The technical term "ridden hard and put away wet". Issues, smells, broken this, abused that, missing much.

So as the professional real estate broker arriving at a value starting with the lot and working your way up, what is

your attitude

about the place? Worried about getting fleas that climb on, hitch a ride to your home or office so kinda sorta skiddish? Avoiding eye contact with the place? Hoping it goes away or the owner calls anyone else to list, market, sell it?

Listings you are not fond off may be a New Year's Resolution to work on. Think it thru if you feel the same way about mobile homes. If you would not want to live there, is it like an attorney who feels you are guilty so can not represent you adequately or at all? Before you say pass and go on and on flapping your jaw on how do people live like this, etc remember anything....anything will sell if fairly priced, marketed and if you the broker have a "see the potential - find the right match" attitude. Over the last 30 years I have run in to lots of brokers with the "I only want to sell cream puffs, property I would want to own" attitudes. You don't have to work at "Blue Collar Realty" in small rural America to know you need to be a general, run the gamut real estate broker. If you are a "grey poupon" broker that considers car signage tacky, and are highly selective like a Beverly Hills, Scottsdale, Newport, Marco Island, Manhattan, Martha's Vineyard etc broker that may...emphasize may take the listing if it measures up to your highly screened listing inventory, you would not make it as a country mouse broker. Or do you adopt the "use the cheap yellow mustard and the high end"..whichever presents itself in your everyday attitude on your approach to life, your real estate job?

     The home that looks, smells, feels like Stephen King made a movie here needs a SOLD sign rider tacked on with your brand colors for all to see. The neighbors thank you. The rest of the area buzzes that this guy can sell anything and quickly. Look at all those SOLD signs..big homes, little places, land, beat up, top knotch and everything in between..all over the area you serve. The contractor that buys this ordorous gem points out the kitchen and baths in harvest gold were being gutted anyway. But he was impressed with the acreage, the view, the brook out back and the new furnace, roof, windows. The rugs..the thick shag autumn green and red and orange..were destined to be dumpstered the first day the front door lock was changed. And new hardwood flooring going down as the last step of the rehab. Or he is excited, grew up in the place and is buying with his heart not his head. Like the 1957 T-Bird, 1959 Cadillac or 1967 Shelby Mustang he rescued too with no pulse or sign of life sitting on a rock pile looking like a grenade went off in each of their trouble pasts. He sees the potential, the place way way differently than you with the nose held high that finds the place repulsive, so so ..common.

You sell this and many others easily for the bank, HUD, VA. And then resell it again and again when it is done, over your real estate career. Or the buyer is low on cash but rich on relatives to help that are plumbers, carpenters, talented craftsman with patient buyers slowly turning the Charlie Brown spindly Christmas tree in to something to be proud of. Back from the grave or brink of the cliff. And you move it for them. And sell them another as they move up because we all know you have to start somewhere. Or they could always rent for a few years and pour cash in the trash making the landlord rich.

Mobile homes that are ideal for an elderly parent who is independent and not ready to feel like a hamster or gerbil in a cluster senior citizens prison...I mean complex. Or the couple who have land with a well and septic and want to build a home behind the mobile that will be there castle in a few years making that dream happen slowly as they can afford. Again, to avoid the tractor beam's pull in to the deep dark rent rut. Some buyers want the basket case property that is so cheap. The out of state buyer thinks he hit a home run for his project second vacation home in Maine or where ever the place is. He is excited because you can not buy anything in his area with that few of digits in the price tag.

    

Property that is weary, tired, smelly. Does your real estate marketing propaganda say "pass" on those types labeling them 4F and flucking them out? Why?

Because your image is high brow, only sell prestige properties at "Blue Blood Realty"? Like in hockey, there are no ugly sales (goals). Drive that real estate sign in the yard, order a dumpster, mow the lawn, and hit the very high spots of loose ends in the 55 gallon job jar of items some of these basket cases seem to present. There are buyers that love the challenge and want these tarnished "blue light specials". As a real estate broker, they are part of your bread and butter bigger chunk market share sales. Helping you involve yourself iwith more real estate buyers and sellers. This is a numbers came where you don't just sell one property at a time or just one or two types right? "Love all, serve all" is the motto, the sign over the door entering all the "Hard Rock" restaurants around the world. Get your nose out of the air or show this place only when you have a head cold..but don't avoid them like the plague. The lower the price, the more plentiful the buyers. The higher the price, the thinner the audience in line to look and buy.

Maine REALTOR Andrew Mooers