I’m so excited for my buyers who are in escrow on a great house off market! The buyer’s parents are a few years older than I am, and I aspire to be just like them in my relationship with my grown kids. I love how close and yet how respectful they are of their grown children. I love when observing interactions and being privy to real life behavior is more inspiring and instrumental than passively watching a stranger’s TED talk. And it makes me SO overwhelmingly grateful for the honor to go to work each day!
Our office feels like a flower shop and our flower-sending admirer is an elderly couple we recently represented as sellers when they sold their property. The sales process, especially the contingency periods, can be anxiety provoking and legitimately scary for a seller. These sellers were scared but like many people, they were emotional and unable to kindly and softly express their fear. So instead the fear translated to questions and comments that didn’t have practical validity, which clearly communicated to me in a very clear albeit indirect way that they were simply scared. It’s ok to be scared. Selling a property is legitimately scary and there is uncertainty in the escrow process until contingencies are removed. We fully understand and appreciate that people are scared and we care to ease the anxiety and the fears. Which made these sellers super grateful, and thus we received 4 different arrangements of flowers and 2 boxes of chocolates. I’m excited that we got a great result for these sweet people and they’re sold now!
Nowadays, more than ever, we’re seeing people charged and emotional about their purchase and sale. I think most helpful to calm people’s natural anxiety and fear is having buyers and sellers know and understand realistic expectations for processes and results. In this current market I think real estate agents are more instrumental and integral than ever. Most residential buyers and sellers are not super familiar with the technicalities of the real estate sales process or the typical emotions that come along with experiencing it. From seeing offers and requests for repairs on various properties, the offers and requests that are reasonable and appropriate for the property and for the industry get deals closed. The offers and requests that are out of line with current market prices and industry standards stand no chance of closing a deal, which leads to more frustration and angst as people express their disappointment at yet another lost house. I’m also finding that to sell homes for top dollar as a listing agent in today’s market means taking large amounts of necessary time to understand and to work with the buyer’s agent and their buyer on the other side and to anticipate and manage all the charged emotions that seem to be ever present in real estate deals today.
This Shabbat was special because my oldest son, Yakov, his lovely wife, Chassi, and my grandson, Eliyahu, came to visit for the weekend! It was such fun to go for a crisp morning walk through Hancock Park with Seth, stroller in tow, from 6:30-7:30 am with our grandson while the kids slept in! And then again to catch up with my daughter in law, and walk for an hour through Beverly Grove before the baby’s dinner, bath, and bedtime, at the end of the day. There’s an unparalleled joy about being around grown kids, in-law kids, and bright eyed grandkids and I marvel every time at the magical nature and sheer joy of the experience!
On Friday I asked my admin team to make sure that our new website doesn’t have a button that says “sell my home” because in real life it’s a slower process than clicking on a button to “sell my home”. Most eventual sellers start with being curious to get an idea of the market value of their home, weighing pros and cons of a house sale now vs waiting for spring or summer, thinking logistically where they’d move if they sold their house, and needing to wrap their heads around the process of the sale and the preparations they’d need to make to sell for top dollar. We talk to sellers for many months, often years, before the sign goes in their lawn and their home appears publicly for sale. Both buying and selling a home is a monumental life change and as agents we need to work with and respect the emotions that come with it. I’m super excited for our new website to launch soon. Like everything else in life worth doing, it was a massive effort but I love the results of massive efforts :).
Wishing everyone a spectacular weekend!!!
Xoxoxo,
Sheri
