lexington ky realtor

What The LEXpert has been thinking about

by John Rice

Here are some things that have been on The LEXpert’s mind lately:

 

  •  I am seeing more and more interest in the houses around Liberty Road and Henry Clay Blvd.  About 25 years ago I saw that once Kenwick got expensive, interest would move to the Courtney/Clayton area.  And once those prices shot up, it would keep going further down Henry Clay Blvd.  What I didn’t see back then was that Delaware would become a hip spot for businesses and restaurants.  Back then, we all thought it would remain the scuzzy industrial area it had always been.  You watch, once the National Avenue area gets filled and rents go up, you’ll see more businesses you want to frequent along Delaware and Winchester Road.   The great thing about the Henry Clay/Liberty Road area is that you are minutes to downtown, minutes to NoLi, and minutes to Hamburg.  It really is an ideal location.

 

  • Greenbrier is seeing a lot of sales.  I have seen several that sold by word of mouth lately.  A couple others sold extremely fast.  I think it mostly has to do with the new school districts.  It is no longer a nice neighborhood on the wrong part of town thanks to Hamburg.  It is also no longer a nice neighborhood with a poor performing school district.  It will attract people who want to have their kids in public school now.   That makes for a broader market.  That means more buyers for fewer houses.  That means prices go up.

 

  • The $350-500k market is strong in Lexington still, even as we get late in the year.   Sales seem to come in waves.  There might be a few slow weeks for certain parts of town and then, all the sudden, that area will have lots of sales in one week.

 

  • Century Hills is blowing my mind.  I have seen several 3 bedroom/1 bath houses without a garage sell for over $100k, some close to $110k.  It wasn’t too long ago that the nicest ones out there were $95k!  Percentage wise, that is a huge increase.  Looks like we are back to the days where under $100k doesn’t get much.

 

  • I think that the new Citation Blvd is going to be a big gain for the west side of town.  That road really ties together all the neighborhoods between Georgetown and Leestown Road so well.  It is easier to get in and out of that area too.  It nolonger feels like a bunch of random neighborhoods scattered across the west side of town.  Businesses are what the area needs.  I think values will really go up if the residents of those neighborhoods do not have to go to Hamburg or south Lexington for shopping/dinning/entertainment.  A nice big road like this might attract them.

 

This is an exciting time to be in real estate.  Things are changing so fast.  Prices are increasing in some areas, stable in others.  Tastes are shifting too.  It is a lot to keep up with…….every new business, every new road that opens changes how people feel about a location.

Kitchens/baths and how NOT to over-improve

by John Rice

Kitchens and master baths.  There is a lot of confusion about them.  Watch HGTV and you’d think that is all home buyers care about.  Since I don’t want you taking your advice from people who don’t sell houses, here are some things I tell people:

  1. While kitchens and master baths ARE very important, the whole house must be attractive.  All too often I see sellers who blew the budget on a kitchen renovation and left the hall baths and other rooms the same.  That is polarizing.  Plus, the new stuff just makes the old stuff look worse.  If you have $50k to drop on your house, spread the love all over the house.
  2. Watch out for over-improving.  It is soooo easy to get carried away.  You’re like “Everybody has granite.  I want marble.  Well the Carrera Marble is just a little more and I love the veining.”  You only have to be a little better than all the other houses in your price range.  If you’ve got a $150k house, no $150k buyer is expecting higher end updates.
  3. Some things just don’t give you a good return on your investment.  A massive deck that cost $10k to build might only get you an extra $3k compared to other houses with normal sized decks.  A $7k roof really isn’t worth any more than a roof that is less than 10 years old and doesn’t leak.  A new water heater has no value over an existing one unless the existing one is just super old.  Buyers don’t like to reimburse sellers for maintenance.  If it isn’t exciting, then it has no value.  It is easier to sell a house with bad windows and granite counter tops than it is to sell a house with argon filled, Low-E triple pane windows and a green laminate counter top.
  4. THE cheapest thing you can do to help your house sell is fresh paint and carpet/flooring.  Think about it, flooring and paint is all you see in most rooms.  Even an ugly kitchen or master bath can get a nice facelift with just new flooring and paint.

All this reminds me of several houses I have been in over the years.  The best (or worst) one was a house behind where I use to live.  A realtor was flipping it.  This is in a 1970s neighborhood where most houses still had everything original.  He came in and did an amazing kitchen and master bath.  He also left the paneling in the downstairs family room.  It was a polarizing house.  You loved some of it and hated some of it.  It didn’t sell.

My wife and I looked at a house in our current neighborhood.  It had an amazing deck and high end kitchen cabinets….the kind you see in a magazine.  We tried to like it, but the 99 cent laminate floors in the kitchen and the paneling downstairs turned us away.  Those sellers must have run out of money when renovating the kitchen.  I’ve never seen such cheap. rental grade laminate floors with such nice cabinets.

So when you are thinking about resale, look around and see what is the norm in your neighborhood and price range.  Definitely don’t cheap out, but also don’t go overboard.

One of the best sellers I’ve seen

by John Rice

I always say you see people at their best or their worst in a real estate deal.

I closed on a house last week.  The seller had lived there for 28 years.  I saw her at her best.

Most people do a few nice things to make it easy on the buyer…..like labeling the keys, cleaning the house, mowing the yard right before the closing, letting them know when garbage day is, etc.  This seller did all that and more.  She had a list of everybody who she used to work on the house.  She mowed the grass right before the closing.  She even cleaned out the gutters the night before the closing.

She told me afterwards, she had gone over to the house and had prayed for the house and the new owner.  Now, regardless of what you believe, you have to admit that was a very caring thing to do!

As we left, I told the seller that not all transactions are this smooth.  She had not bought or sold in 28 years.  She was amazed that some deals can get rough.

Working with this exceptional lady sure made up for the time a crazy lady got so mad while talking on a cordless phone to her loan officer, that she threw the phone down on the closing table and I had to dodge it as it flew across the room.

Neighborhoods with good design

by John Rice

Some people just want a house.  Some people want a house and a neighborhood.  I don’t mean location when I say neighborhood.  That has more to do with proximity to features.  Neighborhood is a vibe thing.  A feeling.  Has to do with trees, the layout of the streets, etc.  Think curvy streets and roads with landscaped medians.  Some good examples are Hartland Parkway in Hartland, or Slashes in Ashland Park.

It is no surprise that neighborhoods with a good vibe are more desirable than neighborhoods that don’t.  That is one reason the exact same house is worth more in a neighborhood like Chilesburg than it is in Willow Bend or Masterson.

I am more of vibe person.  I really like neighborhoods that have some pretty features to see as you walk or drive through them.  An element of design.  So, here are a few that I can think of off the top of my head and why I like them:

  1.  Hartland is probably the best thought out neighborhood in Lexington since Chevy Chase and Ashland Park.  It has a landscaped median running through the whole neighborhood.  All of the cul-de-sacs have landscaped islands in the middle.
  2. Chilesburg-Since it has so many creeks running into the reservoirs in Jacobson Park, the developer didn’t have much of a choice but to work around them.  There are several ponds in the neighborhood, a walking trail with plank farm fencing around it, and some wooded greenspace areas such as the best one on Willman Way.
  3. Greenbrier-There is just something about seeing so much green as you drive through it.  Then you pass the clubhouse and see the golf course.
  4. The Woods-I really like the elevation changes and meandering road that runs through the whole neighborhood.  It is now old enough to have some amazing trees.  You feel like you have left the heart of the city and are in a secret, private place.  Lakewood is a lot like that too because Lakewood use to be on the edge of town.
  5. Chevy Chase and Ashland Park-no explanation needed.

Those are my favorites.  I don’t think we will see anything like these neighborhoods in Lexington again.  There just isn’t the space left.  Other than a few areas in town, we are down to infill projects.  Those often don’t have the space to do much more than clear the land and lay out the neighborhood in a way that maximizes the number of lots.

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.