What’s in Your Pocket?

Out on the road attempting to locate certain properties for your client sometimes become a game of hide and seek.  With low inventories on the market there is not a whole lot of choice in starter and beginner homes let alone properties that are very specific in nature.

Many Realtors that list homes often come across that one seller that isn’t ready to take the step of listing their home for various reasons.  They may not list the home at all unless “The Right Buyer” comes along.  These are called “Pocket Listings”.  This is my definition because I don’t think it is a Real Estate term. 

They are usually not under any form of a contract with the Realtor and are only known if you have a conversation with someone that has one.  Every agent has pocket listings of some form.  My real definition would be a property that is going to be listed at some point and the seller may be doing fixes or getting the home ready for the market.  They usually come on the market in a very short time. 

So what does a Pocket listing mean to you as a Realtor or home buyer? Nothing unless it becomes one of the many other properties listed on your MLS or for sale by owner.  So the next time you hear of a Pocket Listing encourage the seller to come out of the pocket.

Virtually Tour Our Listings

Trying to get a little pizazz to the blog page by the addition of our YouTube virtual home tours for your viewing pleasure. I will soon have all of our broker listings under the virtual reality of eye candy for the people who love pictures.

Stroll through the bedrooms, bathrooms and check out the yards.  You can of course still click on my website links to search every one of the currently listed homes and property on the MLS.  There is something about listing with lots of pictures that aid the homebuyers with the decision to at least tour the property in person.

Give it a shot and if you have any questions or wish to personally see one of the houses on the tour, then just drop me an email or the old fashioned phone call!

In the Eyes of the Beholder

As you travel through the happy road of home choices, people often come to the fork in the road that have signs that give you their all kinds of information about homes for sale.  What do these signs mean and how do they work.

When you are driving by a home that has a sign in the front yard, if it is for sale this usually means the house is for sale right?  Not all signs are alike, some are from, yes real estate brokers, and these are usually homes for sale.  Then there are the signs that building remodelers use to advertise their work currently being done on the house.

Getting back to the Realtor signs, again many do not say for sale on the sign themselves, but it is the reason the sign is in the yard.  There are those types of signs

that have a telephone number to call for information on the property.  These are different systems the Brokers use to connect with buyers and sellers via your cell phone.  Most of the Realtors that want to sell homes will place their cell number on the sign, or have their office numbers go to an on duty agent.

Finally what is with the flyers in the box, it is never full.  Most Brokers will keep the informational flyers available for the first week of the listing.  When that period is done they will use only the telephone system of contact.  Flyers are taken out of the box for various reasons but are only useful for a short time.  There you have it.  Sign, Sign Everywhere a sign. 

What Makes Your House Sell!

Marketing your home to today’s buyer is an exercise in housekeeping. There are ways to make your home stand out from the rest of the crowd.  Just start with the obvious, clean the house well and make it sparkle.  When buyers come through your pad the first appearance is what they will remember.   It will have that old adage of curb appeal if you follow a few common sense:

• Vacuum and sweep the floors and Carpet.  If needed shampoo the carpets

• De-Clutter the house, don’t make your kitchen appliances the focus of the eye.

• Clean the bathrooms inside and out.  Make sure the shower has the discoloration removed use some elbow grease.  Clean the toilets and for goodness sake replace the missing toilet paper.  Clean and shine the mirrors and a take the bulbs out and clean them.  Light bulbs show all dirt when the switch is on.

• Clean the kitchen and get the sink.  Vacuum up all of the toast crumbs and mop the floor. Get rid of stains in the dishwasher, use an available water treatment do this a couple of times if needed.  Get the mop and bucket and go to work on the floor. 

• Clean all of the windows do a good job and get all of the spots

• Dust every day, make it easy a Swiffer or equivalent.

• Keep the lawn green and mowed and weeds wacked, clean oil and other stains from the driveway.

• Always keep the entry to the house clean and swept.

These are just a few things that will give you the edge and all it takes if time and effort.  If you have a home that is vacant and a budget, have the home staged with just a few objects or some furniture.  Good luck with the sale and stay calm.

A Tale of Two Days.

As I am into my second day of open houses for a new client of our company, I am assured that you can never be assured of what the day brings.  Yesterday was a little slower and didn’t seem to have much interest in the beautiful home!

Fast forward to now.  Have been here for my regular half hour ahead of time and I am directing traffic in the middle of the house.  I think that there are no yard sales today and the weather is perfect.  Oh and one couple came back today with their Realtor and spending some quality time here.

So two days and two different scenarios that goes to show in the real estate business location is only one part of the deal.  You also must have good weather and a great product!

Garage Sale Weekend in the Neighborhood!

While getting ready for my open house today in Southeast Boise, I drove the main streets and arrived in the neighborhood scoping out places to put my signs.  The time for the event is 11 am but when I got to the home all of the neighbors were already a buzz with group yard sales.  This is a once or twice a year event and there are steady streams of cars.

In the effort to get that special area to put my signs to direct the most traffic, I noticed that the area of Federal Way is to be shut down for the Iron Man national competition.  This is a big event that Boise hosts this portion of several though out the year.  All in all the weather is magnificent and everyone is in a great mood for one of the nicest weekends that we have had all year.

Oh, and by the way the garage sale folks are going to keep me busy today also.  I seem to be getting much of the traffic just from the overflow!

Bazinga! What do you think of a virtual Realtor?

Facebook is an everyday thing now to hundreds of people all over the world.  I certainly have spent my share of wasted time and energy trying to figure out what people is saying with only half of their thoughts.

It was surprising to lean today that Zynga was laying off a large percentage of its workforce due to sliding numbers of players of their games particularly Farmville.  Now I have been a farmer for a few years now and it is still a daily ritual.  I do have to say however, I am not getting any commissions when I sell my crops or my cow barn.  I do have over 200 million dollars in farm coins, no not farm cash, but coins.  (You see you have to pay if you want farm cash).

This is why the thought raced through my head today that I would become a “Virtual Realtor”, a new character that you could change clothes and dress up.  The boy Realtor would have options to buy pdas, ear pieces, nametags and loafer shoes.  The girl would have choice of makeup, seven inch spike heels and business cards.  I could sell and sub-lease the farm houses and barns, (are floating buildings considered real property?)Of course you could sell enough buildings to get a Mercedes in your gift box and can trade up for the jaguar.  You can make more farm coins if you ask others on your farm to participate, the more circles you get the more commissions. And then I woke up!

This just reminds me that there are no real ends to the means; I hope that I do not make it to the 400 million mark that would mean I have put more into Farmville than my own life!

Was it just a short phase?

More and more home buyers are not accepting the time limits associated with bank short sales.  It might just be the same with the banks.  Is everyone getting tired of the consequences of sellers deciding to sell short.

Just a few years ago the boom was fast and it seems like it took over the entire real estate industry.  You couldn’t view homes without half being one such property.  What did this do to the housing industry?  It certainly change home values from the start.  Taxes went down; buyers were acquiring homes for rock bottom.  It developed into its own niche.

The flustering part of negotiating short sales was the lack of protocol and procedures that banks needed to follow.  The real estate industry quickly conformed to perhaps a sideline of activities that really needed specific training.  Thus the Short sale and foreclosure designation was born.  MLS groups needed to change contracts and who knows what happened to the appraisal profession!

Zoom forward to 2013; most buyers would just as soon pass on the short sale listings.  The buying public has faded back into the business end of purchasing real estate and backing off of the hassles that are associated with short sale transactions.  It is refreshing to work with what is now called “Fair Market” sales or everyday sales.  Yes no bank and no other 3^rd party.  Breaths of fresh air!

Back to the future! Going Old School

I remember when I was looking to purchase my first home back in the late 70’s; my Realtor took me to the house that I would purchase.  I didn’t know anything about it until we arrived to view it for the first time.

I did purchase the house and was very happy.  My Realtor had already gone out to view and preview some homes and chose only two to look at.  This is much different from today’s way of high tech.

I mention the above experience because I am currently working with a couple of clients that do not use the real estate high tech, i.e. a computer and car to preview homes and write offers.  One client does not drive

and has no way to email or preview my listings. 

This is the way it was done in the baby boom years.  I have to admit I find myself when I speak with the client using terms of the current way of doing things such as I will email the latest listing and you let me know if you would like to view it.

In a way when my Realtor sold me the first house, it probably took only a week to write an offer after I looked at the two homes.  Now days the clients have so many more options and so many more homes with just a click of the mouse.  I do have sort of feeling that maybe old is less stressful and more efficient. Ok maybe not!

See the USA in a Chevrolet

Probably only a few baby boomers will remember the old Chevrolet TV ads that were gracing our homes back in the 70s.  But it was a time that we were out checking out different parts of the country and driving the big block cars all the way.  Sure there were gas problems you could see the long lines in some states.

Today people are still moving and pursuing the freedom that your car would take you.  Some are moving to different Location either out of necessity of a new job opportunity or they are retiring and looking for that special place. 

Whatever the scenario Things are not the same as they were two or three decades ago.  Now you can scope out almost any place that you would like to explore by using Google maps and earth.  You can actually view the trees on some of the forest land. 

Moving to a new city or state used to be kind of a wonderment of the not knowing.  Take for instance enrolling your kids in a new school, now you can get instant school statistics to determine the area you are looking to buy a home.  The neighborhood safety data is also available.  Relocation and moving to a new area or completely different part of the country is somewhat easier now days.  The only problem seen is that a virtual move is still a guessing game with lots of factors. 

So take the old car out and travel throughout Idaho or surrounding states. There is still no better way to see the USA!

Yay the Tax assessments are out!

It is the time of year that everyone owning property in Ada County received the tax assessments.  What does this mean to the average home owner?  It probably will make their home mortgage go up to compensate for the increase.

When you purchased your home back at the closing company you saw what your monthly payment would be and you placed this into your budget.  Now what do you do when your taxes have risen in some areas 10% or higher?  At the same time the taxes in Ada County have increased, the amount of the homeowners exception have decreased, this causes a wider increase in money out of your pocket.

This year with all of the School problems it has become a year of government getting back some of the money lost with the great depression.  Yes I said depression. 

The tax assessor will give his reasons for the property values to go up, but it doesn’t take into consideration the individual homes value.  He still gets his information off of the neighborhood houses that have sold in the area.  (If you think he is out looking at your house you are wrong).

So we go along the merry way and pay for all the governments’ services and beyond.  It looks like the assessor will be busy with lots of folks not agreeing with his assessment of things.