Do you remember what you were doing on this date 20 years ago?

Celebrating 20 years on Oct. 3, 2014, Betsy Urbance is IAR's Legal Hotline Attorney.

I remember it well.  It was the first day at my new job.  I was relatively young, kind of newly married with no children, a transplant from the banking industry and private law practice before that.

I was full of trepidation about spending my business day on the telephone answering legal questions about real estate brokerage (something I knew next to nothing about) with folks who knew so much more than me.

What was IAR thinking?!

Yep, it was also the first business day for the Illinois Residential Real Property Disclosure Act and the presumption of designated agency was looming on the horizon (January 1, 1995).  What was subagency anyway?!

With your kind indulgence I will use the space today to share a few musings…

Then…trial by fire.  Learning the Illinois Real Estate License Act, the REALTOR® Code of Ethics, The IAR Agency Compliance Manual (along with our members); and, most importantly, REALTOR® has only two syllables.

Then and now… Discovering that REALTORS® are generally smart, creative, entrepreneurial, passionate, engaged, hard-working and they would love a black and white answer.  Y’all know now that it depends on the facts.

Then…Learning to juggle work and parenthood (first with one, then with two babies)…all excellent adventures thus far.

Now…I have been around long enough to see drastically different market conditions.  Throughout the great recession the strong survived, and callers were a teensy bit grumpy sometimes, but we worked through it.

Now…We don’t even blink about seller disclosure, lead based paint disclosure, radon disclosure and we are still not sure what to do about mold.

Now…Of course buyers can have agents who represent their best interests.  Who would ever think otherwise? Remember to make your agency disclosures (could not help myself).

Then and now…Then, we talked on the phone, the Internet was new and we were just learning about browsers. Birds were the only ones “tweeting.” Now, we visit by phone, email, webinar (not even a word 20 years ago), video conferencing, and use of social media is a force to be reckoned with.  Gotta keep learning and adapting.

Now…Learning that your babies grow up and go to college and they are so busy they don’t even miss you. You think this will make you sad, but you are so happy that they are happy that you are not that sad.  Does that even make sense?

Right this minute…So full of gratitude for each day that I receive both professionally and personally.  I continue to be humbled and honored to be a member of the REALTOR® team…truly one of the finest around.

Thank you for your indulgence and enjoy this day!