From the Memory Banks: Gender Bender Investor

My first week as a Realtor was certainly an interesting one.  My motivation for getting my license and working in real estate was spurred by a friend at church who had become interested in investment real estate.  I was also interested in the prospect and figured that getting my license would be the fastest way to success.

I had been working on identifying properties for my friend. We were very interested in the short sale process and the profits that were possible at the time.  My friend didn't have all the money he needed to get started so he partnered with some other investors.  One day he and I were talking about a specific property and he talked about how he and one of his other investor associates was looking at the property with him.  The conversation went something like this:

Me: "Oh, so you have have some more folks interested in the property, that's great.  Who went with you to look at the place?"

Friend:  "It was an investor named Alecia."

Me: "Oh, thats interesting.  Where did you and Alecia meet?"

Friend: "Well, you will think I am kind of crazy but Alecia is my dad"

Me:  "What?  So your dad's name is Alicia?  I have heard of androgynous names before but I never thought of Alicia as qualifying for that.  That's interesting."

Friend: "Well, my dad isn't so much a he as a she."

Me: -silent-  "Uh, now what?"

Friend: "Well, my dad is a transsexual."

Me:  "Whoa?! (Pause) You've got to be kidding me.  Your joking right?"

Friend: " No I am not."

Me: "Oh well uh, ok.  That's really interesting."

We then talked about how his wife and kids felt about the whole situation.   We talked about how his dad had graduated from BYU, married his mom, had 6 kids or so, and then divorced and decided he was a woman.

That Saturday I got a call from my friend:

Friend:  "Hey Jeremy, Alecia and I would like to meet to go over a game plan for a property."

Me:  "Ok, where did you want to meet."

Friend: "Can we come to your house."

Me:  "Uh....so is your dad...or I mean Alecia, is she like a guy who just thinks he's a woman or is he dolled up to look like one.....is this going to be weird for my family to have Alecia here?"

Friend: "Well I am used to it, I think she's ok".

Me:  "Lets meet at Alecia's house."

This "meeting Alecia thing" was a real head-scratcher.  I didn't know what to expect.  I certainly didn't want some dolled-up dude in red pumps, lipstick, and a falcetto voice sitting in my kitchen for two hours.  The time came for our appointment and I went to Alecia's house.  I knocked on the door.  After a nervous few seconds the door opens.  Standing before me is a giant 6 foot 10 inch man. Yet, instead of a wacky "dolled-up" version of Alecia that I imagined in my head, I was presented with a confused giant man with a long ponytail, a baby blue moo-moo and fuzzy slippers.  Alicia shakes my hand.  His/her hands are huge and wrap entirely around mine as you would expect of a person of that size.     

We spent the next two hours in Alicia's house chatting about investment property.  I have to say it was one of the strangest two hours I have spent in my life.  I had to address him as Alecia and we all talked for the whole meeting as if nothing was out of place and everything was just perfectly normal.  What a pleasant fiction! 

The moral of the story is that you never know what kind of new experience you are going to have.  If you are patient, you might be lucky enough to have an experience like this too.