A, B, C, D, E-I-E-I-O!

Since the first of the year, I have been spending a portion of each night trying to inspire my Kindergartener to write letters, numbers, and sight words.  He is my son who takes everything very literally.  He requires all things to have order and make sense.  He sees the world in a very black and white sort of way, which is completely mind-blowing to me most days.  Quite frankly, I can no longer look at the English language in the same way I once did just a few short months ago.  After all, 'A' sounds like 'H,' so why are they different letters?  How can 'two' sound the same as 'to' or 'too'?  The letter 'O' doesn't even make an 'oooo' sound at this stage in the game!  Rather than just learning the very basic concept, his mind wants to know all the reasons behind why we talk, count, and spell the way we do. With all of his newly obtained knowledge, he has lost confidence in his ability to learn the English language, particularly reading and writing.  He requires reinforcement at every level, which requires a lot of time on both our parts.  On the other hand, my 2-year old can sing you his ABC's with a little bridge to Old MacDonald in the middle.  He has been working hard on a quality medley of Baa Baa Black Sheep which leads into Twinkle Twinkle Little Star followed up by Jingle Bells.  He oozes confidence when he sings and dances. Chest out, shoulders back, hips swaying, loud and proud!  Makes me laugh every time!  I just want to bottle up this time with both my boys and save it forever!

These differing stages of learning are very similar to those of home buyers and sellers.  We all start out pretty green by mixing our ABCs of real estate with the E-I-E-I-Os of good credit history, financing options, and downpayment funds. Nonetheless, as first-time buyers, we are confident in our ability to make homeownership a reality, so we approach it head-on, loud and proud, telling all of our friends and family via social media that we are in the market to buy a home.  We are especially good at telling everybody when we are interested in a property on social media.  In doing so, we encourage competition from other buyers and limit our negotiating ability.  This is why you need a good teacher a/k/a real estate agent to take you through what I essentially label as real estate preschool.  I encourage you to attend the Lunch & Learn Homebuyer Workshop on February 13th from Noon to 1 p.m. on the back meeting room of 1st Realty.  F&M Bank is our lunch sponsor this month, and they will not let you go back to work hungry!

Eventually, you learn the ABCs and find it is time to sell that home you purchased.  Maybe you have outgrown the space.  Perhaps you have changed employment, or life circumstances may be taking you on a new adventure.  Whatever the reason, you are introduced to a whole new perspective of real estate.  Like learning the letters, numbers, sounds, and symbols of a whole new language, you have to figure out the why's and how's of selling a home. You have graduated to real estate Kindergarten. Again, this is where a trusted real estate professional can help you master this new language and reinforce your ability to sell the property successfully. (1st Realty's Lunch & Learn Seller Workshop would be a good opportunity for you to learn about what it takes to sell a home in today's competitive environment.  Join us on March 13th for this informative seminar). 

The point I'm driving at here is that we don't send our children out into this world to master the English language without a solid team to reinforce their abilities.  We push them through 15+ years of education and spend countless hours at home teaching them to read, write, and solve problems without even a question as to why we would do so.  By the time you have bought and sold one home, you really have only graduated from real estate Kindergarten.  There is an entirely different realm beyond just buying and selling. It takes a qualified team of professionals to close any real estate transaction.  I'm not just talking about real estate agents.  You need lending professionals, title insurance professionals, escrow professionals, inspection professionals, repair professionals, homeowners insurance professionals, income tax and accounting professionals, and staging and decorating professionals to simply process one single transaction.  Real estate has a language and problems all its own.  It is not something you can learn overnight.  It is time consuming, it is hands on, it is anxiety riddled, and it is complicated. I'm still learning new things and encountering new situations after 15 years in the business.  There should be no question about using a trusted real estate professional to handle the purchase or sale of your next home.  In a world where very few real estate transactions turn out all real estate and roses, the team at 1st Realty can help make it a whole lot easier.  Welcome Home.