Tim Maitski~editor of MaitskiREport.com

Scenarios:

• You the REALTOR®, you walk into a potential listing and the home has a few (hundred) too many items in the house. What do you say to the seller?
• The seller wants $75,000 more than the home is worth. Do you tell them the advice they got from their hairdresser neighbor or uncle from another town is a mile off?
• The house is dirty, messy and has a bad smell (Big Dog). Do you say lovely home, I am sure it will sell fast or do you tell it to them straight?
• The orange bathroom walls and hot pink bedroom carpet is not going to be popular among buyers. Do you say lovely choice of colors or do you talk about neutralizing?

These are among some of the basics we as REALTORS® deal with on a daily basis. If you are a professional, you need to be honest and tell them the truth up front. You also need to be diplomatic and not hurt feelings or insult anyone. You are speaking about their home. You are however an expert and they brought you in to help them, not stroke their ego.

Being professional includes preparing clients for the process ahead and keeping them informed. I tell clients I would rather tell them the truth up front and not stand in front of them three months from now making lame excuses. A true test of a professional is you ability to say no without insulting someone. Most people understand no. What really makes them angry is being mislead and later having to deal with the damages.

We are dealing with the most expensive item in their lives in most cases and we need to treat it as such.

To address clutter, I discuss making the space look as big as we can. I also talk about what they loved about the home when they bought it and discuss how we can make the home better show that to potential buyers. We also need to allow buyers to envision the home with their stuff in it. If the walls are filled with family pictures and shelves have a ton of collectables they will not be able to place themselves in there. In some cases bringing in a professional stager may be the solution. If the seller does not except my advice, they may accept it from a staging professional.

The pet question is a big one. Many pet owners are immune to the smell. I delicately discuss that many buyers do not have pets and detect the smell easily. I also mention that many buyers and/or their children have allergies to pet dander and fur. Hopefully when I begin the discussion, they pick up on it and make it easier for me.

The loud colors I handle with my famous speech about staging. I tell sellers there is two ways to stage a home. We can stage it to live in it and we can stage it to sell. Staging to sell requires that we neutralized and depersonalize. I have had a few clients resist by telling my how much they love something. In the most tactful way I can I remind them they are not going to be living here and we need to prepare it for the new owners. In most cases the sellers have gone with my suggestions and we have had a successful sale. In two cases they held their guns and the sell price was less than I felt we might have gotten, and it took longer to sell. In both cases, I gave my professional advice and then accepted the seller's decision. It is their home and their choice in the end.

If sellers are completely unreasonable are not willing to price the home within reason or make any effort to make it sellable, I then do the most professional thing I can. I do not take the listing. This is hard for most agents to do, but there are times when you will not be able to help them.

In one case where I rejected a listing, the seller respected me for doing it and agreed to my recommendations. To this day we are good friends and has not only been a repeat client, but has sent me referrals.

Good luck and good selling!

Wow. I don't know what else to say, but... Wow.

Back around the end of June, I found out that the Fox 5 iTeam wanted to shoot a segment in one of my listings, 9010 Brixham Court in Suwanee. At first I only knew that it was about home managers and live in stagers. I found out that they wanted to shoot the positive side of a bad situation...

It was going to air in July, but didn't actually air until the last 10 days.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

And after seeing it, WOW. I am beside myself.

I am quite happy with the home stagers that we have in the property. They are doing a magnificent job of keeping the house ready at all times. They are flexible and responsible. Obviously it isn't that way for everyone.

I knew from the conversations at the house that there was another homeowner/seller, using a different company, that was having a terrible experience. I had NO idea it was going to go where it did.

As a side note, the owner of the other property got someone from Showhomes of Atlanta into her home as a home manager after this was shot. There is no doubt that this is a solid concept... and that I have a good company for my listing.

Incredible! My state, Florida, has decided to reap additional taxes on those who have the unenviable position of having to do a Short Sale to save themselves from foreclosure or other financial ruin. Florida, like some other states, has a standard tax to the seller whenever there is a sale of real property. It is based on the sales price. Some states call this a "conveyance" tax. Florida calls it "Documentary Stamps on the Deed". It's a tax. The calculation is the sales price multiplied by .007, roughly. Thus, a sale of $300,000 would trigger taxes due at closing to the State of Florida for $2,100. What title agents, also called closing agents, have done up until now is to collect this tax based on the sales price in the contract. But now, in a letter dated August 7, 2008, the Florida Department of Revenue has made it clear to title agents that they must charge this tax on the sales price plus any forgiven debt. So, in the case where a home is sold for $300,000 and mortgage debt of $100,000 is cancelled, Florida wants an additional $700. Apparently, they want their money now. Thus, we have title agents scrambling to collect extra taxes on past closings. How are they going to get that money? I doubt the lenders will cough it up so quickly. And, who is really paying here? This extra tax might seem like a gold mine to Florida. It probably totals in the millions. Again, who is really paying this fee? I see it as opportunistic.

For example, what if a seller BROUGHT $50,000 to closing to cover his upside-down mortgage that was more than the sales price? They would tax that, too? Insanity. If that's what Florida wants to do, they should change the tax to be called "Documentary Stamps on the Seller's Mortgage", not the "Deed". Oh, wait. Then if the mortgage was less than the sales price they would lose money. They would never go for that.

P.S. If you want a copy of the letter, I'll gladly email it to you.

It's Wendy!

Wendy Rulnick, Broker, CRP, CRS, GRI, ABR Rulnick Realty, Inc.

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