Pandora's Lockbox: A Wild and Wacky Real Estate Memoir

by Nico Griffith

She signed up to sell homes for the rich and famous.
She didn’t realize they’d be mobsters, murderers, and mad hatters. Nico Griffith buried her sadness under a gritty work ethic. Stunned when her husband of two decades requested a divorce for Mother’s Day, the nearly broke and newly single woman shook off the shock and dove into the heartless job market. Finding a fit for her maverick personality in the wacky world of real estate, she never imagined she’d become a sympathetic ear for clients to confess their deeds of love… and murder. Changing names to protect the guilty, Nico Griffith has crafted a laugh-out-loud memoir that contains surprising insights into the tough grind of professional real estate. And as this true-life dark comedy unfolds, you’ll delight in the stream of absurdities while cheering for the hapless star and her agent sisterhood known as the Fab Five. In Pandora’s Lockbox , you’ll be enthralled
Pandora’s Lockbox is one woman’s tell-all account of an award-winning career in real estate. If you like determined heroines, jaw-dropping surprises, and underdog success stories, then you’ll adore Nico Griffith’s educational entertainment.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

294 pages, Paperback

First published January 11, 2022

About the author

Nico Lundborg-Griffith is a top producing real estate agent listed in the RE/MAX Hall of Fame. Although Nico is not a veteran of a real war, nevertheless as a veteran agent of real estate, she has earned the equivalents of Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service Medals and Red Badges for Courage while selling almost 1000 homes in her illustrious career.

Nico sells real estate in Montana where she lives with her husband Gordon and her parti-Yorkie, Fannie Mae.

A Note from the Author:

Writing PANDORA'S LOCKBOX memoir was years in the making. I was commuting back and forth from San Diego to Montana and filled my abundant wait time in airports by thinking about some of my funny client experiences. Finally, I found myself jotting them down on recipe cards. Writing helped sharpen the recall as I dug deep for descriptive details for a book that I may, or may not, write some day.

More and more frequently, I started waking up with other stories rising from the dark recesses of my mind, insisting on being in the book too. After 44 chapters and almost 400 pages, I had stop writing and start the editing process. The editors I hired insisted I compress and combine stories to make a shorter book.

Then I quit writing for over a year after writing one chapter covering my love affair with Jamison. Even 20 years after his death, I fell back into the pit of dispair, reliving those initial memories of him. I found that the depth of my grief fell in full measure to the height of the love I still carried for him. The jagged edges of his loss had been dulled by time - until my early readers insisted on more, more, more stories about him. I found it painful, but cathartic, to oblige them.

The most fascinating morsel was that in the middle of writing Chapter Seventeen: Accomplice to Murder Number Two, I solved a mystery that had always puzzled me. In a flash of insight, I suddenly realized what happened to Eddie and saw how he had cleverly orchestrated the murder of Sophie's mobster husband (alleged mobster, of course). The chapter says it came to me as I talked to Sophie, but truthfully, it surfaced only last year as I was recalling that conversation in order to write about it. In my book, names were changed to protect everyone. And me, in this case.

I wish for my readers to laugh with me, and shed tears with me, as they enjoy my stories. Rest assured, with over 1000 real estate sales, there's a 2nd book already in the works.
Nico

Reviews

[♏ Gina☽ · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you think you can imagine what it's like to be a realtor in a posh area of California, think again.

Nico turns to selling real estate after her husband surprises her by asking for a divorce. I think she was as surprised as anyone when she found a career that suited her so well. At the beginning, she knew nothing, but learned through hard work, dedication, and going back to school, and she continued that mindset to become one of the highest selling real estate sellers in California.

Interwoven in this story are her co-workers, a couple of whom are doing business just this side of the legal line, and her buyers, who cover the gamut of legal and possibly not-so-legal (ok, criminals) occupations. They confide in her, knowing she honors the agent-client confidentiality rule.

Nico is a very likeable person - kind and good hearted, and watches over and mentors the newbies who gain employment at the office. The exception to that was a low-handed agent, who put the "B" in that word we all know, and wore it like a trophy. There is nothing about her to like and I was quite happy when she got her comeuppance.

This is an interesting peek into Nico's life as an agent and the world she had to adjust to in order to succeed. You will root for her all the way.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a comedic and wild memoir about life working in real estate, featuring various stories. The writing is engaging and mature.


I received a free copy and am leaving a review voluntarily.
Thank you to Hidden Gems Books and author.

[Esther Pompeo · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was adorable and very enjoyable. It was fun reading and I recommend it to everyone.