Ryan Bretzel

Spring time for many is an enjoyable time as temperatures warm and flowers emerge and new life is all around, but for many it can be painful and frustrating.

If you live in any area were snow melts, there is heavy rain at times, or you have a basement; now is the time to protect yourself. This is a good time to touch base with your past clients and remind them to make sure they have completed this list:

• sump pump and drain tile system is working properly
• clean out gutters and re-attach down spouts
• shovel snow away 3-6ft from house
• raise up or remove any valuable items from basement floor
• properly grade landscaping away and down from outside of home's exterior

Even homes that may have never had water problems can all of a sudden do so. My own in fact supposedly had never had water in 20+ years. Well now if there is a huge spike in temperature and a lot of snow melts or we have a couple of inches I can get a good puddle on the floor. Luckily it doesn't matter much where it comes in but it is still a pain to have to clean it up each time.

I am planning on installing a drain tile system soon to help with the problem as I can not really grade around my house on 2 sides.

Careful planning now can save you thousands of dollars in the future. These steps will not mean there is no chance for moisture in your basement, but it greatly increases your odds that you will not have problems.

The final result happened. And it is what I thought would happen......

So the buyer was supposed to get back to me in the morning if $201K was good. He did not and after several phone messages he finally got back to me at 4pm that day. Now the problem was the home was having a second showing at 4pm and there was a good chance another offer would come in. If this was the case we would not have a good chance!

This time the buyer wanted to see if he could get $1000 more off the price, now $200K. I said are you sure you want to do that? If there is another offer you might lose the house. He said just try and see what the seller says.

So at about 6pm the listing agent called and said there is another offer coming in! The seller wanted to see that offer before making a decision on either offer. I now knew we were not sitting well. I called the buyer back and told him. Quickly he said I'll take the $201K offer. I said that is fine but now the seller wants to see both. I called the agent and gave the verbal.

Later that night the buyer called twice wanted to find out the status. I said I have not heard back yet and if I do I will call asap.

Now it was the next morning. The buyer called twice again...whats going on, did we get the offer? I said I haven't heard yet, but it might be done already and they could be working with the other offer. He quickly said again how about $202K. I was surprised at now the price is going up after $201K was too expensive. I said I will call, but it might be over.

The agent called me back and said, I'm sorry but the other offer was several thousand dollars higher and we are currently working with that offer. I called my buyer and told him. He was disappointed and knew what went wrong. He said "it was my fault, I waited too long". An hour or two later he called back and said how about $204K. I said I'd call but I think they are working with the other offer, they were. It was over.

Lesson learned. Listen to your agent. Listen to yourself. If you feel it is a good deal and the agent says it is too take it. Trying to play games or take too long and you might lose the home to someone else.

I am recently working with a new client who is new to the housing market. We got together and talked about what is important to him and I began looking what was out there. Suddenly I remembered a home that had been recently remodeled with almost everything new, exactly what he was looking for. He mentioned he was not handy and didn't want to worry about anything needing fixing for a while.

He had a good amount of money to put down; up to 50% on a $200,000 purchase. Ideally he would like to keep his payments at about $700-1000 per month. Perfect, this home was listed at $209,900, on the market about 3-4 weeks, and recently reduced $5,000.

So I set up showings for that home and about 5 others. After seeing the homes the "Maplewood" home was his first choice. A "Roseville" home was his second. To understand Roseville is a more premium neighborhood than Maplewood and is about 5 miles away. The Maplewood home was 4 bedrooms, 2 full baths, huge 2 1/2 car garage, new kitchen, appliances, flooring, new siding, furnace, roof, and windows! The Roseville home had a remodeled kitchen, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and an attached 1 car garage for $225,000. Clearly it is more because of the location.

So he decided he wanted his roommate to see the home too. He also liked it. Now at this price of $210K it is pretty good. I would estimate the home to sell between $200K and $205K. We also looked at 5 more homes to compare. Another home near the Maplewood home was listed at $188K and also nice but needed a few updates. So he was going to think about it. The next day he said he is thinking of putting an offer in but probably about $195K. I said that is fine, I don't know what the seller will say but it is a start. Also the next day I heard an offer was coming in on the $188K home (10days) on market and was definitely worth $20-30K less than the $210K home.

So he said he needed another friend who recently bought a home to look at it. Over the weekend there was about 5 showings on the home and I was getting worried there would be an offer in on it soon. By now he was thinking of offering $185K at first. His new friend who bought a short sale (home listed at $299K to start, reduced to $270K, then put an offer in at $230K and negotiated a sale at $250K, so according to her $50K off list price) said start low...you never know what the seller is going to say!

We finally got together to write the offer and his thought was to start at $180K! At least $20K less than market value. I told him it doesn't really matter what the list price is, it is what market value is. He understood and asked if it would be a slim chance to get the home at that price and I said yes. Based on everything we saw and "pending" inventory. Finally I got him to start at $190K. I predicted scenarios that were almost exactly what happened.

He started at $190K, they countered back at $206K, he went up to $195K, they countered at $204K, he countered at $197K, they countered at $201K. I'm waiting for final decision but prior to talking to his friend he was actually cool with the $201K! I was actually shocked the seller came down as low as they did with all the activity on the home.

I understand the reason for starting low, but really do you think sellers are that naive and do not have information on the market to realize that an offer that low would be practically stealing the house? A home is going to sell for market value. You run the risk of insulting the seller and then they do not want to work with you. Has any had any great success at starting excessively low?

This is a great 1951 3 bedroom 1 bath 1 1/2 story home in Highland Park. Nice hardwood floors and great potential for an master bedroom upstairs and room to finish in the clean basement. The house has a newer furnace, AC, Hot Water Heater, and Fridge in the past few years. This home also has a 2 car garage! Check out the neighborhood!

I've recieved the lastest interest rate round up from my lender. Interest rates are awesome...Enough said!

Plus there is the anticipated $8000 first time home buyer credit. Drum up some business, shoot a mass email out to all your buyers and educate them on the interest rates. Tell them what a 1% change can do to their buying power.