Pat Kennedy - Your Washington, DC Real Estate Connection

Gary does it again!  This may be the funniest post I've ever seen here.  Read it and make sure you are not drinking anything, or you will spit it all over your computer screen.

When you listen to the news or read the paper, it sounds quite good.  A Senate Committee agreed to extend the $8,000 federal tax credcit beyond the current November 30th deadline. 

Whoo Hoo!  Break out the champagne!

Well, not just yet.

What you are hearing about is just the first of many steps in the process.

• Once it leaves the Senate Committee, it must be approved by the entire Senate - not necessarily a given.
• It must complete a similar process in the House of Representatives, and that hasn't happened yet - and might not.
• It must survive a "Conference Committee" where the House and the Senate get together to iron out any differences between the two bills.
• President Obama must sign it into law.

This isn't a slam dunk.  While our legislators have some concern about the housing market's recovery, this provision will cost the taxpayers a bunch of money.  And even Congress is getting a little bit careful about how they are going to spend.  While many in our business would like to see the tax credit remain, there are many on Capital Hill who view this as an artificial prop that is a very short term fix, and quite expensive.

So, it isn't even close to being adopted. 

It's just the first, and very important, step to what might or might not happen.

Our office email had an interesting thread today.

Blog Buddie Ed Schneider wrote an email note to colleagues about writing an offer on a house in Mount Pleasant in a twelve-way bidding war.  Then my colleagues began to chime in, one after another, telling war stories of being in double-digit multiple contract situations over the past week. 

In these situations, here are some of the things that people are doing to get the winning offer:

• Having the house pre-inspected so they go in without an inspection contingency
• Crossing out the financing contingency
• Crossing out the appraisal contingency
• including a healthy looking financial information sheet
• Including an obscenely high earnest money check
• Settling at the sellers' convenience
• Including an escalator clause agreeing to top competing offers by at least thousands of dollars with a cap way above the asking price.

Is participating in a bidding war a good idea? To get the house, you have to eliminate every way of getting out of the offer.  So if when you wake up in a panic about three days after you are the winner of your dream house wondering what on earth you were thinking, well too bad!  It'll cost you a bundle to get out of the deal - like that obscenely high earnest money check you wrote!

Earlier in the decade, if you wanted to buy a house, you often didn't have a choice.  But today, there may be options.  And when you do participate, you are doing your part to run up the prices in the market where you plan to buy.

When I'm not the listing agent, I hate bidding wars.  Over the years, my clients won their share, but I sometimes felt a little queasy as I represented them.  More often than not, I tried to work with them to avoid these situations.  How?

• Homes that are look fabulous tend to attract multiples.  Why not use your imagination and go for the ugly and poorly staged (and reasonably priced) stepsister who, with a face lift and tummy tuck could become quite a beauty.
• Homes that are priced below market tend to attract multiple offers, often pushing the sales price to way above market.  It might make sense to look at homes that are priced at or a little above their market value.
• I never ruled out the homes that had been on the market for eons.  Often they are a pain to show, have a resident pit bull, or some other issue that isn't related to the price or quality of the property.

In the early years of the decade, it was really hard to avoid bidding wars, and we felt lucky to be writing an offer on a place with only 4 or 5 other buyers.  But today, in most price ranges and DC area neighborhoods, there is a lot to choose from. 

You need to try to avoid getting caught up in the need to win - and the same thing applies to your agent!  Just because 15 other people are going wacko over a house doesn't mean you have to do it, too!

This is inspired by a post by newbie blogger, Eric Hempler.  It's right here.   And he talks about holding other agent's listings open (until he gets a bunch of his own).  Eric's blog reminded me of an experience very early in my career.

My first Open House was memorable, because I let one of my office's old timers totally take advantage of my newbieness.

Oldie Agent approached me at a sales meeting and said she had this really great condo and she needed help with an Open on Sunday afternoon.  And I was chomping at the bit to put into action all of the wonderful stuff that I learned at the old Shannon & Luchs Academy of Real Estate.  

God I'm dating myself!

It was an ungly condo in a building that didn't allow pets or overnight guests.  They didn't allow Open House signs out front or cards by the entry buzzer telling people how to get into the place.  It was a bust.

Rule Number One:  people have to be able to find you and come through the door!  I mean, du-uh!

If y ou're a rookie agent, holding other agents' listings open is a great way to connect with prospective clients - both buyers and selelrs.  Here are some ways to make the most of the opportunity:

• Be picky about what you hold open.  It should be an attractive, well priced and well staged property.  Before you say yes, preview the place.  If it's ugly, overpriced or in an obscure location, pass.
• If it's a condo, be sure that it's easy for buyers to get in the door and find you.  If they make it hard, take a pass.
• Before the Open, preview as much as you can in the neighborhood and in the price range in simillar neighborhoods. Most of the people who come in will find something that won't work about what you're holding open.  If you can converse intellegently about other possibilities, you have a great chance of converting lookers into clients.
• Review all of the neighborhood's recent sales.  
• Put Open information on your MLS, Craig's List, Trulia, and everyplace you can think of on the web.  It's where the buyers are looking.
• An Open House afternoon is not the time to be subtle.  Put up tons of signs and, unless they are illegal in your area, use a bunch of balloons.  Invite them to a party, and they will come.
• Ask people if they are working with an agent.  If they are, get their agent's name to pass onto the listing agent.  Don't flirt with other people's clients. 
• Don't ask for names, email addresses or phone numbers until they've seen the house.  I start with a schmooze, let them go through, then engage them after we've had some back and forth.  Then you are more likely to get a real name and contact information.
• If they are asking quetions you can't answer, that's great!  Tell them you will get the information and get back to them.  You've just greatly increased your chances of getting their real names and contact information.
• I am always prepared to offer something that I can send them, preferably by email.  Another way to get real contact information.
• And if you want to really be prepared, print out the contract forms - leaving the price and the buyers' names blank.  You need to be a good Girl or Boy Scout -  you know the motto!  Be Prepared!
• After the Open, follow up!  

Many agents feel like Open Houses are a total waste of time.  And they can be.  But I've found that Opens can be a wonderul opportunity to meet future clients.

And sure, they might begin their search on the Internet.  But they will end their search with an agent they connect with, maybe at your Open House!  And with any luck, you'll end up at the end of the day with at least a couple of qualified prospects you connected with.  That sure does beat paying some lead selling service, doesn't it?

© 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 certianly 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 couple of weeks ago, I had an adorable listing fly off the shelf.  After the first Open House, we had two offers - both of them excellent.  One had a lenders letter from a financial institution that gives me the hives.  The other was from a local mortgage broker who has been doing a fabulous job for years.  Other than that, they were pretty identical.  The sellers took the second offer.

Then, on Tuesday morning I got that call from the really great lender that you never want to get.  There was a last minute glitch with the financing - a huge item that showed up on the buyer's credit and couldn't be resolved. Oh, and this was after it went to underwriting.

Rats!

I immediately pulled out the file and made a phone call to the agent whose buyers lost out the first time.  By accident, I got his buyer, who when I introduced myself, got really, really happy.  When he explained that I called the wrong number but that I had made his day!  We both laughed and then I called his agent and made his day, too!

So the old offer is released and the new offer is being initialed as I write this.  We settle about 11 days later - all made possible because  this time the new buyers are using the old buyers' lender.

We were lucky.  Really lucky.

I might have made the day for the buyers and their agents, but I gotta say, they made the day for me, and especially for my sellers!

© 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 certianly 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.

Eight or so years ago, a few stink bugs found their way from someplace in their native Asia to Allentown, Pennsylvania.  Now they are reproducing like mad and are finding their way into homes in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware and New Jersey.  They've also been reported in Oregon.

They are ugly little guys, and they are hard to get rid of.  They have no predators here, and if a bird, bat or some other bug-eating creature tries to make a meal out of one, well, they let out a nasty rancid almond smell that is totally unappetizing. 

If you have them in your house and you try to swat them, yes, they emit a nasty odor that makes you hesitate to swat their buddies when you meet up.

It's a problem this time of year because they like to come inside to get away from the cold.  Once they start nesting in your house, it could get, well, stinky. 

The experts do not recommend pesticides until they can figure out what to use and when to use it for effectiveness.  So what's a squeamish homeowner to do with these unwelcome visitors?  They suggest vacuuming them up (be sure you use a vacuum cleaner with a bag) and take the whole thing outside to empty it out.

You can help keep them outside by going nuts with a caulk gun and putting weatherstripping all over the place - covering cracks that they can crawl through.  They also find their ways in through attic vents.

We're seeing some in northern Montgomery County, and I'm hoping they find some way to stop the spread to points south, like my back yard!

© 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 certianly 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.

Chevy Chase isn’t just a goofy guy who used to be on Saturday Night Live.  In the early 1900’s it became one of Washington’s early street car communities.

Many of the early homes were built from kits purchased from Sears Roebuck and transported on trolley flat cars.    The contractor would load everything from the flat bed to a wagon and then to the building lot. 

There are also many of the Washington area cliché houses in Chevy Chase, center hall brick colonials.  These came later, typically in the 1930’s. 

The architecture in Chevy Chase is pretty eclectic.  There are homes in all sizes and shapes and styles, and while many have been added onto and renovated, others are close to their original condition.  This can make it pretty interested when we do a competitive market analysis for a client.

There are currently 38 homes for sale in Chevy Chase, with prices ranging from a lot of $598,000 to a high of $1,895,000.  To see these listings, you may click here.

While the trolley are now in a museum, Chevy Chase does have a Metro stop at the Friendship Heights station.  The neighborhood public schools have a good reputation, and from most of the neighborhood, it's an easy walk to restaurants shopping, and the Avalon Theater.   So, if you are thinking about a move to Washington, Chevy Chase might be a good neighborhood to consider.