Author Archives: ARDELL

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 34+ 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

For Sale By Owner Advice

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[photopress:contracts.jpg,thumb,alignright]The most common obstacle to being successful at selling your home on your own, on your own meaning a truly private sale with no agent at either end, is the contract phase.

Owners usually figure out all of “their stuff”.  Getting the house ready. Pricing the house. Putting out ads.  Being available to show the house.  The “missing” part is the “buyer’s stuff”.  While it may seem that the buyer should figure out their end of things…that is not a realistic expectation on the part of the seller, most of the time.  It is also the reason that many “successful” For Sale By Owner’s only end up saving a portion of the commission, and not the entire commission.  I have heard many stories over the last couple of decades from For Sale By Owners saying “everyone loves the house and then leaves, and we don’t hear from them again”.  That can be very frustrating for a homeowner.  The buyers come, rave about the house, leave, and the owner is left scratching their head saying “What’s up with that?!?!”

Whether a buyer is working with an agent or not, they usually focus more on looking at houses, than on what happens when they find the house they like.  Unless your house is so hands down, oh my god, have to have it…it is unlikely that a buyer will have the supercharged motivation needed to get to the next step.  Timing is everything.  If the owner whips out a contract when a buyer comes in…it may scare the buyer.  If they don’t whip it out before the buyer leaves, often the owner doesn’t get a second chance.

So here’s my advice.  Find a lawyer who will draft a simple, layman-term version of a standard purchase and sale contract for you.  Something an average buyer can REALLY UNDERSTAND, that covers all of the bases in something less than the standard legalese.  Make it on as few papers as possible, while still covering the main points.  Do NOT, in other words, simply use the standard format that agents use with multiple addendums.  Have most of the “addendum” topics covered in one standard contract.  If your house was built prior to 1978, have the lead based paint automatically built into the contract.  We use an addendum for that because some need it and some don’t.  But you already KNOW if your house was built prior to 1978…so get it put right into the contract, and have the booklet regarding hazard info readily available.

Instead of waiting for the buyer to have to say “I’d like to buy your house”, hand everyone who comes through, a sealed envelope with the flyer attached to the outside of it.  In the envelope include the Seller Disclosure Statement and the contract (and a pre-inspection, and…).  Complete the contract with everything that YOU want.  In other words, you make an offer to them…rather than waiting for them to make an offer to you.  Have the name and phone number of the attorney who drafted the contract in the envelope, so they can counter with modifications to your pre-presented offer.  Of course you should also state that they can use an attorney of their choice, OR call the attorney who drafted your document. 

When you hand them the envelope, tell them “everything you may need is in this envelope, including everything we know about the house”.  This way you are giving them information, instead of pressuring them with regard to buying your home.  If they like your house at all, they will want to open that envelope to see the Seller Disclosure Statement.

You might say as they are leaving, “If you are not at all interested, then I’d appreciate your leaving the envelope here to save a tree.”  A nice, easy way for them to let you know that they are not interested in buying your house, without offending you.  They are not saying NO to you, they are saving a tree 🙂

Make it as easy as possible for a buyer to get from liking your house to buying your house, and you may be able to save not just half of…but the entire, commission.

Redfin's Maven of "The Mavens"

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[photopress:hoffman__s.jpg,full,alignright] What a lovely unexpected surprise! When Kevin Boer of Three Oceans called to ask if we could have coffee during his whirlwind tour of Seattle, we “group dated” with Redfin’s Marie Hagman. Redfin’s new “Maven of the Mavens” I’ve already signed up to get an auto email with every new “Sweet Digs” entry. It automatically comes up as San Francisco, so be sure to hit the drop down menu and put in Seattle.

Marie assures us that the seven bloggers selected from the 300 or so that replied to Redfin’s Craig’s List Ad, just turned out to be ALL WOMEN destined to be in the running for next year’s Top Ten! Hey, that only leaves three spots for all of the rest of us.

Redfin’s Rule stated that none of the bloggers could be real estate licensees. Sweet Digs is very cool, and very much the answer to Galen’s prayers. As non-licensees they are free from all of the weight and chains of rules, rules and more rules, and they are just blogging away to their heart’s content. And I DO mean their “heart’s content” as all were chosen, Marie included, based on their passion for anything real estate and their ability to write with that same passion.

And OH MY GOD!…the Eastside Sweet Digger is Jessi Princiotto…cool enough to have her photo taken by cell phone while in the car…I can’t wait to meet her…I can’t wait to read her…and my side of town to boot!! How lucky can I get! My East Coast fix and local real estate reading all wrapped into one!

Congratulations ladies. Marie and Jessi, we’re calling ahead to Hoffman’s for that torte…just name the day and time.

Oh, and Kevin and Kim were there too LOL. My partner Kim Harris (far right in the photo) and Kevin Boer (left of Kim). Kevin is definitely going home with some stories, and hopefully some insight, into how very different the Seattle Market is from his neck of the woods.

Kevin asked, “What do you say when a ‘Redfin Buyer’ calls and says, “I want to see your listing RIGHT NOW!!”, LOL. I answered “Same thing I say to ANY buyer who says I want to see your listing RIGHT NOW!!” Redfin Buyers don’t exactly grow horns, by definition. We had a fun chat. This is Seattle, very few times do we meet people that are ornery, nasty or unreasonable. It’s a great town with a lot of great people…even “Redfin Buyers”.

Have a safe trip back to CA, Kevin! Great meeting you and thanks for the intro to Marie.

Zillow's Free Advertising – A Consumer Perspective

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[photopress:warning.jpg,thumb,alignright] Before everyone jumps into the pool, every agent and owner must “LOOK before they LEAP”.

The Zillow Zestimate WILL appear, of course, in the same space as your “Property For Sale” listing. The printed data is also picking up the erroneous square footage info and number of bedrooms and baths from the tax records. So far it would appear that the owner can edit this data, but not the agent for the owner. Still playing with that.

Clearly, no agent should be listing a home where the Zestimate is less than the Asking Price, without first consulting with the owner, as I did last night BEFORE 9 p.m., having seen the proto-type last week. I am not particularly alarmed by this variance, but clearly the Zestimate being higher, rather than lower, would be a PLUS! 🙂 Attempting to turn a blind eye to the Zestimate, by not posting your home for sale there is no answer. Not here in the Seattle area where 82% of the buying public is likely to have seen the Zestimate, whether you invite them to do so or not. Seattle PI: “The company’s internal numbers (Zillow’s) indicate that 3.2 million people visited the site in November and that 82 percent of all homes in King County (WA) have been viewed on Zillow in the last 10 months.”

It is quite possible that the whole valuation process will pull in the direction of Zestimates, particularly in areas like ours with so many tech savvy buyers. In fact, I am already seeing a move in that direction for many properties on market and ones sold recently.

Whether or not you choose to post your home for sale on Zillow.com, these are issues facing everyone involved in real estate transactions. Buyers are making offers with the Zestimate price. Sellers and Agent’s for sellers will need to learn how to calculate the variance with some level of credible accuracy.

One of the reason’s David G. and Jeff, of Zillow, my parter Kim and I, met last week to review the new product, was to view first hand some of these potential pitfalls. While I did notice the Zestimate vs. Sale Price issue, the square footage discrepancy did not pop out at me during the presentation.

“Supporting New Business Models” and being an “Agent for Change” requires that someone jump in first to test the waters and assist with these little blips from the getgo, and not without the owner’s permission to do so.

To Galen, who notes that it is difficult to simply load up listings en masse, perhaps this is fair warning that adding a home for sale should NOT be done en masse. Every agent and every owner must consider the potential consequences of showing the Zestimate price side by side against their Asking Price, and be prepared to justify the basis for the differences between the two with regard to square footage, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, finished vs. unfinished space, etc. and price.

This “FREE ADVERTISING” and the info contained “in the AD” is not entirely editable by the owner and the owner’s agent…so far anyway. I’m still working on it. Not a small matter, and one that must be addressed rather quickly if Zillow’s erroneous data is going to show side by side the owner’s “corrected” data.

So what did I forget to ask David G. last week? Did Pearl Harbor Day come up in any conversations concerning Zillow’s choice of unveiling the new upgrade? Did unveiling it at 9 p.m. on the 6th, camouflage any refererence to December 7th, when most would be waking up to see “God-Zillow” in their sheets with the morning paper?

The "BIGGER" news on Zillow.com

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[photopress:boycott.gif,thumb,alignright]I was intrigued by Kevin Boer’s comment on Galen’s post predicting that the Major Brokerage Houses would be jumping in en masse and posting their listings on Zillow.com. Kevin predicts that it will be “the little guy” who will hold out. I predict it will actually be the other way around, with the bigger players finding an excuse NOT to post their listings on Zillow.com. Time will tell.

In my link post to all of the blog articles on Zillow’s overnight make-over, I found this obscure post which says what others are not saying:

“RED ALERT” Zillow Wants Our Listings. Before anyone posts their listings on Zillow-let’s get a consensus. I don’t want to aid these people at all, and by posting your listings, you are doing the legwork for them and I think it is a comakazie move. Before agents gang bang the free listing, maybe we can vote on this as a whole. What do you think? They’re not Realtor’s, so this is not an anti-trust violation, is it?”

Joanne Brown of Keller Williams, who wrote this blog article, tread on the thin ice others knew not to step on. But that’s the beauty of blogs. Every once in a while, someone just “let’s it all hang out” there in the blogosphere.

Blog Articles on Zillow's New Upgrade

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While Zillow is choking over there on the side trying to digest my listing info, here are some links to everyone I can find who is talking about tonight’s big news on Zillow.com

I threw in a couple of recent articles, posted just before tonight’s big news, that I found to be of interest. I will come back later and keep editing this post to include all articles posted until everyone is talked out.

Zillow.com says "MAKE ME Move"

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[photopress:logo.gif,thumb,alignright]LOL, it’s going to be one of those fun days on the Internet. It really has been way too quiet, except for Greg’s Bubble War, so I’m glad for a little excitement.

At 9 p.m. PST, Zillow is unveiling their newest major upgrade which allows both consumers and agents to upload their homes and listings…apparently, whether they are for sale…or not! This is going to be fun.

I’m planning to be one of the first to get a house in there before the East Coast wakes up. Let’s see how easy it is and whether or not it works yet.

There will be For Sale by Owners side by side with Agent Listings and a place for what we in the industry generally call “Pocket Listings”. People who might move, if you offered them a price that would make it worth their while to get out. That’s the fun part. Not that Zillow.com hasn’t already been a lot of fun as it is.

One interviewer today from L.A. asked me if the “Make Me move” category would really be of value to anyone who didn’t have a very expensive and unique property. I think it will be a great opportunity for people who cannot list their home for sale right now, but are planning to move sometime in the near future. People who are going to list their home in the Spring. People who are going to move when their child graduates from high school in June. People who will be listing their home when they reach their two year ownership requirement to avoid capital gains taxes. Pretty much anyone who is not quite ready to move right now, but would like to say to the public at large “Make Me move!” at x price, and then we’ll talk about when I’m willing to actually get out 🙂

So it should be a very exciting day. I’m off to see if I can upload a listing.

A Few Kind Words for one Merit Financial employee

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Rather than jump on the bandwagon of the negative press regarding the Merit Financial failure(s), I’d like to tell my one and only Merit Financial Story.

One of our agents had a client who was using Merit Financial as their lender. When someone we meet has a pre-established lender relationship, especially a personal relationship…friend/relative, we do our best to support that relationship. Unfortunately, as the newspaper articles have highlighted, the loan rep was a young fellow with no lending experience who had never handled a loan that was a purchase, rather than a refinance. Two weeks into the 30 day escrow, it was apparent that absolutely nothing had been started with regard to the financing. The agent didn’t know what to do and came to me for advice.

I told her to get into the car and I made my one and only ever visit to Merit Financial. We had no appointment. I call it “camping out”, meaning “we’re not leaving until we get someone here to start paying attention BEFORE it is too late.” A young man by the name of Kris Quigley took full responsibility from the time I left that building, until everything was resolved, and escrow was closed. He worked day and night. He was literally working so hard that he made himself sick and ended up with pneumonia. He called me well into the night past 9 p.m. and I’m sure our client was not the only file he was bailing out of a fire.

My guess is that for every 20 people hired, who were mostly all talk and no action, there was at least one Kris Quigley in the background busting their butt to pick up the slack.

Kris…wherever you are…I wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. I feel badly for people like Kris when I read these articles. Clearly not everyone who worked at Merit Financial was a Know-nothing slacker, as these articles would lead people to believe. Kris, feel free to use me as a reference if you need one. Hopefully you moved on before the $ hit the Fan.

Getting in the holiday spirit yet?

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[photopress:139.jpg,thumb,alignright]Can’t say that I am. I’m just finishing the Thanksgiving leftovers. But you can’t wait for the spirit to grab you, or all of the best shows will be over…or SOLD OUT! So here’s an early heads up on some of Seattle’s favorites:

Kirkland Performing Arts Center’s “The Nutcracker” is coming up and will be over before you know it. Everyone should see it at least once. Or Maybe The 5th Avenue Theatre’s performance of Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas”.

[photopress:NW_20Boychoir.jpg,thumb,alignleft]Not quite as expensive are the Northwest Choir presentations of “A festival of Lessons and Carols” that travels to various churches in the area. The big St. Mark’s Cathedral presentation on Capitol Hill on the 18th, is probably the one I’d shoot for.

I’ve always been a sucker for big Cathedrals, and not just at Christmas.

Here’s a whole string of events from Emmylou Harris, to “Billy Shakespeare’s Christmas Extravaganza and Traveling Freak Show”, for a bit of the non-traditional.

[photopress:c.jpg,thumb,alignright] Getting in the spirit doesn’t need to cost anything. The Spirit of Seattle “Christmas Ship” should be floating around spreading good cheer by now. Apparently the ship pulls up to some bonfire beaches so people can hear the music without having to be on the ship. Anyone know where these “bonfire beaches” are? Here’s the quote: “On shore, thousands of people, young and old alike, gather around roaring bonfires to share the joy of the season. On the water, other decorated boats join in the festivities by following the Christmas Ship™, forming the largest holiday flotilla in the world, cruising to over 45 waterfront communities.”

I’d rather be at the bonfire on the beach than on a boat, so if anyone knows where those bonfires are, and when the boats will be happening by the bonfire, let me know.

No Public MLS Site?

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I just received an email that says, “San Francisco, CA – December 1, 2006 – The San Francisco Association of Realtors will remove public access to its MLS site as of January 1, 2007.”

It’s actually an advertisement of some kind suggesting that without the Public Access Site provided by the MLS, every broker will need their own, now more than ever. Robbie…Galen…there’s a heads up for you.

I thought NAR required that every MLS have a “Public Site”, albeit a crappy one. Anyone know if that rule changed?

Photos that tell you something

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Further to Galen’s post on photos, I like shots that tell you something. We have a 15 photo max, so that usually leaves room for more than just the obvious. Photo number one MUST be an EXTERIOR shot, per mls rules. And NO PEOPLE allowed. They seem to be Ok with pets…until they get one of those Boing-Boing shots. That will make for a “New Rule”.

This one of Soze (So-zay) saved me from the many calls I usually get, asking if the condo association permitted dogs :-)[photopress:tr.jpg,full,alignleft]

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This photo brought 20 people the first day, and two offers. At least half of the people who came to the first Open House said the free standing archway photo grabbed their attention and prompted them to come.