I’m curious, because I’m working on a website for aproperty that may end up with hundreds of photos.

Is that too many?

If you are interested in a house, how many pictures are too many?

Comment, or feel free to email.

It is tough.  I want there to be enough pictures to adequately show all of the details of the house, but this house has so many details that one could be lost trying to view them all.

I heard two interesting points on the news today.  First, the screaming-stay-tuned-after-the-break headline…

Foreclosure filings skyrocket 65%

And then the less hyped statistic…

One home is 500 in some stage of the foreclosure process

That means that 0.2% of homes are somewhere in the foreclosure process.  That means that previously it had been 0.12%.

Does that sound as ominous?

This is Part II (kind of) of Don’t make me call you…

ok, I admit it is just because the titles work well together… Don’t make me call you… but I can.  Anyway, here is the actual content.

If you list your home for sale, and it expires without selling or is withdrawn, you have consented to allow other agents to call you.  Even if you are on the “Do Not Call” list.  Here is the contract language:

Seller acknowledges that by virtue of listing the Property in MLS(s), all MLS(s) members and their affiliated licensees, will have access to Seller’s listing information for the purpose of assisting Seller in the sale of the Property. If Seller is on a “Do Not Call List,” Seller expressly consents to any of the above parties calling Seller for any purpose related to the sale of the Property. Seller further acknowledges and agrees that no MLS(s) member or any affiliated licensee of the MLS(s) member shall have any liability for calling the Seller after the expiration or termination of this Agreement. Such calls are hereby expressly consented to by Seller. This paragraph shall survive past the term of this Agreement.

And don’t think you can strike that language from your listing agreement… if you do, your property can’t be listed on the MLS.

Don’t freak out yet.  Most agents have no idea what is in the contract.  They are scared to death to call people because of the do not call list.  I know that I can… I just don’t like it.

Final thought… there is a way to avoid the calls after the listing expires… it’s really easy, too.  Get it sold.  If the property sells, you won’t get calls for 1,483 agents looking to list it for you.  Give me a few days, and I’ll show you a seriously cool website for a property.

Another in the continuing saga of questions I get asked…

Lane, we want to sell our house, but we don’t want to give it away.

And the companion question:

Shouldn’t I pick the agent that wants to list at the highest price?

Let me take question two first.  No.

Ok, let’s focus on the other question and you’ll see why I gave the answer for the second question.

Agents don’t really set prices.  The market attempts to set prices.  Agents are guessing the direction of the market… nothing more.  Let’s kick out an example to illustrate:

The subject property is going to be an average house in a subdivision with average prices around $350k.  Just like the other houses, this one has a 3 car garage, 4 bedrooms, 3 full baths and 1 half bath.  It has a basement, and the average recent price of the basement lot homes in the subdivision is about $375k.  The basement is also stubbed for a bath.

It should be pretty obvious that this property would end up being sold within a few thousand dollars of the averages, since it is an average house.

If an agent says she will list it for $1m, should she get the listing?

The obvious answer is NO. In fact, I would say heck no.  NO buyers are going to look at it.  It won’t be in their search results.  The buyers would assume that the sellers are cranks, and if they saw it while driving to other properties in the area, still wouldn’t look at it.  The chances of an offer would be seriously low.  Even at $500k, it would be much the same… in fact, as it gets closer to the price it would be worse.  At $1m, it is obviously crazy.  At $500k, it is apparently crazy.  At $400k, it just looks too high.  At least under $400k, there might be some viewings.

But, if there are other houses in the area that are comparable and less expensive, and there isn’t something that sets the house apart, it isn’t going to attract an offer.  Think about it for a minute.  If the house up the street is largely similar, why make an offer on the house that is $25k more? There simply isn’t a reason.

Even if there is something that sets it apart, it is up to the buyer to determine if that something is worth the price difference.  Back to the subject house…

Now the basement is finished.  It has a media room and then outside that, there is a pub, a wine cellar over in the corner… pool table and gaming area.  This is very nice.

But, Mr. and Mrs. Buyer need a couple more bedrooms.  They have a whole basketball team worth of kids… and a couple of cheerleaders, too.

How much value does the media room add for them?

If your number starts with a minus sign, you may be in the ballpark.  They need a basement with bedrooms.  So, on to the next buyers.  They need an In-Law Suite.  Next.  Family with two kids and they LOVE movie night.  Bingo.  We have an interested buyer, and this adds value for them.

And THEY will determine how much it adds.

I am a car guy.  I love cars (and trucks, Jeeps, motorcycles…) and like to see big and cool garages for those wonderful toys.  But no matter how hard I hit someone over the head with a 4 car garage, if they have a bicycle for work, and a Smart car for vacation and think that is all anyone would ever need… they aren’t going to see the value.

So, we know that buyers decide what they are willing to pay…

And it is up to sellers to decide what they are willing to accept.  you don’t have to give it away.  You can also keep it… if anything less than $30k more than what a buyer is willing to give is giving it away.

I told some sellers earlier this week that they should wait to sell.  They don’t need to sell.  They want to get a price that the market isn’t going to support right now.  It is a great house, but needs some updating (honestly, most houses need some updating…).  They can take some time and update it… and enjoy the updates.  In a year or two, the market may catch up to where they want to be.

If I were to list it at a price it wouldn’t sell at, I certainly wouldn’t be helping them.  In fact, all I would be doing is annoying them and giving them false hope.  Lying and saying that I believe it would sell is just wrong if I know I’ll be asking for a major price reduction in a few weeks.

I don’t set the price. The buyers decide what they are willing to pay.  The sellers decide what they are willing to give.  My job is to figure out what the right buyer should be willing to give.  And what the right seller should be willing to take.

Saturday, May 10th was the GBR 4WD Club’s annual Mud 4 Blood event in conjunction with LifeSouth and other Atlanta area 4WD clubs.

We had a great event this year, and here are a couple of video clips from the event.

This first clip is the Georgia Rock Rods setting up one of their several parking set-ups. Through-out the day, they re-arranged their rigs in different stacking combinations. The crowd seemed to enjoy the setting up as much as the vehicles once they were in formation.

One of the fans of the stacked Jeeps was my son Garrett. He thought it was terribly cool. He was asking why we didn’t have our minivan parked on top of the dually and project Commando at home…

There will be a video compilation of the sights of Mud 4 Blood coming soon… And save a day in early May for next year’s event.

… newsletter online for your neighborhood, would you read it?  What information would it take for you to want to read it?

I hate cold calling. I’m not likely to do it. The world is in a much better way when you call me.

I hate GETTING the calls. I bet you do, too. If you are a seller and your listing expires… you know EXACTLY what I mean. A hundred agents calling isn’t that uncommon. A long time ago I had a listing that expired (I was the agent on it) and I got 50 calls on one day… and I said in the listing that I was the agent.

I don’t want people to yell at me and hang up.

I don’t want people to set the phone down in front of the TV.

I don’t want air horns or sirens blared in my ear.

But, if you listing is expiring, or has expired… call me. We can talk about why. We can see if there is a way to get your house sold. As you might figure out from this post… I’m not going to employ thumb screws. I am not going to put on the pressure and go for the hard sell.

What I am going to do is tell you the truth. I’m also going to help you find out why your house isn’t sold. That is the goal. Right?

I did the first six parts of this on my A/R blog.  I thought I would drop one here, too…  Here are the previous visits to the mailbag:

Part I, Buyer’s Price Range

Part II, When should we start to look?

Part III, New Homes inducements

Part IV, Should we sell?

Part V (A), What should we do to our house?

Part V (B), And what else?

Part VI, Why didn’t my house sell?

I get asked a lot about foreclosures.  A LOT.  Seriously.  Everyone is thinking that there is money to be made in foreclosures, or killer, super-duper, bona-fide deals.  And… there are.  But, these are dangerous waters.  Navigate carefully.

What it comes down to is that there are some VERY important considerations to keep in mind when looking at foreclosures.  These are also true with short sales and pre-foreclosure sales… in fact, almost ANY distressed property is going to have pitfalls.

There are only two tools that can be used to address the pitfalls.  Either or both may need to be employed.  Money.  Time. Anything can be solved by money alone.  You can simply hire someone to take care of it.  Some things CAN’T be solved with just time, but time can be traded in for money.

• Here is the first thing to remember, Time is NOT free.  If you are looking at a house, and it needs paint and other work, even though the money isn’t high (paint is only a couple hundred dollars for a whole house), it WILL take a lot of time if it isn’t hired out.  And that is time that you could work or play or stare at the TV… or blog.

So, since we know that no matter what, there will be expenses, and we can be sure that the “seller” won’t want to come out of pocket with a lot of allowances…

• Know that buying a distressed property requires cash AFTER the closing. It might be as cheap as paint and serious cleaning… and filters and septic treatments, etc.  Or it might be a roof and fixing foundation damage.

The next thing that needs to be kept in mind is that when people can’t make the house payment, or they are stretched to the absolute limit, maintenance is NOT a priority.  We have a euphemism… deferred maintenance.  Even in homes that look good at first glance, there will be things that have been let go.

• Next on the list, Inspections are your friend.  And don’t think that the inspection is something you should scrimp on.  Get a good inspector.  Get an inspector that you trust.  Ask questions.  Understand EXACTLY what the results are, and how they will affect you.

Since everyone is asking me about foreclosures and distressed properties, I know that there is competition for the “best” deals.  That’s right.  Right here in the middle of a huge Buyer’s Market, there are properties that have competition.  Low-ball offers and outrageous demands aren’t making it with the banks in general (even on the properties that suck…) and certainly not on the ones that are actually worth buying.

• Finally, when you find a good deal, be ready to buy it.  Just because Katie Couric and Clark Howard are saying that this is the best buyer’s market in the last 40 years, for money making properties, you have to move and move fast.

I love to get question.  Email me, and I will answer your questions on my blog, or via email.

That’s right.  I have the new market report, and all of the new content for the May issue of GarageHomesUSA on the site.  Wander over and take a look.

I guess it is also a good time to say that I will be putting together the May issue of the GarageHomesUSA/LaneBailey newsletter.  It should go out in the next couple of days.  There is still time to sign up if you haven’t already.

… on GarageHomesUSA.  Wander over and take a look.  Here is a direct link to the report.

I was hoping that we would be seeing stronger indicators of the housing recovery at this point… we’ll have to wait for the final April numbers.

Wander over and take a look at the report.