Steve Gazaway

Can you handle the truth? Well too bad here it goes anyway. There is no PERFECT time to sell your house. In the end, if you are expecting another child the baby will eventually need his/her own room. If you have been brought in on Monday morning and told you don’t have a job then the following weekend you may be painting your olive green bedroom with a neutral taupe so the house will show well.

So then for the remainder of this inaugural blog I am going to just ramble in REALTOR® speak and lose my global management experiences and opinions about global economic conditions. There will be time in future blogs for me to poison you with my diatribes about my unfortunate clientele. I will do you a favor, however, introduce you to my very impatient side which I hope you come to appreciate. This is where I love to get to the bottom line very quickly. “Concise and crisp” I used to tell my staff. “That’s the way to win me over.” One powerpoint page and no more than five bullets.

1. Plan ahead- Don’t wait until the last minute to be familiar with what the statistics say are the buyer’s favorite colors. Paint that bedroom this weekend. That Monday morning meeting with the HR Director could be here before you know it.
2. Stay informed- There is no excuse for being ignorant about what houses are selling for in the last six months in your neighborhood. And, if I might editorialize here. When the economy is “in the can” buyers couldn’t give a rat’s backside about whether your house is all brick or brick and vinyl. They’re just not going to pay an average of $1 a brick for the difference.
3. Season’s Greetings- Kind of catchy isn’t it. Winter- horrible, concentrate on shopping, cooking and parties, Spring- not so great until the first flower blooms, Summer- Great until late when the drought hits, Fall particularly early is best if you don’t wait until the yard is full of leaves.
4. Seller’s Markets are Rare- I am SO sick of hearing well it’s just a buyer’s market. Keep in mind and I have statistics to prove it, only on rare occasions is it ever a seller’s market. I promised not to drag out the tissues for my poor clientele this issues and so I won’t but our last big boom for seller’s was 2005. Oh my gosh, did the REALTOR® family take some exotic trips with their winnings that year. Actually, it was just a perfect storm for salaries, optimism, interest rates and a real glut of buyers. The unfortunate problem (no tissues) is that they largely come about because of economic conditions. Those that need to sell at the lowest point in the cycle can rarely wait it out.

Become a Best Seller. Take care.

Steve
The Real Estate Professor