QOTD: Mark Twain on Homes, and Cats

Quote of the Day, taken from page 47 of my new copy of The Home Owner's Journal: What I Did and When I Did It, a Christmas gift from Mom to help us document updates, upgrades, and paint colors in our current home.

A home without a cat—and a well fed, well petted, and properly revered cat,—may be a home, perhaps, but how can it prove title?
-Mark Twain

Not sure why, but this amused me. 

Different Open House Customs

My family and I frequently travel to Wisconsin to visit family. I grew up in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, and have always enjoyed checking out open houses when I am visiting.  Because it was Christmastime during this most recent visit, there were limited offerings on that Sunday, and it was about 19 degrees outside, and there was a Packers game on TV, so I had other priorities.  Go Pack Go!

Browsing the listings in the local paper reminded me how real estate practices, in addition to local and state laws and regulations, differ across the country.  In Maryland and DC and much of this region, the typical public open house is Sunday, 1-4 p.m.  Occasionally an agent will hold a property open on a Saturday for a couple of hours, say 1-3 p.m. or 2-4, but I cannot recall seeing an open house for less than 2 hours.

In Oshkosh, open houses are typically one hour long.  So one agent, let's call him Charlie, can hold House A on Westhaven Drive open 10:30 to 11:30 a.m., then scoot over to Listing B on Grove Street from noon to 1:00 p.m., and finish off the afternoon's work at House C on Mount Vernon Street from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.  That schedule makes me exhausted just typing it.  Then again, that fictitious agent Charlie might shudder at the thought of staying in one house for three solid hours.

I enjoy thinking about these different practices and customs. I wonder what buyers think?

Nesting and Investing

Buying a new home is a pricey proposition. Not only do you obviously pay and borrow for the sales price you negotiate with the seller, but there are closing costs like transfer and recordation taxes, escrow funding charges, and other loan fees and deed costs. Then you need to move your belongings, and even if you move yourself, there are costs for trucks, setting up utilities, packing materials and the like.

Once you move in, there may be features of the house you want to improve right away. You want to make this house your home, to nest. Maybe your son wants his room painted orange. And you want to remove the old carpet from the den. Perhaps you want to enhance the storage capabilities of the house (more on closet extenders in another post). And you might be like one of my recent buyer clients, who wanted to invest in increasing the energy efficiency and reliability of her home's systems. 

This particular home, built in 1940, came with a creaky old oil boiler which provided both heat and hot water to the house. Basically the furnace was running year round to provide hot showers and the like; not particularly energy efficient. My buyer client, now the new homeowner, invested in a new natural gas boiler for heating and a separate gas hot water heater.

The happy homeowner anticipates her energy bills to be drastically reduced. Of course there were upfront costs to invest in future savings and energy efficiency. She shared the numbers with me:
$9,800 to remove the oil tank from the utility room, leaving more space for storage too, plus the equipment and installation of the two pieces shown on the right.
$2,125 to install a new stainless steel flue liner into the chimney stack for safe ventilation of the new gas boiler.

She also gains peace of mind with new systems, a dedicated water heater, no need for oil delivery to the house, freed up a corner in the utility room with the removal of the oil tank to provide more storage space, easier future maintenance for the modern systems, and immediate monthly savings.  

She nested (the dining room in particular looks great in its lovely new shade of blue) and invested (it is a beautiful new boiler).

Holidays in a New Home

When you move into a new home, there are many firsts. First night sleeping there, first snowstorm, first spring blooms, first time the power goes out, maybe even the first time you bring home a newborn from the hospital. This time of year I particularly enjoy the concept of the first holiday in a new home.

A long-standing tradition in my family is the collection of Christmas ornaments.  We maintain lists of the new ornaments each year, documented by family member. My Mom used to keep the lists and I still have the original list from my childhood. The lists are treasured as they help me remember when I got a certain ornament and maybe even who gave it to me. We tuck the lists in a safe place for 11 months of the year, so safe in fact that one year we could not find the lists. The following Christmas season we discovered the lists, pressed between pages of the Bible.

Commemorating the first holiday in a new home with a special Christmas ornament or other holiday momento is a tradition I will carry on with my real estate clients. What holiday traditions around house and home do you treasure? 

Quote of the Day: Organize!

This Quote of the Day (heretofore QOTD if that's OK with everyone) is brought to you courtesy of my retired 2012 Franklin Covey planner, pocket-sized, spiral-bound.  This little guy was my failed attempt at having a full year of organization in my purse at all times.  This approach and format were short-lived, well, at least by my long-standing relationship with Franklin Covey planners.  I used this small size planner from approximately January 16 through October 22, 2012.

As background, I have been using the same time management system since... wait for it... 1991.  But, I need more space than two pages per week, page size 4" x 5.5" so I am back to the Compact two pages per day format that is comfortable like an old pair of jeans.

I digress... the quote is:

Don't agonize. Organize.
-Florynce Kennedy

In your daily life, or long term planning, or home search, or home sale preparation, just put pen to paper (or stylus to tablet, if you prefer) and make a list.  Then follow it to completion.  I can help if necessary. I was giving some time management advice to a colleague just the other day.  And I create customized home preparation checklists for my sellers as part of my standard listing services.  Let me know how I can help you make more effective use of your time, whether buying, selling, or even staying.

On the Ground: Southwest DC Waterfront

Welcome to my new occasional feature, "On the Ground." As you know from previous posts, part of my job involves previewing properties for current and future buyers and also to maintain my working knowledge of the local real estate market. A new goal of mine is to explore or rediscover neighborhoods in DC and Maryland on a broader level by viewing not only specific properties but also the surrounding areas.

My first journey took me to Southwest DC and the Waterfront area.  I had previously written about the new development in this area, so I wanted to get an On the Ground look at the current market, housing options, and neighborhood amenities.  Who better to assist me but a dear friend and current resident of one of the Harbor Square co-op buildings directly on the water.  Al was kind enough to guide me and my older daughter Lucy around on Bikeshare bicycles for about an hour, weaving through streets and developments with running commentary on the types of units and architecture, the accessibility to amenities and job centers like Capitol Hill, and other interesting and useful topics.

I must pause here to note that the photo above was taking directly in front of Al's building and his views are amazing of the water, Haines Point across the river, and of many of the notable landmarks in DC like the Washington Monument, the National Cathedral, and the Capitol Dome. And to give Al a big shout-out for his hospitality and his time.  

Back to my report on SW DC.... The recent redevelopment of the existing retail to include one of the nicest Safeway grocery stores I've ever seen (a far cry from the Soviet Safeway I used to rely on in my early days in Dupont Circle) and a CVS pharmacy add tremendous convenience to this area.  When they renovated the shopping, they also reconnected 4th St SW with the Mall to the North for better driving access.  With all the new planned housing development, it was awesome to discover the pockets of unique, mid-Century modern architecture throughout this area.  Some development from the 60s was in the style shown here. You can't find pockets of this style in many places in the DC Metro area.

I look forward to showing buyers this unique area of the city and to my next On the Ground adventure.

Buying, Selling, or Staying

So you might be thinking, "Lisa, I get the whole buying and selling thing, but staying? Why do you care about people who are staying in their current home?"

I believe people make all sorts of decisions each year while living in their homes which impact their daily lives as well as the future value of their real estate investment.  I'm not suggesting that all home improvement decisions should hinge on future resale value, but I do think that if all else is equal, getting input from a realtor could help.

Additionally, when working with sellers to help them prepare their home for sale, I tap into my Resource Rolodex with possible vendors if my clients do not have the time or skills to complete all the tasks. Since I have that database ready at all times, I can provide those resources to homeowners even if they are staying. It is all part of being a real estate resource and expert in my community.

So don't hesitate to call on me for my expertise and resources, even if you have no plans to move in the near future.  Staying is just as important a real estate decision as buying or selling.