Nelya Calev

After a long eight years, I have finally convinced my husband to remodel the kitchen and the rest of the house. We decided to go all out and I am very excited for how it will turn out. Even though construction is not yet done, I thought I would share with you what I have learned so far.

The final price will always exceed the budget

Amazingly, we are only about 20% over our initial budget right now, thanks to a considerable amount of planning ahead of time. Still, keep in mind that you will exceed whatever budget you initially come up with. My in-laws exceeded their initial budget by 130%.

Do not underestimate the stress

Remodeling is stressful. My husband and I actually agreed on the cabinets and granite. We disagreed a bit on the appliances, where I still do not see the need for a monster 48" fridge that e-mails you if the door is open. I will leave the fridge open so he feels he is getting his money's worth. I at least managed to get rid of the convection microwave. No Chernobyl cookies for me.

Remodels are like a disease. They affect the rest of the house.

We did not intend to refinish our floors, but found out we had to in order to get them to match with the rest of the kitchen. We also wound up remodeling areas of the house because the new kitchen suddenly makes them look like crap.

If you are doing it for yourself, it is OK to avoid reason.

If you are flipping the property or want to sell soon, you need to be very careful with your remodel. You need to use quality components, but not make things too over the top unless it is a very high end house. However, if you are doing this for yourselves, it is perfectly fine to go over the top if that is what you want. We purchased a very high end granite. We are spending a lot on this granite. If someone came to our house, they would see granite. Not 'amazing' granite - just granite. However, we happen to like this granite.

Use the time to learn how to communicate better

When the computer had to come down for the remodeling effort, you would have thought the dog had died. No one knew what to do with themselves. Invariably you will be forced together during times of remodel. Make the most of the time.

As I have mentioned before, my husband participates on a large alias at his work where people ask questions about homes and real estate. Over time, he has noticed that a huge number of them will not even consider a full service 3% agent. They want discounts and many of them use Redfin or a discount (1% agent).

In the beginning, he attempted to dissuade them and explain what you get with a true full service agent. To be honest, I doubt he really convinced anyone. I also used to spend a lot of breath trying to explain this, but the truth is there are some people you will never convince.

My in-laws (who I hope are not reading this) have done their own taxes for years. Every year they get walloped with a huge tax bill and every year the process takes them a significant amount of time because they own businesses. I for one have never done my own taxes, but take them to a tax expert. I pay couple hundred dollars each year and have always received a very nice refund. Our tax professional is very knowledgeable about recent changes in tax laws and always does a good job. I am sure I saved a lot of money doing this.

However, we will never be able to convince my in-laws to not do their own taxes. This is just the type of people they are. They do not trust others with their financial business and probably never will.

This is why there are some people I just will not be able to convince about discount agencies. I can try explaining that it is almost impossible to buy a hot REO property with one of these agents, that most if the agent can't even negotiate a 3% fee for themselves, how confident are you that they can negotiate for you? I have tried to explain how full service agents go the extra mile, are more knowledgeable, and will almost always save you money in the long run. There is always an exception to the rule and I am sure there are some good 1% agents, I just never had a pleasure working with one of them.

There are people out there that simply want to do it themselves. So if you want to do your own taxes and your own dry cleaning, discount agencies are the way to go.

In some respects, it's not a bad thing that there are such people out there. People like this allow me to win big concessions for my buyers/sellers when I am on the other side. :)

Recently my husband showed me a thread from his work where the thread went similar to this.

Question: Could someone recommend a realtor that is an expert in Education Hill?

Reply: I recommend "so and so". He is a very good agent.

Reply: Do not use anyone in that office. I had a very bad experience with an agent there.

Reply: Just because you had a bad experience with one agent, doesn't mean they all are bad agents in that office.

The individual then started going off about how evil the agent was. Listening to his story, I honestly felt for the agent. Of course I do not know exactly what happened, but in his words when she refused to change the legal language in the contract as he wished, he fired her. Of course, agents are not allowed to practice law.

He then went into probability theory stating that since he "randomly" came across two bad agents in a row at that office, probability theory would state that the chances of finding a bad agent in that office are very high.

Therefore, to all techies who have this warped frame of mind, I will explain it in words they understand (per my husband).

Real estate agents are each independent variables!

Just because one real estate agent didn't do a good job, it means absolutely nothing about another agent. It means nothing about an agent for the same company, for the same office, or for an agent that sits next to that agent. All it means is you found a very bad agent.

Honestly, if you keep coming across bad agents, seriously look into how you are finding them. Do you keep getting recommendations from friends ("hey, my brother in law can help you out!", "my sister is dating a real estate agent!")? Do you interview agents? Do you ask the right questions when interviewing an agent?

It is up to you to find the right agent for the task. They do not fall out of the sky and random selection is not the way to go here.

This weekend I received an e-mail from one of my friends from school who currently lives in Russia. He had read about the housing crisis in the United States and wanted to invest here. His question:

"What can I get for $100,000 in the US? I'm thinking about buying a large house on the beach."

Contrary to reports, at least in this area you still can't buy much of anything for $100,000. For that amount, you'll get a condo very far away. Prices have fallen, but they'll have to fall far more drastically to even approach that level.

Still, I thought it was rather funny. He obviously has heard of the fire sales happening in Michigan and in other parts of the country where jobs are drying up.

My temptation was to reply that I am interested in visiting Russia. Do I need a visa from the mafia to do so?