The other day a person called me about selling their waterfront home on Lake Martin.  She wasn’t sure if she wanted to sell or not, and wanted my realtor’s opinion on the price, how to market it, and if any improvements need to be made.

I told her I would head on over to her house and check it out.  While I was there I told her I would go ahead and take about 75 pictures and shoot some video for a home tour, just in case she decided to sell.

“Wait!” she said. “It’s not clean! My sister was there last weekend. Let me call a cleaning service.”

I told her that unless there was a fraternity party there, I would be glad to straighten up before I do the pictures and video.  She couldn’t believe it.  I insisted, for two main reasons:

1.   Full motion video tours of homes (not those cheesy “Virtual Tours”), in combination with many nice big photos of lake homes, sell.  The video and pictures are some of my most potent marketing weapons, so I want the home to look nice.

2. Lake Martin is big. It sometimes takes 45 minutes to drive from one spot to the other.  I owe it to my buyers and sellers to be efficient with my time.  There is no need to burn another half day to come back over there and take video and pictures after I have already been there once, especially if all it takes is a little elbow grease on my part.

So I went ahead and cleaned her home for free.  It took about an hour.  Really, it turned out to be not that bad at all. A little vacuuming, rearranging, and hiding the toys in the closet.

In other words, it was stuff that my wife wishes I did at home.

And for me, it was worth it. If she decides to sell, I already have my media work done.  If not – well, hopefully I have made a friend!