Being Creative

A big part of being a real estate agent is using your creative side. I have showed this home to a couple two times now. When we first started looking at places, one of the biggest requirements was to have a garage or a place to park their car. Aspen is pre-dominantly second home owners and they already own a condo in Snowmass Village that I sold to them about a year and a half ago. They are here quite often but they have to leave their Yukon out in the parking lot and have someone clean it off for them when they are not here. Anyway, he wants a garage because he is tired of doing that and they want a bigger place. We've looked at about 25 places in the last 4 months. The one that they really like is a small, Victorian in downtown Aspen. It was built in 1888 and falls in the historical category which means that they are not allowed to tear down the existing home but can re-build it and they have to leave parts of the old house and incorporate them into the new house. This place has been completely renovated and is beautiful, my clients love it! The small garage that is in the back had to be rebuilt the same as the old one. This garage is so small that I doubt even a Volkswagon could get into it! We've asked the city if we can make it bigger and they said no, it must remain the way it is. Parking is terrible in Aspen and my clients are concerned that they won't have a parking place for their car. There are spaces in the front on the street but it's first come, first serve. If they go to dinner and come home late, they may not have a space to park. The owner of the home also owns the place next door and has built a 9000 square foot home on the corner (he owns four city blocks) with 5 separate garages underneath the house. We asked if he would be willing to rent or lease or even sell one of the garage spaces so my clients would have a place to park their car. That was very well accepted so, we asked if he would be willing to remove a portion of the fence that separates the two places so my clients could park between the tiny garage and the big house, it's a possibility. They would have to raise the small, garage and scoot it over but first would have to get the blessing from the city of Aspen. The city of Aspen is tough, they don't approve much, especially, if it falls in the historic category. I know that once we come up with a solution to the parking dilema, we will write a contract and my clients will be very happy. I decided that my clients need to meet the owner and then he will see that these are great people and would love to have them as his neighbor and hopefully, offer them one of the garage stalls to park their car. I only have a couple days to pull this whole thing off, as my clients will be leaving on Sunday. I will make this happen, can you believe a home that is priced at $3.5 million doesn't have any designated parking? Where there is a will, there is a way, I will exhaust every idea that I can come up with until it absolutely won't work, I now that I can pull this off, wish me luck!