The market is still showing signs that things aren’t slowing down.

Last week, we secured a number of sales for outstanding prices (all bar one sale were for prices higher than we appraised the property for).

Buyers are still commenting that there is a very limited number of homes to choose from…and traditionally at this time of the year, many property owners are gearing up to place their property on the market in Spring.

Our advice – beat the rush and get it on the market now as you may get a better price when there aren’t as many properties for sale.

Last week, I shared with you a story about an open home that almost went horribly wrong.

Today, I’ll share a story about an open home that I ran about seven years ago that did go horribly wrong…

It was about 12:30 PM on a Saturday in the beautiful suburb of Clear Mountain where I had just finished running an open home, locked up the property and left to get to my next open home in Albany Creek.

About five minutes after I left, the owner of the home in Clear Mountain called me quite frantically as she remembered that she accidentally left her house keys inside and had no way of back getting in.

I quickly turned around and headed back to the home to unlock it for her.

As I unlocked the front door, a car drove down the ‘driveway’ (the ‘driveway was only dirt and as we had experienced a lot of recent rain in the days leading up to the open home, it was quite muddy at the time).

A lovely couple quickly hopped out of their car and asked to inspect as they realized that they were late for this open home as they had incorrectly noted the time.

The owner was aware that I was running out of time to get to my next open home and offered to show the buyers through herself.

Normally, I wouldn’t have agreed to this but I knew I was at least 15 minutes from my next open home and it was then 15 minutes before it was due to start.

I had the key and had no time to re-allocate someone else on my team to arrive and unlock for me.

I agreed and started to reverse back down the lengthy driveway (there was no room on either side to get around the mud as the block had a large slope to it where the driveway was positioned.)

In my rush to reverse out, I slightly shifted too far left (where the ground was really soft and muddy) and all of a sudden, I was completely bogged in the mud and couldn’t get out.

The buyer heard me revving the engine and spinning the wheels and interrupted his inspection to come out and see if he could help me.

He tried standing to the side of the car and pushing but couldn’t get enough weight behind the car to move it out of the mud.

As he was on his way to work (I later found out that he was in hospitality and was on his way to work at a wedding, he was dressed in black suit pants and a white formal shirt.

After a few more minutes of unsuccessfully trying to get out of the mud, he told me that the only way I would get out of the mud was for him to stand behind my car and push it hard.

I told him that I knew he would be covered in mud if I did this but he kindly agreed to do it anyway as he knew he wouldn’t be able to get his car past me unless my car was out of the way.

So sure enough, he pushed as I planted my foot on the accelerator and I was able to move to car only to look into my side mirror to see him covered head to toe in mud over his nice white shirt and pants.

I thanked him and apologized profusely (by this stage, his wife had come out and was virtually rolling around on the floor with laughter) and I sped off to my next open home, fortunately arriving only a couple of minutes late.

I offered to pay for his dry cleaning but he wouldn’t accept so I later sent him a bottle of wine and gift hamper for being so kind.

To do this day, I still have the image etched in my mind of seeing him stand there with mud literally dripping down his chin in his formal attire.

Needless to say, I parked on the street when I ran more open homes on this property.

Until next week, Happy Listing & Happy Selling.