Lasik yesterday, back to work today. Thanks to all for the good luck wishes. The surgery was extra creepy, but painless and fast, and I’m seeing nearly 20/20 today with very little irritation or discomfort. Many thanks go to the good folks over at Hodges Eye Care for taking excellent care of me during the whole process.
Oh, and I scored these sweet goggles.
Tres chic, no?
Forgive me if I am difficult to reach in the next day or two. I’m having Lasik performed on Thursday, and am told I’ll be up and running again quickly, but I just want to warn you now that it might take a day to get to the pile of email I expect to accumulate.
I talked to a bunch of people before deciding to go through with the surgery. It seems that nearly everyone has had Lasik or has a friend who has done it. Mostly good stories, is what I hear. I’m excited, I’m terrified - I’m getting lasered! I’ll be back in a day or two with new eyes, WOOT WOOT!
I sat down with a first time buyer the other day and we were going through my little buyer presentation and we got to the money section, talking about earnest money and closing costs and down payment - she stopped me and said that everyone is telling her that she shouldn’t have to put any money down as a first time buyer.
Ah, hold on a second there, my dear. Things have changed since your friends bought houses three years ago. For one thing, financing has gotten tighter. Lenders, in general, are much more picky about which loans they will originate and to whom.
She’d been talking to a lender who was rather non-responsive, so we got her to a lender more interested in helping her purchase a home, and we’re working on the financing end. There are various assistance programs and Seller closing cost credits we can use to help her come in with less money, respectively. It will depend largely on what kind of loan she wants and her credit scores.
But no money down in general for a first time buyer in today’s lending market? Not so much the best advice.
I had one of my properties re-roofed last week, and the experience really drove home two points for me:
1. If you’re selling a home and it needs a new roof - just put it on now while you have time to gather and compare bids. It’s expensive, yes, but it takes a potential huge objection away from the Buyer as a negotiating tool.
2. If you’re buying a home and the roof needs to be replaced, make sure the Seller is going to be on the hook for any extra costs that might be incurred when the roof is replaced, for any extra damage that the roofers might find. Many times, you can’t get on a roofer’s schedule fast enough to have it all done before close of escrow.
My roofer found a layer of insulation we didn’t know existed and huge patches of dry rot and dry wood termites that we had to correct - which came close to doubling the cost to replace the stupid thing. Can you imagine if you had just bought a house and the roofer bill came in at twice the estimate due to the unexpected damage found underneath old layers of roof? You better make sure that the Seller is going to pay that bill.
I had a different post planned for today, but thought this would be more interesting.
I’m pricing a home where there have been no solds in the neighborhood for the past 6 months, so I had to go back a little further than I might normally, so that I can extrapolate the current potential market value.
And I must say, normally sold prices don’t line up so clearly over time. Guess which two solds are distressed sales?
And granted, this chart doesn’t take into account the condition of the properties - but I’ll throw in that they range from original (from the late 1970’s) to partially updated and the one I’m pricing is completely remodeled. Of the two active listings, the higher priced one is a partial remodel with 4 poor pictures, while the other one has no interior pictures and a single line description - it’s a relative unknown at this point.
I’ve decided what I think is an acceptable range of values for the property - what say you?
How much is this home worth in today’s market?
You know Spring has sprung when the pecan trees start blooming. There’s a couple on the side of I-10, and a large grove of them further outside the city in several regions.
Do you say “pe-CAN?”
or “pe-CAHN?”
Most people around here say “pe-CAHN.”
But if your grandpappy is a bolo-tie wearing, good ole Southern boy like mine, you call them “pe-CANS.”
We’ll go back to real estate tomorrow. Just a little spring diversion.
When you sell your home in Tucson, there’s a spot in the MLS where you get to tell other agents the rules about showing your home. Can they give you a 30 minute heads up call and then go show it? What if they call and get voicemail? Can they leave a message and just go? How much notice do you need?
It’s really up to you, the seller, to decide what kind of notice you need, but understand that the more difficult you make it to show your home, the fewer agents will show it.
Pretty typical around here is a 30 minute courtesy call, and if the agent gets voicemail, they leave a message and then they just go. As an agent, if you want me to call a home and a work number, I’m more than happy to do so, as long as if I don’t reach anyone, I can just leave messages and go show your home.
I wanted to show a home the other day that said we could come between 10:30 and 2pm on weekdays. Except my client has a full-time job, so we are only out looking nights and weekends.
There was a house I wanted to show last month where I could only show the house by appointment on weekends, but my clients were only in town from Monday through Thursday to buy a home. With cash.
With so much inventory on the market right now, you can’t afford to make your house difficult to show. I realize it can be inconvenient at times to allow showings with short notice, but if we are to sell your home, we’ve got to make it easy for people to see it!
The overview via the voice of Kelley:
Download Tucson Market Stats for March 2008 here (MP3)
And the straight numbers:
Remember to check out the individual areas in the link at the top of the page. Click on Tucson Market Stats, and you’ll see the 9 areas of Tucson as links underneath. I’ve compiled all that data, and the individual area links should be updated by tonight.
And if I set this up correctly, you can subscribe to future Tucson market reports by subscribing to my podcast.
Data gathered from the Tucson MLS and is deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Figures quoted here include only single family homes, townhomes, and condos in the 9 areas that make up the Greater Tucson Area: NW, N, NE, W, C, E, SW, S, and SE.
Home Buyers always ask me: how much should I offer?
I like to ask them how they prefer to negotiate. Are you a low-baller? Or more of a "this is my firm and best offer" sort of person?
Personally, I like to craft offers that I think are just below their threshold of acceptance, to put something in front of a home seller that is just low enough that they aren’t sure they want to take it, but just high enough that it’s tempting for them to just accept it and have it done with, if you know what I mean.
But - as a person buying a home - you need to negotiate in a style that is most comfortable to you, so that regardless of the outcome of the negotiations, you’re satisfied with the process. As an agent who’s worked with many buyers and sellers, I’ve seen all kinds of tactics and strategies. And at one point or another, those strategies have all worked and they’ve all failed. Everyone’s different.
So - what’s your negotiating style?
Kelley Koehler
(520) 918-5246
www.flickr.com
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