Lesley Downing works in the Wabash, Indiana area, and I have to tell you, Wabash has some serious hidden treasures in the world of homes. She posts listings to Facebook sometimes, and I have drooled multiple times over properties she's featured. Wabash seems like such an unassuming place. Who knew it had so many really great homes?
But I digress. Back to Lesley.
She has worked in this field for twelve years and is so passionate about her work! I love seeing her posts on Facebook, because if she's not about to make me fall in love with a house, she's about to teach me something! :) I asked her what led her into real estate, and she said she had previously been working in the criminal justice system, and after she began commuting quite a distance to work, she knew she needed a change. Not just a change in travel time, but in life-outlook. She thought real estate would be more uplifting and that led her to make the switch!
(Here's Lesley, in case you want a face to go with the story!)
Here are some of the things Lesley wanted you to know about what it's like to be a Realtor selling homes:
1. Please hire a local Realtor!
Lesley doesn't say that to beg for business. She says it for your own good! So many people (and once upon a time, Ryan and I were "so many people") think it will be more financially advantageous for them if they skip the "middle-man" of a Realtor. They don't want to pay the fee, and they think they can handle it all on their own.
But if you're serious about selling, you'll benefit from the expertise of a Realtor. They know how to effectively price your home so it will actually (gasp) sell! They are also trained and licensed to fill in legal purchase agreements written by attorneys, and trust her: you want that! If you try to navigate legal agreements on your own, it can end up costing you thousands of dollars (you know...all those dollars you saved by not using a Realtor to start with?) and a lot of needless stress.
Lesley actually knows someone who bought a contract online, filled it out themselves, and it ended up costing them dearly with lawsuits, lawyers, and stress. It's just not worth it! And she begs you, if you really don't want a Realtor to handle your transactions, please hire an attorney to write up your purchase agreements!
2. Staging is paramount!
If you watch any amount of HGTV, you probably already know this, but it's always good to have a reminder! If you want to sell your home (like actually sell it), de-clutter, and when you think you're done, do a second round. If you have small rooms, remove unnecessary items so the room feels bigger.
Some Realtors will tell you to remove everything that makes your home personal, but Lesley doesn't like to go quite to that extreme. She agrees personal pictures and touches should be kept to a minimum, but leaving some of those things up and visible makes the home feel warm and loved, and people can sense that when they walk through. (We heard that a lot when we had our Marion house on the market. We left up some of our main photos and people frequently commented on how they enjoyed that and the homey atmosphere it created.) All that said, it is good to remove things like excessive photo magnets on the refrigerator and any personal keepsakes and valuables that you don't want to risk losing!
Sometimes the simple things are the most important! Wash the windows to make the house sparkle, invest in paint or new flooring to increase your market value for very little out of pocket, and pay attention to the appearance of your front door, front porch, and entry area. First impressions are everything!
Lesley also adds that it's important to get rid of any pet odors and to NOT mask any odor with citrus fresheners. And something you may not think of, but should always do? Clean your gutters!
3. You are unlikely to get 100% of your money back from every investment you make.
Boy, did we ever hear about this when we were selling our Marion home! We had made thousands of dollars in improvements while we lived there, and we saw very little of that come back to us, actually. You always hear that kitchens and bathrooms sell homes, and they do, to an extent, but buyers aren't going to pay excessive appreciation fees for your hard work!
Actually, Lesley says that the national average return on investment for a new kitchen is 79%. (To put that in perspective, the average cost of a new kitchen remodel is just under twenty thousand dollars.) Interestingly enough, the top five improvements you can make to get the best return on your investment are: replace the entry door, add manufactured stone veneer, replace the garage door, replace the siding, or upscale your garage door. I never would have guessed most of those!
For a lot of people, quick, simple maintenance could add a lot of value: new counter tops or faucets, pressure washing the exterior of the house, painting exterior trim, re-staining a deck or privacy fence, sealing a garage floor, sprucing up landscaping, and painting a front door.
The moral of the story is that your Realtor wants to help you sell your house and wants you to get the best price you can, but he or she is not a magician. Part of the outcome depends on your willingness to invest in your sale!
4. Remember you were once a buyer too!
Lesley says to think back to the days when you looked at houses. Think about what caught your eye and what mattered to you. Put yourself in your prospective buyers' shoes and put your time, energy, and money into the things you would want to see if you were walking in the door for the first time!
Also just for fun...
Lesley wanted to share with you some of her most memorable moments in real estate. This is what it's like to be a Realtor: the fun, the crazy, and the quirky!
* She once showed a home during a code red snow emergency. (And guess what? She made the sale!)
* She once killed a bat during a showing and it didn't scare her clients. She said she was more scared than they were. (And guess what? She made the sale!)
* Last year, she sold a house that had been featured on the TV show Dead Files. The episode was called Deadly Grounds. The current owners have not reported seeing any ghosts or other strange things.
* If you're a Christian fiction fan, you might be interested in knowing Lesley once showed Colleen Coble's home.
* A toilet paper dispenser was put in the purchase agreement for one of her clients.
* She once had a client ( a sweet lady, she says) named Aunt Scrappy.
* And just to show you how much she cares, she once sat with a client at her dining room table and cried with her when she found out the client had to sell her house to go into a nursing home.
So there you go! A mile in the shoes of a Realtor who just wants the best sale possible for her clients and genuinely cares about them!
To see the rest of the Walk a Mile in My Shoes Wednesday posts, look right here!
3 comments:
Lovely! I loved my realtor this summer but worked hard to show grace to the realtor my landlady used who I felt could have cared less that I wanted the place (:
I grew up right outside Wabash (went to church there for a number of years). My husband and I sold our first house without a realtor. But, my husband is a business lawyer so he knew exactly what we needed to do from a legal perspective. I love hearing advice from realtors.
Lesley is so lucky to have you write this nice post about her. Lesley sounds like a realtor, that everyone in the Indiana, area should use!
My husband is a realtor, and I help with his paperwork. I agree with a lot that you wrote here.
- Natalie A.
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