As a Real Estate Agent, it’s not uncommon to get the question,
“What’s the worst house you’ve ever tried to sell?”
Or “Have you ever refused to list a house?”
While I certainly don’t consider this a “worst house” story, I do often hold this story close to my heart when I think about what could have happened if I hadn’t agreed to list.
Patti called me on a random weekend night. She found us on Google and liked our branding, so she asked for me to come to meet with her at her home.
At the time she was still working but was wanting to retire. She knew she had some equity in her Indialantic townhome, but she also knew that the home would need some serious work before it could be listed.
At one point, her daughter had lived upstairs in the home with her kids and really hadn’t respected the property at all.
The whole home was carpeted, and she had a cat.
You Can Probably Smell Where This is Going
In addition to lots of repairs, it smelled pretty terrible.
Any other Real Estate Agent might have easily passed on what seemed like a big project, and rightfully so. But when we met with Patti, we decided we really wanted to help her get to retirement.
She had some funds of her own to be able to put towards repairs, so we got busy mapping out a plan and coordinating all the contractors to get her townhome ready for market quickly.
Patti was working full-time as a nurse, so while she was at work, I was meeting contractors at her property - making sure everything was on track to get her the most money possible, which was her primary goal. She kept saying, I need the most I can get from this sale so I can retire and downsize in the Sebastian area.
Repairs went well and we were able to get the home on the market quickly, without Patti having to stress over all the small details. The first weekend on the market, she received an offer at the full asking price! And it was the record sale in her community, the highest sale to this day I believe.
A Whole Life Approach
I often think of Patti and her “why”. It’s easy to look at a house as a project that hopefully leads to a great commission, however for us, each house belongs to a whole life. We never know going into that first meeting what story might be at play, what “why” someone has for wanting to sell.
For Patti, it was a dream of finally retiring, well deserved after spending her career taking good care of others in our very own community. So, we truly believed that investing in her was part of a bigger story than our own. In some small way, we were continuing to invest in our community and helping someone else continue to Love Where We Live!