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My first lesson about real estate

by John Rice

1669 Elliot

 

This was my grandparents house.  1669 Elliot Avenue in Ashland Ky.

I have lots of good memories of this place.  See that lonely window on the right?  That use to be a screened in porch.  My grandfather made it into a bedroom and the house’s 2nd full bath.  I helped him build it.  Well, as much as a 6 year old can help.  I remember trying to help him do something with the new toilet.  Using a hammer on porcelain turned out not being the right tool.  The house use to have white asbestos siding and diamond shaped shingles.  It had much more of the 40s character back then.

See that gray house on the left?  It use to be white too.  The neighbors added an in-ground pool in about 1975 or so.  It has since been filled in.  That driveway is shared.  It use to have two concrete strips with grass in the middle.  It has now been filled in too.  Not only was this the location of my first real estate lesson, it is also where I discovered my love for cars.  The neighbor with the shared driveway had a red Camaro with white stripes.  Probably a 1971-1973.  Car was super loud.  Then I guess the gas crisis hit and one day it was replaced with a yellowish MG Midget.  I loved that car.  Probably why I love my Miata and M Roadster so much.  The car smelled so good inside.  It had that great British car smell, which I have since realized is probably a combination of leather, dust and mold from a leaking top.   My grandfather had a series of old Datsun Z cars too, so I would hang out in the driveway and just look at the cars, counting down my days until I could drive.

This house is also where the “Incident” occurred.  I was trying to get a garden rake that was hanging on two nails off the garage wall.  I was a little kid and could only reach the very bottom of the rake handle.  I was successful at getting it off the nails, but not successful at preventing it from falling, tines down, on the hood of my grandfather’s car.  So, if anybody sees a brown 1975 Datsun 280z with 5 little dents right in the middle of the hood, please apologize to the owner for me.

The only bad memory of this place was the morning of May 29th 1977.  I remember my grandmother crying and not knowing why.  The lady across the street, who we called Tink, had died the night before in the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire.   I didn’t know that it was one of the deadliest fires in history.  I just knew my grandmother’s friend wasn’t ever coming home.  It was strange to be outside playing and see her red Olds Cutlass still in her driveway.  I thought that was a cool car and always remember her every time I see one.

I guess I better get to real estate now.

My grandparents decided to move to Florida.  I was so unhappy about this.  They used an agent with ERA.  Being the 70s, I had no idea WHY the Equal Rights Amendment people were selling my grandparent’s house.

My grandparents timing was fantastic on this sale.  The house was in Ashland.  Like, when Ashland Oil was in Ashland.  It sold quickly and for top dollar.

A few years later interest rates went though the ceiling and Ashland Oil left town.  It was a double whammy for the local real estate market.  It took well over a decade for the house to be worth more than the buyers paid for it.

Supply and demand.  How interest rates and the local economy impact value.  What happens when more people are leaving town than moving in from another town…..Lessons I learned as a kid that benefit my clients today.  Other lessons I learned at this place?  Don’t throw a baseball through the neighbor’s window.  Don’t jump off the roof of a detached garage.  Every neighborhood has a grumpy old lady.   Your parents are the tooth fairy.

Best undervalued neighborhood in town

by John Rice

My first new car was a 1996 Geo Prizm.  Green.  Because green was a hot color for everything in the mid 90s.  We bought it because it was mechanically the same thing as a Toyota Corolla.  General Motors and Toyota had a joint plant back then in California where they produced the Geo Prizm and U.S. market Toyota Corollas.

They were the same car, only the Prizm was cheaper.  Few people knew that you were essentially getting a Toyota Corolla for less that what a Toyota Corolla cost.

Neighborhoods can be like that too.

If you are the type to have picked the Geo Prizm over the Toyota Corolla, then you should check out Old Paris Place.

This is a Ball Homes neighborhood.  It has the same model houses as any other Ball Homes neighborhood, only they are cheaper than you will find in other neighborhoods like Masterson Station.

If you are looking in the $125-160k range, this neighborhood should be on your radar.  The same houses will cost you $140-175k in other similar neighborhoods.

Here is what I like about it:

  1.  You are close to the interstate if you need it.  Close to Hamburg too.  Close to all the cool things on the north end of downtown.  And not a terrible drive to the south end of town either.  My kid’s school is very close to Old Paris Place.  I remember rushing to pick them up from a house I was renovating waaaaay out Harrodsburg Road.  It mentally felt like I was super far away, but I would hop on New Circle at Harrodsburg Rd and before you knew it, I was turning left on Old Paris Pike.
  2. You are closer to restaurants, banks, gas stations and grocery stores than you would be if you lived in Masterson Station and paid more for your house.  You’re 10-15 minutes away from Hamburg too.
  3. Several of the lots back to a wooded area owned by the HOA.  Many back to two farms.
  4. I have had a couple of clients live in this neighborhood and have met several other residents.  All say it is a friendly place to live.

Right now,  this neighborhood is a little undervalued.  Most people wanting a 10-15 year old home in this price range default to Masterson Station for their search, just like most car shoppers knew about the Toyota Corolla but not the Geo Prizm.

 

What is it worth?

by John Rice

What is it worth?

That is a question I get asked a lot.

Sometimes I can do a little quick math in my head and come up with a ballpark number.  Most of the time my default answer is that I need to study the recent sales….AKA “The Comps.”

When the market was flat, it was easier to do it all in my head.  I could think “Oh, I sold that house over there a couple years ago, and I remember showing that one down there last year and it sold for this much.”  The past couple of years the market has been appreciating so much that the best answer is to look at the comps.  When values are going up (or down) you should always look at the most recent sales to determine value.  It’s a big purchase for a client and they need an agent who will put in the time to make sure they don’t over pay.

I love studying the comps.

Some times they are easy.  Like in a newer neighborhood developed by a mass builder.  Most of the houses are the same age and in the same condition.  It doesn’t take long to come up with a pretty accurate value.

It gets harder when the house is more unique.  Like an older house where every house in the neighborhood has a different floor plan,  and all are in varying conditions.

I think the most challenging ones are rural properties.  I LOVE rural properties.  Part of my reason for enjoying them so much is purely selfish.  I love driving out in the country so it is always a treat just to get there.  It is also interesting to see these properties, whether listing them or working with a buyer.  No two are alike.  Also, there is a relationship between the house and the land that must work.  I often have buyers who like the house but don’t like the land, and the other way around.  That is why I always try to depict both when I list rural properties.  I know that is important to the buyers.

Here are some of the things I look for when determining value for rural properties:

  1.  Location-The closer to the subject house the better.  This can be a challenge because there are fewer properties and fewer sales in the country.
  2. Age-You often find a wide range of ages in the country, which also means a wide range of floor plan types.  If I have a mid 90s house that I am trying to find the value on,  I try not to use a brand new house or one from the 1960s even if they are next door.
  3. Lot size-The closer in size to the subject house the better.  If I’m trying to find the value of a house on 1 acre, I might use houses on up to 3 acres.  If I have a 5 acre lot, I might compare up to 10 acres.  Most 1-10 acre buyers just want to be in the country.  Most 1-3 acre buyers just want a big yard.  Some 5-10 acre buyers have horses or need that space.  Over 10 acres and you are often looking at somebody who wants a working farm.

A good rule of thumb when using recent sales to determine the value of a property is the fewer adjustments you need to make, the more accurate the value will be.  Looking at the comps is really studying buyer behavior.  You are saying a buyer paid this much for this house, and the house I’m trying to figure out the value on is 300 square feet bigger, so it should sell for the same price PLUS the value of that extra 300 square feet.  That is why beginning with the best 3-4 houses is key to ending with an accurate value.

I showed a house last night to some friends of mine.  They asked what I thought it was worth.  I pretty much told them everything you have just read.  When I went to look at the recent sales this morning, I found 3 houses on the same street that had sold within the past year that were all on similar sized lots, and were similar sized houses that were all built around the same time.

Sometimes comping rural properties can be easy too I guess.

Why is this the dullest blog post ever?

by John Rice

This is probably going to be the dullest blog post I’ve ever made in a decade of blogging.

Flood insurance.

Seeing all the news about the hurricane and flood insurance has it on my mind I guess.

It is a boring topic but there are some important things to know about it.

In Lexington, we don’t really get flooding.  Our basements sometimes fill up with water when we have two feet of rain in a short period.  Some intersections might have a foot of water in them.  People who back up to a creek might have their backyard under water.  That is about the worst.  We don’t have a river in a heavily populated area.  We are too far from the ocean.  It isn’t a wide spread problem here.

But we still have several houses that require flood insurance.  These are mainly ones that back to a creek.  In the past 12+ years as a realtor, I am guessing I see about 1 in 20 houses where the seller has checked on the Disclosure that the house is in a flood plain and requires flood insurance.

Almost always, I suggest that my buyers don’t even look at the house.  Why?  Most people don’t understand what flood insurance is, how it works or what it means.  When people don’t know how much, if any, water to expect and they don’t know what it will cost, most buyers move on.  It scares them, and when you are scared, you normally retreat.  So, being in a flood plain and requiring flood insurance is a stigma for most buyers.

There are two exceptions where I can feel good about rubber stamping my approval on purchasing in a flood plain:

  1.  When the house is in a higher price range.  An extra $100 a month to a buyer in the sub $150k price range is a big deal.  The buyer considering a $500k house isn’t as worried about the extra $100 a month or whatever the insurance will cost.  To them, it is just a fee to have the nice view that often comes with backing to a creek or pond.
  2. When the lot is just soooooo worth it.  I sold relatives of mine a house in a flood plain.  It is never fun to pay for it and occasionally deal with a creek that just can’t stay within it’s banks…..but any other time they have a huge, wonderful backyard that backs to a picturesque creek.  It is so beautiful back there that we were all silent when we first saw it.

Old house/New house & my latest car

by John Rice

M3 S2

Cars and houses.

Those are my two things.  I can’t talk about too much else.  I don’t keep up with politics, pop culture or sports.  Get me on either of these two items though, and I am hard to shut up.

I recently added another car to my collection…..if you want to call a bunch of cars that aren’t old enough to be classics a collection.  Junk yard or used car lot is probably a more accurate term.

Sure, I’ve got a new car I use for work.  It looks good.  Is fast.  Gets lots of compliments.  But to me, it is sterile and generic.  It isn’t anything special because you can go to the dealership and buy one just like it.  I don’t feel anything but comfortable when driving it.

What gets my blood circulating is older BMWs.  I love the way they handle.  I love the way they look.  To me, the 90s-early 2000 BMWs were the high point for the brand.  An era I want to celebrate.

They don’t build them like they use to.

That is a phrase you often hear about older houses too.  Just like some people are into older cars verses new ones, some people also prefer an older house to a new one.  Old house people think all new houses are build poorly and lack any character.  The people who like new houses don’t want old house problems or floor plans that don’t work as well for today’s lifestyle.

Whether it is cars or houses, it is cool to like whatever you want.

As a realtor, the task at hand is getting in the mindset of your client and figuring out which they want.  When I buy a car, it is about what I want.  When I am trying to make a real estate love connection for a client, it is all about what they want.  Sometimes they don’t know yet and you need to help them figure it out.

After 12 years of doing this, I can pretty much tell if a client is really wanting to build a brand new house.  If you show them perfectly good move in ready houses and they don’t like any of them, they probably want to build even if they don’t realize it yet.   Another obvious sign is if their previous houses were brand new.  You would be amazed at how many people build a brand new house with each move.

The old house people will sometimes look at new houses, but they don’t like that the trees are small, or comment about the lack of character or perceived quality.  They walk in a perfectly good new house and don’t have any reaction at all.  It is just a structure with 4 walls to them.  Take them in an older house and they light up.

What do I like?  Both really.  In my dream world, I have an old house in a cool part of Lexington.  In that same dream world I have a super modern beach house.  The kind that is mostly glass.  In the garages of each place, I have a couple of older BMWs and also a new car because sometimes it is really nice to hop in a new car with really good air conditioning, comfortable seats and an awesome stereo with bluetooth.