Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

This afternoon, four Active Rainers met for lunch in Arlington, Virginia at Harry's Tap Room..  Brian Block arranged it - you know, the guy who raised romance to an art form that is actually relevant to real etate in a brilliant blog earlier today.  So, it was Brian and three older women, me, Margaret Woda, and  Cindy Jones.

What was so fun about this lunch was meeting three new people for the first time who I really felt I knew!  While I'd never laid eyes on any of them before, at least not in person, we were already connected through Active Rain.

Margaret was the first person to comment on my very first Post on the Rain.  Brian got my attention with his post Blog Around the Clock, and last week he helped me with a legal question about interpreting the Northern Virginia home inspection contingency.  And Cindy's posts make me want to sell my house and head south to her part of the market.

First, we all recognized each other - we actually look like out pictures!  And we already knew a lot about each other from reading and commenting on each other's posts.  So it felt like four old friends getting together for a fun lunch - one I hope is  the first of many.

I totally love Active Rain!

 
In Washington, DC, where I live and work, the residents think we have a sort of a monopoly on local history, and we do have a lot.  But about 30 miles east of Washington, and just west of Baltimore, Ellicott City is a fascinating trip back in time – over 200 years!  And it's one I make several times a year.

When you enter Ellicott City, Maryland, two things look totally out of place – power lines and automobiles!

Its first residents were the three Ellicott brothers, John, Andrew and Joseph, Quakers who moved down from Pennsylvania in 1772 to try their hand at farming wheat.  And the settlement prospered and soon became the end of the line for the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad.  The old station is now a museum.

Today, many of the buildings date back to the 1800’s, and are still standing despite two major floods and a fire in 1999 (started by a careless smoker) that destroyed six historic  buildings.  

The antique shops along Main Street have some amazing stuff, and every time I go there, I do a little early Christmas shopping.  And if you are inclined to shop till you drop, there are some wonderful little eateries where you can catch a second wind.

Ellicott City is also famous for having some of the most brazen ghosts in the state of Maryland.  They even haunt the town web site with their own ghostly page!

Today, I found an article in the Wall Street Journal's online edition that caught my eye was written by June Fletcher, Buying and Selling a Home From Your Computer.

The hero of this story is 28-year old Bryant Katzen, a real estate agent from Laguna Hills, California.  He is starting up a web site, RealUmbrella.com, that for a fee (there is always a fee, although it's a whole lot less than what I charge) buyers and sellers can deal directly with each other, download the appropriate forms, and do it themselves.  He expects people to buy homes sight unseen and deal with total strangers trying to sell them.  Once the paperwork is filled in and signed, buyers can go back to this site, where they can click to arrange a home inspection, title work, a loan and voila!  Within a month or so, they can complete this transaction, and when their Virtual Moving Van pulls up in front of their new home, it may or may not be Dream House.

Young Master Katzen is quoted in the article as saying some quite contemptuous things about his fellow real estate professionals.  Perhaps the office where he chose to hang his license is filled with the greedy incompetents he describes - or maybe is.

But will this work? 

Will buyers buy without seeing a place?  Is it a smart thing to do?

I know that virtual tours don't tell the whole story - ever!   And anyone I know who has bought a house sight unseen has had some professional he really trusted check it out  And they certainly never took the word of a seller and total stranger without having someone trustworthy act as a go-between.

And what are they going to rely on for setting the price?  A Zestimate from Zillow.com?  I know that Zillow supports Active Rain, but s'il vous plait!  At least here in DC they haven't got it figured out yet. 

So this is being introduced in California this week.  Within a few months, he expects to take it nationwide - an interesting excersice in state licensing requirements!  

Today, I called a colleague and wound up in his voice-mail.  This guy is a great agent and does a lot of business, but --

Wait!  Wait!  Don't Tell Me!

He really needs help with his phone message.  

For those of you who are Public Radio fans, Carl Kasell is one of the hosts of the NPR quiz show, "Wait! Wait!"  If you are a guest and you get a bunch of answers right, Carl (this guy has just about the best voice on the radio) will record the message on your answering machine or voice mail.  The colleague I called today really needs Carl's voice!

This agent combines Conehead (for those of you too young to remember, they were a family on Saturday Night Live a gazillion years ago with a monotone speaking voices that were so bad you had to laugh) with chalk scraping up a black board.  

So, for those of you who are not likely to score high enough on a public affairs quiz show to win Carl's voice on your message, here are some tips:

• Listen to your message critically.  If you can't be objective, ask your least tactful, most honest friend or relative to listen.  If it sounds boring or goofy, redo it.
• Type out what you want it to say on your computer screen.  Keep it short.  Humor is good.
• Read it out loud a few times.
• If you have a high pitched voice, try to lower it a bit without it sounding odd.
• Modulate your voice more that you would in ordinary conversation - a good idea whenever you speak into any sort of microphone.  The mike makes your normal voice sound monotone unless you slightly exaggerate the modulation.
• Practice a bunch until you feel comfortable with a little lower pitch and more modulation, then record your new message. 
  
• After you record it, listen to your message. 
  
• Repeat until your voice tells the caller "I am as professional as I sound, and you can trust me with your largest asset!"

If you still sound like a dweeb, ask someone with what radio folks call "good pipes" to record your message for you.

While I was writing the first draft of The Irreverent Guide, a had a wonderful writing coach named Jeff Stein.  He's a professional journalist and has two books already published and is working on a third now.  He was the perfect coach because he knew zip about real estate and lots about writing.

After he read my first few chapters, he suggested that I take a sticky note, write on it "IT'S THE RELATIONSHIP, STUPID!!!!" in big bold letters, and stick it to the top of my computer screen.   

Without knowing about our business, he put his finger right on the point of it all!  Whether I'm writing a book about real estate or meeting with a client, it's the relationship!  And not just between agent and client!

• If you have two people buying or selling a place, whether or not they are married, it's their relationship, complete with any unresolved control issues.
• It's the relationship I have with the listing agents whose properties we make offers on.
• It's the relationship the buyers and I have with the loan officer who prints the money they'll need to buy the place.
• If the buyers are going to The Bank of Mom & Dad for the down payment, that could be one huge relationship - with some very interesting strings attached to gift or loan.
• At some point, there will be a relationship between the buyers and sellers.
• And it's an important relationship between everyone and the title company.

Du-uh!

Getting any transaction to the settlement table involves carefully choreographed teamwork.  And whenever I get myself into a messy transaction, the first thing I have to ask myself is, "What can I do to help fix the relationships that are out of whack?" 

And if I can answer that, I get usually get through it!

Tomorrow afternoon between 3 and 4 (east coast time) I'm being interviewed on a cable program called "Daily Cafe" on the Retirement Network.  (You can click the link to see if and when it airs where you are.)

This week they invited Dr. Ruth to talk about sex, and me to talk about real estate.  The producer has been a blast and I think it'll be fun.  It's broadcast nationwide out of Reuters' studios here in DC and now I have to figure out how to stage myself.  That's the hard part!

A week ago Sunday, I wrote a post at an Open House near Dupont Circle that I did to help out a colleague.  It was your typical Sunday afternoon Open with an ad in the Washington Post, a sign at the front door and me upstairs to greet visitors.  The idea was to compare the results with one planned for yesterday at my new listing a few blocks away.

So how did my pull-out-all-the-stops?

•    Staging:  we were a little challenged here because it is tenant occupied.  The good news is that the tenants are more than reasonably tidy and have good taste, so the place looked pretty good.
•    Mailing:  I sent 150 Open House cards to condos in the immediate area.  
•    Washington Post ad:  my broker wrote a great ad for the Post classifieds, and we ran it in the print and the on-line section.
•    Craigslist:  I ran a post with photos on Craigslist.
•    MLS Open House function: I put it into our MRIS system, which makes the Open information available to agents and the public.
•    Open House signs:  I had six signs at crucial intersections around the neighborhood pointing to my listing.  It’s a neighborhood that gets a lot of foot traffic.
•    Balloons:  I had a little breakdown here because the balloon store had a 20-minute back up on Sunday morning and I couldn’t wait.  I just bought a bunch of red balloons and strings and planned to blow them up myself.

So, on Sunday, I left the balloon store and headed for 1717 T Street NW, plunging Open House signs into the dry ground as I went.  I couldn’t find my Zippidy Doo Dah (Paula Abdul’s version) tape, so I listed to a recording of old boyfriend and piccolo virtuoso, Miles Zentner, playing one of the Vivaldi Piccolo Concerti with the Los Angeles Philharmonic (whatever gets you psyched!).   I even found a parking place right in front of the listing, which in Dupont Circle is a freakin’ miracle.  

There were some people waiting at the door when I got there (10 minutes early) and I opened the door, let them in, and the fun began.

I didn’t have time to blog at this Open House.  Compared to last week’s 12 visitors, I had 57 this time.  They came from a combination of the Post, agents sending clients, Craigslist, the mailing and signs.  

There was one breakdown.  My brochures were in computer file hell at the office, and I couldn’t get them to print.  So I offered to email them to the people who came through.  So I got real names and email addresses.  

So, today, I’ve had three agents call to make arrangements to get their people back inside, and several of the prospects that I emailed have written back.

Bottom line, if you’re going to spend three hours of prime weekend time at an Open, spending a few hours prepping makes it a lot more productive.

Last night, I did something really fun, and certainly worth blogging about. 

Phyllis Patterson is a colleague at Coldwell Banker, and she works out of their Old Town Office in Alexandria, VA.   She hired my chamber group to help “stage” a house she’s just listed for a very different kind of Open House.

Here are the basics of what she did:

First, it’s a beautiful home – new construction in Wellington, a neighborhood of the George Washington Memorial Parkway north of Old Town. 

Second, Diane Duston, who staged this home, used a minimalist approach I love.  Her staging does not distract, but it does help the prospective buyers imagine how they would live in the house.

Third, the food (Diane also did the catering) was fresh, simple and delicious.  There was lots of good wine, Perrier (for all those designated drivers and the flute player), interesting cheese and fruit.  

Fourth, she (for the second time) hired my chamber group to play background music (we played Haydn, Mozart, and Telemann).  We were staging an empty room with amazing acoustics that made me sound like maybe I really had studied flute with Julius Baker and Jean-Pierre Rampal! 

Fifth, and this is the really smart part for Phyllis, she sent out 150 invitations to neighbors, friends, colleagues and her past clients.  And guess what?  They must love her, because the place was packed by about seven o’clock!  So, with this event, she was telling the neighbors “This is the kind of thing I do to market my listings,” and to her old clients, “Come have fun and see this fabulous house I just listed!”  Do you think her colleagues might have gotten a little listing envy?  And, who knows, I’ve had a lot of neighbors pass the word on to the people who actually bought some of my listings.  She could easily get lucky!

Every year, I throw a huge party for friends and clients (most are in both categories) at my own home.  And for many people in my client base, this is the only time of the year I really get a chance to see and talk to them.  Now, I’m rethinking things.  Next time I list something as fabulous as Phyllis's new listing - it'll be party time!

This is the second Open of this type that Phyllis has done this year, and I was left thinking that she is a master of multi-tasking when it comes to combining marketing, schmoozing and keeping up with her past clients in a way that they will never forget her!  She really did kill a flock of birds with one brilliantly thrown stone!

And to my friends and clients who may be reading this, don’t worry! I’m still going to have my annual Christmas party – assuming the contractors have completed my bathrooms by then!

One of the fun things about having written a book is that I get calls to do occasional TV and radio shows.  Tonight, it was the Ralph Bailey Show from KNZR in Bakersfield, California.  And this was in no way typical of the types of consumer advice stuff I'm usually asked to talk about.

This program was about the FBI and IRS raiding the offices of a Crisp and Cole Real Estate in Bakersfield - sort of a boutique firm with an edge.  The story is about the meteoric rise and immanent fall of young David Crisp.

He, members of his staff (all of whom look like they could have auditioned successfully for "The Apprentice"), and many family members are caught up in a web of loan fraud accusations.  And the allegations sound make it sound like things were done on a truly grand scale, like maybe they could have single handedly created the current mortgage crisis. 

Crisp is a good looking young man (all of 28) who, in a few years time, went from waiting tables to a Trump-like life style. 

Well, maybe Trump-light is more like it. 

I, of course, Googled the guy and was struck by how young, gorgeous and naive the young agents were who got involved in his schemes.  

So the links are fascinating reading and send an important message to all of us -

There are no shortcuts to lasting success in this business! 

We all remember where we were when we heard the news.

September 11, 2001 was a gorgeous day here in Washington, DC.  It was a Tuesday, and I was driving through Rock Creek Park on my way to pick up sushi I planned to serve at a broker's Open House for a new listing.  My windows were down and my sunroof opened.  I had a CD of Eva Cassidy going full blast.  Gorgeous day.  Gorgeous park.  Gorgeous music.  I mean, wow, it doesn't get much better.

As Eve Cassidy's rendition of "Over the Rainbow" finished, I switched off the CD and turned on Morning Edition.  Then, Carl Kassel's calm voice explained what had just happened.

In shock, I picked up the sushi and drove my listing.  It was in a grand old pre-war building on Connecticut Avenue just below the Taft bridge crossing Rock Creek Park.  Within a few minutes, the street was bumper-to-bumper cars and streams of pedestrians walking from their downtown offices to who knows where.  So much for orderly evacuation plans.

My seller called in shock.  He is a partner in one of Washington's big law firms, and their New York office was in the North Tower.  

The neighbors began to trickle home, and I told the doorman to send them up for sushi.  They came and ate and stared out the window at the sea of people on Connecticut Avenue (so much for emergency evacuation contingencies).

What struck me was how abruptly things changed from "Life is amazing" to the horror and confusion and concern.  My sister worked for a defense contractor and sometimes attended meetings at the Pentagon.  My next door neighbor worked there.

My sister was fine. 

When I finally got home, my next door neighbor was holding court on his front porch.  He is a sweet man who is a little mentally challenged.  He works for the Pentagon delivering inter-office mail.  He greeted me with a big smile.  

"Ralph," I said, "I'm so glad you're all right!"

"Oh, yes!" he replied.

"Where were you?" I asked.

"Right after where the plane stopped," he said, "Then they let us go home early!"