Putting Together the Right Team in Selling and Buying a House – Part I

It should not come as a surprise, yet it still does amaze me, that the many experiences I had directing the Avodah Dance Ensemble (and then being part of a team producing and directing short films for Healing Voices-Personal Stories) are so relevant in other aspects of my life.  This was especially true recently when we sold our Santa Fe house and bought a new one in Costa Rica.

I’ll begin with selling the home in Santa Fe.  I thought it would be a breeze to find a listing agent, and wow was I wrong.  We asked around, looked at reviews online and then finally decided to interview two or three agents.  The first person we arranged to see had very high reviews online and so we called and she came over.  She had a lovely personality and gave us a listing figure that surprised us at how high it was.  She also said we didn’t need to do anything to put the house in order.  Hum…. That didn’t seem too realistic.  She was overpricing, and when I went to explore her website I saw quite a few homes that had reduced their price. 

Our neighbors across the street raved about their realtor so the next appointment was with her.  Exactly the opposite of the first person.  As we walked through the house together she pointed out all the things that were wrong.  When we sat down to discuss it further we could see she was undervaluing the house and was really acting like a buyer’s representative, not a listing agent.

We were somewhat frustrated and not sure where to turn next.  Then I decided to call a realtor friend that I knew from being on the Board of New Mexico Women in Film.  I hadn’t called her before because she was new to real estate.  She asked if she could bring a friend who was mentoring her. They came together but the mentor totally took over and my friend never had an opportunity to say much.  The mentor nailed the price as to what we hunched it was worth and had a nice positive attitude.  Unfortunately, she started pressing us to immediately sign the listing agreement which she had brought.  Three times we told her that we wanted to think it over first!! She continued to press us. There were follow-up calls from my friend, who was clearly being directed to press us, too.  Well… that wouldn’t work for us.  The thought of her bringing us an offer that we might be hesitant about and having to deal with pressure from her was just not to our liking.

We were now getting more discouraged.  We had never imagined that it would be hard to find a listing agent.  A day or two went by with both of us wondering what to do.  Then I remembered that our Healing Voices intern had worked part-time for a realtor at Sotheby’s.  I texted our former intern, and she highly recommended the realtor, Emily Garcia, so we put in a call.  Emily set up a time to visit our home. When she arrived she set a relaxed and friendly mood and said this visit was just to get to know our house.  She wouldn’t even quote a listing price until she had a good sense of the house, and then she would go back to her office and research it.  It was a lovely experience walking her through the house.  She was very positive and said she would help me stage it so it would have the most impact for showing.  At the end we shared the price that we thought was right.  That evening we got a call back from her saying we had nailed the exact price!! Yeah!  She then asked us to come down to her office to go through things.  We did.  There was absolutely no pressure to sign and we liked that.  She introduced us to other members of her team that would be working with her.  It was clear she was very well organized and had put together a good team to handle all the details of selling and closing!

Whew… we had found our right listing agent.  The next step was to stage our house.  One of our daughters clearly told me to listen to whatever Emily said — she knew best and it would work to our advantage to just follow her instructions.

Emily returned and I walked with her through the house, pencil and paper in hand, making notes of all the things that she said needed to go, and of the different places for pictures to be hung to enhance the Southwest look of a Santa Fe home.  Those things that were easy to do, we did right away.  I had a pretty long list of things I would be needing to do.  For example, reducing the bookshelves by at least one-third.  Some of the things on the list involved moving furniture that was too heavy for Murray and me.  Emily gave us names of several people who could help us. I called one on the list and set up a time to meet with him. Emily joined us that day, continuing to tweak her instructions on how to make our home look its absolute best.

OK…..  how did it feel to have someone staging our home? Well I think it was a little hard for my husband but again my theatre/film experience came in handy.  Our home was now a set for a performance that needed to look just right.  Emily was my set designer and my job was simply to follow her instructions.  I could tell she had a real sense of design and what would work, so it made it particularly easy to just do it. 

The day photos were going to be taken Emily again joined us and tweaked a few things to get everything just right.  I also immediately connected to the photography. 

I was impressed how Emily approached the write up. She had us fill out a questionnaire and write down the things we really loved about our house.  Murray and I each did it separately and some of our phrases became part of the description.

Once the house was ready for the photos to be taken I knew it was time to immediately put it on the market.  We had considered waiting until we moved out, but some quick research showed there was very little for sale in our price range and no home as lovely.  So pictures were taken on Monday. They were available on Thursday. Thursday night our house was MLS listed. Friday and Saturday we had to be out of the house most of the afternoon as we were getting quite a few showing appointments each day.  By Sunday morning we had an offer that we later in the day learned was slightly over the asking price.  WOW…. It had worked.  We had found a good listing agent and had followed her instructions. It was worth interviewing four different people and taking our time to find just the right person. 

Through the next few weeks other members of Emily’s team stepped up and proved how valuable they were.  Lesson learned and reminder to myself… just as I carefully auditioned to find a dancer to join the company, it pays to take my time to build the right team in all aspects of my life. Thank you, Emily Garcia for the great job you and your team did!