Gratitude Always

Well, here we are – November, 2021. And that means several things in my world.
 
First, we are fully into autumn – my favorite season of the year. I’m always ready for the change in seasons, but I love autumn especially because I am usually worn out with the heat and long days of summer. The season brings brisk weather, earlier sundowns, beautiful fall colors, and the promise of traditional festivities ahead.
 
Second, my birthday is November 26. And this is birthday Number 70! I am still amazed – gobsmacked, even – by this fact.
 
Third, this is Thanksgiving month. And these days I have a lot to be thankful for.

Let’s run down the list, shall we …

Job I get to have fun (almost) every day, by actually helping people get what they want and need, while earning a good living – which leads to …

Clients What a swell bunch of people I’ve worked with over the past seven years! So happy to get to know them, get their deals done, and become friends in the process. And they bring me gifts. Just for doing my job. Amazing!

Friends and Family As always, I am surrounded by a truly deluxe squad of supporters who feed me, make me drinks, make me laugh, and hold me up when I’m tottering. They love me and I love them!

City Wonderful to be living and working in this dynamic, building, buzzing city! Too many traffic snarls? Yes. Too many pedal taverns? Absolutely. Too many tear-downs and tall/skinnies? Perhaps. But Holy Cow! What a fabulous ride we are on! Bring more! I love it!

Seven decades and still not done It is still difficult to get my head wrapped around the fact that I am actually this old. Where did all the time go? And how did it happen so fast? But it is what it is, so I celebrate the gift of life itself. It’s good to have 70 years under my belt, but especially sweet for all the reasons above. And I’m on the upswing. Not done yet! Stay tuned!

Seller Beware!

Residential real estate certainly has its share of terrors, frights, and things that go bump in the night. And since Halloween is just around the corner, this seems like a good time to talk about it.

Since everyone knows the current market overwhelmingly favors sellers, it goes without saying that things can get scary for buyers. I wrote about it in October two years ago.

What might come as a surprise – especially in a market with most sellers sorting through stacks of over-asking offers – is that there are scary factors sellers need to watch out for as well.

To name a few …

Sight-Unseen Offers
Such offers are shockingly commonplace these days. I’ve had them on recent listings and competed against them recently with buyers. BUT if they come with an inspection contingency, watch out! With an inspection contingency, buyers can get a house under contract and then decide at their leisure whether they actually want it. If you want to accept such an offer, use a counter offer to kill the inspection contingency or make the earnest money non-refundable.

Corporate Buyers
Unlike those above, corporate buyers are generally not interested in living in the house. But like those above, they will get a house under contract and then decide what to do with it. Often they will shop the contract to another buyer for a quick profit. Nothing wrong with this if sellers get the price they want, but if the deal goes sideways, they will have to start all over. These offers often have a bunch of indecipherable language in Special Stipulations. Your realtor can help you decipher this and avoid getting burned.

Appraisal Gaps
In the past six months, I’ve written eight successful offers for buyers (not to mention a number that didn’t get the deal). All but two were over-asking price and either waived appraisal entirely or offered to cover a certain amount of any gap between appraised value and contract price. That’s what it takes these days. But sellers should beware of this kind of offer unless the buyer offers proof of funds to cover the gap. Sellers are used to asking for proof of funds with an all-cash offer but they need to ask for proof to cover an appraisal gap as well. If the funds aren’t there, and the house doesn’t appraise, you could have a train wreck on your hands.

Greed
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: overpriced houses do NOT sell! Don’t get greedy. Price it right and you’ll be successful.

Selling a house can be lots of fun these days, but don’t let it go to your head. As always, let your realtor be your guide.

Eat. Pray. Love. And buy a house.

“It’s too hard for buyers these days! I’ll lose my mind if I lose another bidding war. Maybe I’ll just keep renting.”

Yep. Heard it. I feel your pain.

Another one comes up now and then, and I’ve heard it more often lately: “I don’t want to overpay! What if I pay too much?”

In the context of our explosive residential real estate market, those are understandable questions. Prices keep rising. Houses keep selling for above asking price. How much is too much?

There are a couple of quick answers. Things are worth what people will pay for them – so, technically speaking, you can’t really “overpay.” And, while we can’t predict the future, the smart money says things won’t go down – or even level off – any time soon. So, your house is likely a sound investment.

But there’s a more nuanced answer that I offer when I counsel nervous buyers. It involves life itself­ – above and beyond the purchase of a house. 

Yes, a house is an investment, but it’s more than that. It’s the place where you live. And there’s a lot about living your life that really doesn’t involve dollars and cents. If you get too hung up on the money end of things, you may miss getting the house of your dreams.

I recently closed with buyers on a great house. Perfect for them and their young daughter. Like most buyers, they were working with a finite budget, and typically these days, we had been on the hunt for a long time. We were all getting pretty tired of the process when they beat out six other buyers by offering 7.5% above the asking price, a pass/fail inspection, and no appraisal contingency.

Celebration! A deal at last! And then the angst set in.

As it turned out, the house appraised for even more than contract price, but they were still nervous. “We don’t want to overpay for this house. Are we making a big mistake?”

There was still time to walk away on inspection issues, so we talked about it. I trotted out the advice I give buyers about value and getting what you want. This is about having the right place to live!

Can you see yourself chatting with your neighbors on the front porch? (This house has a fabulous front porch!) Can you see Thanksgiving dinner in the dining room? Have you located the spot for the Christmas tree? Can you see your daughter coming down stairs in her first prom dress? Yes, yes, yes, and yes. So, they bought the house.

Do you love the house? Can you afford the house? Buy the house! And rejoice!

Selling your house? One size does not fit all …

Selling is certainly easier than buying these days, but it’s not as easy as falling off a log. Strategy is critical. The approach for getting the best offer on one house isn’t necessarily right for another. One size does not fit all.

The general rule: present the house to the public as an easy, no-fuss purchase. Assume that buyers have literally zero imagination, and deal with anything that could get in the way of them seeing themselves in the house.

Get it spiffy and market ready, and do not over-improve. Fix-up minor things, de-clutter, paint if necessary, refresh the yard, and clean, clean, clean. Maybe stage it if it’s empty. Don’t do anything major.

But sometimes the general rule isn’t the right rule. There are times when the best approach is to do nothing at all.

I had a recent listing that had been a rental for 20 years. It was in sound condition, but a little tired - a kitchen upgrade from 20 years ago, vinyl siding over the original clapboard, a deck that needed repairs and re-staining, a whiff of lingering cigarette smoke.
 
The sellers asked it they should do things like replacing the deck, washing the windows and siding, and reworking the tile in the bath. I recommended a thorough cleaning, and deck repairs to prevent actual danger, but nothing more. The buyer of this house would either leave it as-is and rent it again, or would do an all-out rehab. In either case those improvements would be unnecessary.
 
We had six offers and got a deal at well over asking price.
 
Another recent client was an elderly lady moving to assisted living. She had owned her house for 53 years, and apparently had never thrown anything away. It was absolutely stuffed with stuff. There was no way to know what needed fixing, and clearing everything out would be a major undertaking.
 
So, what to do? Clear it out, fix it up (to what extent?) and put it on the open market? Or look for a buyer who would buy it to flip? 
 
The former could take months and the seller needed the cash from the sale asap. And the underlying condition of the house was a gigantic unknown. So, the seller and her guardian chose the latter approach. I worked off-market and got three offers. The winner took the house at a very fair price without an inspection contingency (a relief!) and offered to dispose of anything the seller wanted to leave behind. A win for the seller!
 
If you are thinking about selling, now is a great time, but it takes the right strategy to get the best deal. I’d love to talk with you about the best approach. I might even make you a nice cocktail while we chat.

Working with What Is

Everybody over three feet tall knows this is a wild real estate market. Unlike anything most of us have ever seen. And because it’s so slanted in favor of sellers, it’s hard on buyers. And their realtors.

There are all sorts of strategies for getting an offer accepted. I’ve talked about a few in previous months. And that’s good, but it still may take months and a whole lot of offers to land a deal on the house you want.

So, how do we handle the process? That has a lot to do with attitude.

Over years of working to bring more clarity and happiness to my life, I’ve read a lot of guru writers – you know, the folks who love to tell us how to think and live. Some of this stuff is nonsense of course, but some of it … well, skeptic that I am, I’ve discovered that some of it is very, very good.

Two who have had a big impact are Byron Katie and Eckart Tolle – respectively, the authors of Loving What Is and The Power of Now. They both advance the idea that life itself is not driving us crazy. The problem lies in our reactions to life. Simply put, they advise total acceptance of reality just as it is, and then working on our responses.

Denying or resisting reality only makes us less happy, and it can block efforts to improve the situation. Acceptance does not imply acquiescence. It simply means seeing things clearly so you can take appropriate action.

So, does this apply to real estate? Of courses it does! Doesn’t everything?

As we – buyers and realtors – work this crazy market, acceptance of what is makes life less stressful in the moment, and makes progress more likely. Accept that this is a tough market. Accept that this will likely take a while. Accept that there may be disappointments. Then work forward with energy and focus – with as much joy as you can muster, and without too much bitching and moaning. (This last admonition applies equally to realtors and clients.)

Working this way will lead to more clarity and flexibility in deciding on wants vs. needs, more rational offers, less anxiety waiting for a response from a seller, and more rational negotiations.

Let go of the pain of the moment. Let go of “the one that got away.” Let go of the summer heat and fatigue. Know that eventually you will find all of what you need, and most of what you want.