Stephanie Miskin

In today’s home-buying market the monthly cost of paying a mortgage – which is substantially influenced by interest rates - is a cost concern that that in itself, should not be the determining factor in whether to buy or not. Date the rate... but marry the investment! Interest rates will continue to rise and fall almost daily and may in the next few years return to a more attainable level. But the financial value of the property, nearly always will be higher than the price paid to purchase. Month by month and year over year, both the paid equity and market value of a single-family home will rise and compound. And if interest rates lower sufficiently – one can always refinance that loan at a lower rate saving the homeowner money every month. Date the rate but marry the investment.

Have a highly experienced marketing and sales professional provide you with an accurate market value for your home in it’s location and current condition. Not a price estimate, but a thoroughly researched market value with a detailed plan on what improvements should be made – and the cost involved - to sell your home at top market value. Then write the business and marketing plan for your home including all aspects of how your home will be marketed, a tight estimate of how long it will take to sell and close the sale, and how to do this with the least hassle possible! And when you and your marketing professional agree on market value, get that professional to guarantee the sale price or pay you the difference. You want your home sold guaranteed and with confidence.

The scope of who we have helped successfully buy or sell a home is quite varied because we tailor our buy or sell programs to each client’s goals and needs. We help first time buyers for whom every aspect of the buying process is new and can be daunting. We help “move-up buyers” and “downsizing buyers” – who are needing a new home to meet their current living needs but must find the right home to buy before selling and closing on the sale of their current home. The timing of the buy and sell are critical. The ability to have the funds available from the sale for the purchase of their new home can be a deal-breaker if not perfectly managed. Bringing both the buyer and the seller on both sides together to understand and meet their goals and needs to meet deadlines and expectations is a critical part of how your sales and marketing professional and their team must provide service. The same goes for the many relocating buyers we have helped – moving from a different state and occasionally a different country - who may also need hands on supervision and strong local assistance to help make the move from across the state or across the country enjoyable and smooth. And we work with special goals buyers and sellers – working with investors seeking income producing properties and varied types of clients with special needs like sellers who must sell an inherited home out of an estate, and couples and families where life issues have intervened such as the sale of a home due to job relocation or military transfer or divorce. Each client receiving our “second mile service” in response to their individual home buying or home selling goals and needs.

Recently we sold a family residence owned by a close friend of a very knowledgeable building contractor. Through their past experience they interviewed 5 Agents from 5 different real estate sales companies. We felt confident we could not just compete but win the opportunity to represent the Client in the sale because of our clear eye on determining true market value based on both thorough research, and our many years of market experience. We know our approach to marketing – custom tailored to each sale drawing from the 16 major marketing programs and systems we developed and employ – apply uniquely to each property and we presented a clear plan for that home. We did not rush the research and presentation process. Instead, we took the time despite the competition to bring a thorough and vibrant plan for that home’s sale based on the goals and needs expressed by the seller. We won the opportunity to bring that home to market starting with our exclusive One-Hour Sunday Tour of Homes initial public presentation – a marketing program that brings together both off-market and public marketing approaches that gathered more than 100 buyer prospects to the home in one hour during that Premier Open House Presentation. The homeowner was astonished at the turnout (typical for this program) and by the following day we were able to present 6 competitive offers to purchase the home. It sold and closed in 30 days at 104% of the market value offer price. That’s what we do for our Clients and the pleasure at seeing the home seller so happy was a wonderful experience.

We began our real estate career by asking a local building contractor if he could build a few homes on two lake-lots we owned and he said “sure!” So we found two designs in a book, worked on improving the designs by adding ideas we thought would make people smile and sold both homes before they were even framed! It was so much fun we began building more custom homes and 10 years later sold the company to an out of state investor / developer and decided to focus on the most satisfying part of home sales – working directly with clients to help them meet their individual and truly important goals and needs for which buying or selling a home was an important part of the solution. Building homes may be creative, but working with people to solve and satisfy their home buying or selling needs is truly rewarding.

Our special education and training comes from 24 years of hands-on experience working with people to first understand why they are buying or selling and then working together to find the best solutions to meet their needs. Over the years we have added to experience by becoming deeply immersed in marketing – both the art and science of marketing which is so important to understand when helping a client to buy or sell. As people are all different and each property is unique, the marketing – understanding both the value and appeal of a home – is integral to helping clients gain satisfaction with the results of our combined efforts. And we have studied and put into practice the critical and necessary skills required to negotiate the purchase or sale with the outcome of the process pleasing and satisfying to our clients and all parties to the transaction.