Real Estate Feast

How I sold an impossible to sell house–a true story.

impossible to sell house

My friend, Dr. R., an eye surgeon, sends me referrals from time to time. Being an eye surgeon, most of his patients are older and many are little old ladies whose husbands have died and as they’re lying there in the chair they say “oh Doctor, I’ve just got to sell my house!” Bingo. The problem is the houses. This is a story about one of those houses.

Theresa, who just turned 85, owned a house that was purchased new by her parents in 1938. Built well, it was in a nice little neighborhood called South Allapattah Manor outside of downtown Miami.  In 1957 Theresa and her husband bought the house from her parents and they raised their family there. She has lived there ever since, maintaining her house—by herself after her husband died twenty years ago—as the nice little neighborhood fell into disrepair around her. The houses became ramshackle, the zoning changed, the demographics declined and property values went south. The Civic Center with its jail, courthouse and states attorney office sprang up. And bail bonds offices moved in to service their clients.

Then in the seventies, someone bulldozed the houses on the southwest corner of the block and built a strip mall and someone else bulldozed the houses on the northwest corner of the block and built a crematorium.

Dr. R. had sent me to sell a house next to a crematorium!

They teach you in real estate school to turn negatives into positives:–Smiling broadly as a prospective purchaser stares at the black, oily smoke boiling out of the chimney next door the crafty agent says–: “Imagine the convenience if unfortunately someone in the family dies!”

In the next post, I’ll continue the story.  You can reach me at 305-401-8058 or bishopric.r@ewm.com.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 20th, 2008 at 11:46 am and is filed under Selling a Home in South Florida. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

1. How I sold an impossible to sell house–The End | Bob Bishopric said at November 26th, 2008 at 2:38 am

   [...] are Part One and Part [...]

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