Having to work out of your house may seem like a strange way of doing business for many people. But not for Cecelia Tinkle, FVREB board member and multi-year Medallion Club member, who has been balancing a home-based real estate business with domestic life for decades.
After Tinkle began her REALTOR® career in 1976, she and husband Realtor Bill Wade were renting office space, but with the ups and downs in real estate in the 1980s, they decided to take the practical least cost-effective option, and opened an office in their home.
“Our house had a double garage, so we divided it up and we put the desks in,” says Tinkle.
After so long in the business, Tinkle acknowledges she doesn’t maintain the speedy pace and intensity of previous times that had her become one of the Fraser Valley’s top earners. That’s partly due to a leg injury that clipped her wings for a few years.
But if you want energy, wisdom, attitude, and ethics, She’s your agent!
And then there’s the complications that the pandemic has created. While COVID-19 has put a damper on the business she’s still reaching out to clients and having clients reach right back. The day we spoke to her she was working on a new listing from a long-time client.
Tinkle said most of her business has come through print advertising and she stays in contact with her client base through emails for special occasions such as Mother’s Day and Christmas.
Long ago, she and Bill decided to keep their identities and their business separate, which is why she stuck with the name Tinkle, which prompted curiosity over the years.
“I’ve often said to people, just think of a ringing bell,” says Tinkle, “and that’s me.”
Even after joining Royal Le Page Wolstencroft, she kept her home office and from time to time hired a part time person to handle some of the administrative tasks, but by and large she’s handled the business on her own.
The necessity of working remotely during COVID-19 can mean a lot of domestic distractions and sometimes technical issues, but that’s not anything Tinkle isn’t used to. She always had pets, and teenagers, and sometimes staff around her workspace, but she stuck to her principle of putting clients first.
“Sometimes it is difficult to focus, but I concentrate on everything to do with a deal, and with the client,” says Tinkle. “I always put clients first and the rest comes second.”
She truly loves being a Realtor, which she says brings emotional rewards that some professions don’t, citing lawyers she’s talked to who say in family law, even when a case wraps up, “nobody is happy.”
“In real estate you can make everybody happy,” declares Tinkle. “It takes a lot of work, and it takes money to pay your bills. But I never concentrated on the money. You know you’re going to get money once the deal goes through. I am always focusing on the client.”
Still, after decades in the trenches, and the disruption the pandemic has wrought, one would think Tinkle is ready to hang it up and say, I’ve done my best, I’ve had a good career, but it’s time to retire.
No, not the case.
“I might quit if I win the lottery,” Tinkles says laughing. For now, she’s still in the game.
Source: FVREB Communications