Coco 's LA Condo Lifestyle Blog

Isn't LA wonderful?  While the rest of the world is wringing its hands Los Angeles  has unveiled plans for several new luxury condominium complexes to grace its beautiful skyline. 10777 Wilshire Boulevard is the newest to get the construction go ahead.

This Wilshire corridor property will be developed by The Standard Oil Investment Group. The property will be designed by the world-renowned architect, Philip Stark and will comprise 27 ultra luxury condominium estates.  The elite amenities are expected to include 24 hour concierge services, state-of-the-art fitness facilities, a private movie theatre and, of course, a resort style pool, Jacuzzis and sundeck.  The project is expected to break ground later this year.  As yet there is no completion date.

In the next blog I will share news about other rising stars on the LA skyline.  Subscribe to the blog, you won't want to miss it!

In the last blog I detailed all the things that can go wrong to create a day filled with frustration and anger.  It's important to remember that we don't have to stew in the emotion.  There are ways to release it and get back to being productive and happy.
 

When I feel myself getting angry I ask myself some important questions:

1. Is the event that I am frustrated and then angry about something that I am going to remember clearly 5 years from now?  This is great for perspective. 

In five years or even five months I am not going to remember that my copier was in pieces for 3 days, or that Sears took 3 months to fix my appliance, and if I do remember it will seem like a minute hiccup in my day.

I am grateful for the experience with the pre-approval letter experience because now I know more of what I need to protect a Seller as their listing agent.

For the woman who accused me of collusion and copied my client on correspondence, which is not allowed - I do what I always do - which is what is best for my client and tell her that the deal will be done the way the Seller wants it and what we (buyers agent and sellers agent) had agreed to or we are going to lease it out instead of sell it and that she has another day and a half to think about it.

Now believe me I would rather sell it as I have been working on it for about 9 months but in this market I am not giving a 90 day or 60 escrow to anyone. That would not be fair to my Seller. If I know in my heart that I am doing what is right for the client than I remind myself to breathe and let it all go and start my day over again which I can do at any time.

2. Is anyone harmed or about to be harmed?  Again, great for perspective.

Sometimes our feelings get hurt and we can't let it go, but it's important to remember that life goes on.  In either case I move on to question 3. Sometimes someone can get harmed - a Buyer or Seller if they are forced in to the wrong deal. I have to put their needs a head of mine even when the market is not what it used to be and I may need the sale. I have learned to do the right thing and that always seem to keep things in line for me.
 

3. Is there anything that can be done to fix the problem?  Action is a great anger buster and sometimes there is something that can be done.  It's always important to move from the problem to the solution. 

I can call the supervisor at Sears - I can call the supervisor from the copy place. I emailed the agent that accused me of collusion. The clarity to know when nothing can be done helps you to release anger too.  And the last question I ask is:
 

4.Was there malicious intent?  This is a great leveler. 

If I thought that the copier repairman had malicious intent in leaving my copier in pieces I would clearly be looking for a new repair service.  Instead after looking at #3, I will simply and kindly tell him when he comes back to finish the copier that if he has to leave I expect my copier room to be as tidy as when he found it. I will also be clear that in the future I expect a reasonable return time or I will be forced to find another service.

In the case of the current market and the people that I am around, I try very hard to work with clients that do not suck the life out of me. Even in this market we need to keep the faith, as I see it, and let go of any negative clients, employees or people that are bringing us extra stress.

Being angry takes a great deal of energy. Anger gets trapped in your body and needs a way out.   I don't know about you but I have better things to do with my time than to be angry because it does affect me and I need to really be present when I am working with clients and being of service on my job.  
 

I am truly blessed to have wonderful people to work with and have luxury condos to show, I have new home owners to congratulate and frankly, I have checks to cash!  I'd much rather focus my energies on those things and stay in an attitude of gratitude.

Sometimes at the end of the day before I go to sleep I do a mental exercise where I clear my head of all the things that are on my mind and mentally place them in a box - then I tell my brain that it is time to go to sleep.

I had an agent this week that was very hard to deal with and as I was interacting with her as hard as it was I was mentally blessing her with pink light and took a few minutes to prepare myself for the time we would spend together in the inspections. It was a far better use of my energies than to be stuck in a place of frustration and anger.

When was the last time you got angry?  We all get angry.  It's a fact of life. But have you noticed how anger can create a chain reaction that can spread through your day and literally suck the joy out of your life?  I have had a few situations in the past few weeks where I find myself frustrated and angry or having to fend off other people's anger and frustration and all of it takes its toll on my body, mind and spirit.

You breeze into your office on a beautiful day only to find that your copier is in pieces, because the repair person who came yesterday and promised to have it repaired before he left didn't finish fixing it and didn't clean up his mess. To add insult to injury he left a note saying he wouldn't be able to come back until Friday. 

You feel the anger bubble up!  This is inappropriate and unprofessional! This is added to the fact that you have a mortgage broker write a letter which turns out to be useless as the person could not really get a loan because, you learn, that in today's lending market if a potential buyer has a late mortgage payment on their record the lender most likely will not approve a new loan. Or how about an agent that accuses you of collusion because in order to protect your seller you ask that the buyer be pre-approved with a lender you know and trust.

You stare at the pieces of the copier and anger seems appropriate given the situation. With righteous indignation you pick up the phone to call customer service and demand better service from the copy repair business. With the lender providing the faulty pre-approval letter you learn that those letters don't mean what they used to so even though you are frustrated you chalk it up to learning a valuable lesson. You'll know what to ask for the next time. For the agent accusing you of collusion - you do not respond right away but you do respond and do it calmly and clearly.  However all of these little occurrences as you go through your day start to wear on you and psychically suck out your energy. It doesn't take much. I have been trying to get Sears to fix an appliance since December, they were supposed to come last week and of course they still have not shown up!

Amazingly, when you have times like these it starts a pattern and for the rest of the day nothing seems to go right.  The day is a series of people not being where they are supposed to be, not having completed what they were supposed to complete.  You find yourself more and more frustrated.  And it seems like you can't get anything finished.  Problems keep popping up. Where does it all end?  For a lot of people it ends when their head hits the pillow. For some unfortunate people it never ends.  Being angry is no way to live your life.

Tune in for the next blog when I share what I did what I was able to do with all my anger and frustration so that I could focus on the business at hand!