🏠 Vacant House Horror Stories, Sellers Who Blame Everything but the Price, Verbal Counter Offers Gone Wrong 😡 Selling Commercial Property in PEI, Free Home Insulation for Islanders 💰 & the Surprising Origin of PEI's Roadside Lupins 🌸

🏠 What really happens when a house sits vacant for five or six years? And why do sellers blame everything except the price? This week on PEI's favourite real estate podcast, Michael and Patty pull back the curtain on the situations agents actually run into — from mouse-filled vacant homes to furious vendors, verbal counter offers gone wrong, and the surprising truth about Prince Edward Island's famous roadside lupins. If you're buying, selling, or just curious about Island real estate, this episode is packed with practical advice you won't want to miss! 🎙️🐭 A HOUSE LEFT VACANT FOR YEARS Michael shares a jaw-dropping story from the field: a property left empty for five or six years, still filled with food — and, unsurprisingly, mice. With just one mouse trap and some poison on site, it's a cautionary tale about what happens when homes are abandoned and why proper preparation matters before listing.😡 "YOU LET ME OVERPRICE MY HOUSE!" Patty gets an earful from a frustrated owner who accuses her of being unprofessional — for allowing them to overprice their own property! This sparks a candid conversation: should agents get a disclaimer signed for over-priced listings? Why does the second or third listing agent so often win? And why is it never the price according to the vendors? Instead, sellers blame a lack of open houses, a lack of agent open houses, or insufficient marketing. Michael even shares how he lost a listing over a missing sign — on a property that was simply overpriced. Spoiler: a sign was never going to make the difference. 🪧📞 SHOULD AGENTS FOLLOW UP AFTER SHOWINGS? A listener wonders: when a buyer views a home and says there's no interest, do agents usually follow up to find out where those buyers eventually ended up? Michael and Patty agree it sounds like a great idea — and discuss what that kind of feedback can reveal about your listing, your pricing, and your next move as a seller.🏢 SELLING A COMMERCIAL BUSINESS IN PEI "My wife likes so-and-so, but he has no commercial experience." Sound familiar? The hosts walk through the right way to sell a commercial property on the Island: start with an AACI appraisal, seek out one of the two or three genuinely experienced commercial agents in PEI, and avoid out-of-province agents — remember, they must be licensed in PEI to practise here.🏡 FREE HOME INSULATION FOR ISLANDERS Patty highlights how free home insulation is helping Islanders save money and stay comfortable year-round — plus other available programs focused on insulation (not heat pumps). If your energy bills are climbing this year, this segment could save you serious money on heating and cooling. 💰🤝 THE VERBAL COUNTER OFFER THAT KILLED A DEAL A listing agent is stunned when buyers refuse their verbal counter offer — and simply walk away. The lesson? Treat every offer as the buyer's best and last, and take them all seriously. Just because someone makes an offer doesn't mean they're prepared to go up!🌸 THE ORIGIN OF PEI'S LUPINS Finally, Patty explores a beloved Island icon: the roadside lupin. Surprisingly, these colourful flowers are mostly introduced plants, not native Island wildflowers! They likely arrived in the early 1900s as garden ornamentals — forms of the large-leaved or bigleaf lupin (Lupinus polyphyllus), native to western North America. From gardens, cemeteries, and roadside plantings, they gradually escaped into ditches, fields, and disturbed areas. Botanist David Erskine found them only locally in the early 1950s, and they were still uncommon across the Island into the late 1970s. 🌷🎧 Tune in for honest talk, real stories, and expert insight into Prince Edward Island real estate — only on The Michael and Patty Show!