Brandon Nelson
Call
FAX
Categories
- Neighborhoods
- Structures I Love
- NW Street Views
- Seller Info
- Buyer Info
- Market Info
- NW Way of Life
- NW 'Words' of Life
- Home Projects & Upkeep
- Races & Events
- Other Stuff
Neighborhoods
Bellingham Weather
Archive for the 'Buyer Info' Category
Is Your Need to Win Keeping You Homeless?
It’s all over the national news: It’s a Buyer’s Market! It’s a great time to buy a home, because there’s so much distressed inventory and sellers — whether banks, investors, owner-occupants, etc. — need to just “get out of it” in some cases, meaning just get the house sold so they can move on.
This is true in SOME cases, yes. But not always.
The reason I bring it up, is because we see every day in the industry the buyers who are just insistent on “winning” the negotiation for the price. These buyers are dead set on their decision that they’re not going to pay more than 90% of list price for their house, darn-it!!! They want a DEAL!!!
But let me ask you this, stubborn buyer: What if the house you want is priced right, right where it’s priced, right now? Do you still need that 10% discount. Or let me put it another way: Would you rather pay 90% of list price for a house that’s over-priced anyway… or 100% of list price for a properly priced house? Do you know how to tell the difference?
Sometimes I wonder. Because so often the “need to win” blows all logic and comparative market analysis and good old common sense right out of the water. It keeps good buyers from getting good houses more often than it should, honestly.
Personally, I like being the listing agent when these “need to win” buyers come around. I’ll have a house that I KNOW is priced right and priced to sell, and a buyer with a chronic case of “need to win” sends an offer that is just ridiculous, with their agent doing their best to convince the seller and I that we’re lucky “in this market” to get any offers at all… while at the same time, internally, rolling their eyes because they know the sheer folly of their pitch.
Then, when they’ve walked, sometimes the same or next day, a legitimate offer comes in and the seller and I get to kind of say to that low-ball agent: “Told you so!”
Seriously, though. If you think Bellingham real estate is a commodities market and “a house is a house is a house….” I got two words for you: Wake up. Every house has a story. Every seller has story. Every price has a story. There are over-priced houses out there by the ship-load, no doubt. And there are unbelievably good deals that get multiple offers on day 1. And in the middle are just properly priced houses that sell with legitimate offers in the first month or two… sometimes longer, even.
Understand where the houses that you’re interested in fit into that equation, and offer accordingly. Don’t let a Freudian “need to win” complex stand in the way of realizing ownership of a great home.
(Debbie Downer… I can’t even wait for you to tear this post apart!!! Have at it, my arch nemesis / favorite fan!)
Comments: 1 Comment »Does Your Story Matter?
In a perfect world, the forms we use to make an offer on a home would have a section — somewhere between the financing and home inspection pages, where buyers would write a narrative featurette about why they are the right buyer for the home.
The buyer would share their story, include a portrait or two showing them standing dreamily on the subject home’s front porch — as if they already lived there — and, the seller would be just swept off her feet, tears streaming down her happy face as she cries out, “This buyer DESERVES my home!!! Where do I sign?”
This is how it could be, too, if…..
The seller actually CARED about the buyer’s story!
I’ve written before that including such a letter can indeed sway a seller into your corner. I’ve seen it happen. But more often than not…
What most sellers care about, and what they’ll ultimately choose an offer that meshes best with, is their OWN story. And their story is usually made better if, in the offer, they see:
- A high price tag.
- A strong financing contingency, preferably CASH!!! (This is HUGE for sellers. They love it, because it means no funky lender bylaws or appraisers or small print to throw a wrench in things at the last minute.)
- A closing date that either: A) gives them the time they need to make their move, or B) is out far enough to perhaps helps them avoid paying capital gains.
And so on. And buyer, as for who YOU are and your story… that’s USUALLY just trivia to a seller. Though, go ahead and include the letter — it can’t hurt, and like I said I HAVE seen sellers choose story over price.
But if you’re committed to getting the house, have your agent dig in and find out the SELLER’s story, and play to that. You can get back to your own story when you close the sale and take up life in your dream house!
Comments: 4 Comments »Horror Flic: The Pushy Real Estate Agent!
When I was in Baja two winters ago, I dropped into a couple boutique-style real estate offices and chatted up the agents. Understand, I LOVE Baja, and I LOVE the Mexican culture in general.
But the agents I talked to were straight out of the School of Ultra-Pushy Sales and Intimidation. I mean, the sort of sales tactics that involve backing you into a corner and blowing drag after drag of a cheap cigarette smoke right in your face until you either puke or sign something.
It was classic, and I still laugh (sort of) when I think back to it.
When I saw this video for the first time, I was in hysterics. If you’ve been putting off looking for a house because you think this will be your experience, come and talk to me. I guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised.
But first, check this out:
Tools of the Trade
Ask any Joe on the street what tools a Realtor carries with him into the “workplace” each day, and the answer will probably sound something like:
“Cell phone, bluetooth, and laptop.”
Yeah, those are heavy-use items in the sales trade, for sure. But having come from a home inspection backround and wanting to waste as little of my or my clients’ time as possible, I carry a few other simple things with me in the trunk of my car. I don’t pull them out with every home, but if something really ignites our curiosity…. why then it’s tool time!
Here are my top three most prized and oft-used secret weapons:
1) A moisture meter. Even if I had X-ray vision, I might not be able to tell you if a stain on a ceiling was still wet, or if the flooring along a tub or around a toilet was hiding some un-welcome H2O. But with my handy-dandy, bright yellow gizmo, I can just scan and know. And sure, these moisture issues can be fixed, and they’ll get checked out during the home inspection. But during the “shopping” phase it’s often helpful to know this level of detail of a house. It helps establish the overall care or lack of it the owners have shown. 
2) A 20-million-candle-power spot light. I freekin’ LOVE this Big-A__ light. Two of the most telling areas of a house are the crawl space and the attic, and call me “a little off” if you will, but I like popping that hatch, sticking my head in there and pulling the trigger on the ol’, rechargeable “daylight cannon!” A lot can be learned by having a good look at these relatively exposed, un-conditioned spaces in a home, and the spotlight makes it easy.
3) A telescoping 13.5′ ladder. Now this thing is just COOl. Everybody digs it when I pull out the telescoper, extend that baby up onto a roof eave or into an attic hatch, and climb away. A single layer of dead roofing over solid sheathing might be X-thousand dollars to replace. A top layer over 2 other layers in need of a full tear-off, then installation of solid sheathing before new roofing, is X-thousand plus materially more. And sometimes the only way to tell that is to climb up to the eave.
The cell phone and laptop have their place in the Realtor’s toolkit, but so do these tried-and-true carry-over tools from my home inspection days. And if you’re really lucky, I might pull out my ultraphonic leak detector!!!
Comments: Please leave a comment.NW Words of Life
Me, to my Buyer client: “Bad news. The listing agent said his client was quite offended by your offer.”
My Buyer client: “Well… tell him I was quite offended by his LIST PRICE!!!”
–Dean Taylor, Legend of Stimpson
Comments: Please leave a comment.Should Your First House Be a Fixer?
Heather and I bought our first house in 2003, in Sudden Valley. We paid $127,500 for it — a 1200 square foot split level with 4 small bedrooms, a bath and a half. The seller had lived there for 17 years and, bless her heart, had never done 1 minute of maintenance or deep cleaning. Oh, and she smoked cigarettes like there was no tomorrow.
The house needed EVERYTHING. And Heather and I had the vision, the skills, and the energy to do it. In fact, we were (read: “I was”) giddy at what a castle it was, even though you couldn’t see the paint through the yellow cigarette film plastering the walls and ceiling. I’d spend my nights and weekends fixing it up, and make it into the home of our dreams. We’d start a family there, by golly, and all would be joyous.
A full five years later, as we were moving out, into our 2nd home, we put the finishing touches on the full-gut, inside and out remodel. Five years. The work I’d “envisioned” multiplied easily five times over as we tore into the project. Nights and weekends, cold wintery months, rainy season after rainy season the work rolled on.
Meanwhile, I watched others nearby buy brand new houses with 30% more space for a couple hundred more in their monthly payments, and I second guessed my decision to go for a fixer.
Ahh… but the experience. It’s a rite of passage to either build or fully re-build one’s home, isn’t it? For me, it was. I have the tools and skills of a journeyman carpenter, and enough understanding of the other trades, to just pull it off. And rewarding it was, to see that neglected split level turn into a thing of true beauty. We still own it, as a rental now, and I take tremendous pride in seeing it brighten up the street with its new EVERYTHING.
Take on a fixer for your first house if you wish, but understand three things:
- A fixer is not just a house, it’s a way of life. It will consume you long after you’re willing to be consumed. And…
- It will take 2 to 5 times longer and cost 2 to 5 times more than you ever dreamed of.
- And therefore will likely be 2 to 5 times as rewarding.
Why Followers Make the Best Buyers
First time home-buyers usually fall into one of two categories:
1) Leaders. These buyers have watched some reality real estate TV shows, read some columns or blogs that make sweeping, generalized statements about the entire market the country — if not the world — over, and come into the buying process fully believing that anyone who pays anywhere near full price for a house is simple throwing money away! The leaders are necessarily “low-ballers” like our friend Debbie Downer, but there’ll be snowflakes in July before they offer more than 90% of list price for a house.
2) Followers. These buyers have take the approach of “Be Here Now” and they ask their agent, their lender, their friends who’ve bought before them, and anyone else whose opinion has highly-probable value (beyond just selling commercial airtime), lots and lots of questions about what’s happening in the market. And they listen. They realize that good houses at good prices sell very quickly in Bellingham. Perhaps they miss out on one or two by coming in too soft when a listing is new, but they quickly figure out that it’s competitive out there, and in relatively short order, they become a home owner.
Most buyers I’ve worked with fall into the latter category, though I occasionally watch a “leader” lead himself straight back to the life of tenancy to “Wait for the market to cool off.” Hey, it’s their right.
If you’re uncomfortable with the “leader” and “follower” labels above, consider replacing them with “talker” and “listener”, respectively. It pays to be a good listener when you’re shopping for a home.
Comments: Please leave a comment.Happy Birthday Hayden Storm!!!
February 21, 2010 — A day of celebration!!! Today is my boy Hayden Storm’s 2nd Birthday!!! Check out some photos of his birthday party held yesterday at Bellingham Bay Gymnastics and Preschool!
Comments: Please leave a comment.
Whatcom County Home Sales for January 2010
January is consistently one of the slowest months of year for home sales. It’s in the midst of the winter slow-down — a phenomena seen across every market in the northern hemisphere! Buyers are recovering from holiday spending, kids are getting back to school, and parents are focusing on getting their paperwork together for taxes. January is always a slow month for real estate sales.
On that note, here’s a snapshot of the January sales volume for Whatcom County, with a comparison to the same month last year. The data comes courtesy of First American Title in Bellingham. Enjoy!
What a Home Inspection is Not
Buying a home is a process. And having a home inspection is part of that process. It comes after you’ve reached “mutual acceptance” with the seller, and have basically “tied up” the property, in that you’ve blocked out the other buyers and you can now focus (and invest some time and money) into due diligence on the property.
Due diligence = research. You research the things that you fully understand, whether that means room layout, amount of natural light, garden space and neighborhood feel — and you put stock in experts for some of the other things like title search, appraisal, and home inspection.
The home inspection takes place almost always in the first 10 days of escrow, and takes about 3 to 4 hours on site at the home. Good inspectors check a laundry list of components and systems, from foundation to roof to electrical to plumbing and beyond, and fill you in on the general condition, any immediate big-ticket items you’ll have to fork out for, recommended improvements and what not.
The point of the inspection is to help you, the buyer, make a more educated buying decision about the home.
The home inspection is NOT a full, technically exhaustive analysis of every square inch of the home. And the home inspection is not a warranty.
Inspectors have limited access, in that they can’t see through walls, inside pipes or ducts, under finished surfaces, and they can’t get to absolutely everywhere a mouse could get.
But the good ones find clues and intuit conditions that non-inspectors may just not see. And then they communicate verbally and typically in writing the story that the house could tell if it could talk.
All… so you can make a more educated buying decision. NOT to provide you with a money-back warranty on the house, or on the inspector’s time.
Know what you’re paying for when you get a home inspection, and what you’re not paying for. Ask lots of questions until you indeed feel well educated about the house, and you’ll be able move forward with your home purchase with confidence, like it should be!
Comments: Please leave a comment.
