Joseph's Blog - Victoria BC Real Estate, In the Zone

TAKE HOLD OF YOUR LIFE – MOVE JOYFULLY TOWARD YOUR REAL ESTATE DREAMS

TAKE HOLD OF YOUR LIFE – MOVE JOYFULLY TOWARD

YOUR REAL ESTATE DREAMS

We’ve all experienced it: That burning passion to fulfill a dream, only to have fears and doubts insidiously creep in to suffocate the spark before it flames into fruition. In this new year, forge past the fear and fan the flame!

Maybe you thrill to the idea of the ease and flexibility of living in a low-maintenance home that supports travel, freedom, and new experiences. Or perhaps you’ve always wanted to leave the city and enjoy country life—yet you’re holding back on selling your property because the media is banging its wearying drum about the “slow market.” But what, if anything, do you gain by buying into the hype instead of buying your dream home?

Laurie Klassen and Stacey Toews, owners of Level Ground Trading, recently made an inspired move—from their house on a busy corner in Brentwood Bay to their dream home, a hobby farm with acreage. If they’d listened to the media, they might have panicked and stayed put, but real estate agent Joseph Martin’s support and guidance kept them grounded and focused on their true inspiration. Now they are celebrating the unforeseen gifts of their new life every day. “I’ve learned that you can’t know in advance all the ways it’s going to be such a great thing for you in the end,” Laurie says of pursuing the dream they had. “The new property opens up all sorts of opportunities for us—there are so many things we could never have done at our other place.”

After discovering the farm on a bike ride, Laurie and Stacey made the bold decision to buy it without making the offer conditional on the sale of their Brentwood home. There were times in the process when they became quite anxious, and Laurie appreciated the way Joseph kept them positive and on track. “He understands the stress of putting yourself in a vulnerable place and taking a risk in order to pursue something. On the phone, when we were second-guessing ourselves, he’d say, ‘Okay, I’m coming over—let’s celebrate the steps we’ve made, let’s make a plan for the future,’ and he’d remind us where the light is at the end of the tunnel.”

At their very first open house last summer, no one came, and Laurie felt discouraged. “He was really calm,” she says of Joseph’s take on the situation. “He said, ’It’s okay, lots of people are going to come through here in a few weeks’—and that’s exactly what happened! It was so helpful that he had the clarity of why we had called him in the first place, what he was helping us achieve, and what was going to happen.”

“With me, they trusted that their house would sell, and it did, on the very day we thought it would sell!” exclaims Joseph. “You can create your own reality. Don’t listen to the market, the media, the naysayers, the fence-sitters. Go ahead and live your life the way you want to. Do you intuitively feel it is right to sell? Then list to sell now. Make your dreams come true!”

Laurie has a message for those waiting out the “down market” before making a move. “I think a few years ago, we got accustomed to the idea that we had all this money in the bank, but it wasn’t really true. The reality is, we have a house, and we can change that house into a condo or a townhome or a farm or whatever we like. The numbers are such a short-term perspective, so focusing on the pricing is just not worth it. Would I put myself back on that busy corner? The answer is no,” she says with a laugh. “I’m not getting any younger!”

She is grateful that Joseph helped assuage the fears that might have prevented her from fulfilling her dream of growing food on the scale that the farm allows. While every square metre of their suburban spec house’s yard had been made into an edible garden, it still wasn’t the perfect fit, and she knew it. “We were not looking around, we were happy enough where we were, the house was big enough for us—but it was this niggling feeling in the back of our minds.” Now, every day, she looks out the window onto acres of pristine farmland, wildlife, and wide open sky, and says that while growing food was her initial inspiration, the unexpected rewards of their new situation are affirming over and over again that they made the perfect move.

Joseph, who jokingly calls himself the “House Whisperer,” is recruiting people who are excited to move ahead with their new lives and want to sell their homes. That’s because he’s now sold a number of his listings over the last few weeks of a slow December market—a feat made even more astounding given the fearful “can’t do” attitude that is coming at us from all sides. How does he do it? “You must ignore the comments of the media and others about the current real estate market. Move from real estate ‘worrier’ to real estate ‘warrior.’ Be one of those for whom the market is a ‘perfect fit’ right now. Your ‘in the zone’ dream home awaits!”

Posted by Joseph Martin Monday Jan 09, 2012 21:24
Categories: Dream Homes, Finding a Home, Healthy Living, Home Buying, Home Selling, Life Value Real Estate, Quality of Living Real Estate, Real Estae in Canada, Real Estate, Real Estate - Anthropology, Real Estate History, Real Estate in Canada, Real Estate Victoria BC, Recession, Downturn | Tags: bc commercial real estate, bc realty, buy house, buying home, downturn, economy, finding a home, lifestyle, profits, quality of life real estate, quotes by the great, quotes for life, real estate, real estate in bc, real estate market, real estate psychology, real estate report, real estate satisfaction, real estate victoria bc, realtors bc, recession, sell house, selling home, stock portfolio, victoria bc realtor

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