Unlike government roles with mandatory restrictions for retirement age, and social media/marketing/communication director roles that can’t possibly be filled by anyone over 20-years-old, real estate allows individuals as much freedom as they desire to work well into their golden years. Rusted platinum years, even.

I recall a fellow agent I used to work with who was around 80-years-old (give or take) and she was as vibrant and engaged as fellow Realtors not even half her age. The only quirk we all would notice was a habit of constantly forgetting where her open house signs were placed afterwards, so we all took turns driving around with her to find and bring them back to her office.

Here are a few clues that you too may be starting to see the top of the hill in the distance – but no need to start slowing down!

---

1) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) during your career, you had to portage between showings

b) your first car was a buckboard

c) your first sale was to a fellow slope-headed hairy naked couple

---

2) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) your first listing was in the Garden of Eden

b) your last contract was scribbled on birchbark

c) you were involved in Vancouver’s Leaky Mud-Hut scandal

---

3) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) you commuted to your office by steam locomotive

b) your ads said: “Will take little house on the prairie in trade”

c) one time at the mall real estate kiosk you gave directions to three wise men bearing gifts

---

4) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) your neighbours included John A. McDonald and Louis Riel

b) you had to carve your own lawn signs

c) you took your real estate exam in the same one-room schoolhouse your kids all attended

---

5) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) you seem to find yourself forgetting what you were just thinking about

b) you seem to find yourself forgetting what you were just thinking about

c) you seem to find yourself forgetting what you were just thinking about

---

6) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) your slogan was “Successfully Selling Homes Since Last Year’s Big Bang”

b) you took chickens as legal deposits

c) your lockboxes consist of dried-up dead turtle shells and bales of wool

---

7) You may be an 80-year old Realtor if:

a) Cleopatra is your granddaughter

b) your behind has more wrinkles than a contract written by the new office rookie

c) you loved the fireworks display when the volcano at Mt. Vesuvius erupted

---

8) You may be an 80-year-old Realtor if:

a) a beaver dam obviously inspired the design of your new farmhouse listing

b) you hosted open houses in between your scheduled shift manning the barricades during the French revolution

c) your contract of purchase and sale is subject to finding a suitable cave, or one of those new, modern treehouses.