St. Joseph and Santa Cruz Real Estate
August 04, 2008
So I was down at the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors today, buying a couple of swish new Blue SupraKey safes - the place the Realtor keeps a key to your home so that other Realtors can show it when you’re not around. As I forked over my credit card, what should I see there, but St. Joseph, the Underground Real Estate Agent(tm).
Pretty cool, huh? Who knew there was a patron saint of home sellers - and no less than Joseph, as in Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. If you’re having trouble selling your house - just ask your listing agent to pick you up a $10 Statue of St. Joseph and bury it at your property. Your Realtor will end up saving money, too - if your house is $50,000 over-priced like 90% of most houses on the market, that’s $1500 in commissions right there your Realtor would save, versus eventually reducing the price to where it otherwise would need to be if it doesn’t sell thanks to a little divine intervention.
The booklet that comes with the statue is pretty cool. It has a couple suggested prayers, here’s an example:
“St. Joseph, guardian of household needs, we bury you now to help us in the sale of our property. Please bring us an acceptable offer. When escrow closes, we will dig you up and display you in a place of honor in our new home.”
All I can say is, Amen to that!
Now, to be fair, the booklet does mention that it is wise to also continue with typical methods to sell your real estate. #1 on the list? Drumroll, please: properly price your home. Looks like your Realtor’s gonna be out that $1500 anyway.
For more info on the St. Joseph’s Statue, visit StJosephStatue.com - or pick one up at the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors.
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 11:20pm
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Santa Cruz Real Estate Industry Consolidation
March 04, 2008
Holy Smokes, batman! Good morning!
American Dream Realty acquired a competitor, Network Alliance, on Monday, creating the largest locally owned real estate company in the county. Two smaller real estate firms closed some of their offices.
All I can say is, gulp! That’s a bitter pill to swallow, but actually it goes down OK with my likewise bitter morning black coffee.
It’s not a real shocker that Network Alliance got bought up. There’s excess capacity. And it’s no surprise, either, that Flat Rate Realty closed an office - these discount brokerages do good when times are fat, but when times get lean, it’s hard to discount your services like that on a regular basis. What’s kind of a surprise is that Cenutry 21 Showcase closed its office right there at Highway 9 and Graham Hill Road - that’s Ronnie Trubek’s office, for heaven’s sake! It’ll take her days to move all her awards to her new office.
Another interesting tidbit in that article is that there are 1,209 Realtors at the Santa Cruz Association of Realtors - that’s down from a year ago figure of 1,300. The article says that “most Realtors renew in the spring” hinting that there may be more drops to come. Ya think? I didn’t renew in the spring - you renew on your anniversary date, or just before it, and I got in in the winter. But, we can’t forget the Watsonville Association of Realtors - not quite sure how many Realtors they have, but I thought it was like 600. Maybe now they’re down to 500.
Anyway, just thought I’d pass that along. Back to my coffee. Gulp.
Posted by SantaCruzBroker at 8:40am
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