Buying Advice

Tricks Sellers Play

by John Rice

I was out with a client this week looking at old houses in Chevy Chase, Fairway, Lakewood, Lansdowne,basically 40502.  One house in particular stuck out to me because it was a FRAUD!!!

What do I mean by that?  Simply that the seller had done everything possible to make the house attractive……….except making it a good house.  They had all the lights on, a fire going in the fireplace, they were simmering an orange in some type of cinnamon gue on the stove.  It was decorated with small scale furniture to make the small rooms look bigger. I can over look that stuff, but what got me miffed was that the whole house was nothing more than a beautiful faux finish. 

The ceiling in the bathroom looked like tin……but it was just wall paper.  The counter top had a neat design on it…………but it was painted plywood.  The flooring in the kitchen was left over parquet flooring from an 80’s remodel, but they had painted a light green and white diamond pattern over it.  All the vanities in the bathrooms were ancient, but were painted a trendy flat black.  There was panelling in the basement and a little in the kitchen that had just been painted.

None of this would bother me in a $100,000 house………….heck, not even in a $150,000 house.   In fact, I would probably give them credit for all their effort.  But this was a $350,000 house.  I just felt like somebody was trying to fool me!

My advice for this seller is to put in some granite and do some updates that aren’t in liquid form and can’t be poured out of a can.  Make your house honestly good!  Location is only one third of the known real estate principles.  Condition and price are part of it too!

My advice for buyers is to watch out for this kind of trickery.  Until you started to look closely at what this house really was, it looked stunningly beautiful.   But, none of that comes with the house.  The decor will be gone.  The new owner will then realize that the house was really just cheap updates inspired by those HGTV shows where they make over an entire room for $1000.

But it won’t be my clients that fall for this!!

Negotiating Repairs after an inspection

by John Rice

You know, you can find out a lot of people’s motivation if you just listen to their realtor.  Most are big talkers.  Most of them view the deal as practically done once you settle on a price.  They seem to forget that there is usually one more thing to negotiate:  The repairs after the inspection.

Here are some examples of what agents sometimes say right after a contract has been accepted: 

1)  “The sellers have a contingency contract on another house that they were about to lose.”

2)  “The buyer needed to close on a house in time for him to get his family moved down here before he started his new job .”

3)  “The seller is making 2 mortgage payments.”

4)  “The buyer’s lease is up at the end of next month.”

Now, repairs are always the trickiest part of a deal.  The seller is thinking that they have lived happily in the house for so many years and that they let it go too cheap.  The buyer is always thinking that they didn’t get the house as cheap as they wanted and they don’t want to buy the seller’s problems.  That’s just human nature.   It gets rough sometimes.  Usually there is a little compromising, meaning neither party is truly happy.

But when the agent pretty much discloses that their client can’t afford to lose your client, it makes negotiating a little easier.  I’m nice about it and all, but the reality is that the only person whose interest I need to promote is that of my client’s.  If my client gives me a list of things they want repaired, I’ve got to try to get as much of it done as possible.

So, negotiating repairs is really about knowing what is happening with the other party while keeping tight lips about what is up with your client.  It is a lot easier to draw a line in the sand if the other party doesn’t know enough about you to predict what you’ll do next.

How to ask the seller for repairs

by John Rice

I’m in the middle of a deal and we just had the inspection done.  The place has some medium sized issues.  Nothing that is too too bad, but stuff that still needs to be addressed………..and addressed soon! 

As I was explaining to my client how I write a repair list, I thought that might be something good to blog about.  Most realtors just list all the deficiencies and ask them to be repaired.  That sounds easy enough.  Just give them a list of tasks to do and move on.  Buuuuuuuuut, there is a potential problem in doing it that way.  Granted, it rarely comes up, but when a problem does happen, it really sucks!

The problem is that if you ask for a task to be done, you can have a situation where an action was performed, but the problems wasn’t solved.  Don’t get it?  Think of it like this.  You get a home inspection, find out the faucet leaks because it needs a new washer.  You write on the repair list that the seller has to install a new washer.  Seller agrees.  Seller goes to Lowe’s, buys a washer.  Seller installs new washer.  The faucet still leaks.  You tell the listing agent that he didn’t fix the faucet because it still leaks and the agent tells you that all you asked him to do was replace a washer.  See it now?  I don’t see this kind of bickering as much now that we are in a buyer’s market, but it still happens some.  If it is for something minor like my example, the seller and their agent know that you aren’t going to walk away from the deal over something so small.  Even if they agree to go back and fix the faucet, it still causes a lot of stress for the buyer.

The simple solution came from my Dad.  He is the smarted man I know.  He is also a lawyer, so he is pretty good about getting things worded correctly.  I remember asking him to help me word one of my first repair lists.  I started to do it just like everybody else.  Then he said to me that I should word it where a result is to be achieved rather than just a task performed.  It was like a revelation or something.  As soon as he said that, I totally got it.  Since then, I always state the problem that needs fixed and usually add something like “so that it functions properly” at the end.  That way if there is some issue with the work that was done, I can always claim that it isn’t functioning properly.  Also, for plumbing, electrical, and HVAC work, I always state that the work has do be done by licensed, qualified contractors.  That keeps the roofer from working on your furnace and a handyman from getting inside your electrical panel.

Thanks Dad!!

LEXpert Video Tour: Gardenside

by John Rice

Well, I’ve finally done it.  I’ve been talking about getting an HD camcorder and making video blogs about different neighborhoods in town.  For anybody that has ever been in the car with me, this will be familiar to you.  I’ve always commented on houses, neighborhoods, etc as I drive.  I am just glad that I get to use my lifelong interest in real estate to help people.

This is the first video I’ve made.  I hope to get better at them as I do more.  This one is about Gardenside.  I just sold a house over there and took the camcorder with me…………..Hope you enjoy it!!

How to find out what Lexington is REALLY like?

by John Rice

Somebody who may be moving to Lexington asked what all places he should visit to get a vibe for the town.  Naturally, some replied places like Keeneland, The Horse Park, Ashland, etc as.  All the places that most people who live in Lex never really go to.  I piped in that if he really wants to get a vibe for what Lex is like, he should go to Wal-Mart, a grocery store and drive around New Circle.

I mean, think about it.  If you are trying to decide if a town is right for you, shouldn’t you go to the same places that you spend most of your time going to wherever you now live?  All those places I mentioned are nice, and surely help define Lex, but I wouldn’t move here because of them, and I am probably not going to get a feel for how I’m going to fit in here either.

So, I figure most people are like me.  You go to the bank, the grocery store, do some shopping, some eating out, deal with traffic.  I think those are the things that will either make your life better or worse since you use them daily.  I drive by Ashland (The home of Henry Clay) everyday.  I would gladly trade that to be 5 minutes closer to my kid’s school!

I do a lot of work for people relocating here.  When I first starting getting all these people, I had these visions about driving them around, pointing out things like Triangle Park, explaining that the grass field in the middle of downtown might someday be called Center Point, a quick tour of UK’s campus, etc.  But just about all of them want to roll up their sleeves and see the neighborhoods where they may be living.  (If you want the tour, just ask or it!)

My advice to anybody would be to first decide what type of neighborhood you want to be in:  Older?  Newer?  Urban?  Suburban?  Which is more important, being close to work or activities?  What activities do you think you’ll end up doing?  Want to be close to a park?  Your kid’s school?  How much drive time can you handle without going crazy?  Once you answer a few questions like that, it gets easy for somebody who really knows Lex to narrow down a few parts of town that would work for you.