SarahGray Lamm ~ Chapel Hill / Carrboro / Durham Real Estate Blog ~ Agent Outlier: September 2009

My Carrboro neighborhood has always been friendlier than many. Most everyone knows who lives in each house and we usually wave to each other as we drive in and out every day. Our newest HOA president has taken us into the 21st century, well, at least the 20th century, by setting up an email contact list. Amazing how much easier it is to schedule neighborhood get-togethers. Just because technology is part of my daily life at work has nothing to do with how I think about communicating with my neighbors. After all, this is the south. We knock on the door, borrow a cup of sugar and then share the fresh baked goodies that result.

I know which of my neighbors have children, which are retired and which ones have local businesses. I know who goes for a walk each evening but beyond that our lives are pretty separate. After all, nobody really wants their neighbors knowing everything.

Last week I was included in a group email from one neighbor, Grey Brown, responding with her suggestions to a neighborhood project scheduled for the coming weekend. I noticed a weblink in her email signature. It simply said www.greybrownpoetry.com. I clicked.

An hour later I had read every poem on her beautiful website. I now know she has published two books of poetry and I know that writing is, for her, intensely personal and the way she copes with adversity and regenerates her spirit. Her just published book of poetry, When They Tell Me, is about her experiences “raising a child on the autism spectrum.” There are selections from it on her website. I have no words.

From her website I also listened to a radio interview she did last month at our local radio station WCOM in Carrboro and another done on NPR’s State of Things. I now know that Grey works with the Duke Health Arts Network, “one of the first arts in health care programs in the nation…integrating the arts and humanities into a variety of health care settings…” integrating her poetry with medicine in a very unique way. What a fantastic project and I didn’t even know such a thing existed.

I now know how very talented my neighbor is and also how very strange it is that a simple web link at the bottom of an email can change the way I see my own world. If Grey Brown is behind the front door of her house, imagine who else might be behind the other doors in my neighborhood.

You can hear Grey read her poetry at the West End Poetry Festival on October 17, 7:15pm at the Carrboro Century Hall, 100 North Greensboro St, Carrboro, NC. See you there.

We keep hearing there are more foreclosures coming and it's just common sense that those bad loans will affect our marketplaces.

If you could see what percentage of these troubled assets your local banks or credit unions own relative to their capital and loan loss reserves and relative to the county as a whole, would you want to know?

The BANKTRACKER UPDATE was launched 16 September 2009 by The Investigative Reporting Workshop, a part of The American University School of Communication in cooperation with MSNBC.

The search tool these talented investigative journalists have built is intended to allow the public to see graphically the percentage of troubled assets owned by any bank or credit union in the United States. Pretty interesting stuff. According to the BankTracker Methodology, The FDIC requires banks and the NCUA requires credit unions to submit certain data quarterly and these are all public information. The workshop members have extracted and organized certain data points and organized them into this easy to use tool.

There are a few caveats and explanations about this data which I recommend you read before jumping to any conclusions about what this data shows but still, it is window into the operations of your bank that would have been tough to find on your own until this tool was developed!

FINALLY...Orange County, North Carolina has rolled out it's long awaited new website! Well, long awaited by me and probably the other real estate agents who specialize in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and other parts of Orange County!

We use the information available in the tax records and GIS maps to determine all kinds of things...like who actually owns the property we are looking at (yes, folks have tried to list for sale a home they are only renting) and if any improvements have been made to the structures. We can find out if the taxes are current and how much the taxes are and determine the tax value of the property. We also look up legal descriptions (so we don't try to sell your neighbors property instead of yours...again; it's happened) and we can tell who owned the home before you bought it or find an adjoining property owner to see if they are interested in buying that lot you want to sell. All that is fun for me but then I live real estate!

Did I mention that the new website is pretty, too? The link screen opens against a picture of the Old Well on campus and changes when you reload.

So what's fun about it for you?

INDYWeek.com has just written an article called "Who Owns Franklin Street" in which they used the new Orange County website to figure out who, exactly, owns the heart of our city! It's a pretty interesting read with a seriously cool map showing locally owned parcels (including UNC land which is defined as local), vacant land and land owned by out of towners. Check it out! They even link to the Orange County website so you can completely geek out on land records.

Trust me, this is a sweet piece of research and took the authors some time, not to mention, skill. I so love the map! If you love maps, love Chapel Hill and just like knowing stuff nobody else knows...you'll be in heaven!

The recent debate over on Norma Toering’s post about whether or not a plasma tv attached to the wall is a fixture or not reminds me of a sale I had earlier this year. It all ended well and never degenerated into a “war” but it did bring up some issues that will very likely need clarification in our contracts sooner rather than later!

My seller and I had discussed at time of listing that his audio/video system, which was controlled from a special closet in the Family Room, would likely be a point of discussion or negotiation when the right buyer came along. Not only was the plasma TV mounted on the wall but there was other equipment involved and the complex system controlled entertainment in some of the Bedrooms as well as the Living Room and Kitchen. He was more than willing to consider leaving the system “with the right offer.”

Sure enough, when our best offer arrived, it included the system with a caveat that if the seller would not leave the system, he would repair the damage made by removing it. Fair enough. We asked the buyer’s agent which option the buyer preferred. He preferred keeping the system so we set about negotiating a price for the home that would allow the seller to feel alright about leaving the system in place. We got to a bottom line figure and I conveyed it to the buyer’s agent who called me to say she and her client were having a hard time understanding the figure as her buyer “could go buy a flat screen TV at Best Buy for a few hundred dollars.”

"Yes, he could." I replied, "But that isn’t where the value lies." If you have ever had a complex audio/video system installed in your home, you know that the last issue is how much the TV is worth. I explained that there is a lot of time and expertise involved in selecting compatible components, programming them to work together and then learning how to operate the system. (I addressed this awhile ago in another post.) The buyer’s agent said she was unaware of this and would convey it to her client.

When they came back to us, the contract now included complicated language requesting that the seller agree to repair or replace any defective audio/video equipment found by the “home inspector” at his expense. Okay….except I am not aware that there are any licensed home inspectors out there who would consent to “inspect” a complicated audio/video system much less how we would agree that he/she was “qualified” to do so!

I picked up the phone and called the buyer’s agent and just asked her to share with me what, exactly, the buyer was attempting to accomplish. She said he really wanted the system, especially now that he knew what could be involved in replacing the components, but wanted to be sure that the system really worked “as advertised”!

It was an easy thing to work out once we all understood each other’s point of view! The seller simply agreed to show the agent and the buyer how the system worked during the home inspection and then agreed to come back after the buyer moved in and spend a couple of hours teaching him how to use it!

The deal closed, everyone is happy! But I can absolutely see that as this new technology becomes prevalent in many more homes these issues will need to be addressed! I can foresee professional AV equipment installers, like the one I wrote about in my previous post, who will have a new opportunity for business as an “AV expert” who can provide an opinion about the value and functionality of a system. I’ve seen these systems run into the thousands, even tens of thousands, and there will need to be some accommodations made for “fixtures” with such high value!

As ever, dealing with the issue up front, during the listing appointment, and then asking for the motivation of the parties during negotiations and resolving them creatively, will get you farther down the road than anything else!

I'd like to share the thoughts of Matt Stigliano, a fellow professional in Texas regarding how we, as agents, are finding the need to manage our time even more efficiently now that the internet has become such a huge resource for us as well as our clients.

I am enjoying yet another "new way" of doing my business after 30 years, and all it has to offer. I am also quite happy to note that my "old way" still works ...because it was always based on doing what is best for my clients while respecting my need to run my business in a way in which I can be proud!

At the end of last year, when the change over to digital TV was imminent, I decided to come into the 21 st century and dump my cobbled together stereo system and 400 pound television (well, it FELT that way) and call in a professional. I mean, who isn’t wooed by the idea of a flat panel TV with sound streaming through quality audio speakers and the ability to play my ipod in sync with cool pictures streaming on the TV screen during a party?

So I did what any self respecting Realtor does…I asked a Realtor for a recommendation! Another agent in my office had just done the same and she was thrilled with her set up. I enthusiastically wrote down the number for “her guy.”

Rich Dlesk of Audio Video One in Chapel Hill, NC was happy to come over and sit down with me and talk about my options. By the time he left after our first meeting I was already so impressed I would have turned over a blank check! What did he do? What DIDN’T he do!

First, he LISTENED to me. He asked how I live in my house; when did I listen to music and in what rooms; did I watch movies and in which rooms. He wanted to know if I had friends over for televised sporting events and in what other ways I used media to entertain. He wanted to know if I had considered plans for future expansion of the system, say, should I ever make an addition to the house!

Second, he EXPLAINED how all this high tech stuff needs to work together and how it sometimes doesn’t just because the manufacturer says it should. He explained WHY that is and the best way to ensure that I didn’t end up with components that wouldn’t “talk” to other components or equipment that was not going to be used to its best ability if I didn’t have other equipment it requires.

Third, he OFFERED to design several possible systems that he felt would work for me and then SUGGESTED that there were some other cool options out there that I might like and which he would be happy to include BUT he would design the system in such a way that they could be added later if I didn’t want to come up with the cost all at once.

Lastly, he ASSURED me that he would seek out the best deals he could on the equipment he would be suggesting and made it clear that he had relationships with vendors of equipment that he had PERSONALLY tested and would vouch for the quality. His GUARANTEE was a year of FREE service to be sure I knew how to use the equipment AND that it was configured in a way that worked well for me.

Let me just say that the whole process was pleasant, informative, educational and made me feel like a valued customer. I love my system and Rich delivered just as he promised he would that first day. When my clients and friends ask me if I know someone who can set up an audio/video system for them I tell them to call “my guy” Rich Dlesk.

See that’s the thing about real estate agents…we not only network for referrals, we network for the awesome folks who become our go-to people whenever a client asks “Do you know anyone who…?” Yes, I do!I know lots of folks who are great at what they do…and hopefully that’s part of what makes me the one you recommend when someone says “Hey, do you know a great real estate agent?”

That, my friends, is the message from one of my favorite bloggers, Thomas Baekdal. I've posted his stuff before and not gotten much response but if you don't read this latest post you will miss one of the biggest heads up you will ever get!

He describes how we are very quickly moving from a "find economy" to a "use economy". In a "use economy" your observations about the things you know and the conversations it starts are part of people's very existance. What matters is your CMS...Content Management System...your internal work flow...and he provides a checklist for us. What self respecting real estate agent doesn't like a checklist!

I know we all have friends and colleagues who don't "get" social media, blogging or what we are doing on ActiveRain. All I say to them is you need to "do it" to "get it". Maybe what I'll do is pass this article on to them. After all, as Baekdal points out, people discuss articles, conversations, and what they care about and how they feel (I would add people they respect, or don't, as the case may be) but they do not discuss presentations or campaigns.

Happy Labor Day!