Today was a barn-burner with meetings and home showing appointments, and thank goodness I managed to make it to each one of them on time. There happened to be one home that was added to the mix which would’ve made me late for another, so I called the person I was to meet and asked if we could make it a half hour later. Thank goodness he was understanding enough to allow a re-schedule.
The closing files I’ve been working on are coming together nicely and I’m hoping both of the buyers will be wanting to close earlier than the dates they had in their contracts. It’s usually the case with most buyers when they find out everything’s done and that’s all we’re waiting for is the day to arrive.
There’s no question there’s a growing flood of buyer activity in the market, and if only there’d be four good homes in a particular price range, I’d have all of them sold to buyers I’ve been working with this past month. I think the lenders are now starting to get busier because they’re not returning phone calls as quickly as they normally do. With the rates still hanging low, now’s a good time to look into purchasing.
I got a good laugh today out of a buyer when showing the basement of a home. When she walked into the laundry area, she twitched her nose and asked, “Can you smell something strange down here?” I took the leap of faith and responded, “The only whiff I got was something reminding me of a men’s locker room.” She and her friend both got a good chuckle out of it, and without looking around much down there, I’d say it was soon approaching laundry day.
Most people who list their homes don’t work at keeping their house odors under control because oft times they don’t even realize they’re there because they’ve grown used to them. I’ve said many a time that no matter how clean a person’s home is, there still remains a unique smell which, if it’s not offensive, is usually dismissed as just being a house smell. But, if a buyer gets even the slightest whiff of cigarette smoke, cat, dog, mildew, or just plain filth, it’ll usually be a turnoff unless they have one or all those odors in their own homes or apartments. Tomcat urine rates highest on the list of being the most offensive because of all the horror stories that’ve been told about endless attempts at getting rid of it.
For years I’ve encouraged investors that I work with from time to time, to do everything they can to NOT have carpeting ANYWHERE in their rentals because when the tenants move out, they’ll take their odors with them, but if there’s carpet, it lingers on. One of the apartments I rented for a client several months ago has carpet, and even though the carpet was shampooed, the new tenant purchased area rugs and a hall runner for it just because he didn’t want to be walking bare-footed on used carpet. Just today I happened to run into him Downtown and asked how he liked his new apartment, and was happy to hear it suits him well. There’s no question he’s a clean freak which is just fine by me.
It looks to be a bit cooler tomorrow and I’m hoping the showing that’s scheduled for my listing located at 341 S. Carolina goes well. Without a doubt, it’s the most well cared-for homes on the market, as well as offering a mega-gorgeous rear yard. We’ve had some solid interest in it, and now that Spring is here, I’m confident it’ll get sold soon.
My public open house scheduled for tomorrow is a grand home that’s located in our Crescent of Culture offering views of Willow Creek that are spectacular. As always with our historic older homes, there’s just a certain segment of the population who’re attracted to them. Just today a buyer mentioned how much more she’d rather live in a two story because of the living space separation. I complimented her on the great taste she has in home styles.
I was feeling sorry for a young gentleman today when hearing how upset he was about water seeping in the basement of a home he recently purchased because of the number of personal belongings that were ruined. It sounded like the previous owner lied on the seller’s disclosure because that very naughty seller noted on it that there were no basement water problems.
For the life of me I’ll never understand why sellers do that because it’s plain and simply wrong to mis-lead innocent and trusting young buyers. People are always blaming Realtors for things like that, but the real blame should be placed on those nefarious owners. I’m a great believer in karma regarding sellers who lie about problems with their homes, because sooner or later they’re paying an even bigger price in one way or another. And that also goes for people who acquire money from others that they know does not belong to them. Yup. Karma’s always sitting out there in the shadows sharpening her claws.
Tonight’s one-liner is: Ignorance is the ghost that continues to haunt the learned.
