Tates Creek 2.0

by John Rice

Tates Creek. Always a nice area. But it seems to be making a comeback.

I don’t mean Tates Creek inside New Circle. That has always been a popular area since the heydays of The Merrick Inn and John Y Brown living on Old Dobbin. I mean Tates Creek OUTSIDE Man O War.

I remember when it was new. Tates Creek was two lanes past Redding Rd/Armstrong Mill. Man O War was a two lane road with hardly any cars ever on it. There was this new neighborhood out in the middle of nowhere that was the talk of the town. Yeah, Hartland. We had never seen anything like it before in Lexington. A giant planned community way out in the middle of nowhere. Then they build a fancy new shopping center on the corner of Man O War. It was THE. Place. To. Be.

Then came Cumberland Hills, Waterford and Pinnacle. The road was widened. More shopping too. It was all new, and all new always means better. It was the best place to live unless you were one of those people who didn’t consider anything outside New Circle to even be Lexington.

Then, like all neighborhoods/areas, this whole area started it’s cycle of decline. Taking it’s place for the shiny new part of town were neighborhoods like Palomar, Firebook, Andover (Now absorbed by Hamburg) and finally Beaumont. The Tates Creek area never got bad, it just wasn’t the hot new thing any more.

But I think that is changing. A realtor friend and I are noticing more and more people specifically wanting this area. We kind of think that a lot of long time Lexingtonians remember this area in it’s heyday and now consider it a classic. It is an area that is aging well. I never thought I would say this, but they just don’t make neighborhoods like they did in the 80’s and 90’s any more. That was the end of the era for large chunks of available land in Lexington, things like sidewalks on BOTH sides of a road wide enough for two cars to pass and a useable sized yard. Add 20-30 years and you also get nice big trees. No wonder more buyers are being drawn to this part of town!

Things buyers don’t like

by John Rice

I was out today with a really fun couple that was referred to me from a past client. I showed them 4 houses, but I want to tell you about two of them.

Both were in fantastic locations with desirable school districts. Both were priced right. I told my client that both of the houses must have something wrong with them that we can’t see because neither should still be on the market…..I found out why neither had sold.

The first house was very impressive when you walk in. Hardwood floors and a very nice living room with fresh paint and a lot of light. Then you go in the kitchen. Nicely painted cabinets and 20 year old beige appliances. The master bedroom was very nice. Then you walk down a hall with new carpet, which makes the original carpet in the other bedrooms seem even worse than they really are. Are you seeing a pattern here? The house kept going from really nice to really outdated. It was polarizing. It is hard to sell a polarizing house. Buyers just don’t like the feeling of randomness. This house would be better to make all rooms the same.

The other house was very open and bright. It was vacant. Light colored beige carpet against flat white walls. There was NOTHING to look at. It was as dull and sterile as the waiting room at your doctor’s office. All that was missing were the old magazines. It is hard enough to sell a vacant house. It is even harder when there is nothing for a buyer to connect with. This house needs a neutral color on the wall and/or some furniture. It was really a great house, but just will never give a good first impression.

I always feel bad for sellers of houses like this. Often, a few minor changes can make a ton of difference!

Why I like working with Buyers & Sellers (Part 2)

by John Rice

On my last post, I wrote about all the things I liked about working with sellers. Well, today it is about buyers.

Here goes:

1. I like the search. It is exciting for me to help somebody weed through the not-so-great houses and find the best ones. What makes a good house? It is the right combination of practicality, condition, what maintenance costs are in the near future, resale value and the little things buyers often don’t think about. Let’s face it. Anybody can find a house they like. They don’t need a realtor to find a house these days. They need a GOOD realtor to help them make the best decision. Real estate often isn’t about making a good choice verses a bad one. It is about making a great one verses a good one. I view my job as being a consultant who manages the transaction for a buyer and not a sales job.

2. I like going in houses. I like houses and neighborhoods. It is fun for me to look at houses too. Every one I go in makes me a better realtor because I gain more experience and am exposed to more of the market. I never view looking at houses as a waste of time, even when people have a change of plans and don’t buy.

3. I like it when a buyer thanks me for pointing out something they didn’t think about. I get that a lot. It is exciting for a buyer to think they may have found “THE” house. No offense, but most of them just think about the positives they see. They might fall in love with the tile in the shower but not realize until they move in that there really isn’t much room for a table in the kitchen. Or that the road behind the house is busy street and will be noisy. Or that the windows will need reglazing. Or that the floor plan in the vacant house they are in is going to difficult for furniture placement. Or the things that affect resale value such as how the house compares to what is the norm for the area. There are a lot of people out there who think they got a good deal on their house. You never know if you really did until you try to sell it. I want to prevent you from having a house that will be tough to sell down the road. When the market was really bad, I had many sellers tell me the agent they used to buy the house didn’t point out these type of things to them.

4. I like doing the research to find the real value of the house. This takes a lot of time and thought. I look at recent sales in the area and make adjustments for all the differences. Some agents just boil it all down to statistical averages. They’ll say “That one over there just sold for $xxx,xxx and it was the same size so this one must be the same.” If all the finishes, features and age of systems are the same, that is okay……but that almost never is the case. I recently had a buyer who made an offer on a house where there were several other identical houses that had recently sold in the neighborhood. I could have just looked at the surface and been $10k off what this house was really worth. Why? This was one of the older houses in the neighborhood and the recent sales were practically new. The recent sales had less wear and tear and all the things like water heaters and HVAC had much more life left.

I could continue, but I am at 614 words now.

~The LEXpert

Why I like working with Buyers & Sellers (Part 1)

by John Rice

I usually end up working with about 2/3rd’s buyers and 1/3 sellers. I have always felt that the time I spend with buyers makes me a better listing agent. Why? Agents that represent sellers more than buyers usually don’t get in as many houses. Let’s say I am about to list a house in your neighborhood. Odds are I have been in many of your neighbor’s houses over the years and know what is typical for the neighborhood. I’ll know if the floor plan is better or worse, what features are superior or inferior, if your finishes have the same degree of patina that others do, etc. Those things help out a lot with knowing what needs to be done to successfully sell a house. See, my goal is to sell it, not just list it. Many agents think they are done once they push the sign in the grass and hang the lockbox on the door. Their view is that the buyer’s agent has to do the rest.

I do enjoy working with both buyers and sellers, but today’s post is geared toward listing. I think the thing for me is the challenge of it all. I like making all the little decisions that lead toward getting the goal accomplished.

Why I like working with sellers:

1. Selling a house is a lot like fishing. Funny thing is that I never really liked fishing all that much. You are basically putting bait in the water where you think the fish are and trying to get their attention. Same with selling. Many people still think that selling a house is about exposure. You don’t really have to advertise or do open houses any more. Most all buyers and ALL their realtors are online. The internet is your water and what the realtor does to catch a buyer is really the bait. Three P’s are all you need to know: Price, Presentation and Pictures. Get all those right and the buyers will come see the house.

2. I like doing all the research to find the right price. You can have the most amazing house in the world with the best online presentation ever, but if the price isn’t right it still won’t sell. Accurate pricing is the difference between selling and just listing your house. Again, where I go in so many houses with buyers, I know what buyers expect to be the norm for most neighborhoods.

3. I like looking at competing listings and finding ways to let buyers know why they should pick my listings verses another competing one. I recently had a listing where the biggest competing listing had an uphill slope in the backyard. Want to know what I said about mine in the marketing remarks? That it had a flat backyard.

4. I like picking the best pictures. A lot of agents post all the pictures they have…..often in the order they were taken. While I am uploading pictures, I am constantly asking myself things like do I have too many? How can I order the pictures where I maintain a buyers interest? What is a buyer going to think of this one?

Selling is fun in such a different way than working with buyers. Check out my next post to see what I like best about working with them.

~The LEXpert

What’s your house worth in 2014?

by John Rice

Analyzing comps from 2013 are going to take more thinking this spring than your typical year. In the past 10 years, we’ve gone from a market of houses always appreciating to losing value. Until 2013. The market came back fast and furious…..until about August/September. Despite all of 2013 being the best year in a long time, the last few months of the year saw a really slow market. Thanks for sticking with me this far because I am sure you are wondering why this makes any difference for 2014.

Here is why: All agents use comps to determine the value of a house. If you have an agent that doesn’t ever mention looking at recent sales, then you need to find a new one……and the ones that talk in price per square foot scare me too because that is just too simplistic of an approach. Price per square foot is best for figuring out the average of a neighborhood, not for finding the value of one individual house. The problem for 2014 is going to be a house that sold in the first half of 2013 may have had multiple offers and sold for more than it should have. The ones that sold later might have sold for less than they would have this coming spring.

A similar thing happened last year about this time. When listing agents looked at comps in the spring of 2013, they were looking back to a much worse market. Many listings actually came on the market for less than they were worth. If your house had 14 offers the first day on the market, then your agent might have priced it too low, even though there were comps to support that price from before the market picked up. And did it pick up. They way I described the market last spring was like sitting on a swing as a kid and getting that first neck snapping push that sets you in motion.

What do you do then? Spend more time looking at the comps. Determine, based on list-to-sale percentage and days on market if a comp went for less than it should have. Make adjustments or don’t use it as a comp. If a comp is from the fall, maybe add a little since the spring market is always better due to more buyers in the market. It will almost be like needing to look at the comparable sales for the comparable sales to make sure they are good ones. It is going to take a little more thought and effort to price a listing where it needs to be this year is all. I’m ready for it!