Try Showing Properties in the Aftermath of Snow-zilla!

Finally, the snow has stopped falling for a few days - as you know, and that means we in DC can go back to work - finally!

When I went back to the office on Friday, I was so excited to see everyone that I hugged our manager, our office administrator, and our receptionist. Between the joy of getting out of the house and seeing friends and colleagues, Friday was a great day.

Today was the first day out on the street in more than a week. I have several new buyers who are eager to start looking so that they can beat the impeding contract deadline for the first time homebuyer credit, or the couple that wants to find a home and get under contract before the baby comes next month. (I want them to find a house too since I have already had one client have her water break and go into labor in my car this year!)

Feeling incredibly guilty in advance, I had refused to go out over last weekend (with 25 inches predicted) and even on Tuesday - the day that it DIDN'T snow, I still refused to go out - I am such a chicken! Of course, I don't think anyone else was out on Tuesday, but try telling a buyer that!

Well, as you know, we got 40 inches of snow over the last week or so, but the excuses are over, so I set out today in my old stick shift Jeep Cherokee. The first property to show was at 10 am this morning, just off U Street, NW at 10th St. I circled the neighborhood for at least 5 minutes looking for a parking space. HA, HA, HA. As Pat Kennedy has written, there are lots of side streets that just aren't plowed, and the cars aren't dug out from the canopy of 12 inches of snow. In fairness to the car owners, who probably live in condos nearby, there just isn't much need for shovels in downtown DC on any given day. So, first effort out this morning was difficult because there is no place to park. Driving isn't easy either but I was in better shape than most with my four wheel drive, and the ability to back into non-existent parking spaces filled with chopped ice, slush, and mushed up snow.

On to my next client at 11:30 - in McLean Gardens, a lovely condo development just off Wisconsin Avenue and Porter. Again, lots of cars, lots of snow, no place to park. I parked the jeep 2 blocks away after I had circled the neighborhood for 5 minutes, and walked back to the condo to meet my clients. At one point, I made a bad choice in where to walk and found myself in thigh deep snow trying to leap across an even higher snow barrier to get to the other side of the street. Isn't there a joke about that?

The client could never find a parking space so they took turns driving around the block while I waited inside the condo to show it to them sequentially. That listing didn't do it, so we agreed to meet at the next listing. I walked back through the snow to my car while they got stuck in the neighborhood behind a car that couldn't navigate the unplowed street, and my client had to get out of the car to push that front car out of the way. By the time we got to the next listing, none of us could find the lockbox which was on a bar on a retaining wall to the left of the building as you stood in front of it. Turned out that meant that it was in a snow bank on the rear side of the retaining wall, invisible to all who sought it unless you had already been there in the warm weather and knew the hiding spot.

The rest of the afternoon was marginally better if you consider life is picking up as you are digging through 2 foot deep snowbanks for lockboxes that are buried and then getting the wrong lockbox (which you don't realize until you get up to the 6th floor and the key doesn't work!) or finally getting to the house, only to discover it is so snowed in that it is inaccessible.

This is not the only career I have ever had, but it is clearly the best one I have ever had. I love what I do, and I love my clients. Even today was funny at times, but believe me, I will be glad when the weather turns warm again. June can't get here soon enough!

If you are looking for a home right now, Please give me a call - Lise Howe, Coldwell Banker, Chevy Chase Office at 240-401-5577. I am game for leaping into snowbanks if you are!