ARDELL DellaLoggia

So you go to a listing appointment, and before hearing back from the seller, you see the listing come up in the MLS.

Some agents think they can call the seller and ask why they were not selected in order to improve their listing techniques. Not So!

You are not permitted to contact the client of another agent, except to show the property if that is the method used in your area.

This month an agent was fined $500 for picking up the phone and calling the seller of a listed property for any reason other than to show the property. The agent was very nice and even sent a Thank You note to the seller for speaking with him about why he wasn't chosen. Then Whammo! That nice note cost him $500, as that was written proof that he had contacted another agent's client.

Be careful out there...if it's listed...it's off limits.

Earlier this year we talked a bit about working both smarter AND harder to compensate for the changing market conditions. Here's a tip that will help you and your seller clients stay one step ahead of other sellers.

The subject is Feedback, but not the kind that the agent for the buyer gives you.

In my book the only meaningful feedback is:

1) Did your buyers buy anything?

2) Did they buy in the same price range as our listing?

3) If they bought in the same price range, what made that house better than our listing?

Most agents think feedback is getting the same info over and over again. The buyer didn't like your kitchen. The buyer didn't like your yard. The buyer didn't like...whatever.

Let's look at what the buyer REALLY didn't like:

On 7/15 Agent A showed my listing priced at $450,000. The next day he showed it again TWICE! He didn't bring an offer. So what did that buyer do. They were obviously out there motivated to purchase, given they looked at the house 3 times in two days.

Here's a quick way to investigate and get truly meaningful feedback for your seller client.

Track the buyer agent!

Our mls recently added the feature of being able to search by the buyer agent's "LAG" #. Most MLS systems assign a code # to every agent. I took the agent's code number and put it in the "search by selling agent" field, and here's what I found out.

The buyer didn't spend anywhere near $450,000. On 7/17 after considering our listing at $450,000 that needed a lot of work, they went to the other side of the lake and bought a totally remodeled home for $700,000.

The house they bought was only a little bit bigger and had almost the same tax assessed value. But the buyer chose to pay $250,000 more for it because it didn't need any work. It had all new windows, refinished floors, a newer kitchen (though not newly remodeled).

So rather than buy my listing for $450,000 and put $125,000 into it to make it look like the one they bought, they spent $250,000 more to have it in move in condition.

The buyer who bought our listing is going to do all of that work and live in the property at the same time. Maybe the difference is he is single, has no children, and can better able to live around a remodel project.

But I digress. Stop guessing what those buyers did!

• If the agent who showed your listing has no pending transactions week after week, then their buyer went home and didn't buy anything at all.
• If the agent sells a nearby home at a higher price then you can't compete with homes in a higher price range and aren't expected to.
• If three of the agents who showed your listing have pending transactions at the same price or lower than your listing then you have to show your sellers that the same buyer who looked at their home was able to find a better or equally nice home, for less.

Tracking the agent for the buyer by using the agent's code number, gives you quantifiable data. It's a fabulous tool to assist seller's in determining what happened to the buyer after they didn't buy their home.

Does anyone remember 3,6,9 the Goose Drank Wine? 

Most mornings I wake up with a song in my head.  Right out of bed and I'm singing it.  Usually I can tell what kind of day it's going to be by which song it is. 

Sometimes it's just corny like "Oh What a Beautiful Morning".  There are lots of repeat songs.

But this morning the song was SO BIZARRE that Kim had never even heard of it.  He thought maybe it was one of my Mother's famous flip side Flora's from back in the War Days.  But I'm pretty sure it only goes back to Dance Fever or Hullabaloo.

If you have ever been to a Mariner's Game, you know the tradition of playing this song during the 7th Inning stretch.  My partner, Kim Harris, was a Roadie for this group back in 1964 (not giving it away so you are suprised when you play the video below).  He was also a Roadie for Paul Revere and the Raiders.

This group is out of Portland and Kim says EVERY local band played this song...without exception.  A Pacific Northwest thing.

I have known this song most of my life, as I'm sure you do, but I would never have guessed it was a Seattle Favorite and came out of Portland.

Enjoy Seattle's Favorite Song:

I woke up at 6:00 a.m. this morning and embarked on a journey that I have been meaning to take for quite sometime.

I am attempting to document all of the instances where I represented the buyer or the seller in a real estate transaction. Though I may never be able to remember and record all of them since June of 1990, I'm starting with sales in the Seattle Area, where I am now, since I arrived in early 2004. In my first couple of transactions I represented the buyers in 2004, but I am starting with transactions where my partner Kim Harris and I, represented the sellers since opening our own office, Sound Realty, in late 2004.

Using my blog, I started document by writing a post on a flip project in Seattle.

Rather than upload the photos in my blog's files, which are already reaching monumental storage size levels, having blogged since 1/1/06 there, I started loading the photos on Zillow. This way there is a photo of them home stored for posterity, as it appeared at time of sale in 2005, and I was also able to pull the photos via link directly from Zillow. I'll do that again here to demonstrate. Hmmm, on second thought, now that I have posted the photo directly from Zillow into my blog post on my blog, I can copy the properites of the photos as they now exist in my blog post on "Ardell's Seattle Real Estate Blog (the RealTown version). It is how I am extracting the photos show below as I speak.

The interesting part of the story of these two homes is that they were purchased for $120,000 and $125,000, $245,000 on a combined basis, by the people we represented when they were subsequently sold. Kim sold the house on the bottom to them (before we became partners in all things) back in 2004 and the owners knocked on the door of the house next door, shown on the top, and bought that one as well directly from the owner. They then improved both properties and sold them for $299,998 and $309,000 or $$608,996.

Today, on Zillow, these properties are showing as being Zestimated at $500,500 for the house in the bottom photo. When you click on the link of $515,500, you will likely get the Zestimate as it may appear on the date that YOU click on that link. On the day I post the link, today, the Zestimate is $500,500, but this Zesitmate will continue to fluctuate and change as readers click on it, showing the rise and fall of the housing market over time.

It's quite odd that Zillow shows the first house at only $415,500 and the second house at $500,500, given they are not all that much different and sold for almost the same price back in 2005. Maybe one of the second purchasers made significant improvements over and above the improvements made in the flip project from 2004 to 2005. Maybe it's a mistake. My guess is it is a mistake in the Zestimate, as the chart above shows that even Zillow thinks $500,500 is above fair market value, while the chart below for the other home shows it at market value.

Zillow has many useful and interesting uses. While not necessarily always completely accurate, it's a very useful tool for me today in doucment the properties where I have represented buyers and sellers over the last few years. I will continue today and over time to record these transactions for my own use. That other people can see my "work history" is an added benefit of Transparent Real Estate Blogging.

I am recording this post as Beacon Hill. The properties are on 29th Avenue S. in 98144 close to the border of Beacon Hill and Mt. Baker, and as I recall being in walking distance to the park in Mt. Baker.