Sara Gianelloni - Holistic Realtor NOLA

09/16/2026

A house I know recently went up for sale—and it shares a driveway with a registered s€x offender.

Would you know that before making an offer?

It’s a good reminder that when you’re buying a home, you’re buying more than bedrooms, bathrooms, and square footage. You’re choosing a location, a street, and a neighborhood that will become part of your everyday life.

Before you buy, do your homework beyond the property itself. Check the s€x offender registry, look into flood history, research the surrounding area, drive by at different times of day, and pay attention to the things that may not show up in a listing.

A beautiful house can check every box inside—but what’s around it matters, too.

Buying a home is a big decision. Know as much as you can before you make it. 🏡

— Sara Gianelloni
Holistic REALTOR® NOLA
Where wellness meets real estate

09/16/2026

Fascinating!

https://www.facebook.com/share/1Bezm4AsxQ/?mibextid=WC7FNe

In Louisiana, a fence your grandfather put in the wrong place can end up being the actual legal property line, and the survey that says otherwise can go in a drawer. ⚜️

This is one of the places where our civil law does something the rest of the country finds a little unnerving.

Start with the ordinary rule. The boundary is where the titles say it is, and if the neighbors disagree, either one can bring a boundary action, a surveyor goes out, and the line gets fixed according to the deeds.

Now the Louisiana part. The Civil Code recognizes that a visible boundary, a fence, a hedge, a ditch, a row of posts, can itself become the boundary through possession alone. If a landowner has possessed up to that fence in good faith and under a title he believed was good, ten years will do it. If he possessed it without good faith or without a title, thirty years will do it. At that point the fence is the line, and the paper becomes history.

The requirements are real. The possession has to be continuous, public, peaceable and unmistakably up to that visible marker. Mowing the grass on your neighbor's side out of kindness is not possession. Fencing it, working it and treating it as your own for three decades is a different matter entirely.

The reason this exists is practical rather than romantic. Land in this state has been surveyed under French arpents, Spanish grants and American sections, and enormous amounts of Louisiana ground were fenced generations before anybody paid for an accurate plat. If the courts unwound every fence line that did not match a deed, half the rural parishes would be in litigation for a century.

So the law made its peace with the ground the way people actually used it.

Before anybody moves a fence their family did not put there, it is worth finding out how long it has been standing. Down here, time is a form of title. 🌙

09/15/2026

🏡 When you’re looking at buying, it’s important to know this:

REAL ESTATE MATH IS NEVER JUST ONE NUMBER.

A 5% interest rate doesn’t automatically mean it’s a better deal than a 7% rate.

A $400,000 house isn’t automatically a better deal than a $425,000 house.

And a builder offering a super-low introductory rate doesn’t automatically mean you’re saving money. 👀

Because all of these numbers work together.

📉 Higher interest rates can put downward pressure on home prices and give buyers more negotiating power.

📈 Lower rates can bring more buyers into the market, increasing competition and putting upward pressure on prices.

🏗️ A builder may offer an attractive temporary rate or incentive while keeping the purchase price higher—which matters because the price you pay stays with the house even after that temporary rate is gone.

💰 Then there are seller concessions, closing costs, taxes, insurance, HOA fees, maintenance, and what you may be able to negotiate.

The goal isn’t to find the lowest single number.

It’s to figure out which combination of numbers makes the most sense for YOU.

Because sometimes the house with the higher rate is the better opportunity.

Sometimes the house with the higher price is.

And sometimes that “AMAZING RATE!” isn’t quite the deal the giant sign makes it look like. 😂

This is why I tell my clients: don’t shop one number. Shop the whole deal. 🏡

09/11/2026

Planning on selling your home? The buyer for your Louisiana home may not live in Louisiana yet.

And that’s something sellers should be thinking about when choosing a listing agent.

After years of working in marketing and building a nationwide audience of tens of thousands of people, my reach extends far beyond the local MLS and the people who happen to already be looking here.

That matters—especially for higher-priced and distinctive Louisiana homes.

We have something buyers in other parts of the country are increasingly drawn to: more home for their money, incredible architecture, land, history, character, and a kind of Southern charm that simply can’t be recreated everywhere.

People selling a much smaller or less distinctive home in Dallas, Chicago, and other expensive markets are discovering what that same budget can buy in South Louisiana.

And I want them to see your home when they do.

My background in marketing means I don’t believe listing a property should begin and end with taking photos, putting it in the MLS, and waiting for local buyers to find it.

I know how to market beyond an immediate geographic area.

And I already have a nationwide audience built over years—not one I’m trying to create after you hire me.

For the right property, national exposure isn’t just impressive marketing. It can mean putting your home in front of the buyer who values it most.

Because sometimes the best buyer for a Louisiana home doesn’t live here yet.

— Sara Gianelloni
Holistic REALTOR® NOLA

09/10/2026

I have a lot of health-conscious clients and I do everything possible to support their concerns and priorities. I do also try to educate them on the shortcomings and flaws of ERMI testing as many have been led to believe it is more reliable than it is.

Here’s some detailed info on that for those who are interested:

https://moldlogic.substack.com/p/epa-recommends-do-not-use-ermi?

09/09/2026

Buyers and Sellers must know this!!

You cannot trust Zillow’s Zestimate and here is why.

House in this example is listed at $429,900.

Picture A - first day (Day 0) on market the Zestimate is $480,800

Picture B - second day (Day 1) on market the Zestimate drops down to $424,720.

The house was priced based off the comparable sales for the area so the $429,900 is the market value.

Zillow’s Zestimate had a $56K value estimate from one day to the next, a 13% difference in the home’s actual value! That’s insane!!

If the seller would have priced their home based off what Zillow says their home is worth, they would have been grossly overpriced and gotten nowhere selling it.

If you are a buyer buying in this market, just know that the value on Zillow doesn’t reflect the actual comparative market value of the property.

Altogether, Zillow is NOT a recommended real estate site. I can give you other sites that are much more accurate, reliable, and just as user-friendly.

As far as determing value of property, an appraisal can tell you the value, and a good real estate agent can do that and also tell you a good listing/purchase price.

09/09/2026

Wait… your REALTOR® can’t legally show you a house without THIS first. 👀🏡

In Louisiana, buyers must have a signed Buyer Broker Agreement before an agent can show them a property.

It’s not your agent being difficult or “making you commit” just to see a house—it’s Louisiana law.

And that makes choosing the right agent before you start touring homes more important than ever. 🔑

Know who you’re signing with. Ask questions. Choose someone you trust to advocate for you.

Buying in South Louisiana? I’d love to be in your corner. 🤍

09/02/2026

Turns out--caring a whole lot about your clients is a pretty good business plan. And a great way to make new friendships for life.

08/31/2026

🚩 SELLERS: Before you choose your agent—Beware of this listing-agent sales tactic.

“We charge less than other agents.”

Sounds great—but there’s one question you should ask:

“How do you know what the other agent charges?”

There is no universal percentage that every agent charges, and another agent shouldn’t be telling you what I charge unless they actually know. We aren’t even allowed to discuss that with other agents!

It’s also always negotiable.

📌🔎

When interviewing agents, ask each one directly:

What do you charge?

(Keep in mind that in some cases, agents who charge very small fees are going off of getting a large number of listings, so I’ve seen them rush through contracts and listing verbiage and end up making major mistakes that leave their client negligible in a contract.)

“What does that include?”

(For instance—Do they pay for a professional photographer out of their own pocket? Do they offer a pre-listing walkthrough to help make the home the most presentable as possible? Do they have resources to adequately guide you through the process?)

“What is your marketing strategy?”

(Do they throw it on the MLS quickly and hope it sells or do they have active marketing campaigns and a wide network that they present it to? This is especially important in this market!)

Then make the comparison yourself.

A lower fee can be a selling point. I understand that!

But misrepresenting someone else’s fee shouldn’t be.

And if someone has to misrepresent another professional’s fee to make their own look better… that might tell you something more important than the percentage ever could.