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Home Buyers Not Looking for Home Improvement Projects
Just because you and I may love tackling home improvement projects does not mean everybody shares our point of view. Especially not first-time home buyers in Sacramento or, for that matter, even move-up buyers. Today’s home buyers want move-in ready homes. They do not want to make repairs. Gone are the days of buying a resale home in average condition. There are two instances under which a buyer would purchase a home in average condition. Either the home is priced way below market value, making it an absolute steal, or wait . . . there is no second reason.
Trying to sell your home without making repairs is like inviting guests for dinner and expecting them to bring their own food and cook it, too.
I was thinking about this as I drove yesterday to Rosemont. The traffic on Highway 50 is always a bit rough on that stretch of freeway between downtown and Watt, but yesterday I spotted a hearse. When I saw it, the first thought in my head was not party-time! Nor did I wonder how many people we can stuff into it. Hearses were very popular as a vehicle for private citizens when I was a kid. We painted them psychedelic colors and drove them around like they were a limo. People lived in them, too, and held wild parties. But no, this hearse made me feel respectful of the cargo it may have carried. A different point of view than my initial instincts.
Also, the hearse was in the lane next to the fast lane. I guess there was no reason for it to be in the fast lane. Who is in such a rush in a hearse? Nobody, that’s who. In fact, I would feel rather uneasy watching a hearse exceed the speed limit in the fast lane. Wouldn’t you?
Sometimes sellers are in a big rush, too. They can’t wait to put their home on the market, even though it might need work. If it needs work or updates, then sellers should complete those tasks before putting their home on the market. You will not get top dollar for a home that needs work. I talked with sellers last night who said a bath might need work, but they want to let the buyers use their own vision for that job. I had to explain that buyers are not looking for home improvement projects. Buyers would rather pass on a property and will buy another home that doesn’t need any work.
The mindset today seems to be they just want the work done. They will pay a bit more for a remodeled house but they want it to be perfect. No major flaws or defects. No home improvement projects.
In fact, I visited with several sellers this past week. Two of them are not sellers. They think they are selling their homes, but they aren’t. I can tell just by chatting with people. I’ll be visiting new sets of sellers next week and helping them to fix up their homes prior to selling. If you’re thinking about it, give me a jingle at 916.233.6759. Put 40 years of experience to work for you.
Before You Remodel That House in Sacramento
Call your Sacramento Realtor before you remodel that house.
Before you remodel that house in Sacramento, for crying out loud, call a Sacramento Realtor who’s been around the block. An agent can give you valuable advice. Because some day, maybe not now, maybe not for years, you will sell that house.
I’ll help you, and I’ll recall our discussion when you’re ready to sell later. It’s a small miracle I remember other things, like what year it is. Much less the month and day. There is so much nostalgia going on that it’s like the 1960s all over again. OK, no smoke-filled rooms and we’re all walking around toting water bottles instead of bongs, but you get the point. The clothes, the TV shows, the home furnishings, they all yell groovy, baby. Or maybe it just seems that way with Mad Men reruns and that new show, Good Girls Revolt.
I don’t think so, though. I’ve got clients who absolutely adore Mid Century. Mid-Century homes, especially in Sacramento, are in high demand. In fact, homes of any character tend to sell faster and for more money than cookie-cutter boring homes. It’s like the difference between a 1950 Buick and a 2012 Camry. Style, curves, angles, real steel, heavy metal construction versus cheap plastic boxes.
The problem comes about when it seems like it’s in our DNA to want to remodel. To modernize. OK, maybe I’m just talking about myself. But when I think back about homes I have torn apart and remodeled, I cringe. I shouldn’t have done it. I should have heeded my own advice and warnings I give others: before you remodel that house, look at it from the eyes of future owners.
I need to apologize to the owners of those homes now. I can’t believe, for example, that I actually put up hunter green wallpaper and installed hunter green ceramic tile in a home on the lake in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. I’m sorry.
I am very sorry that I installed white cabintry with oak trim in a Cape Cod by Lake Nokomis in South Minneapolis. What was wrong with me? I’m sorry.
I apologize for the perfectly hideous Pergo floor in a kitchen in Whittier. Sounded like such a good idea at the time. I’m sorry.
Thank goodness I came to my senses in Sacramento.
But at least I can say I never ripped out 1940s cabinetry and replaced it with tasteless cherrywood and granite counters. Some homes deserve better. They deserve to be preserved and admired. Restored, if possible. Not stripped of all character, detail and design to try to conform to what we might call modern standards. What we call modern doesn’t last very long. It’s really a trend. It’s not modern. There is a difference between the two.
So, before you raise that sledgehammer ask yourself this question: Are you doing more harm than good? Maybe you should set down that sledgehammer and move away from the counters. Before you remodel that home, why not call a real estate agent to ask if you’re damaging your home before embarking on a home improvement project you cannot easily reverse.
How to Borrow Against Equity After Buying a Home
Some home buyers want to borrow against equity after closing for improvements.
Do not make the mistake of believing it is a slam dunk to borrow against home equity after buying a home or that obtaining a home equity loan will be the same as getting a mortgage to buy. Many home owners today are planning to make improvements right after closing. When sellers ask me if they should hang on to their home and improve it, or whether it makes more sense to buy a new home and fix up that home, well, everybody’s situation is unique.
For starters, many sellers who ask that question don’t really like their own home. There might be something about the location, configuration or style they don’t like, too. That can be resolved by buying a new home, even if that new home doesn’t meet all criteria and after closing, deciding to borrow against equity to fix it up. The question is why install a new HVAC, roof and siding at your old house when those costs will NOT be returned in whole upon resale? You don’t accumulate equity just because you have fixed a leaky pipe.
You may as well fix up your new home. At least you will be there a while to enjoy it. And while you’re making maintenance repairs, why not remodel the kitchen to your tastes or add a swimming pool? You can probably get a home equity line of credit if you borrow against your equity through a local credit union. The difficulty with this arrangement, though, is trying to obtain that line of credit immediately after closing.
A little known thing happens during escrow that most people have never considered. When your escrow closes, the existing loans owed against the property by the previous seller are not automatically lifted from the property. Escrow closes on a promise from the existing lenders that they will each issue a reconveyance after closing and record in the public records. And therein lies the difficulty.
A new homeowner cannot borrow against equity until those liens have been reconveyed. If the old lender(s) drag feet, it can take a month or more to remove those liens. The solution is to obtain a letter from the lenders stating the loan will be removed, but even that can absorb precious time to obtain. So it’s not instantaneous that many sellers can immediately get a home equity line of credit. Take that little quirk into consideration before beginning your home improvement projects after closing.
Tip: Before remodeling your home, check to make sure the previous loans recorded against your new home have been released. If you need help buying or selling a home in Sacramento, call top producer Elizabeth Weintraub at 916.233.6759.
Depending on Your Sacramento Realtor to Perform Can Be a Good Thing
I realize there are a lot of people who prefer to feel in control of their lives and often spot this control issue manifested in the people who engage in buying or selling a home in Sacramento. That’s because the real estate business is becoming more complicated with each passing day, and even though you might realize deep down in your soul that you’re better off depending on a professional, a Sacramento Realtor, to handle the situation for you, you might resent it a little bit if it’s an area in which you possess little knowledge.
Just because you bought a home once or sold a few homes doesn’t mean you know jack squat, to put it bluntly, about the real estate market today. It evolves and grows and the temperature of the market can change course as fast as a Kardashian can bleach her hair. The one thing that tends to remain constant is the people involved in it.
I’ve been thinking about this phenomena, and wondering how the children of the millennials will survive in the world to come. They will lead completely dependent lives, very different than mine, dependent on technology to always work with no idea whatsoever of how to create or manage it. They might not even drive their own cars. They will be totally lost if an asteroid hits the earth and wipes out half of the planet or the super volcano in Yellowstone explodes, stuff you don’t believe will ever happen but very well could, or any of the other climate change atrocities that await. Millennials are no Tank Girl.
Knowing how stuff works or at least having an inkling about it is very helpful and reassuring. I’m proud of the fact that I can operate my big screen TV today, which is more than some old goats can do. This Sacramento Realtor is a pro at Internet marketing as well. I’m interested in how things work and quickly adapt to new technology. But I wasn’t always this way. Why, I recall how helpless I felt sitting on a mattress on the floor in my very first house and wondering what would happen if I turned on the light switch and the overhead light didn’t go on. What would I do? I could not at that point afford to hire an electrician, who could take half of my meager weekly take-home pay just for a service call. Electricity was like magic to me. Sitting in the dark was not an option.
Imagine my joy to discover I could turn off the main breaker switch, remove the switch plate cover to change out a $2.00 piece of metal and plastic by attaching the neutral wire to the neutral, the hot wire to the hot and the grounding to the ground. I began a long journey into home improvement projects which, to this day, have been inspirational, informative, lucrative and extremely helpful, even when I’m not doing the work myself.
But when you need a Sacramento Realtor to solve a real estate-related problem, buy a home, or sell your home fast and efficiently, then it helps to know which real estate agents are doing the bulk of the business in Sacramento and to hire one of those. You can certainly share your own thoughts about the process, but a busy agent is a productive agent and an agent who has acquired knowledge that will benefit you. You can rely on a professional and worry later about the future for your grandkids. You should call Elizabeth Weintraub. As busy as I am, I do answer my cell: 916.233.6759.
What First Time Home Buyers Wanted 40 Years Ago
When it comes to talking about first-time home buyers and what they want in a home in Sacramento, my initial mission is to try not to sound like: you kids get offa my lawn; however, I’m afraid I’m about to fail that objective most miserably. This topic popped up because my sister in Minneapolis — who has absolutely no intentions of selling her home at the moment — is worried that it doesn’t have the things that first-time home buyers desire. It made me stop to think about what I yearned for in my first few homes. So here’s a trip down memory lane for ya, in no particular order:
Electronic ignition on a gas stove. Although I love the smell of sulfur, lighting a stove with a match is a big hassle. You’re always worried the box of matches over the stove might unexpectedly combust and burn down the kitchen. You also need a utensil into which you can deposit said burnt matchstick, and hopefully it’s not into the trash can when the matchstick is smoldering.
A doorbell. Old-fashioned doorbells were hard-wired and worked for years until one day they didn’t work anymore. All of them went ding-dong. The new fangled ones played goofy tunes, which was just plain stupid. Having a doorbell, though, beats listening to some stoner bang on your door yelling, Hey Dave, open up.
A built-in dishwasher. Truth be known, I would have been happy with a portable dishwasher, any place where I could hide dirty dishes and not have them pile up in the sink because I’m too danged lazy to wash them. Sinks used to have washboards that would allow water to drain from freshly scrubbed dishes directly into the sink, but then Rubbermaid came out with dishracks, which I always seemed to forget and leave under the sink when I moved.
Garage door opener. To come home from work on a cold snowy evening and be able to press the garage door opener button on my remote control was pure heaven. It was such a luxury to not have to stop the car, step into a wet snowbank, kick the garage door to loosen the ice and then tug it open, get back in the car, close the door and drive into the garage, narrowly missing the wall. In those days we parked without relying on a tennis ball hanging from the ceiling to tell us when to stop.
Indoor laundry. Apart from grocery shopping, I don’t know if there is any other task I detest more than going to the laundromat. If you don’t own a car, it was even more horrid because it meant you had to haul a basket of laundry, blocks away, filled with stinky clothing and hope you had enough dimes for the dryer.
Multiple phone lines. Coming from a suburban home in the 1950s that had a party-line, having a single line was heaven, but it was even more delightful to have phones in all of the main rooms of the house, including the bedroom. We’re not talking about Caesar’s Palace with phones in the bath here, that was ultra luxurious. If a phone line didn’t work for some reason, Ma Bell would come out and fix it for free.
Dual baths. I don’t know when it became more fashionably correct to say “bath” instead of bathroom, but it’s definitely considered taboo to add the word room to the bath in marketing materials. I lived in so many homes with only one bath, and I have no idea anymore how I managed or if we just peed in the yard and I wiped living like an animal from my memory banks.
Automatic ice makers. My parents used to call our refrigerator the icebox, from back in the day. About once every couple of months, we’d heat hot water on the stove, pour it into metal ice-cube trays and place them in the freezer to defrost it. My job was to hack away at the frozen blob with table knives. Then, I’d refill the trays with cold water to make ice-cubes and try not to slop it on the floor while transporting said trays to the freezer and tripping over a dog.
Air conditioning and central heat. When I bought my first home, I took out a separate loan to pay to remove a gravity furnace, this huge asbestos octopus that took up so much space in the basement, and installed central air and heat. I don’t know how I survived summers as a kid without central air. We didn’t even use window air conditioners, just floor fans and spent a lot of time running through lawn sprinklers. Which brings me to . . .
Automatic lawn sprinklers. Not having to remember to water the lawn, much less grabbing a dirty hose, dragging it across the lawn and hooking it up to a sprinkler. Then, trying to set the sprinkler head while it is spraying its 180-degree direction without getting soaked yourself is a feat in itself. Today the gardeners deal with the sprinkler system if it malfunctions, and I never hear it inside my home with dual pane windows.
I am hopeful this blog will resonate with today’s first-time home buyers. Many home buyers in Sacramento today crave the shiny stainless appliances, the oiled-bronze hardware, the granite counters, the hickory-plank flooring, ceiling fans (without those dangly lights on pull cords), and Wolf ranges which they will rarely turn on, coupled with SubZero refrigerators in which to store leftover pizza. And my job as a Sacramento real estate agent is to help them find and acquire their heart’s desire, whatever that yearning may be.
