Real Estate Snippets

Listing a House

Marketing a house for sale is a challenging business.  As is apparent from the many permutations on the square boxes we call homes, what individuals like in a home is as varied as the people that occupy them.  A real estate agent who takes a house listing has a dual challenge: to identify and appreciate why the seller/s bought the house and be able to convey some of that same enthusiasm for the house to potential home buyers. 

The majority of home sellers love their houses.  Many times selling the house feels like a loss.  Just because the sellers like the house, doesn't mean their real estate agent is in love with it!  The challenge for a real estate agent is to get beyond the liking or not liking of the house and present the home in a manner that will bring in buyers!

My way of dealing with this is to imagine myself in the home.  What is here that attracts me?  What is here that might attract a buyer?  What is here that DID attract the seller?  Sometimes sellers will write a little story of why they bought their home.  Most times I have to do it for them!

Today was a perfect example of an epiphany experience for me with a new listing.  The sellers were at work and I had stopped to deliver documents, flyers for the brochure box, and a booklet describing their neighborhood.  Pictures taken before were done at sunset and the sunny weather today afforded much better clarity for new outside pictures.  I walked around the yard without time pressure or having to converse with the owners.  There was a peace about this place.  It was teaming with life from the ducks in the lake to the chipmunk at the bird feeder to the fish swimming the channel.  The bird calls beckoned to me.  The walking path across the street was being used.  It was quiet and I could feel the city being shed from my shoulders.  Indeed, this was why the sellers had bought this house.  It was a beautiful location.

My sense of peace was affirmed when I opened the door to leave this Maple Grove house.  The male yellow headed blackbirds were eagerly eating the bird seed.  They were close enough to see their individual feathers.  I had never seen this species before.  It was a great way to exit a home that was restful, secluded, and a true get-away from the hubbub of city life.  Check out the bird calls and the video below and tell me what you think!

Point of Sale Inspections

OH, NO!  iT'S fRIDAY THE 13TH SO LET'S TALK ABOUT SOMETHING SAFE LIKE City Inspections!

Minneapolis, St. Paul, and some suburbs require the city to inspect a home before it can be sold.  The purpose of this inspection is to keep the quality of housing at a minimum standard within the city.  Some of these “point of sale” inspections mandate the seller to make repairs before the house changes ownership, and some do not. Call the City directly to find their regulations about “point of sale” inspections. The seller pays for this inspection and should have this inspection done prior to listing their property.

Bloomington

Time of Sale Inspection

952.948.8930

Crystal

Housing Maintenance Code

763-531-1000

Golden Valley

Sanitary Sewer Inspection

763-593-8030

Hopkins

Truth in Housing

952-935-8474

Maplewood

Truth in Sale Disclosure

651-770-4560

Minneapolis

Truth in Sale Disclosure

612-673-5840

New Hope

Housing Maintenance Code

763-531-5127

Osseo

Truth in Housing

763-425-2624

Richfield

Code Compliance

612-861-9883

St. Paul

Truth in Sale Disclosure

651-266-1900

South St. Paul

Time of Sale Evaluation

651-450-8704

Allergies

Fifty plus years my body has been allergy free.  The answer to the doctor's allergy question has always been, "No, no allergies."  Dry hands in December are a common Minnesota malady, so I availed myself of lotion in a public restroom.  Thirty minutes later red inflamed skin, itchiness, and a feeling of hot flashes was overwhelming me.  A friend who has allergies quickly drove to the drug store for good ol' Benadryl.  Twice the lotion got me.  A third time the reaction came from a popular coffee drink I've had many times before. 

The latest was a surprise.  It occurred after showing a house which smelled of some kind of perfumed spray when we entered.  It's a mystery what I touched, what I inhaled, or what touched me, but I found myself digging for the Benadryl once again as we left the showing. 

It's been my practice to recommend against potpourri, air fresheners, and perfumed sprays when listing a house in St. Paul.  There are a lot of people with allergies that may not view the house because of the allergic reaction to one of these scents.  Previously, the reason given was about other people.  Now, it's become rather personal!

Copper

She's a lovely old painted lady, but right now she's all alone.  No loving family lives within her spacious walls.  She wants someone to call her home, but the lender who owns her didn't act quickly enough to reduce her price.  Now she's alone, cold, and starting to look shop worn.  Time in solitary has taken its toll on her.  Windows have been broken.  The front lock has been bumped.  A radiator has been cracked.  It's colder inside than outside the house.  The latest insult to her beauty is the thief who sneaked in during the night and stole all her copper.  They even tried to steal the pipe attached to the boiler.  Her value has diminished with each of the insults she has experienced.

Regrettably, she's not the only house in St. Paul that's had her pipes stolen.  There are others as well.  The houses are usually vacant so the thieves can enter and exit unscathed.  Usually a basement window is the access point and after throwing the copper through the window, exit is made from a door.  Sellers who have moved on to their new location while their house sits vacant and for sale, may experience this same insult.  Be aware and make sure your house is protected from the opportunists looking for copper recycling money.

If you are the neighbor of a vacant house, be alert to copper thieves as well.  The damage to the house itself can expand to the neighbors if a gas leak is created followed by a subsequent explosion. 

Bedbugs

"Sleep tight.  Don't let the bedbugs bite!" is a nursery rhyme to most.  Several months ago a New York Times article about bedbugs crossed my computer screen.  Bedbugs were things of fantasy to me, but this article made me realize bedbugs are experiencing a resurgence and could come to St. Paul as well as not.

The NY Time article explains that bedbugs are an infestation NOT related to hygiene.  The pesky little things (maximum 1/4" long) are carried from one place to another on clothing or in luggage or other carried items.  They are flat, brown and wingless.  Supposedly they also do not carry diseases.  They really sound like a wood tick except their bodies appear jointed.  They can hide anywhere and often the first signs of an infestation are the night bites.  They can live on one blood meal for as much as a year!  They were close to extinct in the US after WWII but the rise in international travel and immigration has brought the little beasties back to our country again.

The bad news:  just last week a colleague told of her daughter's apartment being infested with bedbugs!  That means they've made their way to the Twin Cities and our pest control guys are going to have to learn how to attack the little insects.  They are stubborn and resist treatment by hiding in the smallest cracks and crevices.  Cooperation between the pest control experts and the home owners are the only means to eradicate them.  With concerted effort, the homeowner and the professional can eliminate the problem without throwing out the bed as well!

Christmas Decorations

Much hullabaloo has been made about whether to decorate or not at Christmas when your house is on the market.  Having spent the better part of an evening getting a 16 foot tree into an 11 foot high room, I'd be the first to say "skip the decorations!", but it's a difficult decision to make.  For many families the decorations are a deeply entrenched part of their holiday and cutting that tree and then squeezing it into the house are all part of the fun (or torture!).

Sellers cry out, "It's our house!  Why can't we celebrate the way we always do?"  or worse yet, "It's our last Christmas here and we want to have the best Christmas ever."  Both statements are legitimate, but reality is that if your house is listed at Christmas the decorations can detract from the commodity you're trying to sell . . . your house.  Just like the fresh crab leg birthday dinner prepared by one of my sellers created lots of negative comments about the smell from prospective buyers, buyers cannot always see beyond the decorations.  Decorations make the house look crowded or smaller or darker or  . . .   Knowing that only serious buyers are looking during the holidays, it's best to keep your goal in mind and dress your house for success.  The stagers say it best:  Use discretion.  Make decorations tasteful.  Put limits on the number of decorations.   

Staging a House For Sale

I have a little quiz for you.  If you were going to buy a house based solely on the condition of the bathroom, which of the following bathrooms would you choose?  Remember you can click on the picture to see an enlarged view.

 

     A       or        B

Should we take a poll and get the results tomorrow or would you like to know immediately?  I'm guessing everybody would choose bathroom B.  Why?  because it looks fresh and clean.  The yellowed vinyl flooring in A makes it feel creepy and the walls by the toilet paper holder look grimy as well.  It might help if the clutter was gone, but it feels kind of icky the way it is.  Was I right?  Did you all choose B?

What I didn't tell you is that this is a trick question.  The two pictures are one and the same bathroom.  They are the before and after of a bathroom I personally prepared for rent.  The picture on the left was after an 18 year lease to one tenant who chain smoked (I'm not making a political statement about smokers, just the reality of what smoke does to the walls of a house.).  The vinyl had never been changed or the walls painted in that time.  The debris was the way he left it when he vacated his unit.

The picture on the right is the same bathroom with a fresh coat of paint and a $20 remnant of new vinyl flooring installed by a handyman.  Total cost to upgrade the bathroom was $135 which included a new wax ring and a new shut off valve on the toilet because it dripped when it was turned off to install the vinyl.

Even though the bathroom is the same bathroom, the difference is why staging a house for sale is so important.  People live in their homes on a day to day basis and don't realize how yellowed walls, flooring or drapes have become.  We all have a list of repairs that we're planning to do someday.  It's nothing to be embarrassed about, but it is time to do the list when you want to sell your house.  Things wear out gradually and we aren't always aware of the change.  A stager will take a hard look at your home with all its comfortableness and help you to see how to make it sparkle for its time on the market like it sparkled when you first bought it.  Remember you want your house to be like bathroom B in all its shiny splendor!

On Line Home Evaluation

Aggregators are sites that glean info from other places and combine it all together for re-publication to the public.  Realistically, aggregators can be a good thing.  The problem comes when the information gleaned by the aggregators is not accurate or complete.  Remember the old adage, "Garbage in.  Garbage out"?   How is the public to know the difference when an aggregator portrays itself as an "expert"?

Real estate professionals are always checking new real estate aggregators.  First there was a big flap about Zillow which promised to give accurate valuations of homes.  Now there's a new kid on the block, Cyberhomes.  Many consumers don't know about these sites and don't care.  Many real estate agents don't know, but those who do have varying opinions.  Some consider these on-line evaluators of a home's value to be a threat.  Others are fearful that the public will take the on-line valuation as truth.

Well, the truth is, if it's in writing we tend to think it's so, but I'm here to say, "It ain't necessarily so!"  I tried Zillow out when it was first released.  It was kind of fun checking my current house and my old house as they were recent sales and Zillow "should-a known".  Zillow didn't know!  Didn't have a clue.  The valuation of both houses was off by tens of thousands of dollars and blatant errors were made by comparing my downtown St. Paul house with south Minneapolis houses to determine value.  An agent would never do that.  It's in a completely different market area!  So, I basically told my reading public, "Play with Zillow. Treat it like a game, but don't believe a word it says!"  A month ago Zillow acknowledged it needed help and asked homeowners to log on and make corrections to their aggregated information.  Even with the homeowner's input, it's still not going to give a good market value.  No machine can evaluate like a human can!

The new kid Cyberhomes moved in and I had to go "make nice".  I tried the same two houses to see if there was any better information spewed from this aggregator's mouth.  Amazingly, my current house came up, and guess what?  The aggregator generated the perfect tax value, just what the county says my house is worth along with the fact that the county has errors for "date built" and the number of rooms.  Cyberhomes very carefully spit out the exact misinformation they had gleaned from the county.  The value was getting closer because the county based their value on our last sale.

The house we sold in New Hope didn't even exist!  We sold it 2 years ago so the sale has to be in Hennepin County's records by now.  The 4 neighbors around the old house who had not been sold in 15 years all showed up, but the one we sold which was that neighborhood's most recent sale was invisible!  Boo, hoo!  I really wanted to see it on the aerial photo!

So, if you want to have some fun checking out what the aggregators think your home is worth, go right ahead.  Just remember that a beautifully programmed computer will never be able to evaluate your home's value the way a human with experience and first hand knowledge can!  Just because it's written does not make it so!

Real Estate Marketing

  The Shoe House at left is a work of art.  (To get the full effect of the photo, click on the image and it will enlarge.)  It also is a marketing nightmare.  The work of art was commissioned by the City of St. Paul who hired Tyree Guyton, "a world-renowned painter, sculptor, mixed media and urban environmental artist" from Detroit to come to Minnesota and work to revitalize the community with a community art project.  The designated house was soon covered with old shoes.  Yes, old shoes!  Worn out, holey, beat up, or smelly shoes. They were the "soles of souls."  They were adhered to the siding of the house and were a shock to anyone who casually drove by.  I was one of those surprised passers-by and circled the block to make sure I had seen the right thing.  The house is located at 743 Charles Ave. in St. Paul.

The house changed from work of art to marketing nightmare in 1999 when the owner listed the home for sale.  The shoes could not be removed because they were a work of art.  But, art is in the eye of the beholder and after 72 days, no eye had taken interest in beholding this piece of art.  The property went off the market. 

In 2001 another attempt was made to sell the home but it looked entirely different.  The shoes were gone and the new siding looked pretty good.  The house did not sell this time either, but the curb appeal was certainly improved.  

Pushy Real Estate Agents

Before I was a real estate agent, I heard many comments from friends and acquaintances about how pushy agents were when they listed their houses.  The consumer hated it when an agent would come to the listing appointment and leave a list of "must do" items behind.  Generally the public did not understand the purpose behind the agent's "honey do" list.  Consequently, the agents were labeled as pushy.

Now I understand what the pushy agents were doing.  They were giving valuable advice to their prospective clients on how to prepare their home for getting the highest price in the shortest time.  Regardless of what was on the repair list, the agent was bringing his/her professional experience and keen eye into the home and looking at it as a buyer would examine it.  They were not being pushy.  They were looking out for the clients best interests.

If your agent suggests a price, gives you a list of things to change in the house, or counsels you on looking at an offer, think very seriously about the agent's advice before rejecting it.  Your agent most likely has had years of experience, has negotiated many contracts, knows the market, and has shopped with a lot of buyers compared to the one or two or even three transactions of experience you have.  Remember the agent is bound by agency law to have your best interests foremost at all times.  Your best interests will be benefitted by listening to your agent's suggestions!