Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

At the top of my bucket list has been learning to ride a horse.  And last week, I joined my friend, Jean, for lessons at the Woodland Horse Center.

I've been on horses before, but I'd never learned how to get the horse to go where I want to go at the speed I'd like him to go, and to stop when I'd like him to stop.

It's about communication.

So my new buddy, a gorgeous roan named Applejack, is teaching me about communication, and not just with a horse.  A lot of it applies to clients as well.  For example:

• It's subtle.  It's easy to say "canter" when you want him to trot.
• If you don't say "go" just right, he'll stop altogether.
• You really need to show the horse who's in charge, but sometimes the horse is in charge - unless you're really good.
• Sometimes the horse will give you this look like he must think you are a total idiot.
• Sometimes you are a total idiot - at least when it comes to horses.

So while I'm trying not to get too concerned about Applejack's judgments of me as the human who rides him every week, I'm learing to sit on an English saddle and post and trot and basically sit on this guy's back without falling off.

And the other fun thing is the shopping opportunity at the tack shop.  I got my cute new helmet - although I'm striving to get one with a fuzzy surface - they are really cool. 

And Jean got these chaps - I have to have some!  They are beautiful brown supple suede.

There are also boots and outfits and saddles and before long I'll be leasing a horse!  Then I'll need to buy one and move to Potomac where thre are lots of places with stables that go with the house!

My broker will love all this.  I'll have to sell a lot of real estate to support my new horse habit!

© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment.  The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

A lot of us have started to go nuts as lenders are getting more and more nitsy, driving our beloved clients crazy with last second requests for documentation and other paperwork issues that seem to come to a head about two days before settlement. 

This morning, I had a talk with a lender who has been making loans as long as I've been selling houses, and we were laughing about how it's getting to be just like the good old days!  So now, I'm coaching all of my buyers on what to expect during the process.  By preparing them for all of the stuff that is totally annoying people right now, I'm hoping that if they expect the nitsy, it won't annoy them as much.  Here are some of the things I'll have them be on the lookout for:

• For a while, the lenders were all pretty casual about pest inspections.  Well, now it there is a single carcass of a single once alive termite on the property, there will have to be some evidence that the little guy did not die of natural causes like old age.  This means evidence of prior treatment, either in the form of paperwork documenting when the treatment was done or a new treatment.  Same with repairs of termite damage.  You'll probably need someone to certify that it was done by a licensed termite repair contractor, or you will have to bring in a licensed termite repair contractor to say it was done properly.
• They are looking at condominium documents more carefully, with an eye to saying no to people buying in buildings that look like the owners' association might be in trouble.  In projects with a lot of short sales and foreclosures, this could further compound the problems they are having with owners who cannot pay either their mortgages or monthly association fees.
• If you put any money into your checking account that was not your regular pay check, you will have to account for it.  So if you are self-employed, keep good records of your clients' payments.  Same if you are on commission.  I just had some buyers need to get a letter from grandma saying the $1000 check they deposited was, in fact, a wedding present. 
  
• If you are getting a large gift from your parents, you may have to document that they did not borrow the money to give to you.  You'll also probably have other lender's guidelines about the amount as a percentage of your down payment.
  
• It is taking a lot more time to get the papers through the lender's system - getting the loans through underwriting and then getting documentation to the title companies.  It's like they are trying to do the work with fewer people, which means the fewer people are going to put your papers in higher and higher piles that take longer to get to.
• And they keep thinking up new things faster than we can add them to our What to Expect list! 
  

We used to have to deal with these situations all the time before about the mid-1990's.  All lenders were a pain, but it didn't seem like a pain at the time because we were totally used to it. 

And yeah, they expect to get picky, picky, picky!  And trust me, it will still be easier than when I was a new agent and had to walk through the snow for miles to hand deliver the extra documentation!

Most of our leaves are now on the ground.  So, on this gorgeous top-down Sunday, I saw this gorgeous red tree out in Potomac, Maryland.  And I had my I-Phone handy, which didn't quite catch the way the sun reflected off of the bright red leaves.

© 2009 Patricia Kennedy. Unless otherwise noted, the content, both written and in pictures, is the property of Patricia Kennedy . If you would like to use this image, please  email me (housepat@mac.com) with your request. I'll almost certainly say yes, and ask only that you provide a link back to my original content as well as an acknowledgment.  The same thing applies to any other material you see posted here on Active Rain or on any of my other blogs.

Recently, a family member had a stroke.  His stomach was upset.  He thought he had food poisoning and looked like crap, and friends insisted on a visit to the emergency room.  He was very, very lucky.  Not everyone is, because the symptoms often don't look like a stroke, unless you know exactly what to look for.

There might be a fall, the person might be a little disoriented and loopy.  There might be a numbness is the face and really bad headache. And the person having the stroke might insist he is fine - just a little trip and fall.

If you are with someone and suspect he or she might be having a stroke, here are some hints:

• Ask him to smile
• Ask him to repeat a simple sentence coherently
  
• Ask him to raise both arms

If he has problems with any of these tasks, call 911.

Then there is another sign.  If you ask the person to stick out his tongue and it comes out crooked - off to one side - that is another sign of a stroke.  Again, call 911.

A suspected stroke is nothing to mess around with!  Getting to the hospital as quickly as possible is key to surviving and making a full recovery from a stroke. 

I have some clients who are looking for a great condo or coop downtown.  I've found some good possibilities and my clients are adding things that they come across on the Internet.

Most of their finds are already under contract or settled.  But there was one that, while not on the MRIS was on a FSBO site. 

There was a description and contact information.

But wait!

It said to call Camille.  I dialed the number then I noticed the little warning that Camille is on the national "Do Not Call" register, and any agent who calls her is subject to a gigantic fine. 

Hang up!  Fast!

OK.  There's also an email option.  But when I tried that, I got a warning from the Realtor® police that my email set off a red flag.

Now, the price is $550,000 and the remarks said it is firm.  But wait!  That's $75,000 more than anything has sold for in the building.  And it's a third floor walk up, and the fees are so high that they should include dry cleaning and groceries - which ought to include delivery up the three flights of stairs!

And before I could talk my clients out of wanting to see the place, a "friend" of the owner called my number, captured from the caller ID that showed up before I hung up.  And we do have an appointment to see the place tomorrow, and I'm secretly hoping that they hate the place.

If you're thinking about going it alone, selling By Owner, you can do it.  While most people who try give up and eventually list with an agent, you can avoid the major pitfalls -

• Don't overprice your place. 
  
• At a minimum, use a limited service company that will put your listing on the local Multiple Listing Service, and agree to pay any agent who brings in a buyer.
• Be careful about the information you have on your promotional leaflets.  Camille had a couple of serious mistakes on the piece that her "friend" emailed me.  One of them could cost her buyer an extra $8,000 or so.
  
• Don't have an unlicensed "friend" help you sell the place.  They won't know any more than you do!

You might think it's easy.  It's not. 

Now, I don't want your listing.  But you might want to buy a copy of The Irreverent Guide to Real Estate.  There is a whole section on how to do it yourself.

I have a settlement scheduled for Thursday afternoon.  The termite inspector found a few dead guys and a little bit of chewed wood, but it was evidence of a prior infestation.  Since there is no record of a prior treatment, we've got to get a bunch of nasty chemicals pumped into the ground  around the house before Thursday.  And I found out this afternoon.

So I called my friends at Dixon's Pest Control for help.  And sure enough, they saved the day.  Tomorrow they are treating the place - and it's a federal holiday!.  I'll be able to get the last piece of paper to the lender in time to settle at four o'clock.

Like many agents, I sometimes find myself needing last minute termite treatments, sometimes because I just forgot about it.  And Dixon always makes it happen.  Oh, and they do a great job when it's not a last minute request as well.

So if you need a pest inspection or treatment, they can be reached at 202-882-6565 or email them at DixonsPest@hotmail.com.

In Washington, there are certain views that can make a condo unit worth more, a lot more, than if they didn't have one.

So when I saw a condo with an optimistic price, there was a photo of the view from the unit, and it showed the National Cathedral.  Now as veiws go, The National Cathedral is right up there.  Maybe not as great as the Capitol, the Potomac or the Washington Momument.  But it does command a few extra dollars.

Well, I'm glad that I previewed the place first. 

Looking out one of the bedroom windows, you could see the Cathedral.

But from the giant windows in the living room, this is what you got:

Some day, they might turn this roof into one of the new "green" ones, with sod and flowers.  Then you won't be distracted by the ugly thing, and you might even look to the west and appreciate the far off view of the Cathedral!

But in the meantime, if I were the agent, I'd maybe change the focus to make the expectations he creates meet the reality that buyers see.

There is a very cool condo in Adams Morgan that I've shown for the second time.  It is staged within an inch of its life and looks pretty good.

It's loft style place.  The living-dining-kitchen is all open.  The wood floors shine when the sun shines in through the huge windowns.  You can just imagine how the fireplace is in the winter.  The baths are even state of the art.

Then there's this industrial strength staircase leading up to a loft with big windows leading to a huge terrace.

And on that terrace, there were some chairs, a little fire pit, and a buch of mums - about eight of them. 

Well, they used to be mums. 

Now they are just dried out shells of former mums.  Here are two of them.

So, bottom line.  If you are going to use live plants in staging, you have to monitor their health and well being. 

Dead plants are a complete turn-off.

Many years ago, I had my colors done. 

The idea is to figure out which groups and shades of colors make you look terrific, and which ones make you look like an organ donor waiting to happen.  Of course, you want to go with the look-good-feel-good colors that work for you.

They say this approach is also useful when you are working on decor for your home.  You get a good feeling about a room when it's decorated in your colors.

The woman who did my analysis worked for Color Me Beautiful.  They divide people into one of four "seasons".  And people in one season, the "Autumns" like and look good in browns, golds, maroons, olive greens, and unusual shades of other colors.  But the Autumns only make up about three percent of the people on the planet!

So the other day, I showed a house where they had moved out the buyers pretty decent stuff and brought in a stager.  Well, this gal must have been pure Autumn, because it was all the shades that made my buyers (she was a spring and he was a winter) just want to run out the door!  Golden green couch, Chinese rugs with brown and gold patterns, and maroons swags. 

"Wait!" I said.  "You're reacting to the colors."  And once they realized what it was, they were able to see beyond the staging and realize it was a terrific place.  It's on the possible list now.

This made an impression because I am preparing to list a house that has all the wrong colors - out of That 70's Show!  The seller is up for letting us consign his olive green couch to Value Village and bring one in from our staging warehouse.  He's agreed to have the place painted to make the maroon walls in the master bedroom disappear and transform leaf gold dining room into an oasis of cross-season neutrality. 

And to help choose the colors, I'm going to call a favorite colleague who helped me with my own house.  Oh, my friend is a summer, but she's good at picking universal colors that everyone can feel comfortable around.