Good Folk and Old Fashioned Values

[photopress:mwbeaver.jpg,thumb,alignright] Last night, my dream came true.

“If

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About ARDELL

ARDELL is a Managing Broker with Better Properties METRO King County. ARDELL was named one of the Most Influential Real Estate Bloggers in the U.S. by Inman News and has 33+ years experience in Real Estate up and down both Coasts, representing both buyers and sellers of homes in Seattle and on The Eastside. email: ardelld@gmail.com cell: 206-910-1000

24 thoughts on “Good Folk and Old Fashioned Values

  1. Beauty. Our experience the beginning of this year was similar — a happy error with the owners not being aware of the time of the inspection. The misses stayed in the house the whole time (3 kids, no sitter) and we chatted as the inspector rooted around all over.

    We were pretty much interviewing each other, since the sellers moved only 2 blocks away.

    If I ever buy (or sell) again, I would really want it to happen this way. Much more human.

  2. Beauty. Our experience the beginning of this year was similar — a happy error with the owners not being aware of the time of the inspection. The misses stayed in the house the whole time (3 kids, no sitter) and we chatted as the inspector rooted around all over.

    We were pretty much interviewing each other, since the sellers moved only 2 blocks away.

    If I ever buy (or sell) again, I would really want it to happen this way. Much more human.

  3. Here in my little corner of Los Angeles, we have always encouraged buyers and sellers to meet, share information, and get acquainted. It does help make for a pleasant, civilized transaction.

    However in the last couple of years, with all the day-trading flip-artists in the market, there wasn’t much point in personal interaction. The flippers  just want to get in for as little money as possible, and get out for as much money as possible. What’s to talk about?

    I am very happy to see a return to a market where regular people deal with regular people. And people buy homes to actually live in them.

  4. Dustin, is there a way for posters to claim and edit their comments? So I can correct stupid grammatical errors/typos that (as always) are “impossible” to see until after one hits “Post”?

  5. Cheryl,

    I went “in the back door” and corrected it for you.

    I think only Dustin and the person whose post it is, can make changes. You can preview, make changes and post after you edit in “Preview” mode.

    Giving everyone access to edit, also gives you access to deleting. I think it would also give you access to editing anything and everything, including the post itself.

    I’m sure Dustin will answer also. Are you guys back from “The City” yet?

  6. Cheryl,

    I went “in the back door” and corrected it for you.

    I think only Dustin and the person whose post it is, can make changes. You can preview, make changes and post after you edit in “Preview” mode.

    Giving everyone access to edit, also gives you access to deleting. I think it would also give you access to editing anything and everything, including the post itself.

    I’m sure Dustin will answer also. Are you guys back from “The City” yet?

  7. Ardell,

    Thanks for another great post topic…two questions come to mind: as a listing agent, I recently handled a multiple-offer situation in a somewhat similar fashion…1 – how did you convince the sellers that this was the best way to handle the offers, (as opposed to pitting them all against one another) and 2 – how did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?

    Awesome work – keep it up!
    Gordon

  8. Ardell,

    Thanks for another great post topic…two questions come to mind: as a listing agent, I recently handled a multiple-offer situation in a somewhat similar fashion…1 – how did you convince the sellers that this was the best way to handle the offers, (as opposed to pitting them all against one another) and 2 – how did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?

    Awesome work – keep it up!
    Gordon

  9. Cheryl,

    There is no way for you to edit your comments once they are posted… but if you ever want me to change something, just email me the changes!

  10. Cheryl,

    There is no way for you to edit your comments once they are posted… but if you ever want me to change something, just email me the changes!

  11. Gordon,

    I have to be a little careful on this reply, as the people with the other offers, as well as the buyer and seller in this transaction, deserve “confidentiality”. There’s a very fine line I walk when blogging about real life. Mostly I try to use “old” stories where I can make a point without anyone being able to track who the story is about.

    I know that for a blog to be “credible” one has to give REAL details. But in our line of work, I can’t just blab on about the details, once I’ve indicated it is my listing, and have photos of the property linked here from my blog. But current info is the only way to tell this story and in order to bring about change in the industry as a whole, this one has to be “current”.

    So here’s my carefully guarded response, knowing all of the agents and their clients can read this blog post.

    1) “How did you ‘convince’ the seller”…

    I don’t convince people of anything. People hire me because they trust me to represent their best interests, and they have confidence in my skills and knowledge in my field. The client and I have to trust and respect each other from day one, or choose not to work together, so that by the time these situations arise, there is no “conflict” or “need to convince”.

    I have, on occasion over the last 16+ years, worked with a few clients that needed to be “convinced” all of the time, like those people from the “Show Me State”. I have found that to be ineffective to the client’s objective and not in the client’s best interest for me to work with them. I no longer work with people who insist on shooting themselves in the foot, who constantly try to focus my attention to the obscure points of “no nevermind”, leaving me with less time to focus on the points most important to them.

    I lay out a strategy giving my reasons why we should proceed in this manner. They agree, say thank you, and “what do you need me to do?.” If your client’s don’t trust your advice, then it’s a bad match, and you shouldn’t be working together to achieve their goals. If there are three ways to proceed in my professional opinion, we discuss the three ways together like two intelligent human beings tossing around ideas, and decide together how to proceed. But my clients always defer to my expertise, as a real estate professional.

    “Pitting price to price” is never the be-all-end-all of multiple offer situations. Never. If an agent and their client are only looking at price and pitting price against price, the agent isn’t approaching the situation correctly.

    2) “How did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?”

    I didn’t. Why would I “explain my strategy to the other agents”? Their reactions were varied. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. 🙂

  12. Gordon,

    I have to be a little careful on this reply, as the people with the other offers, as well as the buyer and seller in this transaction, deserve “confidentiality”. There’s a very fine line I walk when blogging about real life. Mostly I try to use “old” stories where I can make a point without anyone being able to track who the story is about.

    I know that for a blog to be “credible” one has to give REAL details. But in our line of work, I can’t just blab on about the details, once I’ve indicated it is my listing, and have photos of the property linked here from my blog. But current info is the only way to tell this story and in order to bring about change in the industry as a whole, this one has to be “current”.

    So here’s my carefully guarded response, knowing all of the agents and their clients can read this blog post.

    1) “How did you ‘convince’ the seller”…

    I don’t convince people of anything. People hire me because they trust me to represent their best interests, and they have confidence in my skills and knowledge in my field. The client and I have to trust and respect each other from day one, or choose not to work together, so that by the time these situations arise, there is no “conflict” or “need to convince”.

    I have, on occasion over the last 16+ years, worked with a few clients that needed to be “convinced” all of the time, like those people from the “Show Me State”. I have found that to be ineffective to the client’s objective and not in the client’s best interest for me to work with them. I no longer work with people who insist on shooting themselves in the foot, who constantly try to focus my attention to the obscure points of “no nevermind”, leaving me with less time to focus on the points most important to them.

    I lay out a strategy giving my reasons why we should proceed in this manner. They agree, say thank you, and “what do you need me to do?.” If your client’s don’t trust your advice, then it’s a bad match, and you shouldn’t be working together to achieve their goals. If there are three ways to proceed in my professional opinion, we discuss the three ways together like two intelligent human beings tossing around ideas, and decide together how to proceed. But my clients always defer to my expertise, as a real estate professional.

    “Pitting price to price” is never the be-all-end-all of multiple offer situations. Never. If an agent and their client are only looking at price and pitting price against price, the agent isn’t approaching the situation correctly.

    2) “How did you explain to the other agents that this was your strategy and what were their reactions?”

    I didn’t. Why would I “explain my strategy to the other agents”? Their reactions were varied. That’s all I’m gonna say about that. 🙂

  13. Just four years ago when I started the real estate business, we were still presenting offers in person to the seller with the listing agent present, it is quite helpful in getting the seller to know the buyer and the buyer agent to know the seller. We would present the offer, and describe the buyers, and then bow out so the the L/A could explain the details of our offer to the seller. At least the buyer could get my feel for the seller hearing his offer and then we didn’t have to blindly wait hours upon days to find out the offer was rejected and no explanation other than “someone else” had made a better offer. PS I am from the bay area, live near there now and lived in Seattle as a transplant for two years, I worked at Microsoft and for the city of Seattle, it was grotesque, the behavior of folks up there to our presence, I was one of 12 out of 18 employees for the city in that department who were also from the bay area, the problem is if you don’t like any of us coming there, your home prices escalated because of us coming there and you don’t seem to mind putting your properties up in the higher price ranges that we created. Why don’t you keep selling your homes near the $115,00 range like before all the bay area people came up there? If it were not for us, you wouldn’t have anything to complain about. My husband was born and raised in Seattle, and on Whidbey Island, his parents and grandparents lived there their entire lives and he brings in this nice person from the bay area and you try to make him suffer too. Don’t worry, we are gone now, the weather was great there and the home we owned was brand new and beautiful, the company that transferred my husband up there went bankrupt the month after we bought that home, so we had to make plans to leave as soon as we got there. We are planning on invading Tennessee soon, better let them know!

  14. Bay Area Babe,

    Sorry you had a bad experience in Seattle, I just LOVE it here and I am a “transplant”. Best of luck to you in Tennessee. I’ll let them know you are on your way 😉

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