What Good I Have Done

When the Christmas tree goes up at my house, it’s accompanied by a televised holiday classic that we’ve recorded at some point over the years. It might be “A Charlie Brown Christmas” or “Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer” or the “Saturday Night Live Christmas Special” that’s playing in the background while lights and decorations go on the tree. Most of these shows were recorded directly off the air — with commercial breaks intact — and so spots from 10, 15, and 20 years ago are saved for posterity on VHS.

My career before Real Estate was in the local television business…. making TV commercials that tried to convince viewers how great the News team was or how accurate our weathercaster could be… or even what was going to be on Oprah tomorrow at 4:00. I spent 18 years in that line of work and yet, of all the television shows we’ve saved in our Christmas archives, not one of them has any of my work on them. It’s like all of that effort… all of that time invested… simply didn’t count for anything in the long run.

By contrast, this week 11 families will be celebrating their first Christmas in a new home that I helped them acquire this year. 9 others will open gifts under their tree for the second Christmas, 8 more will celebrate their third Christmas and 12 more will be celebrating their fourth yuletide season after buying a home with my help. And that doesn’t include the folks who sold houses through my affiliation with Fonville Morisey and who are now living in other places.

I much prefer the latter legacy.

One doesn’t have to look too far to realize that the world can often be a pretty crummy place. Difficult circumstances, evil people, or just plain bad luck can rain down on us at any given moment. The place we call “home” is where we can come at the end of a rotten day, close the door and shut out all of that conflict. “Home” is oursanctuary… it’s our refuge. It’s where love resides. It’s where care endures.

In my work, I have the privilege of being able to help people find that special place for themselves and their family. It’s a wonderful moment when I open the front door for someone, they walk into the home for the first time, and they get a sense that they’re welcome there… that there’s peace and contentment there… that they’re “home.” And I helped put them there.

And believe me, that’s way better than having a commercial on television!

Robert Flinn, REALTOR®
919-698-2040 (Direct)
919-402-1242 (Office)
rflinn@fmrealty.com (email)