Check this view out.  I’m on my lunch break. Kind of.  I’m sitting on a deck in a Westlake condo (701 Galer St).  I currently have a bottle of water, 3 small oranges and a bowl of candy for anyone that happens to show up today to check out the unit.  I’m holding a brokers open.

Real estate is a funny business. You get a home ready for sale (weeks, months or even years). Then you invite as many people as you can to see it, just to sell it, move somewhere else and start the whole process over.  Clearly it is something that we have to do.  We get relocated, start a family, need bigger, maybe smaller, want a different neighborhood or simply just a change of pace.

That is where the owner and the broker have to get creative.  It is not just where we are going and what “we” need, but how we have to attract the people that we believe are looking for us. It is not as simple as just putting a place on the market and crossing your fingers that it sells.  That is what I love the most about real estate. In my opinion, real estate is not SELLING its all about MARKETING.  Everyone has different styles, budgets and goals for what they purchase. Matching the “people” with the “place” is critical.

For this particular place, its obvious that the view is stunning.  You get views from your deck (where I am sitting), living room, kitchen and dining room.  Marketing the view though is simply not enough. As you can see from the picture above we are just as short walk from South Lake Union, Downtown and the major thoroughfares. What immediately has to come to mind is, how to get to people that work downtown.  Is that it though?  Of course not.  You have students, first-time buyers (the current owner) and a big category of baby boomers moving from 3,500sf down to something like this.  You may also attract second home purchasers, looking for a sweet pad in the city (especially with views). Out of state buyers want a place in the city for when they visit their kid at the University of Washington and those same buyers may want to buy it as an investment so their student can live in house while they are attending school.  So are you getting the point?

As I’m sitting here, I’m not thinking about how to SELL this home to anyone.  I have to use creative ways of MARKETING the unit to attract buyers that may want to call this condo home. Think about this post when you come across a listing that has horrible pictures. If you can’t get anyone to like the home by how it’s pictured, how in the world do you expect that someone would come and see it? If brokers did a better job of marketing, instead of selling, we would all be better off. Plus, who wants to be SOLD anyway.

I’m back to my delicious little orange, my bowl of candy and of course………..the view.

Check out the webpage for this unit : 701 Galer St #615