Joel Matson's (joelmatson) Blog

       Home buying is an emotional experience.  Those feelings can often run the gamut and can get intense.  In an ideal world, those feelings would focus on deep love, and happy anticipation.  Unfortunately, in place of those jolly thoughts buyers sometimes hang a hard turn into anxiety and hard...

      My former broker is a good guy, very successful. His pholosophy was never to be available the day a new customer called.  Even if his schedule was free, he made a point of scheduling a first meeting a couple of days out.  The message - "My time is valuable, and I am busy, and I will fit you...

          In real estate, the stakes are so very high.  It is, as they say, the biggest investment of your life.  And in some ways your new home will redefine your life.   You choose a home hoping to make it your own!  You plan to do what you want to do to it.  You plan to live in it as you want ...

       How do we define success for our seller clients?  A good transaction at a good price at good terms?  I always suggest that we also should add a good night's sleep.       That is where full disclosure comes in. There is a lot of comfort in the the conviction that we acted honorably and fair...

    “Do no harm” - the rule for doctors, can also apply to us as brokers.  Our clients trust that the words we use to describe their property will advance their cause, and never hinder them.       Consider the phrase: “As is”.  It could mean many things, none of which are positive. And then there...

     Recently an agent was grousing on line about not being fully informed about a demerit that a property had before he brought his client to visit.  The implication is that if the listing agent had disclosed more on line in the MLS, he and his clients could have saved a trip.  Does he have a va...

      I still remember it so well, even after 30 years.  It was years after college, and I ran into one of my most beloved instructors on the train.  It was so great to see her.  She inquired about my health, which was sweet, and then sort of guided the conversation to these health bars she was s...

       In love and real estate, its all about relationships.  But can that dreamboat turn out to be a stinker?  Of course.  So when making a commitment, to a sweety or a broker, it is important to have eyes open.  So what is the key? A lot of times we go by gut feelings.  Should a firm handshake ...

So what is the key to getting to that finish line - to SOLD?  if there is one central theme, it has got to be: motivation.  Buyers can smell it, or the lack of it.  Here's a particularly smelly example.  My buyer wanted to see a nice country home.  Unfortunately, when we arrived, we were told we ...

CURB APPEAL blah, blah, blah. Real estate know-it-alls always KNOW its all about curb appeal!  That of course was THEN (when Barney Rubble was marketing his cozy stone cave). Since then we have had that little development we fondly call the WEB.  And of course that quirky novelty is now the 800 ...