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

There’s a first time for everything

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[photopress:a.jpg,thumb,alignright] I never thought I’d say “This One Won’t Last!” on one of my listings. Somehow I managed to get by for 16 years without saying that. We all laugh at the agent who forgets to remove “This One Won’t Last” from their public remarks after the property has been on market for over 60 days.

For some reason as I “backed out” of the property yesterday, after finishing up my “light staging” efforts in my favorite bayberry color scheme, I knew. As I put the wreath on the front door and decorated the window boxes on the balcony, I knew. As we vacuumed our way out of the property and looked at our many hours of effort getting it “just so”, and placed the “20 flyers to offer” on the counter in the kitchen, I knew.

So when I input the listing at 20 minutes to midnight last night I found myself saying what I never thought I would say, “This one won’t last!” I even put in the listing that I never thought I’d ever say that along with a little smiley face.

When I received a call that the very first person who saw it is writing an offer, I breathed a huge sigh of relief, confident that I wouldn’t be choking on my words by end of day. There’s a first time for everything…sometimes you just KNOW. Cross your fingers. I’ve managed to make it this far in life without having to eat my words. But like they say, there’s a first time for everything.

Fire Sale in Queen Anne on Craig’s List

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[photopress:fire_sale.jpg,thumb,alignright]I was out and about in Seattle today. Before heading off to finish staging the townhome I listed tonight in Ballard/Fremont, I got a call from a new client asking me about a property she found on Craig’s List.

It was a For Sale By Owner in Queen Anne at 2447 5th Ave W. I decided to meet her over there so we could chat and I could see the place for one of our investor clients. I have never seen a house after a fire like this one…every burnt ember is still intact! The hanging burned curtain…the mattress springs from the totally burnt mattress…all that was left were the springs! The walls in the dining room were incredible…looked like folded black crepe paper.

As we were chatting outside, my favorite “non-client” was coming to see it. It is such a small world sometimes. Luckily no one was hurt in the fire. We were having so much fun, it was a blast, that I felt guilty and asked a neighbor, and they assured me no one was hurt during the fire. So we partied on!

You can’t tell from the outside that there was a fire, but the inside is worth seeing. I’m not sure if someone will gut this and remodel it, or just tear it down and build a new one. Investor types should go over and take a look. Not sure what the lot value is over there, but it’s a great location. Too much for my new clients or my favorite “non-client” to handle…but one of you might be interested. Owner’s number is on the sign out front and the place is open for inspection, but be careful, some of the floor boards are pretty soft and there’s a lot of soot to wade through. Don’t wear your best shoes.

Why isn’t my house SOLD yet?

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You have to be in the top three of your “price tier”. Being at the high end of your “price tier” is better than being at the bottom of your “price tier”.

Photos must all be good photos and must be ordered in “hook order”.

Stop looking at what is for sale and stop looking at the comps once your property is listed for sale. If you have a lot of showings and no offers, then it is something AT the property that is causing it not to sell and you are a “bounce point”. If you don’t have enough showings it is something in the mls that is causing it not to sell, unless you HAD a lot of showings at first and dwindled down to not enough.

That’s pretty much it, pretty simple to me, but let me explain some of the lingo up there.

A “price tier” is the increment of value pre-supposed by the public websites. Go to Redfin or Windermere or John L. Scott or CBBain sites, and look at property in your area similar to yours. The site forces you to put a range of value that the site itself predetermines. The lower the price, the more important this is. Let’s look at the $250,000 to $300,000 crowd. If you are $259,000 or $276,000 or $309,000, you are “off”. The site forces people to look at $250,000 to $275,000 and $275,000 to $300,000.

If you are priced at $259,000 you are missing the people stretching up. Let’s face it, almost every single buyer in this price range “stretches up!” as in “I want to spend $250,000, but will go as high as $275,000, but NOT a PENNY MORE! By pricing your property at $254,000, you miss the boat on the $225,000 to $250,000 crowd and don’t compare well enough for the $250,000 to $275,000 crowd. $254,000 is just past the point where someone stretching up will see you at all and your property is not comparing well to those in the group at higher prices. $309,000 is just a KILLER price…the first number being the ALL IMPORTANT one. The difference between $240,000 and $249,000 is nothing, but the difference between $299,000 and $301,000 is a KILLER!! (An aside to agents here. If you are at a listing appointment and the seller insists on pricing at $301,000 instead of $299,999 or $300,000 straight up, LEAVE, RUN! It means “I don’t really want to sell this place, I’m just appeasing my ___ and pretending to be selling it.”

I could write a chapter of a book on “price tiers” alone, so let’s move on to photo “hook order”. Photo #1 is all important as many sites (like Realtor.com last I looked) require the user to click another button to get past photo #1. If photo #1 doesn’t grab them, you are dead in the water, and they are scrolling down past you.

Unfortunately mls rules hinder the seller when it comes to photo #1. There are a few rules written with agents in mind that I do not agree with, and this is one of them. Why should the mls REQUIRE that this all important key photo be…??? Seller should have more freedom in that regard. According to mls rules, photo number one must be an “exterior” shot, preferably the front door area, so agents can more easily find the property. Lame rule in my opinion if the curb appeal is NOT the seller’s claim to fame. All mls services should change that rule yesterday, giving the seller the opportunity to put his best foot forward, regardless of what constitutes each seller’s best foot. In condo complexes it is a KILLER rule. Who the heck needs to see another shot of the outside of a big condo building. Ever wonder why you see 25 shots of the same photo on a new construction project? Looks pretty dumb from the user’s perspective…but….it’s a rule. If the interior is a slab granite knockout and the exterior is 1977…this rule KILLS a seller and the mls is wrong, wrong, and wrong again for making the seller put the 1977 exterior as photo #1 vs. the knockout new kitchen. Let’s all fight for that change…or Robbie, can you reconfigure the photo order on an mls feed???

Hook Order – think attention span. Once you get past photo #1 issues, the second photo must be your absolute best of the rest. Forget about the “virtual tour” concept where you have the buyer “walking in from the front door”. If your claim to fame is your fireplace and kitchen, get those into the #2 and #3 spots. Make a list of your selling points in order or priority. If #1 is new kitchen, #2 is fireplace, #3 is double sinks in master bath…show the photos in the order of the priority of your selling features. If your #1 claim to fame is a jacuzzi in a cheap condo, don’t be afraid to put that jacuzzi as photo #2. Every picture in sequence, is a hook, as buyers often say “no I don’t want to see that one” after seeing photo #1 and #2. Having your best selling features at photo #11 and photo #12??…think about it…common sense rules.

A small note about the number of total photos. Max allowed is 15. Always use max if possible. That DOES NOT mean I want to see the open toilet and the toilet paper. It means take your best features from varied angles. Don’t be afraid to be redundant with regard to your very best selling points, but mix them up. Put it at photo #2 and #3 and bring it back to emphasize the strong selling features at photo #11 and #12, but from a different perspective as in #2 is kitchen from kitchen and #11 is kitchen from dining area.

This is getting way too long and I have things to do, so let’s just brush over the last point. If I could crack open every agent’s brain and slide in a little microchip, it would say STOP LOOKING AT THE COMPS AFTER THE PROPERTY IS LISTED FOR SALE! You look at the comps to determine your opening price out the gate, that’s all, DONE, finito!! No showings…wrong price. Plenty of showings but everything is selling but yours…condition problems. DO NOT even MENTION the sold comps once you are out the gate…irrelevant data.

And if I had nickel for everytime I heard an agent say, “I don’t know what’s wrong? We’re the ‘best game in town’ given what is for sale.” Face it…they are going to the next town, because you are an overpriced dog, regardless of the fact you have no competition in YOUR complex. What else can they buy for THEIR MONEY is the order of the day! Of utmost importance with one level condos. Buyers come in waves. “Surfing the net” is not just a catch phrase.

In the low price range the buyers are currently renting and have nothing to sell. If they don’t like what they are seeing in their price range, because the cream has been skimmed off the top, they wait for the next wave of new inventory. Your wave has crashed and your board is floating out to sea.

Buyers pay attention to these rules, and go grab all of the stale ones who aren’t following the rules, by offering them eighty cents on the dollar. Go for the $309,000s, on market for over 60 days, with only two photos, photo #1 being the sign with the name of the condo complex on it 🙂 and search for the “pick of the litter”.

Here’s How I REALLY Feel…

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[photopress:bow.jpg,thumb,alignright]Let’s hit this nail right on the head.

Truth is I’m not taking any bows for kudos and props on my blogging efforts to date, because I haven’t yet said what really needs to be said.

Zillow is “good enough” because agents aren’t.

Redfin is “good enough” because agents aren’t.

Inspectors and Disclosure Forms aren’t “good enough” because agents aren’t demanding better service from these areas for their clients. Don’t get me started on the lead based paint debacle…CYA is the order of the day.

Lead generators are needed because agents aren’t “good enough” to attract clients based on their own merits.

Agents aren’t “good enough” because all of the education is about how to cover your butt, thanks to the lawyers, and all of the education classes are about how to “get more leads” and not about how to “deserve” them or what to do with them after you’ve got them.

“Lower the price, lower the price, lower the price”…is NOT how you sell a house.

“Sign this huge pile of disclosures” so that if you get ripped off you can’t sue me, is not how you represent a buyer client.

If your clients think they are paying you too much, they are probably right.

Consumer: The answer isn’t to find someone who will charge you less, the answer is to find someone who will cover YOUR butt instead of their own.

Now I’ll take that freakin’ bow. Thank you Sellsius and Dustin and Bloodhound Blog and Uberator and Kate and…I don’t know, maybe Dave Letterman.

ASBESTOS – Buyer Beware!!

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[photopress:inspectors.jpg,thumb,alignright]I am just beside myself on the topic of home inspectors and asbestos. I don’t care how many inspectors want to tell me why inspectors aren’t “obligated” to call asbestos in the inspection, I will still keep saying: “You have GOT to be KIDDING me!!

I’ve seen more asbestos in homes in the Seattle area than in my entire career to date around the Country.

“Well Ardell, I know we both “think” that’s asbestos were looking at there, but we really can’t say it’s asbestos unless we send it out to a lab and have it tested. So we just have this disclaimer in our contract saying we are not responsible for calling asbestos in the inspection…and that is sufficient for US” US being the home inspectors!!

Yesterday I literally took a razor tool from the inspector and cut open some paneling held together by duct tape in a basement and forced an inspector to look behind it before he wrote “inaccessible area” on the report! I said if you don’t lend me something to do this with, I’m going to use my bare hands!

How come I can get 10 average Joe’s to stand around the asbestos wrapped pipes, who will all say “Yep, dats asbestis alright”, but I can’t get one inspector to note asbestos in a home inspection report?

Oh, and here’s the agent’s lovely comment (I represent the seller and she represents the buyer) “Not my problem. The buyer chose their inspector and if the inspector doesn’t tell him what he needs to know…that’s not my problem, is it?”

In PA inspectors included “testing for radon” by setting canisters in the house and sending them to the lab. They couldn’t see radon or taste it or smell it, but they didn’t put a disclaimer in their contract saying “Duh, Don’t Know”.

Here’s a clue, Risk Reduction equals every buyer KNOWING WHAT the heck they are buying!!, not 25 disclaimer and disclosure forms covering everyone’s butts in the industry! And they have the nerve to tell me that they don’t want me at the inspection because I make them look bad…Oh WELL!!

And if you stick that pointy metal thing and chunk away at the mortar between the bricks of my seller’s house one more time in some silly act of macho bravado, I’m going to take it out of your and and stick it where you don’t want it stuck.

Some days I want to be a waitress…

To Stephane, this entire post should be in bold AND all caps! I am heeding your advice. But if you tell me to stop using !!exclamation points!!, we’ll have to agree to disagree 🙂

The Accuracy of a Zillow Zestimate

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[photopress:2faced000.jpg,thumb,alignright] Much has been written about the accuracy, or lack thereof, of the Zillow Zestimate of a home’s value. What one must remember is that a property can sell at the low point or the high point of its Zestimated range.

I don’t pay much attention to the articles written on bubbles bursting and what kind of market we are in, because I always know what kind of market I am in. I feel it in my bones, the same way an old person can tell that it’s going to rain before the weatherman predicts it. I know just how far I can push a price in either direction, depending on market conditions and who I represent in the transaction.

Every agent wears two hats and is two-faced, because a home’s “value” has to be higher when I represent a seller and lower when I represent a buyer, and it is my “job” to “make it so”. The Zillow range of value represents my best hope for my buyer client at the low end of the range, and my highest hope for my seller client at the high end of that range. I have yet to meet an agent in the Country who can jump back and forth over that line as well as I do. I guess that makes me two-faced, but being very good at being two-faced has always been my forte.

When I represent a seller I try to get the seller to give me the key to his house for a couple of days and go away and give me “carte blanche”. Mainly because I look very odd when I am “doing my seller thing”, somewhat like “MONK” at a crime scene. I keep going out to the street and walking up to the house, at various paces from all directions, emulating a buyer getting out of the car from every possible available parking spot. The neighbors must think I’m looney.

I trim trees and bushes based on the angle of the “walk up” and what I can see and what I can’t see. “Good, that bush blocks that window frame that needs painting…bad, that tree is blocking the main feature, the rounded brick archway…then I trim the tree to “accentuate the positive” until I can see the brick archway from the position of the buyer driving by or getting out of the car, and leave the bush overgrown to “de-emphasize the negative”.

I walk into the front door 25 or more times and change things, until I remove any negative influence in my sight pettern (which is eye level side to side, without looking up or down). I always tell agents, “if you are standing in one place when you are staging a home you are “decorating” and not “staging”. Walk through and walk fast. Remove negative influence or distract the eye away from the negative with a bright vase or photo in the opposite place from the negative. If you can’t eradicate the negative, draw the eye toward the positive. That is staging, and that is why the agent has to do it themselves and not hire landscapers and decorators.

Staging is about the real estate, and a real estate professional must be in charge of what will and will not be done, to enhance the sale price.

Conversely, putting on my other hat, I take out my other face when evaluating homes with buyers. We both step into the house, and usually I walk one way and they walk the other, and I see things quite differently than they do.

They say they “love” it and I say “Oh, my God WHY?”. I get them to focus and point to what they like. Sometimes by forcing them to tell me what they like, it turns out to be a painting or a piece of furniture. I say great, let’s find that painting to put in your new house, but for now let’s go back and try this again and look at the “real estate” of this place. Sometimes, if it is vacant, I actually have to move the staging so they can see what I see.

To achieve the lowest possible price for my buyer, I either have to find a seller who has “left money on the table” or I have to find a property that is overpriced. If a house could have sold for $510,000 or $515,000, but the seller priced it at $519,000 and staged it incorrectly, I can usually get it for $500,000. That’s a standard best case scenario. If a property comes on at less than fair market value, which happens on occasion, I can usually swoop in and modify terms, to grab it while the vultures are still hovering.

Often people comment on the Zillow Zestimate wondering “Where exactly is the value of this house? Is it closer to the high end of the range or the low end of the range?” The answer is it is the agent’s job to pull “the value” in the direction of their client. When I represent the seller, I have to DO something before I hit that “live on the mls” button that makes it go higher. When I am representing a buyer I have to DO something to force it back in the other direction.

I pretend that all my clients are Captain Kirk, who command me to “make it so #2” 🙂

Why I like Zillow and Redfin by ARDELL

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[photopress:3ofhearts.jpg,thumb,alignright]I’m still scratching my head as to why agents around the country hate Zillow so much that they want to call it “Z”. Theory is that if they even whisper the name Zillow, they are spreading “the word” and helping it to become even more popular.

Zillow is a system of mathematical calculations, a tool that is easy and fun to use. So isn’t hating Zillow like hating your calculator?

I like Zillow because before they came along, all of the lead generators were about buyers. Buyers went there to look at houses and hit the big flashing “Find an Agent” button and were taken off to never-never-land where the lead generator collected a toll. Buying buyer leads has always been a joke. I can hardly go anywhere without hearing someone talking about buying a house. Every coffee shop, restaurant, the lady in line in front of you at the bank, at least 20% of the people at a barbecue…really. If you need to buy a buyer lead you need to look in the mirror and figure out why you need to trick people into hitting a big flashing button and pay for one. Time to hone up your skills and get a personality.

The innovation of Zillow is that every lead generator has asked that question: “How do we attract SELLER leads?” Even House Values knows that they cannot get enough seller leads, and they can sell them as fast as they can get them. There are more agents willing to buy seller leads from House Values in prime areas, then there are seller leads to go around. There’s a waiting list…I know…I’ve been on it for over a year. Every time they email or call me I ask…you have a seller lead spot available for 98033 or 98034. Answer is always no, but they are trying to sell me something else. Because attracting sellers rather than buyers is something the lead generator industry has been very lax at doing well.

And then comes Zillow. I don’t know what they are selling, but they clearly have the seller’s attention. Did Zillow get an Inman award for that? If not…Zillow now has the ARDELL award for innovation in lead generating sites. Don’t be waiting for the trophy, I haven’t gotten out shopping for Greg and Sharon yet, and you’re behind them.

Kudos to Zillow. Don’t know where you’re running with that ball, but kudos for putting a seller oriented site in play.

I like Redfin, because…

a lot of my past clients who came to me from blogging,

tried them first 🙂

Trying to Force the Seller’s Hand

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[photopress:hand.jpg,thumb,alignright] If you are playing the game of “trying to force the seller’s hand”, you have to know how to play it right. It is not easy to force a seller to…anything. Regardless of who is right and who is wrong, if you can say there is a right and wrong to the situation, reality is what it is. If you want the house, and you are not the only one who wants the house, you have to stay “in PLAY”.

Two buyers have been “circling the wagon” for weeks. Offers have been presented to the seller, counters have gone back to the buyers. Back and forth, back and forth. Buyer Agent saying, “Did the seller look at the comps I gave you showing why the seller should?” “Well of course the seller has to fix this and fix that, remove this and add that”. Meanwhile the seller is just going about their business, day in and day out, waiting for the buyers to agree to their price and conditions.

Then along comes buyer number three. Buyer number one and buyer number two, who have had offers back and forth, know what the seller wants. So it seems only fair to tell buyer number three what the seller wants. Meanwhile buyer number two wants to submit an offer again, third time, for something less than they know the seller wants. I say, well you have two choices. You can bring an offer meeting the seller’s counter to you of a couple of weeks ago and beat buyer number three to the punch, OR you can hang back and wait to see what buyer number three does.

Buyer number two’s agent doesn’t want to bring an offer matching what the seller wants NOR wait until buyer number three makes their move on Saturday, so she brings an offer that she knows is LESS than what the seller wants and Tries To Force the Seller’s Hand”, by giving a very short response time. Bad move. You bring the seller an unacceptable offer and put a response time that is hours before buyer number three is scheduled to see the house. What happens. By trying to force the seller’s hand and make him respond before buyer number three sees the house, you are left out in the cold. Your offer is expired before the seller is going to respond. Buyer number three’s offer is accepted and your offer is a non-offer, because it expired before the seller was willing to look at it.

If you tell the seller they only have x amount of time to respond, and that timeframe does not match the seller’s schedule for some reason, your offer becomes invalid. Agent says “You COULD HAVE countered and just changed the date…” But why? Why would the seller risk countering an expired offer, when they have an acceptable and valid offer on the table? (agent’s answer is because she has worked long and hard and deserves…anytime the agent’s answer includes the agent in the picture…wrong answer – wrong thinking.)

If you are trying to force the seller’s hand by giving him a short wick, and putting a response time that is less than acceptable, you have to revise your offer and extend that date the second your response time passes. You have to keep your offer “in play”. By trying to force the seller’s hand…you can put yourself out of the game altogether, if you do not keep your dates running forward by submitting a new response time.

Buyers often think that the seller MUST respond, MUST counter. Not the case. No answer IS an answer. If you have no answer by the time your offer time expires…you have your answer. The answer is NO…try again.

When I was a teenager, my parents often didn’t want me to go to parties. So when I asked to go to a party, I didn’t demand an answer on the spot. I made my case for why I thought they should say yes, and then I left the room to give them time to talk it over and think about it. The fast answer was often no…I went to lots of parties 🙂

When you give the seller what he wants, you can try to demand a quick response. When you want the house for less than acceptable terms, you have to be willing to hang back, and you have to be willing to lose it, if the seller doesn’t meet your terms. You can’t bang your fist on the table and demand that you get the house for less. Presenting an unacceptable offer, and demanding a quick response, is like a kid throwing a tantrum…rarely works out for the best. And almost never works out for the best, when you know there are other interested buyers.

Time to get into 1st backup position.

Radiators

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[photopress:Radiator.jpg,thumb,alignright]If anyone out there lives in the Seattle Area and has radiator heat, can you post your comments please. Do you like them? Have you bought covers for them? Have you replaced the boiler, and if so where did you purchase the replacement.

Any and all comments on the topic of boiler heat and radiators is appreciated. We are particularly looking for a company who replaces the boiler without replacing the radiators.

Thanks.

My Favorite Real Estate Story

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imagesA seller receives 23 offers on his property. All of the buyer agents want to present their offers in person and introduce the buyers to the seller.

There are 23 buyer agents and their buyer clients seated on folding chairs in a big room. Picture 50 or more people sitting on folding chairs with Offers to Purchase in their hands.

In a little conference room sits a seller and the seller’s agent preparing to review these 23 offers. The seller is not happy. All he wants is one, good and acceptable offer. He is overwhelmed by the prospect of having to review 23 offers and send 22 people home “empty handed”.

One by one the buyers and their agents “present their offer to the seller”. After about 8 of these “presentations”, the seller is totally confused and beside himself, as all of the offers seem about the same to him.

Along comes buyer number 9 and his agent. The savvy buyer’s agent can sense that the seller is completely fried and wants this over with. So he makes the seller an offer he can’t refuse, and the seller says to his agent “I’m going to take this one, get everyone else out of here.”

So the totally embarrassed seller’s agent goes out to the big room of many people in folding chairs and announces that the seller is DONE! He thanks them all for coming, but the seller is going to take offer #9 and they should all leave now.

AND THEN, AND THEN….ALONG COMES HANNAH!!! She jumps up from her chair, runs past the seller’s agent, kicks open the door to the little conference room, points at the buyer and buyer’s agent in the room and says “Whatever these guys have offered…we’ll go $100,000 over THAT!!

The seller’s eyes get as big as saucers. He realizes that it may be in his best interest to let everyone compete with one another and so he tells his agent to proceed as originally planned and “the game” proceeds until all 23 agents and their buyers have given their “Final and Best” offer.

I just love the picture in my mind of Hannah jumping from her chair, TACKLING THE LISTING AGENT, kicking down the door and refusing to be eradicated! I wonder why no one has ever made a movie of her valiant move! Her client must have been stunned, the whole room must have gasped in awe! I totally LOVE this story.

End result: Hannah’s client did NOT get the house. In fact Buyer #9 did, in the end, get the house for $400,000 more than his first acceptable offer. Buyer #9 got the house AND he sued Hannah’s company for making him have to pay $400,000 more for the house, as Hannah and Buyer #9’s agent worked for the same company. The suit was settled out of court and we now have “the Hannah clause” in all Buyer Agency contracts stating that the buyer is aware that the company may have other buyers under contract competing for the same house.

So Hannah’s efforts have become legendary…but only in the archives of lawyers and new stock clauses.

Hannah deserves much better…she at least deserves this article on a blog. So here’s to you Hannah! You are my idol!