Katy, TX

Foreclosures are not always the best deals to be had. In fact, many times the best deals are to be had with an anxious seller who is willing to let some equity go or willing to go tot he bank and ask for a short sale. Once the home has been through the foreclosure process, the reo department hires a realtor who runs the comps and prices at or around market. Many times the repairs to the foreclosures exceed the market value and the banks are not willing to make the necessary mark downs until the time triggers the next price reduction. In this market, one needs a Realtor who will truly dig up the best values (if that is what they are looking for), rather than relying on the tags of "short sale" and "foreclosure". After all, good deals are to be had - they may just not be the obvious ones!

Nina Palmer, the General Manager of Robyn Jones Homes is now a licensed Realtor! She got her license and will now be even more hands on with the clients! Nina is developing her own clientele and represents all of the high ideals and high-level of services that we strive to meet at Robyn Jones Homes.

These are my favorite feedbacks from my most difficult listings!! I promise they are accurate and unedited! And as harsh as some of these feedbacks are - my sellers were totally unphased! So, here they are!

Property #1 (after $2,000 worth of staging, cleaning and repair):

Place has potential but is difficult to show. The kitchen was very dirty, dirty dishes, food boxes on counter, in the downstairs bedroom there was a rifle in plain view, (very easy for a child to get to) cigarette butts on the floors, various pieces of clothing/underwear all over the floor.

Clients did not even go upstairs. Home did not show well. It had the smell of cigarette smoke and really needs carpet cleaning and repainting. The grass in back was overgrown.

Great view. clients did not care for smell of smoke and cigarette burns in carpets. Needs paint touch ups and cleaning. Clients stayed there for showing and kids were jumping off second story into pool.

Hi Robyn, Not sure what to say....Home was very unkept and dirty. We do realize its a short sale. Being on the golf course is awesome...but I believe my client was creeped out with all the doors closed and not sure what we would find. Laundry everywhere. and a few bedside lamps were on...as if someone was there...somewhere. creepy. Thank you for allowing me to show. I do not believe my client is interested.

This one fell out of their favorites today. Just does not show well. Price sure is looking favorable though. The reduction was necessary. Hope you don't need to go lower, but the carpet is bad, house smells so much like smoke, and the seller was present. It's got some promise, but not for my client, as they have put three others in Cinco higher on their list.

It was so smokey my people didn't even want to go upstairs.

Thanks for the oppportunith to show Robyn. We scheduled 10a-12noon 24 hours ago. The seller called and cancelled due to sleeping teenagers and we rescheduled for 12-2. We arrived at 12:40pm - the seller and family were still there making it tough to actually look at the home.

Great location on the golf course. No interest by this buyer due to interior condition.

Client did not like the condition of the home. Smelled like smoke. House smelled of smoke. Young men still sleeping at the time of the showing. Kitchen looked like something out of a fraternity house. Left immediately after we woke someone up sleeping in the master bedroom.

Nice backyard. Buyer did not like the color of tile, kitchen cabinets and thought the home was a bit run down- needed paint touch-ups and carpet cleaning. thanks,

Smelled like smoke, bannisters were sticky, carpet and paint worn, nice balcony overlooking pool and golf course.

Should've shown it when it was all cleaned up and staged. Buyers chose another. Looked too much maintenance to be done when I took them!

PROPERTY #2 (Where my client refused to tone down the metallic faux finished walls):

The house is very nice however my client and I were unable to view the entire home due to the fact that the owners had someplaces blocked off with pet gates and some of the doors apparently were locked. It was very unfortunate b/c my client really liked the home.

My client said they felt uncomfortable b/c it appeared that someone was home. This was definitely not the house for this buyer.

The interior of the house is just very unique in décor and will take a certain buyer. It was very dark and the faux finished walls are very “glitzy” and the dark brown and painted trim work and doors are not appealing to most people. So in my opinion, you have a far out location, interior unique, and the exterior needs some nice landscaping and color.

Wow - we all get them - the difficult home seller and the house that "needs work". And by difficult, I don't mean high maintenance or opinionated I mean - "Pre-foreclosure, mid-way through an acrimonious divorce with assets being hidden, sons who are drug dealers and in and out of jail and the house smells bad and looks worse" type of difficult sellers. What to do? What to do with them? How do you market a house like this?

Well, I actually know - from experience. First thing we did was hire a stager. She was there 5 days (bless her heart) and when she came back on the 6th day (to drop the last few finishing touches off) she called me almost in tears. The house looked almost the way it did when she started (minus the bright blue paint she had toned down to a more sophisticated grey tone and the repaired burnt slats on the upstairs balcony). We then had a repair man come in to repair the broker drawer fronts, holes in the walls, leaks, lighting that had been pulled out from the wall, etc. Wow - it looked great until the kids punched the front glass out of the front door, knocked some of the slats out of the stair rails and added a lovely variety of holes throughout the home. Preparing this house and showing it was like trying to carry water upstairs in a sieve.

Oh and my feedback (which is so inspiring I have decided to devote my next blog to the good, the bad and the ugly of feedback) - it ranged form "I think there was a naked girl in the master bedroom, to sellers were having a party and refused to leave house and it was distracting with the teenage boys diving off the second story balcony into the pool - to my favorite - it was creepy, all of the bedroom doors were shut and it felt like someone was hiding in the rooms, so we decided to leave without opening them. The feedback almost took on a life of its own. I would forward it to my buyers agent and my husband (who is licensed as well) and we would try to discuss it with the owner. Well, you know he'd remind us - "kids will be kids and that is why I'll be glad to get rid of this house." Whew - not sure what to do with that one.

But I sold this house. Not once, but twice! The first sale was terminated when they came by for their pre-closing inspection, not only to find that many of the repairs were undone - but to find that 2 hours before closing there was no moving truck and nothing was packed. We pushed closing back 4 times and by the 4th day - we were smacked with a big, fat termination notice. The only thing that could improve that situation, was the fact that I was dealing with this from a gorgeous beach house in Savannah, GA where I had gathered family and friends to celebrate my fathers 70 birthday (the closing was supposed to have taken place before I left). Not only did I spend every second dealing with this closing crisis and trying to avoid the house being foreclosed on while we negotiated getting the owner out of the house, but my husband left early to try to salvage the deal (to no avail) - and since there is always that one extra, little cherry on the sundae - my buyers agent, rushing over to try to salvage what was left of the walk through and closing, pulled into the driveway and crashed right into the already irate buyers car. Wow.

But, since the universe always rights itself - two of my favorite clients ended up buying this home and fully renovating it. Because they had been so familiar with what was going on - they weren't surprised when he had trouble getting out by closing, and when he finally did leave he left a house full of furniture and junk, and of course, didn't complete any repairs. And even with that - they love their new house. They pulled all of the carpet out and re-painted. It looks amazing. So go figure - all's well, that ends well.

The question that I get the most these days is how the credit crunch will be affecting the market in this area. I'm please to say that the affects in this area have not been as devestating as I've seen in other markets in the country. All of my closings have closed - albeit with perhaps a little more paperwork. It appears that well-qualified, gainfully employed home buyers should be fine. I see the lenders asking for more money down, asking second homes to be rented out and asking for more walk through appraisals (versus drive-bys) - but I haven't had any of my clients denied, so far. That said, I will repost again on this subject to see how and if things are changing in the Houston, Katy market.