selling homes: A lonely ping pong table... what does it have to do with real estate? - 07/30/07 04:34 PM
My family and I are in Palm Springs taking a little breather.  Given the extremely hot weather, we try to head out to the pool pretty early and stay there until 11 am or so.
Right next to the pool, there's a ping pong table.  Every morning, it stands there lonely.  No one seems to care about it.  Kids run around it.  Adults use it as an impromptu table to put their drinks and snacks on.  And, it just is plain ignored.
I am not a very sporty person, but I love playing ping pong.  I am not great at it, but boy … (38 comments)

selling homes: What does your Real Estate Agent do for YOU? - 03/27/07 05:31 PM
Sellers what do you expect from your Real Estate Agent? 
Most sellers will say to sell my home at the highest possible price with the least inconvenience.
But, how do Real Estate Agents differ?
We all have different approaches and views on how to accomplish our seller's goals.  When you are interviewing a Realtor for the job of selling your home, I would urge you to first LISTEN to what the Realtor says:
Is he or she trying to identify what's important to you in selling your home? 
Is the Realtor's approach more consultative vs. "salesy"?Do you feel like there's a connection between the … (10 comments)

selling homes: What is Staging? - 03/26/07 02:09 PM
I was exposed to "HOME STAGING" several years ago when I heard Barb Schwartz, founder of StagedHomes.com and THE inventor of the term "STAGING" speak on the subject.  I remember sitting in the audience of about 500 real estate agents thinking to myself - this makes a lot of sense.
Barbara, who has been staging homes since 1972 had single handedly created this brand new industry - STAGING.  Barbara uses the following analogy to help us understand what Staging is all about:
Think of going to see a play in a theater.  When you walk in, you see the stage, an audience, actors.  … (13 comments)