Kitchens are really the heart of houses.  So I clicked around the MLS looking for kitchens that caught my eye.

LOOK UP…

LOOK DOWN…

LOOK ALL AROUND…

And these two photos outside the kitchen because …

WHIMSY

RAWR!!!

Have a great weekend!

That amazing house of Ferris Bueller’s friend in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off is for sale.  Check it out here!

I just received my magazine today for members of the Real Estate Buyer’s Agent Council (for those of us who are designated at Accredited Buyers Representatives) and a teensy-tinsy article caught my eye.

Dude bought a condo in Denver for $45,000.  Six months of hard work remodeling and renovating – and more than $30,000 later – he found out he was renovating the wrong unit.

If that wasn’t bad enough, the court ruled against him AND said he can’t recover his improvements.  Ouch.  Next time he should read the fine print to see which unit he bought, exactly.  Ouch again.

I listed a lovely home earlier this year for about three months.  While the market analysis confirmed the price could remain at $299,000 my gut kept telling me it needed to be reduced – which I suggested to the seller.  The listing expired without one single showing and the seller thought he’d let me relist.  After a month of waiting for unreturned phone calls, I removed my lockbox and the sign from the yard.  I didn’t want to violate any MLS codes of ethics by having the sign without the listing … I should’ve taken it down at least two the three weeks earlier.

I think I made him angry when I moved the sign.  I heard this weekend that he’s asking another agent to list the property at the reduced price I suggested.  This is actually pretty typical in the real estate market and I should know better.  It’s not uncommon for a listing to stagnate on the market at a higher price and then be listed by another agent at the price recommended by the first agent.  It will sell now, I’m certain.

In this market, I have people beating my door down to list their homes but it’s rare that a seller will acknowledge that their home is worth a lot less now than it was just two years ago.  To be an agent today, you have to grow some thicker skin and stand by the price range you recommend.  If you don’t, you’ll be left holding a lot of listings getting no traffic.

Or if you’re a seller you’ll sit around with your home on the market for months and months – making the mortgage payment that could be going to another home.

About a year or two ago, I started hearing about how people losing their homes were buying storage buildings, putting them in the backyards of other family members, and renovating them for habitation.  You know… some of these buildings are actually pretty cute so I can understand how simple it would be to turn them into homes!

However, a man in Vermont is taking the idea of a tiny house literally.  He has begun to build 100 square foot homes for people because houses under a certain square footage don’t have to pass some city and county building restrictions.  The homes are heated with solar panels, but the water supply could be challenging.  Furniture?  Big enough for a bed, a chair and a table.

The benefits can be huge – namely you can live in these at a minimal cost.  No mortgage debt.  No worries should you lose the house (easy to replace).  Lower taxes.  The good folks at Frugal Dad bring us more infomation and a video interview with the builder.   Be sure to watch the video to the end so you can hear the fantastic quote about how the builder feels when he sits in the screened in porch house.

Benefits of Buying a Smaller Home

• Lower monthly mortgage payment
• Lower taxes
• Easier to pay off mortgage completely in a shorter time
• Less space to fill with furniture
• Smaller lot (maybe) to maintain
• Significantly lower utilities

The idea of downsizing to me is very appealing, but the notion of living in a space so small is horrifying. But if the idea is something you very much like, visit Tumbleweed Tiny House Company for ideas!

House shown is from the Tumbleweed Tiny House Company.  It is 130 square feet and costs $23,000 if you build it yourself – or nearly $50,000 if they build it for you.

Change is inevitable.  Sometimes we expect it.  Other times change takes us by surprise.  Sometimes the process takes so long that we become complacent so what was once anticipated turns into a surprise.

I think change can be good and yet too many times someone has to be hurt for it to occur.  Yesterday we lost our broker of 21 years – something painful for everyone because he was well-respected, kind, and generous.  I don’t know what his future holds, but I wish him nothing but success and happiness.

For our own office, we’ll wait and see.  We are hopeful our future leader will bring positive changes.  We wonder what kind of personality the new broker will have.  Will it be a cheerleader?  Will they be positive?  A whip-cracker?  I don’t have the answers … I suppose no one does at this time.  So we wait.  And we hope.  For our former broker.  For ourselves.

I didn’t find these … and I’ll admit it’s a relief that they’re (hopefully) not in my area!  Just for laughs, a web site called It’s Lovely! I’ll Take It! focuses solely on bad MLS pictures.

Here are a couple of my favorites.

“Truth in marketing.”

“And the man who lived in that trailer took a baseball bat one time and …”

“Non working fireplace.”

Until tomorrow!

I took a listing about three months ago against my better judgment.  The house needed a lot of work, home values were on the decline, and the seller wanted “X” amount … more than it was worth.  With a nagging “Don’t take it!” in the back of my head, I still said yes.

I don’t know if the spray paint was ever removed (or painted over) from the back patio that screamed “Live [a certain nationality] or DIE.”  I don’t know if the seller made the promised repairs.  I didn’t know because I could never reach him.  When I did speak with anyone, they’d hang up on me citing a language barrier.  We did get calls for a couple of showings, but only one agent was able to gain entry because the other showing request was declined.

The listing expired this weekend and while I’m sad we didn’t sell, it’s kind of a relief that I won’t be tossing and turning with the stress of knowing I have to come up with *another* way to market a property that was unsellable at that price and in that condition.

Lesson learned… the same lesson I’ve tried to teach my own children.  When the little voice inside your head says, “Uh oh” you should listen.  Next time I’ll say no.  No thank you.

With evidence of housing prices at or near bottom throughout the U.S., buyers are now entering into bidding wars to get the best deal.  A lot of times, people just don’t want to deal with a multiple offer situation, but if you do, here are some tips.

• Just because there’s a bidding war, it doesn’t mean you have to try to outbid someone else.  Know what your best price offer is and stick with it.  Who knows?  It may be the best offer the seller receives.
• Don’t even think about putting a “sale of home” contingency on the offer.  It’s okay to put the appraisal, inspection, and financial contingencies but the sale of home offer will not forward your cause, it will likely end it.
• When you submit your offer in a multiple offer situation, attach a financial preapproval letter.
• Be real about your earnest money.  Pony up at least $1000, but certainly no less than $500.  This amount will vary across the country. Some areas require 1 to 5 percent down.

Good luck!

A colleague has been working for some time with a buyer.  I’m pretty sure he’s not really interested in buying, but is saying he wants a house just so he can spend time with her (lonely, disabled guy driving around with his friend).  He says he wants a “good buy.”

The Realtor found the perfect home for him – meeting all his criteria.  It’s located in a neighborhood with big yards (homes aren’t stacked on top of each other).  It’s a foreclosure that was left in MINT condition.  The carpet is like new, all light fixtures are FANTASTIC, hardwood in certain areas, big bedrooms.  The best part is the price – it’s listed at $140,000 in a neighborhood that usually sells for between $165,000 and $190,000.

But the client said he was waiting to get a good buy.  He thought about offering $120,000 for the home because *that* would be a good buy.  I don’t get some buyers… the home is already about $30,000 – 40,000 below market value and is in great shape.

So my question, “How good does the buy have to be to be considered good?”  Please answer that for me because I’m clearly smackdabbie confused if I think $30-40,000 is good savings and at least one person does not think so.