The week appears to be rounding itself out quite nicely with our new listings and sales at Holtz Realty. I attended the closing of one of my listings early this morning and in spite of it being delayed a week, we yet again had another soft-landing closing. The seller has been such a peach through this whole process and I’ll certainly remember her with the kindest of thoughts. Whomever said most old people are crabby and crotchety haven’t had the opportunity to work the ones I have. A good portion of my market over these long years have come from the elderly who’ve asked me for help in selling their homes.
Just today I went and looked at a home that’s been owned by the same person for a very long time. Often times they think their homes are worth far less than they really are and even on occasion question my valuations. When I first looked at the property while getting it ready to list, the seller who owned the property which I closed on today was convinced it would be sold to someone who’d buy it as a rental property. Before I told her what it would likely sell for, I said, “The value of your home is too high for any investor to be buying it.” She was quite surprised to hear what I believed it would sell for in a relatively short period of time. But then we must remember, she and her husband purchased it over 50 years ago from Holtz Realty. It’s one of those charming family stories you hear about where a young couple buys their first home to begin raising their family, and then remains in that same home long after their children are grown and gone. Fifty years of one family’s ownership of a home is quite remarkable. That should give the young couple that just purchased it an extra assurance concerning the home’s livability. Believe it or not, there are homes that just can’t keep their current owners happy enough to remain there any extended periods of time to where there’s being built long lists of prior owners since they were built. At times, one begins to wonder if they were built on poisoned earth, have non-functioning floor plans, or maybe even being a bit on the haunted side. It would be interesting to do a study on one of them by interviewing all the living previous owners to see if there is some sort of similar thread of reasons to why they chose to move. In talking about it now, I’m surprised something like this has not been turned into a weekly reality show. Just now you wait, it’ll be coming soon.
In conversation with clients and customers, the subject of the new packing house being located here has created mixed feelings with some while others feel it’ll be good for our community. Since the subject was brought up twice today, I’ve been sticking with my opinion that this may be an opportunity to get some of those living here back to working a real job instead of juggling two part-time jobs to make ends meet. I’m old enough to remember Decker’s packing house and how much it provided a good living for those willing to work at a stable job that paid every Friday. We need not be afraid of being invaded by workers coming from land’s end, but instead encourage those among us who’re trapped in dead-end part time jobs offering no benefits. I’ll never forget a 90+ year old lady who worked at Deckers as a de-boner and managed to amass quite a large sum of money to where her children finally convinced her to move into something more comfortable. She was quite witty and always had something clever to talk about.
One day she said, “I hope my grandson’s good fishing today brings me all the fish I can eat because nobody in my family can de-bone the boniest of fish like me, cause I can still take them on as long as I’ve got my favorite sharp fillet knife in hand.” Having not seen her in a few years, I most recently saw her sprightly toddling down an aisle at a local grocery store. Of all the funniest of things she said to me was, and yet only remember her as being our local champion 90+ year old de-boner.
Don’t forget about my public open house tomorrow and click on the following link for more details
