Happy December! Our new office space is OPEN! As most of you know I have been operating out of my car, on my phone, my home office, Seth's office, coffee shops (shout out Mocha Mug for meetings!) BUT NOW you can come here! This is a spot we owned and rented out as a garage for several years. It did not look like this AT ALL a couple months ago! I am happy it looks like a home because that's the business we are in! I have plans for the outside but the inside is ready to go!

MULTIPLE USES

I wanted to offer and give something back to improve our community and let's face it I have 1000 square feet of space and I just need a sliver of it and not all the time. I noticed people requesting party space a lot and I got to researching and found a site called Peerspace.com that allows instant bookings - like AirBNB! See link below to check it out online.

I have been rocking and rolling getting all my listings under contract and working on a few more that will go on market in the New Year. I wonder why people don't want to move this month? Shout out to my McCraw Trail house that closed December 1. This deal was so special to me because my sellers didn't realize the value they had here. They purchased an appraisal a few months prior to going on market (not a bad plan), but when I looked it over I immediately knew I could get more money for them than the appraiser had valued this home. BUT Whoa! The appraisers word is golden right? Wrong! An appraisal is only good for the day it is done. Why? Because homes close daily and those sold comparisons are what drives prices. I was able to extend the search and use some values from the Spartanburg MLS (the appraiser only use Cherokee county) and found more money for them. Also, when I researched this property there was nothing for sale like this from the Midlands of our state across the North Carolina border. I warned my sellers, "y'all, Friday is going to be crazy." I was right and we had 5 offers by Saturday evening and cancelled showings after 12 appointments. We had offers up to $450,000, cash offers, contingent & non-contingent for this $439,900 listing. The one that won was a full price offer that promised to make no repair requests. It was so easy for my stressed sellers to choose the one that valued their time and the fact that even though they got an inspection it was not nit picked to death and they were able to focus on their move....animals and all in tow.

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Hiring Agents

I am going to focus on hiring agents in the new year that would like to join me. I can't be Brighten Real Estate "Group" with just me! I am specifically looking for seasoned agents that do not need my help running their business. We are all self-employed independent contractors with our own personal brand and that is something I want to hone in on with some fresh faces! If you know a good REALTOR anywhere in S.C. send them my way! I can tell you for certain there will be no office fees or hidden costs.

The Next Plan

There's always a what's next.....I am going to work on getting my loan officers license. There is nothing worse than showing a house in the evening or on a weekend and not being able to get in touch with a lender to pre-qualify a buyer. They call and want to see a house and I want to be able to quickly crunch some numbers and be able to tell them if they can buy a house or not, and I want to be able to have an "in house" one stop shop with no fuss and make the process easy! For not just my buyers but also an incentive for those agents that I am going to recruit! 3 days of classes coming my way in a few weeks.