by Paul Slaybaugh | Jun 16, 2009 | Home Buying, Home Selling, Scottsdale Real Estate
Everyone wants a piranha.
Whether a professional athlete intent on a signing bonus the size of Madagascar, a victim of a vicious fender bender fixated on the 2.8 million dollar legal prescription for a tender neck or a home buyer/seller whose sole purpose on this earth at the immediate moment is to grind as many Ben Franklins as possible out of the guy on the other side of a negotiation, aggressiveness is typically the hallmark virtue in the professional representation that is sought.
The sports super agent, who we are 95% certain has a life-sized portrait of his bare chested self wearing a boa constrictor around suspiciously well tanned shoulders hanging in his posh downtown office, is universally loathed by all. Secretly, however, we all know he’d be the only guy we’d call if we needed to make a cash withdrawal from the abundant posterior of a team owner.
The weaselly ambulance chaser with the slicked back, Grecian Formula enhanced locks is similarly unlikely to find himself on the guest lists of many Bat Mitzvahs and baby showers. That narcissistic predator might eat the baby. When we spill the drive-thru coffee in our laps or stumble over the “Watch Your Step!” sign at a public establishment, though, he’s the guy we call.
Amicable folks are great to have around, but when the conversation turns to business, we don’t want Mary Poppins going into battle on our behalf armed only with a spoonful of sugar to make the medicine go down. We’d rather employ the services of Dr. Jekyll to go all Mr. Hyde on the opposition and cram that spoon straight down their throats.
Easy, tiger.
There is a time to kill, and there is a time to frolic. The problem with the constant grinder is that he often grinds himself right out of a transaction. It is critical that you leave the other guy with some dignity at the end of a tough negotiation, lest all of your efforts collapse under the weight of the other party’s exhaustion. After you’ve knocked the poor bloke to the ground and bloodied his nose, do the smart thing. Extend your hand and help him up.
In practical terms, this is akin to finally saying “yes” after repeated “no’s.” When you win on the key points, you are often in a position to make a small concession on some trivial tangential issue. Too many times, I see lost opportunities for a clear victor to score easy diplomatic points at these junctures in the waning moments of a deal. Want the inspection and other critical aspects of the transaction yet to come to go smoothly? Give up something that isn’t really necessary. Offer something minor, but unexpected.
You’ve bitten his neck on price, drank his blood on terms … time to give him a transfusion unless you want to carry his Doppelganger the rest of the way to closing. For the record, undead weight is quite heavy.
Of course, because you are reading my blog, this advice assumes you were on the dispensing end of said treatment throughout the course of the initial negotiation. If you were unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end, go ahead and drive a wooden stake through the SOB’s black heart.
by Paul Slaybaugh | Jun 8, 2009 | Home Selling, Scottsdale Real Estate
So an unexpected job transfer snakes its way into your idyllic garden of domestic bliss one uncharacteristically blustery evening, and everything changes. The fertile soils that you have so lovingly cultivated within its confines are to fall under the purview and care of another’s spade. It’s time to sell your house.
Home improvement and design shows supplant your regular programs as you strive to understand what today’s buyer is looking for in a house. While you would never think of replacing the charming old world tiled counter tops for yourself, you know you just might have to for your suitors. The incremental evidence of your little one’s time on this earth will be obfuscated with nothing more than a coat of fresh paint on the kitchen wall. All such changes both minor and monumental as you prepare to open your doors to the world.
Once fully prepped, your venerable old home is a lot less old and venerable than modernly stylish. You’d buy it all over again, and that makes the forthcoming transition doubly tough.
For every showing, you light your strategically placed oatmeal raisin cookie scented candles and illuminate just the right number of lights. Light jazz emanates from the surround sound stereo system. No buyer can possibly navigate your well laid maze of hugs and snare traps without signing on the dotted line.
And yet, inconceivably, they do. The first buyer puts up a fight, and somehow manages to wriggle free. The second showing yields a prize relo catch who is lost to the sea of competition when the line snaps just as he breaches the water. The third candidate hops away on his one good leg after gnawing through an ensnared limb to escape your clutches. One after another they come and go.
You know there can be no possible objection to the condition of your home. You also know there can be no objection to the price. Though a bit higher than recommended by your Realtor, you are well aware that your home is vastly superior to anything else on the market. And the comps? What a joke! Sure the Johnson’s home sold for 100k less last month, but they didn’t even have a pantry! Something is rotten in Scottsdale, and you demand to know what it is.
You ask your agent for feedback from the buyers and agents that have viewed the home.
Which brings me to my serpentine point.
Showing feedback is not to be trusted. While I routinely solicit input from those who have shown my listings, I do so more as a means of keeping my properties top of mind with the buyer’s agent than as an honest assessment of our positioning within the market. It’s a tricky business to seek the opinion of the person to whom you would sell something. For starters, if I am working with a buyer, and the listing agent calls for my showing feedback, he or she better be prepared for the forthcoming diatribe about how horrifically overpriced they are … especially if my clients are interested in the home. Further, if the listing agent calls me multiple times, emails me and sends a carrier pigeon to my office with a note pleading for feedback, you better believe this mako smells more than a drop of blood in the water. You can only push so hard before the obvious desperation cedes all negotiating leverage to the other party. Not a good way to start a dialogue.
I understand the frustration that accompanies a non-selling home. Believe me, it frustrates your agent, too. However, you have to tread carefully when chasing down every prospect like they stole the good china. One of them might actually be your buyer, so you have to maintain some sense of decorum. Even the mangiest house on the market could do well to play slightly hard to get.
As I sit here typing this, I have received a second voicemail and another email from the listing agent of a property in which a client of mine has expressed an interest. I have pointedly ignored the first correspondence attempts just to see how hard I will be pursued. Every subsequent call will result in a 10k reduction on what I ultimately advise my clients to offer. Believe that.
Ain’t nothin’ but the shark in me.
Besides, the most vociferous feedback seekers don’t seek feedback at all. They seek affirmation.
Oh yes, it’s wonderfully appointed and wonderfully priced! It has been on the market for 150 days because buyers are obviously blithering idiots!
You already know the answers to the questions you pose, even if you are not ready to admit it. No need to run the gauntlet of buyer agents to decode this self-evident truth:
Are you getting offers?
No?
Drop your price.
by Paul Slaybaugh | Jun 4, 2009 | Scottsdale Real Estate, This & That
We Realtors are a self-important bunch. Just ask us, we’ll tell you.
“I don’t only sell homes. I sell dreams!”
“You need professional help for the most important investment of your life!”
“I have planted more behinds in houses than McDonalds has in cardiologist offices!”
In most any arena, quiet confidence is the hallmark of ability. The lowest common denominator of puffery, in turn, is an underlying insecurity about the quality (or need) of the service being rendered. You sometimes can’t help but wonder if the egocentric assertions are for the benefit of the braggart’s audience or the braggart’s own sense of worth. I, for one, would sooner enlist the legal assistance of my two year old than the “experienced, aggressive” attorneys who snarl their ways through 30 second local TV spots. Is it too much to ask for a “smart, competent” one?
Look at the business cards we agents pass out with palsied fervor. You have to wade through 6 lines of superfluous designations and production awards before you can even find a phone number. I have been sporting the same cards for the past seven years with much the same obnoxious verbiage. The deeper I get into my Real Estate career, the more I realize that performance is the only thing that matters. No longer in a position where I feel the need to stand on a bar stool with a megaphone to capture my share of the market, it is a liberating thing to let go of the pompous demand for respect for simply selling a home. Certainly, ours is an important job, but then again, show me one that isn’t.
When challenged on the role of the Realtor, and whether we really are the drain on society that most public surveys reveal us to be, I no longer attempt to shout down the vocal detractors. My clients respect what I do and the assistance I provide, and that is all I require. We aren’t curing cancer. We aren’t utilizing an unparalleled skill set and education to launch unmanned crafts on Mars. Assessing value, assisting with purchasing decisions, marketing a home, navigating a Real Estate transaction … all are skills that can be readily learned. It outwardly seems like an easy gig. Show a few houses, collect a fat check. That is why there are more licensed Real Estate agents than 6 foot tall Cher impersonators at a midnight screening of the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
While there are few intrinsic skills that the average non-drooling citizen can’t acquire and ply successfully in the realm of Real Estate, the real value of working with a professional is the “been there, done that” factor. It’s all about the learning curve. Most everything in this world is doable, but more to the point, done well through practice.
Two very good cases in point occurred just yesterday amidst a very long day of showing property to two sets of buyers. My first set of clients were highly intelligent buyers relocating from Northern California. Tech savvy and coming to me with a month’s worth of research on the properties they wished to see, along with a spreadsheet full of notes, pros & cons, online value estimates, etc for each home. This couple was fully dialed in and very capable of successfully purchasing a home with or without my assistance. Much to their credit, they recognized where their knowledge gaps were, and allowed me to fill in the remaining 10-20% that can only be gained by doing something day in and day out. Armed with their research and my local acumen, where we deviated from script was when we stopped in to look at a house that wasn’t on their list. Brand new on the market, and an exceptional value for the school district, size and condition, it was a home that would have slid under their radar because of a few discrepancies with their original criteria.
We submitted an offer on that home and are awaiting a response.
My second buyer was another sharp, and highly educated guy. We had been looking at property for about a month somewhat laconically, but have now really dialed up the urgency as he recently received notice that his Naval reservist status is about to be bumped to active duty. He deploys in late July. Highly motivated to secure a home for his family before he shoves off, we have been hammering new listings in the Southeast Valley virtually every other day for the past two weeks. He mentioned to me last night how many part time agents he works with in the medical field that have solicited his business (are you happy with your current agent?). What a commercial I could have made out of his quote. Paraphrasing, he essentially brushed off the come-ons with the response that not only was he happy with my performance, but that I have done this all day, every day for the past 10 years. In the area where I was born and raised to boot. With the short fuse he has to get his family situated, he requires the attention and knowledge of a full-time Realtor.
You the man, Mike!
See, I told you we Realtors are a self-important bunch. Even this purported piece of anti-puffery has morphed into a promotional effort … but I digress.
When you scythe through the hyperbole that thrives in the fields of Real Estate marketing, the underlying value that a solid agent provides is readily evident. We simply obscure the benefits at times via the bombastic claims that occasion the rolling of eyes and heavy groans from those whom we would deem to impress by overstating our linchpin status to Western civilization. A good agent is worth far more than his/her fee, but a poor one is worth a great deal less. The trick is deciphering the difference between the two.
As you contemplate that sobering thought, I’ll get back to my task for the day of adding the following accomplishments to my already bloated business card.
“Outstanding Achievement in Reading” – Cochise Elementary School: 1980-1982, 1984 (I was shafted in ’83).
“Super Citizen Award” – March 1982, September 1983
“Blue Ribbon in Long Jump” – Field Day 1985
“Eating All of My Crust Award” – Grandma Slaybaugh, 1983
“Junior Assembly, Fox Trot, 1st Place” – 1987
Hmm … I think we’re gonna need a bigger boat card.
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 29, 2009 | Scottsdale, Scottsdale Neighborhoods, Scottsdale Real Estate
Got floor plans?
There aren’t too many extra copies of old floor plans floating around for some of the more established communities in Scottsdale. Fortunately, we happen to have a file drawer filled with original builder plans. Included in the mix is one of the more comprehensive collections of floor plans for McCormick Ranch homes that you will find anywhere. Whether you are a buyer admiring McCormick Ranch from a distance or a resident looking for a plan for renovation purposes, etc, you came to the right place.
Click on model names to view floor plans (Those without model hyperlinks are still to be added) or on subdivision names to view the neighborhood synopsis.
Unfortunately, a few builder plans have walked off over the 30 years that we have maintained these files. Have a copy of a floor plan that is not represented here? By all means, shoot it over to us and we’ll add it to the database.
Bear in mind that several subdivisions, such as Palo Viento I, Vista Del Lago, Estados De La Mancha and Los Tesoros, in addition to pockets of Paradise Park Trails and Palo Viento II are comprised of custom homes with no readily available floor plans.
Interested in owning a McCormick Ranch home? Scroll to the bottom of this page for live streaming results of the latest McCormick Ranch Real Estate listings to hit the market!
Visit our McCormick Ranch Home Page for a comprehensive community overview
Learn more about the McCormick Ranch Subdivisions
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Camelot Homes
Subdivisions: (Vista De La Tierra, Palo Viento II, Playa Del Sur, Estate Los Arboles, Paseo Village, Paradise Park Trails, Tierra Del Norte)
Models: The Embassy | The Lancelot | The Chateau | The Windsor | The Monarch | The Regal
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Camelo Vista
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Casa Dia Festivo
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Cavalier
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
Models: The Briarcliff | The Chartercrest | The Frontera | The Whethersfield
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Dietz-Crane
Subdivisions: (Carriage Square, Villa La Playa)
Models: The Barcelona | The Hermosa | The Valencia | The Vallarte
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Dix
Subdivisions: (Tierra Feliz, Paradise Park Manor I & II)
Models: Dix-7600 | Dix-7604 | Dix-7605 | Dix-7700 (Tierra Feliz)
Dix-7901 | Dix-7902 | Dix-7903 | Dix-7904 (Bainbridge) | Dix-8001 (The Valencia) (Paradise Park Manor)
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Evans Wythycombe
Subdivisions: (Meridian at McCormick Ranch)
Models: The Apollo | The Aries | The Bella | The Gemini | The Juno
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Gateway
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
Models: The Avanti | The Casa Rica | The Sierra | The Tempo | The Vista
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Geoffrey Edmunds
Subdivisions: (Cuernavaca)
Models: Casa Baja | Casa Redonda | Casa Rica | Casa Santiago | Casa Viejo
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Golden Heritage
Subdivisions: (Heritage Terrace, Heritage Village, Paradise Park Trails)
Models: Plan 40 (Heritage Terrace, Heritage Village 1)
Plan 243 | Plan 253 | Plan 263 | Plan 273 | Plan 283 (Heritage Village 2 & 3)
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JA Smith
Subdivisions: (Villa Hermosa)
Models: Plan 1675 | Plan 1953 | Plan 2380 | Plan 2600
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Jaeger
Subdivisions: (Country Horizon)
Models: CH-100 | CH-200 | CH-300 | CH-400 | CH-500 | CH-600
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Key West
Subdivisions: (Suggs Rancho McCormick)
Models: Casa Rica | Hacienda | Posada | Posada (Alternate)
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La Mariposa Villas
Models: Plan A | Plan B | Plan C | Plan C (Option)
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Lakeside Villas
Models: Atwater | Edgewater | Huntington
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Las Palomas
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Malouf Bros
Subdivisions: (El Paseo)
Models: La Elegancia | La Estancia | La Miranda | La Torre Alta
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Metropolitan
Subdivisions: (Villa Hermosa)
Models: Plan One | Plan Two | Plan Three | Plan Four
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Palm Cove
Models: Plan 1 | Plan 2 | Plan 3 | Plan 4 | Plan 5 | Plan 6 | Plan 7
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Pleasant Run
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Riggs
Subdivisions: (Mountain View East)
Models: Model A | Model B | Model C | Model D
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Santa Fe Construction Co / Ballard
Subdivisions: (Santa Fe)
Models: The Barcelona | The Coronado | The Domingo | The Montego
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Sandpiper
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Spanish Oaks
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Suggs
Subdivisions: (Paseo Village, Suggs Rancho McCormick)
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Tarrantini
Subdivisions: (Paradise Park Trails)
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The Villages
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The Villages Five (Starfire)
Models: The Aurora | The Bella | The Covington | The Desert Star
Latest Homes to hit the market in McCormick Ranch
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No one knows McCormick Ranch Real Estate like Ray & Paul. Whether Buying or Selling in the Ranch, we’re your guys.
(480) 220-2337 | paul@scottsdalepropertyshop.com
by Paul Slaybaugh | May 29, 2009 | Home Buying, Scottsdale Real Estate
So I’m enjoying one of the myriad HGTV Real Estate shows the other night. First time home buyers were the focus of this particular program. Unable to watch without properly entertaining myself with my own sarcastic commentary (did that agent really just say that?), this has become one of my favorite pastimes.
There is the Realtor who feels the need to point out the backyard or the front door to the dumbfounded buyers. The agent who demands to know “if this is a house you can see yourself living in” within seconds of stepping through the front door. It’s a carnival of overselling that I can only hope has more to do with the camera than the standard practices of my erstwhile colleagues.
There is one particular practice that repeats itself ad nauseam on these shows, though, that truly makes my blood boil. I’m speaking of the agents who seemingly forget that their job description as a buyer’s agent is to protect the interest of their clients. It’s awfully hard to do that portion of the job correctly when you push every property that you look at as the greatest thing since canned yams.
Homes have flaws and some are fatal. While it is ultimately the burden of the consumer to make that determination, these silly shows raise my ire when the response to the buyer’s observation that there is a train running through the back yard is, “Hmm, let’s go back inside and look at that wonderful kitchen again!”
Or my personal favorite brand of exchange:
Buyer: “This only has 2 bedrooms? We need at least 3.”
Agent: “Yes, but look at those hardwood floors!”
Buyer: “The floors are nice …”
Agent: “And remember that this is your first house. The first house is never the dream house. You can always move up to the bigger house in a few years.”
Timeout! This is the worst brand of advice, and I simply cannot tolerate it. No, the first house will not be the dream house, but to advocate making sacrifices on the aspects of the home that will impact resale potential the most is unconscionable. You don’t eliminate the third bedroom and 75% of future buyers, you eliminate the hardwood. You don’t purchase the stigmatized property with the highway behind it just to get the kitchen with the stainless steel appliances. Those are poor purchasing decisions.
If I had a nickel for every time I heard that a first time buyer should not worry about some major feature of a house, I would be a piggy bank. While it is always important for a buyer to discern the future value potential and ability to resell a property he or she is considering, it has somehow become cliche that it is not as important to the first time buyer. As if the lower dollar value of the investment or the knowledge that he or she will only be in the home for a couple of years would somehow mitigate the importance of due diligence.
I maintain that future value concerns are even more important to first timers than most. For the very reason that they will likely enjoy a shorter stay in the home, they need to be especially cognizant of resale capability. The retired couple who is buying the home they envision for spending the duration of their golden years can more afford to make a purchasing decision with their specific needs in mind than the couple that is just getting started and will use their first property as a springboard to their ultimate home. They don’t want to get off on the wrong foot by making a poor initial investment.
You can more afford to screw up your purchase if you never plan to sell it. If this is the house you plan to die in, by all means, buy the one on the ancient burial ground with the sweet discount and benevolent (hopefully) spirits. Otherwise, buy something that someone else will want to buy from you.
So first-time home buyers, you will have to make sacrifices, especially if you are looking in a higher end market like Scottsdale. That does not mean you should settle for having a power plant next door or the funky one bedroom house with the garage converted to a recording studio. Eliminate the properties that have unfixable or expensive structural/locational problems. Remember, you can always replace the vinyl flooring and the laminate counter tops.
Not so easy to re-route the Amtrak.
