Helping the WHOLE disability community & the "aging in place" community with their real estate needs

Ten reasons why I love my niche:

1. It feels good helping people 
2. The Deaf community appreciates a Realtor who can communicate in ASL 
3. I like being unique
4. It's were my heart and values are
5. It's real...in other words it is where my life experiences have led me 
6. I do a good job & people appreciate my work & help (Please read) 
7.  It was cool having an article written about me in our local Cary paper (to read the article)
8. There is a real NEED for my expertise
9. It's cool being a maverick
10. I enjoy being part of this community! Life is a circle and with my success I give back to this community as well.  

 

 

Investors Take Notice: Make it accessible and they will come!

To all the real estate investors out there in the Cary & Triangle area, I have an important message for you. If you make your rentals accessible they will come!
Recently I was featured in a front page article in my local paper because of my unique niche in real estate.
The Cary News article

Since the article appeared I have had lots of folks contact me.  In the last 2 days I have had 3 different people contact me around their accessible housing needs. Unfortunately 2 of them were looking for an accessible rental and that is harder to find than an accessible home to purchase. There just are not enough of them!

So if you flip houses or fix up & hold them as rentals it is important to know that there is an under served population out there. With the number of baby boomers increasing every day, it makes sense to make homes that work for this population. People don't want to face the facts but, the older we get the more chance we are going to have a disability. Universal designed homes work for all!!!  Widening doors, pulling out walls, changing hardware, creating a zero step entrance and doing a zero threshold or minimal threshold shower are all GOOD strong marketing enhancements to a rental.

This is old data but the "U.S. Census Bureau’s 2002 Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP) found that there are 51.2 million people with disabilities in the United States. More than one in six people in this country are potential customers for businesses."  (taken from an article "Customers with Disabilities Mean Business").

Lever handle hardware works better for folks with arthritis and who do not have good fine motor dexterity.

This is my business card holder placed at a shower threshold. This is not a roll in shower and it will not work for everyone. But it is meant to show how low a shower threshold can be...helping those with mobility challenges.

So make your rental accessible and with universal elements in mind and it will get rented! Trust me! There will be a tsunami  of need coming. Are you ready?

Honored by an article in my local paper

I am honored and tickled pink that there was an article written in my local paper about my niche in real estate and what I do. The title is "No barriers to a dream home".  My mission is be of serve to the WHOLE disability and "aging in place" community. Hopefully the article will bring more business my way but as quoted in the article, "It's very rewarding; it's not about the money. It's more about helping people find the right home that's going to work for them."

This is a link to the article.

Cary News article

 I do, what I do because it comes from my heart. I have always been around people of "different abilities". My sister was born deaf and due to the effects of Rubella she was more fragile than most kids plus she could not speak their language. When she died in 1983. After this, I threw myself into work in the Deaf community. I learned to respect their culture and love ASL, their language. It is sad to admit, but my signing skills improved  after she died. It was because of the immersion. I was the best signer in my family but when I went to her school ( Austine School for the Deaf), I have vivid memories of saying to her friends "Say it again, slowly". Immersing yourself in a culture teaches you quickly. I owe a lot of who I am today to my sister Susan and my experiences growing up with her.

Susan, in some way, prepared me to be Joshua's mom (my youngest son). Joshua has autism. He is high functioning and fully included in school, but he will always struggle with his autism, social things and emotions. There have been times in his life when he exhibited classic autism: not talking till the age of 4 1/2, flapping his hands, biting himself, talking to himself with rote scripts, ect. Because of inclusion, he has done very well. He has incredible gifts to share. He is very gregarious for someone with autism and the kids in school genuinely like him. He is not afraid to stand up in front of a crowd and do his thing. You should have seen him at his poetry slam at school last year. He ROCKED the house.

Yes I am a proud mom.

Albert Einstein once said, "Everyone is a genius. If you judge a fish on it's ability to climb a tree, it will live it's whole life believing it is stupid." I love this quote.

I do what I love: helping people and being of service in my community. It just happens to be focused in real estate.  It seems to have served me well....ten fold.

Cary Pines : Why I love my neighborhood

I have lived in Cary Pines subdivision for 15 years and I love where I live! Here are ten reasons why.

1. Our homes hold their value and are easy to sell

With in the last 2 years 80% of the homes sold within 2 months or less. That is pretty spectacular.

2. We're in a wonderful location (Great commuter location to RTP, I 40, & down town Raleigh)

3. We're a 10-15 min drive to the RDU but we’re not in the flight path

4. We're walking distance to the Cary Dog Park (bow wow)

 

5. We're walking distance to Godbold Park and Cary’s Skate Park

6. There are 3 different grocery stores within a mile of our subdivision

7. Incredible neighborhood schools

8. There is a wonderful Greenway behind our subdivision

9.  Low crime & concerned neighbors who look out for each other

10.  Target is Coming! (less than 2 miles away!)

By the way we are also on Facebook!