Rostad Realty

I recently went to a class about selling listings in a slow market.  It was a course on blogging, internet marketing, listing syndication, etc.  Great class but perhaps more important was something I learned there about the extent of the new HVCC laws.  Sponsering the class was Mike the Money Man Mike Carpenter who prefaced the class with a summary of the new appraisal laws which are supposedly put in place to help people but in the end, all it’s doing is making a few companies rich, bloating the appraisal process and making it very questionable if your financing is going to fall apart or not.

Mike has generously posted many more details about this “great appraisal conspiracy” on his website.  The punchline is, the more beuracracy and layers of absurdity you add to the process, the longer any housing recovery will take.  This law went into effect on May 1st, 2009.  It is too early to see the effect this will have on the market but I can predict it will not be good.

Mike has several action items posted in his article that you can do to hopefully help get this law repealed.  I urge you to follow up with them but let me get you started.  Please sign this petition.

This was recently published in Denise Lones’ Zebra Report.  You can subscribe to it here on her web page, The Lones Group.  I feel this article is worthy of your attention if you are a real estate professional or if you are in the process of choosing a realtor.  This also ties in with a blog post that I recently submitted to Geek Estate Blog titled Checklist for Advertising an Open House.  Read the comments on that blog post to see what I mean.  We wholely agree with Denise Lones that opens houses are still a valuable marketing tool.

By Denise Lones CSP, M.I.R.M.

One afternoon last week, my phone rang.  When I looked down at the number, I was instantly thrilled.  It was a good friend of mine who always makes me smile.

She said, “Denise, I’m in the market for a new home.  I was wondering if you were free this weekend to go on a drive with me to look at houses.  I’d love to pick your brain about what we find out there.”

Now, I don’t do this for just anyone.  But because she’s such a close friend, I agreed.  Plus, I wanted to catch up with her a little.

So, on a bright Sunday, we set out to find her a new home.  Her husband’s in-laws were visiting that day, so it was quite a carload of people hitting the road.

Now, you may be wondering why I didn’t just put her in touch with an agent in the area.  Well, the reason I didn’t is because my friend just wanted to scout the area first.  She wasn’t completely sure even if she liked the town, so she wanted to just “see what’s out there” before talking with an agent.

On a Sunday afternoon in the spring and summer, it’s a good idea to drive a neighborhood to get a sense of its family appeal.  Plus, there should be plenty of Open Houses to check out, right?

Wrong.

I was shocked.  We drove all afternoon.  Guess how many Open Houses we found in this neighborhood?

None.

That’s right.  Zero.  Nada.  Big donut.

I couldn’t believe it.  Agents—WHERE ARE YOU?  I was so mad that I wanted to get out of the car and shout at the sky.

Trying to find an Open House for my friend was like trying to find the proverbial needle in a haystack.  We drove for hours with no real estate agent in sight.  And this is the prime time of year for Open Houses!

So, when I got back home, I thought about why I couldn’t find any agents out there on that Sunday afternoon.  I came up with two reasons.

First, most real estate agents labor under the false assumption that they should be doing what all the other real estate agents are doing—or NOT doing.  They don’t see other agents holding Open Houses, so they don’t hold them.

We all sometimes tend to not do something because everyone else is isn’t doing it.  It’s human nature.  Well, let me tell you how I was the top agent for years in my area: I did the OPPOSITE of what all the other agents were doing.

I was the ultimate “contrarian”.  And it worked for me—big time. Right now, if you hold an Open House, YOU will be the contrarian.  And that’s a very very good thing.

Contrarians make money because they capitalize on what everyone else isn’t doing.  If there was one—just ONE!—real estate agent holding an Open House that Sunday afternoon—he or she would have attracted ALL the potential buyers.  Because there was nobody else!

The second false assumption real estate agents make is that because nobody is holding Open Houses, then they must not work.

Nothing could be further from the truth.  Open Houses work.  They’ve been proven to work for years.

“But Denise, I held three Open Houses recently and nobody bought the property.”

It’s not about the property.  It’s about the buyers.

As agents, we need to find buyers.  They’re out there.  What better way to meet them than in person right smack in the middle of the very area in which they’re considering a purchase?

If somebody stops and visits an Open House, you can bet on the fact that they’re at least thinking about moving to the area.  The important thing is that you meet them, get their contact information, and begin sending them valuable information.

It doesn’t matter if they never buy the exact property you’re showing that day.  What matters is that they get to meet YOU.  You will be the most valuable person they meet this year because you are going to give them everything they want and need—without being a typically pushy salesperson.

This is the true value of Open Houses—the contact you make with potential buyers.

Give the people who attend your Open House what they need most–information.  When I was an agent, I gave prospects a book packed full of neighborhood statistics.  This is a great tool for you to create the impression of a true expert in their minds.

The book I gave them wasn’t just an ordinary set of photocopies with listings from the local newspaper.  It was much more than that.

As people were leaving—almost out the door—I would say, “Oh, excuse me.  Before you leave, let me give this to you.  It’s going to help your home search.

“I’ve prepared this book which has the featured listing in it—the one you’re standing in.  It also has a list of other homes in this area that are $50,000 below this price and $50,000 above so you can compare and contrast.

“I’ve also included a map for you which shows how to get to each house, as well as a print out of all details about each one, including pictures.  On the back there is a chart where you can write comments about the houses you see, and a place to cross out the ones you don’t like.  Now, if you drive by any of them and would like to see them on the inside, feel free to call me and I’ll get you in.”

I call it my “Stupid Open House Book”.  Why?  Because several years ago, I was doing an Open House training and after describing the book, an agent said to me, “Denise, I’m not going to use this stupid Open House book!  This will never work!”

But then after several boring Open Houses, he eventually used my “Stupid Open House Book” and sold a house THAT VERY AFTERNOON.

Open Houses are still a great way—maybe the best way!—to make contact with potential buyers.  Done right, an Open House can be one of your most valuable marketing tools.

Agents, I want to see you out there.  I’m going to be driving around some more in upcoming weekends.

I’ll be looking for YOUR signs.

Published with permission of Denise Lones – http://www.thelonesgroup.com

I have recently been invited to contribute to Zillow’s own Geek Estate Blog.  The topic is internet marketing by tech savvy real estate agents and they thought I would be a good fit.  I am adding a feed to the sidebar on Rostad Realty that will allow you to follow my activity on the Geek Estate Blog.  If you want to see ALL of my posts, click here for my Geek Estate Blog profile.  I urge you to check it out since it will give you some insight on the way I do business and some of the various techniques I use to market properties for our clients.  I’m always trying out new methods and technology as well so check back often because the lansdscape of internet marketing is constantly changing.

Ashley House is in one of the best Downtown Bellevue locations there is.  It’s 2 blocks north of main street on 99th Avenue.  Bellevue Square is a 3 minute walk away and Meydenbaur Bay is nearly as close.  Ashley House is right in the middle of the action but sits on a quiet street that hardly has any traffic.  Almost anything you can think of is a short walk away from here.  Let me show you:


The location is just one of the benefits of living in Ashely House.  The building features a secured parking garage with your own storage space in front of your parking spot.  The front door of the building is also secured so people call you from the intercom and then you can buzz them in.  The call box has the ability to forward straight to your cell phone if you don’t want to have a land line.  Another notable feature is the elevator.  It runs from the parking garage all the way to the fourth floor on top of the building.  One more “feature” of the building is a very active home owner’s association.  They keep everything about the building tip top and address any problems that arise right away.  They have hired Yateswood as their property management company.

Unit number 36 is for sale in Ashley house.  It is located on the 3rd floor on the east side of the building.  The condo is 1128 square feet and has 2 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  There is a private balcony off of the living room that overlooks the back yard of the building.  Everything in the home has been updated.  All of the paint is brand new as well as the carpet.  Both bathrooms are brand new and the kitchen has been updated recently.  The appliances have all been replaced as well with stainless steel.  This home is effectively brand new.  There is a laundry room inside of the condo so you won’t have to go anywhere to clean your clothes.  The asking price for unit 36 is $400,000 $385,000.  The 3 most recent sales in Ashley house are unit 41 on 03/04/08 for $500,000, unit 44 on 05/01/08 for $522,000 and unit 42 on 01/15/09 for $455,000.  Unit 36 is priced well below even the lowest recent sale.

This condo is a walker’s dream come true.  You could easily live without a car in this location if you wish.  Everything you need is close by.  I challenge you to compare this home with the competition and find a better value.  Please click here for pictures and more information on this condo: 200 99th Avenue NE unit 36, Bellevue, WA 98004.  For a private showing, please contact Rich or Geordy Rostad.

Geordy Rostad, SamDeBord, Geordie Romer & Sunnyview (left to right)

I was invited to join the team from Zillow for lunch on May 14, 2009.  I had no idea what to expect.  For the couple of weeks prior to lunch I wondered if I was the only one they invited or whether they had invited every real estate professional in the area they could get their hands on.  I had a suspicion they would invite Sam DeBord.  He is another agent who is extrememly active on the Zillow discussion forums.  I had assumed that is where they culled their guests from.  The surprise came when I showed up and met Geordie Romer in person.  He is not overly active on the discussion forums because Leavenworth, WA, his area of expertise, has no Zestimates yet even(At the meeting, it sounded like they were coming though).  Geordie had met Spencer Rascoff at a REBar meeting and had a bit of an idenity mixup.  Spencer had put us in contact because we both have a unique(so I thought) name and we both work at Windermere.  Lastly, but certainly not least, Zillow invited Sunnyview, a helpful non-professional Zillow user with over 7600 postings to date.  She does this purely for the love of real estate and helping people out.

Our meeting started with Spencer introducing us to at least 10 Zillow gurus who would soon be picking our brains for our perspective of Zillow.  He prefaced the meeting with, “we have no specific outline for this meeting”.  Nevertheless, I think it was a mutually beneficial meeting of the minds.  I gained a bit more insight about where Zillow is planning to end up and thought seriously about new ways to integrate their tools into my arsenal.  They gained some great suggestions from the four of us which I hope they implement soon.  (I understand if it takes a bit guys, the list was long)  The bonus was that I met several people face to face that I had cooresponded online with in the prior months.  This can be a rare opportunity nowadays.

Thanks for lunch!

http://www.zillow.com/blog/talking-to-a-few-local-zillow-advice-regulars/2009/05/14/

This is our listing located on Redmond Ridge.  It is the least expensive condo on Redmond Ridge that is not age restricted or profit restricted.  The prices typically have averaged from $300k-$400k for the same square footage.  So why are we so much less?  The condo is currently under construction on the exterior of the building.  This means the decks are torn apart and access to the stairs is currently blocked.  To enter the unit, you’ll have to go in through the garage until sometime in the month of August when the work is scheduled to be completed.

If you can handle this minor inconvenience, you’ll get an incredible bargain.  We are offering the condo for $259,950 $249,950.  It has 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and nice hardwood flooring throughout.  It’s all on one level but up stairs.  The total square footage is around 1100 square feet.  It’s clean as a whistle and ready to move in.  Sunny Southwest exposure keeps the place light and cheery.  Vaulted ceilings in the living room help make the home feel larger too.  Here is more information from the MLS listing:

“Incredible opportunity to purchase 10% under CURRENT market value. We have priced this unit to sell and there is no competition near this price on Redmond Ridge. Excellent open floor plan boasts hardwoods throughout the entire home and sunny southwest exposure. No wasted space or hall ways. Attached one car garage. Clean unit is turnkey and ready to move in. One block from Microsoft connector bus. 2 domestic pets (including large dogs)allowed.”

Call Rich or Geordy to schedule a showing if you’d like to see for yourself.  Even more information is available here: Redmond Ridge Condo.

Northwest corner of the building

Southwest corner of the building

Back side of the exterior

Overview floorplan

Detailed view of the service areas

As a real estate agent, I see lots of interesting architecture.  Some of it is new, some is older.  I tend to gravitate towards late 50’s and early 60’s designs mostly.  In California, these would be older since many of the concepts originated there but in the Northwest here, the early 60’s is the sweet spot for mid-century modern types of designs.  As nice looking as these designs are, I feel that some of the concepts are a bit outdated.  People these days tend to want larger kitchens, high ceilings and a place to put their tv.  Back in those days energy concerns and cost were primary design factors.  We are getting back to that now that we are past the McMansion era but people still want high ceilings, big kitchens and a place to put their tvs.

One type of real estate that we often list is vacant land.  Vacant land is notoriously hard to sell because buyers lack the vision of what a property could be and what the total potential is.  What we have started doing to market these properties is to actually draft preliminary home designs that fit within the city’s lot use restrictions.  So far, we’ve had fairly good response with this method.  Our presale home listings are getting roughly 3-4 times the traffic the vacant land listing counterpart.

Sometimes I will hire an architect to help me with a design but in this case, I came up with the design on my own.  I call this design the Studio House.  My goal was to design a structure that could be offered at an EXTREMELY competitive price on a lot that we own.  The site this home is designed for has many land use restrictions.  It is a 14,000 square foot lot but the city will only allow us to use 3,000 total square feet.  The rest of the site has to be cleaned up, replanted and then fenced off and not used for day-to-day activities such as installing a playset.  The final outcome will be a very low maintenance yard that may best be suited for a single person with a unique lifestyle.

This home is a big open room.  Think of a downtown loft style apartment, but standing alone on it’s own piece of land with 3 sets of double doors that connect it to the back yard.  The home will be extremely bright but remain private due to the placement of the windows and the floating clerestory roof section.  Two more noteworthy exterior features are the covered front porch that fades away as you walk towards the carport and the section of CMU bricks on the Southwest corner of the building.  I feel the styling is a nice mix of old and new.  The final measurements are 905 square feet.  It has a large closet in the back, a coat closet to give your living space some privacy as you walk in the front door, and a laundry area that is shared with the closet.  To top it off, there is a one-car carport with tons of outdoor storage cabinets for storaging bicycles, skis & other things that you don’t want to bring into the house.

If you are interested in seeing the home site for this particular house, the address is 90XX 126th Avenue NE, Kirkland, WA 98033.  It sits one lot North of the corner of NE 90th Street and 126th Avenue NE on the East side of the street.  The neigbhorhood is well established.  This just happened to be an infill lot that was never developed because it had no sewer line (until now).  We are offering the home built on our lot with a generous spec list for $299,950.  By far the least expensive brand new single family residence in Kirkland.

The ultimate real estate phone?

Like most other professionals, I am faced with technological trade offs.  A large line of devices compete for space in my pocket that used to just be for my wallet and keys.  I was very happy when the smart phones came around and I was finally able to stop carrying a separate Palm Pilot that lived in a really clunky housing just to open lock boxes.  Every time I’ve upgraded phones, I was wowed at first with new features I had but then disappointed at some other aspect of the phone/device.

The latest phone I have is the Palm Treo 800w.  This is easily the best phone I’ve had to date.  The reason that I chose this one is that it’s the only phone in the Sprint store with an infrared port.  At the time, an infrared port was required on any device in order to open the iBox locks.  Now, GE/Supra have released a key chain FOB which is a bluetooth to infrared adapter so real estate agents can now use their beloved Blackberries to open houses up for showings and previews.  Whatever the case, my new Treo is awesome.  It has GPS, it’s very small, lightweight and it has a decent thumboard.  It would almost be the perfect phone if not for a couple fatal flaws.  The first and worst is the battery life.  It sucks.  This phone has the worst and most unacceptable battery life I’ve ever encountered with a phone.  I’m lucky to make it halfway through the day without sticking it on the charger.  If I take the phone to Canada and don’t use the phone ALL day and then wake up in the morning, the phone is dead.  The other flaws are minor in comparison but ragging on my Treo was not the point of this posting.

Enter the iPhone.  At first glance it looks like the ultimate real estate phone.  It has a great calendar system, needs no sync cables and Zillow’s new iPhone app just adds a cherry on top of it all.  If you have not seen the Zillow iPhone app, you need to check it out.  You open it up and get the values of homes you are walking or driving by in real time.  Homes that are for sale or have “make me move” prices on them also show up.  Zillow has upped the ante an truly made this the ultimate real estate phone except for one missing piece of the puzzle.  There is currently no app for the iPhone that allows Realtors to unlock key boxes.  For me, this would mean going back to the older style standalone eKey device.  To me, this is completely unacceptable to have to carry two devices again.  What would happen is that the eKey would be left at home on the cradle or somewhere else other than in my pocket where it needs to be.

Here is my plea to Apple and GE/Supra:  Please put your heads together and get the eKey app up and running on the iPhone.  Apple- You are missing a huge market of real estate professionals that would love to be sporting a shiny new iPhone.  Furthermore, I know it seems like a step back in time but consider putting a full infrared port on your iPhone.  I’ve seen countless times that people want to use their iPhone as a smart remote as well.

The last piece of the puzzle for me is the carrier.  I know the iPhone will not be an AT&T exclusive forever.  It’s just a matter of time.  I’m on Sprint and as much as I like them, even I know an iPhone probably isn’t in their future.  Apple Wireless Inc. anyone?

Grass growning inside a waterfront home.

Grass growing in the same room. Need to mow the carpet.

This is a one of the first interesting things I saw as a Realtor back in 2003.  I was previewing properties on the waterfront and came across this teardown house.  Someone had built the basement of their dream home and then ran out of money.  They put a makeshift roof on the structure probably 20-30 years before I got there.  I believe once they gave up their dream, they used the property as a rental until it was finally abandoned later on.  This was for sale for $950,000.  You can imagine my surprise when I walked into this room and saw grass growing out of the carpet.  Notice the lamp is plugged into the wall still.  I ran home and grabbed my camera.  I thought no one would believe this without seeing it for themselves.

This is a disturbing new development in short sale transactions.  I have not personally seen this myself yet but I believe it is around the corner.  The Following post was a question answered by the Washington Association of Realtor’s legal hotline:

Question:
Despite negotiations by seller’s lawyer with seller’s short sale lender, short sale lender still insisted that seller carry back a personal obligation for released debt. Short sale lender was non-negotiable on this issue. Is there a new trend in this direction? Seller chose not to proceed with the short sale and is letting the property go to foreclosure.

Answer:
Yes. A new trend is developing in which short sale lenders are establishing policy statements that short sale sellers will not be forgiven of personal liablity for any debt released during the short sale. In other words, some major institutional lenders appear to be adopting across-the-board policies refusing to discharge sellers of personal liability. What this means is that these sellers will necessarily continue to be liable for the amount of debt released by the lender to allow the short sale transaction to close. While it cannot be said that every short sale lender has adopted this policy, it appears that several of the major, institutional lenders have adopted this policy.

The end result for sellers in this position is that their lender could sue them (or otherwise attempt to collect the funds) for six years following closing of the short sale. There is a six year statute of limitations on a written contract. The lender could also sell its rights to collect the debt to a third party who could pursue seller. If a judgment is ultimately taken against seller, the judgment will attach to any real property owned by seller (conceivably any real estate owned by seller in any state). A judgment is valid for up to 20 years.

As this seller chose to do, many sellers will refuse to sell the property under these terms. The alternative choice is that the property will be foreclosed which, depending on other facts at issue, will be preferable to many sellers. REALTORS should be aware of this developing trend and make even more of an effort to get sellers to legal counsel for assistance in negotiating and understanding the short sale agreement. Under no circumstances should REALTORS take responsibility for advising sellers as to the merits of signing or declining a short sale agreement.

The way in which many lenders are effectuating this ongoing personal liability is more subtle than stating specifically that seller will remain liable. Some lenders are simply choosing to remain silent, in the short sale agreement, with respect to ongoing liability for the released debt. The effect of that silence is that seller remains liable. Here is how that works. Recall that seller signed a promissory note and a deed of trust when the loan was taken. In the short sale transaction, the deed of trust is released from title to the property but the promissory note remains as evidence of an obligation from seller to lender. The amount owing under the promissory note is reduced by the proceeds of the short sale, but the remaining amount remains an obligation of seller to lender. Unless seller is specifically discharged of all obligation to repay the promissory note, seller remains liable for the unpaid balance.

Aside from the obvious risk to sellers, the real world difficulty presented by this scenario is that there is almost no way for REALTORS to manage this issue without incurring significant lost time and expense for everyone involved. If lender does not clearly indicate its intention in this regard to seller prior to seller marketing the property as a short sale, then what will happen is that seller and listing agent will market the property, buyer(s) through their agent(s) will offer to purchase the property, an offer will be accepted, buyer will pay for and conduct inspections, appraisals, credit reports, etc., escrow will set up an account, title will issue a commitment, etc. and when the short sale agreement is finally produced and the personal liability issue is made clear to seller, seller is likely to refuse to close the transaction making a waste of everyone’s time and expense.

This is a dangerous trend for everyone involved. Sellers are taking significant risk in selling their property short without a complete discharge of their obligations under the note. Buyers are taking a risk in spending time and money moving toward closing of a short sale purchase. REALTORS risk losing the value of their time participating in these transactions. And the short sale lenders themselves risk a whole lot of sellers choosing to allow their properties to go to foreclosure, where the lender still will not recover the deficiency, many of the properties will be substantially damaged in the process of foreclosure and the lenders will then have to find their own buyers for the properties at whatever value remains in the property. Hopefully, the negative effects of this trend will reveal themselves to the lending industry immediately and short sale lenders will reverse this policy. Until then, REALTORS must be certain to advise their short sale sellers, in writing, to seek legal counsel for assistance in understanding and determining whether to sign a short sale agreement.

The Legal Hotline lawyer does not represent Washington Association of REALTORS® members or their clients and customers.