Really Real Estate Blog

Show Your House

One of the hardest jobs an agent has is getting the buyer to make an appointment to look at houses. It can takes days even weeks of phone calls and emails to get a buyer to finally agree to free up time from their ongoing lives to actually come up and spend a morning or afternoon or sometimes an evening to look at houses. This is especially true early in the process when they are still discovering what they want. When you finally make that connection and set a date and time you can barely contain your excitement to show them houses that will get then engaged in the process and make them want to actually buy a house. You get the okay and spend the rest of the day looking for houses to show them that will wet their appetites. You make that phone call and…and…

…the seller asks if they can make the appointment for the next day instead, or maybe that afternoon instead of that morning or how about next week like it didn’t just take three weeks to get them to agree to come up Saturday morning because their kids soccer game was cancelled and they can finally make the trip up from the Bronx.

And often what is the seller’s excuse (other than medical)…the house is too messy, or they have company, or they’re going to be out anyway and they would prefer not to have to leave twice. Whatever the reason they have no idea how hard it was to get the buyer to come up at that time. Contrary to popular opinion we are at the mercy of the buyer and not the other way around.

And what is the seller’s main job…show your house. If we don’t get buyers in no matter how well priced or how pretty or wonderful the kitchen is you will not sell your house. It is an inconvenience to sell your house, embrace it. Your selling agent did their job by getting someone to want to make an appointment to see it. Your job is to show your house. It is not magic it is numbers – the more buyers who see come into your house the better chance you have of getting it SOLD.

The Certificate of Occupancy

“I bought the house this way” or “I didn’t want my taxes to go up” or the ever popular “I didn’t think I needed one just for a bathroom downstairs” are all valid reasons not to get the Certificate of Occupancy but no longer applicable once you decide to sell your house. One of the single greatest impediments to successfully closing on the sale of your house is the absence of a proper Certificate of Occupancy.

Scrambling at the last minute to obtain the CO’s necessary can be a major headache for all: the buyer, the seller, the lawyers and the agents.  The misery is equally spread around. Despite the due diligence of the listing agent, the lack of aproper CO might not be discoverable until the Title search comes in. 

Case in point, I represented a house that for all appearances had no CO issues until we learned through the title search that the date the house was built was not accurately recorded in the town. We thought the house was eligible to a prior to zoning letter when in fact it was not and now needed a whole house CO. This involved getting a Variance for road frontage, getting certifications for the plumbing, heating, electrical systems. In other words, a nightmare. It took us eleven months to get the CO. Unfortunately, we lost the original buyer in the process. In the end we had to sell the house for 15% less a year later.

 That was a worst case. Another case in point: I’ve had a listing where the seller had to tear down his deck (which didn’t have a CO) and give the buyer a credit for building a new deck because we would not be able to get the CO in time for the buyer to close on the purchase of the house.

 Most of the time these issues are preventable if the homeowner is willing to get the proper CO’s at the time they list the house for sale. 

Needless to say I have learned my lesson. The answer is get your Certificate of Occupancy and get it now rather than waiting until you’re in contract and scrambling to close. It is a lot less wear and tear on all involved.

homes for sale in Yorktown Heights, NY 10598 Westchester, NY

The Art of Talking to Yourself

If you are in the real estate business long enough, you will talk to yourself. When I was a green agent (new not energy efficient) and first walked into my real estate office I noticed a lot of the agents exhibiting this very strange behavior. I was having conversation with some agents who, it turns out, weren’t talking to me. They were talking to themselves. They were actually having a discussion with themselves. I checked their ear for the cell phone Bluetooth but it wasn’t that. They were really talking to themselves. Like mental patients. But it wasn’t the new agents or the part time agents, it was the senior agents, the busy ones. So responding to idea of mimicking the habits of successful people, I started talking to myself. It was only then that I started to get busy. You get so busy that you now actually have to talk to yourself just to sort through all the random stuff floating around your brain. It works. It is fun to watch too.  

Houses in Yorktown Heights, NY 10598

Having Fun with Real Estate

Looking at houses should be fun. I know I still have fun looking at houses. I try to make sure my buyers find the process of looking for a house fun. You have time later in the process to stress out. But for now, in the looking stage, it should still be fun. And why not. I think it is a universal thrill walking into a strange house for the first time. Will I like it? Will it look like the pictures? Is the blue room really that color blue? “Look,  They have the same taste as I do” or “Oh my god, how could they live in that room?” Where should I put the new flat screen I have to buy (or rather, save up for) after I buy the house? You’re not going to like every house you walk into so it’s okay to joke around as long as the sellers aren’t home to hear you. If the Buyer enjoys the experience of looking for a house it 1.) makes your job easier and 2.) it will ease the buyers stress when they actually move forward in the process of buying a house.

Pricing Your House or Marketing Your House to Buyers

I just had an interesting discussion with a seller. He was expecting me to compare his house to others that are active on the market. He didn’t want to price his house below where similar other houses were priced. In looking over the other houses many of them were priced ‘to negotiate” and not to sell at the asking price. Most sellers believe that they should pad the asking price of their house so they have “room’ to negotiate. While that was an acceptable position in a strong sellers market I don’t think it is one for our market today. Instead, I suggested we figure out what a buyer is actually going to pay for his house, not just the special one of a kind buyer, but the average joe buyer looking in the market today. If the Buyer is going to only pay $400K for his house then we should list the house for $409K. At least we have a shot a the buyer who can afford to pay $400k for a house to find yours. If we list it for $439K or $449 we might miss that buyer completely. If we list it for $419 or $429k that $400k buyer may be looking at the top of his range and still may miss the house. You can’t take a chance anymore not having the buyer see your house because of the ‘asking price”. This way the seller is still in control. He does not have to accept a $350k offer.

Price your house to sell to a buyer not another seller.  

Ahh Lawyers

Why are lawyers getting involved with house values? I know of two deals that have gone south because the lawyer recommended to the buyer that the house they are buying, according to the lawyer, is not worth the price the buyer is paying for it. The appraisal came in at contract value. The buyers agent provided a Market Evaluation confirming the price. The lawyer, who did not have access to current comparables, who is not qualified to make a price determination, who did not show the client 50 houses in the same market area until the buyers found one that suit them, who did not invest time, money and their expertise in helping them make a decision on what to buy, convinces them that they should wait until the prices fall some more, because any house they are going to buy now is too expensive. The other line I heard was “I wouldn’t buy that house for that price, you can get a better deal.” Needless to say, the buyer who has spent all of fifteen minutes with the lawyer, listens to the lawyer and not the agent, with whom they have spent forty hours with over the last three months. I would expect this to happen with the family lawyer, or a friend of the family but both these situations occurred with a lawyer hired just for the transaction. I’m not sure how the lawyer stands to benefit from interjecting their opinion into what should be an easy and well thought out transaction but I do know if the tables were turned we, as agents, would certainly be admonished for attempting to practice law without a license.  (I know that technically, an attorney can practice real estate, but when was the last time you went out with an attorney to look at houses.)

 

Graduation

My daughter graduated Cornell last weekend. Needless to say it was a milestone, forcing me to take 2 full days off from Real Estate in the middle of my Spring Market. As my daughters name was being called, my wife and I beaming with pride, my cell starts to ring. Do I answer it or do I watch my daughter get her diploma? That I have to grapple with the question is what worries me. The phone call is not a matter of life and death (I hope). The client can always leave a message on my voice mail. Yet I am so conditioned to answer my cell, capture that potential business that I have to check myself on one of the most wonderful days a parent can experience. My wife slaps me back into reality by quipping, ‘I hope you’re not going to answer that because if you do you’ll be spending the rest of the day by yourself.” I did not answer the call. Instead, I watched Sydney get her diploma, cheering like a proud parent. Yeah Sydney.

Interior Design

I am encouraging my fellow agents to take an interior design class. Especially the men. It can be a little daunting for us guys to discuss with a client where the furniture goes and what color the room should be but I have found it to be extremely helpful in closing the deal. It is just as important as talking about the condition of the heating system or the roof. Maybe more so. The first thing I do with a client when they walk into a house is figure out where the Flat Screen TV goes. That usually gets the husband interested. (Even if they don’t have one you know they are thinking about buying one.) Most older homes aren’t designed to accommodate a Flat Screen so it’s not always obvious where it goes. Next, one of them (usually the wife) is ripping out a wall here and there so I go over where I think a wall can be eliminated and say something like, “You know if you took this wall down…”  In a Raised Ranch it’s the wall separating the Kitchen from the Dining Room. That gets a common response, “I was just think that.”  That puts you on the same page as the client. Now they’re beginning to see the house with possibilities not just as it is. “If you painted this room this color…” And then we discuss colors. I have a subscription to Architectural Digest just so I can know what the latest colors are as well as kitchen designs. (Because you know they buyer has been looking at home magazines for months before they went out to look at their first house.) Do the buyers already have a dining room set or a bedroom set that has to be accommodated? Once you have their furniture in place it makes it that much easier to have them imagine themselves living in a new space.

The FSBO

Today I went to see a For Sale By Owner (FSBO). As a Buyer’s Agent I like to know what is on the market even if it’s not part of the MLS. I try to get the homeowner to agree to an imbedded commission so I don’t have to collect a commission directly from the buyer. An imbedded commission is where the commission is included in the offer to purchase. The seller will then direct the commission to my office at closing.

I meet the Seller at the house. She is already annoyed with me just because I’m an agent. The house is not in the best shape. I start to ask her a few basic questions:

Are the taxes without STAR?

“I don’t know” is her response.

Does the finished basement have a Certificate of Occupancy?

“I don’t know” again is her response.

Do you know how many bedrooms are listed on the property card?

Another “I don’t know”

Do you know how old the roof is?

“No”

Now I can tell she was really starting to get annoyed.

It wasn’t my intention to put her in that state. These are just some of the questions that buyers ask and the seller should be prepared for. I started to suggest to her that maybe she should go to the town hall and pull her property card when I found myself standing outside the front door as she was waving goodbye. I can still hear her cautioning me: “This is the way I bought it and this is the way I’m going to sell it.”

Surprise, Surprise

I’m showing a Vacant House. I have a family with me. A wife and husband, a couple of kids. The kids are running through the empty bedrooms. The wife is chasing after them. Suddenly, the wife comes running up to me clutching her kids in her arms.

“We have to leave”

“What’s the matter,” I ask

“We have to leave the house now”

"What’s wrong?”

“There’s a skunk in the closet”

“A skunk, are you sure it’s not a cat or something”

“It’s a skunk and it hissed at me and I’m out of here”

And so was I

I shut the bedroom door, locking the skunk in the room and call the listing agent.

“Hi, this is Barry Malawer from Century 21 Mulvey, I’m showing your house”

“Great, do you have an offer for me?”

“Well, no not exactly, there’s a skunk in the master closet”

“Haha, your kidding me”

“No, really, there’s a skunk in the closet”

“Are you sure it’s not a cat”

“Yes, I suggest you call animal control”

“Well, there is no animal control there”

“You need to have someone get rid of the skunk”

“Can’t you shoo it out of the house?”

“You’re kidding me, you want me to do it. I’m just calling you out of professional courtsey to let you know you have a skunk in the house. Right now he’s trapped in the bedroom, do you want me to leave the door open?”

“So do you think you’re clients might be interested in buying the house?”

“Not with the skunk in it?”

“Well, I guess I'll have to take care of it”

“Yes, I would imagine so, Good Luck”

I bet you the skunk is still sitting in the house.