neighborhoods

What did I do for Father’s Day?

by John Rice

Like most days in real estate, I woke up thinking “Wow, I only have a few things to do today!”  Then also like most days, by late morning my day got very busy.  I’ve always thought of being a realtor like being a fireman.  We both rush into houses, only for different reasons.  We also both can have the course of our days changed by a phone call.

My plan was to show 2 houses and then go see my dad.

One of those houses sold, and my client added another one, so there was still two to show.

The second house was a loser.  I didn’t even go upstairs.  I knew it was a loser as soon as I stepped out of my car.  The buyers realized it too as soon as they stepped inside.

The first house I showed them was totally amazing.  Great lot.  Great floor plan.  In good shape.  It was one of those houses that any buyer who sees it will want.

Which happened.

So, now my plan was to write an offer for my people on this house and then go see my dad.

Like most days in real estate, it took a sudden change when the listing agent told me that there was another offer.  I put on my persuasive hat and went to work.

My buyers had a contingency to close on their old house, which is not a great position to be in these days.

The buyers and I spoke about how to make our offer more competitive.  We decided to double the normal amount of earnest money and to waive a home inspection.  The house is 6 years old and the sellers had bought it just 3 years ago.  It also has a brand new roof.  No need to negotiate the minor list of repairs that happen with every house when waiving it makes such a big impact.

The seller was in the Marines and the grandfather of one of my buyers was in a well known Marine picture.  I told the listing agent I would get the seller an autographed picture if he wanted one.  I also told her to pass on to the sellers how my buyers have been wanting to get to this area for several years so they could be closer to aging parents, but a cancer scare prevented them from moving until now.  I also mentioned that one of my buyers was a teacher as well.

The sellers decided they wanted to work with us despite the other offer not only being a higher price, but also that buyer did not have a contingency.

By now it is late in the afternoon.  I broke free to go see my dad.  I always get him a big gift card for Frisch’s.  He has been going to a breakfast there with his BMW motorcycle club since the early 80s.  I used to wake up early when I was a kid and go with him.  I’m way too lazy these days to be anywhere other than in my own bed at 7:AM, but paying for his breakfasts make me feel like I am still a part of it, and makes me remember riding on the back of a green motorcycle, which he still has, to go hang out with him.

Why THIS sale means so much to me

by John Rice

I just sold this townhouse.  Know why it is significant to me?

1156 Appian 305 - 001

Because it was the very first house I ever sold.

It was late Spring in 2005.  The ink was still drying on my real estate license when some friends of mine were in the market for their first house.  We looked for a few months and they decided on this place.  It was brand new.

I’ve got a few funny memories of this sale and this townhouse.

It was closing day.  I was really stressed out since this was going to be my first closing ever.  It seemed like such a huge deal at the time.

One of the things a Buyer’s agent has to do is get the Buyer’s earnest money check to take to the closing.  I had not thought about the earnest money since I turned in the Buyer’s original check to my office manager.  Here we were hours before the closing and I am in a mad rush to get my office to cut the check.

We get to the closing.  This was the last 15 minutes of a super hot market.  The closing was at 5 on Friday.  The title company probably had 15 closing that day.  Everybody was eager to get home.  I remember the closing attorney and the listing agent talking about the emerging trend of getting granite countertops.

Once the closing was done, I went out to my car and made sure I had all the documents I needed to take back to my office.  I was so relieved to have it done.

Then I realized two things:  That the closing attorney did not ask for my Buyer’s earnest money check AND they did not give me my commission check.  I had to run around the parking lot looking for her.  LOL, yes, I forgot that I was getting a paycheck since I was so focused on getting everything done and doing it correctly.

What did I do with that paycheck?  I bought a couch that we still have in our living room.

A while after my friends moved in, the husband and I were going out on a Friday night with another friend.  I picked up the other friend and we went to this townhouse.  The seller was on his computer watching some silly Star Wars Lego video.  I asked what it was and he said Youtube.  I was like “WHATtube???”  He explained that it was a site where people could upload videos for anybody to watch.  I remember thinking “Why would I want to watch a bunch of homemade movies when I have cable TV?”

I’ve remained friends with these sellers and this will be their 4th time using me.

I’ve probably never said it this directly, but I am incredibly thankful that they decided to put their faith in a guy with zero experience.  Getting started in real estate is very tough…or at least it was in 2005.  And now 14 years later, almost to the exact date, they have trusted me again.

(NOTE:  While that red BMW in the picture does look nice, I wanted to disclose it is not one of mine.)

 

 

 

Masterson Station: A legit part of Lexington

by John Rice

I’ve got a long history with Masterson Station.

Long before I was The LEXpert, I was a one man lawn care operation.  I had a few customers out there in the mid 90s.  Masterson Station ended one house past Gateway Park.  My wife and I would go see the new model homes by builders such as PSC and Barlow Homes.  We would marvel at the trendy finishes like green counter tops and pickled cabinets that were sort of a pinkish white.

Back then, Masterson Station seemed so far out that you felt like you were half way to Frankfort.  I remember thinking “Who would want to live this far out of town?”  I said the same thing about Hartland back in the mid 80s.  I had always lived inside New Circle back then, so I was one of those people who thought the “Real” Lexington was just inside New Circle Road and anything outside the circle didn’t count.

Since then, Masterson Station has grown and grown and keeps growing.  It is Lexington’s largest neighborhood and has had non stop construction for about 25 years.

At lot has changed.  To begin with,  nobody calls it Masterson Station any more.  It’s just Masterson now.   I’ve changed a lot too.  Instead of pulling a trailer full of lawn equipment, I am working inside the houses now and own a house in the neighborhood.  I just got an accepted offer on the 41st house I have sold in this area.

It used to be that you picked Masterson because you could get the same house for cheaper than anywhere else in town.  It was a good value.  As it grew and people didn’t view it as some random neighborhood hung out of the west end of Fayette County, the price difference became less and less.  Today the same 1300 square foot home in Masterson sells for maybe $10k less than an identical house in one of the top neighborhoods on the south end of town.

As it grew, a new elementary school was built in the neighborhood.  Then Citation Road was built, which was really great.  The new road helped with traffic flow and all the sudden, made sense of the way the neighborhood developed over the past couple of decades.

I have always said that all the whole Masterson area  needs is some commercial development and it would become a part of town people pick because they like it, not just because its a good value.  I drove through the area last night and the gas station/convenience store on Leestown Road is now open.  Meijer owns a big corner on Citation.  I am starting to see more development along Citation too.

Congrats Masterson.  You’re all grown up and we’re glad you’re a legit part of Lexington.

The worst part of being a Realtor

by John Rice

I bet you are thinking I am going to talk about being on call 24/7 and other things realtors complain about.

Not quite.

To me, the worst part of being a realtor is seeing your client make a mistake you know they will regret later.  It is easy to do.  I mean, no buyer or seller really know the market like a realtor.  They only know what they read in the paper or hear their friends discuss.  Often buyers and sellers don’t totally trust their agent.  I recently told a client a truth about our market.  This client said none of her friends believed me.  I asked if any of them had recently sold a house in our area.  None of them had.

Here are the biggest ways clients can make a mistake:

Buyers:  There is nothing worse for a buyer than the first house they see being the most totally amazing house that has come on the market all year.  When this happens, buyers often assume every house is just as good.  They often decide to wait for a better one.  When they do this, they quickly realize the house they passed on was so much better than the other houses in their price range.  I dread it when this happens because I know that the buyer is thinking I am just trying to get them to buy the first house they see to make it easy on myself.

Another big buyer mistake is wanting to negotiate in multiple offers.  I often have buyers tell me they want to come in low and let the seller counter.  I tell them that if they had two offers, and one of them was lower than the other, which one would you counter if you were even going to counter at all?  When you are in multiple offers and you make the weakest offer the seller got, they simply do not counter your offer, even if your agent tells their realtor you are open to a counter.  I mean, they already have other offers that are better than your offer, they have no need to counter.  Always come in with your best offer in multiple offers because  you only get one chance at getting the house.

Sellers:  I feel for sellers.  I think they have it the worst.  I mean, they see in the news that prices are going up.  They know their neighbor got 5 offers the first day on the market.  They see what their Zestimate is on Zillow.  They often think their house is worth more than it is.  Like in any market, the most you can get out of a house is what a buyer will pay.   You can never get more than market value for your house.  It is just in a hot seller’s market, you might have 5 people all willing to pay market value for your house instead of hoping and praying that just 1 buyer will in a buyer’s market.

When a seller overprices their house, they lose the frenzy of having more than one buyer wanting their house.  When a house hits the market, all the buyers in that price range rush out to see it.  Buyers are afraid of losing it.  Once the house has been on the market for a bit, buyers are no longer afraid of losing the house, so they make less than full price offers.

Sometimes a seller will think the realtor isn’t doing enough to market the house.  Exposure is never a problem these days.  Houses get thousands of views on just zillow.  Once a house is listed you can google the address and see several pages of places the listing can be found.  There is no way there is a buyer out there for a specific house who does not know it is available unless they don’t have internet or don’t have a realtor.

So, those are some of the worst parts of being a realtor.  The 24/7 thing is something you get used to after a while.

Will Realtors be replaced with an app?

by John Rice

Yes, they could.

The app would need to be able to tell a seller that their house has a pet odor and that is what is keeping it from selling.

The app would need to tell a seller to rearrange their furniture because it currently make the living room look very small compared to other houses for sale in it’s price range.

The app would need to tell a buyer the house they want is worth less than other houses in the neighborhood that are the same size due to an unusual floor plan.

The app would need to be able to tell a buyer when the home inspection repair list is big enough to walk away from the house.

All this app would need is a way to download all the experience that only comes from being out there, seeing houses, writing offers, knowing the current market, and dealing with people.

So no, Realtors are here to stay.

I sold a listing of mine that did not inspect so well.  Before we put it back on the market, we have to make some repairs.  I have spent a lot of time advising my client on which repairs we need to do so that the next buyer won’t want to walk away.  We don’t want to fix everything little thing because we don’t have to do so.  The goal is just to do the big things so the next buyer still wants the house after their inspection.

I recently had a standoff with a listing agent when their seller did not do a few repairs they agreed to do.  The listing agent drew a line in the sand and told me my people had to take it or leave it.  Knowing that the seller had moved out of the house and was closing on his new house the next morning, I called his bluff by saying we would postpone the closing and go to mediation since that is how the contract says disputes are to be settled.  A couple of hours later he was asking me what my buyer wanted to have done in order to close on time.

An app can’t do these things.  An app can open doors.  An app can provide paperwork to be filled out.  An app can’t solve these types of problems.  People are always going to want help from somebody who knows what to do, how to do it, and when to do it.