With proper care (and updates!) to your home and hearth, you can save surprises for holiday gifts — not unsuspecting home buyers.
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The personal stories of one Realtor’s battles and triumphs in the highly-competitive Bay Area Real Estate Market, seeking to illuminate and humanize the very real ups-and-downs of homeownership.
The next two weeks rank among my favorites of the year.
It’s when Sarah, Kate, Elizabeth, and I deliver toffee to our clientele. And while our “nice” list has grown to encompass nearly 650 households, with the help of an Excel spreadsheet, we’ve honed this annual chore down to a science. (It goes much faster in teams.) Even so, it takes all of us working in unison several days to accomplish this mammoth holiday task.
Is it naughty to hide the toffee from your spouse and kids, as many of our emails assert? That’s for you to decide. (No judgement here.) Enjoy it however you see fit. We’re thrilled you not only look forward to the package from Littlejohn’s, but enjoy it so much year after year.
And while the sheer number of deliveries now means that it’s impossible to ring everyone’s doorbell (as I used to do), it is heartwarming to see the properties we’ve sold, and especially fun to see the transformation many of these homes have undergone. And because it’s the holidays, the houses are often festively decorated as well. (That’s nice.)
And why not? The pleasure of owning your own home is the opportunity to put your stamp on it. Moreover, as most of the housing stock in the East Bay is “older,” our properties are often in need of a good facelift (I can relate). So I appreciate the fact that many of you continue to invest in your homes, which is wise, as they are often your single-largest investment. Accordingly, this investment should be protected and nurtured, especially if you intend to see it grow.
But for those of you who haven’t addressed some of the larger issues (ie: outdated kitchens and bathrooms, knob & tube wiring, cracked foundations, failing windows, etc.) but would now like to move, you do have a few options, which include selling the house “AS IS”, renovating it before the sale, or, as is more often the case, pursuing a hybrid of the two, which amounts primarily to cosmetic updates. Good news, our team specializes in transformations, so we can expertly guide you in the process. (Please keep in mind that renovations or repairs to a house require additional time.)
Moreover, with the continuing success of the Compass Concierge program, Notable will loan up to $50,000 in interest free money to make a substantial dent in the costs required to bring your home up to market. It’s a smart investment that often returns substantially more . . .
That being said, dressing up a house for a sale should be predicated on the health and condition of the substructure, which is why we often recommend a pest/structural inspection upfront. If the deferred maintenance has grown to six-figures (and unfortunately, we see that more often than you’d think), it probably doesn’t make a great deal of sense to spend tens of thousands on the cosmetics, only to have the inspections tell an entirely different story.
For lack of a better description, putting “lipstick on a pig,” may, in fact, leave a Seller open to litigation if the improvements are designed to “cover up” material facts that might have otherwise changed someone’s opinion about moving forward with the purchase. (That’s naughty.)
The surprise you don’t want
Recently, I helped a young couple buy their first home, and while that’s always an honor, it’s also a huge responsibility. This property had been “flipped,” so aesthetically, it looked good at first glance, but the work was surface only, and once we dug deeper, we discovered significant defects that still need addressing. After meeting with a pest inspector, a contractor, and an engineer, the Buyers decided to go through with the purchase, but did so with a clear understanding of the true condition of the home, and with their eyes wide open. As such, we negotiated a SIZABLE price reduction to make sure they’d have the funds to correct the REAL issues the inspections had uncovered.
Listen, there are all kinds of rules in place around selling a house that are designed to protect the Buyers, but let’s be clear, DISCLOSURE protects the Sellers just as much, if not more. Had this Seller thoroughly disclosed, or better yet, performed the work with permits, not only would the renovations have met current codes, the lack of disclosure wouldn’t have left it up to the Buyers to figure out what was really going on behind the window dressing. Instead, the Seller was forced to make heavy concessions to close the deal. (That’s not so nice.)
The moral of the story? Disclose, disclose, DISCLOSE! An informed Buyer makes for a much stronger and more committed Buyer in the end, and that’s good for all parties involved.
And on that note, I’ve got toffee to deliver. Ho, ho, ho . . . .
How can we help you?
Julie Gardner & Sarah Abel | Compass Realty
Not just Realtors, but consultants in all things house and home, we’re here to educate, explore, examine and refer . . . In short, you may count on us to take care of your home as if it were our own and anyone who knows us, knows we take pretty darn good care of our homes.
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