Chris and Amy are looking to move to be closer to Chris’ job in Georgetown, so they recently asked me to sell their house on Jouett Creek. An important part of what I do as a buying agent is to help clients pick good homes that will be highly desirable and marketable when they go to sell. I was a fan of this house and neighborhood when they picked it, and it will likely sell easily this go around.

Interesting tidbit: Did you know that, at the time this blog post is written, only 83 homes in the popular Chilesburg neighborhood can currently claim Athens-Chilesburg Elementary as their primary assigned school? Of those, only 2 are for sale—and this is one of them. And this is the view from the front yard of the house. Now THAT’s a neighborhood school.

Chilesburg has a series of recreational paths throughout the neighborhood. Great for exercise and leisure.

A big advantage to this particular home is that it’s move-in ready. I came over a couple weeks ahead of photographing it to make suggestions for improvements, but honestly, they already had it looking pretty dang sweet.

Chilesburg also has ponds, greenspace, mature trees and protected wetlands. Again, those types of things give a neighborhood charm. Lifestyle is important to consider when you’re buying, both for the obvious benefit you’ll gain while you live there, but also for the marketability when you go to sell.

This is one of the ponds in Chilesburg and its fountain that lights up at night. Definitely cool for those folks whose houses back up to it.

And what does this turtle have to do with anything? Meet Elmer. Chris and Amy found him while on a picnic (not in Chilesburg) recently. He came home with them and was living happily in a tank on their kitchen counter. He’s now in our family room visiting for a few weeks while their house is being shown to prospective buyers. He’s enjoying the change of scenery, and we’re enjoying having  another pet, even if on loan.

Thanks for stopping by! If you’d like to read up more on this particular listing, you can go HERE. If you’d like to stay in touch with me, HERE is the best place. Take care!  -shaun

• being minutes from her job downtown
• being close to the interstate, so she could visit with her out-0f-town family easily and often
• being right around the corner from all the shopping and dining in Hamburg
• a price that would mean having a mortgage payment less than what she’d spend to rent something similar
• not having to mess with a bunch of lawn mowing and exterior maintenance
• recent renovations, which meant she could move in all her cute furniture and decor and be settled quickly
• Eastend feels like a community—warm and welcoming

When Katie and I bought our first home, we went with a townhome. We were able to buy it under that 100K threshold, which was awesome, since we were newly married and recent grads.  We’ve moved on since then, but I’m so thankful we started with a townhome. Jennifer is like us. She’s ready to sell her first home. It’s been loved and enjoyed. And at $85,000? Geez…I’m thinking it’s going to sell pretty dang quickly. What do you think?

I hope you enjoy the photographs. I spent almost 2 hours out there shooting!

We’ve all heard that real estate is all about “location, location, location.” It’s true to a certain extent, but having a popular location really isn’t enough when it comes time to sell. It’s a finely-tuned combination of the following:

Location
Condition
Price
Exposure

• If the location and/or condition isn’t the best, you’ll need to offset things with a lower price.

• If the location is awesome, you’ll likely have good results (provided, of course, that the house’s condition is par for the course).

• If you’re priced competitively, you’ll be on the radar. If you’re overpriced, buyers and their agents won’t even find your home. They’ll be looking in the correct price range instead.

• Without exposure on the MLS, none of the above will be of much help. You’ll have very little exposure to where the buyers and their agents are looking. It’s not impossible to sell FSBO. It’s just very difficult to be found.

• And finally—If the first thing online that buyers and their agents see isn’t the best possible representation of your home, its features and its ambiance, I believe you’re missing out.

Yesterday I listed a home on Lexington’s southside. Wyndham Downs is pretty sweet location-wise. Think Clays Mill, outside Man-O-War. Right around the corner from Copperfield. In addition to having a great combination of public schools (Garden Springs, Beaumont, Dunbar), you’re really close to plenty of parks, sports fields, restaurants and shopping. This home comes with access to a private neighborhood pool. Big plus? It’s only three doors away from Waverly Park. This is huge.

But again—location isn’t enough.

We have it priced competitively. It’s condition is great. It’s on the MLS. But what I believe will ultimately separate it from the mix is the photography.

I spent two hours there shooting. I may be a bit obsessive, but I want my real estate photos to look like they should be in a magazine. Not just to show off the “bricks and sticks,” as they say. But instead, to present the soul of the home and its location.

Here are my favorites:

And just in case you’ve become just a tad bit curious about all the details of this home, you can find it HERE. Hope you like what I’ve done with the listing!

Thanks for stopping by!  -shaun

Like Laura. I was up against her for a listing tonight. I told the sellers that they’d be in great hands either way—and meant it. Feels good to be able to say that, although admittedly, I did silently pump my fist high in the air later when they called to tell me they had chosen me. Ha!

Like Brad. He was the listing agent for a house my buyers made an offer on last night. It was on the market for one day. Beautiful ranch on a basement backing to  a golf course. My folks wanted it badly. We ended up being in a multiple offer situation because another agent in town had buyers making an offer on it, too. Brad handled being in the middle of the deal fairly, and ended up getting his sellers top dollar for the place, though not from my buyers unfortunately. Heart-breaking for them (and me), but that’s the way it goes sometimes.

It’s been busy this month for us all. Unexpectedly so. Could be that rates are stupid-low right now. Could be that folks are climbing down from the fences, if ever so cautiously. Heck, maybe it’s the lack of snow. But whatever is going on, it’s good to be back in the saddle after a fairly quiet end of 2011.

Nite!

-shaun

I wore a suit. Slicked my hair over like I was running for office. In my mind, I just assumed that’s what people expected. I wanted to look, well, realtor-ish. No offense to those real estate professionals who rock the jacket and tie. If that’s you, then go for it. For me, though, it didn’t ring true.

My misdeeds didn’t end with fashion, though. Socially, I screwed up. I felt like I should get in touch with everyone I’d ever known and tell them that I was working in real estate—over and over again. And that they should tell everyone they know about me. Not because I had any great skills or experience at that time, but because I was constantly spamming them with postcards, emails, phonecalls. Like people were just numbers to work. If you were ever on the receiving end of this, I sincerely apologize. It wasn’t the real me. I have no idea what I thinking. Sheesh.

It didn’t take long for that approach to create a conflict deep inside me. I had two choices. I could leave the profession, or I could try doing things differently—authentically. And that’s worked out pretty well. Being me is way easier. No sales pitches, no pressure. I’m laid back and work hard to simply be helpful.

While the real estate side of things was growing, my photography business started taking off in a big way. I found myself with two jobs. People would tell me that I would eventually need to leave one for the other. I didn’t want that. Still don’t.

I like the variety, the challenge. Heck, what I really love most is not feeling like I HAVE to get a certain number of houses sold just to pay the bills. Or that I HAVE to take on a certain number of weddings per year. Takes the pressure off me and my clients. I can focus on being me and trust that word of good work will travel naturally and bring to me more clients who appreciate my approach. Win-win.

She invited me over recently to see all the work she’d done to fix the place up.  It looked amazing!  She had put the most effort into paint and redoing the bathrooms.  Always worth the effort.  Those will be huge selling points in the future.  I told her that I’d be posting some before and after pics on this blog, and Ashlee was nice enough to put together a bit of a summary of what her first time home-buying experience was like.  Here it is!

When I started the ‘home buying’ process I wasn’t even sure I would end up buying. I casually talked to Shaun at a photoshoot that he was doing for my company and found out he was also a realtor. I had been renting a new place each year for the past four years and was looking for number five when he recommended I look into buying. I was only 22 years old at the time. I graduated from UK in May, 2009 and had only been working at my new job for about five months. Buying a house sounded WAY out of my league. Shaun pointed me in the right direction so I knew who to talk to about finding out how much I could afford and how to get a loan and all that fun financial stuff I knew nothing about.

Once I realized that I could afford to buy a small house for not much more than I was renting for, I called Shaun to ask what the next steps would be. I had no idea where to start looking or what I wanted. That same week, me and Shaun met up for a cup of the best coffee in town at Alf Alfa’s and he gave me the Clif’s Notes version of the buying process. He assured me that he would walk me through the search process and if I fell in love with something, he would walk me through the buying process but if I didn’t find anything or feel comfortable, I could always rent again – there was no pressure and no cost associated with looking.

So Shaun set me up on this client portal where I would get emails when new houses in my price range went on the market and for the next month or so I watched those closely, drove around and looked at places and asked Shaun a trillion questions. He worked with my crazy work schedule and went with me to look at multiple houses. He was totally honest with me about each one and helped me understand what kind of work I would need to put in to them so I could decide if I would be able to manage it – because I was mostly looking at ‘fixer-uppers’. I quickly realized that I knew what area of Lexington I wanted to be in and so we refocused our search and soon came across a little street off Richmond Road that I loved.

When the house I now call home went on the market, it was listed a little above my initial price range but I asked Shaun to go check it out for me and see if he thought it would be a good fit, because he knew what I wanted and what I could afford better than I did by this point and I couldn’t get away from work. He called me that day and said I HAD to see this place. The rest is history (and a bit of a blur). I was so excited when I saw the house and even though it was a little above the price I was initially looking for, I was not going to have to put much money into fixing it up so it was worth it to me. We put in an offer and went back and forth a few times with the seller. The next thing I know, I get a text from Shaun, “they accepted the offer. are you ready to be a homeowner?” (or something like that, haha)

Everything moved rather quickly after that. I honestly cant even tell you what all happened, it was so easy. Shaun walked me through everything, probably some things that a realtor should not have to remind you to do. But we had so much fun. I was not stressed about anything. I mean, we ate cupcakes at my closing when I signed on the dotted line.. Seriously! So less than a year after I graduated college, I moved into my new home! I have slowly done a little fixing up, tile floors and a fresh coat of paint, and I am LOVING it, and learning so much! I could not be happier with my place or the buying experience. There were no surprises or curveballs and it is now one of my fondest memories. Buying your first house is so crazy exciting; its a milestone in life. I feel so blessed- I even had a photographer to capture some of my memories for me

Pretty cool, right?  Feel free to check out the before and after pics!

Nice!  And there’s no way this story would be complete without sharing a pic of Ashlee in front of her new home—with Bruno.

• Buyers and I meet up for coffee or whatever.  I bring the laptop, and we start narrowing down what properties are available based on their preferences and budget.  I give them a nice overview of the city, with recommendations on which areas seem to be the most stable and primed for growth.  At this point, I also like to give them a heads-up on how the whole contract and negotiation process will work once we find a home they love.  No surprises!

• Buyers get pre-approved for a home loan with a lender of their choice, though most everyone I work with ends up with Brad Farris at Peoples Exchange Bank.  They all think he’s pretty awesome.  Great rates, low closing costs, access to some really cool loan programs, and excellent customer service.  If you’re curious about what your own financing might look at, you might wanna go ahead and shoot him an email HERE.

• Based on the pre-approval amount, we put together a list of houses to go see.  This list doesn’t have to be super-focused.  You’d be surprised at how seeing a a variety of places can sharpen the senses.  I set all of that up so that we make really good use of time, and so the buyers can get a really good feel for what’s available in their price range.  This is more-or-less a fact-finding mission.  We make note of any homes the buyer really likes alot.

• The buyers and I talk about their favorite listings, then we refocus our search to include any properties that might be similar to those.  We set up another day to go see those properties.  During these showings, we spend more time at each house.  What I like to do is pretend that I’m a buyer, too, and I openly talk to them about what’s going through my mind.  This might be the most important part.  I give things to them straight.  No exaggerating and trying to be a salesman.  For those moments, I’m pretending to be the buyer for their house when they’re future sellers.  This helps them to pick a property that not only they will love, but that future buyers will love, too.  Awesome, right?

• Once the buyers know which house they want, I do some research to determine what a fair price would be.     Sometimes this is much different from the advertised price, sometimes it’s pretty close.  Just depends on how realistically the seller priced the house to begin with.  I also pull together a list of past and current problems with the house directly from the seller.  Even though we’ll have a home inspection, too, it’s better to have plenty of facts going into the negotiations.  If the roof, furnace and a/c are 20 years old, then that final price had better reflect it, right?

• We write up the offer and negotiate with the sellers. If final terms can be agreed upon, then we’ll move through the inspections and loan process all the way to the closing table when the buyers get their keys.    I won’t bore you with all the details right now.  If we meet up for a Step 1, then I’ll go through it all with you.  Deal?

If you’d like to get the ball rolling, then let me know.  You can connect with me HERE.  I’ll look forward to grabbing that cup of coffee with you!

1)Excellent photography. In addition to selling real estate, I’m also a professional photographer.  Works out really well for my clients!  Their homes end up looking like they’re straight out of a magazine.  With nearly all buyers and all of the buyers’ agents looking at listings online first, it only makes sense to make a good first impression.  Before photographing each property, I go by a few days ahead of time to make suggestions to the sellers on what they might wanna do staging-wise.  Probably all the same things you see on HGTV, but sometimes it’s nice for people to get an outside perspective.

2)Interesting remarks. If I see another listing that says “Cute 3BR ranch. Must see!”, I’m going to scream.  When people are looking through hundreds of possible properties, it’s important to stand out.  I think my marketing remarks break through the noise better.

3)Accurate pricing. The best listing price is one that’s based on comparable solds, as well competitive with other active listings.  I love crunching numbers.  Overpriced listings don’t get shown, because people look for homes in the price range they can afford.  In the 99K-500K range during 2010 (as of today—10/3/2010), the 2300+ properties sold in Lexington went for around 97.5% of the listing price.

4)Not with print advertising or open houses…LOL. I’ve found them both to be a big waste of time and money.  Most print advertising and open houses are done to benefit the agent, since it’s a great way for them to meet new clients.  The best part?  Since I don’t needlessly spend dollars and energy on print advertising and open houses, the listing commission I charge is really reasonable.  Because I tend to sell houses really quickly AND at a reasonable commission, I get a lot of word-of-mouth referrals. Win-win.

It’s not rocket-science, but I’ve got my system down, and it works.  Whether you’re looking to get your house listed ASAP, or if you’re just interested in knowing how it might stack up in the current market, give me a shout HERE.  I’d love to chat with you!

I’m really good at what I do.  I’ve got a long track record of smooth and successful sales with buyers and sellers, but that’s not the most important part of picking an agent.  I think it’s really important to pick someone who looks at the world the same way as you.

Me?

I’m not a big sales-pitchy kind of guy.  I run from cheesy.  And I stay far away from things that are super-formal.  When I’m picking someone to work with, I’m drawn to folks who keep things light, fun, positive, and real.  I do the same thing with my clients.

If it sounds like we’re similar, I’d enjoy getting to know you.   You can reach me HERE.  Feel free to connect with me on Facebook and Twitter, too.  Subscribe to my blog.  Stick around.  Stay in touch.   Whether you’re just curious about real estate, or if you’re looking to do something soon, give me a shout.  We can hook up for a coffee or something.  Cool?

Thanks for stopping by! -shaun