Do you know where these people are going? I’m willing to guess. I think they just heard about a house coming available in the neighborhood in which they want to live, and they are heading that way. Are they crazy for running? No, they’ve just come to understand that house hunting right now is kind of like being ready to do a hundred yard dash…at any moment on any day. The […]
First I picked my playground. No, I’m not kidding. It is an accurate description of how we ended up where we live. This playground was heaven to my kids: 3 separate play areas, a sweet little creek, paths to walk in the woods, and picnic shelters where they liked to sit down for lunch or a snack. We drove to this place nearly every day, until eventually we narrowed our […]
We parents have reflexes that kick in. When we need to stop short while driving, we fling our right arm to the side to cushion our child in the passenger seat. When our pre-schooler suddenly reaches up above his head to grab for a hot pan on the stovetop, we swoop in and try to prevent calamity. And when we think about the possibility of moving our kids to a […]
Do you see the house down the street with the For Sale sign in front of it? Yeah, neither do I. I wish I did. But it is not there. In many of the neighborhoods and communities in which my buyer clients would like to purchase homes, there are very few homes on the market. Very. Few. Homes. Sometimes none. An example….A few weeks ago a colleague thought I was […]
I know, I know. Someone told you that you can’t sell your house in the winter. Or during the holidays. Or during the winter holidays. Or anytime except June. I want to tell you the story of a recent Friday afternoon/evening in November, from 4:00-7:00 pm. Sounds like Happy Hour, right? Well it was. But not in a bar and not with drinks. It was a real estate Open House. […]
Can you tell what is going on in this photo? It’s “Bobbing for Donuts.” (You know, like bobbing for apples, turned upside down, with no chance of drowning.) This game was one of the many events that took place at a recent neighborhood Block Party…to the delight of all. To the best of my knowledge, no families actually moved to this neighborhood because their wish list stipulated “4 bedrooms, 2.5 […]
HGTV has had a big impact on buyer expectations as they search for a home (can you say: stainless steel/granite, stainless steel/granite, stainless steel/granite??). But it hadn’t occurred to me until recently that HGTV real estate shows had also impacted buyers’ beliefs about how many houses they should see before making an offer. On TV, buyers seem to see 3 houses and then select one. Recently a young client, after […]
Quite a few Mother’s Days ago, when our 4 children were all very small (and had many needs), my sweet husband asked how I would like to celebrate the day. And I answered him, with the raw honesty born of extreme sleep deprivation: I wanted him to peel the kids’ 40 fingers off of my ankles, and I wanted to step into our walk-in closet, and close the door behind […]
Yes, you heard me right: I’m glad their car broke down. My own clients. I’m glad their car broke down. Malice in my heart? General meanness of spirit? Nope. I’m grateful that their car broke down because it saved them from making a mistake. This was a young couple that was just beginning their home search process, but suddenly stopped short because their car broke down and was going to […]
Sometimes people ask if a real estate agent “has a lot of listings.” And it always strikes me as kind of a funny question. I guess we all assume that the question is shorthand for something else (like, “do a lot of people respect you and trust you and want to work with you?”) because it is hard to imagine how a simple quantitative answer to the original question would […]
Today in Cincinnati Real Estate 