Chapter 4

He was now looking over his glasses at me, “Twice my current market share?”

“Yes, Sir! We will need to spend a little money to do it, OK! Have we got a deal?” I said thrusting my hand out for him to shake. He was thinking about it.

“What about you Sarah, are you willing to help out your brother on this?” dad asked her directly.

“Daddy, as much as I love you – I also love my big brother. I can help him every day until school starts, and I’ll come here right after school to help him help you. By the way, if he doubles your market share, then I could get a bigger allowance – couldn’t I?”

He got up, started to laugh and shook my hand, and hers, saying, “You’ve got a deal!”

“How long are you working today, Dad?” I asked.

He answered, “Probably, about ten hours, or more, why?”

“I’m going to take Sarah home to change into more suitable working clothes, and then we’ll stop by Office Depot to get the boxes. See you in about forty minutes – we’ll be here all day as well, since nobody will see us,” I declared.

“A young man spending ten hours working for his old man for free – I don’t know where this focused changed person came from, but I’m sure enjoying it – good-bye!”

We got back with Sari wearing a midriff showing top and some comfortable jeans, and I carried in two cartons of ten boxes each – I also got a few black markers to label the boxes. Taking turns, we alternated speaking the data, while the other entered it in.

Any pictures in the folder, we stopped and took a digital snapshot of whatever we found. Then we restarted our first breakdown – Business/Commercial vs. Home/Residential!

It quickly became apparent that this would take longer than my original deal with Dad. We kept at it catching a rhythm to the project.

By the time the residential had too many sub-categories, Sari picked up the jargon, and we started the commercial sub-breakdown as we continued on our first pass through the ‘Seven Deadly File Cabinets, ‘ as we came to name them.

Dad came back and asked, “Are you two hungry? Wow, look at the system you guys have – incredible!”

“I want a cheeseburger; fries and bottled water please?” I said, not getting up.

“The same for me Daddy, I don’t want to stop either yet – this is kind of fun. Working for my Dad and working with my brother – it keeps me off the street and Stuart out of the bars!” she said.

Dad did a double take and said that he would be right back. While he was gone, I heard the front door open, so I got up and dusted myself off, and said, “Hello – welcome to Armstrong Realty – ‘Every house we list, somebody sells!’”

“Hello, my name is David Bedwin; I was looking for a house to buy – can you help me?” the nice-looking gentleman said.

“Sure David,” I said, hoping that Dad’s MLS code hadn’t changed. “What are you looking for, exactly?”

“Well, I would say, four bedrooms, at least two complete bathrooms – more would be better and a two-car garage, three would be OK as well,” he replied.

“And what part of town are you most interested living in?” I asked.

He replied, “Well, up by the college, maybe? We have two boys, 13 and 15 – probably going to college in town. A nice neighborhood high school for my two girls would be great. They are 11 and 7-years old.”

I was inputting this into MLS, just as I saw Dad pull up in his car. I saw the look on his face, as he came inside.

“Is my son helping you, all right?” he asked the gentleman.

“Yes, actually, he’s quite helpful and intuitive,” Mr. Bedwin said.

“Dad, come here please? What’s the code for the area nearest the college?” I asked.

“That would be ... L305, Stuart!” he replied. He went to the back to give us our food. Sari came around to listen in.

The printer started printing out the four most suitable listings in that area. One of them was Dads. Knowing exactly enough to be dangerous, I said, “Mr. Bedwin – my father is the Broker-Realtor here – I’m the ne’er do well son who’s helping out his file reformation – Dad ... John – this is David Bedwin, moving into town with a wife and four kids, all fifteen and under. One of these listings is ours, Mr. Bedwin – I’ll leave you in the hands of the expert.”