May 2009

Where’s My Waiter?

by Paul Kitchen

So, it was pointed out to me recently that we hadn’t sent a Vero Beach Deal of the Week out for a while. I was also informed that I hadn’t done a Vero Beach Real Estate Update since March. Turns out it has been about two months without any updates on either front. Though it’s no excuse, it has been a pretty wild ride here lately, with this years ‘Season’ easily surpassing the previous years. Our web traffic is up an amazing 70% over 2008, and the clients we had in town this year were also up dramatically – nearly 100% over last year. I’m very happy Cheryl Goff is here this year, or we couldn’t have dealt with the demand. And I don’t believe for a second any other agent has shown the number of homes Cheryl has. Ridiculous!

May is looking to be our largest month by far for closings, which is a great sign for our market. Our recent clients have gotten great deals on homes in Pointe West South Village, Caledon Shores, Waterway Village, Falcon Trace, Legend Lakes, Trillium, The Laurels, Sebastian Highlands and Vista Gardens. There is zero chance you can go wrong in this market, particularly if you’re planning on holding your home for a few years.

Now, as many folks know, volume also brings a few crazies out of the woodwork. Have you ever been to a very busy restaurant, and the food and service were great? How about going to a relatively empty restaurant – ever notice that the service is poor and the food takes forever? Point is, when I heard today that a client read Cheryl’s recent blog post about showing nearly 300 homes last month, only to then accuse Cheryl of being too busy to wait on her properly, I just had to laugh. This particular buyer will certainly find that empty restaurant, even if I have to give directions, and I hope she enjoys the service!

To put Starfish Real Estate in a different light, I was talking to an agent with another broker here in Vero Beach, and he informed me that many of the agents at his firm could not even write a contract! So, not only is the restaurant empty, the chef can’t cook! Geez…

Anyway, the update is we’re swamped. The websites are hovering at the top nearly everywhere, for everything, and the clients that are flying in to work with us are leaving very happy and making great purchases. Those prospects sitting at their computers in some part of the world waiting for us to run around and take pictures and deliver gramatically correct double spaced property comparison disertations, all the while promising to not-get-too-busy, are most certainly wondering where their waiter is….