Author Archives: Brenda Briggs

Recent Hot Market Effects…

Hello again!  I hope your life is going well for you and that you are finding time to do things which bring you joy.

As you know, I am a real estate agent, and somewhere along the recent past I made a comment about what to be aware of in the coming months, with regard to the crazy real estate market.  Well, some of the things I feared are showing up, just as I predicted.  For example, heightened emotions due to multiple offers are definitely in play.  Emotion is not a great idea in a business transaction.  Hard to eliminate, to be sure, but never should emotion lead the way.   I cautioned real estate agents to advise their clients well in that regard, to prepare them for the inevitability of multiple offers and even offers above list price.

I tell my clients to know their limits, discuss them with one another, and be prepared to walk away from an overheated offer situation.  They know before we get in the car, what they are facing and how they will probably react.

It’s funny how people might be ambivalent about a particular home until they know someone else is interested.  If you, as an agent, see that phenomenon, it’s up to you to be the good advisor and make sure your client hasn’t gotten caught up in the competition, that they truly want the house.

And let me also add this: real estate agents are not immune to getting caught up in emotions.  It’s your job to guide, not lose control.

The other issue I cautioned about was homes not appraising for the elevated offer prices.  And now that’s also happening.  Listen, it is up to the realtor to know the market and know when an offer just won’t fly when it comes to the lending part of the equation.  Yes, it feels good to have your offer accepted over the others, but you had better know what to do and how to explain to your excited clients what happened, when the appraisal comes in low and the deal falls apart.  And if you get crazy with the offer price, it will.

Of course sellers want to get every penny they can from the sale of their house…and they should… but listing agents, you need to make sure they understand the implications of an above-list-price offer if it falls through at appraisal.  In other words, it’s not just buyers who need to be prepared.

Okay, here’s another issue.   EVERYBODY is busy.  So inspections take more time, repairs take more time, and underwriters take more time.  If your realtor tells you he can sell your house in 3 weeks and a mortgage is involved, or repairs are involved?  Fire him.  Any good agent knows that service providers are no longer sitting around waiting for the phone to ring.  They are busy and your request will be put into their queue.  DON’T RUSH THE TRANSACTION. Nobody benefits from that.

This market is going to be hot for a while; it takes a while for the pendulum to swing.  Knowledge is power.  Know what to expect and plan ahead.

The Latest Crazy Market Paradigm

Hi everyone!  Hope this post finds you well and I hope you’re planning on either buying or selling your home AND calling me first.  It’s a huge market out there and with an interest rate hike looming, it’s likely to get bigger, faster, busier. Crazier is probably a better word.

We’ve talked about how you can’t even get the offer on the table for consideration before the home goes under contract and now homes are selling BEFORE they hit the market.  Multiple offers have become the norm and it is a STRONG seller market.  Home prices are rising and builders are busy again.  Good to see.  But there’s something new and again, we need to be careful about this.

Sellers are demanding shorter due diligence periods in a market where getting immediate inspection services…for home, septic, well, HVAC, pests, roof…is impossible.  In some cases there’s a two week lead time to get someone out to inspect, and some sellers are asking for a three week due diligence period.  Impossible.  What this does is put undue pressure on buyers who are already incredibly busy getting loan approval and meeting all of their obligations as buyers.  Ultimately, it’s not good for the seller either; they end up with days to get repairs done, rather than weeks, so the stress boomerangs right back on them.

It’s hard to get through the due diligence period, followed by an even more difficult repair negotiation.  Let’s not be stupid about this.  Nobody’s losing anything if the home is under contract with a financially strong buyer and the home is well maintained.  Relax and give the buyers a chance to do their due diligence!  Agents, remember when you agree to this short due diligence period, you could very well be asking for an extension and your buyer might have to fork over more due diligence money.  The seller has a right to ask for it.

Good Things When We Least Expect Them

Not much worse than a raging case of the flu, particularly when you can’t stand to be still.  This is happening to me, but I have made it to the doctor. Tired of feeling sick. BUT I’m so excited about my latest discovery, made while I was flat on my back, stuck in bed.

I have discovered the most beautiful person on the planet!  Well, he is new to me anyway. I watched the movie, Unbroken and was stunned by the performance of Miyavi. From the first moment his face shows up on the screen, he captivates. His performance was perfect and you can’t miss the fact that he is simply beautiful. I am convinced we will be seeing a LOT of this young man.

Sick as I was, I googled him, and discovered this to be his acting debut and that he is a trendsetting musician. I watched some of his music videos and my admiration grew. Listen. Don’t miss this young man. He is a force.  I felt so bad to have lost Michael Jackson from among us, but Miyavi might just be a light beginning to burn brightly into that dark place.

Check him out. You won’t be sorry. As for his performance in the movie?  It was the first time I actually looked beyond the brutality of this character type into the soul. I’m betting you will feel the same. He stole the show. Not the story, the show.

The Trouble with Multiple Offers

I am working with five buyers, and ALL have been in multiple offer situations.  This is crazy.  I know; there is a housing shortage, not unexpected and loudly discussed in the news as one after the other builder went bankrupt during the downturn.  But this is beyond the ridiculous.  It’s like a feeding frenzy.  So here we are.  For a time the only homes that stayed on the market were the dog houses…the ones that needed some “TLC”.  Now, even they are getting multiple offers.  It takes above list price to ‘win’, and that’s often with zero concessions requested.

I remember how sellers got the stew beaten out of them during the market downturn.  They had to paint, install new carpet, dance, give up the firstborn child and give away the house to get it sold.  Maybe this is the universe balancing, but I see major issues arising.

Listen, there’s no question that the sellers benefit from this crazy market.  But here’s what’s happening.  House prices are being artificially inflated due to the high demand/low supply paradigm, and I don’t think many of them will appraise for these ludicrous prices.  I see a future of offers falling out during the appraisal process and buyers losing that chunk of money…because the lenders will SURELY make that a non-refundable, pay-up-front fee.  They’d be nuts not to.  Then, we’re going to have a boatload of people who buy high and get stuck when the market comes to its senses.  First time buyers don’t have the money to make up the difference between their offer and a lower appraised value, so in many cases they will lose the appraisal fee.  They can’t afford that.  Agents should protect these buyers.

I know, realtors get a bigger commission from a higher sales price, but the problem is, the buyer clients most certainly will feel the pain later when they try to sell and the feeding frenzy is over.  And let’s don’t forget the builder new home prices.  One builder company who started their pricing at 170 two years ago are now starting at 240.  That’s a huge jump in pricing in that amount of time and guess what?  They can do it and get away with it.  But it’s a bad idea.

I’m warning my clients up front about this situation, and most of them resist the urge to offer too much money…and of course some of the homes do justify the prices…but everybody needs to remember that we are going to be listing these artificially high priced homes down the road, and I remember how painful that was for sellers.

Of course it’s up to the buyer how they want to proceed, but good buyer agents should be spending time explaining what’s going on here.  And yes, I like to make money too, but not at the expense of my buyer clients.

I will say this though: It’s a snooze-you-lose situation out there.  Better have the OTP partially filled out and ready to fly when you go house hunting.  Man, it’s a fast market out there.  So I tell my clients this:  If you HAVE TO HAVE this house, expect to pay full list price and don’t even think about asking for the moon with regard to concessions.  And I remind them that there ARE other houses out there.

Moving Moving Moving

I’ve made a change, or ANOTHER change I should say.  I said goodbye to my Fonville Morisey family a few weeks ago and joined Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston, Strickland Road office.  It was a bittersweet transition, as I left behind a company I loved and people whom I love as well.  These folks will remain family to me.  But I am excited about my future.

I am now a new family member at Coldwell Banker Howard Perry and Walston and am excited about this new part of my journey.  I hope you will stay in touch and wish me well in my transition.  So far it has been a very busy time.

Have a lovely day!

I Was Just Thinking….

I was looking at quotes online, things people say about life.  I noticed how many all-or-nothing quotes there were.  Like this: Either you grab it with both hands and swing or you miss it.  Or: We were meant to live life in vivid, living color or not at all.  Not exact quotes, but you get the drift.  After reading a couple hundred of them I had to stop reading.  Life is not like that.  In fact I think this idea of complete gusto, full living color, fireworks and loud music stuff rarely happens… for sane people, at least.

Life is not black or white, all or nothing.  Rather, it’s filled with infinite shades between, infinite amounts of life.  Sometimes its painful, or boring or lonely or stalled.  It just is.  I can’t imagine living as though I have to swing from the rafters every day, day in and day out.  How exhausting that would be, and how much great stuff on the ground would I miss?  The few times when life actually is all out, are great, and should be savored when they’re good.  But there’s max-out bad, too…and everything between…and THAT is life.  Like it or not.

If you’re being chased through the jungle by a cannibal, it would be great to be just greenish gray.  Imagine how “vivid color” would work for you.  You get the idea.

Driving on Ice

What a great time to talk about ice…when you feel like you’re frozen.  But you know… we’ve had some opportunity once again to see how the human mind (doesn’t) work.  Here’s how.

First of all, a sheet of ice is not the same thing as a few inches of fluffy snow, and while you shouldn’t drive fast in either, if you MUST overdrive conditions, it’s better to do it in snow.  Not snow dusted on top of ICE, like we had, but just pure snow…which we didn’t have.  BUT!

How many SUVs zipped by you as you carefully made your way home in the ice storm?  Welllll, I can’t remember EXACTLY, but I can say that EVERY car that did ZIP by me was an SUV…or a 4-wheel-drive monster pick-up truck.

People.  Four wheel drive does NOT KEEP YOU FROM SLIDING ON ICE.  No, it doesn’t.  No.  Don’t argue with me.  I know physics.

Really, I don’t care if YOU slide, even if its into the ditch, because if you’re driving too fast, well, you kind of deserve it.  Unless your kids are in the car with you, in which case you should be spanked immediately by every passing driver who wants to stop.  I kind of like that idea.

The PROBLEM with the smooth-bain speeders is the sane people, the ones driving at a safe speed, that they crash into when they lose control of their four wheel drive.  Last year, I was sitting STILL and was in a head-on collision.  WHY?  Somebody driving TOO FAST ON A SHEET OF ICE SLID INTO THE FRONT OF MY CAR.  People!  Did you go to school at all?

Oh, and here’s a good one for you.  If you ARE driving too fast and the light turns red, as traffic lights are wont to do…yes, that’s a word…well then you are supposed to STOP.  if you are driving like a bat out of Hell, you’re gonna have to either run the light (risk killing someone), or slam on brakes on ICE and risk killing somebody by sliding into them.  I mean, are people really this stupid?

Why yes they are!  I don’t know why I’m laughing right now.  Well at least this time most of the smart people stayed home and let the smooth brains have the rink…I mean road.  And if you passed someone yelling, “You idiot!” well that was me.

Due Diligence in Real Estate

1
:  the care that a reasonable person exercises to avoid harm to other persons or their property
2
:  research and analysis of a company or organization done in preparation for a business transaction (as a corporate merger or purchase of securities)
That’s the Merriam Webster definition.  Neither really clearly defines the way due diligence works in real estate, but it’s a period of time the buyer ‘buys’ to do inspections…all of them…and also to get their loan application done. Usually takes about 45 days.
I’m finding that buyer clients are not usually clear on how this works…and neither are listing clients most of the time.  But Due Diligence in real estate is the period of time the buyer uses, and pays for, by the way, to search through the nooks and crannies of a home…and pay for inspections of them…before taking the step to actually put both feet in the game.  Buyers can spend a lot of money during this time, and a lot of stress equity wading through the inspection results.  During this period, buyers can walk away for any reason…or NO reason…and stand to lose only the money they invested in due diligence fees and inspections.
Buyers, particularly first timers, usually get very upset when they see the inspection report, even if they’ve been told what to expect.  Here’s how it goes:  The older the house, the longer the report.  The longer the report, the more freaked out everybody gets.
I have decided it’s all about expectations.  Bottom line is this: Don’t expect an older house to have a three page inspection report.  Older houses have older house issues, not the least of which is that it’s not a new house.  It’s a great idea to have this conversation right up front, even before you find ‘the one’ that the buyer wants to make an offer on.
Anyway, the buyer benefits greatly from this period of inspections, but the seller needs to be aware that if a ‘disclosure’ issue is uncovered during inspections, they must then either disclose the defect, or repair it.  And it’s a no-brainer that it’s better to do the repair.  Are we hearing dollar bills rustling, or is it just me?  Oh, and the seller can also take the house off of the market, by the way.
So bottom line is this, I’m thinking:  Buyers need to have clear expectations of the inspection results based on the age of the house, and sellers should have a home inspection done, including the crawl space, before they list.  That way nobody gets surprised.
Scratch that.  Everybody gets surprised.  It’s real estate.

It’s That Time of Year

No. I’m not talking holiday. I’m talking about thugs and theives. It’s time for them to crawl out of their holes and prey on others instead of getting…what do you call that thing…OH! A JOB.

I visited my elderly neighbor yesterday…she’s 88…and she told me about being accosted by two young men, claiming to have a broken down car and ultimately demanding money from her. The police later told her she did just the right thing by not going into, or trying to get back into, her house. That might well have been the end of her. She said the men…and I use that term loosely…were young. Shame on them and I’m so sorry the cowards ran away when she broke free. Imagine that. Their broken car was miraculously healed. It was a silver mid-sized sedan, like a Honda Accord, she said. In case you were wondering. She teared up as she told me this story, wanting to warn me to be extra careful. I wasn’t afraid.

I was livid. Anyone who preys on the elderly deserves the death penalty, just for ‘going there’. What is WRONG with this country, that we so undervalue our elderly, that we have no respect nor regard for them, that we treat them as though they did something wrong just for LIVING long enough to age, and that we are somehow entitled to take what little most of them have left? Our elderly should be so honored that nobody would THINK of manhandling one of them. Particularly a young MAN abusing an old WOMAN. And by the way these ‘men’ demand to be RESPECTED.

People should remember that these elderly people have lived and contributed to society for a long time. They have value. If they could have chosen whether or not to have a body failing them in later years, they would have chosen to stay young in body, get that. But I promise you they would not have chosen to be young in mind and widsom-quotient. This society, regardless of how TECH oriented we have become, did so on the backs of these people and on THEIR innovations. From what I can see, what we have now is a collosal lack of ingenuity but great skill in piling on, re-doing, re-recording, re-filming. And taking credit for inventions the previous generation actually brought into the world.

Try something brand new. Respect an older person and remember this: YOU ARE RAPIDLY AGING TOO. And I hope with all of my heart that the way you treat old people is the way YOU are treated when it’s your turn.

And those two idiots are still out there. That really burns me up.

Hold On Just a Minute

It’s not COMPLETELY a seller market in the Raleigh area. It’s GETTING there, but hold on.

First let me say that I understand how badly sellers were beaten up by buyers in the real estate downturn. Downturn. That’s putting it lightly, to say the least. But I get it. I saw seller after seller either have to PAY to sell their home, or give up entirely on the whole idea because they couldn’t afford to sell. And the buyers…holy cow. They wanted sellers to replace perfectly good carpet, paint for no good reason, encase the home in a germ-free bubble and wash the buyers’ cars and dogs. Okay. I’m stretching things a little bit. But you get the idea. Long story short: Sellers gave and gave and gave and buyers took and took and took. But…the universe will balance if you just give it a chance.

NOW, with a housing shortage in many areas, and new construction roaring back with a vengence right along with soaring prices, the market is turning and sellers have grown fangs. No, it’s true! Look for yourself! They are in the mood to get even. But sorry seller; you cannot expect a buyer to make up your financial loss when you bought at the top of the market JUST before it crashed. It’s not their fault and it’s not their job to rescue your finances. They want to buy your house. That’s it. Question is, do you REALLY want to sell it?

Part of me doesn’t blame the sellers. Who’s in the catbird seat NOW, mister buyer? Well, nobody really. It still all boils down to what one person wants that another person HAS, and how the parties arrive and a mutually acceptable solution. Nobody’s supposed to walk away with bruises, either on body or ego. It’s business, people. Oh and by the way, sometimes it doesn’t work out and that’s OKAY. If everybody isn’t HAPPY, then EVERYBODY doesn’t have to play. That’s OKAY!!

But I’ve watched, over and over, perfectly sane people…GROWN people I might add…arguing over a hundred bucks. When you’re talking about several hundred THOUSAND dollars on the table, isn’t it kind of strange to quibble over 100 bucks? But sellers are doing that AND SO ARE BUYERS.

Well now it’s my turn…because it’s my blog, after all. heh heh. But hear me out. THEORETICALLY, the seller actually WANTS to sell and THEORETICALLY the buyer wants to buy. Wow. Perfect recipe for success. What happens? People let emotions get ALL over the place. And…and this is the most prevalent problem: people who are not LICENSED, professional real estate agents try to be professional real estate agents. And they get in the way of an otherwise smooth and successful transaction, and they put the REAL professional in awkward and sometimes unethical situations. People! Let the advisor you PAY for ACTUALLY be the advisor. How crazy is it to PAY for advice and then not take it? IIII’m smiling now. It’s pretttty crazy!

Please listen to your realtor whose job it is to explain the MARKET MARKET MARKET to you. The MARKET MARKET MARKET dictates the value of your property, not your emotional attachments AND NOT how much you paid at the top of a bubble market.

Okay…and..the days of real estate transactions having to be nasty are O-VER. That kind of behavior is OLD SCHOOL real estate. Now, there are LAWS in place, and legal documents in place to take the backstabbing and nastiness crap out of transactions, if people would just stop being silly. Oh and here’s a good idea: READ THE CONTRACT YOU SIGN. You made an AGREEMENT, which you SIGNED. Don’t come back and gripe about a hundred bucks and please don’t take the lockbox off because you didn’t like the inspector! And don’t take out the stove and vinyl flooring because you think you got low-balled. Oh my God.

Talk with your Realtor; be a real team together. Vent, growl, let smoke come out of your ears…and then come up with a plan that makes you feel good about things and do that. Your agent SHOULD help you with that. And your agent should tell you when you’re being unreasonable and when you’re being an ass. Sorry.

Here’s the thing about me: I’m VERY good at what I do, and I refuse to play stupid old-school real estate ‘games’. My job is to advise you, my client, set the RIGHT expectations about what the MARKET MARKET MARKET says, and to protect your negotiating position. It is NOT my job to “fight for my client”. And it is not my job to be yelled at…by anybody involved in the transaction. I’m NICE. I’m very very VERY good at what I do AND I’m nice. Any time you hear a Realtor say he/she will “FIGHT” for you? Run. In fact, just run to me. I win without fighting. Do clients sometimes walk away? Yes, they do. Because sometimes both parties cannot come to an agreement and that’s how it is; it’s okay; it’s how its SUPPOSED to work.

Now. Why did I say MARKET MARKET MARKET, repeatedly and in all caps? BECAUSE people do NOT LISTEN. Heads up: the MARKET sets the value of your home. NOT YOU, NOT YOUR AGENT, NOT YOUR AUNT BETTY OR YOUR TWENTY INEBRIATED FRIENDS. The MARKET MARKET MARKET sets the price. Now, do people SOMETIMES pay more than the house is ‘WORTH’ according to the market. Yesssss they do. BUT ONLY if they plan to live there forever, if they will die if they don’t have YOUR house, or they plan to make a KILLING on it as a rental property.

Here’s another thing: You can price your home WAY above the MARKET MARKET MARKET value, but it won’t APPRAIIIISSSSE. Somebody’s gonna go out to your house and appraise it. And then the bank will lend a portion of that appraised value on that property and AAANNYTHING over that appraised value is coming out of SOMEBODY’S POCKET. Probably yours. OR THE BUYER WILL WALK AWAY.

Price at the market, get the house sold, or keep making payments and payments and payments while the cadre of buyers goes elsewhere and spends their money. If you insist on over pricing, DO NOT BLAME YOUR REALTOR when you get no offers! Buyers know what the MARKET MARKET MARKET says your house is worth before they ever set foot inside it.

And stop asking your Realtor to pay for things. We work our buns off for you, and this is how we earn our living. Most of us give you a discount up front these days (count your blessngs because those days are numbered), so don’t ask us for money. Unless you want to give us the opportunity to come get some of your paycheck next week. We are ALWAYS on call, never get a day off, always work holidays. Keep that in mind.

And yet…I still do this job and I still love it. Why? It’s because of the people I get to meet and help. It’s all about my clients. ALL about them.