Hello FOL (Friends Of Lisa)! I’m Leigh Feld, also known as the LCT wordsmith/copywriter/parser of words. If you’ve bought or sold a house with Lisa, you’ve seen my work in the form of that lovely verbiage that accompanies our marketing maven, Tiffany’s, dazzling brochures and flyers. I asked Lisa if I could take over the blog for a few weeks. She said yes for one of two reasons, I think. One… she’s recently helped me sell my own home and thinks that I’m on the verge of a nervous breakdown and doesn’t want to say no to me. Or, two… she’s recently helped me sell my own home and thinks I might have some good advice for her clients. Let’s go with door number two, shall we? My family and I have learned a lot in the past few months and I’ve come up with a list of do’s and don’ts that might help you navigate this crazy world of Williamson County real estate. Let’s start with some DO’S…
DO: Hire Lisa. There. Blog done, that’s really all you need to know. Except, I can’t ever say anything that quickly so permit me a few more words. Hire Lisa RIGHT NOW to be your Realtor® and guide you through the process of selling your home and all the craziness that comes before, during and after the sale that you thought you might know a little something about, but trust me, you don’t and Lisa does, so seriously… just hire her. I was kind of kidding when I mentioned that my mental state isn’t totally sound. Actually, my husband and I (along with three teenage boys and a crazy, but sweet pup) are all pretty impressed with how not crazy I am right now. I can form complete, grammatically correct sentences (run-on sentence above, notwithstanding), still remember how to pack school lunches, am able to find my keys almost always and remembered to make dentist appointments for everyone. Lisa’s the reason I’m not typing this while wearing a straightjacket.
Let me break it down for you… after five years of writing copy for Lisa, I believed that I was a real estate veteran. And, we’ve bought and sold homes before this one, so I truly believed that this move would be no big deal. Except it is. Because we’ve lived here for almost fifteen years. I was pregnant with our youngest son when we moved here and all three of my boys have grown up here. They only remember this house as their home. I’ve painted every wall, scrubbed every surface, repurposed every room for our growing family and renovated the entire abode. FIFTEEN CHRISTMASES, PEOPLE! So, veteran or not, I am a tiny bit attached to this house. And the day that Megan pounded the FOR SALE sign in our yard, I wanted to curl in the fetal position and call the whole thing off. If not for Lisa and her rock-solid real estate background, her calm and confident demeanor and her assurance that we’d sell quickly and for top-dollar, I think I really would have just said NEVER MIND.
And that would have been bad, because my husband has been commuting to and from Knoxville for FIVE YEARS and we really would like to live in one place again. Family dinners seem like such a novelty to us. Also, we bought a new home in Knoxville in January and enrolled a child in private school there, so this move is happening! One of the things that was really making me crazy was our timeline. In addition to that child who’ll be starting high school in Knoxville, my middle son is graduating from Franklin High at the end of May and I was highly motivated to not have him (and us!) be homeless on his graduation day. To that end, Lisa was a Godsend. She helped us hone in on a perfect listing date. While I demanded a post 5/25 closing, I wanted to list our house at the end of March. Lisa (and my husband who was like, um, yes… we ARE going to listen to the expert) convinced me that waiting till mid-April was a much smarter decision. She had lots of solid reasons: our crazy-fast Williamson County market, seller’s mortgage rates and lock-ins, and her certainty that our home would sell quickly at her suggested price-point. Guess what? She was right. We listed our home on 4/18, accepted an offer on 4/19 and will still live here on 5/25 (and even a couple weeks after that so I won’t be plucking the cap and gown right off his head and stuffing it into a moving box!). Hark, the moving angels sing!
As I mentioned, Lisa’s given me carte blanche for a few weeks and I have lots more to share…. Lots of do’s and don’ts that are more specific than the aforementioned DO. But that DO… the one that says HIRE LISA TO HELP YOU SELL YOUR HOME? That’s the do from which all my other do’s (and don’ts) emanate. Lisa’s the alpha and omega of home sales. She’s your golden ticket to sanity in what might otherwise be a trip to looney bin. And I’m her newest, biggest fan with lots of advice to share!