Susan Walters

It all started at the wedding of clients of mine a few weeks ago. I was delighted to be invited since I knew it was to be a small affair, spur of the moment despite the engagement, because of a job change. They had planned an exotic wedding in Hawaii to mark the event but that was not to be. The ceremony was at her condo which I have listed for sale. Essentially, everyone knew I was the realtor. I hope to be realtors to all of them if the need arises.

I found I was the only person at the wedding who was English-as-a-first-language specialist, if one can call that a specialty? There was a LOT that flew over my head though there were people who would see my puzzled looks and translate what the comments and laughter were about. Yes, the moment was lost in the translation but at least I had a clue. P.S. The food was fabulous!

Today I had the condo on home tour for my office and invited various people as well. Despite doubting the open house results in our area, I had a great turnout that included two potential buyers. Shocking! I expected realtors and lenders, but the people off the street were a real surprise. Things are definitely changing in Ann Arbor, for the better.

As my open house was wrapping up, a man arrived and I knew he looked familiar but I couldn't place him. He was a friend of the couple who is coming around to collect mail and water plants, and most specifically, watch out for the Comcast box to return the equipment to the company. We had a long and lovely chat that included his visiting sister. Both are physicians, she in Europe and not wanting to waste a minute before getting back to shopping (I understand), and he a physician who has yet to be certified here until his English proficiency allows him to test. His wife, however, is practicing at the University of Michigan.

The conversation was fascinating and highlighted, again, that Ann Arbor is an island of internationality in the midwest, and that we are the same the world over. When we were speaking about what he does since he cannot practice medicine right now without being licensed, he said he was raising the children. He rightly pointed out the major responsibilities of the stay-at-home parent. (That was when I first fell in love - I was a stay-at-home mother for many years.) But he then talked about running marathons and the events he has participated in. There's something I will never do. He talked about training and I was astounded by what he said he does in training. He puts his kids on the school bus, waves goodbye, and then races the bus to the school. How much fun is that for these elementary kids!!!??? And how much of a motivator for physical exercise as well? He conceded that he wins sometimes and the bus wins other times but his son is always waiting for him at the end.

We then somehow segued to age and I guessed he was about 34 - medical school, young children. No, he is closer to 50. He said he was very good at estimating ages and I asked how old he thought I was. He looked at me hard and said 38. I love this man completely now since he knocked more than a decade off in my favor. Who says real estate doesn't have its perks? His medical estimation not only erased years but it gave me a huge boost to my ego. That has to count for something. I feel it; it does. <3

Bottom line, I have made friends with my sellers and been invited into their lives. I am beginning relationships with people they know who they would recommend me to. Beyond that, I am establishing an understanding of cultures different than the one I was raised in. Breaking out of the comfort zone is important and good. I feel like I did that today. We are all the same. Couples, parents, individuals. "Helping you find your way home." That's my tag line and I chose it because it is real, not clever. "Home" is universal.

Time for another tale from the dark side.

My intrepid buyers have been faithfully bidding on property for nearly a year now, coming up against the infamous, "highest and best" bidding process in numerous offers. Well, recently they won, "won" being a relative term. I have to question the bank's integrity on this one but those mysterious workings in vault-land are beyond our control and not to be spoken of publicly. I would speak of them, mind you, but there is no way I would know what they are thinking, particularly in this twisting tale.

The property in question is a gem. An absolute palace with two bedrooms. The lone bathroom is accessed from the bedrooms by crossing through the living room and the kitchen (another agent said there was no kitchen - hah! newbie!) and is the only shining example of renovation in the entire place. Did I mention the property needs a well so there is no water?

OK, back to the beginning and the bidding "war" of two parties. When highest and best was decided, my buyer had won but the bank decided to counter at a higher price anyway. Can they do that???!!! They wanted to charge the buyer half the cost of the new well too (that cost was an estimate, and...no thank you). Finally, the decision was made to give them the crummy thousand dollar difference between their best offer and the agreement that the bank would cover the well. Great. The listing agent and I both supported the buyer. I won't say what the listing agent called that bank rep - that just wouldn't be cool. I hope to do many more deals with him now that I have his number.

Inspection day rolled around and the bank was supposed to have some meager water supply working so the inspection could include plumbing. We arrived to find a garden hose running from the well pump (apparently that is shot too) out to the far reaches of the yard, just spewing water. Is that helpful to the inspection....? OK, on to other things. Let's start with the furnace since there is so much fun there. The inspector's gas leak detector began indicating from several feet away. The furnace was not on. A lot of windows were opened and children were escorted to the park up the road. The exterior gas meter was tested - alarms again. I called the listing agent and said we had an emergencey situation and he needed to alert the gas company, which he did. So, no plumbing related inspection, no gas related inspection. Newer electrical service - thaaaaaat's good. Now we are down to structure.

The building is on a slab yet the square and true exterior and relatively faultless block foundation do not equate to what seems to be a uniformly sinking slab in the interior. There are dangerous 2 inch steps up into the bathroom and down into the living room from the front door. What is going on? Was there settlement nearly 50 years ago when the house was just built and this is it, or is this interior destined to be a sunken living room, kitchen, bedrooms and bath (+2" in the bath) by default one day? So hard to answer these questions.

Well, weeks have gone by and the gas issue was assessed and the cost of $1000 to repair was attempted to be passed to the buyer - why? They do not own the property and cannot even do the inspection requested and agreed to. A big no there. The well is not functional for testing yet, that I know of, so another delay. My buyer is going to pay for the call-back inspection if it ever gets to that, sadly. Time is ticking and the buyers are looking elsewhere without closing out this offer - they have had too many deals not get even this far. There is land, higher values in the neighboring properties, and if wearing rose-colored glasses and squinting, there is potential here. Does the bank not want to sell this adorable abode?

It's a new week tomorrow and I am going to call the listing agent. I will inquire about the well and the gas leak and see if we can schedule the followup inspection. I am going to reassure my buyers that the price, equal to the state-equalized value, means good value for them. They can fix it, live in it, keep it for an income property and move on up, or sell it outright for a profit, probably. I am going to point out again that it is the worst property in the neighborhood and that is a good place to be. It's Michigan and there are deals around every corner. You just need courage my lion friends, and I'd like to be your wizard. Please bring your own Dorothy.

The Coca Cola Company put out one of their most famous advertising campaigns when they switched from, "Things go better with Coke" to, "It's the real thing." Who would have thought that would be better? It was all about the song, its message and how we were feeling at the time - January 17,1981. The Vietnam War was tragic, and healing was needed. The "perfect harmony in the world" scenario could not have come at a more crucial time. Here are the lyrics:

I'd like to buy the world a home and furnish it with love,

Grow apple trees and honey bees, and snow white turtle doves.

I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony,

I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

[Repeat the last two lines, and in the background:]

It's the real thing, Coke is what the world wants today.

Talk about knowing your audience and reading the moment! I heard this song replayed this past holiday season and as someone around when it first aired in 1981, it was a powerful nostalgic burst. Branding works!

Well, this segue is a bit loose but I'm connecting to my brother's newborn son. It relates to the "world harmony" theme of the coke ad campaign. Please bear on.

My brother and his wife expected a child to be born this March, 2008, and he arrived on March 10th, three weeks early and nearly seven pounds. There was no surprise in that he would need almost immediate heart surgery, routine, if you can call it that when it calls for three to four surgeries in the first year of life. Reality proved to be different than prognosis - his heart was far worse than anticipated. This infant boy has had three surgeries in his first 3 weeks of life and only God can account for why he is still alive, I am sure. He needs a transplant, it turns out, and that usually means a 2-3 month wait. He was severe enough that he was given just two days as the time-on-ventilator deadline (his heart stopped without the ventilator) after the first two surgeries failed - he went 8 days without complications and somewhere in those days it was decided that he was a great candidate for a "Berlin heart".

My research has taught me that the Berlin heart procedure is a bridge to transplantation, sometimes a very long bridge if necessary. There can be complications but there are numerous successes. This is not a procedure approved by the FDA in America so only the most qualified candidates will be considered on a case-by-case basis. (It has been used in Europe since its invention in the 90's, where transplant candidates can easily wait for a year for a donor.) It was exciting news that the device was being flown in one day and shocking news that a team of German surgeons skilled in the procedure accompanied it - that's when I cried, by the way. After six hours of surgeries and many near-misses, the Berlin heart was in place, perhaps in the youngest candidate ever - stats are not available yet and none of us really cares. When my brother was asked if his or his wife's insurance covered this non-FDA approved procedure, he responded, "I don't care." I think that explains why this squeaky-clean couple in their forties, leaving their beloved three-year-old behind in the care of others so this child could get what he needed, are considered a compassion case. We are all praying and wishing the best for Michael John Mackin, but we are also hoping the procedures to save him will not unduly burden the family. Time will tell.

It has been over 36 hours since Michael survived surgery. There is the trauma of weaning him from the ventilator over the next three days but he now has a very functional, temporary, heart, in an amazingly stong will-to-live body. My brother is terribly troubled in that someone else's child will need to die to save his child's life but we are doing our best to reassure him that if in a similar position, he would choose to save another child's life. We don't anticipate these life events; we don't orchestrate them. We just react and survive. That is our goal now, survival for Michael, and for every child facing a similar fate.

The bigger goal goes back to the opening of this entry - "I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony."

Don't we all want that? Let's make that our goal, beyond Michael even. Life is about these things - family, successes, losses - it's universal. I don't care if it is simplistic...why can't we all just be friends?

Thank you Berlin!

REALTOR; Heck of a day yesterday, heck of a day today. Deals coming together, deals falling apart, deals on hold. Seminars, meetings, eat, sleep, you get the drill.

SISTER/AUNT: Everything was PROMISED to be OK just 2 days ago. My brother and his wife had a baby on March 10th; they had known for months that their son would be born with a heart defect that would require 3-4 surgeries in his first year of life. The prognosis was good. I received much less positive news today after his first surgery but there is a two day wait until the worst, if it becomes the worst, will be apparent. If we're lucky.

REALTOR: My schedule did not allow for this news - it was not pencilled in.

SISTER/AUNT: They are in another state and the emotions are muted as a result. I feel for those who are fielding the calls and answering the questions of their three-year-old daughter while Mom and Dad are three hours away with baby Michael, at the best children's hospital they had researched, experienced in this condition, reasonably close to home. Michael was medivac'd but that may not have helped in any way to save him. The real problem became evident when they opened him up and saw what was really going on.

REALTOR: Today was just shy of 16 hours on the job, from crack-of-dawn Thursday BNI network meeting to KW Regional Awards Ceremony to the race to catch up from time lost as a result - if you erase, you must replace.... Email followup, affiliate meeting, phone calls, in-office colleague consultations, document signing. Paid for my ad, forgot to pay realtor.com - hope they don't cut me off. Stomach growling; there was only brunch today at the awards ceremony at 10:00. Wait, I got 25 cents of chocolate covered raisins from the machine - I did have lunch after all, I just forgot. It is now 8:00 PM. (It was mid-afternoon when I called for the baby update.)

MOTHER/WIFE: Checked to see if daughter was online - studying abroad in Paris, France. No, no, and more no. Where is she? Oh yes, "couchsurfing" in Switzerland with a girlfriend, sleeping for free on friendly people's couches in Geneva and Bern for the Easter weekend - hope that is safe and OK. End of the day, grocery shopping, enormous. Home....what have the three other household members been doing in my absence? Husband/father, in the man cave in the basement, overlooking the overflowing kitchen trash in the kitchen and the dirty dishes in the sink - chores of the teens, not done. The "shy" cat greets me at the garage door - what's up with that? Ahhhh, no food for the cats - dry or wet - they can't get it for themselves! I even learn that she, our only clawless cat, has finally cornered and killed the elusive mouse. The clawless cat, of four, has killed the mouse! Does that not scream desperation? It is the tipping point of the day. I speak, I demand, I bark. Reaction. (I don't want to demand or bark, please understand.) The trash gets taken out, the dishes get mostly done, the husband emerges from the lower level.

SUMMARY: Of all the day's events, in all the activity, there is only one of significance and I doubt any of us has any control over it. Little Michael John Mackin. The deals will get done, or not. The chores will get done, or not. Switzerland hostesses will be delightful, or not. My schedule will adjust, for Michael, if necessary. His future is uncertain and probably not of his choosing. His parents will accept the outcome; I pray. I thank God for the three healthy children I gave birth to with barely a thought that I could possibly face a situation like this. I am grateful I have never had to. I am very, very grateful.

Last Tuesday at our sales meeting, our team leader surveyed the room and in typical fashion asked if anyone had any success stories. A few hands went up and stories were relayed. We murmured our congratulations and then I raised my hand to report that I had written five buyer deals in the previous week. My team leader raised his hands in applause that was seconded by my colleagues in the room.

Well, here we are on another Tuesday and if I wanted to be really truthful, I'd have to raise my hand to say that only one of those deals remains a "sure thing" - probably just jinxed that one, that's why it is in quotes. Another is a half/maybe, and two others seem dead and dead. The fifth deal is an ongoing HUD bid online; I have become a machine, daily upping the offer incrementally on a predetermined basis. The outcome is impossible to predict.

So what went wrong? The HUD has not been accepted so that is still a possibility; we don't know the number they'll take and their list price is way too high. Another deal had an inspection so chilling it is in serious jeopardy, from the leaking natural gas at all points of the furnace and the outdoor meter to the uniformly sinking slab within the surprisingly intact foundation. We were all in jeopardy from the gas leak but the sinking slab? Was the foundation built on bedrock and the poured slab on quicksand? I don't get it. Is it done sinking or will these buyers eventually be putting up wainscotting to cover the gap between the floor and the sillplate, all rooms in the ranch suddenly officially below grade?

The final two deals to fall apart were investor deals, both condos with one accepted and one countered. The countered one has a pie-in-the-sky bank not ready to face market reality so the buyer walked away. The other accepted condo deal was done in by the HVAC on inspection. All of the other faults were accounted for in the offer with a builder ballpark underscoring the rightness of the numbers. That furnace and custom AC unit, at $5000 was the nail in the coffin on inspection. The numbers didn't add up at that point and getting to the agreed upon offer had been difficult enough. Renegotiation failed, not for lack of trying. Do these lenders not want to sell these palaces?

The one bright spot left, the one deal left, is a renovated condo with converted renters for buyers. They saw the rent-versus-buy numbers and found a great property they could afford. A few tweakings needed from the inspection report but everything is on track to close in record time. Start to finish, from the first call on a rental to closing on a purchase? Maybe six weeks. Those are the deals I want more of, and these buyers just might get my finest closing gift ever. It can be a cruel world in real estate, but give credit where credit is due. My hat is tipped to them. :)