Outcomes

Three days of cheer camp, two real estate closings, and one inspection negotiation this week have left my mind going in many different directions, like a web browser with so many tabs open that you can’t even tell what they are.  This gives me a lot to share, so here I go in no particular order.

The cheerleaders of Whitnall High School are making great progress! With that, we are trying some tougher skills.  As you will see in the picture below, one I titled “Things don’t always go as planned”, with increased difficulty comes higher risk. We had a few falls, and luckily nobody was hurt.  But falling is scary, and trying again can be scarier.  They were afraid of the same outcome.

Encouragement from us coaches and the camp instructors wasn’t doing much to calm the nerves or build confidence.  They needed to hear that I had been there before and knew exactly how they felt.  This wasn’t a cheerleading story; it was a life story. Maybe you might find it useful too.

At about this time of year three years ago, I was diagnosed with breast cancer and successfully went through treatment. A lot of women have stories about getting biopsies that came back negative. But my outcome was different.  My first-ever biopsy… and it was positive.  Fast forward two and a half years, and an MRI showed something suspicious.  I went through all the feelings of bringing back memories, thinking, “How can this be happening again?” and “How am I going to get through this?”. I needed to tell myself something to ease my mind, and it was this.  I NEEDED to do this again.  I needed the opportunity to be faced with the same situation but have a different outcome.  I needed proof that not every biopsy comes back positive.  The only way to overcome the fear and anxiety was to put myself back in the same scenario so that I could experience a different result.

And that’s exactly what happened.

And what’s more, it was worth going through that to be able to share this story with a group of cheerleaders or anyone else who needs to hear this message:

Allow yourself the opportunity to experience a different outcome. A better outcome. Run towards that opportunity and embrace it.

There’s no good transition from that topic to sharing the latest in real estate, but nevertheless.  This past month has given the biggest evidence so far that the market is balancing out.  After about five years of a seller’s market, the shift is happening.  It started slowly and at the higher price points.  It started with more days on the market, more home inspections, fewer offers, more price reductions, and less overall activity.

If you are (or are about to become) a seller, pricing is key.  You CAN still get a good offer in the first weekend, but you need to take the right steps to get it.  Gone are the days of being able to put anything on the market, in any condition, and have buyers fight over it.

That has been my strategy all summer.  As you will see below, it has led me to be the top agent in my office for July and in the top six for each month of the spring/summer market.  So thank you to the buyers and sellers who have trusted me and my strategies – we did it together!