Fifty Ways to Leave Your Lover
I was driving in the mountains this weekend, going to Bear Flat (more about this incredible community and the luxury cabin I listed there in next week’s email).
I had rented a GMC Yukon, rather than take the forest roads in my Mustang. I found myself without satellite radio, fiddling with the AM dial, looking for music. Suddenly, on came the old Paul Simon hit, “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover”. As I’m singing, “You just slip out the back, Jack. Make a new plan, Stan…”, I lost reception, and the next station was a radio talk show discussing ways folks can sell a house.
BAM! I immediately made the connection that there are many ways to leave the house you love. Stay with me here, my brain actually works this way. I got to thinking about how we’ve sold more than 7,000 homes and almost every situation was unique.
If you’ve ever sold a home before, or you plan to sell one in the future, you know how emotional the experience can be. Most of us love our home and selling can be like leaving your lover.
That night, I started listing all the different scenarios of selling a property. We’ve sold small homes on big lots, and big homes on small lots, fixer-uppers and remodels, luxury homes and some not-so-luxurious homes. We’ve sold weird stuff like a church and a horse ranch complete with dozens of trainers and boarding for up to 99 horses. We’ve sold land and lots, commercial offices, and a general store. And all these were life-changing events for the sellers.
You may not know this, but we always start by sitting down with the prospective seller and discussing their situation, because one size doesn’t fit all. We need to understand the “why”, in order to suggest the right “how”.
Here are a few examples:
Let’s say the seller just wants a quick sale, no disruption to their lives, and just sell it for cash so they can move on. We help this client by getting them two or three offers from direct home buyers like Opendoor, Offerpad, or Andrew the Home Buyer. Why do we get more than one offer and how do we help? Well, we know the real market value and even though these investors pay less because they make it convenient, we know what to ask and how to get the most money for our client. With this kind of sale, the seller pays nothing (we get paid by the buyer) and they can usually negotiate to close when they want, even staying in the house for a while after they get their money before they move.
Let’s say your house is beautiful. You kept it up and have done upgrades and remodeling. It’s a showplace. Well, we make it famous. We give it the full treatment. We stage it and hold it Open. We get agents with their buyers to see it. We put it on all the sites, social media, and television. We are masters of promotion, and we get you Top Dollar.
What if your home is not so up to date, maybe even needs work. Well, we often suggest you sell what you have and save spending money. There are buyers who love a blank palette. Better they spend their dollars remodeling.
We’ve had independent sellers who want to sell it themselves to save commission. We have a “By Owner” program, where we do the paperwork, and the seller handles all the showings and negotiates the deal. We are just there for a very small commission to make sure all the t’s are crossed and the i’s are dotted.
Then we have sellers who want to flip their house. They reason that if an investor would buy their house, remodel and then sell it for more, why couldn’t they do the same thing? In this situation, we can bring in reliable vendors to help with the project and then we sell it when it’s done. The key here is to bring us in early. We can advise how to spend the money for the biggest return.
These are just a few ways to leave you lover, and we would love to sit down with you and be part of the plan.
My 24/7 cell number is 602-796-5751. Call me when you’re ready… ready to leave your lover.
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover (chorus):
“You just slip out the back, Jack
Make a new plan, Stan
You don’t need to be coy, Roy
Just get yourself free
Hop on the bus, Gus
You don’t need to discuss much
Just drop off the key, Lee
And get yourself free”
– Joseph Callaway