Coral Gundlach

We've had incredibly great weather here for January in Northern Virginia. Yesterday it was in the high 60s! So my "boys" - husband and two sons, and I, took a walk from our house off Sycamore St to the Lee Harrison Center for some ice cream and a few groceries. It's about a mile each way, and a great way to spend a sunny and unseasonably warm afternoon. We ran into some friends and met a sweet dog who inspired us to maybe get our own. You can't get these experiences when you drive!

If you have your home for sale in Arlington, VA - you probably want to know what is going on with it. How often is it being shown? What have the agents said about it?

And if you are in the middle of negotiating an offer on your Arlington, VA home - you probably want to know what the process is too. Are they responding to our counter? Do they have questions? How can we make this work?

I am currently in week 10 of a contract back an forth that is moving veerrry slooooowly. Weeks pass between counter offers. But I am keeping the other agent in the loop on why my side delays, and often call Listing Agent(LA) to ask questions, check in, make sure there are no other offers....

And I have to call/email at least 3 times until I reach the agent. I rarely if ever receive a returned phone call. Or email response. This tells me, and my buyers that there is a serious lack of motivation to sell the house. Whether that is true or not, who knows? But perception is reality.

So if you are trying to sell your Arlington, VA home and wondering why it is not moving, you should ask your agent if he or she responds to buyer's agents calls and emails.

I can understand that during a long drawn out negotiation, time is no longer really of the essence (even though it says it is in the contract) but one should not have to reach out 3 times to get an answer.

So when you are evaluating Arlington, VA agents to sell your home, along with all the other questions you ask them about their marketing plan, how many homes they've sold this year, how they will communicate with YOU, also ask how quickly they respond to other agents. And you as a home seller should contact them often during the process to ask if they've heard from any agents and if they've answered any questions they might have. That is, if they are not telling you already.

You never know, one non-returned phone call could make or break the sale of your house.

Being a Realtor® is unlike any other profession in the world. We are commission-based sales people, yet we have a fiduciary duty to represent our clients' best interests, which could mean we never get paid, especially in the case of representing buyers. That in its self, is a potential conflict of interest, and probably why many people list real estate agents as untrustworthy because they've perhaps been "sold" by them before. Most sales people are just sales people and their duty is only to themselves and to make a living and profit for their company or what ever company they are working for, with no worries of "fiduciary responsibility" to the people to whom they are selling.

it is a difficult balance at times as a Realtor to do the right thing and also put food on their family's table. Desperation may occur at times, and an agent may at times just want a buyer to get on with it so you can move on and get a paycheck or a seller to sell for too low for the same reason.

Agents who don't really think through the financial responsibilities of being an agent, don't save up enough, or don't have another source of income, don't comprehend getting into it that it is not easy money and that it takes years of investing to grow a successful real estate business, face that conflict head on more than others. It could possibly come across as not trustworthy if an agent is pushy, or seems to want to get the deal done more than they want the right thing for their clients. I believe agents like this are the source of our collective bad reputation as an industry.

I believe that honesty is the pathway to trust, and am completely honest up front with my clients and prosepctive clients about what I am here to do. The responsibilities for the seller are to sell at the highest price and/or best terms, based on the sellers' needs. The responsibilities for the buyer are to help them purchase at the best price possible (best meaning, lowest within the circumstances, or market place), make sure they are getting a home in proper condition for the price (negotiating hard after an inspection) at the best terms for their needs.

I did do my homework when I became an agent, over 7 years ago. I did save up, have another source of income, invested in my business and understood that it takes years to become successful. Because I did it the right way, I am not desperate, and if a client does not purchase a house with me for months years, yes it gets trying at times, but I am not going to shove the wrong house at them for too much money so I can get a paycheck. If you are thinking of hiring me as an buyer's agent, I will always give you testimonials and references to verify that statement.

And if you are thinking of hiring me as a listing agent, this is how I earn your trust: I will not tell you what you want to hear, even if it means I don't get the listing. I will not insult you, but if there are non-sellable features in your home, I will try my best to get you to change them so you can sell for the highest price and best terms. I don't do this to make you suffer, I do it to help you reach your goal of selling the house. If selling for the highest price possible is not the goal and you just want to get out quickly, I can do that too. However, if you want too money that the market will bear for much for your home, i will tell you that. I won't list it at your dream price if it can never become a reality.

So why should you trust me? Not because of national ads paid by the National Association of Realtors®. Because I will be honest with you from beginning to end.

This post is a submission to the ActiveRain/Adobe Echosign Trust contest. I could possibly win a prize. You can find out more about it here.

There was a blog here recently from a home inspector who basically accused Realtors® of only recommending home inspectors who are quick, easy and don't find defects. He said they pay us for referrals, even said some that are easy to schedule might be, um, well let's just say he implied they have a very close realtionship with the agent. I was quite taken aback at the tone of the blog, and at the fact that he did not allow comments. So in case you are in the market to buy a home and wondering what agents want from their inspectors, I thought I'd clear a few things up and explain at least, what my standard is for inspectors.

1) I have used many, many different inspectors in my 7 years selling homes and am always looking for more and better ones to pass along to buyers. I have never insisted a buyer use one, and always ask if they happen to know one themselves or would feel comfortable doing their own research to find one. And I keep putting the process more and more in the buyer's hands. The last inspection a buyer of mine did was with one she found on Angie's List. That was more than fine by me! If he did a bad job, I did not recommend him. I might direct buyers to Angie's list in the future because he did a great job as far as we could tell.

2) I have quit using a few inspectors when the buyer says they did not like them. It's kind of a one strike and you are out thing with me. Inspections are too important and if I am worried you are cutting corners or moving too fast, I will not use you again.

3) I have never been paid by an inspector. That is against the law. I don't think I've even received a box of chocolates at Christmas time from inspectors I use frequently.

4) I don't want inspectors who find nothing! If you are concerned about this as a buyer, because you think all agents are more concerned with selling the house than doing a good job for their buyers, let me put it this way: My job is to protect your interests. Okay, so say you just don't believe that's possible because I am paid on commission, try this - If you buy a house that is full of problems and the inspector I recommened to you missed obvious defects, you are probably not going to recommend me to anyone. You not recommending me to anyone is far more damaging to me than you backing out of a house on the inspection. That's why it's one strike and you are out with me (see #2).

5) A great report. I need an inspector who emails a PDF of a typed report within 24 hours of the inspection. If you hand me chicken scratch on triplicate forms that I can't even scan legibly, that is a problem. The report is a huge part of the negotiations and it needs to be read easily.

6) Good manners. This is where we get into trouble. No, I don't want inspectors to sugarcoat over defects, but I really don't care for inspectors who hate houses in general, use extreme language to describe the tiniest flaw, and make sexist comments or don't acknowledge the female buyer. Yes I had that happen once, and fortunately, it was an inspector the buyers found on their own.

7) But the most important thing I need, want, must have in an inspector is one who is completely thorough. You need to bring your ladder, flashlight and all sorts of gadgets I don't use so I know you are really scrutinizing this house for my buyers. The last thing I want is for the buyers to get stuck with a money pit because you didn't do a good job. You had better get on the roof, crawl around in the attic, open every window, door and turn on every faucet in the house, or quite simply, I will try to avoid using you again.

Interest rates seem to keep getting lower*, and refinancing your home loan from a higher rate from years ago can save you hundreds of dollars a month. If you are thinking of refinancing your Arlington, VA home, and don't know where to start, give me a call. I have a network of several trusted lenders with whom I work who will guide you through the refinancing process. And if you've already started to refinance your Arlington, VA home and want help with comparable sales, I am always happy to help. And, no I don't get paid for any of these services, but as an Arlington resident and Realtor, I am happy to help my neighbors out to help them get the best appraisal value for their refinance.

I recently did this for a neighbor who contacted me and he got a great appraisal value for his refi. There are things an appraiser needs to know about your house that you should tell them and I guided him through the process, as well as gave him some true comparable sales for his home.

When refinancing, it can be hard to get the best value in an appraisal for a few reasons:

First of all, there is no listing for an appraiser to use. When a home is for sale, there is a listing in the MLS that an appraiser will use, with most of the data he or she needs to get to value. When you are refinancing, it's just a blank slate. So it's helpful if the homeowner can give the appraiser a typed list of improvements, features, etc to justify value.

Second of all, when a home is for sale, the appraiser gets a copy of the contract and sees what a buyer is willing to pay, how many days it was on the market, if there were multiple offers, etc. These things are of consideration in an appraisal - obviously not the case with a refi.

Lastly, comparables are very important, and some appraisers don't know the market as well as a local Arlington, VA Realtor. I work in this community full time with both buyers and sellers, and know which homes are truly comparable. And if there's no exact comp right around the corner (which is often the case) I know how to find nearby comps in similar neighborhoods that an out of area appraiser might not see. I will give you the proper comps to give to the appraiser to help ensure you are getting the proper value for your home.

This is a free service I provide to Arlington, Virginia homeowners and am happy to help you out if you are refinancing your home with these fantastic rates.

*This is not a guarantee of any interest rate, and I am not an mortgage loan officer. If you'd like a quote for a loan, contact me and I will put you in touch with a lender.