About Henrico County, VA

There are a couple of sentences when talking with new customers inquiring about one of my listings that I don't like to hear. When asked if they are working with a Realtor they reply:

• We are working with my aunt (substitute any relative as needed) who is a Realtor in Timbukto.

followed by

This usually means the relative is not living to our area, and although they may have their license in the state it is very likely they are unaware of the issues that are unique to our territory. This also means the relative may not have access to local MLS information (sales history, tax assessments, etc.) and will not understand the true value of the home based on sales in the area.

Understanding that the main reason for using a relative is to save on the commissions, or to support their business, I would like to suggest the following solutions to the real estate agent to ensure everyone is adequately represented.

• If you are not from the area, refer your relative to someone in the area to work for them.
• See if an agent in the area will work with you as a co-buyer's agent. You can give advice, write the contract, etc. but have a local representative with knowledge of the area to work with, present the offers to the sellers and show the properties.

In the end if you are want to give all of your commission to your relative you can, but make sure they get the best representation in the transaction!

How often I have walked through a sellers home and said "maybe you should have a yard sale". More often than not they give the stuff away before having a sale. Now I understand why!

This weekend my family held a garage sale at my parent's home. They have lived in this house for 22 years. With a full attic, and full unfinished basement, items would arrive and find a place to live in one of these spaces. It had gotten to the point where you could not walk in the basement except for a little path from the garage to the steps upstairs.

It took almost 5 full days to accumulate items, organize them and then price. Putting up signs, placing ads in newspapers as well as craigslist we were ready! The traffic was steady and we sold a lot of things. Was it worth the time and effort, maybe not. The only thing I can really say is it made my father realize something only has value if someone else wants to buy it. And when the things that did not sell were put in the truck to take to the Goodwill, we accomplished what we wanted to do - clean out the storage areas.

If you don't have the time, or energy, or desire take the stuff to charityl and forget the garage sale!

Aren't banks great! For as little as $30 per month they will make sure you have overdraft protection on your checking account! If you do not manage your money well, or have a fear of fees this sounds like a great idea. As the Federal Reserve shows this fee is much less than the cost of a bounced check.

So what is the potential problem? If you have a history of overdrawing your account, even with the overdraft protection, it shows up on your credit report. What the bank, looking at providing you with a mortgage, sees is irresponsible money handling. They may not give you a loan unless you can provide a letter that states why you allowed this to happen, and convinces them you will prevent overdrafts in the future.

My suggestion: Don't buy the overdraft protection plan. Learn how to manage your money! You can save over $300 a year just by not having the overdraft protection. That is a great amount to add to a future down payment on a home!

Currently I have several clients for whom I am trying to find houses . As most of us, my first stop is in my MLS to set up a prospect account. After inputting all the information which helps me eliminate houses to look at, I get excited to see what the final search will reveal!

Here is where the disappointment begins. When I am looking for an inexpensive home more often than not the listing agent has not bothered with all the photos, room sizes, room description, or anything else other than putting the house on the MLS !

What should be on every MLS?

• Clear photos of interest!
  • With a digital camera you know if a photo is fuzzy before you leave the house so take another one! Photos sell houses!
  • Please don't have photos of pets, rocks, or items non related to the home
• Number of Rooms
  • foyer, bathrooms, and hallways are NOT rooms!
• Room sizes
  • When someone has a pool table that needs a 14' X 18' room it would be nice to know if the room fits before showing the house!
• Sq footage
  • Adding in Sq footage that is actually a basement is fine, but put the square footage of under ground areas in your agents notes.
• Tax assessment
  • We will find this out even if you don't put it in
• The correct days on market!
  • Please don't let your listing expire just to eliminate the days on market history! Everyone is checking the archival history and it messes up all of the statistical data!
• Please warn us if dogs or cats are living on the premises. One of my clients walked into the house and broke out in hives due to his allergy to cats!

As listing agents we have been hired to sell the house the best way we know how. The MLS is the biggest marketing tool we have! Make it work for you and your seller by taking the time to put in as much information as possible.

As a buyer's agent I thank you! Maybe next time your house won't be overlooked by the buyer due to lack of information!

As a student in classes offered by VAR I have thoroughly enjoyed, and learned from the asides made by the teachers as well as the class participants. In "What have I gotten myself into" , a class about contracts, we spoke about how to handle multiple offers. Here is my favorite answer:

In the scenario set forth in our class the seller of the home asked the listing agent to call all of the agents who had placed an offer to the house at the same time. Here is what happened:

• Owner showed all the agents the offers on the table
• He explained price, and concessions that were asked for and which he preferred
• Owner then asked the agents to contact their buyers to see if they could agree on what he wanted.
• He also gave them a time frame, of 30 minutes, to get back to him

From what we were told two of the four offers were immediately eliminated because of price - the buyers could not afford to go higher. The winning contract ended up being lower in price but did not have the first right of refusal attached to it.

I think it was great to have all of the agents know the same thing, and be able to work with their buyers using that knowledge. And as a buyers agent I would love the opportunity to present my side of the story!

How do you like to handle multiple offers?