SuburbanDigs

To Get Or Not To Get...

The other day I received a phone call – he said by mistake – from a homeowner who last spring didn’t choose me to represent him. At the time, he mumbled that the reason who was that he thought another agent’s (regional) company had more reach than my (international) affiliation. A better fit. Wasn’t he listening? Wasn’t I communicating? Oh, well. Can’t win them all. Onward and upward.

Then, yesterday, when he called out of the blue, for an instant I thought, oh, maybe he’s figured it out. After all, he hadn't moved on his original timetable...there was hope! Not at all, as it turns out. He was looking for a notary in my office and was apparently surprised to reach me…directly. Well, this is my cell phone. I thought. Oh, he said, I found this number online and thought it was the main number.  I also thought but did not say, remember when I told you I was ubiquitous...Still, I was nothing if not cordial and, without skipping a beat, I arranged to have him visit my colleague, who stamped his documents accordingly.

While doing so, she mentioned she was surprised he hadn’t used me to list his home and he replied that he and his wife felt “I didn’t ‘get’”the house. Really?

Okay, his is a house positioned on the property in an unusual way and my experience told me that might be a problem. No sense waiting for the house to hit the market to hear people say the same thing and break the news like it was a surprise. I had also suggested that inside, he concentrate on moving out some dated furniture that I would switch out with “Pottery Barn” overstuffed leather chairs that I use for staging. I urged him to declutter his third floor, put a closet door on a closet, let me replace the rugs and generally heighten the look throughout.

That’s what I do – stage to maximize the dramatic elements of a house. Along with various other value-added options that come with hiring me, taking advantage of  visual opportunities to highlight a home – communicate what it really can be, not what it looks like raw -- is essential. Not to mention my position as a consistent top producer who has sold on his block and throughout his community, to the highest levels.

“No, she didn’t get our house,” he said. And then, he added, a bit sheepishly, I’m told: “Well, she saw it when it was a mess…”

Yes, I did. I also had to rush through my initial visit, I recall, because his wife was so busy and his daughter had a play date. When I returned with my price estimate and my PowerPoint presentation, the spouse wasn’t there at all and their daughter returned from school in the middle of it all and wanted his attention, and why shouldn’t she?

Perhaps I didn’t ‘get’ his house. He and his wife also didn’t ‘get’ me because they hadn’t carved out the time to do so.

I keep telling myself that there's a better way to do my job. Getting a listing is a complicated affair. Highly competitive, without thought, planning and perfect execution, it's not going to happen. Yet, several times this past year, I dropped everything and ran over without all that. One gorgeous, sunny Sunday at 5, just as I was sinking into the hammock with the paper, a homeowner called and said she was listing…”like right now.” Could I run over? My mind said no, but my heart said yes.  I never like to lose when I think I can win. So, I changed out of my gardening shorts, checked the MLS comps, and shot over there like a whippet. We ran through the house, which was in various states of disarray, and then I ran through my presentation in record time on her rickety café table in the backyard because she needed an analysis yesterday.

I didn’t get that one, either. She chose a brand new agent in town with apparently infinite value-added skills who ended up (not kidding!) re-sealing her driveway, mowing her lawn, moving her furniture to her own storage facility, and God knows what else. That agent ‘got’ that house.

Early New Year’s Resolution, 2010:  Just say no, I don’t work like that, Mr. Seller. If you are part of the couple or extended family who own the property, you all need to be there. You need to carve out real time for me because we need to be the same team, from square one. When I present my marketing plan, you will need to visit to my office because this is a professional meeting. Then, and only then, will I be able to ‘get’ you and your house and provide the highest level of service and top dollar for your home – and you will ‘get’ me -- in the process, fully comparing and contrasting the honest value of one Realtor over another.

But, Happy Thanksgiving and yes, I am thankful for all the great deals I had this year with the people who "got" me! And for much, much more.

 

 

Mondo Condo Crawl, Anyone?

We're going for unique next weekend in Montclair, NJ and the surrounding towns of Bloomfield, Glen Ridge and Verona, by holding the first ever Condo Crawl. In just a week, more than 30 agents signed on to represent their current condo listings at opens next Sunday, Nov. 1, from 1-4.

Okay, it was my idea. After so many months, it seemed, of just putting one foot in front of the other, I dared this idea out into the open. Seemed cute and manageable when I sent out that first email to colleagues around town. A few responded right away and I thought, great, we'll call it a success if a couple more sign on and, knowing others were out there too, it will make the lonely job of sitting watch on a Sunday afternoon in a highrise or tucked-away garden condo a bit more fun.

And then it was 20, then 30, then more. It's been a tough year for condos. I don't know who once said that at the end of a housing slump, condos slump even more, but it sure feels like that right now. The FHA's promise to scrutinize condo developments even more will likely slow that market further. So we know Mr. and Ms. Condo Owner are happy for the attention. Sarah Damaskos, my marketing guru, may not have gotten up Monday morning knowing she'd spend the week designing the logo and ads, sorting and sifting copy, and then, at the end, just keeping track of all the participants, but she jumped right in, thank heaven.

We've gotten the popular local editorial blog, Baristanet.com, to sponsor the event. They've put up a banner ad and a PDF listing addresses and descriptions of all the opens (check it out at baristanet.com/crawl) and local papers, including the Star Ledger are also featuring the event. Our cute crawl signs will be staked in front of every participating unit.

It's kind of like speed dating for condos -- efficient shopping and comparison with a blast of availability. Anyone who's been saying it's time to downsize or perhaps to make that first move into the market will be able to compare and contrast withough stretching out the activity.

Will the people come? That's the idea, but we Realtors have got to make it happen. Agents committed to participating I hope are blogging their brains out right now to each of their circles of influence. We're personally Twittering, schmoozing on Facebook, spreading the word. Who knows, maybe it will end up being a mondo condo crawl.

Managing Expectations

That's my favorite phrase these days ... managing expectations -- for my clients, buyers and sellers alike, as well as for myself.

As a Realtor who has been in the profession almost a decade and a half, it's hard not to remember the good old days, when the only expectations we had to manage were about how high a house would sell, or how many houses a buyer would have to lose before figuring out he or she had to bid way, way over asking.

Now, expectations are in miniature: How low a buyer can safely go in with an offer; how low a seller has to go to rid himself of the property. Lots of lows, lots of misery all around. And, when the parties have finally agreed on something, comes the hard part: getting a mortgage.

The other day, a very good mortgage professional we work with sent a "managing expectations" note to one of my clients who is due to close on a home any day. The process has been relentless -- documents required up the wazoo, signatures and double signatures, more proof here, much, much more proof there. Once, it was fine to for me to witness clients' signatures on a contract with my own on just one line. Now, for every signature, another line for me to sign.

I'll refrain from asking for what real purpose such diligence exists. The other day, just days from closing, one buyer was told to her loan-to-value ratio was suddenly off-balance. The bank demanded she pay off her car loan and she did. Days past, the closing date came and went. Underwriting just stood still, with only one further comment -- that there had been no point in paying down that car loan. We finally took the client to a private banker who funded the purchase in just days.

So, I was rather touched to see the following end-run email from our mortgage friend, which in a few words telegraphed that the next few days would no doubt be harrowing: "Thanks for sending the documentation and working with my associates," he wrote to my prosective buyer. "They will have the documents reviewed by the underwriter and our operations manager to have the loan cleared to closing but please be prepared to give additional documentation all the way to the closing.  That is the nature of the mortgage industry now with the large amount of documentation required by FHA, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  I tell clients, and especially FHA borrowers, that we will be finished supplying the underwriter with documents when you walk out of the closing. I apologize but that is the state of our industry as we dig out of this foreclosure crisis. Please let me know if you have any questions as we are with you every step of the way."

Post-apocalyptic real estate at its best.
 

Learning Lessons

On various socially-oriented portals such Trulia.com and ActiveRain.com, Realtors vie for business by trying to be the first to answer questions posed by buyers and sellers or by writing blogs. Others champion old ways, like hosting Sunday open houses where they can chat in person with prospective customers and convey the knowledge and enthusiasm that may lead to business. Others are Twittering. Still others are Door-Knocking. Those are but a few of ways that today's real estate agents and the public interact in a world full of choices.

As we all hunker down in this distressing economic climate and reach out for the familiar, the buyers and sellers among us are thinking more deeply about who they know and trust. We've all got the Bernie Madoff blues. Collectivelly, we're looking for people who won't deceive us, but will tell it like it is.

The lesson of the Madoff fiasco for those who lost their life savings is that what they were asking for -- money growing on trees -- was too good to be true. Many have even said so. But they did not think through the thought and were shocked when reality set in.

I read an interesting article recently in which Mark Lesswing, chief technology officer for The National Assn. of Realtors, predicts housing consumers will increasingly identify trust as a primary goal in their relationship with an agent -- reflecting what is happening in the world at large. "Households [already] keep lists of vendors they prefer to work with...compiled through direct experience or as referrals from friends," he says, and also predicts that gettting on the consumer's "good list," will prove key to a meaningful relationship. Vendor Relationship Management  (VRM) is a two-way street well worth walking. 

As a Realtor, I'm entrusted with advising sellers about preparing and pricing a home. I -- and I'm also speaking for my team of great agents -- adhere to the belief that honesty and truth are the best tonic to what ails us right now, in real estate and elsewhere. For our Team, the primary goal of VRM is to have the right mix of information and empathy to fit every client need and to filter it through the here and now.

Whom to choose when you are selling? You, Mr. Seller, have a number in your head and you say you need to get it. But is it real? Should you list with the Realtor who promises what is just not promisable, given market changes and buyer caution -- and reward him because he "loves the house" or "understands the house" -- concepts mostly based on estimating the highest listing price? Or, do you open yourself up to market trends and substitute the "need to get" number in order to get the real one without resorting to the lamentable position of chasing the market?

These days, when I offer a range in which a seller should feel confident about actually selling, the result is that the highest asking price is then inflated still more. Okay, I'm thinking to myself, is it worth it...and I don't mean worth it monetarily...to take that listing and, in time, start hacking it down? Will the seller be with me on this? Will stats and experience mean anything?

I've found, unfortunately, that the answer, right now, often is NO. She said: "Roberta, I've gotten every explanatory email you've sent, as well as your very nice phone messages explaining the realities of the market..." Okay, yes, I took a listing that in my heart I knew would never sell at that price. Rationale? Good visibility? Pretty house? Maybe get some buyers by having the listing? All told, just not worth it. After too few showings over too many months, where no amount of marketing, advertising, personal good will could move that property, we agreed to part. "We need to try something new," she said. And in my heart I knew -- knew I had done myself no favors.

As I said before: As a Realtor, I'm entrusted with advising sellers about preparing and pricing a home, with honesty and truth. Lesson learned.

Commiseration Time

In downtown Miami, there are so many unfinished and empty high rise buildings. As soon as people I met there this week hear I’m in real estate, that’s what they mention. It’s commiseration time. We’re all in this together, whether we live in tall, communal buildings or short, single-family ones. Now, on my way home, a captive of delayed flights, I can’t escape today’s murky headline – "Improving Home Sales Belie Market Reality." The gist of the piece is that more than half of all sales are now "distressed"; only 31 percent are "unforced or optional" – meaning not tied to the far-reaching mortgage mess.

In many of these "unforced and optional" deals, you wouldn’t know they were the conventional ones, because they have become so terribly contorted. Buyers motivated enough to go on with their lives, to buy a house or condo so they can make the life they planned before all this terrible stuff took over,  now approach their experience with fear and loathing -- of the financial process which is much more convoluted than before; and of the sellers wading knee deep in the depressive market with their most valuable possession, their house.

This week, a number of my summer deals closed (or didn’t …maybe next week!) All had in common a demoralizing stand-off that began with a price tug-of-war the likes of which we haven’t seen in more than a decade – and ended in disbelief that the process could have gotten so ugly. These days, the usual miseries of the home inspection period are likely to fester right up to the end, and sometimes after. Angry sellers, even those lucky enough to make a significant profit, argue over a hundred dollars to fix something. Buyers unsatisfied by repair estimates, haul in in new ones with higher numbers. Not convinced by paperwork showing this or that has been fixed, they drop in to check for themselves.If a homeowner's fixed something himself, it's not good enough; call in an expert.

In retaliation, sellers retreat and dig in. Refrigerators and window treatments promised to buyers are suddenly withdrawn, mid-deal. Forget hiring the cleaning team before closing. Let the place shimmer with dust. Let the lawn go. It's all-out war.

I try to remember my own first-time homeowner experience, in the mid-eighties. My husband and I couldn’t have been dumber about the process. I remember a lot of nail-biting and tears as we toughed it out. We got a really cute, old house that needed everything -- and we were hardly daunted. The kitchen closets didn’t even have doors! We expected nothing from the sellers except to turn over the keys at closing. Perfection wasn’t a word that could be applied to our little place, but we worked together, over years, to bring it back. Our next house, the scenario was much the same. When we pointed out that the roof was flapping and the furnace rusted out, they shrugged. We bought it, anyway, because we loved it.

So, I just clench my teeth and smile when today’s buyers, who are getting some astoundingly good deals, don’t think it’s enough. Be happy, I think. This house experience will do you good. Make it your challenge. Don't move in with all this bad- deal karma.

When the static clears, maybe they will hear me.

Three Small Cheers for Freddie Mac!

Wow! I'm diggin' this. By this, I mean the bulletin out today from Freddie Mac to the nation's appraisers -- you must know of what you speak. Or, don't assess home values that you're unfamiliar with in towns you've never been to.

Just this past month, three of our solid deals fell apart because appraisers who had no business working in Essex County, NJ, got their hands on the wrong comps and carried through with random -- and often destructive -- assessments, undoing deals that were good to go. In one case, beleaguered sellers who had already forged a deal $68,000 less than the price they paid for the same home a year ago, were forced to further cut another $20,000 when an appraiser from another planet defied logic by choosing terrible comps from the wrong neighborhoods. Our request to the lender, Chase Bank, to rethink the appraisal, was swiftly rejected.

That was just two weeks ago. In today's news, better news: Appraisers "must be familiar with the local market" that they are assessing and must choose "appropriate comparable sales" that they must then certify to be "most similar" to the subject property. Now, isn't that quaint.

To be fair to appraisers, it hasn't been easy to do their jobs, let alone to do the right thing. And I know how hard it is to turn down business. When a buyer asks me to show houses two counties over, in places I've never been, I'm not nearly as sure of myself as I am on home ground. So, the best thing is to say no to that business. Too many appraisers have been saying yes.

Freddie Mac's bulletin went on to say that

the selection of comparable sales "is crucial to providing an accurate opinion of value." A couple of weeks ago, I put our own little investment property on the market -- a cute, 1-bedroom condo, all redone, spiffy as pie. The first week, we got a great offer, near asking, quick close. And...you guessed it. The appraisal, compliments of the FHA, was $9,000 less than the purchase price. That appraisal, I'm told, is now filed at the FHA, so that any other person who applies for an FHA loan to buy this property -- which, by the way, I did not sell for less -- must use that standing low appraisal and only that appraisal for the next six months.

Perhaps Freddie Mac's bulletin today will alter that situation and free me to sell to a buyer willing to pay the 'right' price, the negotiated price. I was so steamed when the appraisal fiasco intensified that I had a moment when I wanted to drop everything and march on the White House in protest of the legislation that got us into this mess.

Instead, I, like tens of thousands of other licensed Realtors, signed a petition while our representatives at the National Association of Realtors, decended on D.C. to make our case -- that it's hard enough in this contorted economic environment to sell anything without having our deals illogically undercut. It didn't make sense a couple of weeks ago when my clients were forced to snip hard earned eqjuity from their deal. It didn't make sense when I turned down a perfectly good and sane offer for my little condo, either. It still doesn't make sense. We can't go back and undo those crimes, but we can be glad today that somebody up there is trying to set things right.

Love ya, Freddie Mac! 

 

Dear Blog: Long time no write. The spirit usually hits when I'm in the car with no keyboard in sight. I store up ideas,  but my life is dictated by the immense paperwork that accompanies every listing and the noctural uploads of all that information into the websites of the world. Not to mention client time, which can be 24/7 some weeks. You, dear blog, have been left out but not forgotten.

But today, the spirit hits as I trudge back to the office to do one more feature sheet for an open house tomorrow. It's been one of the most miserable real estate days of the year -- a big sale appraising insanely low; an underground oil tank leaking into local groundwater.

I can take the oil aggravation. All these old tanks are leaking, so the surprise is muted. For decades, oil purveyors interested only in filling tanks have avoided mentioning to homeowners that they might want to test the darn leviathans lurking under their driveways and lawns. And so, years go by, metal corrodes, homeowners sell, only to realize they've been bamboozled. That oil that they thought was heating their homes was also seeping out and polluting the ground around them, the very ground their kids played on. Lucky for those who have insurance against such catastrophes, although not all oil tank insurance is the same and some is quite worthless. Deals stop cold as the DEP steps in and remediation begins.

But I'm having real trouble with appraisers, the very guys who thought every house a palace just months ago, are now saying sorry, big mistake, not worth a thin dime. Just 10 days to go on one of my precarious deals: We've crunched numbers and arrived at a mutually agreeable price. We've overcome a mold dispute (is it or isn't it black?) Now, we're faced with what is suddenly becoming real estate's worst nightmare -- that when buyers finally came back, the banks won't have them.

Now that the headlines are occasionally happier -- "Mortgage Applications Up 6.6% -- Demand for Purchase Loans, Refis Surges" on Inman News' website today -- what about the recent revisions in bank appraisal assignments? They're turning out to be a hideous failure. Deals are dropping like flies when out-of-area appraisers are the ones deciding value. Don't tell me a guy from across the state can come in and figure out neighborhood pluses and minuses or the impact of commute options and school performace on price. These are things that experienced agents know about, that buyers and sellers eat for breakfast but that banks and their now arms-length appraisal system know nothing.

 So much for all that buyer encouragement and seller hand-holding and the 6.6% spirt in mortgage applications if agreed-upon sale prices are dashed at the alter of fear and mistrust by over-cautious emissaries of our hideously tarnished lending system.

Dear blog, sorry for the vitriol,  but I knew you'd be there for me.

Where We Are Now

The divide right now -- at what should be the apex of the real estate sales year -- between how sellers and buyers perceive home values is cavernous. Most sellers feel their individual homes are not subject to the realities of the day; many insist on adding 5 or 10 percent (or, lamentably, much more) to the asking price -- to pay for recent upgrades, to build in the Realtor commission AND to prove that their house is good enough to trump market uncertainties.

Sellers may promise to reduce in a few weeks, but many just stand fast while waiting for that ONE buyer from Mars who will pay the asking price nobody else will. Some get mad and threaten to take the listing off the market; many reduce too late, and then end up chasing the market downward.

Meanwhile, today's buyer mantra is: "This house is overpriced." They just walk in and make the pronouncement, even when the seller has just knocked $30,000 off the price. It's never enough. When a Realtor suggests trying to compromise, nobody's interested except the really desperate seller who has to sell and, even some of these people would rather go down with their ship/home than accept and work through current market realities.

Case in point, albeit one that eneded "happily": Recently, a homeseller who hadn't adjusted his price quickly enough, found himself reducing a pristine home near one of the best primary schools in the area, by tens of thousands. He was building a house elsewhere and needed to off-load this one as quickly as possible when previous deal fell through. He also needed to catch up with the downspiraling market. Buyers entered the picture just after he reduced by another $40,000. They came in $20,000 under the new price and were annoyed that he wasn't willing to "negotiate." We pointed out that his recent reduction had been, in a sense, a form of negotiation. They did not see it as such. The deal was miraculously consummated with lots of appliances thrown in.

We are in new territory, the way ahead uncharted. We want to believe what some economists are saying, that the bottom of the US economy will announce itself later this year. But we're also being told that the job market will lag behind and, if that's the case, our buyer pool will continue to hang back, fearful of making a mistake, paying too much, losing a job, and the list of issues goes on. The now-constant rejiggering of bank guidelines for mortgages is proving an additional, unexpected obstacle course, even for those willing and able to purchase. Right now, nobody's good enough for these banks that have taken federal funds but failed to reapportion them in the right direction, toward worthy homebuyers.

Those who can and will buy even now are our main focus as Realtors, along with sellers who are fit to be tied that they've been pushed in a morass and need a daily interpretation of how things really are. Collectively, how can we climb out of this Grand Canyon and make our way to solid real estate ground? Answers being sought!

 

"Bought & Sold" Lite

With Season One (2007) "Bought & Sold" episodes running non-stop on HGTV for almost 2 years, I occasionally get recognized. Often, I'm presenting my marketing plan for a listing and, when I mention I was on the show and clients make the connection, eyes flicker appreciatively, broad smiles ensue and everybody's happy. It's a nice piece to present and I'm grateful for it. And, so, participating in Season Two, a shoot that lasted about 3 months, was a good thing, despite the inconveniences that a long-term commitment like this engender. The last pick-up for one of my stories was completed a week ago. Tonight, the show "debuts" with a dozen new episodes. Later this week HGTV will toast us in a Manhattan bar. Very sweet.

But I sort of feel like I just completed one of those hapless network shows that goes straight to summer -- no promotion, no nothing. It's a blizzard out there today, but I would have been happy for HGTV to have had us picked up in a limo for appearances on Today or Regis to yap about the second season and the real estate market (isn't everybody?) We're a fun group, we "Bought & Sold" 'stars'. Instead, I'm in my mismatched PJ's, blogging.

Season Two: Starts tonight at 10:30. So far, no HGTV website presence, no TV book highlights, no cast promotion. We're just reality show functionaries, I know that, but People over there in TVLand: WHEN ARE MY EPISODES GOING TO BE ON SO I CAN TELL MY MOM?

Getting Back A Slice of Life After All These Years

I just finished writing a piece for the local paper about my team's exceptional business in 2008. Our best year ever, an avalanche of awards. Last week, we culminated it all with the-number-2-in-the-state ranking at the East Brunswick (NJ) Hilton. An awful lot of agents turned out for those awards, more than 1000 of them. Patting yourself on the back is a good thing, once in a while, so everybody marched around with their medals, looking proud as punch. As for our Baldwin Dream Team #2 ranking, in an uncertain market, it's a thankful place to be -- I mean, people know who we are -- but it's also kind of a burden, too. I never used to get up in the morning thinking how I rank locally, regionally, nationally (hovering around 50) or in the world. The world ranking, if there is such a thing, I don't have in hand yet, but I can wait on that. While I do, let me muse a bit on something else...

Time for myself. I have gotten a little bit of it back after all these hectic years. The first tase of it last fall was weird, when the buyer pool suddenly shriveled and I actually had time to swing on the hammock in the backyard and read the paper on a Sunday afternoon. I'd been dreaming of that for years, but never could find the time. Now, I'm in the groove. I often still work the better part of around-the-clock, seven-days-a-week, but today, for instance, when my 2:30s cancelled, I just went home, had a real lunch, and STOPPED. I've actually gone 2 hours without negotiating anything. Okay, now I'm writing this real-estate-related blog, but writing is relaxing for me.

It's a lot different having free time and loving it when you've got a job than when you don't. For growing numbers out there who have plenty of time to smell flowers because they are in between, swinging on hammocks holds little appeal. In the past, having time for myself was most often an outcome of losing or switching jobs, so I know the feeling too well.

I'm lucky that people still have to move and the need for my services will continue. But I'm also relieved that there likely will be more balance in my life for a while. I needed to come up for air! Now, I think I'll take a nap.

Are Things Looking Up?

Okay, Congress deflated the buyer tax credit this week, hacking it from a promising $15,000 to just $8000. But the day after, phones were ringing and website traffic was insane. Could it be that the stimulus package, nearly in place, plus the tax credit, low interest rates and falling prices, are finally making sense to those in a position to purchase?

Could be. I won't rush to conclusions, but our buyers are breathing in the idea that there are really bargains out there now. They may not yet be buying them, but they are taking notice. Today, a fellow Realtor send a snazzy e-flyer over advertising a 3-bedroom, 1.5-bath cape cod for $234,000, el cheapo for just about anywhere in New Jersey. Not long ago, uninhabitable properties were selling for a lot more. This one had hardwood floors, a new kitchen and cute yard. It was small, sure, but you could actually LIVE there nicely while saving for the mansion.

One thing that you have to wonder about is how municipalities that are already in trouble, now that state and county funding is down, will deal with all the tax appeals that  are certain to be on the way. If a home's worth 10 or 20 percent less on the open market, should it still be taxed at the outmoded revaluation level it was given before property values took a dive? It's likely that taxation levels will be a lot harder to reduce than some of the incredible prices we're seeing float by.

And then, in the midst of the down, down, down trend, we hear of one beautiful, new home here that hit the market on a Friday in the millions, had six offers and sold over the moon just four days later. It must be nice!