How do you recharge your Realtor® battery?

Do you have a favorite hobby? How do you relax and unwind after a long day? What is "Life Giving" to you?

Even in a slower market like most of us are experiencing today, it is so very important to take time for oneself and recharge your personal battery! Trying to balance the life of a real estate agent, husband, father, friends and church to name a few leaves little time for myself. Can you relate? Being stressed out or overtired can lead to health issues and can even make it hard to focus on your tasks for the day!

Personally, I have a couple of hobbies that I thoroughly enjoy doing in what little spare time I have. The first is bowling! Initially, this started off as a kinda "goof off" thing to do with some of my buddies. I found myself starting to really get into it and wanting to learn about the technical aspects of the game. If you have ever bowled competitively then you know what I mean when I say this game can be really frustrating. Perhaps an analogy to the real estate industry might be in order in a future post?!

My second hobby is something that I call "life giving" and really does help me forget about the negatives of my day and that is...SHOPPING! Not the type of walking around a mall just for the sake of it, no I enjoy antique and bargain hunting at discount shops and my personal favorite...GARAGE SALES! There is something about the negotiations that take place in this type of shopping that get me pretty amped up. Besides, who doesn't like to get a deal and tell their friends about it? Specifically, I look for toys when I go out on one of my excursions. I have 2.1 children (.1 represents current size of our latest edition due later this year) and they love the toys that I find for them. Not to mention that they can play with them, lose interest and I typically resell the toy for more than what I paid for it by selling it at my own garage sale! I feel another real estate analogy coming on, "Buy low and Sell high!"

So what makes either of these hobbies of mine life giving to me? In the case of bowling it is the community that is there each night . You get to know people that may not meet elsewhere and stay up to date on their lives. Very similar to the community here on AR! On New Year's day I even witnessed a 300 game, that was a real treat. In terms of garage sale-ing as I call it, I love the negotiation process and trying to get a read on what people hope to get for their stuff. Suffice to say, I really enjoy it and that it is what really counts!

Sincerely,

Jason Neumann