Dmitry & Maureen: Moving Metro Detroit

• The exercise equipment in the former master bedroom, where I am sure there was once a lovely armoire or chair.  The romance might have left a long time ago, but you don't want a prospective buyer to know that.
  
• A completely empty closet in the master suite.  The "his" closet was full.  The "hers" closet was not in use.
• Those kids' rooms must have been very sweet when they were furnished.
• The holiday decorations, left in boxes in a bedroom with nothing else in it.  Did the movers forget to take them, or doesn't anyone want them now?
  

You have about three million reasons (the price of your home) to make a few changes before you let another agent or prospective buyer cross your threshold.  If I were your agent, I would suggest you call a stager today.  Move some furniture around to fill the glaring gaps.  Rent some if you have to.  As painful as it may be, hang some women's clothing in those empty closets.  And put some stuff back in the kids' rooms.  It might be hard, but you need to do it.

I can only imagine the emotional pain of divorce.  I would like to ease the financial pain and the prolonged agony of having the home unsold.  I hope you don't mind my advice.

Sincerely,

Maureen Francis
SKBK Sotheby's International Realty
Birmingham Michigan

RUTH TO THE RESCUE : Get a home inspector who'll tell it like it is

Home inspectors who want future referrals from a real estate agent have been known not to tell it like it is if the truth could cause a buyer to back out of a sale. Try a home inspector recommended by an attorney or a friend.

Dear Ruth, that is not only insulting to both the Realtor and the professional home inspector, its just plain bad advice.  As a Realtor, I've made hundreds of recommendations to my clients when they needed home inspections.  My primary goal, as my client's fiduciary, is to ensure that the inspector finds everything that may concern my client as the future homeowner.  I never want to hear from a client after closing that there is a problem that the inspector should have found.  I want the house to be everything the client expected, and that is why I recommend an inspector in the first place.

All of the Realtors I know would rather have a purchase fall apart after a home inspection than have the purchaser discover defects later.  Believe me, its much easier for us to have a "deal" fall apart than it is to deal with a purchaser with problems after close.

And, unlike a buyer's attorney or friend, I've been to hundreds of home inspections.  Most people's friends have been to one or two inspections.   I've listened to good inspectors and bad inspectors.  I've had clients not chose an inspector recommended by me to save money, or because a relative recommended someone else, and they've regretted their decision later.

So, Ruth, I think you need to rethink that advice and print a retraction, because you are just plain wrong on this one.

Sincerely,

Maureen Francis

SKBK Sotheby's International Realty

Birmingham, Michigan 

And, in homage to the great Broker Bryant, I ask:  "Be nice to me, this is my 100th post."  Something has been holding me off from posting #100.  It obviously wasn't hard the first 99 times, but still...

Earlier this year, I organized a twilight open house for our firm’s listings in Beverly Hills, Michigan.  The office had 12 listings there at the time.  My hope was twofold: to bring in potential buyers, and to attract real estate agents to preview our properties.

We did a couple of things to take this open house to the next level, and I think we had a pretty successful event.

• We had a web page just for the event, with its own memorable URL, TheRealBeverlyHills.com.  The page listed all the sponsors, had links to the houses, spiffy maps and home descriptions.  (Now that URL points back to my site.)
• We had special yard signs made that we put up early in the week throughout town to attract people.  One was also placed in front of each home on the tour.  These had our  URL on them, of course.
• We sent out press releases and got FREE publicity in a number of local publications, which really helped to stretch our advertising budget
• We blitzed the local offices with flyers and email invitations.
• We had a raffle with great prizes for each home, many of which were donated by local merchants.
• We used the web domain to supply the details on the event so that we could just put the highlights in the print ads.
• I also wrote a post on my blog about it, with a link to the web site.
  

All of the sellers who participated were very excited by the whole thing and they appreciated the effort we put into getting their homes sold.

As I read the Sunday paper this morning my stomach started to knot up.  Felt a little bit like nausea coming on.  I have homes to sell in Michigan (for the clients we represent).  If you are selling a home in Michigan, you know what I am talking about.  I can no longer count the layoff announcements, restructuring plans and plant shut-downs.  Record numbers of foreclosures and an increasing number of homes to sell without new jobs to replace the old.  You don’t need a degree in economics to know that an increase in homes for sale with a decrease in the number of buyers equals falling prices.  Where can I look for some help and a bit of good news for a change? 

Perception is reality.  I would love to spin this buyer’s market in to something good for sellers.  But I don’t have the spin in me for that one. 

The other day I was at a brunch with Birmingham/Bloomfield’s top producing Realtors.  A REALTOR, whom I highly respect, said that he recently told a seller that there is actually very little difference in what most top producing agents can do for their clients.  I didn’t say anything then, but I strongly disagree.  I’ve watched other agents for a long time, and I think the difference can be huge.   Among other things, technology is leveling the playing field and the dinosaur agents who have dominated the industry are either going to have to ‘get on line or get in the bread line.’

If you are a seller or a potential seller, listen up.  Here are some things I think you can do to make your home the one that gets the seemingly elusive buyer.  You think you’ve heard it all before, but I bet you haven’t.  I know you haven’t.   I don’t want you to be in the bread line, next to that agent who told you she was a top-producer.  She meant 10 years ago, but she forgot to mention that.

New School Thinking

When you are interview agents, here are the things I would ask, in addition to the usual questions:

• How many hits are there on your company web site each month?  How does that compare to your competitors' sites?
• Where does your company’s site rank on Google for “Birmingham Michigan Real Estate” (insert your town’s name)?
• Does your company use pay per click?
• What else is your company doing to direct traffic to its site?
• How many inquiries does your company’s site generate per month?
• How does your company track inquiries?
• Who would be following up on an inquiry about my home and how quickly would they do it?
• How will my home be displayed on your web site?
• How many pictures will there be? When will they be posted?
  
• Will they be updated if the seasons change?
• Will there be a virtual tour?  When will it be up?  Will it be on Realtor.com?
• Will my home be “enhanced” on Realtor.com?
• Do you, Ms. Agent, have a personal web site?  How long have you had it?  How does it do in attracting buyers compared to your peers’ web sites?  What do you do to make sure that your web site is effective?  When was the last time you added something to your personal website besides new listings? 
• Do you have a blog?
• Does your company have a national (international) web site where my home will be displayed?
• Will my home be on trulia.com, oodle, googlebase, craigslist?  
  

If the agent you are interviewing can’t answer most of these questions, move on!  Today’s buyer is looking on the internet for his next home, and your positioning here makes all the difference. 

  
Old School Stuff Matters too:

I think any agent, new school or old school will give you the following tips. 

• Now is not the time to be fishing for that one buyer who might overpay for your home.  A home priced slightly below the competition is the most likely to find a buyer quickly.
• Bonuses to buyers’ agents get noticed.  Agents have literally hundreds of homes to chose from for most buyers and a dangling the carrot of a bonus in front of them is cheaper than a price reduction or sitting on the market another month.  It will get you showings.
• Sellers’ concessions help too.  Be open to creativity in the way the deal is structured.  Can you offer land-contract, a rate buy-down or seller paid points on the mortgage?  
• Clean and clutter free really matters.  Move-in-ready is the only acceptable standard these days.  Staging helps.  No buyer is looking to take care of the projects you never got around to, so get them done!
• No matter how inconvenient, let the buyers in when the want to get in.  If you don’t, chances are you will never see them again.

I know I have missed some things, but these tips should get you started.   I don’t want you to share the same fate as the dinosaurs.  I sincerely hope you are successful in finding the right buyer.

I've spent the last hour or so deleting about 18 months worth of posts from our Oakland County real estate blog.  Its kind of scary to push delete and know my work could be gone for good.  Google, msn and yahoo had found me and visited often.  The occasional client stopped by.  New customers somehow stumbled across it and called us.  

I still have about 150 more posts to dump.  Since I have to do it one by one, its actually like a little trip down memory lane.  I am getting old, so my memory is going quickly these days.

Anyway, soon enough, I will invite you all to a blog-warming party.  We are upgrading off of blogger and onto our own domain.  We still have lots to do, and things will change over the coming weeks as we get settled in.  It's a move we have needed to make for quite a while, and our participation in ActiveRain inspired us to finally do what needed to be done and revive our blog before it died on the vine. Should you stop by now you will see a few familiar posts that we've moved over there to get things jumpstarted. 

As always, we would love your comments or suggestions.  You can find us at MiOaklandCounty.com

I promised a follow up to my article about the $100 gas card giveaway.  I dragged Lipnitz away from her desk early this morning, insisting that we show up to the broker open before 11:00 to ensure that I leave with a gas card in hand.  She said I was overestimating the turnout. 

Well, when we turned through the gated entry to the sub, the street was lined with cars!  The doors opened early, and we were #20 and #21 to sign in and snag $100 Mobil/Exxon cards.  Mike Cotter, our broker, and his lovely assistant, Kathryn, showed up only a few minutes after us.  So our office walked out $400 richer.  That is Mike in the picture, with our 4 cards, back at our office later.

The house was spectacular.  We loved it. For a home priced at $3,750,000, I expect to be “wowed,” and I was!

We had a chance to socialize with agents from other offices during the champagne brunch: omelet station, mimosas, smoked salmon and bagels (it’s not my fault I can’t lose the baby weight).  During our little chit chat we found out that invitations to this open house had only been sent to the top 100 producing agents in our Birmingham, Bloomfield Hills market.  Yes, it was listed on the MLS for everybody, but no mention of the gift cards.  So, I take back a little of what I said about this being an open house for agents without buyers.  I guess, statistically speaking anyway, these were the agents most likely to produce a buyer.  Anecdotally, I almost called one of my own clients to have them stop by.  And I did give them a brochure on the development this afternoon, so I am trying.

I think they had a good turnout.  The builder should be happy.  He had top producing agents come out to see four of his homes.  We all felt sorry for the re-sale home in the sub, whose agent hadn’t seized the opportunity to hold his listing open on such a guaranteed high traffic day.

Skeptical as I was, I give this broker and the builder kudos for pulling us in.  Obviously, the $10k he dropped on gift cards will be more than returned if he pulls out a buyer from today’s event. 

My childhood home has been gone for almost a year. Soon a spectacular new home will be finished on the site where my parents lived for more than 35 years. We were the only family to ever live in that home.

My mom found a yet-to-be completed spec home in 1969, they bought it, and she watched every day as the builders finished. Two years ago my parents sold the home to another builder, who saw great potential in their lot on Quarton Lake in Birmingham, Michigan. 

Though my parents were happy to move on to their new home, my mom kept thinking about the windows and carpetting that she had just installed a year before moving.  Dmitry and I told my mom about Habitat for Humanity's ReStore, and she asked the builder to donate the windows before the wrecking ball arrived.

My blogging buddy, Sara Lipnitz, technically competes with me by serving the same geographic market in Birmingham, Michigan.  We could be competing for the same clients, but to date, it’s only happened once.  We do compete with each other indirectly, by each inspiring the other to be better at what we do. Long ago, Sara keenly observed something to the effect, “Clients who want to work with you, like what you have to offer.  They won’t want to work with me.  And vice versa.  My clients like me, and love what I have to offer.”

Those of you who’ve been reading Sara for the last month know that she is a “pleaser.”  She takes care of details like moving her own furniture into a vacant home to stage it, and sending Mr. Lipnitz over to fix a leaking sink before an inspection.  She told me the other night that she was voted “Most Popular” in her high school class, and if you’ve spent more than an hour with her, you will know that this hasn’t changed.  Her phone rings more times in a day than mine does in a month.

I, on the other hand, was the kid in school who was on every committee.  I loved to learn, and academics were important to me.  You get the picture, I am a nerd.  Dmitry, unfortunately, isn’t too handy with plumbing or electrical matters, but we do have a list of handymen to take care of those things.  And my furniture is staying put in my own living room.  I’ve had clients cry on my shoulder, but clients don’t choose me because they are looking for warm fuzzies.

My point here is not to talk about how my style differs from Sara’s, but to raise the broader question of how Realtors, in general, appeal to their clients.

Here are some of the things my clients have told me they appreciate about me:

• As a former banker, I help them understand the business side of buying or selling a home
• Dmitry and I both do this full time.  It is rare that one of us is not available when a client needs us.
• We pick up our phones.  We respond to emails within minutes.
• We provide our sellers with excellent web exposure.
• We’ve lived abroad, and been ‘new’ here ourselves, so we empathize and make the transition easier.
• We are creative and thorough.
• We know our market.

I share this list so that you can take a look at your own business, and explore what is working for you.  What do you bring to the table for your clients?  How does what you have to offer make you the right Realtor for your client?  How do you sell these benefits? 

Photo courtesy of PWinberg.

The kids are back in school now writing essays called,  "What I did on my Summer Vacation."  And I just saw a beautiful photo of a picture of a Cotswold Cottage on a post.

This picture is of our 3 year old in Petoskey, Michigan.  As you can see, she has a future in architecture and building.  Dmitry carried a lot of sand that day! But seriously, the sand castle was built by a local architecture firm and all week she wanted to replicate their masterpiece. 

So, how about sharing a favorite picture from your vacation with us?  

Add it here.  I would love to see them.

And apologies in advance to Craig Schiller. I know you hate pictures of cute kids on posts.  Caleb, this could be your chance to get back for the wedding pictures...  

In Oakland County, we are seeing some major shifts in the real estate brokerage market.  Every few weeks there is news of an office being sold or consolidated into another offices.  A Keller Williams office closed in our town recently and a large local franchise shut the doors on one of its most visible branches, moving the agents to another of their nearby offices. 

Here, the independents still have a very large share of the business, but we've seen a number of big players join forces with franchises in the last two years.

Certainly economic factors in Michigan are in part responsible, but I have to imagine that this trend of consolidation is not unique to Michigan.