Category Archives: Homes for sale

Know when to “fold ‘em”

Posted on 08/18/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Can a real estate agent decline your business when you are buying or selling a home? The short answer is ‘yes‘. That’s because real estate agents are self-employed and can operate their business as they choose … as long as it’s done legally.

Why might an agent not take my business?

  • The primary issue is often HONESTY or TRUTHFULNESS. If the agent suspects you’re not being truthful in the information you’re providing, they may be cautious about working with you.
  • RESPECT and TRUST might also be a reason. Few people want to work so closely with someone who doesn’t respect them or might treat them rudely, but that’s true for many industries, not just in real estate.
  • UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS can lead to frustrations down the road. Sellers who want to overprice their homes regardless of what the comps indicate may have a hard time finding an agent to list their home. Likewise, buyers who are determined to to buy a home for 80% of its list price regardless of the competitiveness of the list price, may find themselves without an agent to drive them around neighborhoods writing countless offers.
  • FAILURE TO ACT to prepare to sell or buy, such as cleaning the home properly, making suggested repairs  or meeting with a lender to get pre-approved prior to viewing homes.
  • OUTSIDE THE AGENT’S AREA of expertise or geographical area may cause an agent to decline. Currently, numerous agents are not working with short-sales or REO’s. Some agents may not want to work with farmland because they feel they lack the expertise required. Still other agents may have a policy to not work beyond a certain number of miles from their home base or office.
  • Some agents don’t work with THIRD PARTY RELOCATION sellers or buyers. These are clients taking new jobs in other areas and the new employer has hired a 3rd Party Relo company to handle the move. The agent must pay 38% or more of their commission to the Relo company. With other financial requirements from the Relo company, an agent may make only 45% of their normal income. If the time involved with the Relo client cuts into the service level the agent is able give a regular client, the agent may refuse the Relo business.

Just like any other company or business, real estate agents have a business plan with target markets, sales & income objectives, and the need to control overhead costs. Remember, while you are interviewing the agent to see who YOU want to work with, the agent is subtlety interviewing you to see if your goals/intentions fit their biz plan. Sometimes it’s a good fit and sometimes it’s not. To reference Kenny Rogers’ song, gotta know when to hold ‘em & when to fold ‘em.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Home buying process, Home selling process, Homes, Homes for sale, Realtors®, Realtor® selection, Sellers

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“Should I reduce the price of my home?”

Posted on 08/13/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

“Should I reduce the price of my home?”

That was a question someone Googled prior to visiting this blog. The answer may be, “if you’re asking, then the answer is probably ‘yes’“. However, do check out some things first before you make the pricing decision:

  1. Look at the photos your agent has posted on the Internet. Do the photos flatter your home or are they dark, blurred, crooked, or generally poor quality? Was your home staged to remove clutter – especially in the kitchen; were bedspreads smoothed; toys picked up or removed; were all the lights turned on for photo taking; are there cars or trash cans in the photos. If your photos don’t make the home look its best, request that your agent take new photos.
  2. Is your home advertised on lots of Internet sites with maximum photos on each? Your home should be on the agent’s broker’s site, on Realtor.com with 20-some photos, on Trulia & Zillow, and many other sites.
  3. Ask your agent to show you a copy of the MLS sheet. Make sure all the data in it is correct. Sometimes the person entering the data makes a mistake on one of the key searchable details such as area, subdivision, school districts, or even price.
  4. If your photos are good and you’re on lots of Internet sites, are you getting showings? If showings are occurring, then what has been the feedback as to why the buyers didn’t choose your home? Can the buyer’s complaint be fixed – like new carpet – or is it unfixable – like floor plan or location? If it can be fixed then do that. If it can’t be fixed, then the price needs to be lowered.
  5. If your photos are good and you’re on lots of Internet sites, and you AREN’T getting showings, then chances are good that buyers think your home is overpriced for what it offers OR there just aren’t many buyers for your price range or your area. Higher priced homes often experience this as there are fewer buyers in the upper ranges. However, you want to make sure that your price is competitive so that your home becomes the most appealing of all the other homes the few buyers will be viewing. You may only have one chance to appeal to that one buyer. Give it your best shot.

Too often sellers try to price a home based on the net amount they want to have to buy their next home. To be very frank, the buyers don’t care about what the seller wants for their proceeds. The buyer will pay what they think the home is worth in the current market as it compares to other similar homes. That fact can be a tough pill for some sellers to swallow. The second truism is that “price solves all problems”. At the right price, all homes will sell.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Home prices, Home selling process, Homes, Homes for sale, Sellers

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Do you REALLY know where you live?

Posted on 08/09/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Searching the Internet for homes for sale in Delaware County by zip code can be a mistake. Likewise, trusting any housing stats that show the info by zip can be very misleading. Why? Because the boundaries for the zips in Delaware County have no relevance to municipalities or school districts or general geography.

The first home I purchased was located in Franklin County, in the Worthington School District, with a Dublin phone exchange. The property taxes were based on the city of Columbus with Columbus police, fire, trash and snow removal. My MAILING address was Powell 43065. Essentially, I wasn’t sure where I lived.

At that time, I inquired as to why I had a Powell mailing address since Powell is in Delaware County. I was told that it was due to the mail routes (and zips) being set up when the land was rural. They told me that Worthington wasn’t set up to do mail delivery to farm land properties.

ZipMap
Click map to enlarge

So fast forward to today to see how strange the zip codes are for southern Delaware County. I’m not sure how these zip boundaries were determined but since the area was farms until recent years, I suppose it has something to do with rural carrier routes. Even then, I don’t understand why 43015 (Delaware, orange area) extends all the way down to Powell Rd, west of Rt 23. Why doesn’t 43065 (Powell, lavender area) go straight to the east with Rt 23 as its border?

Another issue is that these zip areas contain multiple school districts. For example, the 43065 Powell zip contains portions of 4 school districts (Olentangy, Dublin, Worthington and Buckeye Valley). Because home sales/prices differ within each of the four school districts, it would be misleading to provide you with the data using only the zip code. A similar problem exists for the Galena zip code (43021, teal area) and the Delaware zip (43015, orange area). These additional areas also have multiple school districts which aren’t aligned with the zip boundaries.The Lewis Center zip code, 43035 is a little “cleaner”.

This “mess” is why I typically report sales by school district. First of all, doing so provides larger geography, making the reports a little easier to understand. Home buyers are “generally” a little more familiar with school district areas, and even if they don’t have children in school, they know that their property taxes will be impacted (high or low) by the levies from the schools.

The next time you see a real estate agent or a newspaper reporting on housing sales or prices, try to determine what they are using for their search, otherwise you’re apt to be misled.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Delaware Ohio, Galena Ohio, Home buying process, Home prices, Homes, Homes for sale, Housing stats, Lewis Center Ohio, Powell Ohio, Schools

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Why did southern Delaware County grow so fast?

Posted on 08/06/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

newspaperA local newspaper reporter called me this morning to discuss the housing growth that has occurred in southern Delaware County this decade. I’m usually nervous about talking with the media for fear of being mis-quoted. I hope he doesn’t do that.

After our conversation was over, I thought more about why the growth has occurred into southern Delaware County. I think there are several events that occurred that set the stage for it.

  • I-270 made it easy to go from one suburb to another. Businesses (jobs) built up around the various interchanges. Suburbs located inside 270 were land-locked with limited room to expand further housing.
  • Suburbs, like Dublin or Powell close to the freeway, had room to expand their borders. They also had easy access to the freeway with major roads such as Rt 315, Sawmill Rd and Rt 33 already in place.
  • Lewis Center’s growth was impacted when Banc One (now Chase) built the huge employment center and the nearby Polaris Mall was added, both outside of I-270. Old State Rd provided access to that employment so many housing subdivisions were built off of that road.
  • Golf Courses have played an important part to the housing growth as well. Dublin already had Jack Nicklaus’ huge Muirfield Village but then Arnie’s Tartan Fields was built north of Muirfield. Powell began with Wedgewood, then added Scioto Reserve and Kinsale (Golf Village). Shamrock and Safari are nearby, but they are not lined with homes the way the other courses are.
  • The southwest part of the county contains both the Scioto and Olentangy Rivers. I’m not a geologist but it seems there is more variance to the terrain between the rivers, providing more opportunity for the wooded, ravine lots that many home buyers like.
  • The southeast part of the county has the big water reservoirs with Alum Creek and Hoover. Both offer boating opportunities, albeit they have different motor restrictions.
  • Dublin and Powell already had groceries and retail, but those types of commercial buildings have expanded to keep pace with the housing. Dublin added Perimeter Mall and Powell added the shopping at Powell Rd and Sawmill Pkwy.
  • Some of the northern most housing developments in the Lewis Center area were several miles from groceries, gas stations, and fast-food eateries, but with the recent addition of some new stores along Rt 23 at Lewis Center Rd, that is changing.
  • Columbus State Community college recently opened along Rt 23 and Ohio Health is at a certain stage of providing convenient health care for the area.
  • More growth along Rt 23 between Powell Rd and Cheshire Rd was on the drawing board but it has been put on hold due to the economic downturn.
  • Southern Delaware County is primarily served with four school districts: Dublin, Olentangy, Westerville and Big Walnut. Olentangy covers the largest geographical part of the southern part of the county.

Like thousands of others, I’ve found the county to be a great place to live and work. If you would like to join us, give me a call and we’ll go house shopping.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Delaware County, Dublin Ohio, Franklin County, Golf Village, Kinsale, Golf course communities, Homes, Homes for sale, Lewis Center Ohio, Media, Muirfield, Newspaper, Powell Ohio, Scioto Reserve, Water fun, Wedgewood

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Do you know what interest rates are now?

Posted on 08/03/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Quick … if I were to ask you what the interest rate is now on a 30-yr fixed rate loan, would you know the answer? Do you know what the rate was a year ago?

A year ago the rate was 5.25%. Today it’s 4.5%, depending on the applicant’s credit score and income/expense ratios. That may not seem like much of a difference, but let’s look at how much it changes your monthly payment.

Suppose you want to buy a home in southern Delaware County with a $250,000 mortgage. At last year’s rate, your P&I would have cost $1,382.50. At this year’s rate the P&I would be $1,267.50. So your mortgage payment would be $115 less than it would have been last year. That’s a savings of $1,380 per year … basically the savings of one entire monthly payment.

If you been sitting on the fence regarding selling or buying a home, you should consider how beneficial it would be to do so now from an interest rate perspective. Of course, there are other things to think about such as the equity you now have in your home and the price it might sell for, but if you’re in a good position it is certainly something to think about.

Give me a call and I can help you with comps, plus, I’ll do a Net Equity Estimate for you to see if it is a good time for you to change homes.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Buyers, Central Ohio, Delaware County, Home buying process, Home prices, Homes, Homes for sale

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2010 BIA Parade of Homes in New Albany – a Realtor’s® view

Posted on 07/28/2010 by Elaine Reese| Leave a comment

Yesterday morning was Realtor® Day at the 2010 BIA Parade of Homes at Ackerly Park in New Albany. Eight builders have homes in this year’s Parade. All of the homes have been built to conform with New Albany’s strict design style. This year’s builders are:

I was short on time but did manage to visit 7 of the 8 homes. I missed the Knight home and I didn’t visit the second floor of any of the homes. I did manage to take some photos for you.

Some of the differences that I noticed this year were the darker wall & wood colors and extensive use of decorating textures, mainly stone. Ceilings have become fancier and the flooring on the main level was mostly wood or very interesting tile. Countertops were either granite or the new concrete, which according to one of the builders, is similar in cost to granite. And yes, that IS a wood floor in that shower photo.

The Parade lasts until August 8. Visit BIAParade.com for more details.

Copyright © 2010. Elaine Reese, Real Living HER. Reproduction of any portion of this blog post or the images is prohibited by the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If this post is being viewed on any site other than www.ReesesPiecesOfRealEstate.com then the material has been stolen without permission. Violators will be reported.

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Posted in Central Ohio, Franklin County, Homes, Homes for sale, New home builders

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