the US by applying him for a Visiting Scholarship at Columbia University (which I did previously in order to come here,) and got him his first job at Prentice-Hall, where I was working, until he settled down, and got married.
After several years, and a flourishing career in real estate, our home was always open to him for rest and relaxation, while Claire-Voe babysat his children PJ & Robbie; and he even sought my advice when he was having problems with his first marriage, until he got divorced (which was a no-no for us,) and I sold him a studio coop in Fort Lee with my persistence (which he still owns today,) while he was renting alone in his apartment.
And guess what? I was the only one who came all the way from Las Vegas to the Philippines just to be one of his sponsors to his Catholic Church wedding to Jobbelle, four years ago. That is why his letter to Gie complaining about me didn't bother me a bit. Otherwise, I would have had a second thought about seeing him and his family for Christmas, while Gie and me were at the airport in Singapore for nine hours, after our cruise.
Neither did we ever have any sibling rivalry, or I became envious of him in high school. And, he knows that that was a cover up in deference to Gie's feelings, (she's ok now, and looks forward to both our high school reunions in the Philippines in 2021,) when I wrote in my Blog that I was jealous of him for being a cadet officer, with the beautiful Myrna Maniago as his cadet sponsor by his side, because they were two years ahead of us.
And, thank God! for healing Kuya Bert from COVID-19 or the Wuhan coronavirus, because I know how it is.
(TO BE CONTINUED...)
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