Thanksgiving is just around the corner, encouraging us to gather with friends and family, enjoy a festive banquet, and reflect upon the Pilgrims and this quintessentially American holiday.
As any school kid knows, the Pilgrims made landfall in 1620 at Plymouth Rock, near what is now Boston. It’s said that they fled Europe because of religious persecution. That’s true in part, but that’s not the only reason this hardy band of adventurers made that arduous journey. Just as important was their desire to acquire their own…real estate. That’s right. Unable to obtain their own plots of land on the Continent, they set sail in the hope of finding some real property in the New World, preferably with good schools and curb appeal.
To their delight, they found a great deal of real estate available, although much of the prime ocean view tracts were already occupied by Native Americans. Luckily, the Native Americans were a trusting lot, never suspecting that these fair-skinned Europeans were only the vanguard of a horde of their relatives who would eventually gobble up most of the continent, relegating the natives to selling woven blankets and jade jewelry and operating extremely successful casinos.
Had the Pilgrims been able to sail to the West Coast, their experience might have been considerably different. If they had come ashore at, say, Santa Monica, they would also have encountered largely peaceable and friendly Native Americans. But, instead of turkey, dressing, cranberry sauce, sweet potato casserole and creamed onions, their first Thanksgiving might have featured sushi, miniature barbecued chicken pizzas, white wine and lattes.
Had they forged further inland, they would have added milk-and-honey as they settled in the true Promised Land of the Westside and Beverly Hills, where to this day, premium residential real estate is still the greatest asset in the region.
We mention this only because the conventional wisdom is that from Thanksgiving through Christmas and the turn of the year, the Westside and Beverly Hills real estate market is deader than a holiday gobbler. People seem to think that from late November until January 1, brokers and agents go into hibernation for lack of business or roam the empty corridors of their domain seeking the slightest shred of client interest.
That’s the fiction, but the fact is that the holiday season is as good a time if not better to put a high-end property on the market. Not every potential buyer is so sated with Thanksgiving turkey or so consumed with Yuletide gift buying that they’ll pass up the opportunity to take a good, close look at an attractive real estate deal.
I can’t speak for all my colleagues in this business, but I am looking forward to a great holiday season. I’m standing by ready to offer my clients even more personalized service in the weeks just ahead.
I’m available 24/7 at (310)777-6291 and easy to recognize. I am Mark Goldsmith, the real estate professional with the outstanding track record…and the funny hats and shoes with those big clunky buckles on them!
