Category Archives: Kansas City Real Estate

No joke.  Our Keller Williams Realty office in Olathe, Kansas is smoking hot.  We are the largest real estate office located in Olathe and are just north of 152 agents, I believe.  The sales board was completely full.  Me personally?  I closed two homes in June and have six sides pending for July. 

I believe this $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers has really helped things along.  But three of my six sides are essentially real estate investors beginning to come back in to the market.  So there seems to be movement on that front as well. 

Most of the activity I’m seeing is in the “more desirable” areas close to economic suburban hubs.  Overland Park, Olathe and Lee’s Summit.  Big surprise, right?  But either way, real estate activity is up.  Not 2003 up, but up.

Home inspections are a funny thing.  Some believe they are for their intended purpose and that is for a buyer to have time to allow a professional to come in and take a neutral look at the place and point out where there may, or may not be, deficiencies.  Once those deficiencies are found they can be weighed and measured to decide a course of action.  Here in the Kansas City Real Estate market you can then;

1. Accept the property “As Is.”
2. Cancel the Contract.
3. Offer to renegotiate.

I think there are several things you have to keep in mind when you are looking at the “problems” a home may have;

1. How old is the home?
2. What was obvious to a blind mouse when you went through it?
3. What price did you get it at compared to the repairs needed and relative to the rest of the neighborhood?
4. Is it a buyer’s market or a seller’s market?

Unfortunately, there are agents/buyers that know full well before they even hold an inspection that they will use the inspections for leverage.  I don’t agree with that kind of tactic.  Let me give you an example:

I once was selling a house where the house was extremely nice.  But the driveway was extremely cracked and in need of repair…or more-rather, replacement.  We kept this in mind in the pricing.  We even mentioned it in the comments.  A buyer writes an offer, we negotiate and it gets accepted.  Then, after the inspections he wants to renegotiate another $8,000 off the price of the house because the driveway needs replacing!

I asked him when he had noticed this.  Was it when he first parked on it to see the house the first time?  Or the second time?  Or on his THIRD look?

People, please be serious.  That’s like buying a 25 year old home and then nit picking every little thing an inspector can find.  Here’s what I think you should be worried about in an inspection;

• Structural issues.  (You find out that the basement wall has a four inch lean behind those paneled walls or roof turns out to have three layers.)
• Major mechanical issues.  (Furnace is leaking carbon monoxide.)
• Safety issues.  (Radon gas that exceeds limits.  There is aluminum wiring.  Etc.)

You know, here in Kansas City the real estate market is not as bad as everywhere else, thank you God.  But still, I’m a little amazed at what I’m running into of late.  Keep in mind I have been selling real estate since May of 2002.  Never before have I run into so many sellers re-arranging the showing times I call for or asking me to call them when we’re done…giving the impression that it’s annoying and inconvenient for me to even bring buyers to look at their home.

And their weak real estate agents are on board with this?  Yes, because some of them are the ones calling me.

Listen, selling your house sucks.  Leaving when people want to see it IS inconvenient and it can be annoying.  Just another reason to price your house where it should sell to begin with that way you don’t spend four, five or eight months leaving your home to let someone else look at it.

But by all means, keep making the buyers feel uncomfortable to visit your home.  Keep asking top dollar when your house isn’t in the condition as the one for sale that sold down the street.  Keep offering small two hour windows per day that buyers are “allowed” to view your home.  (Loved the days on market on that one…322.  Surprised?)

Twice in the last 10 days I’ve had clients lose bids on houses without ever having the opportunity to know that there were competing bids on those houses.  Twice.  Have real estate agents forgotten how to work for their clients?  Or are these agents simply selfish and lazy?  What about the courtesy to other agents that brought them an offer.

One agent is a very well known Re/MAX agent here in town.  On behalf of my client I submitted an offer on Friday afternoon and even called to let her know the offer was on the way.  No response.  On Monday about 11:00 I called and asked if she had received my offer since there was no response.  Both times the I had to speak to voice mail because apparently answering the phone is not a high priority.

At 5:30 last evening I get a call (my first call from her, mind you) telling me my client’s offer was the losing offer.  I asked her how many competing bids she had and why hadn’t I been informed that there were competing bids?  She said two others and that my bid wouldn’t have won anyway.  When pressed, I found out one other bid was a lowball and the one we lost to didn’t even come in until Sunday night.  I again asked why we weren’t asked to give a highest and best and she said the other offer was cash so she was sure the offer of my client would be rejected.

Well, at least I feel more comfortable that she is now negotiating on behalf of her client.

Folks, I doubt seriously if my client’s offer was even really looked at by the seller. A very similar thing happened the week before with a Realty Executives agent.  No announcement that there were multiple bids, just that we had lost.

Let me ask you: If you were a seller and could get into a multi-bid situation wherein you could quite probably get more out of the one buyer because of the second buyer, especially in a REO situation, wouldn’t you do it?

You know why the sellers don’t get our bids, too?  Because I’ll bet you the agents are submitting just the top bid they collect.  The listing agents of most REO listings are taking a commission cut to get the listings.  They are not going to want to have to work that hard, just to keep the commissions coming in.  2% of $120,000 is enough.  Why spend a couple more hours getting $125,000 when it only means another $60-$75 to the listing agent after office expenses.

I tell my kids one of the worst things I can call you is “Lazy.”  Well, guess what…