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Caroline smiled. “I’m sure you’ll have plenty of takers. That’s one of the ways I built up a solid list of buyers when I was starting out. Also, keeping in touch with people that rent—they often turn into buyers a year or two later.”
Sophie got the good news about passing her exam on a Friday and hit the ground running on Monday. Although by the end of the week she felt like she was running in circles. She was anxious to start working with buyers but by the end of the week she didn’t have a single buyer. And she’d done everything suggested. She’d let everyone in her building and everyone that she came across, like Tony and Richard at the restaurant, know that she was starting a career in real estate. Everyone wished her luck, but no one seemed to be looking to buy or sell. It was a bit discouraging.
The following week though she got her first ad call forwarded to her and it was someone interested in one of their rentals. She was so nervous and excited at the same time and stumbled her way through the call. She referred to the list of questions Rick had given her to cover with people interested in renting and everything seemed to fit.
“It’s for me and my boyfriend, I mean my fiancé, I’m not used to saying that yet,” Liza the woman on the phone said. “Our lease is up in a few weeks, and we want a bigger place.” They were currently in a small one bedroom.
“We both work from home now so depending on the property a two or three bedroom could work.” The one she was calling on was a two bedroom with a small office.
“It sounds ideal. I like the location and we can turn one of the bedrooms into an office slash guest room.”
Sophie invited her to come into the office and then they would head out to see the property.
Liza came in at three and Sophie took her into a small conference room and had her fill out a rental application so they would have the paperwork ready to go if she liked the listing. “If this one doesn’t work for you, we may have others coming in,” Sophie said. She liked Liza, she was friendly and professional. She and her boyfriend both had good jobs in the tech industry and they’d received bigger salary increases and bonuses than expected, and were anxious to move into a bigger place.
They headed out to the rental, located in the East Village, which Sophie had learned was one of the more in-demand neighborhoods.
“Neither one of us cooks, so we go out to eat a lot or get takeout and the East Village has so many great restaurants,” Liza said as they reached the building. Sophie unlocked the door of the apartment and held it open for Liza to step inside. Sophie had seen pictures online, but it wasn’t the same as seeing a property in person.
Sunlight streamed through big windows, and while the kitchen was a typical small galley size, the living area was spacious, and the primary bedroom had its own roomy bathroom. The other bedroom was a bit smaller but still a decent size.
“This would make a great office,” Liza said. “And if we put a pullout sofa here, we can use it as a guest room, too.”
They walked into the smallest room, which was currently being used as an office. “This is perfect. It’s on the opposite side of the apartment, so we won’t be on top of each other. This just hit the market, didn’t it? I just saw the listing last night.”
Sophie nodded. “Yes, it’s brand new.”
“I don’t want to risk losing it. Brandon told me I could write a check if I liked it.” Sophie was stunned that it was moving so fast. She smiled and nodded.
“Of course. We have your paperwork and I’ll submit the application immediately. It should just take a day or two to process the background check and I will let you know asap.”
Liza wrote Sophie a deposit check and they went their separate ways once they reached the street. Sophie felt like skipping as she made her way back to the office and Caroline could tell the minute she saw her face that it had gone well.
“She liked it?”
Sophie grinned and held up the deposit check. “She loved it.”
“Fantastic! Once she passes the background check and it’s a done deal, we’ll celebrate.”
They celebrated that Thursday night with after-work drinks at Champers Social Club. Sophie was on a high from having her first deal close, even though it was just a rental.
She’d been thrilled that morning in the bullpen when she’d been able to announce that she’d closed her first rental. When she’d checked her emails first thing, she’d received notification that Liza had passed the background check and the apartment was hers.
“Well done, Sophie. It’s your first deal, so go and ring the bell!” Rick told her.
She’d done so and it was a thrill to hear the bell clanging and the claps and congrats from the other agents. She knew it was a small step, but it was a big one to her. It was proof that she could actually do this.
Caroline was so encouraging. Sophie had leaned on her quite a bit with her newbie questions, and Caroline was patient and answered all of them. She never bothered Tessa with questions as she was always on the phone or deeply focused on her email. There was a strong ‘don’t bother’ me vibe around Tessa. She was very intense and competitive with the other agents.
Sophie had noticed the dynamics in the office and found them interesting. Most of the agents were encouraging and collaborative, but a few of them, like Tessa, were a bit competitive. While Caroline always cheered when someone rang the bell or announced a new listing, Tessa often seemed to bristle.
Sophie knew that Tessa and Caroline had started at the office within a week of each other. Tessa had been brand new with no experience at all, while Caroline had worked for her family’s real estate office. But she still had to learn the Manhattan market, which she’d said was very different than upstate New York.
At the moment Tessa was slightly ahead of Caroline on the sales board, thanks to her recent big sale. Caroline didn’t seem to care much about that, but Sophie could see that it mattered that Tessa be in the lead. Sophie was just glad she was finally on the board, even if very solidly in the bottom slot. At least she had some numbers up.
The restaurant was packed and there were no seats open at the bar, so they just had one round and decided to head home and pick up a pizza along the way. Sophie opened a bottle of prosecco since they’d all been drinking champagne at Champers. They set the pizza box on the living room coffee table and all helped themselves to slices. Caroline and Tessa got comfortable on the sofa while Sophie settled into Aunt Penny’s favorite club chair.
They continued chatting about work stuff, which Sophie found endlessly fascinating.
