We Tell it Like It Is

A set of my buyers have finally found a great house. We've been looking at homes since March. They have some specific needs. We've seen some pretty nice houses, but never quite exactly what they were looking for. Recently, we found a foreclosure that was listed in the middle of their price range and it was in really good shape. It had been on the mkt for 60 days and was in a good neighborhood.

I went home and looked at comparable homes that have sold in the area and discovered that other homes similar to its size & style have been selling as high as $60,000 over the list price of the foreclosure. So, we knew it was a good deal. We offered $5,000 under asking price but then also asked for $9,000 to be paid for by the bank/seller for closing costs. A total of $14,000 under asking price. After 2 business days, the bank/seller suprisingly accepted the offer, but said they'd only pay for $7700 in closing costs. Luckily, this was workable for my buyers.  We accepted their counteroffer that same day and a day later, they gave us some additional paperwork to sign. The additional paperwork from the bank basically repeats over & over again that my buyers understand they are purchasing the home as-is and the bank/seller will not make any repairs or adjust the price according to anything that is found at the home inspection.

We are now awaiting their signatures on the paperwork and once we receive them, my buyers will have 10 days to do the inspection. Hope that goes well....stay tuned.

I have a town home that is currently a short sale listing of mine. My seller had purchased it brand new back in 05. Not long after that, she met Mr. Wonderful & got married. The new hubby, however, also had a home and it was bigger than hers. They decided his home would be the better place for them to reside and they decided they would rent out her town home. However, after doing some investigating, they realized that the loan she had used to purchase the town home had forbid her from renting it; she had signed something at the closing that said she agreed to use the town home as her primary residence and had totally forgotten about it.

As time went on, they started getting behind on their mortgage payments and I entered the picture. The current market value of the town home was $50,000 less than what she had paid for it, so we listed it short of what she owed. We hoped that a buyer would come in and make an offer and we hoped her lender would understand the current market decline and accept the offer and not foreclose.

Recently, we received an offer from a buyer. We submitted the offer to my seller's lender and the lender accepted it. However, my seller has now been behind on her monthly association dues as well as her mortgage payments. She owes the association about $800 but does not have the $ to pay it. The lender says they will not use the proceeds of the sale to pay off the association. The association says they will not forgive my seller's debt to them and in fact, have been threatening to put a lien on the property. If  a lien is put on the property, it will complicate matters much worse and my seller will be out a ton of $ paying a lawyer to help them get this lien removed. Somehow, this $800 needs to get paid before we can sell the town house. We've begged the association to allow my seller to pay them back in small increments and they have refused to compromise. We've begged the lender to help us pay for the $800 and they have refused to help.

Finally, the buyer agreed to pay the balance themselves at closing. Yay! Let's see if this works out. We are now waiting to get signatures back from the lender officially accepting the offer & allowing this sale to take place. The buyer will then need to review the assoc. documents & approve them as well as have their own home inspection done to make sure its in the condition they'd like it to be in. Stay tuned...

So, I did an open house today--the first one I've done in over a year. I was talked into doing one by a listing agent who is selling another town home in the same complex that I have my listing in. My listing has been on for a year and we've reduced the price at least 4 times. I figured I had nothing to lose by regressing back to my old selling tactics.

Well, my 2 hour stint in Shoreview turned out to be a reminder of why I stopped doing them. My poor seller knocks herself out cleaning the place up, buying fresh flowers, candy, and reducing the price one more time.

I had one visitor right away. I asked her if she was from the area (no, St. Paul) and if she was in the market for a town home (just a simple "yes" was the response). She asked me the price and I told her. I asked her if she wanted a flyer w/more information and she refused it. I pointed out a couple of features of the home to her and she gently indicated that she wanted to be left alone to look. I obliged. She stayed another 30 seconds, used the bathroom and left. Didn't look on the deck or on the patio. A few concerns I had about her visit:

1) Her lack of questions and refusal to take a flyer--if you were seriously looking for a home, wouldn't you want some info to reference while you were looking? No questions about assoc. fees, etc? In turn, many people read all of that on the internet ahead of time before they come to see the home. But, why would she ask what the price was?

2) She sped up the looking after she heard the price.

3) Didn't bother looking outside on the deck or patio. Serious buyers ALWAYS go outside to see what the view is from the patio/deck--checking out all aspects of the home.

4) She used the bathroom. Was that the only reason why she came??

One other man arrived 10 mins before the open house ended. He did grab flyers; good sign #1. However, he also did not bother to look outside. He did look in closets, which is good sign #2. However, he did not ask any questions. This means he's either not interested or not a serious buyer.

I did not consider this to be a productive activity. If the 2nd man was serious, then where was his Realtor? Will the house sell because of the open house today? My vote would be "no", but I've been wrong in the past. However, I think the odds of me being right are in my favor unfortunately.

For those that know me well, I have Type A tendencies when it comes to work. I do not have kids and I do not have hobbies. Therefore, a great deal of my time & energy goes into my job. Since my job is my life, I work hard to excel at it --this means providing great service to my clients. I am a people pleaser and have difficulties sleeping at night knowing someone is unhappy. What chaps my hyde in an extreme way is when my fellow colleagues in the business behave in a manner that is the complete opposite of what I would do. Especially when they are agents that I am working opposite of in a transaction. Thus, the reason why I am completely bent out of shape today. And yes, I am a real estate nerd without a life.

Here's my venting in a nutshell:

This past Friday, 4 pm: An engaged couple looking for a home chose me to help them submit an offer & negotiate on the purchase of a great house. They have put all of their trust in me, therefore, I will do everything in my power to help them get this house. I email the listing agent earlier in the day to let him know our plan.

6 pm Friday:   As promised, I email the offer to the listing agent. I wait. I call my clients at 8:30 pm to let them know I haven't heard back. 10 pm I give up and go to bed. I figure the sellers want to sleep on it.

9 am Saturday: I call & leave the listing agent a msg to see if he even received the offer. He emails me at 10:30 & says he didn't. 5 mins. later, I resend it. At 10:45, I call & email him again to see if he received it this time. I then call my buyers to give them an update.

2:45 Saturday: Listing agent emails me back. He thinks the offer is really low & needs me to explain why its that way before he presents it to the sellers. Miffed that he hasn't presented it yet, I tell him that its only $10k under asking price and let him know we are open to negotiate. This was at 3:30.

Sunday at Noon: I have heard nothing from the listing agent and I'm frustrated. I call & lv him a msg on his cell. I follow up w/an email and bcc my buyers on it. I express my frustration & allude to the fact that he's holding out for other potential offers, which is unfair.

2:30 Sunday: He emails me a signed PA from his sellers but with the sales price changed from $10k under asking price to $6300 over asking price. I call my buyers. Within an hour, we submit another counteroffer. The agent actually emails me back rather quickly for a change and tells me his sellers will never go for that. With my buyers' permission, I raise up the counter by another $5k and tell them that's our final offer. I send it in writing at 9pm.

Monday at Noon-ish: I resend the counteroffer after finding out the agent did not receive it the night before.

Weds at Noon (today): My buyers & I agree to pull out of the deal because we've heard nothing. I emailed the listing agent to tell him this and to explain why. He had the guts to email me back & tell me I was the one w/the problem. I gave him a very detailed response--giving the exact dates & times of each of our emails to each other. I also included the fact that I saw that he has 24 listings right now and I feel he is doing a major disservice to his clients --losing deals for them because he has too much on his plate and not enough time to communicate w/people.

There, I vented. Ethically, this blog is risky because I am not supposed to publically put down my fellow agents. However, this behavior merits some sort of public blasting, in my opinion. I'm not naming names or even exposing any details of the transaction. All I can say is people, YOU HAVE NOT A CLUE HOW YOUR AGENT IS REPRESENTING YOU.  Its scary.

Hillcrest/Dayton's Bluff--125 homes sold--$108,000 avg list price--why: 2nd best to those that can't afford more expensive surrounding suburbs of Maplewood & N St Paul.

Phalen--71 homes sold--$109,000 avg list price--why: the most house for your money anywhere in the Twin Cities metro. This area is popular to Hmong families who can't afford a lot but need a lot of space and want to live near people of their own culture.

Mac/Groveland--44 homes sold--$284,000 avg list price--why: beautiful, large old homes that are walking distance to coffee shops, stores, paths/trails.

Como--32 homes sold--$204,000 avg list price--why: great starter homes w/"character" that are near Como park/lake but also close to more expensive suburb of Roseville & its amentities.

Highland Park--26 homes sold--$281,000 avg list price--why:beautiful older homes in a very suburban-feeling area. Centrally located. Ideal location.

The city proves to still be a popular area for home buyers. Here's a snapshot of what's selling--these are numbers based on homes that have recently accepted offers and are waiting to close.

Minneapolis--Most Popular:

SW Mpls--143 homes sold--$324,000 avg list price--why: Urban homes with a wealthy, suburban feel to the neighborhoods. Close to Edina but yet in the city. 2nd best to those that can't afford Edina.

Nokomis--125 homes sold--$215,000 avg list price--why: close to the lakes/trails and walking distance to cute coffee shops, etc. Homes have "character".

Camden--116 homes sold--$94,000 avg list price--why: its the "safe" area of N Mpls. You can get a newly rennovated home for 100,000.

North Mpls--89 homes sold--$80,000 avg list price--why: half of these homes are listed under $75k and are purchased by investors who fix them up & resell at very affordable prices.

NE Mpls--63 homes sold--$153,000 avg sales price--Urban homes w/"character" that you can't find in neigboring cities like Fridley, New Brighton. 2nd best to those that can't afford St. Anthony Village.

Longfellow--45 homes sold--$205,000 avg list price--light rail access. 2nd best to Nokomis.

Ok, to be fair, I love my job and need to do a top 10 of what I love:

10.  The tax credit

9.  Seeing some pretty cool & weird houses

8.  Having mornings & days free

7.  The variety; every day is different

6.  Working in my p.j.s (NOT on showings, of course)

5.  The market finally shifting

4.  Hanging out w/former clients

3.  Working w/my husband

2.  Always meeting new people & making new friends

1.  Making people's dreams come true :)

10. People that have their home up for sale but consistently turn down showings because its inconvenient for them.

9. When you FINALLY get a showing for the properties like I described above (after numerous requests) and the house is total crap. All the fuss over THAT?!

8. Real estate agents that are too busy to return phone calls.

7. Buyers freaking out and that go out of their way to request showings of homes from me and then don't return my calls when I try and set up times w/them.

6. Listing agents that don't tell their sellers that my buyers & I are coming and we show up on a Sunday morning unannounced while theyt are still in bed & get yelled at for it.

5. Sellers that think their homes are worth $75,000 more than they really are and I'm the one that's wrong about the price, not them.

4. Parents that tell their kids (my clients) that the $150,000 home they want w/a remodeled kitchen, new roof/windows/furnace and 3,000 sq. ft in the middle of Edina should really be priced at $50,000 and they're getting ripped off.

3. Agents that walk into a house for a showing w/their clients while I'm already in the house with my buyers and they yell "Hello? Realtor here!". They see our shoes & my briefcase on the floor in the entryway. Apparently, its not obvious to them that there is another showing & they keep yelling until I leave my clients & formally welcome them into a home that's not my listing.

2. Sellers that want a mint for their home but don't bother picking up their dirty underwear when they know buyers are coming through.

1. Homes that have dolls on display that consist of human bodies w/animal heads. These are present in about 25% of the homes I show. There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING cute about those dolls.