Halifax’s Housing Market ‘Heating Up’ In An Unexpected Way For One Realtor
A good Realtor will probably save you some money as they take you through the buying or selling process. But a really good Realtor just might save your entire house.
That’s exactly what happened to a Nova Scotia couple this month after their Realtor saved the house they are selling on behalf of their family from burning down.
Carrie Knowlton-Trider with RE/MAX nova was selling a home for Wayne Hadley and Diana Bartlett. The deal was on the verge of firming up and exchanging hands the following week.
Knowlton-Trider was on her way to work one day when she decided to stop at the property. Hadley and his wife were out of town and Knowlton-Trider knew there was one outlet on the exterior of the house that wasn’t working.
She wanted to make sure it was functioning before everything firmed up.
But when she arrived she heard a smoke detector blaring. When she opened the door she saw smoke billowing through the house.
She got on the phone to the fire department and then dialed her clients.
Wayne Hadley remembers getting the call.
He and his wife hadn’t been in the house for days. They were in the middle of a road trip to Ontario when Knowlton-Trider called and told them fire trucks were on the way to their house.
“It was unreal. My wife lost all the colour right out of her face,” Hadley says.
Eventually, firefighters told Knowlton-Trider a faulty bathroom fan had overheated and begun to melt. By the time Knowlton-Trider arrived, it was little more than a smoldering blob of goo on the bathroom floor.
A few more hours, and the whole house would likely have gone up in flames.
Knowlton-Trider called Hadley and his wife back and told them the news. They were relieved she had caught it in time but worried the incident was going to jeopardize their sale.
“I was like, ‘no it’s fine. It doesn’t even smell that bad. It was only a few hours,’” Knowlton-Trider recalls.
She wanted to make sure her clients still got their house sold, so Knowlton-Trider went back later that night and spent the rest of the evening scrubbing the place down.
In the end, she says, the mayhem only delayed her clients’ deal by two days. And the house still sold for over the initial asking price.
She was there past 9 at night cleaning up soot and the mess. She was there so long our neighbours ended up going over and giving her a pizza,” Hadley says. “That speaks to the character of her, right? I can’t say enough good things about Carrie.”
Knowlton-Trider admits it’s one of the wildest things that’s ever happened to her as a realtor.
“There’s different things you come across that are pretty shocking as a Realtor, but this could have ended up really bad.”
She hopes her clients’ near-miss acts as a warning for others trying to sell their homes.
“It shows how important it is to make sure you always pay close attention to those little things when you’re selling your home, especially the electrical issues,” she says.
A little click, or a weird hum, might not seem like a big deal but they can be early warnings that disaster is lurking. This is especially true when you’re selling a home, she says, because you’re probably spending much less time there than usual.
Knowlton-Trider warns sellers to make sure the proper insurance is in place and that someone’s checking in on their home when it’s left empty. She’s even done it herself in the past because she knows how important it can be.
“The market is still pretty intense right now and the last thing I want my clients dealing with is a big disaster on top of all the other stress they’re under,” she says.
Hadley agrees.
“Get yourself a realtor as good as Carrie,” he says. “It makes such a difference having someone who gives you confidence and always responds quickly when you have questions.”
“And, who knows, if they’re good enough they could even save your house from burning down!”
Do you have questions around buying or listing a home? Contact Carrie directly by e-mailing [email protected] or by calling (902) 452-9288.