This month marks my fifteenth year in the real estate business. While that may seem like a long time, I feel like I’m just getting started. I say that because this is my ninth year in truly doing what I love. Let me provide a little background into what I mean.
The first six years of my real estate career were spent figuring out the business and understanding all I could about real estate. Then, about nine years ago, my sister and niece moved back to Chattanooga. At the time, my niece was three and so excited to move into a house with stairs. She loved climbing up the stairs, never thinking about them and just racing up to get to her room and her space.
What I loved since that time is that I feel like I now truly get the chance to help my clients establish roots. These roots can help set their family on solid ground for many years to come. Now I see the impact that the stability of a home has for my clients and community.
Recently reflecting over that time got me thinking about the importance of having an address. Sure, an address means you have a home, but it is so much more than that. It is a sense of belonging to a community. It means you are part of the fabric and being of people – knowing where they come from and playing a role in where they are going.
An address is used every day, and most of the time we don’t even think about it. Yet, have you ever stopped to think of all that you cannot do unless you have an address? An address is needed to open a bank account and to register to vote. And address is needed to get a driver’s license and to register kids for school. An address is needed to get a passport and to have a safe place that you call home.
As we move into a new decade, we as a community face the challenge of ensuring the dream of a home to all. This home and this address are more important than we can realize, as it ensures the security of the future.
As Realtors engage with other community players to think about zoning codes, building codes, and land usage, let us keep it in the framework that all people want to have an address. As a community, we need to come together to ensure that the future makes available for everyone who desires to have a home – an address – to which they belong.