–Joe Girard

Does that sound like victory to you? Then why am I calling it a failure?

Here’s what happened:

This was not a real estate sale. It was something I witnessed in a retail store, a local Bellingham outlet of used building supplies called the ReStore.

The ReStore collects used but use-able building materials, organizes them by type, then sells them for a maximum of 50% of new if it’s mint. Less if it’s not.

The Buyer in my story was shopping for a set of bi-fold doors, and there were perhaps 60 to 80 sets to look through. I was nearby, so I watched him browse for a good matching set, then eventually score some nice ones.

When he brought them to the counter to pay, he pointed out that one was marked $14, and the other — totally identical and obviously part of the same set — was marked only $5. I haven’t priced new bifold doors like these ones anytime recently, but I’d guess this was 1/3 to 1/4 what he would’ve payed for new ones. They were essentially perfect, so it was what I’d call a “very good deal.”

The Buyer pointed out the price difference to the clerk, and said that he wanted both doors for $5 each.

Now, having looked through the bi-folds myself and with a very good sense of how they were pricing them, the $5 price tag was clearly an error. Every other door of comparable (mostly lesser) quality in the rack was at $14. Just getting the one for $5 would’ve been a good discount, and a “very, very good deal” for the set.

The clerk countered his $5-for-both statement with, “I’ll give you both for $14 total.”

This was a gracious gesture, in my eyes. Buy one, get one free.

The Buyer wouldn’t have it. He put up a fuss. And here, where he just opened up a can of bad-ass on the clerk, is where I saw failure creeping in.

Negotiation isn’t about beating the other person so you’re the winner. Unless you’re a cop and all you want is a name, or a confession.

Negotiation, in its highest form, is about two people reaching “fair.”  

The bi-fold door buyer beat down the clerk to eek out a few more bucks’ worth of savings not because he couldn’t afford the whopping $14 total for a $60-or-more doorset. He did it because in his mind he “deserves to win” and damn any sellers who stumble into his path on his way to continual victory.

Here’s the small kicker: How’s it going to play out on his future trips to the ReStore, now that he’s pegged a “chiseler” – the guy who chisels his way to a below-what’s-even-fair price point?

Here’s the big kicker: Anyone who goes through life chiseling away at every seller with a “Must WIN!” attitude instead of a “Yeah, that’s a fair deal for both of us!” attitude, is going to feel like they’re always broke, never have enough, are always getting taken advantage of, and that everything’s in limited supply so better grab mine before it’s gone, and screw you.

That kind of sounds like hell, huh?

That guy may’ve gotten the price he wanted, but seeing as how he’s not a cop, and the ReStore isn’t a bad guy holding out information, that was a failed negotiation as far as I’m concerned.

414 Bayside Rd. in Edgemoor is a very special house.

The neighboring homes have fetched prices as high, recently, as $3.3 million. And for good reason: some of them are litterally like castles.

414 Bayside could easily fit right in with its 5 Bedrooms, 2 baths, 2888 total square feet, 2-car detached garage, full-length deck and patio, and tens of thousands of square feet of incredible landscaping potential.

A year or so ago, it came on the market at $1.2 million. It was too hard for buyers then to justify spending that amount of money on a house that is liveable — of course — and is built with some of the best craftsmanship an highest quality lumber ever put into a house — sure — but needed a $150,000 to $200,000 update, the style of updating that homes in Edgemoor require and deserve.

Yesterday, we re-listed it at $799,900. You can see more photos and read more information at www.414Bayside.com.

At $799,900 a buyer can invest the full amount of a remodel, have a luxury estate on the water’s edge in the highest end neighborhood in Bellingham, and still be into it for well under $1M.

One other feature worth mentioning is the private cove directly in front of the house, with acces to Bellingham Bay through the BNSF train trestle. The current owners have, in the past, moored a 26′ boat in the cove, and would slip easily out into Bellingham Bay and back again to their own private harbor. That’s a VERY unique feature in Edgemoor. Look again at this satellite image to see what I mean.

I’m opening the house to the public today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Come by and see it. Walk the grounds. Check out the yard between the house and the shoreline that’s big enough — and level enough — for a full size tennis court WITH bleachers! Or a vineyard. Or an orchard.

Bring your agent, your builder, your designer, your friends… and bring an offer. What an opportunity this home is for a buyer looking for a project.

If you’re going to own a home,

If you’re a sailor, and your home is a sailboat, and you’re sailing around the world, you better be an uber-tinkerer. You better be just as comfortable rebuilding a winch or sewing a big tear in the mainsail as you are making grilled cheese sandwiches in a hurricane.

OK, with a house, you don’t need such a masterful skillset and comfort level. It doesn’t hurt, but it’s not typically a requirement. Still, you need some basic tools, some basic comfort with fussing with stuff and kind of an understanding of how things work.

And here’s the most important thing — more important than the most multi-purposeful tool or the most info-dense book on the subject of home repair: You’ve got to be willing to dive in and try to tinker.

If you’ve got a loose handle on one of your doors, chances are VERY good it’s held there by screws. They’ve likely gotten loose. Well… TRY to tighten them. You’ll amaze yourself!

If you’ve got a squeaky hinge, by golly, drip some oil on it. No oil? How about some cooking spray? Try it!

Does your bathroom sink’s drain stopper pop open when you try to close it? Reach under the sink to the drain pipe, feel for the cap where the stopper lever goes into the pipe, and tighten it by hand. Remember, righty tighty.

Toilet running? Yeah, you could call a plumber. OR… you could pop the tank lid off its roost and fuss around in there a bit, maybe bend the float arm, maybe turn a screw a couple turns. Maybe it’ll require something beyond that… but you’ll empower yourself by trying! Just try it!

Remember these two things and you’ll be fine in 99% of all tinker-attempts:

1) Electricity can kill you, so make sure it’s off OFF before working on it. And…

2) Your supply plumbing pipes are under pressure, and that water’s looking for a way to get out. Don’t accidentally give it one.

Now tinker away, fearless Home Owner! Be bold, be brave, and take tinker-action today!!!

You did it!

You spend a full weekend hauling in furniture and boxes, clothes and dishes, food and enough knick knacks to start a variety store. Home sweet home, the American Dream!

Then, WHAM!!! It hits you on the 2nd night there, when you click off the lights and go to swing the door shut on the master bedroom: Squeeeeekkk! A nasty, dry, squeeky hinge. How incredibly irritating! How come the inspector didn’t mention that? You fall asleep that night feeling “violated” that your “new” house isn’t — gasp — perfect.

The next morning, it happens again when you finish brushing your teeth and go to turn off the faucet. Drip, drip, drip, drip…

“What the…?” you think. A drippy faucet?! But I just moved in?

• Then a rattling furnace.
• Then a sticky window.
• Then a buzzing ‘fridge.
• Then a loose toilet.
• Then a separating caulk joint.
• Then chipping paint.
• Then moss on the roof.
• Then crap in the gutters.
• Then the garage door opener quits.
• Then…
• Then…
• Then…

Reality check! Houses aren’t hunks of granite or even Swiss watches. Especially in the Pacific NW where cold, rainy, windy weather is par for the course. Houses are like needy cats; they need near-constant affection.

It’s not the seller’s fault, and it’s not the home inspector’s responsibility to address the laundry list of goings-on with any home that result in you having to fix, care for, maintain, re-build, re-seal, clean, tighten, replace, shore up, re-stack, loosen, scrape, tinker with and otherwise nurture your home through its lifespan of keeping the rain off your head. It’s just part of the blissful reality of home-ownership.

Know that, you, before engaging in it. And you’ll find the whole experience a LOT more rewarding.

That being said, would I trade Bellingham for Maui? Not in a million years.

Hold on now: Could I live in Maui? Sure. Heck, I lived in Fresno for 6 months, I can sure as %*@$ live in Maui!

But there’s NO PLACE like home, and there’s truly no place like Bellingham. I’m glad to be back. I’m excited to welcome the onset of summer and see the business ramp up with the long days and short nights…

Yessir, Home Sweet Home! Bellingham, I missed you, darlin’!

Check out a lot more photos of our time in Maui on our other blog, www.Chargelife.com!

As the weather and the water warm

A.M. Beach in Sudden Valley is one of our very favorite hang-outs in warmer weather. And guess what: it’s already getting warm enough.

We hit A.M. Beach last Sunday with all our toys, and we couldn’t get enough of it. Hayden and Heather paddled the stand up board together. The three of us paddled our tandem kayak. I sailed the kayak solo. Any configuration was fair game, and we tried and LOVED them all.

Get your summer gear together, and when the sky is blue and the thermometer is hitting that 60-and-above mark, get to the beach! It’s NW livin’ at its finest.

See you out there!

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Then on day, at an open house, you see him. He’s perfect on the outside, and when you learn what’s on the inside it seems every more serendipitously, exquisitely, absolutely RIGHT.

After a couple days — admittedly a short time span in the world of Love — you just KNOW he’s The One. Nervous but ready to go for it, you pop the question: Marry me?

Your Mr. Perfect gives the slightest grin, his eyes sparkle, you swear you hear an angel’s hymn… and he says:

“Yes. I’ll be yours. Now, let me dump ALLLL my garbage on you. Ohhh, I’ve got baggage! And I’m not going one step further until you hear every last detail of it. Get comfy, because this will take about four hours.”

Talk about stripping the romance out of a moment you’ve dreampt of your whole life, huh? I mean, what kind of psychopath pulls that kind of act?

It might seem like odd behavior from a soul-mate, but when it comes to buying a home, that’s exactly the process we go through every time.

You fall in love with a house. You know it’s The One, and you’re ready for commitment. So you propose, are accepted, and all in a whirlwind quick 24 hours.

What follows is that a stranger Home Inspector raids the house and find all its bad news. Here you are in love and dreaming of the laughter of friends at future dinner parties, art projects on rainy afternoons, a crackling fire in the woodstove, the smell of homemade cookies baking away… and here’s this messenger from hell  (aka Mr. Inspector) insulting your castle by listing off all its defects, damage and deficiencies like the place is about to implode.

It’s a lot to swallow.

But about 96.3% of the time, despite how you might feel (like you want to turn your back on Mr. Perfect… er, I mean the house… and run far and fast and never look back) it’s really not…that…bad.

Before you show up at the home inspection, get your mind in the right place by expecting to be somewhat knocked off your paradisiacal pedestal.

Keep in mind, most things don’t all have to be fixed at once. Most repairs can be budgeted and saved up for, knocked out bit by bit over time. Some things need immediate attention, for sure, and those are often negotiable with the seller. The other stuff like modernizing, making recommended upgrades to different systems, or cosmetic revisions… those can wait awhile longer.

If home repairs were rocket science, Home Depot and Lowes wouldn’t have grown into mega-Box stores in every town across the country (or the world, really).

It’s all do-able. Just remember to keep your head when you hear the WHOLE list all at once.

“I’m not going to sell my house unless I get four-hundred twenty-seven thousand. Period.”

“I’m going to hold out for two forty-nine.”

“The price is a million. Take it or leave it.”

or…

“I’ll pay three hundred grand, no more.”

“We really don’t want to go above two hundred, so we’re going to pass.”

I understand that commerce in general is founded on price. We wait for things to go on sale. We all want to sell when what we’re selling is the hot ticket and buyers are like rabid, frothing dogs just throwing their money at us. The almight dollar, and all that.

But here’s the deal: What’s with getting all fixated on the purchase price, or the sale price of your home? I don’t mean to downplay it, but that price is just ONE variable that factors in to the ENORMOUS overall equation of what it is we’re doing here.

If you’re selling your house, let me ask you this pretty important (okay, it’s CRAZY important) question: Why? What is freeing yourself of your current house going to allow you to do next? The answer to that is CRAZY important, too.

Buy again, across town?

Rent?

Go back to school for that masters in 16th century Irish Brew-pubbing?

Travel around the world?

Move in with your fiance?

The answer you choose, the “Big Why” of what you’re doing and where you’re going after you liberate yourself from your house, is way, Way, WAY more important than the mere price.

Let’s say you are buying across town. What are prices doing over there? What are interest rates doing? How’s your job outlook? Do you smoke? How much is that costing you? Are you hustling work right now, or lazing it? Could you turn an extra 5 grand in the next month or two if you really hustled?

The answer to any ONE of those questions and about six gajillion more like them has every bit as big — or usually much bigger —  bearing on your future than what gross number you get for your house, or that you buy one for.

Look at your story wholistically. If you say you’ll only pay $300K for the house of your dreams, only to find out the next morning that rates have dropped a quarter point, or that the seller has decided to include the washer/dryer/fridge and his garden tractor to boot, isn’t that worth factoring?

Or are you married to your number, and therefore you’ve had a number of great properties that would’ve been perfect for you, just go away because you couldn’t move ahead. Your number was blocking the path.

Look at EVERYTHING, not just that number. That’s all I’m saying…

The ticker is ticking away.

If you’ve been waiting patiently for that perfect house in the perfect neighborhood, you may very well be in luck! Come up to the Columbia neighborhood this afternoon between 1 and 4 p.m., and visit with me at 2406 Henry St. It’s the final open house before the end of the tax credit!

This gem is fresh on the market. It’s clean and beautiful. It sits on a an amazing, extra-large lot with one of the nicest lawns and garden areas in all of Columbia.

It’s 2 bedrooms with a nice den that could be a 3rd bedroom, has hardwood floors, a super bright living room, mudrooms front and back, a walk-in pantry, and glass French doors — south facing at that — that lead to one of two new Trex decks and the dream yard I was talking about.

You can find out a lot more about the house and see more photos at www.2406Henry.com. And even if you’re not house-hunting but love a great chocolate chip cookie, drop in anyway. I’d love to visit, and the cookies will be hot and fresh!

See you there!

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