Real Estate
Why picking the wrong agent can cost you money
There are many kinds of Realtors so be sure to find the right one
Let’s face it, Realtors are portrayed pretty poorly in the media – typically as either a ditzy single mom, a pushy used car salesman type, or someone totally aloof in their own world (I’m looking at you, Phil Dunphy). These stereotypes used to really bother me, because they didn’t reflect the hard-working, dedicated professionals that I typically encounter. We work with some truly excellent agents that make me proud to be a Realtor.
In the last few weeks, the spring market has really started to heat up. Many newly minted “agents” are throwing their hat into the ring to make, what they think, is a quick buck. As a result, we’ve encountered some very interesting situations. Maybe it’s just that I am nine months pregnant and my patience is wearing thin, but I felt the need to educate the public on how picking the wrong agent can cost you. Here is a breakdown of some of the types of agents – and real life encounters we’ve had with them – that are the reason for our embarrassing portrayal in the media. So, please excuse me while I rant.
THE HARD-WORKING, COMPETENT AGENT. As I mentioned above, there are many, many excellent agents out there who go above and beyond for their clients and do a truly fabulous job. While most agents we deal with fall into this category, and I could go on and on about all of the wonderful aspects of those agents, this post is not about those Realtors.
THE LAZY AGENT. This type of agent is probably the most common offender in our profession. They got into real estate because it offered flexibility and they figured they didn’t have to work a 9-5 schedule. Turns out, they were right. Real estate is not 9-5, it is 24/7! As agents, we are available when our clients need us, when other agents need us, when appraisers need us, and when home inspectors are available. We not only must be available 9-5 for the banks and title companies we work with during the work week, but also when our clients are available — usually on the weekends and in the evenings.
Agents who thought they were in for a cushy schedule get a rude awakening. Most eventually adapt to their new “flexible” schedule. However, there are those that cut corners to stay in the industry and try to make it work – to the detriment of their clients and anyone trying to do business with those clients.
Frequently, this type of agent also doesn’t respond to questions or if they do, it takes them hours and the information is incomplete. They usually don’t respond on weekends or evenings and if they get back to you, they act as if it is an inconvenience. This sort of response can cause many buyers to simply move on if they are not getting the information quickly enough or are not satisfied with the information do receive. It’s the spring market — there are lots of listings and many of them have deadlines so buyers need to make quick decisions. Many buyers just say… “Next!”
THE PART-TIME AGENT. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, there are many agents out there selling real estate “on the side.” They may just work part-time, or it could mean they have a full-time job and they sell real estate only on weekends and evenings. So, they are far from lazy and are often working very hard, but they can be tough to reach and often don’t know the ins and outs of the contract and general “norms” of the industry.
We aren’t knocking people trying to get started in the industry. It’s a tough job to get into as you often don’t get paid for several months (fun fact – we only get paid after a client goes to settlement – so by the time a new agent gets a client, finds them a property or a buyer for their home and then goes to settlement, it’s often six months before the agent gets a check for their work.)
I can understand that many people need to pay their bills. What I cannot understand is agents who will not answer their phones or emails from 9-5. It is completely unacceptable and an enormous disservice to their clients. If you have a listing and someone wants to show it, taking eight hours to get back to that agent might mean the buyers moved on to another property. That means a seller may have missed out on their buyer. If you’re a buyer, same deal. You might have just lost the opportunity to see a hot new listing that could now be under contract.
THE INSINCERE AGENT. Worse than the lazy agent is the insincere agent. Luckily, we don’t come across this type of agent very often. The insincere agent will tell you there is another offer on a property to try to get your clients to improve their offer when in reality, the other offer doesn’t exist. Or, they might selectively choose which of your questions to answer, not replying to you if they answer is something you won’t like. We reserve most of our venom for this type of agent.
THE NON-REALTOR AGENT. Most people don’t know there is a difference between a Realtor and a real estate agent. All Realtors are real estate agents but not all real estate agents are Realtors. Being a Realtor is an additional certification or membership that a real estate agent can obtain. Becoming a Realtor means that, among other things, you must adhere to the Realtors’ code of ethics. This is an important differentiating factor because it holds Realtors responsible for not lying to their clients or fellow agents. If they do, they could be fined and put their license in jeopardy.
THE INEXPERIENCED OR JUST FLAT OUT BAD AGENT. While this type of agent isn’t devious and is often well-meaning, it can be one of the most dangerous types of agents to work with as a client. The problem is – they don’t know what they don’t know. Even worse, their clients usually don’t know what their agent doesn’t know.
We once had an agent tell us that she and her client are not currently on speaking terms so she couldn’t get back to us on our offer. I mean, where to even begin!? Long story short, we moved on. That house is still on the market and to be honest, I would be shocked if it sold anytime soon.
Another agent recently told us proudly that they will turn away any offer that is not full price. This property was priced significantly higher than the comps. It, too, is still on the market. Granted, this agent’s client should take a lot of the blame for this, but the agent shouldn’t get a free pass.
Part of our job as Realtors is to educate our clients into the appropriate pricing for the property and at least encourage a “conversation” between buyer and seller through counter-offering.
Even if an offer starts out low, many times the seller can still get the buyer up to a price that is acceptable with a few rounds of countering The fact is, once a buyer is mentally invested in a property, they often will come up higher than they originally anticipated. But, you won’t know this as a seller unless you engage them with a counter. It is highly ill advised to reject any offer, no matter how low it is. We had a listing where the original offer was over $100,000 under the list price – we ended up ratifying a contract on the property at a price that was significantly higher than the first offer and perfectly acceptable to both buyer and seller.
Sometimes, the agent doesn’t even know how to put together an offer and we’ve had to draft the offer for their client – or re-write it completely. An agent who recently wrote an offer on one of our listings did not know he needed to include a certain contingency that his client definitely required. We nicely let him know that he probably meant to include it. Omitting this contingency could have been a major issue for his client.
Another example of how an inexperienced agent can blow a deal is by not understanding the “norms” of how an offer process works or not taking the time to find out how an agent is handling a multiple offer situation. If the listing agent doesn’t set an appropriate deadline, or doesn’t get back to buyer agents, buyers agents won’t know how to proceed.
As a result, a seller could miss out on additional offers that would have escalated in price, leaving tens of thousands of dollars on the table for the seller.
We had a recent situation where a client was ready to accept a full price offer on their property over the weekend. However, we could tell based on the interest we were getting that by waiting until Monday and setting a deadline time that all agents were made aware of, that they would get more money. By waiting, we were able to get them an additional $30,000 with no home inspection negotiation (saving them from having to make repairs) and no appraisal contingency. Knowing the pulse of the market, we got a much better deal for our client.
Similarly, if a buyer agent doesn’t know enough to let the listing agent know that their clients have interest, they could miss out on the property. Time and again, we’ve had buyer agents call us weeks after our listings go under contract letting us know that their clients were interested, even though they had never been in touch. Inexperienced buyer agents can be detrimental if they don’t know how to find out about properties before they hit the active marker, to pull the appropriate comps, to best present the offer in multiple offer scenarios, or which types of inspections to schedule. There is a lot that an inexperienced agent just doesn’t know.
THE BOTTOM LINE. Picking a real estate agent is a major decision. It can directly affect both your bottom line and your ability to buy or sell a house in the time and manner that works for you. As we’ve shown, there are a wide variety of agents in the business. Most are wonderful to work with, but there are still many – and especially in the spring market – that put their clients in tough situations that could cost them money. Often, the client doesn’t even know it. It’s critical to carefully think through who you are working with to buy or sell.
Allison Goodhart DuShuttle is lead agent for The Goodhart Group, Alexandria’s and McEnearney Associates’ top producing real estate team. In 2015, she was nationally recognized by Realtor Magazine, being named to its “30 Under 30” club. Allison can be reached at 703-362-3221 or [email protected].
Real Estate
What property should I purchase if I’m not sure how long I’ll be in D.C.?
Row homes, English basements and more options abound
Great question! If you are looking at real estate as an investment – two great property types to look at would be a smaller row home and also a row home that has an English basement. Some property types that you might want to stay away from would be a condo or a co-op unit. Let’s take a look at why these properties would be good and bad:
Smaller Row Home
Row homes are a great investment for many reasons. You can often find smaller two-bedroom row homes in the same price point as those of a two-bedroom condo, which might be seen as a “condo alternative” and afford you much more freedom. There are no condo associations or home owner associations that you must belong to so this keeps your monthly carrying costs on the lower end and you are allowed to make more independent decisions. For example, if you wanted to paint the house purple – in most cases you would be allowed to. If you wanted to change the color of the front door or put shutters on the windows – you would be allowed to. This is usually not the case with condo or co-ops.
When it comes to the rental market – similarly renters like the independence of privacy in a home and not being among many other people. The luxury of perhaps direct off-street parking, outdoor space or even just more space at the same rental amount that a two bedroom condo rent would be – this is more appealing for a renter and would likely rent faster than that of a condo or co-op. For this model – you would obviously need to move out before you could take advantage of the investment of this type of real estate.
A row home with an English basement
With this type of real estate you can immediately begin receiving income after your purchase. You can occupy the upstairs of the row home, which is usually the larger portion of the home, or you could even occupy the basement, which is usually the 1-2 bedroom smaller portion of the home and receive rental income for the other half of the home. This can be in the way of a yearly traditional tenant or in the manner of short-term rentals (check with the most recent STR policies within the District). With this model, you stand to make even more of a return on your investment upon your move out of the home as you can rent the entire home or you can rent the top unit and basement unit independently to gross a larger amount of income. It is important to note that it is never advised to purchase a row home unless you can fully afford it WITHOUT the idea of accepting additional rental income to offset the mortgage cost.
These two options listed above are the most typical found within the District because they are fee simple, standalone pieces of real estate and are not within a condo association, HOA, or a co-op with governing documents that tell you what you can and cannot do which makes row homes an attractive type of real estate for a long-term hold.
When looking at types of properties that you might want to stay away from – condos and co-ops come to mind and I say this with a caveat. You can surely purchase these types of real estate but must first understand the in’s and out’s of their governing documents. Condos are bound by the governing condominium documents which will tell you for how long your lease must be, a minimum of lease days, you can only rent after you have lived in the residence for a number of years, likely will stipulate no transient housing – which means no short term rentals. It could also quite possibly say that you can only rent for a specific amount of time and lastly it will also stipulate that only a specific amount of people can rent at one time in order to stay below the regulated lending requirements set forth by Fannie and Freddie Mac. Similarly, Co-ops are even more strict – they can tell you that you are just not able to rent at all or if you can you can only do so for a specific number of years and then you are required to sell or return back to the unit as your primary residence.
As you can see, when it comes to condos and co-ops there are more specific and stringent bylaws that owners must agree to and follow that limit or even outlaw your ability to rent your piece of real estate. When you purchase a row home – there are no regulations on what you can and cannot do regarding rentals (outside of the short-term regulations within the District).
When looking for a piece of real estate in the District it is important to think through how long you could possibly wish to hold onto this property and what the future holds. If you think this is a long-term hold then you might consider a row home option – again, you can find a smaller two-bedroom row home that amounts to that price similar to a two-bedroom condo and would afford you a more flexible lifestyle. It’s important to work with a real estate agent to ensure that they guide you in this process and help answer any questions you might have. It’s also always advised to speak directly to a short-term rental specialist should you wish to go down that route as they will truly understand the in’s and out’s of that marketplace.
All in all, there are specific property types that work for everyone and within the District we have a plethora of options for everyone.
Justin Noble is a Realtor with Sotheby’s International Realty licensed in D.C., Maryland, and Delaware for your DMV and Delaware beach needs. Specializing in first-time homebuyers, development and new construction as well as estate sales, Justin provides white glove service at every price point. Reach him at 202-503-4243, [email protected] or BurnsandNoble.com.
Real Estate
The rise of virtual home tours
Adapting to changing consumer preferences in spring real estate
In today’s dynamic real estate market, the spring season brings not only blooming flowers but also a surge of activity as buyers and sellers alike prepare to make their moves. However, in recent years, there’s been a notable shift in how consumers prefer to explore potential homes: the rise of virtual tours.
For the LGBTQ community, these virtual experiences offer more than just convenience; they provide accessibility, safety, and inclusivity in the home buying process.
Gone are the days of spending weekends driving from one open house to another – unless that’s your thing of course, only to find that the property doesn’t quite match expectations. With virtual tours, you can explore every corner of a home from the comfort of your own space – find something interesting? Schedule a showing with any LGBTQ Realtor at GayRealEstate.com.
This is particularly significant for LGBTQ individuals, who may face unique challenges or concerns when attending in-person showings. Whether it’s the ability to discreetly view properties without fear of discrimination or the convenience of touring homes located in LGBTQ-friendly neighborhoods across the country, virtual tours offer a sense of empowerment and control in the home buying process.
Moreover, virtual tours cater to the diverse needs of the LGBTQ community. For couples or families with busy schedules or those living in different cities or states, these digital walkthroughs provide a convenient way to view properties together without the need for extensive travel. Additionally, for individuals who may be exploring their gender identity or transitioning, virtual tours offer a low-pressure environment to explore potential living spaces without the added stress of in-person interactions.
At GayRealEstate.com, we understand the importance of adapting to changing consumer preferences and leveraging technology to better serve our community. That’s why our agents offer an extensive selection of virtual tours for LGBTQ individuals and allies alike – visit our website, choose an agent and within minutes you’ll have access to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS) via their website.
From cozy condominiums in bustling urban centers to sprawling estates in picturesque suburbs, virtual tours showcase a wide range of properties tailored to diverse tastes and lifestyles.
In addition to virtual tours, GayRealEstate.com provides comprehensive resources and support to guide LGBTQ buyers and sellers through every step of the real estate journey. Our network of LGBTQ-friendly agents is committed to providing personalized service, advocacy, and representation to ensure that all individuals feel respected, valued, and empowered throughout the process. Plus, we are happy to provide a free relocation kit to any city in the USA or Canada if you are a home buyer.
As we embrace the spring season and all the opportunities it brings in the real estate market, let’s also celebrate the power of virtual tours to revolutionize the way we find and experience our future homes. Whether you’re searching for your first apartment, forever home, or investment property, GayRealEstate.com is here to help you navigate the exciting world of real estate with confidence, pride, and inclusivity.
Jeff Hammerberg is founding CEO of Hammerberg & Associates, Inc. Reach him at [email protected].
Real Estate
Boosting your rental property’s curb appeal
Affordable upgrades to attract and keep tenants happy
In the District of Columbia, the rental market tends to open up significantly during the springtime for several reasons. First, spring brings about a sense of renewal and change, prompting many individuals and families to seek new living arrangements or embark on relocations. Additionally, the warmer weather and longer daylight hours make it more conducive for people to explore housing options, attend viewings, and make decisions about moving. Furthermore, spring often coincides with the end of academic terms, leading to an influx of students and young professionals entering the rental market.
Landlords and property managers also tend to schedule lease renewals or list new vacancies during this time, capitalizing on the increased demand and ensuring a steady turnover of tenants. In the competitive world of rental properties, attracting and retaining quality tenants can be challenging. However, with some strategic upgrades, property owners can significantly enhance their units’ appeal without breaking the bank. From enhancing curb appeal to interior upgrades, here are some practical and cost-effective ideas to make your rental property stand out in the market.
Curb appeal
First impressions matter, and curb appeal plays a crucial role in attracting potential tenants. Simple enhancements like freshening up the exterior paint, adding potted plants or flowers, and ensuring a well-maintained lawn can instantly elevate the property’s appearance. Installing outdoor lighting not only adds charm but also enhances safety and security.
Interior upgrades
Upgrade the kitchen and bathroom fixtures to modern, energy-efficient options. Consider replacing outdated appliances with newer models, which not only appeal to tenants but also contribute to energy savings. Fresh paint and updated flooring can transform the look of a space without a hefty investment. Additionally, replacing worn-out carpets with hardwood or laminate flooring can make the unit more attractive and easier to maintain.
Enhance storage
Maximize storage options by installing built-in shelves, cabinets, or closet organizers. Tenants appreciate ample storage space to keep their belongings organized, contributing to a clutter-free living environment.
Improve lighting
Brighten up the interiors by adding more lighting fixtures or replacing old bulbs with energy-efficient LED lights. Well-lit spaces appear more inviting and spacious, enhancing the overall ambiance of the rental unit.
Upgrade window treatments
Replace outdated curtains or blinds with modern window treatments that allow natural light to filter in while offering privacy. Opt for neutral colors and versatile styles that appeal to a wide range of tastes.
Focus on security
Invest in security features such as deadbolts, window locks, and a reliable alarm system to ensure the safety of your tenants. Feeling secure in their home is a top priority for renters, and these upgrades can provide meaningful, genuine peace of mind.
Enhance outdoor spaces
If your rental property includes outdoor areas like a patio or balcony, consider sprucing them up with comfortable seating, outdoor rugs, and potted plants. Creating inviting outdoor spaces expands the living area and adds value to the rental property.
As landlords, investing in the enhancement of your rental properties is not merely about improving aesthetics; it’s about investing in the satisfaction and well-being of your tenants, and ultimately, in the success of your investment. By implementing these practical and affordable upgrades, you’re not only increasing the desirability of your units but also demonstrating your commitment to providing a high-quality living experience.
These efforts translate into higher tenant retention rates, reduced vacancy periods, and ultimately, a healthier bottom line. Moreover, by prioritizing the comfort, safety, and happiness of your tenants, you’re fostering a sense of community and trust that can lead to long-term relationships and positive referrals. So, let’s embark on this journey of transformation together, turning rental properties into cherished homes and landlords into valued partners in creating exceptional living spaces.
Scott Bloom is owner and Senior Property Manager of Columbia Property Management. For more information and resources, visit ColumbiaPM.com.
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