Nope, not for me. For others.

I have now been in real estate for about 14 months. I am on my 7th transaction, 6 closings behind me, and lots of additional work with my team while training to be a buyers agent. Walking people through the process of home-buying has recently become a lot more personal for me. I will be 50 next year, and Ive never owned a home because my husband died suddenly just 4 years into our marriage and we hadnt yet had the honor of the home search experience. We rented a shitty apartment in New Jersey during our marriage, and like many young couples, we dreamed of home ownership and family and kids and other things that never came to fruition because death did instead. And now, here I am, 9 years after the loss, in another rented apartment with my boyfriend of 3 years, and trying to save money for a down payment on something, in the mid to later years of our life.

Its weird – being witness to young couples on their home search, struggling with finances and down payments, seeing some of their dreams come true while others have to adjust their wants to their current situation. Its just as weird seeing sellers often times selling their homes, not because they want to, but because their spouse died either recently or awhile ago, and they need some form of starting over, or can no longer afford to fit into that life they had. Because of my widowhood and experience in this life, I have so much empathy for these life hardships and Im also at a place in my own life where I feel a bit cheated out of these experiences as I help others to achieve them. I dont know what Im trying to say, except that life throws unexpected punches and twists, and sometimes my emotions get bleeded into my job. It makes me a good realtor, but also tough to let things go sometimes. Such is the nature of life I guess.