A Heartfelt Tribute to Shadow

I am like most men I know. I like to think that I am my wife's best friend. This weekend, I sadly accepted the title by default.

Fourteen years ago, my wife brought a new puppy home. This new bundle of joy was a mix between a golden retriever and an australian shephard. This was long before I entered the scene. She sat up nights with a scared puppy and came home from work every day at lunch to check on her. This love and attention was returned many fold over the next fourteen years.

Shadow was a constant companion. My wife shared the ups and downs of jobs that came and went, a marriage that did not work, a few "how about me" gents that came by and me. Shadow was always there. Looking back with soulful eyes and offering a well timed nuzzle when sorrow turned to tears.

Shadow accepted life for what it was. She loved to play fetch in the spring, sleep in the shade through the summer, chase squirrels in the fall and prance and roll in the winter's snow.

Shadow loved to chew sticks. I have no doubt she could have chewed her way through trees from here to California and back again. She was smart, she never chewed shoes or tables or other things.

A new playmate and I arrived on the scene at about the same time. The new playmate was a chow mix named Yuengling, I was the "man". We became fast friends and I understood her relationship with my wife.

I can not share all the joy she brought to us over the last few years. She was our constant companion on road trips and one day journeys. She loved to walk and ride. Like Robin, she had a passion for food, loved cats and dogs and almost every person she met. There were only two things that bothered her, fire crackers and thunder. Either of the two could send her seeking the comfort and safety of the bathtub.

Last week, she came up lame. We took her to the vet. The initial thought was that she had sprained her leg. The phone call four hours later contained much sadder news. She had cancer in the bone in her leg and the leg had broken. The cancer had spread and she had a few days left.

We brought her home and hoped that everyone was wrong and she would rise above the dire predictions. It did not happen. She got worse. We contacted a wonderful vet named Dr. Weiss, who agreed to come to our home Sunday and put her to rest.

Sunday morning came too quickly and her final hours were spent sitting with us in the back yard. It was overcast and gloomy. The Doctor came and gently put her out of her misery. She laid in our lap and as her last breath escaped her lungs, the sun peeked through clouds.

I will always be grateful that she set such a wonderful example of unconditional love. It is something we all need to stop and remember.

Now I have the official title of "my wife's best friend" and I only hope that I will be as good a friend as Shadow has been all these years.

The summer is ending and the Fall Market is here!

Isn't it time that I put an end to the rumour that I have lost my laptop? I can only say that the market conditions here have changed. The increased number of homes for sale has impacted all aspects of our market. I have been busier with activities for my clients. I have more listings and my buyers are taking a little longer to find the perfect home.

More listings increases the amount of time that a Realtor have to spend servicing listings. Yes Virginia, not only is there a Santa Claus, today, more than ever, it takes more than a sign in the yard and fresh cookies during an open house to get the house sold.

The pool of buyers remains constant, but the increase in inventory has ended for now the need to write an offer on the hood of a car in an effort to beat the competing offers. If the house a potential buyer likes goes under contract, there are many more available quite similar to that one.

There are so many available that buyers are doing two things.
• Buyers are looking for houses on their own.
• Buyers are hesitant to act.

I suppose with interest rates up and prices still holding, some folks feel that maybe they can negotiate a better deal on their own and save "commission". I hope that they realize that if they allow the agent selling the house to handle "both sides of the deal" - they have no representation.

The agent selling a home in Maryland CAN NOT represent anyone but the individual selling the house. They may talk fast and gloss over that fact and point out that they can cut their commission to save the buyer money, but the fact is - they are working for the seller and they CAN NOT offer any advice or counsel regarding price or anything else about the home that is not public knowledge.

It would seem that the the hesitancy to act is related to the amount of homes on the market. If we buy this one, we may have missed a better home. Maybe we should look at a few more? The fallicy in that logic is plain to see for a Realtor and is lost in the haze of so many homes seen by the buyer. If you have found a house that you feel can be home, buy it. If you wait, it will be gone. It is far worse to spend the next 10 years in your second choice bemoaning the fact that you could have had your first had you written an offer.

The Fall Market is beginning and we are seeing an increase in activity. Sales in Montgomery County are down 26% but prices have risen around 5%. Those that have waited all Spring and Summer for prices to crash need to reconsider that plan and act before Fall turns into Winter and the home they have been watching is occupied by a new family.

I have to share, my wife and I had our eyes on a home we wanted to purchase. We watched and waited. We watched and waited some more. The other morning, to my horror, the house went under contract. It did not sell for less. The seller got their asking price and I am faced with a long winter of "Honey, why didn't you make an offer? Now some stranger is living in MY house!"

I should have listened to my own advice.