Homes of Desire

Hurricane On The Way – Where’s My Realtor? September 25th, 2011

If you are like most out of town property owners, you most likely have a relationship with a local real estate agent who has sold you a property which you entrust to the care of your agent to rent and oversee in your absence. Then suddenly during hurricane season while the weather is seemingly calm & beautiful, yet extremely hot and humid, along comes the media with the “go into panic mode now” coverage of a storm brewing somewhere out over the Atlantic Ocean which “may be” headed to south Florida. The good news is that the media can provide constant updates and information as they string us along for days on end, depending on the movement and size of the storm. If you are like most people, you park the awareness of the storm in the back of your mind realizing you have lots of time to follow its path before you give it anymore thought. Many times, as days come and go, the storm is progressing in size and moving into closer range (“the cone”) to your Miami residence. You realize its time to make the call to your realtor, but while trying to make the call, you realize you have 2 missed calls from your tenant. You can visualize your super duper, really nice, sweet lady tenant who transferred in from out of state–a state where there generally are no hurricanes. In her message, she sounds a bit anxious, ranting about the storm nearing, hurricane shutters, her dog and her elderly mother, blah, blah, blah. Now you are thinking nice lady tenant is sounding not so nice, and now would be a good time to call your realtor so she can handle this tenant and her concerns voiced in her message.

Thank God For The Helpful Realtor

You just knew it when you met your professional Realtor, she was also going to be the perfect property manager, so in love with my house, just so proud how quickly she rented the house, and so on. So, you dial up “fabulous, full-time, full service anytime day or night realtor” to pass along the details of the message from anxious lady tenant so that the agent can deal with this situation, not your problem since you don’t even live on the same continent! You can just see it now, your realtor calling one of her “hulk hunk type” handymen who will gladly dash right over to your house and get right down to business. He will immediately start putting up the shutters, helping move all of the patio furniture and plants inside, etc., etc. You know you don’t need to remind her to see to it that hulk guy trims back all the shrubs to keep anything from flying around in the storm which could cause the neighbors some unnecessary damage to their property. “Ahhh”. . . as you think to yourself, “it sure is nice be anywhere but there, near that darn storm, not me-no way-no how!”

Ring,Ring,Ring To Wonderful Realtor

Yes! Whew! The agent’s phone picks up, and her voice message is short and direct informing her callers that she is out of reach until after the storm has passed. Hmm, you wonder, what the h#@*? You see, now you get it: A dose of reality–your agent also has a home, a family, pets, hurricane shutters, storm supplies, and most of all she needs “hulk buddy” for her own property preparation. Suddenly you are feeling like you don’t have such a great agent because how dare she have other priorities at this vulnerable time? You have important things that need her attention and this should be her first and only priority! Right? Wrong-O!

Is Your Preparedness Plan In Place?

Good planning includes taking care of your home long before a hurricane or storm is forming and best before Hurricane Season which begins June 1 every year and ends November 30. This won’t happen to you if you simply follow a preparedness plan. What every homeowner must realize is how important it is to be prepared for Hurricane Season whether you live in your South Florida residence or not. If you own real estate here, you need a plan to protect your property and anyone who may be residing in the residence. The time to get prepared is long before the season starts. Your plan should be in place at the time you lease your property, outlining specific instructions for anyone who will be living in the property as well as a responsible property manager or caretaker. A hurricane preparedness plan is so easy to obtain and can be downloaded from the internet at all local news station websites as well as the National Weather Center.

Categories: Seller Tips

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 25th, 2011 at 9:46 AM and is filed under Seller Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.