Cooking Up Real Estate

Food and real estate? What do they have in common? I guess you could say food is love, cooking at home is love of hearth and home and cooking for people has a connotation of love and warmth. So there it is.

Or... selfishly I could say that I love both real estate (been a broker/company owner for 23 years) and cooking and thus my http://www.cookinguprealestate.com/theme was born last Tuesday, May 22, 2007 while my FMB (favorite mortgage broker) Ken Horst at http://www.thegreatrate.com/helped me out with my Broker Open at one of my listings at 17176 Padons Drive, Eden Prairie, MN.

Give me a few days to get my new www.cookinguprealestate.com website up. In the interim, come visit my regular real estate website at http://www.lymanandsteichen.com/.

Click on this MLS link for this great home priced at $1,499,000. Make sure you look at my virtual tour and supplements on MLS, too: http://matrix.northstarmls.com/Matrix/Public/Email.aspx?ID=3270395358

I made a gorgeous flyer with the MLS sheet attached (Listing #3362839) and sent it out to over 8500 agents in the Twin Cities areas. Also, on Monday, I drove around to the larger Eden Prairie real estate offices dropping off a hand made paper flyer with the menu and MLS sheet asking agents to come by to check out this house and have a bite to eat.
FMB Ken Horst ran home when we had the idea about this blog and brought back his digital camera taking photos of the food and me showing off the presentation materials I made for the property.

I cooked for days. In this goofy real estate market we need to do everything we can to sell our listings. Everyone eats and loves "free food" so this was a logical medium to inspire interest. Most listings, as you may know, are sold by a cooperating agent from another company so appealing to them makes lots of sense. What better a way than food? Here's the menu I served.

Crab & Avocado California Rolls
Spring Rolls
Chicken & Vegetable Pot Stickers
Panko Battered Shrimp
with Spicy Dipping Sauce
Steamed Edamame *
Perrier Water
(look below for information about Edamame)

We had about 10 agents show up, some of whom specialize in the upper bracket market. They looked at the house, grabbed a plate of yummy food, sat at the big kitchen table while we proceeded to shared observations about the current state of the real estate market. In the 13 country Metropolitan market:

• Too many houses on the market now. (There were 38,245 new listings in the first quarter). As a result, buyers get confused when they want to look at so many houses.


• Average market time is 145 days.


• Sellers get frustrated when their homes don't sell for almost 5 months.

So the big question was, "Why would anyone want to buy or sell in this market?" We discussed several good reasons:

• If a candidate wants to upgrade they may lose a little on their old house but save much more on the more expensive house.


• Rates are still amazing. Ask my FMB Ken Horst for rates: http://activerain.com/action/blogs_admin/kahorst@yahoo.com


• More homes to choose from allowing a buyer to focus on special features or amenities they've longed for.


• Sellers willing to negotiate enabling a buyer to get more home for the money.

(If you want detailed stats directly from the Minnesota Association of Realtors email me your city at: JessLyman@LYMANandSTEICHEN.com and I'll send them to you right away).

All in all, I was quite pleased with the Broker Open. Did the food sell the house? We shall see. Some of the agents plan to show it. I'll report back here as we progress.

*Edamame- What is it? How do you cook Edamame? Here's a link to an article about edamame:
http://www.onhealth.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56288
Edamame is a little green pod (non-edible) with the most delicious 2-4 little peas (soybeans) inside that taste like a bit of heaven. They are high in fiber, 9 grams per ½ cup, low in good-for-you fat, 2/5 grams and only 120 calories foe ½ cup of shelled beans.

My dogs, BenBenBen and Worldwide Willie (shown here after climbing his favorite tree), both Australian Terriers, love them and come running when I yell out, Edamame! I shell them like pistachios, eating one at atime. They are good for those of us that get some weird satisfactionout of opening things up and popping them into our mouths and they're much less fattening and much healthier than snacking on chips or candy. I buy them at Costco (cheap).

To cook, open an entire 10 oz. bag, pour into a glass bowl (no water needed), cover with a paper towel and microwave for about 5 minutes on high. Then I sprinkle on some kosher salt and eat them hot or cold. However, there are many recipes online for dishes made with edamame but I like them as a side dish to a great meal or simply a snack.

This is my first blog. More will follow with food facts, healthy and not healthy but delicious recipes, cooking experiences, dieting and real estate all in one big pot from which you can scoop out exactly what you'd like.
Thanks for visiting,
Jessie
http://www.lymanandsteichen.com/
JessLyman@LYMANandSTEICHEN.com