My brother is in town this weekend. I should preface the rest of this by saying my brother is AWESOME and I think the world of him. Just in case anywhere in the next few sentences doesn't exactly convey that sentiment. Yep, he's great.
Anyway, my brother lives in Los Angeles. He is moving to Florida. His house goes on the market today, so he and his bride are hanging out in Arizona for the weekend. We will play cards, laugh and eat French silk birthday pie made by Polly. Looking forward to all of it.
Los Angeles, just like everywhere else seems to be having a housing shortage. Since the beginning of his moving drama, he calls me about once a week to discuss the latest. It's cute. I promise. But I should mention that I learned early on in this process with him that he does not think me an expert on anything real estate. So, I don't bother having that chat with him any more. He isn't the first family member or friend to feel that way. And, that's ok. He's still terrific.
Yesterday he called to tell me about the last-minute things they were taking care of. This week they decided to rebuild the patio. His agent told him it wasn't necessary and the house would sell pretty quickly for top dollar even with the patio in its present condition. However, my (awesome/amazing/incredible) brother didn't feel the same way. So, on Tuesday they had someone come over and rebuild his patio--something my brother has wanted done for the past seven years. The new owner will love it.
My brother was also telling me about how he came up with his sales price. His agent gave him a number. But Zillow disagreed. Therefore... well, Zillow wins. Incidentally, his agent's number was significantly higher. I started to point this out to him, but he was already extolling the virtues of Zillow and all was lost.
But the funniest part of our chat was this. He is staying with me this weekend. I mentioned he may want to bring his own pillows, as we have a bit of a shortage in this area. "We can't. We need them for staging. Buyers will see our bed without pillows and the look won't be complete."* Yea... that's what will stop buyers from wanting your home. No pillows on the master bed. Got it.
My prediction is he will get over-asking for his home. His agent will be deemed a genius and he will be sitting at a Marlins' baseball game by April.
* I didn't point this out, but how about rolling up a few towels and using them as pretend pillows for staging? Or, he can use rolled up towels at my home for a pillow. I have no problem with that either.
No comments:
Post a Comment