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Awesome People Rock! 🙌🏻 – TBG Update 9/4

Awesome People Rock! 🙌🏻 – TBG Update 9/4

I’m so excited to be newly working with a second family of sellers who are clients for the third time. These sellers were initially referred by a sibling, who became one of my dearest friends and favorite people. One of my favorite parts of my job is working with people I love and the biggest honor is getting to work with them, and their family and friends, multiple times. I never take it for granted and I’m so grateful every time they introduce me to someone else who is awesome just like them. The best thing in life is awesome people.

I’m grateful too for our awesome little work family that grew a member this week to include Berel Bakaleynik from Valley Village. It’s fun to create a community of agents who work with the same ethics, values, and culture our brand espouses and to collaborate together in the work we do in the neighborhood. It’s a gift to partner with good people and I’m so excited for all of us to do great work together.

Our new listing at 620 N Highland is pretty special. It’s a brick English tudor that’s around 4000 square feet, all updated inside. The owners took special care in their renovation to preserve the old and to introduce the modern new at the same time. There are cool original historical features like a laundry chute and a built-in full bar and spindled wooden pocket doors to the dining room. And then there are new current amenities like the marble waterfall kitchen island and home theater. I’m excited to start to show the house on Sunday!

I hope a photographer is documenting the unusual sites and happenings of Corona in our city. Driving down Beverly Blvd or Melrose Ave there are fully city blocks of restaurant tables on the sidewalks. In Santa Monica, the restaurant tables are where cars would normally park at meters in the street, with partitions to divide the tables from each other and from the cars driving right next to them. Along La Brea there’s a full gym on most of a city block – and there are usually people on every machine right on the sidewalk when you drive past in the morning and evening. The barber shops are still going strong on the sidewalk. Manicure places are working in the parking lots behind their store. Some businesses have boards to block the view into their space from the street, but if you peak in from the back they’re secretly open (and packed inside!)

It’s interesting how many sellers call to inquire about listing their house for a high price with the creative thought that they just need one person to fall for their too-high price and to buy their house. The only way that strategy has a chance of working is if the property is spectacularly special, one-of-a-kind, unique and rare, and it’s worth it for a buyer to pay a premium for it. Most sellers truly believe their house is one-of-a-kind and super special, and it legitimately is special to them. Pricing a house high comes with the risk of making the house ultimately sell for less so there is a cost to pricing too high. Sellers are best off going in with their eyes open, knowing that they’re making a choice to ultimately sell for less in order to have the chance to test and see if there’s one buyer out there who will choose to pay too much for their house. It’s almost like paying for a lottery ticket; you know statistically it probably won’t happen that you’ll win the lottery, but it’s worth spending that money on the ticket for the dream.

It’s interesting how many buyers nowadays make sure to ask about the neighbors surrounding a house they’re considering to buy. Potential buyers are often bothered by a neighbor who doesn’t seem to maintain his house. Buyers seem to be spending a lot of time circling a house they’re considering to buy and evaluating so much about the neighbors and the neighborhood before focusing on what the house looks like on the inside. Properties in spots that make people apprehensive about the goings on around it can take longer to sell and then ultimately sell for less than properties in more desirable spots.

I wonder if Corona makes people more afraid because there’s fear in the air. Once there’s fear, perhaps people are more afraid of their surroundings and the goings on around them. I feel like we need a vaccine and a cure so we can go back to living life with abandon and to trusting that the people around us are good and we’re safe even if the lawn next door isn’t mowed. And along with a vaccine and a cure for Corona, we need people to truly be good and safe, and to regularly mow their lawns to keep property values up in the neighborhood.

Xoxoxoo,
Sheri Bienstock

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