What Will You Do To Get The Listing? Adventures in Vancouver Washington Real Estate

What Will You Do To Get The Listing?

Earlier today, I was off-roading through dense forest land in the rain, and sleet, and hail for work. Some of you may be wondering what would possess me to recreate Walt Disney's Indiana Jones Ride as a Realtor®.

The answer is really simple, I told the seller that I would!

This property is a 148 Acre parcel that is located in Kalama, Washington. My client has found himself in a spot where he will soon not be able to keep the property. He came to us and asked for help. Without visiting the property,  I told him that we would take the listing and do everything possible to get it sold. THEN he told me that one would have to travel across 2 miles of "improved" roads to get to it! (BTW, "Improved" is some sort of county code for a dirt road that is just about anything except improved!) Everyone thought that I was crazy to place signs out there but, in my past visits, I noticed something. There is a large amount of traffic along the dirt roads from hunters and other outdoor type people. Some of these folks have some serious cash! So, I thought, Why NOT?

What have you done to either get a listing or to make a sale?

As I sit here writing this, I can think of some really creative (CRAZY) things that I have done in this business. Most people think that our lives a real estate agents are fairly mundane and boring. I beg to differ! Here are just a few of the things that I have recently performed in the name of "Real Estate:"

1. Painted the eves for a single mother client of ours so that the sale could be financed. The appraiser called out some flaking paint on the eves and demanded that they be repainted before the bank would fund. I met the entire neighborhood that day and got several leads. No one could believe that I would go the extra mile for my client.

2. Fished an entire section of riverfront property that we have listed on the Washougal River just so that I could honestly tell buyers that there is a great fishing hole on the property. Well, someone had to do it!

3. I have walked neighborhoods looking for homes that would fit my buyers and then knocked on doors to ask if the owners would consider selling. Everyone who I talked to was absolutely amazed that I would do that for a client. I just smiled and told them that I would gladly do it for them too!

4. The movers knocked a hole in a wall in one of our listings just minutes before the new owners were scheduled to come in to pick up the keys. I rushed to Home Depot, bought tools,  supplies, and paint, and instructed the new owners to "be aware that there is some wet paint in a few places."

Tell me your stories. I am sure that there are some great ones out there. I am listening.