When Paige woke up on Wednesday morning, she looked at the clock which read 6:30. This was going to be a big day. Yes, she was going to meet Pernell Cannon at 8:30; they were going to walk through the four properties she had picked out, and hopefully they could accomplish that in time for her to meet Marie at the zoo for lunch. But that wasn't all; Chad and Tom were meeting Charlie at 10:00, "How is THAT going to go?" she said out loud.
From the bathroom her mother said, "How is what going to go?"
It caught her by surprise, "Uh, did you know Tom and Chad are meeting one of my clients this morning?"
Trudy emerged from the bathroom door. "No, are they? Tom did say he wouldn't be here until after lunch."
Paige threw on a robe and they went to the kitchen. Jimmy was already up and sitting on the sofa with his sippy-cup. "Mommy, can I watch a show?"
"No, big boy! Come with us to the kitchen and we'll give you some fruit." She got him seated and then went looking for Jamie. Lo and behold she was still asleep! "Oh my God," she said to her mom, "this is a first; Jamie's still unconscious."
"It's probably a growth-spurt," said Trudy, "she's been eating all day lately."
"Well, I need to jump in the shower and get ready. I'm meeting a guy at 8:30 for an all-morning look at properties." Thirty minutes later Paige was ready, the kids were fed, Paige spent some time with them in the living room, and she was out the door by 8:15. As she climbed into her car, she thought, "Maybe if I give up sex, I'll have enough minutes in the day?" The thought made her laugh out loud, so she called Chad.
"Hi Babe! Are you still at home?"
"Nope," she replied, "I'm in my car heading to the office."
"How was your little 'party' lest night?"
"Pretty awesome, how was yours?"
There was a pause, "Fun! Sylvie was over."
"Yes, I know...I saw her car there on my way home!"
Chad laughed, "As crazy as our yesterday sounds, I'm looking forward to Friday, Paige!"
"Me too Sweetheart! I'd love to talk about it, but I don't have time right now. Can you come over tonight? I wanna hear all about it, including your meeting with Charlie today!"
"Text me when the kids are in bed; I should be home by 6:30."
"Perfect, see you tonight!"
When she walked into the office, her cousin Jimmy greeted her with a smile and handed her a piece of paper, "Take a look at THAT!" he exclaimed.
"What is it?"
"Those are the quarterly numbers! Congratulations, at this rate we'll both make our first million by next year!"
"Holy shit!"
"Yeah, the business has tripled since last quarter! Keep your foot on the gas, Cuz! You're my secret weapon!"
Paige laughed, gave him a big hug, and went into her office to check messages. There were two more prospective clients who needed call-backs. No time for that though, Pernell Cannon was walking through the door.
Sitting in her office, Paige said, "So, Pernell, let's review what we talked about last time. You and your daughter are going to buy two properties; one for a yearly rental and one for an Airbnb, right?"
"Yep, that's it."
"Any changes in these parameters since we last talked?"
"Maybe, it depends on what I see here today. The change might be about which house we rent."
"What do you mean?"
Pernell glanced at the ceiling, "Uh, when you described the properties we are visiting today, it got me thinking; it might work out best if I moved into the new house and rented my current home."
"Oh, that's interesting!" Paige exclaimed. "What made you think that?"
"It was when you said one of the houses needed a complete make-over. I just might want to customize it for my needs."
"And what are your needs?"
Pernell hesitated, then smiled, "I'm into photography; I might want to build my own studio...it would be easy to do if I'm remodeling the whole house."
Paige leaned back in her chair, "Okay! This is good to know; let's start by looking at the condos I've selected, then the houses. I was going to show you the run-down property second, but maybe we should look at that one first."
"Sounds like a plan! You lead the way and I'll follow you to the condos."
Since the house that needed a total remodel was empty, Paige called the second house's owner and readjusted the timetable. Walking through the two condominiums with Pernell was a snap. They were both in the same complex and both had the same floor plan. The redheaded agent giggled when Pernell made his decision based on where their parking spots were! "These spaces are fifty or sixty feet closer; let's go with condo #2!"
When they got to the first house, Paige drove up the narrow tree-lined driveway into the backyard. At one point the pavement ended but the owners had continued with gravel that went around in a circle. The garage was off to one side, and they parked on the other side at the top of the loop.
Getting out of their cars, Pernell said, "I like this already! I love how you never have to park on the street."
Paige said, "The woman who lived here was ninety years old, so her kids designed this for her. It's hard for someone in their eighties to back down a driveway, and accessing the house is much easier through the back door."
"I like it," Pernell enthused, "and I really love that row of pine trees there. Is that the property line?"
"Yes, it's so pretty!"
"I like the privacy it affords!"
"The woman lived here over sixty-five years, twenty of which was after her husband died. I got the whole story from the daughter when I called her."
Paige opened the back door and they stepped into the mudroom. "You can call it whatever you want...remodel, make-over, updating...whatever. It'll take a lot of work. The roof is only two years old, but other than that, I would say the rest of the house needs a lot of attention." She wasn't wrong, but as they went from room to room, Pernell got more and more enthusiastic! He obviously had a vision for what he wanted, "This is great!" he said. "The kitchen needs to be gutted, but I can see these two bedrooms being combined in an office/studio kind of thing."