Real? Estate

There is little "real" about real estate. First, I have to say that my realtors are the very best, therefore, my comment isn't about them but about the real estate business in general. Second, yes, buying and selling in the business has little to do with realities. It is a kind of game that you enter and play. The enterprise is not meant to harm but to help, and it does if you play it correctly. Your wits as a seller, have to be present at all times because selling is work. The stager, usually an expensive person professionally, comes along at the generosity of your realtor, and advises you on what to do with your loved, awful place to make it look presentable, and possibly snag a buyer due to its upgraded appearance. The game is afoot. Whatever the current magazine hype has convinced everyone that is fashionable, usually according to their mysterious sources, is what your tacky old place, no matter how new it is and how much you love it and think it is fantastic, must achieve. That translates into getting rid of almost everything that is movable so that the idiotic, I jest, buyer you want to lure, can visualize him or herself or themselves, in it. Now where this idea comes from I don't know. When I look at a picture of someone else's home, it isn't very difficult for me, mentally, to throw out their stuff and put mine in. Are buyers that stupid? I do agree, however, that those little do-dads that should go somewhere anyway, need to be hidden and this is the time to do it.  I call these the flotsam and jetsam of life. Your life is private and no one else wants to look at it. Apparently. They've got enough of their own junk. Next comes, the photographer with magic cameras on a stick. These cameras take images of a place, yours, you didn't know existed. It's a bit like looking at yourself after a selfie. Who is that? They can make a small place like mine, appear large and most miraculously, in focus. Almost. A photographer unlike a stager, can shove what they don't want, out of the lens' way and click your home into something wonderful. When you see the photos, you want to buy it all over again. After the pictures are taken, Open House begins and there are more usually, than one of these. You cannot be present. If it is winter and you have to sit out in your car for two hours, take a thermos, food and a blanket. While you are out there freezing, other people you've never heard of, tromp through your beloved edifice and can make insulting remarks to their heart's content or praise it. You won't know what they say and that's why you're sitting in your car listening to soothing music. The next step is reading. And there's lots of it, and it's mostly legalese and always in fine print. Don't miss a single phrase, word or punctuation mark. It all counts. And don't sign without a lot of thought, no matter how much you've fallen in love with the place you last drooled over. Think, think, think. When you sign that dotted line on-line or otherwise, you can't get out of it without crossing someone's palm with paper, the kind with the queen on it. Your realtor if you have one as thoughtful as mine, will give you all the warnings you need, and advise you to your benefit. The last thing is, if you do find a realtor like mine, appreciate him or her. They are better than your best friend if you don't have a lawyer stowed in your pocket. And if the sale doesn't go through,  these dear folks, the realtors for all their trouble and expense,  don't make a red or any other colour, cent. They move on sweetly, and try to guide someone else through the morass of buy and sell. That is my view of the "real" of  of real estate.