first time buyer

LEXpert’s top picks for around $150k

by John Rice

Let’s say you are a first time buyer, retiring, downsizing, or maybe you just don’t need a big house.  Your budget is around $150k.  You don’t want to compromise location.  You don’t want a characterless neighborhood.  What to do?  Where to look?

Here are my top 5 picks for neighborhoods to consider.  All are from the 80s and 90s and all are in southwest Lexington:

  1.  On the low end of the budget, you should consider Overview Drive in Hidden Springs.  One side of this street backs to a creek, so you have a little breathing room since the houses on the other side of the creek are a little further away.  Not that you will, but you could walk to the Boston Road Kroger, or Starbucks, or all the stores on either side of Boston Road.  You’ve got a gas station and pharmacy too.
  2. If you like being in an affluent part of town at a bargain price, look into either Ashbrooke or Harrods Point.  Both are right on the Fayette-Jessamine County line out Harrodsburg Road.  Both are nice, quiet and convenient locations.  You have Bellerive Shopping Center sooo close.  Just down Harrodsburg Road is Palomar Shopping Center, the library and the YMCA.
  3. Copper Trace is in the middle of it all.  It is on the outside corner of Man O War and Clays Mill Road. Anything you want to do in south Lexington is a very short drive.  Unless you are on Spring Run Road, there is only one way in and out of either side of this neighborhood.  The huge pin oak trees that line the streets give it that established vibe everybody likes (except in the fall when the leaves drop!)
  4. While all of Clemens Heights is a nice neighborhood, one street in particular is amazing.  If you know the area, you know I am talking about Steamboat Road.  Almost the whole street backs to either greenspace or the city owned Waverly Park.  I’ve been in many houses on either side.  The wooded greenspace is a great view.  Waverly is a real gem of a park.  Just the right size and all the features you’d want.
  5. The fifth one was Harrods Point, but I combined it in #2 with Ashbrooke since they are so close.

How to WIN in multiple offers

by John Rice

Had a client who wanted to see a house this weekend.  Called the listing agent.  The place already had 3 offers on it.  That is happening more and more these days.  So much so that I thought this might be a good time to talk about how to WIN in multiple offers.

Most people think in terms of outbidding somebody.  Sure, more money is always nice, but when there are two offers that are very close in the offer amount, I normally see a seller look to secondary things.  If Buyer A and Buyer B are $1000 apart, most sellers start asking things like:

  • “How solid is their financing?”
  • “When do they want to close?”
  • “How much of a down payment do they have?”

The seller then picks whichever buyer seems most likely to get this deal to the closing table.

What are some things you can do to make your offer more appealing in this situation?

  • Inspect the house, but let the sellers know you will not be asking for any repairs.  ALL sellers hate doing repairs.  They are too busy packing to deal with it.  Most of the time, a seller just does $500-1000 worth of repairs anyway, and they usually don’t care much about how well the job was done.  It is just something they want to cross off their to-do list.  Just do those yourself and brag to your friends how you beat the other buyers and got the house.  IF the house is a hot mess, you walk away from the deal after the inspection just like you would have done anyway.
  • Find out when the sellers ideal closing date would be.  If possible, give them the time that is best for them.   Sellers are under their own stress from moving and packing.  Making it easier on them makes you more attractive to them.
  • Let’s face it.  If you are in multiple offers and really want the house, you are already going to your max offer…may as well add some personal stuff in a letter to let the seller know how much you like the house.  Sellers usually love their house and want to see it go to somebody that they think will love it too.  In multiple offers, you have no room for negotiation so I see nothing wrong with showing your cards as long as it benefits you.
  • And some stuff that seems obvious:  Don’t ask for personal items like the seller’s grill or patio furniture.  Don’t ask for things that were not listed as coming with the house.  Don’t try to pressure them to respond quickly because in multiple offers, it is their world and you are just living in it.

This is soooooo different than it was several years ago when I was blogging about how to squeeze the desperate seller out of every last penny.  Times do change.  Sometimes you are the bug and sometimes you are the windshield.  That’s why it is always important to buy a house that will be desirable in both a good and bad market.

Time is the enemy of Location

by John Rice

Location sure is a funny thing.

I showed a property in Gardenside this week.  It was on the street behind the shopping center on Alexandria Drive.  I was thinking, that when the house was new, it was probably a great bonus to be so close to one of the premier shopping centers in Lexington.  That was in the 50’s and 60’s.  Now, being so close to that shopping center is more of a negative than a positive.  It use to have businesses like Dawahare’s Department Store and Lexitalia Restaurant.  Now it has a strip club.

My family moved to Kenwick in the mid 80s.  There was a super neat house on North Hanover that we loved.  We didn’t buy it because it was just a few houses down from all the scuzzy commercial sites on National Avenue……which is now a trendy spot with cool restaurants and businesses.

Part of the whole “Location Location Location” mantra is what desirable commercial areas are close.  Schools are another big one too, but that is another post.  Can you imagine what would happen to Townley Park if that shopping center in the middle of it was half vacant, and the rest were the same businesses you see in every failing shopping center?  Nobody would want to live there.  On the flip side, look at the NoLi District on the north end of downtown.  Al’s Bar gets discovered by hipsters, then we get a lot of other cool businesses like North Lime Coffee & Donut and suddenly what use to be a scary part of town is now desirable.  I just sold a house on Rand Avenue.  Just a few years ago NOBDODY wanted to live on Rand Avenue.

It is kind of sad to see some locations lose their luster, but seeing other parts of town be transformed makes up for it.

Location is never static.  Time usually makes it better or worse.

Want to know what LEXington buyers are doing??

by John Rice

The real estate scene in Lexington sure is changing.  Guess it always has, but this years it seems to be doing it quicker.

What’s hot and what’s not has been pretty static around here for a long time.  Other than Kenwick getting trendy and all the flopped new downtown condo projects, this town has always been about the middle of the road, safe and predictable neighborhoods in decent school districts.  People who wanted older houses wanted in 40502 or the older neighborhoods on the south end of town that were inside New Circle.  People who wanted newer homes looked around Man O War.  There was always plenty of new construction going on all over town.

Now it seems that new construction has slowed down.  You’d think since we are running out of room inside of Fayette County, that new construction would be on fire right now.  Especially after all the slow years of the bad market.  It did bounce back strong in 2013, but has slowed since.  All the national news I read about it indicates the same is happening everywhere.

I am seeing more and more people wanting older houses.  They are rejecting the cookie cutter neighborhoods.  Many are considering neighborhoods on the north end of town.

All this is pretty interesting to me, both professionally and personally.  I have to keep up with it so I can give my clients the good advice they deserve.  I also like to think about why we are seeing this shift?

I think a lot of this has to do with shows like Property Brothers and sites like Houzz.com.  People want a house with character more than ever now.  After several years of a bad economy, people now feel safe to renovate their houses.   I think people are spending more time at home due to being so connected online.  It only makes sense that people want to create their own oasis to be in while they spend all their time connecting with the world through their phones.

I once had an out of town client tell me that the Lexington market is very broad but not deep.  We tend to have the same 10 floor plans build by the same builder throughout all of Lexington.  It is almost like 3 easy step:  1)  Pick your floor plan.  2)  Pick which part of town you want to be in.  3)  Pick if you want that house to have been build in the 90s or 2000s.   I had another client from New York tell me he wanted a contemporary or modern house.  He didn’t get one because we have so few.  People today are just not excited about living in a modern day Levittown.  (Google that if you don’t know what I mean.)

Lexington doesn’t have the sprawl like a real city does.  We keep adding people but we don’t expand the geographic boundaries of the town.  That means more density, which means more traffic.  People are wanting more than ever to be closer to amenities they frequently use.  That is one reason the older neighborhoods are doing so well right now.

As prices have returned to 2005 levels but wages have not, you don’t get as much for your money.  That is why we are seeing some people look on the north end of town.  You get more for your money there.  This is especially true for many first time buyers.  An older house on the north end of town is a real bargain today.   Also, the north end of Lexington is a great spot for younger buyers who want to be close to all the new spots along North Limestone.

Well, I’m over 600 words now.  I could go on and on.  Bottom line is that buyer tastes are shifting in this town and it is kind of exciting to me.

Advice on TODAY’s Market

by John Rice

Such a funny market.  All the realtors I know, and the media, are saying we have a shortage of listings.  Not the case.  There are a lot of listings out there in any price range.  The issue is few people want them because they are not move in ready.  This is the pickiest market I have ever seen.  Buyers are super price conscious too.  If your house is not priced right and move in ready, you might as well not even have your house on the market.

Also, your best shot of selling is……IMMEDIATELY!  Yeah, if a house makes it past the first few days without at least one offer, then you should be nervous.  Everybody is rushing out to see new listings like it was a 911 call.

I’ve got a theory here.  Back not too long ago, a buyer had to typically sort through all the existing listings to find the handful of new ones.  They might see the same house every day as they did this and eventually be like “Well, I’ve been on the fence about seeing that house for a few weeks and there is nothing else to see right now, maybe I should go see that one?”  I don’t think many are doing that.  Heck, I don’t think many are seeing anything but new listings.  Buyers can set up their own searches now and I think most are only viewing new listings.  They sort through the new listings, see the ones they like, discard the ones that don’t interest them and never look back.  That makes for a polarizing market and shows how important it is to get price and presentation right from the get go.

Another reason I think this is the number houses that have come back on the market after selling immediately.   There are several houses I am watching that sold as new listings but the deal fell apart for whatever reason.  Then the house sits there forever like that last piece of pizza at a buffet.

And if you are a buyer caught up in multiple offers, remember what I have always said…..there are other issues more important to a seller than money.  Few times do I ever see one buyer going a lot higher in price than the other buyer.  Often, the difference between the highest and second highest offer is maybe $1000.   So, do something like make your offer where you will inspect the house but will not ask for any repairs, or let the seller pick a closing date that works for them.  Does this work?  Yes.  I am typing this from my home office.  I got this house 3 years ago the first day on the market and beat out several other offers, one of which was cash and full price.