Random Real Estate Thoughts

Tree houses & The Tax Credit

by John Rice

I just didn’t know what to do.  I’m the guy that always gets everything just right before I put a new listing on LBAR.  That’s just how I am.  Buuuuut, I had a new listing that the photographer wasn’t going to be able to get to for two days.  Normally, I’d wait, but that $8000 tax credit had everybody out buying.  Even though I know nothing about basketball, I know that when the shot clock is about to run out, its time to throw the ball.

Soooo, I went a head and put the listing on without the pictures.  It was totally killing me that it was going to have one of those “No Photo Available” tags on it.  Then I got an idea.  I thought since the only real reason I was putting it on early was to get it noticed, I might as well do something that would really get it noticed.  So I cut and pasted a picture of a giant tree house to the listing.   Of course I had to then explain in the marketing remarks that wasn’t the house, but pictures were coming soon and it was worth getting on your radar now since the house was so nice.  It worked.  I had the most agent and public hits that I have ever had on a new listing in a 24 hour period.

Once we got the pictures, I deleted the listing and copied it to a new MLS number.  This way it not only came up as a new listing again, it also re-dumped it into the portals that agents set up for clients.  So, I got a little early exposure and still got to do something that didn’t violate my standards.

So far, we have had 3 showings in less than 24 hours on this house.  The seller did a whole lot of work to make it look great to a buyer.  I owed it to them to think outside of the box and try to catch a buyer before the tax credit expires next week.

Can’t vs. Won’t

by John Rice

I’m in the middle of the worst part of all real estate deals…………Negotiating repairs after the inspection.  You see, all sellers think that they’ve lived in the house for x number of years, and the things the buyer wants fixed haven’t been a problem for them.  All buyer’s think they are inheriting the seller’s problem house.  Unless one party just totally does everything the other party wants, ain’t nobody really happy.   It is kind of the bummer part of being a realtor, since I want my peeps to be happy!

I’m in one right now where the other agent really needs to take a course on presentation and charm.  Maybe I’ll send him a link to this blog.  See, he told me, in great length, why the seller WON’T do a couple of repairs we asked for.  I don’t know about you, but when I hear WON’T, it makes me want to dig in my heals and push back. 

One of the repairs was over an issue in the backyard.  They had a major landscape company come in and do a koi pond and patio.  I think the reason for the WON’T was because they just couldn’t emotionally bring themselves to “Undo” the work they have done.  That being the case, if the other agent had just said something like “I’m really sorry, but after putting so much of themselves into creating that wonderful space, the seller’s simply CAN’T bring themselves to makes the changes your client wants.”  Isn’t that much better than hearing WON’T??  I mean, the bottom line is that they aren’t going to budge on that one, but getting it in a pill that is a little easier to swallow leaves us not wanting to push back.  

See, we aren’t done yet.  We haven’t accepted their  repairs.  We also have to get past the walk-thru.  Let me ask you this.  Don’t you think it would be easy to turn this into a battle to see who will win?  Wouldn’t you be tempted to get right up to the walk-thru, when the seller has a loaded U-Haul in the driveway, and then have an issue with how one of the repairs were done?   When one party comes across as unreasonable, it makes the other party want to be unreasonable too.  It takes a big person to not respond in that way.

In a real estate deal, both parties have a lot to walk through together.  If you’re the seller, remember that you only have one house to sell and the buyer can go out and pick any of them.  Remember that you want the buyer to find the house acceptable at the walk-thru.    Remember that the buyer has a little more control over the time/date of the closing than you do.  If you are the buyer, keep in mind that you did pick the seller’s house after seeing a bunch of other ones.  Also remember that the seller will be living in the house until you close.   See, both parties really need to keep the other one happy since each have a little control over the other. 

I tried to buy a house in Autumn Ridge a few years ago.  We really liked it.  The roof had hail damage, there was evidence of up to 6 inches of water having been in the crawlspace, and one of the furnaces wasn’t even working the day of inspection.  I put it all on the list, and didn’t really expect the seller to do much of it.  I had in mind the lowest point I would accept.  I could put in a sump pump,  the roof could go a few more years, but I really needed a working furnace.  I didn’t even ask for a brand new one, I just wanted it to work.  The seller wouldn’t do any of it, so I had to walk away.  I guess he felt like he won, but what did he gain?   He got to hang on to his vacant house that needed a new roof and furnace, and had a water problem in the crawlspace.   There was no real victory in that!

So, CAN’T is sooo much better than WON’T, even if the results are the same.  WON’T always comes across as aggressive.  CAN’T at least has a chance of getting some sympathy from the other party.  I don’t remember if it was my dad that told me about CAN’T and WON’T or if it was my old mentor Susan Webb.  Both of them are pretty fantastic, so I guess all that matters is that I learned it.

How me and Mike Holmes are alike

by John Rice

Any of you ever watch that show on HGTV called Holmes on Homes?  It is about this dude that goes in somebody’s house after the owners had a bad deal with a lousy contractor.  He fixes everything, gets it right, and in the end, he almost always gets a big hug from the people he helped.  While he is a great contractor, what folks like about him is that he cares about them and how what he does affects their lives after he is done.

I’ve noticed that I’m also getting a lot of hugs lately.  I had a closing where I represented both the buyer and the sellers.  I put together a deal that made both of them happy.   Got hugs from all of them.  Helped a couple buy their first house.  It was a foreclosure, so it was a little more complicated of a deal, plus I did a minor repair to the house so that it would pass the FHA inspection.  Got a hug at the closing.  Worked with a neat family that was pretty new to Lexington.  It was a really smooth deal until the radon level wouldn’t go down.  Got a hug at the closing.  Today, I had to say goodbye (for now) to a family that I’ve spent a lot of time with this week.  They are hopping back on a plane tonight after buying a really cool house while they were here.  We looked at a lot of houses, ate a few lunches together, and had a lot of laughs.  I got another hug.  I figure I must be doing a pretty good job because I am sure it isn’t as easy to hug a fat middle aged Realtor as it is a buff good looking contractor, even though I likely smell better.

I know I am making light of this, but it is pretty important to me.  I don’t know about you, but I’m only gonna hug somebody that I really like, trust, or has done something special for me.  Fire fighters, police, Mike Homes…..and now me, get hugs.   I think that is pretty neat.

Beaumont, Stay at Home Sellers, & The General Lee

by John Rice

I’ve been so busy the past couple of weeks.  Thought I’d share some of it with you.  They’re kind of random, but I think you’ll enjoy them.

I took my people to see a fabulous house in Beaumont Reserve that was well over $600k.  The seller must not have wanted a lockbox on the door, so she had to be there to let us in.  She kept us in the foyer while she basically chanted verbatim the marketing remarks we had already read, then told us how desperate she was to sell, but thought her price was fine.  We saw the pictures.  We read the marketing remarks.  We are here for crying out loud, just let us past the foyer.  Greet us and go.  To me, the only thing she sounds desperate for is getting her price.  It was a nice house.  Just not what my peeps wanted.

We had a similar deal at a house that was over 6000 square feet.  The seller was there, so we got to hear a bunch of useless info.  This guy even told us to follow a certain route through the house.  We had to start in this room, then go here, there.  Then up the stairs, ending the tour at the back stair case and coming down in the kitchen.  I was having a hard time remembering all of it, wishing there was tape on the floor, or arrows on the wall.  It felt like we were on a one way road, or like when you go to a museum and traffic flows in a circle.  If you are a seller, and end up meeting the buyer and their agent, realize we are there to see the house.  Just welcome us, smile, them make yourself scare.  I don’t mean to be mean, but it is just awkward and doesn’t aid in getting your house sold.  Plus, in this case, we were so anxious about staying on our route that we forgot to notice if there was a fireplace or not!

I’ve been in Beaumont a lot this week.  Mainly Beaumont Reserve and Beaumont Crossing.  I really like Beaumont a lot.  I mean, what isn’t to like.  But there must be some algorithm on pricing out there that I can’t crack.  You can have 2 very similar houses out there that are very close, and one will sell for $100k more than the other?  Now I do CMA’s, so I know what values to add for finishes, square footage, etc.  I secretly (not anymore) believe that since there is such a wide range of comps for the neighborhood, that conservative agents pick the more realistic comps and other agents use the higher priced houses.  What I try to do is find 3 comps that are similar in size and finishes.  That way you don’t have to cut and paste so much.  You cut and paste too much and your CMA starts to look as un-natural as Michael Jackson’s face.  Another approach would be to take the larger, better finished houses and subtract out the differences.  You will almost always end up with a higher estimated value that way.  Just my 2 cents, but that is what I think.  My folks want a house that sold for over $500k in 2008.  The comps I used put the value around $480k.  Go figure!

I did have one thing that made me a little mad this week.  The agent for the #2 house texted me to see if my peeps had made a decision yet.  I told her which direction they were going to go.  She took a negative tone toward the house they may buy, and basically told me good luck selling that one in the future.  I didn’t even reply, since I don’t like to burn bridges and it is still their #2 house, but c’mon, be a good sport.

I also saw an orange Hyundai in Nicholasville on the way home from listing a house down there.  It has “01” on the doors just like the General Lee from the Dukes of Hazzard.  In my head, I could have sworn I heard the narrator of the show say, “Now folks, that just ain’t right.”

Helping out of town buyers

by John Rice

Well, I’ve got several out of town buyers busting into Lex soon.  Kinda got to thinking about how an out of town buyer is a little different that somebody that already lives in the area.

Obviously, they know nothing about Lex, traffic, schools, neighborhoods, the market.  They are kind of lost.  What they need is somebody that can be feeding them all that info before the drive or hop on a plane to look at houses.  I guess in the old days, and still today if you’ve got an old school agent, you didn’t really do anything except wash your car before they got here.  Didn’t have much choice before e-mail, satellite views, and the internet.

The beauty of all the info that is just clicks away is that a buyer can sit wherever home currently is for them and narrow down what school district they want to be in, see if the lot for a house they like is odd shaped, or backs to something undesirable, etc.  I guess I could also turn this post into why a house needs to be presented well online to even get anybody to come out in person to see it, but this is about out of town buyers………..maybe the next one.

I guess what I have learned to do is to work even harder BEFORE they get here.  Moving is stressful, but can you imagine coming to a town you know nothing about?  Lay in bed at night and wonder if you can really find a house you like in the short period of time you’ll be there?  Worry that you’ll make a bad decision just because you are pressed for time?  Run out of time because you’ve wasted so much of it looking at houses that won’t work for you?  All that really sucks.

So, what I try to do is narrow down the search to certain parts of town.  Usually a job or a school are the biggest things buyers need to work around.  From there, of course comes price range, old or new house, amenities they want, and the million other things they have in mind.  I usually spend a lot of time e-mailing answers to questions, telling them about neighborhoods, sending links for more info.  One thing that has really been sweet is that I bought a HD camcorder.  It is so cool to answer their questions with video.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words, and most realtors including me can probably go past that, so I guess it is also a real time saver too.

I’ve got some cool peeps coming to town this week.  I am excited to meet them in person.  I got a Facebook friend request, so this is actually going to be the first time I’ll know what an out of town client looks like when I arrive to pick them up.  I usually wonder around a motel lobby, make eye contact with anybody around until one of them smiles at me, then I say “Are you______?” 

I’m hoping after all the e-mails, all the previewing houses with the camcorder, all the info I have given them, that they will come to town and kind of feel like they already know enough to make a good decision.  That when they do see the houses, they feel like they kinda have already been there.  To me, that is really what it is all about:  Making it easy for them to make this huge decision…………and have fun when they get here!