Back to Overland Park Real Estate After a Very Long Hiatus

Posted at 8:36 PM, Apr. 24, 2007

After being on hiatus for several months, I'm finally back in the swing of things. It seems like with real estate when you've been away for awhile it takes forever to get back into it. But things are up and running again and it's a very good feeling to be working.

The market is great right now. Many people who had decided not to move last year are now making the decision to give it a shot again. Overland Park is such a great place to live and our market has never been bad. I bought a house in 1983 when interest rates were 16 3/4. That was a bad market. But we didn't know that. We just wanted to buy a house and we didn't have any other choice. I've also decided that it's not so much the market right now - it's the houses on the market that don't show so well. Or it's the awful photos on the internet. Don't people realize that over 80% of today's buyers start their home buying search on the internet. Some of those pictures are horrible. The more people who are understanding the importance of Staging and how their home is showcased on the internet are indeed selling their homes faster and for more money. If everyone would pay attention and get on the bandwagon, there would be fewer houses on the market. I showed buyers last Saturday and 7 out of 8 houses we looked at needed some attention. And we were in the upper $200's. They bought the best of the bunch. My Staging business is so busy I've hired two people to help out!

What Makes Your Area So Special?

Posted at 7:00 PM, Nov. 7, 2006

I work with alot of relocating buyers. It's one of the big benefits of being a RE/MAX agent. We make our own relocation deals. We can refer clients to the agent of our choice anywhere in the world. Go to RE/MAX.com, find an agent, review their credentials, see their picture, pick up the phone, call them, it's a done deal.

Recently I had two buyers, back to back, one from Washington, the other from Pennsylvania. Relocating buyers are under alot of stress. Usually they make two trips...one to check out the city and get some ideas and then they're back to actually buy a house. Sometimes they are interviewing in more than one city and don't always know which job they will take. So, part of my job is to sell the city to the buyers and give them reasons to move here!

Regardless, most of them have chosen about 40 houses to look at while they are here. Well, that is hard to handle for anyone. It seems that once we get to a Wilderness community, looking at homes seems to take on a different light. Granted, we always look at those houses they have picked out. Funny how good they look on the internet! But just the feeling of a Wilderness community is somehow different than the rest. It's like another world. Where else do you have the elementary and the middle school with state of the art learning facilities within walking distance? Where else will you find the winding trails, the natural beauty, the protected lands as well as the history of the area?