Whew!  I have been on the go with 3 buyers lately and a few people that maaaaaay do something sooner or later.  I haven’t been home much at night or on the weekends.  I miss seeing my kids and wife, but I am glad to have the work!

I have had 2 big disappointments this week.  I found the PERFECT house for one of my buyers.  I mean perfect.  The area, size, layout and everything was just perfect!  It had hardwood floors in the main rooms, new carpet in the bedrooms, slate in the kitchen, and all the lighting and hardware had been updated.  I call the agent to tell her that it looks like an offer is coming.  She tells me that they just sold the place a few hours earlier.

Here is one house out of about 200 in its price range in Lexington and 2 people want it.  Can you blame them after my description.  It just goes to show that THE BEST house in any price range will sell.  My gut is that of the 200 or so houses in this price range, more than half are ones that NOBODY wants.  Yet, they are there and make the market look worse than it is.

The next house was totally awesome for under $100k.  The listing agent was new.   This was his 1st listing.  He under priced it by maybe as much as $7000.  Anyway, he told me it had a “Kickout Clause” .  That means that if the seller likes my offer better, the other buyer has a given amount of time to remove a contingency.  As it turns out, the wording on the other offer for the kickout clause was so vague, nobody knew what it meant?  The time to figure that out would have been BEFORE they accepted it, but hey.  My buyer ended up walking away in frustration.  The new agent didn’t have the experience to advise/guide his client with any more than textbook theory.  Oh well!  We found her another house that I think will be good for her, but it isn’t as nice as that one was.

I also got a contract on one of my listings this weekend.  I am totally stoked about it too!  This house is in a neighborhood where the builder is still building and about every 4th house is on the market.  To make matters worse, right after I listed it, an IDENTICAL house came on the market just 3 doors up the road…….FOR $5000 LESS!!!!  Well, I guess this is where marketing and staging comes into play.  I worked with my sellers (who are great BTW) to thin things out, arrange furniture, etc.  I had my totally awesome extrememly talanted (yeah, I am talking about you Shaun) photographer come out.  I know that when people are considering a house, they go back home and keep looking at the pictures as they make up their mind.  That is another benefit of having such nice pictures and marketing remarks that evoke an emotional connection to the place.  Don’t believe me?  Well here is what most agents do:  “Great 3 bedroom house in move in condition conveniently located.  AND THE DISHWASHER IS NEW!!!”  See?  Did that do anything for you?  I didn’t think so!

Well, that is my week so far…………..