Despite all the jokes, and the way we are sometimes portrayed on television, (the mother on the show “Two and a half men” comes to mind), realtors are caring people, just like real people.

 This past spring, a local family trying to adopt a Chinese orphan named Gates was brought to our attention. Gates, was born with a clubbed foot, and I am not casting any judgement against the Chinese as a people, but the Chinese government saw no value in this baby.

In his government operated orphanage, Gates was malnourished, presumably because of his handicap. Gates is four, and is the size of a healthy two year old. At any rate, the family adopting Gates needed a ton of money to execute this adoption. They were roughly $5000 short. Our Keller Williams office took this ball and ran with it.

We held car-washes on rainy mornings when the only money we made was from washing each others cars. We had “hot dog” Fridays on the patio deck behind our office. In lent we moved it to hot dog Thursdays…Yard Sales, candy sold to sluggish agents in the middle of the afternoon, we got pretty creative.

Gates is now home in Ft Myers.

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One of the local elementary schools has about 90% of it’s student popupation at or below poverty level. Our office chose to provide all 800 students with a box of crayons. I don’t know how, but on the Wednesday before school started we had a few dozen boxes.

By Friday of that same week, we had enough for every child to get their own box.

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I don’t share these thoughts because we are wonderful people and you should buy houses from us. Just about every brokerage in the country has a favorite charity. All are worthy causes.

All of those brokers and agents are wonderful people just like you. That is why I share this information. It is ok to laugh at the stuff we hear about agents, the stereotypes and so on. In fact, I attached a link to a funny one that came from the UK.

The reason I share this is so that we remember, with any topic, not to take that which is the prevailing sentiment too seriously. Enjoy the laugh of this link now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAeprWIOQqQ

As always, if there is someone you know, here or anywhere, that has a real estate concern, please show them you care by putting me in touch with them.  In return, I will show them you care by treating them the way I would treat you.

If you have a comment or question on this or any real estate topic, please don’t hesitate to let me know. I can be reached at tombernardo@earthlink.net, or 239-425-4900.

My warmest regards,

Tom Bernardo, GRI, Realtor

Keller Williams World Class Realty