WELCOME

Welcome, y’all! If there’s one thing living in Atlanta’s taught me, it’s that Mother Nature has a flair for the dramatic. One minute we’re enjoying a glorious fall afternoon, and the next we’re checking the weather radar, listening for thunder, and wondering whether that big ol’ tree in the backyard is about to crash the party, literally.

After this weekend’s weather, I’ve been thinking about how much real estate has in common with a good ol’ Southern thunderstorm. The forecast can change without warning, and sometimes all we can do is hunker down and ride it out. B So grab your coffee, find yourself a cozy spot, and let’s talk about navigating the storms of real estate.

STORYTIME WITH GLENNDA

Weathering the Storms (It’s Not Just a Metaphor)

Oh, my stars, if this weekend’s crazy weather in Atlanta taught me anything, it’s that I can’t control the storms. All I can do is prepare for them, make good decisions, and hope I’ve got somebody who knows what they’re doing when the wind starts blowing. Obviously, I’m not just talking about the weather. Right now, real estate’s being rocked by a whole different kind of storm. We’ve got sellers who can’t understand why their houses aren’t selling, buyers sitting on the sidelines, agents wondering where the hell their next commission is coming from, all swirling around in a market that seems to change direction with absolutely no notice.

For the last few years, my message to agents has been, “Buckle up, Buttercup!” Well, I’m changing that today. Now our marching orders are, “Hunker down, Honey.” We’re no longer in the market where we throw something against the wall and hope it sticks. This is the market where experience, preparation, and knowing when to change course make all the difference.

(Actually, y’all may want to buckle up because I am on a tear today.)

When the Market Tells Us Something, We’d Best Listen

I was looking at some recent market numbers, and something jumped right out at me. In a 75-day period, 381 homes came off the market, and 213 of those were immediately relisted. Some came back at the same price or even higher. Others came back with reductions. Only a fraction had sold or gone under contract when I looked at the numbers. Now, what does that tell us? It tells us that we’ve got a whole lot of sellers who are having trouble accepting what the market is telling them.

The thing is, I do understand why this is. Some sellers bought in 2022 or 2023, when buyers were scrambling for houses like they were the last chopper out of Saigon. They paid top dollar… and now they’re discovering that the market is under no obligation to give them that money back. Others have a specific number they need to get into their next home. Then there are those buyers saying, “You know what? We’re going to wait out this storm.”

Now, here’s the thing about pricing a house: if we list a property at a million dollars and nobody’s willing to pay a million dollars, reducing the asking price by $70,000 doesn’t mean we’ve lost $70,000. We never had that $70,000 to begin with! A house isn’t worth what we want it to be worth. It’s worth what a qualified buyer is willing to pay for it. I promise y’all that can be bitter pill to swallow.

As agents, our job isn’t to tell sellers what they want to hear. Our job is to tell ‘em what they need to know. I always say, “I’m not saving my best marketing strategy for day 31.”  Like, we don’t get paid more because a house sits on the market longer. That’s why we try our hardest to prepare it properly, price it correctly, bring it to market beautifully, and sell it as efficiently as possible. So, when the forecast changes, we’ve got to be willing to change with it.

Knowing When to Bend and When to Stand Firm

Now, there’s another kind of storm that comes along in real estate, and that’s when the numbers simply don’t work for the people involved. I’ve talked for years about my 10 D’s of real estate, those life circumstances that create a genuine need to buy or sell regardless of what the market is doing. People still get divorced. There’s still people getting diamonds and needing diapers and experiencing disparity.

Sometimes helping those people means we’ve got to get creative. I’ve reduced my commission to aid sellers who were in genuine financial distress. I’ve done it because getting those people to the closing table mattered more than pocketing every dollar I was entitled to earn. Full disclosure: I’ve been on the receiving end of that kind of grace, too. Years ago, when I was selling my own house, there was a tax lien that meant I needed to bring thousands of dollars to closing. Another agent agreed to accept a promissory note for her commission, and I paid her back in monthly installments over the next couple of years. I’ve never forgotten that.

However, I feel like there’s a big difference between helping somebody who needs help and allowing somebody to decide that our professional services shouldn’t cost what they’re worth. Compassion doesn’t mean we abandon good business judgment. We can still be of service without being a doormat.

One of the biggest lessons this year has taught me is that real estate’s constantly changing, so the most valuable thing we can offer our clients is guidance. Flattery and false promises don’t help anyone, so we don’t agree to a price we know the market won’t support… regardless of how much that client wants to hear it.

That’s why I always say, if we’re the smartest people in the room, we’re in the wrong room. We’ve got to keep learning and adapting. We have to be willing to admit that yesterday’s strategy might not work tomorrow. The good news is, there’s never been a better time to be the first love, the second wife, and the third real estate agent! Often I find that the time a seller’s tried everything else, they may finally be ready to listen.

Recently, my team took over a listing that had previously been marketed by another agent. We brought our approach to the table and we got it sold. That’s not about criticizing what happened before so much as it is recognizing that sometimes a fresh strategy and an experienced perspective can make all the difference.

The Storms We Can Actually See Coming

Of course, this weekend reminded us that sometimes the storm isn’t a metaphor. Sometimes it’s a literal storm with high winds, falling trees, and a downpour that’s downright Biblical. (For a minute, I was worried I’d start seeing animals line up two by two.)

Now, a lot of buyers and sellers don’t realize that severe weather can create insurance complications at exactly the wrong moment in a real estate transaction. When a hurricane, tornado, or tropical storm warning’s in effect, insurance companies may temporarily restrict issuing new policies or changing coverage in affected areas. Imagine we’ve got a closing scheduled for tomorrow, and the weather turns ugly today. If the buyer hasn’t secured the necessary insurance, that closing could be in jeopardy.

Or imagine the buyer closes on Friday, but the seller’s negotiated a few extra days to remain in the property. Then a storm comes through, a tree falls on the house, and suddenly everybody’s asking whose insurance is supposed to cover what. The seller’s previous homeowner’s policy may have ended at closing. The buyer’s policy may have started, but it may have been written for an owner-occupied home, not one temporarily occupied by somebody else. Now we’ve got a situation where coverage could be disputed, depending on the policies and the circumstances. This is why I tell people all the time: There’s never a problem until there’s a problem. And when there’s a problem in real estate, oh my stars, it’s almost always a BIG problem.

We’re dealing with enormous assets, and the little details matter. Insurance. Occupancy agreements. Inspections. Timing. Every one of those things needs to be addressed before a storm turns a minor oversight into a major financial headache. The time to figure out whether we’re covered is before the tree takes out the whole damn garage.

Making the Most of the Calm

I’ve been through difficult markets before. I’ve been through slow seasons, unpredictable seasons, and seasons when everybody was convinced the sky was falling. That experience taught me that we can’t spend all our time staring at the clouds. Sometimes we’ve got to use a quiet period to get our own house in order, so I’m looking at the rest of 2026 as an opportunity to work on my business, improve my systems, refine my processes, and prepare for 2027. When the market starts moving again, I plan to be ready.

Now, since we talking about storms, I’d be remiss if I skipped over one of my favorite stories from my early years in real estate.

Up a Creek, With a Canoe

Years ago, I had a ranch house for sale in Buckhead. It sat on an acre, and it was priced at about $42,000, which even back then was a remarkable price for a house in that part of Atlanta. There was a reason for that price; the property was in a floodplain. Here’s the thing: everybody knew it, okay? This wasn’t some terrible secret we were trying to hide with scented candles and a plate of homemade cookies. The buyers knew, the agents knew, and the risk was right there for anybody to investigate.

Well, I had the house under contract, and one day I headed over while the buyers were having their inspection. I wasn’t planning to stay for the whole thing. I just wanted to stop by, see how things were going, and get a sense of what the inspector had found. When I pulled up to that house, the first thing I noticed were two Atlanta firefighters sitting in a canoe in the front yard.

Not a truck. Not a ladder. A damn canoe!

Standing on the front stoop was this fabulous, elegant Buckhead real estate agent. I mean, this woman was polished from head to toe. The picture of Southern sophistication and despite the deluge, her hair was perfect. I got out of my car, took one look at the firefighters paddling around the front yard, and asked her how things were going. That agent looked at me… then she looked at the canoe. Then she looked back at me. Without missing a beat, she said, “I think they’re going to terminate.”

But here’s where the story gets interesting: I eventually sold that house to another couple who knew exactly what they were buying. They understood the floodplain. They understood the risk, yet they loved that property enough to accept it.

Cue the historic Atlanta flood of 2009. No lie, that house flooded all the way up to the roof. I was worried sick about the owners, so I reached out to see how they were doing.

Do y’all know what that husband told me? They were happier than pigs in a very deep puddle! The house had flooded, but they were looking forward to getting a new kitchen, new bathrooms, and the opportunity to redesign the interior. They still loved their house, and they were determined to make the best of it.

While I wouldn’t wish that kind of devastation on anybody, those buyers had gone into the transaction with their eyes wide open. They understood what could happen, and when the worst happened, they weren’t blindsided by the risk. As far as I know, they’re still living there today. They’ve got their beautiful home, their acre of land, and the life they wanted to build there.

Whenever a big storm rolls through Atlanta, I think about that house. Because after all these years, I believe the same thing about real estate that I believe about the weather: we can’t stop every storm. We can’t promise that everything will go exactly according to plan. But we can do our homework. We can tell the truth. We can prepare for the worst while working toward the best.

Most important, we can make damn sure that when the water starts rising, we’re not the last ones to find out we need a canoe.

glenndabaker

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Today’s Words of Wisdom

GLENNDA BAKER & ASSOCIATES

The Best Four-Letter Word in the World: SOLD

Instead of sharing a new listing, today let’s talk about a recent sale. When my team and I took over this listing, we knew that simply putting a new sign in the yard wasn’t going to change the outcome. We needed a fresh approach, so we took a hard look at the property’s positioning, how it was being presented to potential buyers, and what the market was telling us.

We focused on creating renewed interest, reaching the right audience, and making sure the property had every opportunity to shine. The result? SOLD! So that’s what I mean when I talk about weathering the storms of real estate. We can’t always change the market conditions, but we can change our strategy. Sometimes the difference between a house that sits and a house that sells isn’t the house at all. It’s knowing when to change the forecast.