A Tale of Two Clients

by John Rice

I thought I’d blog about two folks that I have represented recently.  Little disclaimer here:  No names, addresses, etc.  This isn’t really gonna be about them personally.  More about how a seller’s perception of reality affects the sale of their house.  It’s about Client “A” and Client “B”.  One got their houses sold quickly and everything went well, and the other hasn’t sold their house and is mad.  What is the difference?

Client “A” hired me to sell their house.  At first I thought we were a good fit for each other.  They wanted to price their house for what they needed out of it since they had only been in it for just over a year.  In all reality, that was the kiss of death.  All the things I do that have succeeded in getting houses sold quickly are rendered useless if the price is too high.  Think about it.  You are a buyer, looking at houses, and there are either better houses for the same asking price or equal houses for less.  What are you going to do?

Client “A” thought everything I did wasn’t working since nobody bought their house quickly, even though the average days on market were well over 6 months for their town and price range.  They got nervous and wanted to micro manage the deal……but without reducing their price.  They kept trying to come up with “Things” I should do to bring out all those buyers that didn’t know their house was for sale.  Eventually I told them I would release them from the listing agreement early if they wanted to find somebody else.  They took me up on the offer.  Get this though,  in the 60ish days I had their house listed, we had 4 showings.  Want to know how many houses sold in that time frame?  Yep, 4.  So I think we got showings from all the serious buyers out there looking for a similar house.  Hmmmmmm.  I got the buyer’s to come out to see the house and they didn’t want it.  In real estate it is all about price, location, and condition.  They had a fair location, a great house, but the price was wrong.  Anyway, these people probably won’t be writing kind words on my testimonial page like a lot of my clients do.

Client “B” is somebody that I have dealt with 5 times so far.  They have used me 3 times as a buyer’s agent and twice as a listing agent.  I am about to list their old house since they just closed on their new one, so that will make 6.  Six.  Yeah, 6.  Pretty rare to get that much repeat business from somebody you aren’t related to!!

Client “B” trusted me to be the realtor.  They knew that even though they have bought and sold a lot, that I am the one that spends all day, sometimes everyday, doing this.  They listened to my suggestions on what to do to make it show better.  They also let me price and market the house the way I saw fit.  Get this:  The first house I sold with them (Summer 2007) went in 9 days.  The other one I sold with them (Winter 2008) sold about 6 hours after I put it on the MLS. 

Both Client “A” and Client “B” are great people.  Fun.  Exciting to be with.  I like them both.  But that is where the similarities end.  Client “B” was realistic on what to expect.  They knew they needed to price their houses based on comparable sales data.  They are happy, got their houses sold, and have moved on.  Client “A” is still sitting on a vacant house, waiting for somebody to pay him what he needs out of it, and is mad.

My Dad always says reality is the only place we have to live in, so we may as well get use to it.  Good advice.

If you’re not a cheeseburger, don’t pick a #1 agent

by John Rice

I just got back from vacationing in Florida.  Just about anytime I go anywhere, I always pick up those free real estate booklets.  I like to see what houses are worth and see what the local realtors do. 

What amazed me about this trip is how many of them claimed to be “The #1 Agent in this or that town, suburb, neighborhood, condo complex.”  What they are talking about is how much property they have sold.  See, we  call that “Volume.”  You just take the sum of all the sales you have made for a given time frame.    I guess where I am going with all this is that you, as a buyer or a seller, DON’T want this kind of agent!

Why?  The simple reason is that they don’t have time for you.  I’ve worked with some of our big producers here in Lex.  Only two of them are worth anything in my opinion.   When you are closing a deal a week, and are listing houses left and right, you are basically the McDonald’s of real estate.  May as well paint the golden arches on the side of your car and write “Billions and Billions Served” under it.  When you go to McDonald’s, lets face it, it isn’t about getting the best burger you have ever had  prepared just the way you want it.  McDonald’s is about efficiency.  They are cooking multiple burgers at a time.  Look in the kitchen.  They have an assembly line going.  Put 12 buns on a tray.  Toast them.  Drop the meat on the bottom buns.  Squirt ketchup and mustard on each one.  Throw 2 pickles on each.  Add a slice of cheese.  Bam!  12 identical cheeseburgers ready to go. 

Ever go to McDonald’s and ask for something like a plain double quarter on a Big Mac bun?  And if you have, what percentage of the time was it accurate?  My wife always gets a plain Filet O Fish.  She even goes as far as saying “ONLY THE BUN AND THE FISH!!!!”  Still sometimes she’ll open the box and there is a regular one with the cheese and tartar sauce.  Sometimes it will only have the cheese.  Only occasionally is it right.  Why is this?  Because McD’s is about volume.  To get volume, you need to standardize procedures.  You cannot take the time to slow down, yet alone stop to do something different.

A friend of mine worked with one of the top producing agents in town a while back.  I thought this was really funny, in a sad way.  The agent has a team to do flip all their burgers….I mean take care of all their clients.  Seems nobody on the team bothered to tell the seller that the home inspection was scheduled.  The seller was pretty shocked when the inspector showed up.  I’ve had similar experiences with this team before.  I’ve asked them questions my buyers have had after viewing their listings.  They don’t have time to bother with a reply.  I’ve also made courtesy calls to let them know when they have entered the wrong subdivision on a listing. They always appreciate that, but I do it for their sellers, not really for them.   Again, when you are juggling so much work, you just don’t have time to be accurate.  Real estate deals aren’t all identical like McD’s cheeseburgers!

So, I will probably never be able to say I am the #1 Agent in Lexington for my sales volume.  Sure, it would be nice more than double my income, but I’m not gonna treat people like a cheeseburger to do so.

Feeling sorry for sellers with sorry agents

by John Rice

I was just thinking about some of the sellers out there in the world.  Here they are, wanting to sell their house and get on with their life somewhere else.  They’ve decluttered, touched up paint, cleaned parts of their house that they’ve never cleaned before, and their Realtor has stuck a big sign in the front yard that they have to mow around.

Let me tell you about some of the faceless sellers that I have almost crossed paths with.  Just last week, there was a seller of a nice stone bungalow in 40502 that almost got his house shown to my buyer.  I say almost because after texting and calling, their agent NEVER called me back.  Now, it is a real pain in the you know where for me to have to track down an agent as if they were a disobedient teenager, but I feel sorry for these people since we’ll never know if their house could have sold that day or not.  I even tried this agent’s office, who assured me that the agent wasn’t on vacation or anything.

Another seller I felt sorry for was the one who had an agent that was enjoying her weekend on the lake when I called to show their house.  This agent did call me back…..just about 18 hours after I wanted to show it.  My buyer had moved on by that point.

And I really feel sorry for the sellers of one agent in town whose listings most agents try to avoid because this person is such a jerk.  I’ve heard other agents say that they have told their buyers about this person, and the buyers have said they’ll just skip the house then. 

How are these?  The seller whose agent asks me if my buyer can really afford the house when I call to see it.  Gee, that really starts everything off on the right foot.  The seller who just got done edging his beautiful green lawn, but has pictures of his house online with six inches of snow on the ground.  The seller with the really creative agent who uses the marketing remarks to tell you that it is a “Great House.”  Or the one whose agent thought that being a realtor automatically qualified them to be a photographer too?  All too common are the sellers whose houses have the wrong school district, the wrong neighborhood name, the wrong zip code, or even worse, have been on the market for 6 weeks and there are still no pictures uploaded.

I feel sorry for all these sellers because they picked a sorry agent and don’t even know it.

Did you pick the right house??

by John Rice

How do you know if you’ve picked THE right house?  What IF a better ones comes on the market after you make a decision?  How do you know you WON’T regret your decision?  Welp, if you think I can reaaaaally answer those questions, I must be a better Realtor than I think I am.

There is no way that you or I can really answer those questions, so I am not going to try.  But, what I can offer are some tips based on my experience. 

How do you know if it is THE house?  I think that any house you are afraid somebody else will buy out from under you shows it is pretty high on your list.  If you can just totally see yourself  living in the house, it may be the one.  Same thing with comparing other houses to it.  If you are doing that, it means that one is at the top of your list.

How can you prevent regretting your decision.  I think the best thing you can do is to take your time in reaching your decision.  Granted, sometimes when everybody else wants the house too, you don’t have that luxury.  I like it when people want to see a house for the second time.  You always notice more of the bad stuff on the second visit.  It is even better if you come back at a different time of day.  Rooms will look different with the sun on the opposite side of the place.  Something that I’ve always told buyers to do, and not many actually have done it, is to drive around the neighborhood on a nice warm Friday or Saturday night.  That will bring out anybody that will be annoying, so you won’t have any surprises there!  Tough luck if it is winter.

There are a couple other things that bring on the regret:  Having a tight timeline and getting so tired of looking that you just want it over with.  If you have a tight timeline, preparation is the key.  I do a lot of work for people moving to town.  They’ll only be in town for a few days and have to pick a house.  I try to work with them as soon as I know they will be coming.  It all usually happens  by e-mail, but we chat about neighborhoods, parts of town I think they’ll like, etc.  Then I’ll start previewing houses, even taking videos of the houses to send them.  At this point it is all about eliminating houses.  You’re not really looking for the right one, you’re trying to whittle down the list to a manageable amount for them to see when they get here. 

Now, about getting tired of looking.  If you find yourself here and can do it, just take a break.  It is really a scary place to be.  Take a week off from looking….even online.  If you can’t take a week off, have your agent preview houses.  By the time you get to this point, your agent should really know what will work for you and what won’t.  Of all the questions I asked at the beginning, this is the one I see the most.  It’s like a sunburn.  It’ll sneak up on you and you’re not aware of what is happening.

Okay.  One more question left?  How will you know a better house won’t come on the market as soon as you sign a contract?  Simple answer.  You won’t.  I tell people to quit looking at houses online once you get past the inspections.  If you don’t look, you’ll never know.  And if you are the type that won’t take this advice, remember that sometimes houses look better online than they do in person.  You are comparing your house in reality to the select pictures that the listing agents wants you to see……So that other house probably isn’t as good in reality as you are picturing it in your head.  You got a good house….now just enjoy it.

When Location Takes a Back Seat

by John Rice

This may surprise you, but there are sometimes that I don’t always advise people to make location the main priority.  I know, almost all my posts say to pick the neighborhood first, then the house.

So, when do I switch up my logic?  When I have buyers who want to buy in Lexington for under $120,000, especially under $110,000.  Most of the time they are first time homebuyers.  Let’s face it, it is hard to get into a house you’d even like in Lex for under that, and there isn’t that much of a difference between most of the neighborhoods.  Sure, there are ones to definitely avoid, but for the most part, there isn’t much difference in this price range between Masterson Station and McConnell Springs, Skyview and Southland, and any other neighborhood of similar age and style of houses.

When I’ve been out with first time buyers, they are most interested in a house they like and can live in…..And I can’t blame them.  I think I would opt for less of a location to get a house with a 2 car garage and 2 bathrooms verses a slightly better location with only 1 of each.  Which is more convenient:  Driving further to places you go or waiting for somebody to get out of the only bathroom in the house?   When you got to go,  the only “Location, Location, Location” you’re thinking about is an available potty!

Which leads me to mention something I read the other day.  It said that young folks and first time buyers are heading towards the suburbs, which is contrary to what was predicted just a couple years ago.  Now, Lexington doesn’t really have suburbs.  The closest we come to the burbs are newer neighborhoods on the edge of town.  Not always the most convenient location, but full of affordable houses with more than one bathroom and garage.

I guess I was amazed that was even newsworthy.  I mean, that is how it has always been here, and should be obvious to anybody who has ever lived in a one bathroom house.

I’ve worked with enough first time buyers that I know they want the most house they can get, and are willing to compromise on a convenient location.

One of my favorite examples of this was recently.  I had some first time buyers who were in this price range.  We looked at several houses.  Many were older houses with one bathroom and were too small.  Others were newer, but had no yard.  Like a lot of first time buyers, we started looking on the edge of town for good deal.  This was actually better for them since it was easier to get to their jobs.

We got lucky and found a foreclosure.  They got a lot of house for the money.  All they really needed to do was paint and address some carpet issues.  Not everybody gets this lucky.  What I like for this couple is that they aren’t going to outgrow this house in a couple of years.  That is another reason I tell first time buyers to get the most house they can for the money.  See, when a lot of them are coming out of an apartment, 1200 square feet seems big to them.  Then a baby comes along, and they are maxed out.  They call me,  I sell their house, they pay commissions, new closing costs, and moving costs to get into a bigger house.  When houses were appreciating rapidly, that was okay.  They aren’t now.  It just makes more sense to make long term plans these days.

Another reason getting the best house regardless of location makes sense is…..when they go to sell, the next crop of first time buyers will also be wanting to get the most livable house for the money, even if they are on the edge of town or close to nothing.

So, that is one of the few times when focusing on the house more than the location works.