Thursday, 14 May 2020
Country living in Port Colborne I sure hope all that are reading this are doing ok in these crazy times. I've surely had my ups and downs, but that's fine because I'm human and so are you :)
I wanted to share the story of something that just happened to me in my life. It's not meant to solicit or be salesy (if that’s a word), but I think it's a good share to point out a few things:
- The truth about the current real estate market.
- The resilience of people.
- Being yourself pays off.
I recently listed a home at 1609 Sherk Road in Port Colborne, Ontario, Canada. This is a beautiful brick bungalow on two acres of land. It's a great spot and the owner did a fantastic job taking care of the home while she owned it and a kick butt job getting it ready for sale.
As with most listings that the public suddenly sees appear on the market, this one was no different in the way that it was months and months and months in the making. My clients, the seller, knew way before covid19 hit that she was going to be selling this house. We had dozens of conversations since before Christmas about marketing strategy and the best way and time to list her home for sale. This is my fourth sale with this client so we know each other very well.
She and I began putting our collaborative plan into action in early 2020. Then like a bad dream, covid19 came into all of our lives. Now, since I’m a full time real estate agent and take my duties extremely seriously, I always keep everyone up to date on market conditions. It was very difficult for me to not really have much to tell people in the early times of the global pandemic experience around mid March. Feeling helpless and worried about the future of my clients’ properties and dreams, plus my own, and our health as a planet?! Ya, not a fan.
I had to shelve my own concerns, put on my trusted advisor hat and remain professional, knowing I have obligations to my clients who trust me, to find the answers we were all looking for. I have to give a gigantic shout out to my brokerage Royal LePage NRC Realty for taking the reins and helping all of their agents get that information.
It took a few weeks of dozens of emails, zoom calls and analysis, but we as real estate agents started to have some real statistics come in that I immediately shared with my current clients first. For the purpose of this story, we’re going to focus on the Sherk Road listing experience during this time. She and I talked by phone and discussed that sure, sales are down around that end of March period, but prices were virtually unaffected. Interesting…
She still needed to sell. A lot of people still need to sell and/or buy during all different kinds of times and markets. My job is to stay current so we get that done in the best way possible. She would still need a few weeks to get the house in order, tidy up and do some staging etc…all the usually things we do when preparing to move and list our homes for sale.
Fast forward to about the third week of April 2020. The house is nearly ready to list. My poor seller is exhausted but in great spirits, as always. We take a peek at the statistics again and it’s looking good: as of April 25th, sales in Niagara were up 40% and prices up 9% from the week prior. Great news! I then arrange for professional photos and video to be done. I’m sure at this point that the home won’t take long to sell, but I always present all listings in the best light regardless.
Did I mention that my seller is an elderly lady who’s had to endure countless trips back and forth from her property for a variety of different reasons to get it ready? She had help, don’t worry, but still. She is a true example of taking things as they come. You can’t sweat the small stuff and things will work out in the end if you’re prepared as much as you can be and you stay calm. This is the part about human resilience. We all have it. She just reminded me of it during our transaction. I remember driving home one day thinking, wow…she’s one strong, resilient lady. I’m so glad to know her.
We’re all told being yourself is what we should all do. Yet, we still all try to be someone else sometimes. Why? I think it’s because we want to give people what we think they want to see. I’ve came to realize years ago, this is absolutely wrong. I am proof.
At the beginning of my career I thought I had to change who I was to succeed in this business. I’d have to be more proper, for lack of a better word. Not that I’m not proper, I mean proper like ivy league, no joking around kind of thing. I thought I’d have to be the kind of real estate agent who wore pant suits and always looks amazing. Frankly I wasn’t sure I could pull that off.
I chose to work by referral from the very beginning and I thank my lucky stars every day that I did. If the crazy unprecedented market of 2016 and our current unprecedented health crisis has taught me anything, it’s that being myself and knowing who I am gets me through just about anything and I’m stronger than I ever thought I was. It got me through that insane 2016 market. It is helping me get through all of this now. Being myself has brought amazing people into my life, and if you are true to yourself it will do the same for you.
