You are what you.....DRIVE?

Remember the old adage "you are what you eat?" well, are you what you drive?...

My friend Nisha "The Car Gal", expert car blogger for her blog "Kadi Krazy" says yes, and I would have to agree with her.

What does your car say about you?

New Mercedes E350?

It is a good question and one that has come up many times between my real estate friends and I. Do clients pick you has their realtor based on your outside image? The clothes you wear obviously make a difference...noone wants to see their realtor in jogging pants and a sweat shirt at their first meeting...granted...but do clients really care about what car a realtor drives? I have heard of some agents loosing listings or potential buyers once the clients noticed that they drove Chrysler vs a BMW or a Civic vs Mercedes. Personally, I agree that image is important and I have tested this myself with many clients, but when it comes down to it, its up to the eye of the beholder! When taking clients out for buying appointments in your car you want to feel that you are driving a nice car that would impress them, leather seats, ample seating space, nice trim, clean car and ofcourse they will notice if it's a Mercedes, BMW, Infiniti Lexus ect.. however, sometimes it may come down to how YOU feel driving your car.  

Now what does your car say about you?

Old Hyundai?

 Many people expect realtor to be driving a luxury car, even though it is not necessary it is expected..it's a sign of sucess, prosperity and how you run your business in mose clients eyes, but it can also be a sticking point depending on your age and yes, everyone always discriminates against the young people...if clients see a young realtor driving a nice luxury car, feelings such as, "wow, is he/she going to be charging me through the nose to pay for this car??!!!" or "who does he/she think she is driving a car like this and thinking they are a big shot, they got into the business YESTERDAY!" come to mind. However, adversely if you see a realtor with a civic or Hyundai or Mazda, then feeling such has "Hmm, these people are driving a Hyundai, how successful are they in real estate?" come to mind. In the end, can't we all just get along and pick people for their work ethic, experience and a job well done?

I think not!

Unfortunately, in real estate you ARE what you drive, and if you drive a nice car then you are doing well in Real Estate.

So everyone, if you want to look and feel like a million bucks, or if you just need a new set of wheels..contact my friend Nisha at CARS4U.com.

Mi Casa, Tu Casa, Zoocasa!

As you can guess from the title, I'm talking about casa...not just any casa, ZOOCASA. Why am I talking about Zoocasa? What is Zoocasa and who really cares?? I do!

In todays' fast paced technologically advanced society, where we are constantly glued to our computers and our phones, companies have to think of new innovative technological ways to advertise their products. One of the largest and most expensive and most important purchase in a persons life is their home, so why not make sure when listing your home you cover all the bases! I'm all for Social Media advertising for Real Estate. I'm on Facebook, Twitter, HomeFinder.ca and yes, ZOOCASA.

I love Zoocasa and I think it has come along way since first being introduced. It allows agents and their clients to "showcase" their listing along with providing useful info such as nearby schools, important landmarks, various stats, demographics and much more. What I personally like are cool features such as "Walk Score" where it rates out of 100 how "Walk friendly" the area around the perspective home is in terms of distance between schools, parks, community centre, restaurants, groceries and other. I also enjoy using Zoocasa even more than our Board MLS site because it just gives you such cool features in one site without opening 10 different new webpages, such as "Street View" and "Commute" where you can time the distance between your perspective new home and other points of travel such as work, school, parents or friends.
This is a site worth checking out, so here it is, don't take my word for it, see for yourself!
http://www.zoocasa.com/en/

How to show your home 101

Now for my official first blog I would like to address an issue that is of deep concern to me in Real Estate. I understand that the act of cleaning up your home for showings can be quite daunting, however, it really does save Realtors and their clients the trouble of finding a nearby receptacle to vomit in.

Buyers and Sellers today are more educated on the process of Buying, Selling and real estate in general compared to 20 years ago thanks to channels such as HGTV and other talk shows and local cable shows. However even with the knowledge that sellers have today, it never ceases to amaze me on how nasty their homes are during showings with my Buyers. I have encountered such things as, Food left out from dinner (1 week old dinner or at least that's what it looks like), clothes on the floor, dirty underwear soaking in the sink, dog crap on the floor, and I think the nastiest thing I've ever seen was a woman's dirty pad left aloof  somewhere in the bathroom. You'd think that knowing they have an appointment for showings these people would at least clean shit up! So for those of you planning to list your home, either with an agent (hopefully) or without, be sure to follow some LOGICAL and simple rules:

1) Clean your kitchen! (no need to hide every single appliance) but at least make sure your appliances are clean, counters are wiped and that it smells like a kitchen and not like a cats' litter box.

2) DE-CLUTTER! PLEASE!!  we want to be able to walk through all the rooms of your house otherwise, please contact the HOARDERS show.

3) Please ensure you don't leave things like dirty clothes (least of all dirty underwear and smelly socks) lying around.

4) It would be nice to shovel your snow or at least clear a path for people to get into your home. How many times have I gone with my clients to showings and have to climb over snow that is in excess of 3 to 4 feet. It's nice that you use your entrance to the garage but the rest of the world doesn't. This goes for summer as well, keeping your front and backyard lawn nice and trimmed would be beneficial to potential buyers. No one wants to feel like they are going to have to pass through a jungle of weeds and grass to see your home.

I can go on and on, and I probably will definitely come back to this subject in the near future. I hope you have gathered valuable info on how to show your home....101.

cheers!

Intro to MOI!

Okay, so this is not easy for me, putting my complete, candid thoughts in a blog for people to read and to judge, but what the heck! I need to communicate the importance of such subjects as "showing your home without your underwear lying around, "Flushing your toilets before prospective buyers come to see your home" and among others "Making sure you clean up your dogs' crap accident before your first open house" These among many others will be the focus of my blog. Now you might think, "wow, this lady is all jokes!" but believe me...these are true stories and true advice that I would like to share to all of you Sellers and Buyers out there! My goal here is to not only talk about, the market trends, and the inevitable rate hikes or drops or the up and coming neighbourhoods, but essentially, I want to give you the "straight goods" on what goes on in my world as a realtor and what you take out of my blogs as informative is purely up to you!

Stay tuned for my next blog and if you have any comments or concerns (unless they are all good), KEEP THEM TO YOURSELF!
I Thank you.