Heidi walked into her office and was pleased to see Lee’s smiling face looking at her from behind the reception desk. The other receptionist was busy taking a call.
“Good morning, Lee. Any messages for me?”
“Yes, I emailed them all to you.”
“Thanks.” She leaned against the counter. “How are we doing with the situation regarding the leads? Any more complaints?”
Lee rolled her eyes. “There are always complaints. No one’s happy.”
“I’m fine tuning a few solutions.”
Lee nodded. “That would be good. They keep blaming me.”
“Just keep doing what you’re doing, for the moment.”
“I will.”
Heidi gave her a smile and kept walking through to her office. Lee wasn’t stupid, she knew to give Janelle the expensive leads because she was reliable and closed the highest percentage. She pushed the door of her office open and sat behind her highly polished wooden desk. Then she looked up at the awards she and her agency had won. When she first started working in real estate, someone said to her, ‘you’re only as good as your last sale,’ and she found that could be applied to everything in life. If you’re not moving ahead, you’re falling behind.
Her assistant, Amanda, knocked on her door.
“Come in.”
“Heidi, I just got the final numbers for the party tonight.”
“We should’ve had them days ago.”
“We did, but a couple more people are coming. It shouldn’t make too much difference.”
“Okay, call them through to Jill.” Jill was the caterer. She’d been catering their Christmas parties for the last five years.
When Amanda left, from the security camera monitor in her office, Heidi saw the sales staff coming through the door just before nine. She clicked on her desktop computer and looked in her diary to see what appointments she had. She had a meeting with Frank Dyson, a successful and well-known developer. He had several apartments he couldn’t sell and was thinking of leasing them. After that, the only thing she had was the party at six. It was going to be an easy day, and if she landed Frank’s business ... she’d only need one appointment like that a day to keep her well ahead of the game.
Then Heidi clicked over to have a look at the various appointments that the agents had booked. When she saw the bright blue bars across all the timelines, she put her hands behind her head and leaned back. Each of her agents had at least four office-generated appointments.
She was so pleased to be back in her normal life where she felt comfortable. She didn’t have to pretend to be anybody she wasn’t. Motherhood was something she'd thought she wanted at some stage, but experiencing how hard it was had given her second thoughts.
Just to see what kind of office space was out there, she turned back to her computer and scrolled through the commercial listings. She sent off a couple of emails when she saw two places she liked. Ten minutes later, she got a text with an agent offering to show her one of the office suites. She agreed, even though the time he had chosen to show it to her was on Sunday, and that was Christmas Eve.
It had been a surprise to hear from Frank Dyson. She'd sold apartments for him back when she was selling real estate rather than handling rentals. She'd always gotten along well with him. Heidi had dropped the ball regarding Frank. She should've kept in contact with him as she had done with all her other developers, but the few times she had approached him about leasing out his unsold apartments, he hadn't been interested in even talking it over.
Before her appointment with him, she’d studied his two latest projects. They weren’t selling, and now was her chance to sell him on her agency. She would have to mention that their aim was to find their clients a perfect apartment in one day, along with naming all the other advantages of using her agency. They were the top leasing agency in New York.
She made sure she got to the bar early and was sipping iced water through a straw when she heard his loud voice. When she looked up she saw him with his phone up to his ear as he walked toward the table. He wore a dark blue long-sleeved shirt and gray pants. The shirt was unbuttoned way too far and a heavy gold chain hung around his neck. She gave him a little wave and he smiled at her and promptly finished his conversation. Just as she stood and reached out her hand, he leaned over and kissed her on both cheeks. He needed a closer shave; his whiskers were rough against her cheeks, and his face was sweaty. How anyone could be sweaty on a cold day such as this, Heidi had no idea. Still, she put that out of her mind and fixed a smile on her face, hoping to win his business.
"Heidi, it's so good to see you. It must be about …"
"Three or four years," she said as she sat back down.
"Yes, and how’s your new venture doing?"
Before she could answer, the waiter appeared and asked what they were drinking.
"What are you having, Heidi?" Frank stared at his drink and turned up his nose. “Is that water?”
“Yes.” She knew she'd have to order something alcoholic even if she didn't drink it, otherwise he wouldn’t let up. "A gin and tonic for me, thanks."
"And the same for me," he told the waiter. "Now, where were we up to?"
"You asked me how my business was going."
"Yes I did, and how is it doing?"
"It’s doing really well. We’re breaking records and rapidly expanding. I’ll be looking at opening new offices soon. I’m looking at a new office space in a couple of days."
"Is that so?"
She nodded.
"Have you ever thought about the West Chester area?"
"I’m open to the idea. I’ve heard there are opportunities there.”
He rubbed his nose. “I’ve got some developments there that I was hoping you might be able to help me out with."
"I'd be happy to."
"But first, I want to talk to you about a forty-story development I’ve got just one street away from here.” He shook his head. “I’ve got caught up in the housing crunch and they’re not selling."
Heidi knew the building he was talking about. "I know, it's been hard lately. There are so many developments and they were all released at the same time. You have to practically give apartments away just to get them sold.” She knew him well enough to know the right things to say.
“Exactly, and I'm not going to give them away. That's why I'm inclined to rent them now and put them back on the market at a better time. Who knows? I might just leave them as rentals, if they're doing well that way.”
Heidi could barely stop smiling as he continued, giving her specifics and suggested rental amounts. He’d always wanted top dollar for his projects and that was why his properties weren’t sold. He was someone who wouldn’t be told. Even though developers weren't able to get top dollar for sales, the leasing market was good in comparison. "I think those rents are achievable."
"Do you?"
"Yes."
“And how many people do you have working for you at the moment?"
She told him the number of realtors she had and gave him the ‘hard sell.’
"You think you'd be able to lease them fast?" he asked.
"Most of them would be leased inside of two weeks, and some within days. We’re continually looking for more apartments to fill the demand. With the rising price of apartments many people have turned to leasing.”
He nodded. “I’ll email you a list of the apartments and you can liaise with Warren, my assistant. The job's yours.” He reached over the table and held out his hand.
She shook it. “Thank you, Frank. I’m excited to get started. We won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. I’ll call Warren now and let him know what’s happening. Are you still in the same building?”
“Yes.”
Right after Frank called his assistant, he got an urgent call and had to leave. Since she’d just landed a whole bunch of sought-after apartments to lease, she couldn’t wait to get back to the office to get everything prepared and let all her agents know. It was an excellent morale booster to have that news to end the year.