“Mom, this is definitely not going to be good for the bad-ass image I plan to cultivate when I’m a teenager and use to torment you.”
“Ah yes, now that’s more like it…”
I hosted my very first (oh yes, for now this site is about many firsts) open house the other day.
All in all, I had a truly enjoyable time, although the day was not without its trials.
The Good:
Baking cookies to make the house smell homey and serve to potential buyers.
Getting into my rhythm while showing the house. By the end of the day I’d stopped stuttering and giggling like a teenager and remembered to point out things like the water softener and the larger closet in the middle bedroom.
Talking to cute young couples about what they are looking for in a home.
Hearing nice things about how beautiful the home I was showing is.
The Bad:
Cutting my finger on a directional OPEN HOUSE sign.
Getting all the way to the house before realizing I totally forgot my lockbox key and there was no one there to let me in.
It rained, so traffic through the house was pretty light.
No one ate my cookies or drank my cute little sodas!!!
Even though the open house itself did not specifically net us a buyer, I really feel positive about the whole experience. I have to admit, I think at least part of the reason I enjoyed myself so much, was my inner chatty gossip. It was fun to hear all about why people were thinking about moving or buying a new house. I enjoyed their stories about the houses they’ve already seen and what exactly they like and don’t like in a home. I can’t wait to do it again!
Your real estate agent has shown you a beautiful, occupied home that is for sale. You’ve decided it is the perfect one for your family and have signed a contract. So what should you expect to be left in the house on the day you move in? Those lovely curtains in the front window… should you go out looking for some that are similar or will they still be there? What about the high tech fridge in the kitchen just like you’ve always wanted? Was that part of the deal?
These are questions that homebuyers and even sellers often have during the home buying process. It’s easy to get confused about what inside and outside of the house is actually considered part of the house, and therefore has been sold with the property. It seems pretty clear that things like doorknobs and light fixtures should go with (although there have been sellers who have even been confused about that one… can you imagine walking into your newly acquired historical home with antique fixtures, only to discover that all of the crystal doorknobs went with the seller to their new home in Massachusetts?), but the area seems to get a bit grayer when you talk about bedroom valances that match the duvet.
Luckily, the answer to this is spelled out fairly clearly in the Arizona approved Residential Reseal Real Estate Purchase Contract in the middle of the first page in a paragraph entitled Fixtures and Personal Property. It states:
Seller agrees that all existing fixtures on the Premises, and any existing personal property specified herein, shall be left upon the Premises and included in this sale.
This basically means that anything that is a ‘fixture’ or something attached in a permanent manner goes with the house. Anything that is easily removed (simply unplugged or lifted off a hook on the wall) is considered ‘personal property’ and will not convey with the house unless it is specifically written into the contract. To eliminate any further confusion, the contract continues with this paragraph:
Including the following (these are fixtures): storage sheds; electrical, plumbing, heating and cooling equipment; free-standing range/oven; built-in appliances; light fixtures; ceiling fans; window and door screens, sun screens; solar systems; storm windows and doors, shutters, awnings; water-misting systems; fire detection/suppression systems; towel, curtain and drapery rods, draperies and other window coverings, attached floor coverings; air cooler(s) and/or conditioner(s); attached fireplace equipment; pellet, wood-burning or gas-log stoves; garage door openers and controls; timers; mailbox; attached TV antennas (excluding satellite dishes and operating equipment); and all existing landscaping, including trees, cacti and shrubs, fountains, and lighting. In addition, if owned by Seller, the following items also are included in this sale: pool and spa equipment including any mechanical or other cleaning systems; security systems and/or alarms; water softeners and water purification systems.
The good news is, that of course, everything is negotiable. If you have an heirloom chandelier that’s been in the family for 60 years and you have every intention of keeping it that way, as a seller, you have a couple of options. The first is to take it down and put it away before you begin showing the house. If the missing chandelier leaves an ugly gap, it might be a good idea to buy a cheap replacement at a garage sale to fill it in. The other option is to let your real estate agent know that you want it written into the contract that it does not convey. Your agent can then let buyers’ agents know you wish to keep the item, and if necessary, you can make a counteroffer that specifies you are allowed to keep your chandelier. The important thing to remember is to take care of this before the purchase contract has been signed. It’s not impossible to amend a contract after it’s been signed, but your leverage as a seller to do such things quickly disappears.
One of my favorite meals to cook, whether it is for guests or just a quiet dinner for the two of us, is pistachio chicken salad with avocado lime dressing. It’s actually a recipe we’ve gotten from the South Beach cookbook, but it definitely doesn’t taste ‘healthy’. The key is to make sure you don’t over cook the chicken. You want it just perfectly moist to complement the crunchy pistachios and crispy romaine lettuce. (And if you happen to have any vegetarian relatives, as I do, you can substitute the chicken with tofu. My sister says it’s fabulous.)
Ingredients (Serves 2):
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts
1/2 cup of shelled pistachios
Romaine lettuce
1 avocado
2 limes
3 + 1 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Preparation:
Chop pistachios semi-fine in a food processor. Press chicken breasts into pistachio dust until coated. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a skillet on medium high. Brown chicken breasts coated with pistachios just a couple of minutes on each side and then place them in a glass baking dish in a 350 degree oven for 10 to 15 minutes, or until not pink in the center. In the meantime, put avocado, 3 tablespoons of oil, 3 tablespoons of limejuice and 1 tablespoon of water in the food processor and process until smooth. Slice chicken breasts over a bed of romaine lettuce and top with dressing.
We usually serve the salad with a side of asparagus. Spread the asparagus on a cookie sheet, top with a bit of olive oil, some sea salt and a bit of Parmesan and stick in the oven with the chicken until asparagus is cooked, but not shriveled. Enjoy!
When my website becomes live in its completion, I will have a link to a separate page that will show all of my listings. For the time being, however, I am designating one of my categories for just listings. Please bear with me until I have this format down.
$344,900
Chandler, 85248
1998
4 bedroom/2.5 bath
2,289 square feet
3 car garage
Living room, family room and eat-in kitchen
Raised ceilings
Backs up to greenbelt
The sale of this home is currently pending. For more information, please call me: Elizabeth Newlin (480)861-5425 – CENTURY 21 Arizona Foothills
This weekend we spent much of our free time setting up my new home office. I now have a desk, filing cabinet, chair, lamp and a fax/copier/printer. It exists, of course, in the only free space we had in our house, our bedroom. I love having my own space to file important papers and plug all of my electronic devices into. So far my new office has only presented two problems:
1. We turned the new fax on, tested it and then left it on for a few hours while we were home. Come to find that literally hours after I have set up our new fax phone number, we have received fax spam! So we learned our first lesson: keep the fax off unless we’re sending or know we’re receiving.
2. At night, before I go to bed I set my various electronic tools up to charge on my desk, as my husband, Jason, has helpfully wired my desk to facilitate. I have my cell phone, my laptop, the digital camera and my supra lockbox key. Last night, when I shut off the lights to go to sleep, all of the little charger lights combined were enough light to read by. Hmm… I may have to do something about that one.
Other than that, I love my new office! Don’t you love it too?
Life has been moving along with the speed and momentum of a freight train. I’m quickly becoming acclimated to the work and hours of a real estate agent, which, let me tell you, is no easy feat. There are calls to be made, appointments to be set up and documents to be faxed unendingly. The offer we made on the house on Tuesday was accepted! Houston, we have achieved escrow! With that success and excitement came a new challenge: the sale of their existing house. We put together the initial paperwork to do just that on Thursday night. This entire process has been complicated by the fact that Christy, Mark and their girls left yesterday for Massachusetts to visit his parents for the week. So we had to make sure we had everything necessary signed for the week ahead before they left. As of now, there should be a sign in front of their house (I’m going to drive by today to see) and I’m hoping for calls to have it shown today. Cross your fingers for us!
Interesting things I’ve learned this week:
How to find comparative properties to see how much a house should sell for
How the home inspection process works
It really takes a village to facilitate a home sale
Everyone thinks it’s really cute the first time you bring the baby into the office (how they feel the 15th time has yet to be determinded)
Realtors do actually earn their commission (who knew people actually called for business reasons at 10:30pm?)
It’s vital to have your 10 closest friends and their kids along for consultation on the walk-through
So far I LOVE real estate! Now if I could just get a little more sleep, it’s been a tiring week for us all…
It was an amazing day today. Believe it or not, I showed my first house and wrote my first offer, both on the same house. When I woke up this morning at 5, I had no clients. Now, at 11:47pm, I have an adorable family of clients (OK, so maybe they are my best friend’s sister, who I’ve known for a zillion years, and her husband and two daughters, but they’re still adorable) and they have an official offer on the table.
Here’s how it went down (just the basics, I’ve got to sleep eventually):
This morning, Christy emailed me that she and Mark might be interested in looking at houses, would I like to get together? I emailed back, OF COURSE! She sent me the basics of what they were looking for and the area they wanted to end up in and i did a quick search. Just one property fit their specifications exactly. I sent her the basics and she jumped right on it, “Let’s go see it!” That email left me instantly elated and terrified. I immediately called her sister to hyperventillate: “OK, talk to me like my friend, not like you’re sister’s sister. What am I going to do?? What if they want to make an offer?!” She giggled and calmed me down. I realized before I showed the house I still needed to get a lockbox key. I drove home from my still current full time job, picked up my boys and headed to the lockbox office. I spent some more money (in the interest of earning, of course) and we watched a 15 minute video on how to use the lockbox (my 4 year old has it down, let me tell you). Then we made a quick stop home to pick up snacks and diapers and headed out to the new house. Christy had her girls and her mom there too, so it was one big party. All immediately loved the house. Plans were made to drop the kids with spouses or relatives and to bring her husband, Mark back that night. Of course (in case you couldn’t see it coming from the beginning of the story), he loved it as well. And so an offer was born.
Miracles that occured today:
I found them the perfect house on the first try!
I managed to grab the correct paperwork when I raded the office.
The nine pages of legally approved contract were filled out.
And now the real work begins….
Hello, Internet! Nice to meet you! (And all of the other clich?©s that go with a first blog.)
This first post is a huge step for my family and me. It signifies the beginning of my new career in real estate. It’s a new world for me, folks! As of now, I officially have a license to sell real estate in the state of Arizona. Seven months ago I watched a reality show during which they taught a ski instructor how to fool a panel of judges into thinking she was a luxury home real estate agent and the spark of this undertaking was born. I was home on maternity leave with our second son, Gray, and not looking forward to the idea of returning to my tedious, uninteresting technical editing job 30 miles from home. As I fed the baby and watched trashy daytime TV that day, I thought about just how much I enjoyed the process of buying our home. I loved almost every part of it (once I got over the shock of what our monthly mortgage payment would be) from driving around potential neighborhoods, to reading the home inspector’s report. To me, it was all about potential. Potential places to put our furniture, potential meals to be cooked in our new kitchen and eaten around our dining room table, potential paint colors for our new rooms.
When we were house hunting, we definitely did not go with the first home we visited. In fact, as I tend to be a bargain shopper, and my husband is a skilled DIYer, we were shown several utter disasters of houses with a larger square footage and lower asking price, in the hopes that we could make diamonds out of coal. Unfortunately, with the first few houses, what we originally thought was coal, turned out to be nothing more than dog poo (and kitty urine). The one I remember most clearly we visited on the first full day we spent looking with our realtor, about the third house in. It was the right corner house in a cul de sac and had a beautiful mature tree in the front yard and a pretty brick exterior. The description from MLS noted a puzzling indoor pool, which we were anxious to see. From the outside, it looked quite promising. That promising feeling dropped into my stomach and was devoured by a growling monster of utter horror as soon as we set foot into the house. The ceilings were low. The walls were painted mint green. The furniture was dark and excessive, crowding us at every step. Adding to the claustrophobia was an odd musky stench we couldn’t quite put our fingers on. But we foraged on, discussing what a coat of paint and more minimal furniture could do to give the place a new life. The bedrooms were tiny and equally scary. We couldn’t even enter the master bedroom because it had a handwritten sign taped to the door that read, “Do not enter, bad cat pee” (Aha! The mystery of the stench was solved!). By that point even my mother, the eternal optimist, had checked this house off the list, but we decided that as far as we‚Äôd come, we might as well check out this ‘indoor pool’. We headed through the miniature kitchen and opened the sliding glass door to reveal a pool, inside a giant walled off porch. The roof had been extended to encompass literally the entire backyard. The concept of an indoor pool sounds glamorous and exciting, but when faced with the reality of it, we realized why you just don’t see many indoor pools in Arizona: if it’s indoor, you can’t experience the state’s greatest commodity, the sun. When we stepped a bit closer to the edge of the water, we also realized the notorious cats of the master bedroom had struck again. The entire pool had a layer of cat fur over the top of the water. That was enough for me. We hightailed it out of there.
I still think about that house every once in awhile. Maybe we were too hasty. Maybe we could have totally revamped the place and used the $40,000 or so we would have saved as compared to what we eventually paid for our house to turn in into a real gem…. but then again, nah.
So here I am, three and a half years, one more child, 90-plus hours of education and a real estate license later, ready to lead the masses down the same path I’ve loved (ok, we’ll try to stay away from cat urine). I figure if I can see potential and derive enjoyment out of even a horror of a house, this will be the career for me.
Hope to see you back here often!
Elizabeth
PS – Baby Gray says: Hire my mom!
(Have kids! They’re great for cheap marketing!)
Arizona Realtor, Mother of two boys (Bennett and Gray), General multitasker.
My goal is to find you your perfect home. I would rather you, as my client, back out of the deal at the last minute than regret your purchase. It's my mission to make you and your family happy.
