Rain City Guide

I feel like a dog this week. Four times this week I went into people’s homes to tell them what they needed to do to get top dollar for their home. The last two times I turned people’s homes upside down and sold them quickly for top dollar, I had no problem at all. I told them to give me the key to their home. Told them to go to work. And when they came home they were amazed at the difference and were happy, happy, happy!

But this week…I had four experiences that just make me feel like a dog!

Generally, when I stage an occupied home before putting it on the market, there is little to no cost at all. So I have no “bad news” that hurts them financially. I often do most of the work myself as part of the commission, so there’s no added expense and people are happy. So why was this week so different?

Mainly it was because of the people. The last two times the owners really wanted to move. This week, everyone who was selling “needed” to sell and “needed” to move, for reasons beyond their control. When someone really wants to move, they have no trouble when I move their stuff around. This week, as I pulled things off of the wall that people bought from “home interiors” back in 1983, and stacked all the chatchkis in a big pile, I could feel the pain of the memories coming down with the chatckis.

Tonight it was Roosters. Roosters, roosters everywhere I turned. Two days ago it was 3D Cherubs peeking at me from every wall, most of them with gold filigree hanging from their chinny, chin chins. The toughest one of all was a dear friend of mine, a guy, and I swear he had tears in his eyes when I told him the “schocking blue” walls had to go!! He had just painted it that color to get it ready for market.

This is why most times I just have to go in and take it all down myself. I have an “eye” for getting the home just right and I’m not attached to the chatchkis like they are. It hurts them when they come down, but they don’t put them back up after I take them down and it hurts them more if they take them down themselves. It hurts them much less if they just leave and let me do it, and they come home to the “new look”.

“Detaching” from the home is a very big part of of the home selling process. The closer they are to detaching from the home, by the time they get an offer, the more likely they will get a higher price and handle the negotiating with less emotional charge.

I would never put someone through this if it didn’t make them more money. And sometimes I think I feel worse than they do when I’m done. And I know I’m not doing them any favors if I allow them to “leave money on the table” by “being nice”, and letting the house go “live” into the mls, before it is ready to be shown.

Representing “people” rarely means telling them what they want to hear, or stroking their egos. Most often it means having the guts to tell them what they need to hear, and rolling up my sleeves and just doing, what they can’t bring themselves to do.

I know in my heart that I’m doing the right thing, and helping them get the most money they can for their home. But I still feel like a dog.