Quote:
Originally Posted by crazyma
Yep JOY welcome to the nut house
and most of the freaks on HERE, know we are LOL
( okay peeps settle now, I am talking about me, myself and I)
Panama huh? so care to share a quick tidbit on how you wound up there?? If that isn't too nosy?!
Is it really a decent place for Americans to live???
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well, sit back mama, prop up your feet 'cause this ain't gonna be a quick tidbit 'cause well it's just too long of a tale about the blonde in panama! 1st i just love this country and the ppl here are just great - been here oh i'd say about 4 1/2 years now. actually the reason i got into RE in the states (was a paralegal, married - i thought, 'nother story - to an attorney) was b/c i knew i wanted to live in central amercia someday - from way back a million years ago when i was a wee lass.
anyway me and the AH separated and decided didn't want to have anything to do with attys anymore (wait til i get to the ironic part of that), so evaluated everything i'd done over the past million years and with my skill sets RE natural evolution. client of my pseudo ex heard i was going into RE and he had just bought a franchise office, so wanted me to help him set it up, organize, recruit yadda yadda yadda 'cause i'd done stuff like that before, so went to work for him while i was taking RE classes.
but unlike all the wanna be's in RE here and OMG most ppl have no clue about RE, i wanted to make sure i would be good at it so i just built that ole ladder w/ending up in CA the end result. a lot of prayer 'cause most people thought i was crazy for where i wanted to end up
so i took my classes ended up with like a 98%, took the exam and Colorado single licensing state so had to take general portion and the broker portion and at that time only about 15% of people in the state passed the first time 'cause test was an absolute *****. then i had license but had to put it to the test ya know? just b/c i passed test first time didn't mean 'OK lets head to CA'.
was top agent my first quarter, worked like a frigging dog (tho always had strong work ethic 'cause daddy always told me if i couldn't give something 100% and everything i had, to just not bother doin' it at all). anyway point is, i was right that RE was a good fit for me where i could still help people (what i liked about doin' paralegal work), but w/o all the negativity like parents with kids in trouble or ppl going thu divorces, ya know? instead of holding their hands when their dreams were shattering i could help them make their dream of owning a home a reality (which is actully my brokerages slogan 'making dreams a reality')
sooooooooo in the meantime i was doing initial research on where in CA I wanted to have my own ofices. pretty much eliminated all countries to whittle it down to either costa rica or panama. spent 3 weeks, by myself in CR (another story) and while it was beautiful, didn't have no problems (other than almost ending up in nicaragua b/c signage sucked) but knew that was not where i was supposed to be. like i said a lot of prayer went into this decision and i just knew, ya know?
a friend of mine was a realtor with ERA and we were talkin and she asked if i'd been to panama yet; said no, just got back from CR. she told me she was spending an entire month there 'cause she owned property in bocas del toro and boquete and i should hop on down with her to check it out. so i made sure my clients taken care of and well, the rest is history. i knew the minute i landed that this was where the good lord above wanted me to be - i mean i knew, absolutely, positively this was where i was supposed to be.
so made several more trips down and heard the absolute horror stories of how RE was being conducted in western PA and thought 'yep, this is where i should be' (bein an ol' oklahoma country girl always love a challenge) so applied for franchise rights for bocas and boquete. it does pay to listen to what the man/woman upstairs is tellin' us b/c when i put in my app they told me someone already had 1st right of refusal on bocas - and i told them that was part of my 5 year plan so . . . . didn't want to leave my system but . . . they moved the other person out of the way so i could secure the rights and i moved here on new years eve of 2004.
i brought first worldwide RE franchise into essentially the wild wild west, and kiddies i ain't a lying. i need to write a friggin book on what i've seen over the last 4 years. and let's just say i wasn't the most popular girl at the dance bringin' a franchise in, operatating according to US standards of practice, and raining on a lot of AH parades by educating the community that net listings were WRONG, making sure the indians could read the contracts and essentially doin' everything different than everyone else in the area. actually i do everything different than pretty much everyone in CA
now my 1st office in bocas been open over 4 years, boquete over 2 years and just opened an info center in the city of david so i could cover the entire western hump of panama. i live in panamanian neighborhood (the adopted gringa of the Serrano's)- always have lived around the locals, not expats. on christmas my neighbor even brought me over a huge plate of food, they watch the house for me when i'm not home, even plant flowers for me so when i come home i have new flowers to look at. reminds of US in like the '60s/'70s when everyone knew everyone, looked after each other etc. very different than colorado which is where i had moved here from - was raised in OK but left at 18.
a lot of expats from around the world, especially north americans live in panama, much lower cost of livin' here, if someone is a retiree they get the same discounts as locals (restaurants, travel, hotels - they even have their own line in the banks!) the only negative and this is where i mentioned the irony above, is that unlike in colorado where the realtor essentially controlled the destiny of a transaction, here it is all thru attys. and god i hate attorneys who can turn a simple thing into total CF. in 4+ years of operation i can count on one hand the number of contracts that have been 100% correct - some so bad i've had to do a 'save as, revised by c21' and rewrite the thing. of course then the buyer's atty gets credit for a kick-butt contract, but i have to personally review every single contract, edit most or at least point out 'hey, jackass, the sale includes improvements - shouldn't we add that to binding contract?' DUH
when i first opened everyone doin' non-exclusives and fighting over them which didn't help the clients, and of course i only accept exclusive right to sell listings - even have developments listed exclusively and now more ppl working cooperatively together 'cause they finally are realizing that it's better to get part of something than 100% of nada.
so that's how i ended up here, the locals actually like americans - well except the americans i don't even like (typical 'ugly american'), i've never once had problems and i'm a little woman, obviously a gringa - the long blonde hair and blue eyes do give me a way, ya know LOL in fact the only problem i had was a gringo competitor in Bocas threatening me and callin' me a MF in my own office - would have let the threats go 'cause the girl can take care of herself, but calling me a MF in my OWN office, well that's where I draw the line. when to the PTJ (detectives) and they practically begged me to let them take care of it for me - so i said, my brother, go for it - now that brokerage doesn't even have an office (& they're another WW franchise) they're hated in the town and probably won't be in biz much longer.
sorry to write a book but believe it or not this is not even the half of it - i'll have to do a 'part 2, 3, 4' but that's how i ended up in panama and i be one happy camper!
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and the nastiness. Badge heavy I must say!!redneck losers LOL!!
good morning to ya!
