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Home inspections are so important that, unlike most markets, local attorneys will not draw up contracts until they are settled. They are never a contingency of the contract in Westchester. Today we had a home inspection on a property our clients had a recent offer accepted on, and it did not go well at all. Surprisingly, in spite of the many updates and renovations made by the current owner in the 8 or so years they have owned the place, such as a new kitchen, baths and furnace, problems found were so bad that our clients elected to not proceed with the transaction.
There was not one, not two, not even three, but four major issues discovered by the end of the inspection. First, we found termite damage in the garage, then the basement. Then, mold in the basement. After that, evidence of a fire in the home (!). To wrap it up, material that could contain asbestos was identified.
Termites, mold, fire, asbestos. A grand slam. Just one of these situations can hamper or kill a deal. Two of them typically kill a deal. Four? Forget it.
I work for the buyer; my first job is to be their advocate. Could we get the seller to address all the issues to their satisfaction? Perhaps, but am I supposed to twist their arm if they’ve lost that loving feeling? If they truly loved the house they could deal with curing the troubles and staying in the deal. They still may. But it would have to be their choice, not because I convinced them. There are still too many choices out there to do so, and as their agent I have to work for them, not my immediate commission. There is a 1% chance they could wake up in the morning and be willing to listen to the seller’s proposal to fix the issues. But the overwhelming odds are that we will find a home with fewer issues.
As cute as this place was, I have never sold a home that had that many major issues that wasn’t sold as a rehab project or fixer upper at a steep discount. This was a first. But that’s baseball, and clients spend far too much money to compromise on these things. The buyer is out several hundred dollars, but that is the cost of doing business to avoid more expensive issues down the road.
Sellers: Before you list your home, get it inspected. Then this will never happen.
“Yours is the Hardest Business I Have Ever Seen.”
Weekends are busy in real estate, so you can imagine the feeling when my head sank into the couch pillow at 6:20pm when I remembered that I had to drive to New Rochelle meet with a client I promised to see. My client is a retiree, and straight shooter as well, and our conversations are always unpredictable. Tonight, she did not disappoint.
That is just on the part of the work that centers on client needs. The other aspects of running a brokerage, such as the marketing, administration, sales, management of people, risk, liability and time, can all be taxing. But for those of us in this industry, it is a vocation, a lifestyle, and almost an obsession. We live, eat breathe and sleep real estate. How do I relax? I end my day by reading and writing about the industry on my own platform and in social media. It is the height of irony to unwind from a long day in real estate by immersing myself in…more real estate. But I am not alone.
There is another part to running a brokerage that isn’t part of marketing, management or servicing clients. It is keeping up with the changes in the industry. The new shiny toy in 1996 was a cell phone. In 2001, it was a real estate website. Three years ago, licensees were encouraged to get involved in social media, and boy did we ever. In those and many “THE” things to do, we do it and often not well. My social media news stream is flooded with the insufferable amount of agents who use Facebook as a self promotion machine with waves of posts about their new listings, open houses, and humble-brags about what they did that day.
And when the shiny object stops being effective, they’ll say it is passe. Lately, some agents have questioned whether websites, blogs, or home searches on their sites are worth having anymore because of diminished returns. This make me laugh. In 1996 my cell phone was a game changer. But why should it be a game changer now, when everyone has one?
So here was my last update on Facebook, directed toward my colleagues who blame their websites for no longer being effective:
Our latest efforts are making sure that all of our online content and property searches are fully optimized for mobile. Who knows what it will be next week. But that is the job, and knowing what is next, just like taking nice photos or writing nice copy, is my business. Hard to do? Yes. But do I love it?
Again, yes.