Right before dinner last night, I was looking through the closed sales of the day. I stumbled on a sale that got me thinking about how prices have gone up this year. The house I saw was about a 3800 square feet place in Veteran’s Park Elementary that sold for $349,900.

What made that sale jump off the screen to me was the fact that I have been watching values over there for about a year. I had a seller who wanted me to list their house about this time last summer. I told them the house was worth about $325-335k based on the comps. They disagreed, are now on their 3rd agent, and still have not sold because their list price is $20k too high.

Then, late this winter I worked with a family that wanted to be in this school district. When we started looking at houses, the comps were still in the $325-335k range. Then spring brought out the buyers and before we knew it, the comps were mostly in the $335-345k range……and now the most recent comp is practically $350k. That is over 3% appreciation.

In two years or less, those people that didn’t list with me may just get their price 😉

(And I WON’T even mention the house I could have bought in 2011 for $280k that just sold for $337,500 with absolutely no improvements other than new carpet!!)

So, Fayette County Public Schools is about to redistrict all of Lexington for the first time in over 10 years. It has me wondering what that will do to the value of real estate.

Since I have a house in Andover Hills, naturally I was worried about the thought of losing Athens-Chilesburg Elementary (A.C.E.) That neighborhood is one of the few with this higher performing school. If you want the best elementary school in the Hamburg area, Andover Hills was really your only choice in the $200-400k range.

But you know what. Then I remembered that Andover Hills was a very desirable neighborhood long before A.C.E. was built. It sold well when it was in the Yates/Crawford/Bryan Station district.

Then my next thought was about a neighborhood called Waterford. Waterford use to be in the much coveted Veteran’s Park district until the last big district boundary change. Waterford was a neighborhood many people moved into just for that school and moved out when they didn’t have elementary aged kids. That was also when prices were rising rapidly, so people could buy a house, stay for a few years, sell and make some money. Can’t really do that any more.

Waterford is now in the Southern Elementary District. A neighborhood called Pinnacle got the Veteran’s Park school district. I’ve just had several buyers looking in the area of both of these neighborhoods. Want to know what I discovered? A similar house in Waterford sells for just about the same as it would in Pinnacle, despite not having the higher performing elementary school. So yeah, Waterford’s values survived losing one of the top rated elementary schools in Lexington.

Then this got me thinking about desirable neighborhoods that don’t have top performing school districts. Look at Hartland. It never had a top rated school district, but everybody loves it and prices are strong.

And finally I remembered some areas that got better schools and the values didn’t really change. Masterson got Sandersville Elementary. Right in the middle of the neighborhood in fact. All those neighborhoods along Liberty Road got an upgrade with the new Liberty Road Elementary. Values didn’t really change in either of the districts of these brand new schools.

So, I think there might be some very minor adjustments in value, but I don’t see any big changes unless a neighborhood suddenly hits the jackpot and gets a much higher rated elementary AND middle AND high school than they had………or had that and lost it all.

What I hope comes out of this redistricting is that we end up with less of a gap between the higher rated schools and those that don’t perform as well. Imagine how great that would be for the kids and parents. You could live anywhere and still get your kids in a good school.

I keep hearing agents say we have low inventory. This is kind of funny, but I even had an agent accuse me of not knowing we were in a shortage of listings. LOL!

That got me thinking……are we really experiencing low inventory?

I did some research. Since we are only half way through March, I compared January and February from 2011,2012, 2013 and 2014. 2011 new listings in Fayette Co were 1184. 2012 saw 1144, 2013 saw 1184 and 2014 had 945. So, we are down a little this year probably due to weather, but sales are down too since buyers haven’t wanted to go out much. A shortage means an imbalance. If supply AND demand go down equally, then that isn’t a shortage.

But I don’t think that is really what people mean when they say “Low Inventory.” When I go to look for houses for my buyers, I always have plenty to show them. The problem is there is nothing that really stands out. There are a bunch of ho-hum, run of the mill houses for sale, and everybody wants something better. That is why an updated house will sell so quickly right now. I just got multiple offers on a house the first day on the market. There are 13 other active listings in the same price range in the same neighborhood with an average of 111 days on market. Mine was move in ready, the others must not be?

Which leads me to something else I have been thinking about lately. Since the economy had been so bad for so many years, many homeowners didn’t have the funds to do much to their houses. I think that is why we are seeing so many of the ho-hum listings that just are hard to fall in love with.

I think it will take a few years until we start seeing more updated houses come on the market. Until then, here is what to do depending on who you are:

Sellers-I’ve blogged about cheap ways to make your house appealing to buyers. There are often minor changes that can be done that have a lot of impact. If you already have a really nice house, plan on selling it before the next weekend passes.

Buyer-If there is a house you saw online and really liked, drop everything and go see it immediately. Chances are every other buyer in your price range likes it just as much. Don’t need that totally updated move in ready house that looks like The Property Brothers just got done with it? Then you don’t have to be in such a hurry.

BEWARE – of a buyer – (Name withheld) who claims to be a doctor for VA relocating from Texas. Plans to purchase three homes. She has made offers with three different Realtors on three different properties – all new construction. All cold checks. (Name withheld), her husband (Name withheld) and another lady (Name withheld). (An unnamed local association of realtors) staff informed she has been house shopping since last Thursday.

Just got the message you just read. I didn’t print the names of the scammers nor the source of the message as the only change.

How would you like to be the seller of one of the properties? I mean, it got to the point where there was a check written that bounced. That was probably the earnest money deposit check, which gets deposited after a contract has been signed.

How does this happen? I’d tell you but I would probably have a bazillion emails from realtors calling me out for criticizing our industry……..like the actions above aren’t the real crime.

I guess my point in this is that I want to prevent sellers from having this happen to them. I want to prevent MY sellers from having this happen.

How do I try to keep this from happening?

I need a preapproval letter from the buyer’s agent before my seller signs a contract. If it is a loan officer I do not know or a company I haven’t worked with, I call to see if the buyer has really been preapproved and if their credit has been pulled. Often, loan officers will send a preapproval based solely on the info the buyer tells them.

If the buyer contacts me about one of my listings and wants to buy it, same thing. They need a preapproval letter from a lender I can talk to before I (as the listing agent) would accept it.

If it is a cash deal, I offer to come help count the money first.

All of this is really common sense. You just check things out before taking any action.

It is all about NOT letting my clients waste time with somebody who is a dreamer or who wants to play games.

Well, it is finally happening. The improving market means all those people who were forced into being landlords can now sell their house. I really felt bad for these sellers when the market was at it’s worst. They often had to move to take a job and left behind their home that wouldn’t sell. Renting was really their last option short of ruining their credit.

I have worked with many of these sellers this year. They have all been renting and want to sell. Most still have in the back of their head that they may have to rent again.

The first thing I always ask these sellers is if they really want to be a landlord. I tell them that it is almost always better to part with the house now or keep it forever. Renting for another few years can actually hurt them more in the long run. Things like a roof, furnace, air conditioner, water heater, wood windows, etc have a lifespan. The less of that lifespan you pass on to a future buyer the less your house is worth compared to the rest of your neighborhood. So, lets say you have a house that is 12-15 years old. You rent it another 3 years then decide to sell. By that time the roof and HVAC are old enough that it will be a stumbling block to buyers, so they offer less. Even worse, let’s say you have to replace one or both of those items? Your house isn’t going to be worth $5-10k more because that is how much you spent replacing those items! And if you aren’t too deep into a 30 year mortgage, you are not paying down enough in principal to offset the expense.

Nobody has told me they want to be a landlord. They all want out, especially the ones who no longer live here.

Once I have seen the house, I will make suggestions on what it will take to sell the place. I usually try to find that happy spot where we get the greatest return on every dollar the seller spends. Paint is the cheapest thing you can do when selling your house. Fresh paint always makes a house look it’s best. Carpet is a cheap item too. Think about it, when you walk in a room, the walls, ceiling and floors are most of what you see……they are ALL of what you see if the house will be vacant. A deep cleaning is a cheap way of making the house more appealing to buyers too. Often, changing out a few outdated features in the kitchen or bath go a long way. I also usually end up managing these type of projects since the sellers are not here to do it themselves. That is okay, because I enjoy watching a house go from looking like a worn out rental to something a buyer will be attracted too. And I have to say I totally enjoy seeing if my input turns out being fruitful for my sellers.