I’d like to say that I rarely get sick, in the past this has been true, but lately it’s not the case.  Since I’m trying to be  super-mom and  rock star real estate agent (i.e. trying to do it all), I’ve run my defenses down and have become susceptible to all the wonderful germs that go along with the winter in the northeast. 

In brief – today is a sick day.  I shouldn’t be blogging, I should be sleeping and reserving all energies to recovering so I can show my out-of-town buyers around this weekend. (doesn’t it seem like it’s always the case that when you’ve got out-of-town buyers coming in, that you get sick!?)  Alas, I’ve cozied up with my laptop, tissues, and a hot drink.   My recently turned 1 yr old son is with grandma and grandpa for the day so here I am, blogging away. 

Normally mommy’s don’t get ‘sick days’ so I have to admit, I’m not sure how to behave since I don’t have to chase after, feed, change, or play with my son today.  It’s weird, it’s like traveling back in time to when I didn’t have a child…sort of. 

So I’m catching up on my real estate communications – emails to buyers and sellers.  So I got this email from one of my seller’s today and to preface, I love them dearly as they are close friends of mine, and am honored they chose me to help them sell their property.   I had to chuckle at the email they sent to me.   They are eager to sell their property and we received some feedback from a potential buyer about some external obsolescence (which luckily we might be able to remedy).   Maybe it’s because they are eager to sell that they didn’t remember that external obsolescence can affect property value.  It was funny, because they pointed out to me in the email, and asked if the buyer’s agent understood, that value is determined by comparable properties, not neighbor’s houses or surrounding property.   They did have part of it right! 

So when real estate agents say that real estate is all about location, location, location, that includes not only where the property is situated within a locality, but also what surrounds the property that could potentially lower its value, such as a cemetery, huge cell phone towers, junkyard, commercial building in a residential neighborhood, or an abandoned, dilapidated structure.  And then there are external factors that can increase a property’s value, such as lake frontage or a lake view.    

So here’s to sick days!

(*cough, cough* …ugh)