His Majesty's Realtor: Feeding the Entrepreneurial Dream

Going into the Terra Linda one cold winter evening there was a girl of about 20 sitting by the doors with a sign, “Homeless, lost everything.”  While in the store I decided to get her a sandwich, figuring she must have been hungry. 

When I offered the sandwich to her on the way out she replied, “Does that sandwich have meat on it? I can’t eat meat.”  This definitely falls under the category of s**t the Marin homeless say.

I have become the Realtor to a homeless man who wanders the streets of downtown San Rafael and calls himself, His Majesty.  One day he walked into our office and said he wanted to buy a house with ten rooms, so the receptionist pointed him my way: lucky me.

I had the MLS up and I invited him to come over to my desk and together we looked at the listings. The only properties we saw were $8,000,000 and up in Southern Marin, which he said was perfect!  I was dubious.  Melissa Bradley used to tell stories of people coming into the office who weren’t dressed well to put it nicely, but they ended up buying expensive houses.  You never know about someone and their resources, especially here in Marin.

Having some experience helping a homeless woman in the past, my nose told me His Majesty no longer slept in a castle, but he was now on the hunt for one.  He wanted me to take him down to Sausalito and Tiburon to look at a few places, and I really didn’t want him in my car, which, to be honest with you, smells bad enough already.

I talked to Rob Bradley who advised me to have him show me proof of funds before taking him out.  His Majesty told me he had a group of investors and he just needed to talk to them and he would get me what needed.  His Majesty has not approached me about that project since, but this past week a new one has come up.

It turns out His Majesty has a patent on his own language, which he says is currently pending.  He is applying to the UN for a grant to teach his language, and he plans to use the grant money to buy a home where he will teach six or seven students.  His Majesty found ‘the perfect home’ in Inverness, which turns out to currently be in escrow.  Since his perfect home is not available he wants me to take him out looking for houses.

I have come to realize that His Majesty is an entrepreneurial dreamer, not so different than many of us.  The man has little or nothing of material value to his name, but he does have his dreams and his schemes.  I could be cruel and tell His Majesty he’s wasting his time and mine, but I don’t think that’s the case.  I believe we can learn something from everyone we meet and I’m learning from His Majesty.

I’m still telling His Majesty I need proof of funds before I take him anywhere.  But I am keeping his dream alive.  Because of my role in his life he is walking around with hope and a purpose to find a way to buy a home.  Who knows, maybe one day he will get the grant he’s seeking?  Or maybe some other improbable plan will actually come to fruition.

I’m not counting it.  But I am counting on being a decent human being for His Majesty.  I’ll be disappointed though if I find out he’s a vegetarian.