I’m really bad at selling homes I don’t like. I show homes I don’t like, and then I think, I don’t like this house. I have to play along as though I think it’s fine, but generally I don’t play along all that well and my personal opinion is obvious. This is also the reason I’m not that good at advertising. I can’t speak to the lowest common denominator by utilizing font sizes and words that are statistically proven to motivate buyers. Words like DATA.
A few weeks ago, I read a real estate description that said something about “this breathtaking house will take your breath away”. It’s uncertain if the house takes your breath, then gives it back before taking it again, but the consuming masses might like that sort of thing. Then last week I read a description that promised the most dazzling house you, or I, have ever seen. In fact, we wouldn’t believe this house if we did see it. The house that generated this superlative narrative? A super crappy farm house on a highway.
My write up would have been, “That highway isn’t really a big deal. It’s not. In fact, I stood out there once and barely a dozen semis drove past, and most were coasting and all were recently washed.” I just can’t fake my way through this real estate game very well, which is a serious flaw in any Realtor’s character and will, ultimately, lead to a complete absence of business and a starting position at the Lake Geneva Starbucks, assuming I can work my way up from coffee bean bag stacker guy.
Last week, another lakefront sale on Geneva. That makes eight lakefronts closed since September 1st, which is rather astounding. That means the summer activity was strong, which we already knew. This sale was on Basswood, that of the large ranchy home with 201′ of frontage. That home originally hit the market at $5.875MM in the summer of 2014, and just sold for $4.835MM. That sale is a nice sale for the market, and it’s a nice sale for the agent who handled both sides of the successful closing (it wasn’t me).
It wasn’t me because that seller wasn’t my client, which is good, because my write up would have struggled to avoid the mention of drywalled arches and so much carpet. The home that sold was on nice dirt. Absolutely nice dirt. But the house was a Baywood Heights ranch on steroids, and so it either found the right buyer who loves the aforementioned features, or it found the right buyer who loves the dirt and figured they could make the drywalled arches go away through some creative trim work.
Two other lakefront sales that I hadn’t previously mentioned include one on Harvard in Glenwood Springs. It’s an old house up on the hill without private frontage, but at a $1.72MM closing price it’s a fine property. The other was an odd home in Geneva Manor that lacked a garage, a yard, and any outward facing style, but it sold because it had ample space and a young family wished to be in that association. That home, as an aside, was one that I had a shot at listing but I blew it because I didn’t love the house enough. I should have gone on and on about all the Oak, and I should have feigned knee weakness at each baluster and stair tread, but I didn’t, and I said it was nice and fine but that it was worth around $1.6MM. The house was listed at $1.75MM by a more Oak-Enthusiastic Realtor, and then it sold for $1.65MM.
My take aways from these sales have little to do with the market. They have to do with me, and how I’m pretty sure now that if I’m going to continue to be successful, I’m going to have to get better at faking it.