They are going to find out!

I'm not one to use slang or to be vulgar (if I can  help it).  But a phrase that resonated with me from a political campaing had to do with putting lipstick on a pig.  Although I think this is an indelicate phrase, it gives you a a really powerful image.

Recently I had the privilege of selling a home in our area that had been a rental.  I was heartened when the homeowners announced that they were going to update some items.  They also announced that they were going to repaint some rooms and give the bathrooms a deep clean and take care of some deferred exterior maintenance.

Woohoo!  This was music to my ears.  As an agent, I didn't have to cajole and discuss the virtues of getting the house ready for market.

So, imagine my surprise when the home inspection was done and there was a laundry list of deficiencies found.  When I contacted the seller to discuss the inspection results, and was discussing one particulare repair which I was certain would be a quick fix (HA!), they said "Oh yeah, we know about that, we tried to fix it and it didn't work."

Huh? You knew about it and thought what, it would go away, they wouldn't notice?

Of course they noticed and found it as well as a myriad of other problems (which the seller also knew about) and wanted them all fixed.

After 20 years of real estate in and around McDonough, GA, this is what I know:  Buyers will always overestimate the cost of repairs.  The last thing the seller should have to worry about after they are under contract is what is going to turn up during inspection/due diligence.

When discussing the sale with sellers, I ask them, Is everything in good working order? Are you aware of any thing that is in need of repair? Is there any deferred maintenance?  We walk around the house and we discuss things they know about or that I notice.

Some folks are maintenaance fanatics and the house is in great condition. Others don't have a clue (even thought the house is falling down around them). So, I play it by ear and  try to address any issues before we go on the market.  It is always better for the seller to make needed repairs while they are not be under pressure to make a quick decision once presented with a list of repairs after the buyer has their inspection.

Please, if you are the seller, do yourself a favor and get the house in good order before you put it on the market, or price it to compensate for condition and items you don't want to deal with.  If you don't know what might come up during inspection, have your own inspection.  Disclose it as part of the listing materials and make any necessary repairs and provide receipts for the repairs.

If you do this, the buyer may very well not do an  inspection and rely on yours.  Or if they do their own, they may find nothing at all and you will be one step closer to closing.

photo credit: Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com via photopin cc

Easy Off Oven Cleaner to make your shower shine

My husband and I own a small rental property in Morrow, Georgia. The tenant moved out after having stiffed us for rent. Of course we had to repaint, put in new carpet, fix the bathroom floor (it had developed a crack) and then found out that the master shower walls were in need of repair.

That's okay though, we have good people to call to do the work that we can't do like installing carpet. We can paint, but don't like to, so we hired a painter. We've got a great handyman and he took care of redoing the tile floor in the hall bath and he is fixing the walls in the master shower.

I've pitched in with some cleaning. I don't know why I get stuck cleaning somebody else's filth! Seems like some people have no concept of how to clean the house! My husband ran the self cleaning oven. Normally there is a light film that you just wipe out, but when I opened the door after the cycle, I kid you not, there was two inches of ash! I don't know what he burned up in there! The shower doors in the master shower were just disgusting. I did those the hard way, Scrubbing Bubbles, Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Dawn Power Scrub and A LOT of elbow grease.

The wall in the hall bath surround was positively BROWN. This is a 1970's era house and the tile is white and harvest gold speckled. With the new tile floor, it really doesn't look bad. But boy, was that tile dirty! Take a look at this picture below.

Thank God for my contractor, Mike Waldner, who mentioned the best way to get the wall clean was with Easy Off oven cleaner in the blue can which is lemon scented. I couldn't believe how easy the wall got cleaned. It saved me hours of scrubbing! All I had to do was spray it on and let it sit for 5 or 10 minutes. Then I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser and gloves and warm water and just wiped it down.  I followed with scrubbing Bubbles, but probably really didn't need that. What a miracle! I wish I'd had that to clean the shower doors which took me hours to do.

Try it. It will save you lots of time. The tiles are ceramic and the oven is enamel. So, if its safe for the oven it's safe for the tile. You won't be disappointed.

Also Google it. There are many more testimonials about this method.

But, while my mind was wandering while I was cleaning, I wondered, do the companies that make these various cleaners also make the soaps that leave all this residue? Must research that.....

Carpet Dents Be Gone! It really works!

Don't let carpet dents keep you from rearranging your furniture.  I had read about using ice cubes to take out carpet dents.  Guess what?  It really works.

I have a night stand that left a rather large indentation on the carpet.  The new night stand is much smaller.

So, I tried the icecube trick - first on a small spot - Success!

and then I did the whole thing!

Love it! All you have to do is lay the ice cubes on the dent, let them melt in, fluff up the carpet with y our hand and let it dry.  (I waited until it was dry before I put the piece back. Didn't want to take the risk of causing a stain on the damp carpet with the furniture leg.)

Make your House Store More

I live in what I consider to be a very nice home.  Just under 2400 square feet.  It's just me and my husband, so we don't use two of the 3 guest rooms.  One room is a home office/kid's hangout room/sewing room. (Ths will be featured in a future post). The other two are truly reserved for guests.

Check out more pictures below!

I hate it when the whole house is junked up with stuff and there is no room for guests.  So, we have made a conscious effort to leave open space in the closets in the guest rooms and to keep the dressers empty.

With that said, we had become busy in our jobs and a little disorganized.  My house was built in 1999. In all closets, the builder had the top-most shelf at 29" from the ceiling. That is an incredible amount of wasted space! My husband is a gem!  He added shelving for me in all the closets.

The coat closet (located in the kitchen area) now has room above the coats for seldom used serving items, the bread maker, the electric griddle and other sundry kitchen items.

The linen closet now has room for all the linens plus other items that need a home and don't get used much. Those have been relegated to the top shelf or two.

The first guest room's closet has lots of open hanging space for guests and holds the few board games we keep for the grandchildren and it houses wrapping supplies and artificial flowers that I change out seasonally.

The second guest room closet has now been maximized and is now the best (second only to my closet - will be featured in another story)!

Over 18" of space inside the closet on either side of the door

add a 16" support - made out of  a 2x3 cut to size

2 x 3 supports on each side, painted the same color as the walls

add melamine covered 16" deep shelving

Top shelf - placques we want to keep and not hang. Other shelves to store items for gifting
andstored for swapping out seasonally.

Added top shelf - some dead storage, seasonal items, linens for this room;Lower shelf haolds craft supplies

Lots of open hanging space for guests

Right side has hanging space for shower curtains, table cloths....

So, this whole project was done for $42 plus about 4 hours of cutting, painting, screwing into the wall.

If someone was "living" in this room, the side shelves could hold sweaters, hats, purses.  And, if this was the case, I would change up the middle section to have one ventilated shelf (where the top melamine shelf is) and have half for long hanging clothes (dresses) and half for for short-hanging clothes (shirts/pants) and would add a lower ventilated shelf at the appropriate height for this purpose.

I guess the whole point is - you have to re-think what the builder gives you and tailor the storage for your needs!

Moving into a Seller's Market

We have had our share of difficult times trying to sell real estate in Henry County.  Don't believe me?  Take a look at the following picture:

Months of Invwentory for Henry County, all prices

The graph above shows the Henry County Trends over the past 15 months. It sure wasn't fun between November 2010 and March 2011.  But thankfully, we are now in an even market for the most part.

Contrast the County as a whole with homes priced below $100,000.

Months of Invwentory for Henry County, $100,000 and below

The above chart shows the trend for homes priced below $100,000.  Although, the stats were not as bad for sellers from November 2010 to February 2011 in this price point as they were for the County, overall, it was still a buyer's market. 

Starting in March of last year, we have definitely been in a seller's market.  That means that buyers are going to have to act quickly and decisively when they see a house they like.

Is the market turning around overall?  Hard to say.  A lot will depend on forces beyond our control, such as, how much of the shadow inventory will be released into the market; whether interest rates remain low; whether more banks fail, etc.

Want to see information about your area? Contact us and we'll run a report for you!

What do Phoenix, AZ and McDonough, GA have in common?

Planting at Phoenix Airport - cycad surrounded by geraniums

 I didn't have a whole lot of time in Phoenix. I was there to attend the Certified Residential Specialist's annual convention, Sell-a-bration. Going to this event helps me stay up-to-date with what's going on in the real estate industry.

It didn't escape me that there were palms and cycads and bougainvillea everywhere, even some lantana. These are all plants that grow in Florida. With the exception of the cactus, these plants reminded of my time in Florida.



Welcome Center in McDonough, GA

 What I didn't expect was geraniums. Yes, just like McDonough, which has a geranium plant in the center of the city seal, they were in huge beds in lovely shades of pink. Interesting to see that a plant that does so well for us in McDonough, GA, in the summer, will also grow in Phoenix in the winter.

But that was not my only surprise. I sat at lunch with a lovely agent from Sedona, by the name of Beth Larsen. I asked her if Arizona had any industry an she said they grow cotton. Big shock for me! What about you?

Let me know what plants you see when you travel and I'll let you know if they grow in our area.

How to make your kitchen store more

Ever since I was a little girl, I've been organizing the kitchen.  I used to do it for my mother on summer vacation.  I used to do that and wash all the china and put it back in the china cabinet - nice memories!

Now, I'm in a ranch style home with no basement.  My kitchen is average with builder grade cupboards and always short on storage.  The pantry is one of those 24" deep cabinets, but if you pack the cabinet, you won't be able get to the stuff in the back.  And, the older I get, the less I want to bend. 

A good client/friend of mine and I were talking last week and she wanted to organize her cabinets with pull out drawers.  I couldn't believe the prices she was quoted. 

Check out these pictures:

Since I'm a big DIY advocate, I decided to tackle this project myself.  I was able to buy slide out "Elfa" shelving from the Container Store and really pack things in.  I only had to make minor modifications by shortening the shelving tower in the lower cabinets.

Let me know if you want any pointers!  The Elfa shelving is on sale sometimes - it's worth it to wait for the sale.

Important questions to ask when listing your home.

It’s about you, it’s not about me.

Have you ever seen it? You know what I’m talking about…that insipid, smiling picture of a salesperson on a billboard or bus bench or grocery cart. Maybe they’re even winking.

It’s funny, about 15 years ago when I got in the real estate business, it wasn’t too hard to represent a seller. In the good old days, we could list a house and be closed in 45-60 days and the owner would get what they asked and actually put a few dollars in their pockets. You could actually put a sign in the yard, put it in the MLS, put a lock box on the door and pray and it would sell. No additional marketing required.

Not so easy today. Now, we have to tell people that not only won’t they see the price they paid for the house, but it’s likely they’ll get considerably less. Try explaining that to someone who paid $660,000 and barely squeaked by with a $400,000 sales price or paid $380,000 and sold for $280,000. Sadly, this phenomenon is found in all price ranges. Wouldn’t you want to know that this was likely before you put your house on your market? Wouldn’t you want to know the market trend? That prices are going down? That the offer that’s below your list price is really good? That if you don’t take it, we might get less next month? And we’ll be lucky if the house APPRAISES for THAT lower price?

Has it come to this? and why you shouldn't wear crocs to a crime scene.



First break-in - too much
broken glass for crocs

 Yes, I did wear crocs to this crime scene - thieves threw a big rock through the door which caused the alarm to go off.  There was glass everywhere.  I couldn't go into the house all the way. I had to tip toe gingerly into the kitchen so I could survey some of the damage. They smashed the thermostat and the alarm control panel off the wall. We dealt with that break-in and about a month later... another theft at the same house.

I got a phone call from a fellow who was the neighbor of one of my listings.  He used to cut the grass for the homeowner and wanted to get in touch with her.  I gave him the information and then he said, "By the way, did you know the air conditioner is missing?"

No, I didn't know the air conditioner was missing! Very frustrating! So, I ranted on facebook for a minute and two friends commented.

One said, "While my rental is vacant, I had the appliances and the air conditioner removed until I get a new tenant."

The other said, "In some areas, we don't advertise the address of the rentals we manage nor do we put a sign in the yard."

Amazing!

I will be talking to my alarm company representative and see how hard it is to put a sensor on the air conditioning compressor so that if someone tries to steal it, the alarm will go off.

Of course, it didn't help that when the owner moved out she:

• Took the curtains off one of the front windows
• Didn't have anyone cutting the grass
• Didn't ask any neighbors to  park in the yard
• Generally left the place looking abandoned...

I welcome any words of wisdom.

Foreclosures down in Metro Atlanta




Information provided by Data Intelligence Corporation

  The chart above shows data for the metropolitan Atlanta area.  It charts the number of properties involved in foreclosure notices; the number of foreclosures; and the number of bank-owned sales. 

As you can see, the number of foreclosure notices as well as the number of foreclosures is down dramatically from a high of 12,739 and 6,097, respectively, compared to September of last year.  

Is the mold in my home toxic or harmful?

This and other interesting facts about mold can be found in a flyer provided by the College of Family and Consumer Sciences and the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences through the University of Georgia Cooperative Extension Service.

The most noteworthy item is Item #4 from pamphlet HACE-E-62 "Mold - Five of the most commonly asked questions about household mold, with answers."

Carla completes NAR Certification "Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource"

It's been several months, and this is kind of old news, but I moved this information off of my website and want to put it here for people to find easily....

Short Sale

Carla completes NAR "Short Sale and Foreclosure Resource" certification course.

These trying times call for specialized training. More and more, our clients and their friends and relatives find themselves unable to pay their mortgages and sometimes face foreclosure.

Chaos at the Courthouse

Wow! So, on the first Tuesday of July, I went to the Henry County, Georgia, Court House to observe a foreclosure sale. Can you spell chaos?


Don't know how it is in other states, but here in Georgia, there was no organization to the sale. I got there early, not knowing what to expect.

Our court house is on a quaint square with roads leading north, south, east and west out of the square. Traffic is always heavy - really doesn't matter what time of the day you go through. It was probably 95 degrees when it started. I got there at 9:00 when it was only 80 degrees in the shade. But at 10:00, the sun had shifted and the steps were in the full sun. A crowd had started to gather at about 9:40. Soon, some people started to show up with boxes, briefcases, clipboards, etc. Some of them were dressed rather interestingly. The major law firm was represented by a man - I swear he was in a Hawaiian shirt, fishing had and cargo shorts. But I only caught a glimpse of him before he was swallowed by the crowd. Then there was a lady in a nice dress and I swear five inch, pointy-toed heels - (I didn't wear those when I was 20, let alone now - I'd get a nose bleed from the height if I didn't break an ankle first). Then there was a conservatively dressed, young lawyer with dress pants, long sleeved shirt and no tie - spoke in a monotone.

Consumer Centric Contact

Once upon a time, it was easy.  If someone wanted to contact us we would give them our phone number - office or home - and either they or I would initiate the call and if the other answered, guess what, we were communicating!  If they didn't get us or I them, a message would be left, either via a human and later via voice mail.  We even had pagers - not too long ago, and now, they've gone by the wayside.

Now, it's much more complicated.  There's email, twitter accounts, facebook, text messages, email messages, home phone (maybe), cell phones and office phones and efaxes.  So, when someone wants to communicate with you how do you keep in touch without missing some important information?  How do you get information to people in a way that's easiest for them?

 In the past year I worked with five clients who didn't have an email address, didn't have a smart phone, didn't have access to a fax.  Took a lilttle extra time, but I think the relationships were stronger because of more face-to-face time. You know what, we still got to the closing table.

Still Tasty, really?

Completely off topic for real estate, but maybe not. Check out this website:

Still Tasty

Some people, (present company included) keep things forever. We forgot we have them, either in the refrigerator or in the pantry.

So, as you get your house ready for sale, take a look at the pantry. Just like a closet, you don’t want it to look stuffed. So, go through your staples, your cereals, etc. and if you don’t know if it’s still good, check out the link above and, act accordingly.

Do you know how foreclosures affect neighborhoods?

Yes, there's the obvious. The grass gets tall, the home not only is abandoned, but looks abandoned. There's old newspapers in the yard.  And there's always the threat of people breaking in for nefarious activities or vanadalism that could spread to your home.

But monetarily, for every foreclosed home that shows up in your neighborhood, your property value will decline by 1%, initially.  But worst than that, when that foreclosure sells at a drastically reduced price, your values will tumble even further.

We have been faced with homes dropping in value by over 25%.  Example:  appraised for $268K in May only appraised for $210K in October; home appraised for $615K in May, sold for $400K the following year. It's not good and we're not out of the woods yet.

Buyer wants refrigerator and water heater needs to be serviced

What do these two things have to do with each other?

Well, "Buyer wants refrigerator", was an actual stip that a good friend of mine wrote years ago on a contract where she was representing the buyer.  So what!  I want a million dollars, but that's not gonna happen.

The second one, "Water heater needs to be serviced", was written on a special stip just the other day.  Well, maybe so... So what?

Neither of these stips say what has to be done, who's going to do it, by when, and who's going to pay for it. 

Your lawn and the first impression of your home

I remember when I was a little girl, I took biology in school and the teachers scared us to death about walking around barefoot.  They said we would get some dread disease that we could pick up by stepping on sidewalks and lawn that had icky stuff that would come in through our pores or cuts on our feet, etc.

Unfortunately, because of this, I never walked around barefoot on my dad's beautiful Kentucky Blue Grass lawn.  He took great pride in maintaining his lawn.  Back then, edgers weren't popular (or at least we didn't know about them) and we actually trimmed around the flower beds, driveway and walkway by hand with a little scissor.  I can't even imagine doing this now.  All I ever wanted was a nice lawn.  And now, my husband and I spend a small fortune (not really- about $55/treatment - 9 per year) to keep our Bermuda Grass weed free and thick.  I don't walk barefoot on it either!

The many hats of a real estate agent!

Many times, I sit with sellers and have to explain about the various hats I wear.  When we agree to list a home for a client, the client sometimes begrudges us our commission rate.  It's hard for outsiders to understand that when we begin representing them, we begin laying out large sums of money on their behalf for a home that may never sell.

Agetns end up wearing many hats.  The first hat we wear is that of an analyst.  While some agents use the PFA method (plucked from the air) for pricing a home, it is definitely not my style.  When someone brings raw data to the table (CMA printouts from the MLS or prints of recent solds) I just consider that raw data.  While pictures paint a thousand words, it's impossible to know, just by looking at a picture, how big a house is or how many bedrooms or baths are inside, or the finish quality of the interior or how old the HVAC system is and a myriad of other details.

The story of the share cropper... another Monty-ism

What the heck does THIS have to do with Real Estate?

Well, recently our MLS has stepped up to the plate and calculates months of inventory. Months of inventory refers to this concept: Let’s say today there are 15 months of inventory. That means that if no more homes come on the market, and if sales stay at their current rate, then it will take 15 months to consume the number of homes on the market. Experts have stated that if months of inventory is 6 months or less, we are in a seller’s market. If months of inventory is 6 months or more we are in buyer’s market.

So, assume that months of inventory is showing as 9 months for this market – where you are about to get a listing. The agent, bless his heart, does everything right, is knowledgeable about the market, does all the necessary research, has a bang up marketing program, builds rapport and the seller says – OK Johnny, I would love to list my house with you but I only want to list it for 2 months...