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An Insider’s Tour of the Secret World of Residential Real Estate For Agents, Sellers, and Buyers
Non-fiction
Date Published: May 2021
Publisher: Canterbury Books
OPEN HOUSE! New Book By Veteran Realtor Joey Sheehan
Takes Readers Behind the Scenes Of An Often Opaque Industry
Approximately two-thirds of Americans are involved in real estate transactions. Yet there are few (if any) books that help people understand this complex activity from the perspectives of all three types of parties involved – agent, seller, and buyer. Stepping into the breach, seasoned Realtor Joey Sheehan has written a unique work — OPEN HOUSE! — filled with entertaining anecdotes and practical advice to ensure that her readers’ next real estate transaction proceeds as smoothly as possible.
“Residential real estate is a business like no other,” she writes. “It’s not rational like other businesses because the commodity being bought or sold is a home rather than a car or a refrigerator, and everybody knows that a man’s home is his castle. People get touchy about their castles — you can trust me on this — in a way they don’t about anything else.” Sellers often believe their homes are worth more than the market will bear. Buyers can make unreasonable demands. The agents for both need to ably guide their clients through a potentially volatile process with integrity and professionalism. Sheehan’s insights and counsel help everyone work together to benefit all.
The backbone of OPEN HOUSE! is Sheehan’s Twelve Laws of Real Estate:
1: Selling and buying real property is a very touchy business.
2: Academics publish or perish; Realtors sell or perish.
3: The seller may propose, but it is the buyer who disposes.
4: At the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, it’s always about price.
5: To get paid what you’re worth, insist on getting paid what you’re worth.
6: To stay out of legal trouble, learn the facts, and disclose them.
7: The first offer is the best offer.
8: It’s not over until it’s over.
9: Time is of the essence.
10: If a party to a transaction doesn’t understand the sales contract and something bad happens, watch out—especially if you’re the agent working with the party that does understand it.
11: Never commoditize Realtors: there are the great, the good, the middling, the incompetent, and the disastrous.
12: Engage a Realtor with superior skills, because up to and including the settlement at which a property’s legal transfer of ownership occurs, bizarre problems can surface.
Carefully considering the ramifications of each of the Twelve Laws, Sheehan helps agents understand how they can provide the best service possible, grow their businesses, and avoid unpleasant repercussions, ranging from frivolous client complaints to serious lawsuits. For sellers, she explains how to maximize the value of their homes and avoid the most common mistakes, such as not decluttering and staging their homes in a way calculated to appeal to prospects. For buyers, she provides extensive advice on how to find and purchase their dream home, even in a competitive bidding war. And most importantly, she helps everyone understand the terms of a real estate contract, a document which is legally binding on all parties to a transaction.
With her engaging writing style and flair for storytelling, Sheehan has created the ultimate guide to residential real estate sales. As Robert M. DeMarinis, a former vice president at Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, observes, “OPEN HOUSE! delivers because it combines a smart businesswoman’s memoir with an impish ride through her professional world—not from the outside looking in but from the inside looking out!” Anyone who is thinking about selling or buying a home or who works in the residential real estate industry will profit from reading this witty and informative book.
About the Author
Joey Sheehan, author of OPEN HOUSE!, is an award-winning real estate agent with over thirty years of experience. She is affiliated with Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Fox & Roach, Realtors. After graduating with a BA from the University of California at Berkeley, she obtained an MA from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies and a PhD from Harvard University in Chinese intellectual history. Her first book, which was about the prominent Chinese scholar Wang Guowei (1877-1927), was published by Harvard University Press. She has written widely about both China and residential real estate in a variety of journals, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers. Learn more at www.joeysheehan.com.
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