Following the walkthrough with our staging team, Chris and Heidi’s punch-list continued to lengthen. I watched as the wheels began to turn and their eyes started to gloss over, just a little bit. I’m sure they were thinking to themselves, “What the heck did we sign up for here? 

And that’s natural. 

We see homeowners go through the same progression every time.

Truthfully, it can be a bit overwhelming. That is why one of the primary roles we play in "the process" is that of silent conductor. Tasked with making sure that the orchestra is focused on hitting the high notes, rather than getting bogged down by the non-essential details.

Chris and Heidi were fully capable of rising to the occasion, but the clock was ticking. We needed to hit the ground running, if we were going to meet our objectives.

With that in mind, you can appreciate my apprehension when Chris mentioned to me that he’d decided to shoulder the responsibility of rebuilding both sets of backyard patio staircases – from scratch. In addition to patching and painting some ceiling drywall. In addition to washing all of the windows. In addition to making irrigation repairs.

You get the picture. The list was 6 or 7 deep. These are the types of projects that we normally recommend sellers contract out, for the sake of speed and efficiency. 

The plot continued to thicken when I found out that he was also leaving town, on business, for the entire week leading up to our projected list date.

All I could do was give my nod of respect and wish him well. 

I can appreciate a man on a mission. 
But I’d be lying if I told you that I didn’t have doubts that it’d all get done in such a compressed window of time. I figured, at minimum, I’d receive a call to delay the photo shoot by one week.

Then Ping! 

Mid-day Friday, a little over a week later, an email came through from Heidi that read, “Remind me what time the photographer is coming on Monday?”

“Wait a minute, what . . . Seriously?” 

That was my immediate reaction. I picked up the phone and called her right back. “Are you sure you are going to be ready?

Sunday night rolled around and at 8pm my phone chirped, this time a text from Heidi saying, “Chris finished the work on the patio stairs 30 minutes before he had to leave for his plane! We’ll be ready for photos.” 

Bravo Chris!

It’s always fun for me to walk into the house right before the photography session. You’ve seen the TV shows where they shoo the owners out of the house for a weekend and have them come back for the ‘Big Reveal.’ In a way, even though I’ve already seen the house on numerous occasions beforehand, it feels like I’m walking into the ‘Big Reveal,’ myself.

I know that the house is never going to look better than it does on photo day. Our clients respect the fact that the listing photos are our chance to make the BEST first impression. They prepare accordingly. 

This was no exception. Big kudos to Heidi and Chris because I know they busted their tails to get everything done in time. The heavy lifting was mostly done.

We listed the house late Thursday and by Sunday evening, we had three strong offers in hand. 

Most agents are fixated on what the house down the street sold for, rather than maximizing the perceived value of your home. We’ve decided to flip the script. We’ve taken to intense study of the world’s greatest financial minds and innovators outside of the real estate industry.

Through the application of a core set of principles – by treating the home like a business with a stock price rather than a commodity with a sale price – we’ve determined there are unique ways to extract additional (sometimes hidden) profits from any home on the market.

That is a bold statement to make. It sounds like hyperbole. We would tend to agree with you IF the approach was not well documented. IF the methodology was untested. IF the claims were not, in fact, grounded in case study after case study after case study. Facts not fiction.

From an outsider’s perspective, what seems like a spell of wizardry is actually quite systematic and predictable. Homeowners that use this approach are banking bigger profits and standing atop a much stronger foundation when selling their property. They are well armed with the knowledge needed to detect and protect their profit margin. They know the right questions to ask, exactly where to look and what to listen for.