Cold Weather

And here I almost fell for Punxsutawny Phil’s prediction of an early Spring this year!  I guess it just goes to show you that weather people and weather creatures of all species are never 100% accurate.

Knowing this to be the case, my motto is: Always be prepared.  And although my intention is not to terrify anyone, I’m going to share a couple of experiences I’ve had with winter property issues, and to some of you they may come across sounding more like horror stories than anything else…

Back in the 1980’s, I had a listing on an unique cottage on the Ocean Drive.  It was a lovely site, an historic property overlooking the marshes near Cherry Creek. 

Shortly after the holidays, which is when real estate typically slows way down and sellers sneak away to St. Barth’s, I received an unexpected request to see the house.  I say unexpected, because this was right after a major blizzard!  But I drove out to the house, parked on the road (didn’t even bother with the driveway due to the 2+ feet of snow that had yet to be plowed),  and trudged up,  key in hand, to get inside and turn the heat up for the showing.

As I got closer to the door, however, I noticed something a little out of the ordinary; there was water running under the door and over the sill! “Oh, &*%$!” I thought.  I opened the door, only to discover that the radiator next to the door had cracked open, and a huge chunk of cast iron was sitting on the floor, with water spraying everywhere! The front foyer had become its own winter water park, with a lake spanning the hardwood entry and streams of water cascading downward to the sunken living room and onto the owner’s favorite Persian rug.

I headed to the basement, only to discover that it was full of water too!  Feeling like an intrepid explorer on a spelunking expedition, I waded and groped my way through the murky darkness until I found the shutoff valve and turned it hard to the right.

Back upstairs, when the potential buyers and their agent arrived, I politely informed them of the situation and suggested that they might want to come back another time.  I then got back in my car, my feet frigid as my pant legs froze over, drove back to my office on Bellevue, and made the calls to notify the owner and the oil company to check the furnace.  (Just to clarify for some of my younger readers who may be confused as to why I had to drive two miles to get to a phone: don’t be afraid, but yes, there was once a time before cell phones even existed… Terrifying, I know. And yet somehow, we survived!)  It turned out that the oil company hadn’t been able to deliver because the driveway was unplowed (!) and the owner had simply assumed everything would be fine because they had an “auto fill” contract!

Ah, memories…

Here’s another one! An investor who bought the parish house from a local church was from out of town, and he was unfamiliar with our New England winters.  According to the gossip at the time, he figured that he could close the property up and let it sit until it was ready for development.  He remained blissfully oblivious that his property had a problem until he received a water bill for tens of thousands of dollars!  The heat had been off and the household pipes had frozen, thawed, and then filled the basement with water, and it was running out the windows and in a babbling brook down the hill towards Thames Street!

Needless to say, New England weather poses challenges for real estate owners.  Early in the cold season, you should have your heating system cleaned and checked, arrange for automatic fuel delivery, and leave the thermostat no lower than 55 degrees – especially if you are going to leave town for any period of time.  Make sure that you also make arrangements to have your drive plowed, walk cleared and have someone check the property regularly while you’re gone.  This is especially important in case there is a power outage that lasts more than a few hours in very cold weather; your property manager will need to shut off the water and drain the pipes.

There are a number of reputable property management firms in the area that, for a small fee, will be more than happy to look after your home while you are away.  Hire a firm or have a friend who knows your plumber, electrician, and handyman check your house regularly, so that you can bask in the sun without worrying about coming home to Loch Ness.

Setting the Stage!

One of my daughters is really into reality TV shows about fixing things up, whether it’s wardrobes, antiques, hoarded homes – sometimes even relationships! There appears to be a strong demand in the U.S. for more and more of these types of shows (given how much they’ve been proliferating), and I suspect it’s because people really enjoy watching a “diamond in the rough” being transformed into its full, shining potential in an hour or less.

Following this trend, there have been a few TV shows geared specifically towards staging one’s home in order to make it as desirable as possible for potential buyers. On Encarta’s World Dictionary online, “staging” is defined as: beautifying a home for sale: cleaning, repairing, and updating the decor and furnishings of an older home to make it more attractive when shown to potential buyers. The TV show will bring in a professional stager who will gently show the befuddled homeowners the errors of their previous ways and make suggestions for the aforementioned beautification.

The conclusion of the half-hour or hour-long show will always make it seem as if it was the staging alone that really “sealed the deal” and brought the house to close. You might wonder, is that for real? Can a little feng shui, Febreeze, and soft lighting really make that much of a difference?

This answer is yes, it can. It can make a much bigger difference than you think, in terms of both the salability of the house and in its perceived value – which then translates to bigger bucks for you, the seller!

 As a follow-up to my December 3^rd blog post about pricing your house correctly for the market, I am going to give you some specific tips on how to stage your home to make it more appealing to buyers. For help with this, I turned to Karen Heagle in my office, a certified (and highly knowledgeable) home stager.

Here are Karen’s “tricks of the trade” for staging:

The way you live in a home and the way you stage a home are two different things. Once your house goes on the market, it becomes a product.  You wouldn’t think of selling your car without getting it showroom ready, so here’s what you should do with your house:

• Clear any clutter and additional furniture, and if you are moving, start packing.  "If you can't see it, you can’t sell it" should be the rule of thumb here.
• To increase curb appeal, a clutter-free exterior is important as well.
• Put away your collections - they become distractions for buyers and are not for sale anyway.
• Reduce the number of family photos.  The buyers need to be able to picture themselves living there. That’s tougher for them to do when they’re surrounded by pictures of Junior splashing in the bathtub or getting rides from Fido on the living room floor.
• Be sensitive to odors: "If you can smell it, you can't sell it." This is especially true for pet odors! I can guarantee that your buyers will not feel the same emotional connection to Mister Fuzzysnout that you do, nor will they appreciate his shedding habits.
• Watch out for wall colors. I’m all in favor of letting your kids express themselves creatively, but while your Goth teenager might have insisted that black walls were essential to his happiness, your buyers probably won’t feel the same way. When in doubt, paint it out – neutral tones are best for creating that “blank canvas” feel, which allows the buyer to project their own personal future hopes onto the property. The same goes for overwhelming wallpapers.
• Pay attention to unfinished projects such as the rail around your deck, missing hardware, loose doorknobs, broken windows, etc. These give buyers the sense that they are buying an unending list of things that need to be fixed. Who wants that? Take the time and get it done. You’ll thank yourself later.
• In general, look at the house with a buyer’s eyes... and remember, you only get one chance to make a first impression!

If all of this sounds a bit daunting, you might want to consider hiring an accredited staging professional with a trained eye – this will take a lot of the guesswork out of it!

You want to be able to sell your property as quickly and for as much money as possible.  For this reason, it is important to spend the time getting your property ready for showings.  An experienced Realtor can give you a good idea about which items need your attention and what you can skip in staging your home as appealingly as possible.