When it rains, it pours!
Today I spoke with a county official who shared a surprising statistic with me. Even if we don’t get one more drop of rain, we’ve already come close to matching the 2018 rain measurement. In fact, our area has experienced 32” of rain, just since June! The ground “sponge” is near capacity.
As you might imagine, rainy days and real estate dreams aren’t exactly a great match. When the weather is less than ideal, anything and everything seems to go sideways. Showing a home during a downpour is the absolute worst! You would think after years of experience and golf umbrellas galore, we’d be used to the June-October rainy season, but that’s not necessarily so!
When it’s soggy out, even the basics can be a challenge for sellers. Because we believe professional pictures showcasing the sunny side of Florida are the best way to capture the true lifestyle of our area, we often wait to shoot the exterior of the home pending rain delays. Inevitably, when a sunny day finally arrives, the grass may be a foot high!
Though sellers hate to get a call we showing their home during one of our famous downpours, buyers see the rains in a more positive light… Yes, it’s annoying to get soaked between houses, but the benefits can certainly outweigh the wet clothes. Sellers take note.
Suppose you are a horse lover and looking for that perfect home with a barn and fenced pasture. Great news! This weather was made for you and now the best time to shop potential properties. Why? When it’s raining, or we’ve had a recent downpour, your visual inspection of the land will yield much more information than it would on a sunny day. Will your horses be standing in ankle deep water for several months of the year? How dry is the barn? What is the drainage situation? Without rain, these critical discoveries might not have been realized until it was too late.
Drainage isn’t just a problem in pasture areas. As a buyer, pay special attention to any potential flooding issues. After a heavy rain, does the water seem to run off quickly or is there a good chance you be hosting ducks and tadpoles in your yard? One agent shared seeing a local subdivision with catfish swimming down the street in front of one of the houses!
Yes, when it rains it pours! Even if everything else seems to line up perfectly, rain delays can wreak havoc on closings and contracts as well. Home inspections are challenging as virtually no one wants to stand on the roof or crawl under a house in this weather, especially while dodging lightning bolts. Inspectors who routinely tackle several houses a day are sometimes lucky to complete just one. Couple that with system replacements and roof replacements, and you have yourself a scheduling nightmare.
So to those of you selling and shopping in this squishy weather, take advantage of the positives when you can. Much of it is out of our control. Mother Nature has a way of letting us know who is really in charge!