That Perfect House

We all want it and some of us have found it: that perfect house. Sometimes we cannot afford the house with everything on our wish list. Sometimes the ideal house that we want does not exist in our ideal location. Ultimately most of us make compromises. And that is okay. Unless you are living in an alternate universe you do not have to live long to realize that life is full of compromises. It is much more important to own your own home, with most of what you want, than to rent forever, always holding out for your castle in the sky. I worked with buyers whose hesitance to take the leap (could not find the ideal house in the ideal location at a bargain price) will likely cost them around 300,000. Yes, in the area that they were looking, as long as they have been looking prices have nearly doubled. That is a big hit to a middle class family.

Make the compromise and get the best house that you can when you make the decision to buy a home.

Barry Trammell, Broker/Owner

Trammell Realty

http://www.trammellrealtyfl.com/

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I’ve Got Gold

It is not abnormal to think that your house is better than your neighbors. It is a natural process for self-esteem development to compare ourselves (and our things) to others and see ourselves coming out on top. Nothing is really wrong with this trait in my opinion. Unless, you are trying to sell your house. Then the process of inflating our positives while glossing over our defects, which is so beneficial to our self-esteem, is not at all helpful. Defects not only must be recognized but, if at all practical, must be corrected. Positives must be enhanced and highlighted. I have run into many a seller that thinks they have 14 carat gold when they have Sterling Silver at best. And, if people in your neighborhood have recently sold their home and you believe that your house is superior when in fact it is not you are in for a long and painful process. Most buyers easily find those sales in your neighborhood online. Even if they did not, since the great majority of sales are financed, the appraisal will kill the deal. The likelihood of finding an ill-informed cash buyer is so remote that you may as well play the lottery as depend on that scenario.

To sum up, when you are selling your house you will be better served with brutal honesty.

Barry Trammell, Broker/owner, Trammell Realty, http://www.trammellrealtyfl.com/

 

The Hounds are Calling

I heard a term from a women I worked for back in 2001, “listing hounds”. Without prodding from me she went to describe the “hounds” as real estate licensees who get a volume of listings and then just “stick them in a drawer”. Her point was that certain licensees focus solely on getting as many listings as possible without any regard for providing any significant level of service. Listings are the lifeblood of real estate, providing inventory and helping the supply side of the supply and demand equation. But, a blind and greedy desire to gobble up as many listings as possible can leave an agent with a large personal inventory of listings and no realistic ability to provide a decent level of service to all of the individual clients. While the number of listings each agent can handle will vary every agent should be honest with themselves about the question “How many listings can I effectively handle?”. They will do themselves, their clients and the entire industry a favor. If you are shopping for an agent to list your home beware of the agent that talks of their assistant and how they are able to handle so many listings because of their wonderful assistant. This may be true. There are many wonderful real estate agent assistants out there. My experience over the last 15 years, observing “listing hounds” is that many have a high turn over of these assistants. They ate typically not licensed and, in Florida, if unlicensed, there are strict laws regard what they can and cannot do. This is an important consideration. Suppose you employ an agent to list your house, the agent already has 30 listing and the agent’s assistant quits the same day that you sign your listing contract. There is going to be some chaos as the agent scrambles to hire and train a new assistant.

As this blog is mainly designed to help the layperson understand the ins and outs of the real estate industry, I hope that anyone looking to list their home finds the information above helpful.

Barry Trammell, Broker/owner, Trammell Realty, http://www.trammellrealtyfl.com/

 

 

 

First blog post

This is your very first post. Click the Edit link to modify or delete it, or start a new post. If you like, use this post to tell readers why you started this blog and what you plan to do with it.

Welcome to the Trammell Realty Blog

Hello, this is Barry Trammell with Trammell Realty. I will blog on a variety of topics from the details of a real estate transaction (hypothetical not actual) to giving information about the areas I serve, Vero Beach, Sebastian, Indian River county, the Treasure Coast and Space Coast of Florida. I look forward to writing regular posts and I hope that everyone finds them informative and interesting.

http://www.trammellrealtyfl.com/