In the spirit of ghosts and goblins comes a spooky recap of what can go wrong in the world of real estate! After being in this business for a while, all sorts of strange things have come my way and nothing seems to faze me anymore. Maybe you can gain some wisdom this Halloween weekend that will help you sell your house instead of scaring the bejeezus out of people!
- Snakes in the house are not a good selling feature. I had a buyer a few years back who had a phobia of snakes and kept saying that if she saw one she would “freak out”. A great foreclosure came on the market, so we went to see it. You can guess what happened next. There was a 4-foot black snake curled up in corner, alive. She ran hysterically out of the condo into the car and wouldn’t leave it. Needless to say, they never bought a place in Florida. She never recovered from that! I’ve been doing this 9 years and that is the one and only time that I have ever seen a snake inside a property. Murphy’s Law, right?
- I had a listing in Naples that was a very nice high-end home that had some of the strangest décor you could imagine. It had clowns everywhere! Clown pictures, clown paintings, clown figurines, clown statues; clowns everywhere you looked. You should have seen them all – it was crazy! The clowns ended up in the closets before I put it on the market. I didn’t want to scare any buyers (or myself!) away!
- Look out for gators! Driving with buyers down the road in a small community, an alligator walked across the road. It was going from pond to pond and talk about freaky! Think a snake is bad? Imagine the reaction to seeing an alligator wandering the streets! Good thing we were in the car!
Have a very fun Halloween and if you come across any spooky real estate stories, I’d love to hear them!
Gabe Mellein was voted a Top Real Estate Agent – Exceptional in Service and Overall Satisfaction by Gulfshore Life Magazine in 2012. He is the broker of Gulf Pointe Properties, Inc and has over 8 years experience in the SW Florida Real Estate Market. He is a member of The Naples Area Board of Realtors, Bonita Springs – Estero Association of Realtors, Realtor Association of Greater Fort Myers and the Beach, The Florida Association of Realtors, The National Association of Realtors, and is nationally certified in Feng Shui for Real Estate. Need real estate help? Please contact Gabe at: 239.825.2234, Gabe@GulfPointeProperties.com or www.GulfPointeProperties.com
