Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

I have this bad habit.  I really like to win.  Often I really like to win just for the sake of winning and not because I want the prize.

This week, I got a call from some people who wanted to sell their house.  I stopped by to see it, and it was pretty badly beaten up.  Their housekeeping was worse than mine, the place smelled funny, and the bathrooms had athletes foot.

Geeze! 

I then proceeded to do a full court press to wow them. 

Pick me!

Love me!

But wait!  I don't want this listing!  It's going to be overpriced!  It's dirty, lousy and full of fleas!  They don't want to pay a full brokerage fee!

I tell myself we can stage the place.  I can convince them to live like compulsive neat freaks until we find a buyer.  Challenges are fun!  I can change them.  I can change the house.

But no I can't!  It doesn't work that way. Not with husbands.  Not with houses and their owners.

I'm sure they can find someone who will list it at their price, reduce his fees, and assure them that buyers have a lot of imagination and will look beyond the clutter and housitosis.

But I'm not that agent.

This is a thanks to my mother!

Tomorrow, we are gathering at her house, not mine, for Thanksgiving.  All I have to do is show up with my fabulous homemade cranberry sauce and a large quantitiy of wine. 

So for the first time in years, I'm spending the Wednesday before Thanksgiving doing things other than obsessing over doing the Martha Stewart thing, which seems to take more energy than I'm used to expending!

Today, I showed a couple of houses, blogged a bit, and at 3:00pm I'm leaving for a pedicure. 

Then, tomorrow at about eleven, I'll head for Baltimore.  It will be fun to see a mix of sibings, aunts, uncles, cousins - and my mom's new kitchen!  And we're all bringing something, so all my mother is doing her a big turkey in her new convection oven, along with her amazing stuffing. 

It's going to be a fun day to get together with people I love and to be thankful.

And to my blog buddies here on Active Rain, here's wishing you spend the day giving thanks with good people, good food, and in good spirits.

Happy Thanksgiving!

A few minutes ago, I got home, wet and bedraggled.  And feeling really good.

For the past few presidential elections, I've voted early and volunteered to work for my candidate in a nearby state.  In 2004, I found myself driving little old ladies to the polls in Bucks County, Pennsylvania - thanks to the navigation system in my fancy real estate car!  This year, it was in a much closer battleground state, doing whatever was needed at Barrett Elementary School in Arlington, Virginia.  I volunteered with an old friend and former neighbor, Maureen Wilmot, who was here on business from her home in California. 

It was pretty uneventful.  By the time Maureen and I arrived, the early morning mob scene had thinned out, and there were more poll watchers than there were voters!  We were asked to make sample ballots available to voters who wanted them and to be available if anyone needed any kind of help.

The elderly, for example, could vote from their car if they were unable to negotiate the steps into the school, and we might have to run inside to grab one of the poll workers to bring out a ballot.  If things got congested in the parking lot, we were ready to help direct traffic.  We were to just stay alert for anyone with a problem.  And then, I saw a chance to really help somebody.

Sonika Das was a first time voter.  She had been sent to Barrett from another polling place.  Then she learned that she actually needed to be at yet another voting venue a couple of miles away.  Her mom (and driver) needed to get to work.  Sonika looked a little distraught, realizing she would not be able to get there. and I said, "Get in my car.  I'll take you!"

So she hopped in, and off we went. 

"You didn't even ask me who I'm voting for," she said.

I told her it didn't matter.  This was her first vote, and she'd remember it for a long time.  I just wanted those memories to be happy ones.

Then, when we reached St. Anne's church, I got out of the car and told her to let me know if there was any problem at all.  There was a slight glitch, and it was worked out by one of the on-site attorneys who made sure she was properly registered and cleared the way for her to get a ballot.

Then Sonika voted - for the first time!

The other funny thing that happened was that, while Sonika was voting, I ran into a client who is a reporter for a Japanese radio network, and she happened to be at St. Anne's looking for voters to interview - so Sonika got to be interviewed for a radio broadcast that will be heard on the other side of the world!

When you get to be my age, you can feel pretty jaded about politics and our elected representatives.  Meeting Sonika Das, excited and idealistic,  was one of those wonderful little gifts from the Universe!  And I am really grateful.

They're expecting an awful lot of people to show up here in Washington for President-elect Obama's inaugural in January.  Now I'm not crazy about crowds, but this could be one worth wading into.

There are all sorts of ways that various cultures empower their leaders.  In the United States, it's about five days of concerts, festivities, parades, a big speech, and then the inaugural balls - about 10 or so of them all around town. Oh!  And a totally amazing fireworks display!

During the first Clinton Inaugural, I did the whole thing, including one of the balls - what a mob scene!  It's something I'd really recommend doing at least once.  Even twice!

Just be sure you bring a ball gown with no sequins - they're all so crowded that your sequins will get tangled up with other revelers'! 

And if you need a place to crash, I've got a guest room, sofa bed and a bunch of sleeping bag space.  We could have an inaugural blog-fest!

You might be eligible for membership in the Addicted To Active Rain group if you can answer "Yes" to more than one of these questions:

• Have you ever fallen asleep blogging in the middle of the night? 
• Did you ever forget to pack you kids' school lunches because you were busy getting a post up? 
• At 10:00 pm on Saturday night, are you writing posts Number 9 and 10 for the week? 
• When given a choice between making out with your hottie sweetie and finishing up your 10 comments for the day, do you write the comments?  

A lot of you are already members of this fun group, and it's a group where you can post almost anything.  But there are not a lot of posts about how our blog buddies are coping with their little (or big) addictions. 

So give us your stories! The more pathetic, the better! 

Note:  it's 9:30 on a Saturday night, and instead of being out on a hot date, I'm in my office on my computer getting ready to post Numbr 9 for the week.  Then I have to dream up Number 10 by 1:00 am Eastern Time.

That makes me an addict!

I am punctual.  I'm a right oh the dot girl - not a minute early.  Not a minute late.  And almost all of the agents I know are the same way.  If they say they will be there at two in the afternoon, they will be there or call to let me know if they have to change the time.  And in other service providers, punctuality is a trait that I value.

So it's Saturday and I have to go shopping.  But I'm waiting for my wonderful, trusty housekeeper who is fabulous in every way except for one.  She is always late.  I need to run her through the new alarm system, so I can't leave until she gets here.  It was supposed to be noon.  It's now almost one. 

On the plus side, she is totally honest, doesn't nip my Grey Goose, doesn't break things, and she actually cleans my house very well.  So maybe I just need to get over the always late thing. 

And I had to ask myself, is she a little gift from the Univerese to teach me that showing up on time is really, really important - so I'll know how annoying it would be to others if I was late?

Ah!  Here she is!

If you are the spouse or sweetie of a real estate agent, this post is for you!

My first ex-husband was a lovely man who was very supportive of my real estate career.  Well, du-uh!  I was making a bunch of money!

So every day when I came home, he would greet me at the front door with a big smile and hug and ask, "So, did you sell a house today?"

There were some days when the answer was yes.  But there were many more when I wanted to wring his neck for asking!  

The point of all this is, if you are married to or in a relationship with a real estate agent, the object of your affections will tell you if he or she has sold a house on any given day.  You really do not have to ask!

In fact, you could make your favorite person crazy  - totally crazy - if you do ask!

So, today I sold a house!  And I had a great time telling my broker, my friends and my sweetie!  Oh!  And my blog buddies!

These days, each house sold is a miracle.  And miracles are something we'll tell the people we love about!

So!  Don't ask!  We'll tell!

Top executives of Ford, Crysler and General Motors flew to Washington, DC hats in hand, to plead for a bail out of the auto industry - in their private jets.  They didn’t even jet-pool!

OK, this might be a cheap shot, but these guys just don’t get the appearance thing!  Detroit is in the poor house!  They'd have us believe the wolf is at the door!

Couldn’t they maybe downgrade to first class? 

If the situation is going to be a dire as it sounds for the people who work in the US auto industry, I'd like to see them being represented by leaders with a better strategy for getting things turned around - and for selling it to the public and our congressional representatives.

There is this really nice house I’ve had listed since the mortgage meltdown was a pup - and just in Florida and Nevada!  And I really, really want to see this lovely property sold.  So do the owners.

So yesterday, when I found a real live honest to god contract in my email, I got a warm fuzzy feeling about my new best friend, a colleague I’ve never met with another firm.

Then I opened it up and yikes!  It was a little low.  But clean as a whistle, great settlement date, strong lender’s letter from a good bank, and looking a lot better than the last offer that came in on the place.

When I called the buyer’s agent to say thank you and ask a few questions, he started to apologize profusely for sending me an offer that was so low. 

And I wanted to say, “Sweetie, do not apologize!  I just remade my will and I’m leaving you my Chanel earrings!  I will walk on hot coals to make this work!”  

But then, I didn’t want to sound too eager.

But the bottom line is, in this market, every single offer that you write is a good offer.  It may not be what the sellers want, but it’s the start of a negotiating process that could well become a ratified contract.  If the listing agent whines at you for an offer that is less than perfect, you bring your buyers to one of mine. 

I’ll treat you real good!

In Washington and the close in suburbs, many agents take our Tuesday broker tours pretty seriously.  Every week, I block off the time to either preview as much as possible or to hold open a listing.

Today, in Washington's Cleveland Park, five agents from three companies are worked together to bring our colleagues to the neighborood.  We all opened our listings, in about a 4-block radius,  between 12 and 2 pm.  And we each served a course or two for lunch. The idea is, that by coordinating efforts and working together, we can increase traffic for all of our listings.

This is likely to be the neighborhood favored by senior administration people expected to dribble into the post-election housing market, and we're hoping that agents from around town will brave the cold and check us out.

So I was at my cozy listing on Ordway Street, wecloming my colleagues in from the chilly November afternoon. 

I was the one with the taquitos and veggie platter.  But the clear winner of the food competition was the house down the street where the dessert, some super fancy chocolates, was served.  I'm very glad it was gone by the time I locked up!

It's fun to work in an area with so many really professional agents.  Today, we really were "cooperating brokers".