Mary McKnight asks for our crazy real estate story - How about Crazy Reator?
The one showing that sticks out in my mind was last August. I think, not sure, but I think while I was showing I had a nervous breakdown. Oh - not a typo. I actually broke down into tears in front of my customer. Ok ok, I am not on Prozac, so let me explain the whole situation.
At the time, I was a manager in my company 's second office. I had just hired three agents and all three started the same day. I was also running some other training classes that night, for both of the offices. I was CrAzY busy...
My father in law works in my office as a rental agent. He happen to become very ill and wound 
up in the hospital, he was actually so sick that his prognosis was not looking to good. He had a huge list of customers waiting to view apartments and he is the top guy for a management company so he was getting about 20-30 calls a day from this Management company to show their vacant apartments (there was 11 at the time).
So me, trying to be helpful and super efficient I thought that I could run my training, have a meeting, take his showings over and still do my work in the office. This lasted for about two weeks.
Ok - wait - that was only the set up... I want you to feel my pain that very day.
Anyhow, this particular night I worked in the office all day, had a training meeting and was taking his customers out through out the day. By 9:00PM I was finally at my last appointment, and I just wanted to get home. So I am waiting at the apartment for my last customer. I was there for about an hour showing other customers so the doors were already unlocked, the lights were on and I was just waiting. I see the customer walking up the walk and "oh, man I am almost done". I have a rule about how I show vacant apartments. I never walk up steps before my customers. I am afraid that they might close the door behind us - and I don't want the door shut in a vacant apartment at night. Silly safety rule, right? NO.
As she approaches the stoop to the apartment, my phone rings - its my mother in law calling from the hospital. She starting shooting out bad news about my father in law and my customer is standing right there. So I motion her to the apartment and we go up stairs. I am in front of her as we go up the stairs. SLAM! The door closes behind us. "Umm Mom, I will call you back".
I go back downstairs to open the door while she is viewing the vacant apartment. THE DOOR WILL NOT OPEN. My heart drops. I am turning the knob every which way I could and NOTHING - it feels as if it is locked - not jambed. She comes back down the stairs and starts asking me questions about the apartment as I am standing in front of the locked door. I just start crying. I can not stop the tears, I can not look at her, I can't speak. She asks if everything is ok, with fear in her voice and I just look at her and start spilling my guts, like I am doing here, but in hysteria.
Once I gain somewhat of composure, I open the tiny window at the base of the stairs and I figure I have to climb through it. I will have to squeeze my ARSE through this window and get us out. OH MY GAWD. OK, I turn to her and explain to her what I have to do. So she is helping 
me climb through the window and I have one leg out and she is pushing me from behind. As I am half way out of the window, other tenants come walking up and have NO IDEA what I am doing. I am crying, I am climbing through the window and they have no idea who I am.
As they open up the front door, with me still semi through this window I can feel bruises forming as I look at my customer as ask her "so, do ya want the apartment?" She answered with - "that will be a no".
I am not exactly sure where I lost her, do you think it was my hysteria, my having her help me climb through the window or fear that she was dealing with a nut job?
But that is a good thing. This weeks #22 CoRE was held over at the Active Rain site, with Matt Heaton acting as the gracious host. 
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