Before Selling Your Home…

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Only 7% of home sales in 2021 were FSBO (for sale by owner). Of that 7%, many of these were sales between family members and people who knew each other. Meaning, even in an extremely low inventory market (aka HOT seller’s market), most sellers hired a real estate agent to do the legwork.

Instead of listing out all of the reasons why you *should not* sell your house without an agent. I’m going to educate you as to how the RIGHT fit agent can help you when it comes time to sell your home.

First, a great LOCAL agent knows the market. They’ve been inside many of the homes that have sold and are for sale. That gives them a leg up when it comes to the current market values of homes in your area so they can help you to price strategically and attract the most buyers. They know what buyers are looking for and what turns them off, therefore knowing what you can do as a seller, to create the most demand.

A lot of the “work” you’ll do when selling your home happens before it’s ever for sale. This is the “pre-market prep”. I guide my sellers through this process whether it’s staging recommendations, furniture placement, paint updates or small repairs that should be done prior to the home hitting the market. This takes the guess work out of it for sellers, because like I said, I’m familiar with what buyers want (as well as what would be considered red flags that we should fix).

I’ll also leave you with an important stat to keep in mind. According to NAR (National Association of REALTORS):

  • FSBOs (for sale by owners) typically sell for less than the selling price of other homes;
  • FSBO homes sold at a median of $260,000 last year, significantly lower than the median of agent-assisted homes at $318,000.

The moral of the story is this: A great agent will help you maximize the sale price of your home, putting more money in YOUR POCKET. That is done through their extensive market knowledge, pricing strategies, pre-market prep guidance and out of the box marketing tactics – all while navigating every step of the process for you so you don’t have to figure it out yourself.

Book Review: The Showgirl

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I’m a couple days late here but one of my favorite books this year, The Showgirl by Nicola Harrison, went on sale Tuesday. If you love historical women’s fiction, this is a book for you.

It’s 1927 and all Olive McCormick, a gifted singer and dancer from Minnesota, wants to do is become a showgirl in the Ziegfield Follies in New York. Her parents expect her to get married and become a housewife and they think her desire to be in the Follies is cheap and unacceptable. This doesn’t stop her, though. She boldly goes to NYC to meet Ziegfield where he tells her she’s not exactly what they’re looking for. This doesn’t stop her either and she works in another review show until she’s finally brought into the Ziegfield Follies.

All Olive wants is to sing and dance and be adored by the audiences. She doesn’t understand her family’s attitude towards what she is doing and she doesn’t understand the attitude of the other girls who see the show as a means to find a husband so they can get married and settle down with families.

When she meets the good looking and wealthy Archie Carmichael, she thinks she’s found the perfect man who loves her for who she is. Then she learns that he wants to ultimately have a family and she doesn’t want to tell him a secret she’s been keeping from him that she thinks will destroy their relationship.

This story is full of drama, thrills, excitement, glamour and secrets. It also gives a nice inside look at the Ziegfield Follies, a showgirl’s life, and life in the roaring twenties in New York City. This is a great book. Congratualaitons, Nicole Harrison on another excellent book. Montauk, also by this author, is another favorite of mine.

#bookstagram #newrelease #author #roaringtwenties #ziegfieldfollies #showgirl #lovetoread #bookreview #awesomebook

Lies Like Wildfire – Book Review

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In honor of National Book Lovers Day, I’m bringing you a review of the last, most awesome, book I read. It’s called “Lies Like Wildfire” by Jennifer Lynn Alvarez.

It’s no secret I like to read YA (young adult) fiction. I like the stories that are bubbly and fun and end up in a happy ending. They are quick reads, a nice diversion from every day life. But this book is not that. I started reading it and I was all, oh holy cow, I don’t want to read about a wildfire but, y’all, this is an awesome book! I was on the edge of my chair the whole time I was reading it and I finished it in a day.

The story is about five kids who have grown up together. When they were young, they all volunteered to be monsters in a local production and, over the years, the group becomes known as The Monsters. They are all seniors in high school when they go into the forest where there is a deep, deep lake called The Gap. They are horsing around on their last summer before they all go their separate ways in college when one of the boys, Luke, decides to smoke some weed. Hannah, who is the daughter of the local sheriff, slaps the pipe out of his hand and that’s how the fire starts. It becomes bigger than anything they could have ever imagined and with one lie, you see the friendship and their loyalty put to the test.

It’s a really great book and I can’t recommend it more. I always hate finishing a book I love this much because I’m afraid the next one won’t measure up. Are you a book lover? What are you reading today?

Finding Hidden Potential in Real Estate

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My house hunting super power ⚡️
Spotting the hidden potential

You’ve seen the shows on HGTV where they buy the ugliest house ever and 30 minutes later it’s straight out of West Elm and you’re like “I think I could do this!”

What happens is, sometimes that potential is hard to spot.

When you’re looking at multiple homes, you start comparing the ones filled with oak cabinets, funky kitchen layouts and overgrown backyards to the ones that are updated and decorated with furniture from Crate & Barrel.

That can make it difficult to favor the ones that need the elbow grease and paint jobs, you know?

But the ones that look like they’re straight out of Instagram might have a higher price tag and cause you to sacrifice some of the features that were initially most important to you.

This is where I come in! I want to help you keep your top priorities in mind when looking at homes and work around what you might not love about a house!

So maybe you find a house in the perfect location. It has a great layout and the yard you’ve dreamed about, but inside you’re already making a list of all the changes you’d have to make.

What we can do is sit down and make a good ol’ pros and cons list of the changes vs the positive features and see what makes most sense.

Maybe just a few simple updates could give the space a makeover that you’d be really happy with.

A fresh coat of white paint, new rugs, swapping out the pendant lights and adding new cabinet hardware in the kitchen could make the space look entirely different and wouldn’t require taking the kitchen down to its studs or starting from scratch!

What is one home feature or design style you could not look past? I want to try and spot the hidden potential.

Do Not Agent Hop During Your Home Search

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Agent Hopping Scenarios you need to know:

The home buying process will be so much smoother if you hire an agent who you trust to work alongside you rather than randomly contacting agents via signs, real estate websites and open houses you pop by.

Here are 3 ways you could be agent hopping without knowing it:

1. If you happen to be checking out houses online in your free time and come across a house that didn’t come through your home search – email YOUR AGENT. Ask them to find out information on this home or if it’s still available.

What you need to know: There is likely an agent listed next to that house online. That isn’t necessarily the listing agent of that home, but rather someone who is paying to have their contact information pop up there.

2. You just went to the farmer’s market on a Saturday morning, have a fresh cup of coffee in hand, driving with the windows down and pass an Open House Sign pointing right. You put your blinker on and follow the signs until you find the house that’s for sale.

There is an agent holding that house open for the day and you introduce yourself and start talking.

What you need to know: They aren’t necessarily the listing agent of this house. If they are, they are representing the sellers. Make sure you let them know you’re already working with an agent if they offer to send you another listing or show you a home. Give them your agent’s business card if you have it on hand and thank them for any information they shared.

If you’re interested in that house you walked through, call and let your agent know.

3. You get a postcard in the mail and OMG IT’S YOUR DREAM HOUSE!

There’s an agent’s picture and phone number on the postcard for you to call to get more information – YAY!

What you need to know: If you’ve been working with an agent already, make sure you contact them. The person’s information on the postcard is the listing agent’s but your agent can show you any house on the market.

YOU’RE NOT BOTHERING YOUR AGENT!

Why Do You Want to Buy A House?

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Have you ever asked yourself this?

Why do you want to buy a house? Or maybe for you, it’s a new house..

I want all of my home buyers to answer this question at the start of their journey because it’s something you can continuously come back to throughout the process to make sure you’re buying the house that’s right for your needs.

Here are a few examples that might help spark your why:

👨‍👦‍👦 👩‍👩‍👧‍👧 👨‍👨‍👧‍👦 👩‍👧‍👦👨‍👩‍👦

To raise your family

🖼 To have a space to make your Pinterest boards come to life and paint the walls whatever color you want

🐶 To have a yard for your dog to run around in

💵 To make a good financial investment

💰 To invest in a rental property that will provide you with some extra income

🌅 To buy a home for retirement

🌊 To have a place to get away and hear the ocean waves as you sip your coffee every morning

🛋 To finally design your space to look like it’s straight out of Studio McGee’s Dream Home Makeover and have those dreamy parties around the massive kitchen island

There are so many reasons for owning a home, but what is YOUR reason? Ready to buy? Give me a call!

Back to Real Estate School

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School is BACK IN SESSION (soon) & I’m here to share not only your August Home to do list but also what else I have up my sleeve for the last month of Summer!

The kids are going back to school, but so is my blog!

Throughout the month of August I’ll be sharing all the home buying and selling basics – the things to know before getting started, your credit score breakdown, how to find an agent – all things real estate “school”! So grab your notebooks, sharpen your pencils, get ready for class to start and make sure to contact me with all your real estate questions!

Book Review: Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Romance

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I really love reading YA (young adult) books. At least some of them. I don’t really go for the fantasy and vampire books but the ones that are about kids in high school are usually pretty fun and Radha and Jai’s Recipe for Love is no exception. I also love to read about different cultures so this book also satisfied that requirement.

Radha is a very talented Kathak dancer with a very involved (overly involved?) dance mom. At a large international dance competition, she over hears other dancers talking about her and she is horrified and leaves the competition without dancing.

Radha moves to New Jersey where she is given a second chance at finding the “dance joy” that’s been eluding her but she’s unable to perform without having anxiety attacks. At her new school, she meets Jai, the leader of the Bollywood Beats dance group. They are minus one choreographer and have no dance for their winter competition at which scouts will attend and future dance opportunities can be achieved.

Jai and Radha like each other and Radha agrees to choreograph the dance for the group as it will also allow her to graduate without having to be onstage.

During this time, Radha also rekindles her relationship with her father in Chicago. He is a chef in his own restaurant and gives her a notebook of recipes that belongs to her grandfather. She starts learning  how to cook the Indian food her grandfather and father cook and discovers a new passion.

I loved reading about the dance competition, the relationship between Radha and Jai, and reading the Indian recipes a lot. This was a fun book and I highly recommend it! In the past I have read My So Called Bollywood Life by this same author, Nisha Sharma, and loved it as well!

What HGTV Isn’t Telling You About Your Real Estate Agent

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HGTV makes selling your home look easy peezy, lemon squeezy. Now that we’re talking about lemons, pour yourself an ice cold glass of lemonade and let me reveal what your real estate agent does that HGTV doesn’t show you!

A good agent will:

  • Create massive demand through digital marketing strategies.
  • Price your home appropriately to net you the most money possible because they know the market.
  • Negotiate the contracts to make sure you’re not leaving money on the table.
  • Get you the most eyeballs o your home and increase exposure.
  • Help you prepare your house for market because they know what buyers want.

With a background in digital marketing and a sincere desire to help you get top dollar on the sale of your home, the items above are things I excel in.

Request my free 5 page guide, Home Seller Bootcamp, created just for sellers who want to get a leg up on the competition before starting the selling process.

I’m Doing the 75 Hard Challenge!

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I AM DOING THE 75 HARD CHALLENGE! I just finished my seventh day and I wanted to make my experience public for accountability as much as anything else.

The rules for 75 hard are fairly simple to remember:

  1. Drink 1 gallon of water a day
  2. Take a daily progress photo
  3. Work out twice for 45 minutes each, one workout must be outside.
  4. Read 10 pages of a book
  5. Follow a diet
  6. No alcohol or cheat meals

I learned about 75 Hard a year or so ago and thought it sounded interesting. I tried it for the first time in April. I lasted two days.

In 2016 I broke my ankle and haven’t been too active since then. Prior to the break, I was a powerlifter so I tried to do kettlebells and weight training for my first workout and I tried to walk for my second workout. Walking on rural roads with animals, etc. was sort of dangerous. You can’t easily go from nothing to two 45 minute workouts a day. My ankle hurt and I stopped.

Last week I had a really bad week in real estate. I am not one of those people who have bad days. I’m happy and positive and to get slammed with a whole bad week was a tough experience. I decided I needed mental toughness and the next morning I started 75 Hard.

The water is a simple one for me. Drinking it, that is. As a realtor in rural Arkansas it can be difficult to find a place to use the restroom but so far I’m doing it.

The daily photo is easy to remember. I got the app which makes it all easy to remember and I usually take my photo after my first workout session in the morning.

I got my personal trainer certification in 1999 and I remembered that there was a woman who had walking workouts you could do in your home: Leslie Sansone. I looked for her videos and found one I liked that was long enough and I started doing that. Then I found one I like ever better by Up to the Beat Fit. It’s more dancy and fun and it goes by super fast. This program  is definitely scalable to your level of fitness, you just need to give it some thought.

Reading is super easy for me. I’m always reading at least three or four books at a time so the reading part is not a problem at all.

Books I’m currently reading that I totally recommend:

You must follow a diet and it’s a diet of your choice. I have been flirting with the carnivore diet for over a year, I’d guess. I feel best when eating that way so that’s what I chose. In the past, sweet things and wine have always pulled me off a strict carnivore diet and so I’m excited to finally do it fully for at least 75 days to see how it really feels when doing it all the way.

The last rule is that you can’t have alcohol or cheat meals. The two things that were throwing me off a great diet plan.

You must do all of these things, daily, for 75 days. If you miss any of the steps, you must start over again at Day 1. I’m not starting over this time!

Because here I am, seven days later, down nine pounds and feeling great! I’ve been sleeping well and I have loads of energy. I feel so excited that I’m actually going to complete is this time.

I used the hashtag #75HardOver60 for the very first time! No one else had ever used it. 🙂

I was in a class last week where the instructor told us that we have to keep the promises we make to ourselves. That hit me right upside the head. I would never in a million years not keep my promise to you but keeping promises to myself have be lacking. I’m excited to be keeping this promise to myself.

After a week, I feel confident enough to put it out into the public view that I’m doing this challenge. I’m  a winner and not a quitter. A surprising thing is, the first couple days my ankle was super sore but now? It feels better than it did since I broke it! I’m not sure if I had to work through some scar tissue or what but those are the facts. I used to wonder how people who broke their ankles could go back to running and such. Now I get that I probably needed to push through those couple of sore days instead of being afraid of the soreness.

Thank you, Andy Frisella for creating 75 Hard. Friends, welcome to my journey to mental toughness!