Chuck's Blog

*Sold - Large 2 Story For Sale in De Soto with Detached Garage & Pool

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 21:00:17 -0500

Beautiful Updated Home!

• 1,800 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm 2 story "New Siding & Roof" - MLS® $119,900 - Reduced!

De Soto, Jefferson County - Charming 2 Story Home Close to Town; This Completely Updated Home is Just Waiting for You to Move In! Some of the Numerous Updates Include: New Roof, Dual Air Conditioning, Dual Heating, Windows, Laminate Flooring, Vinyl Siding, Gutters. The Large Elegant Living Room has 10 Ft. Ceilings and a Spindled Staircase. Also on the Main Floor is a Family Room/Den with Built-in Bookshelves, a Large Formal Dining Room, a Completely Updated Kitchen with Custom Cabinets, a Full Bath Room and Main Floor Laundry! Up the Staircase is a Beautiful Landing Area and 3 Bedrooms! The Master Suite Features a Large Walk-in Closet, a Bonus Room Perfect For a Home Office, Nursery, or Sitting Room, and a Full Master Bath with Whirlpool Tub, Separate Shower and Skylight. The Home also Features a Detached 2 Story Garage. This 800 sq Ft Garage Perfect for a Workshop & Extra Storage. All of this Plus a Large Above Ground Pool, Perfect for these Hot Summer Days! What Are You Waiting For? Make Your Appointment Now!

Property information

The Low Price Offers Have Begun

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:34:41 -0500

We have had some beautiful weather the last week and the buyers are out. One of my listings received two offers yesterday, one for $20,000 under asking price and one for $50,000 under asking price. Does this bother me, not in the slightest! At least they liked it enough to make an offer. Many sellers get upset at low price offers but at least these people thought enough about the home to make an offer. That is better than all the people that looked at the home and did not make an offer. This also allows us to present a counter offer and to possibly address some issues about the home that the buyers are not happy with.

Of course we would rather have a full price offer, but sometimes other options can be worked out. One of my sellers accepted a lower offer than they had planned on, but the sold the home "as is" no repairs, no inspections. This was much easier for the seller ( a single woman) and to her, it was worth accepting a little less money.

I have had a couple of foreclosure listings this year, and oddly enough the offers on these homes have not been as low as on my owner occupied properties. I guess this could be because the bank has no emotional attachment to the home and is more likely not to over price a property.

Low offers can also be used to stimulate more offers on a property. When I get notice that an offer is coming in on one of my listings, I send out an email to all of the agents who have previously shown the home. They can then contact their buyers, and since human psychology alway seems to make us want what we can not have, it tends to stimulate more offers.

Please visit me at www.stlouisliving.net

Find out where road construction is anywhere in the state of Missouri

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 12:28:27 -0500

When you have to be somewhere at a certain time or else it will reflect poorly on you, such as a job interview or when I go on a listing presentation you hate to hit road construction that can delay you for sometimes up to an hour. I my line of work that will usualy cost me the listing. A great way to stay informed of all of the current road constrution is to check conditions on the internet.

The Missouri Department of Transportation runs a website that show all of the road construction in the state of Missouri so that you can plan an alternate route or else make sure you give yourself enough extra time to make your appointment. You can view the site here: http://www.modot.org/workzonemap/

For information on the latest work being done on US 40 / I-64, you can visit http://www.thenewi64.org/

For detailed information on up coming projects in the St. Louis and Jefferson County area you can view http://www.modot.org/stlouis/ . I know learned about some up coming road improvements (that could help property values) that I was unaware of from this site.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

*Expired - Beautiful Like New Atrium Ranch For Sale in Imperial

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:15:32 -0500

• 2,368 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm Atrium Ranch

MLS® #677048 $294,900

Brookview Heights, Imperial - Back on the Market! This is the home you have been waiting for! Huge Atrium Ranch with all of the extras! From the minute you enter this incredible 2245 sq ft. home you will know it is the one for you. Real wood flooring in the entryway leads you to the Huge Great Room with a back wall of beautiful windows. An elegant fireplace is the focal point of the room and Cathedral ceilings span the length of the Great Room, Kitchen and Breakfast room. The atrium windows give you a great view of the vinyl fenced backyard and the woods beyond. The kitchen features upgraded 42 cabinets, lots of countertop space and a breakfast bar. A formal dining room is off of the kitchen with an elegant arched window. These windows have been tinted at a cost of $800 extra. The Master Bedroom Suite has double doors leading into it, a coffered ceiling, walk-in closet, and deluxe master bath. The basement is just waiting to be finished, with a 9 ft pour, full sized windows, roughed-in bath, and a walk out to a concrete porch.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

SOLD - Huge 1900+ sq ft Home with Great Yard For Sale in Arnold!

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 12:09:32 -0500

• 1,926 sq. ft., 2 bath, 3 bdrm bi-level -

MLS® #679432 $169,900

Maxville, Arnold - Back on the Market! Incredible 1900+ sq ft Fully Updated Home. This Beautiful Home Features a Huge Great Room, with Vaulted Ceiling, Bay Windows, Wood burning Fireplace and Wet Bar. There is New Carpeting Throughout the Home and New Ceramic Tile in the Kitchen and Dining Room. The Kitchen was Updated 2 years ago with New Countertops, Breakfast Bar, Cooktop and Oven. The Large Entryway (13x10) has Double Doors leading into it and an Italian Quarry Floor. The Large Master Bedroom has a full bath and sliding doors leading out to a nice 10x12 deck. There is a concrete Patio off of the Great Room and a relatively flat, fenced back yard. The Garage is Oversized with a storage location, Utility Room, and room for a work bench. The Furnace and High Efficiency Air Conditioner are just 3 years old. This Home is in a Great Location, just minutes from shopping and I-55.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Is Print Advertising Dead?

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Thu, 29 Mar 2007 17:08:02 -0500

As an Agent for Coldwell Banker Gundaker one of our major points of differentiation has been the large amount of print advertising that we have each week. We have had major advertising in the St. Louis Post Dispatch. A double page spread of color homes ads in the middle of the real estate section of the Sunday paper, the back page on the real estate section had color pictures of our more expensive listings, and the front 2 pages had a list of all of our open houses for that day.

Unfortunately due to the continued rising costs of the advertising, even as the circulation numbers go down and recent unfounded and biased attacks against full service real estate companies by the St. Louis Post Dispatch, Coldwell Banker Gundaker has decided to greatly reduce the advertising. No more lists of all the open houses, ads only 3 weeks a month, and most ads Black and White instead of color.

One of the explanations given to the agents about this reduction is that 80% of advertising budget was going to print advertising, a medium that is producing less and less results compared to internet advertising. I do have to agree, I usually had a home listed in the coor post ad every week and I almost never received a call from this ad. On the other hand, I receive lots of calls from my listings on the internet.

The main purpose for the Ads in my opinion was to show them to sellers and make them feel good. This is with out a doubt what I used the color Ads for. My sellers loved to see them and they felt that they were getting a service that other companies in our area did not offer. I will greatly miss these ads and I feel that it will hurt my listing presentation, but I do understand why our industry is moving away from these incredibly expensive print ads that are exposed to less and less people, and are less and less effective.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Blogging can be difficult

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 10:41:43 -0500

As I mentioned in an earlier post to my blog, I am completely new at blogging - reading and writing. In fact I sometimes do not like to read other peoples blogs because they look so much better than mine. They have pictures, well thought out articles, better formating, better grammar.

What I am trying to do is inform the buying and selling public on my opinion of what issues they face in the South St. Louis / Jefferson County Missouri housing marketplace. However I doubt that any of them are reading this. I greatly appreciate the comments that I have gotten from other agents, but am I posting in the wrong place? I write my posts here on Activerain and then I also post them to my website.

I have not read all of the helpful advice offered here because I feel that if I over analyse the process, then I won't do it. As I get more comfortable writing these I will keep exploring your helpful posts. So for now, I just come on here and write what is on my mind, and I try to tie it to what I deal with every day, selling real estate.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Using Craigslist to Help Sell Your Home

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 20 Mar 2007 01:57:57 -0500

I have been telling people wanting to sell their home themselves about craigslist for the last three years. At that time it was unknown by most of the people who I talked with in the St Louis / Jefferson County Area. I had lots of people thank me very much and go on to use it to buy and sell lots of things. I also advertised all of my listings on the St. Louis Housing section of Craigslist.

Now three years later almost everyone around here knows about craigslist, but when I advertise my listings they are quickly flagged down and removed. It seems that there is a group on Craigslist that has a great dislike for Real Estate Agents. I am sure that it is only a few people trolling the message boards, but they are very loud and vocal in their dislike. They spread lots of false information about how rich real estate agents are, and how useless we are.

Now I have nothing against people trying to sell their home themselves. Sure I would like to get the listing and sell their home, that is how I feed my family, but I have found that the best way to do business is to be helpful to people. As I stated earlier, I told FSBOs to post on Craigslist, I tell people that they might want to try putting a For Sale By Owner sign in their yard for a couple weeks and see what happens. If the home sells, good for them, maybe they will tell someone that I was helpful to them. If it does not sell, maybe they will remember my help and let me show them my listing presentation.

It seems that a vocal minority out there have nothing but bad things to say about realtors, and I am sure that there are a few that do give us a bad name. But most all of the agents I know will do anything they have to make their clients happy. If we do not provide good service to our clients we will not reap the referrals that keep us in business. Okay, I am sorry to use my blog to complain and defend my profession but I get a great satisfaction out of what I do, and I truly believe that I am helping people. Yes, I make some money in the process, but I guarantee you it is not a lot after I split it with my broker and pay for my advertising, my website, my 800#, my phone, my wireless data service, my online contact manager, my coaching/marketing group, the MLS, gas, etc.

I made a lot more in my previous professions, but I truly love what I do. I implore the public to please not listen to all of these hate filled trolls. We are Realtors, we follow a code of ethics and we try our best to help people fulfill the American dream of owning their own home.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Arnold Air Got the Job Done & Saved the Closing

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 19:12:39 -0500

I wanted to take a moment to thank John Politte from Arnold Air Inc. for helping me to get my closing done on time today.

One of my listings accepted a contract that featured a very quick closing (less than 2 weeks). Thank left us with lots to do, and not much time to get it done in. Our sales contract requires the seller provides a clear gas inspection, Fire Dept inspection and municipal inspection at time of closing. The Fire Dept Inspection, repairs and re-inspection was handled very quickly. Unfortunately the gas company was not as accommodating and we did not get are gas inspection until the day before closing. I was out and was not able to pick up the inspection from the home until around 10pm that night.

When I picked up the gas inspection report I was very surprised to see that it had not passed the inspection since it was a relatively new home. This left me in quite a bind since the buyer was closing at 2pm the next day (It had been at 9am but thankfully was pushed back by the lender). Now I know that I could have wrote up an addendum promising to get the repairs done after closing, but I was determined to get it done before.

I made multiple calls first thing in the morning and left a lot of messages. Thankfully I was able to get a hold of John at Arnold Air and he said he could go right out to the home. I hoped in the car and went to meet him there. He arrived promptly and took a look at the situation. John gave me a quote that seemed very fair and told me he could go buy the materials and be back in a half hour to get it fixed. Sure enough, he was right back and fixed the problem. The time it took him to give me the quote, go buy the materials, and perform the repair - 50 minutes! That was incredible!

Everything was taken care of with hours to spare and the home closed with no problems. Here is a link to Arnold Air's website www.arnoldairinc.com . A big thank you to Tina and US Title also, for always doing such a great job with my closings.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Market Report - Jefferson County Missouri

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 11:56:58 -0500

At our office meeting on Tuesday we had a visit from Gordon Gundaker, the man who started our company. He told the same stories that he always tells, year after year. The interesting thing was the page of statistics that they handed out during the meeting.

In January of this year, our office sold 67 homes. January of last year had only 43 homes sold. In fact the amount of homes we sold this January is more than were sold during any month of last year. The highest amount last year was 66 homes sold in April. We also listed 56 homes in the month of January compared to 28 listings in January 2006. Once again that is higher than any month last year, the highest last year was 52 homes listed in August of 2006.

In February of this year we sold 60 homes, compared to 38 homes sold January 2006.

I think the large increase in sales is due to all of the people who held off buying in the fall. Most of that was caused due to the media reporting how bad the market was. It became a self fulfilling prophecy. This year has been my best start in the six years I have been selling real estate, and I am expecting it to stay that way.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Homes That Don't Sell

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Sun, 11 Mar 2007 14:13:19 -0500

I would like to thank everyone that commented on my last post. I sure did not expect so many views and comments. My closing on Friday was a little tense, the sellers were not out by the time of our walk-through. In fact they had just started moving out and even though their agent told them to please leave the home for 10 minutes when we did our walk-through, they refused. The sellers were rude to me when I showed up, so at first my buyers did not want to go in, they finally did and once they started talking with the sellers things went okay. The sellers finally got all of their stuff out of the home by midnight.

Now for my topic of the day - Homes That Don't Sell. I get most of my business from listing and selling expired listings. I try my best to tell them why I think it did not sell and work to fix this problem. Usually it is a combination of Price, Lack of advertising, Location, and Condition of the Home. I can fix the lack of advertising, I try to get them to fix the price, we can do nothing about the location, and I tell them things they can do to fix the condition of the home. The main things I ask them to fix for me are the three C's: Clean the Home, Pick up all of the Clutter, and work on the Curb Appeal of the home.

Sometimes I take the listing at a price that I feel is a little too high, with a promise that they will drop the price if we do not get the amount of showings that we should. I know this is not a great idea, but remember these are expired listings that have been on the market sometime for up to 4 years. We already do not get the benefit of zero days on market (unless they are in a position that I can get them to keep the home off the market for 60 days, so we can reset our days on market to zero.) Other-times, if they want too much for their home, I walk away from the listing. I have already had to do this five times this year.

Sometimes I take the listing at the price they want on the condition that they fix certain things. I did this on a listing last year, and they told me they would have if all fixed within a week. Four months later when the listing expired they still had not fixed any of it. They emailed me a week ago saying they are just about ready to put it back on the market and they will be getting the problems fixed soon. I did not even respond to their email. (I know that is not professional, but after all I had been through, such as cutting the grass myself on days we were having an open house after they had promised me it would be cut.)

So far this year I have sold four listings that had expired with other agents, but I have two that will soon be expiring, These are priced not too bad, just a tad on the high side of the comparable. I have done all of my usual advertising - Color ads in the St. Louis Post and Journal, Black and white ads in the Homes magazine and another local paper; Direct Mail Postcards to targeted buyers; TV advertising; Zip Code Featured Homes Ads on Realtor.com, etc. The homes show very well, they are clean and they are not cluttered; they could use some more curb appeal. One of the homes offers owner financing. The reason they are not selling is that they do not have what buyers of those particular style homes are wanting. One has over 1900sq ft. of living area and is priced low for having that, but it does not have a basement and basements are in high demand here. The other is a beautiful Atrium Ranch, it is priced lower than the other Atrium Ranch homes in the Area, but it does not have a finished room in the lower level. It is priced to reflect that - but the people looking want that finished room.

So in closing, I guess a variable that is not always considered, is if the home has what the buyers are looking for in that style of home. If not, it is going to take longer to sell.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Emotions Can Cause Hard Feeling Between Buyers & Sellers

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:48:44 -0600

First I would like to thank everyone who has been reading my blog. I am 100% new to this and I have not even read very many blog posts before. I had been reading for the last couple of years that as a real estate agent you should you a blog. I have always liked the idea of sharing my experiences on deals and market trends in the Jefferson County Missouri area. Now one of my major setbacks is that I am a terrible speller. I was also concerned about having something to talk about every day. Now I am not able to promise a new post every day, but I am going to try and post at least 4 times a week. Okay enough about me - Now on the topic of the day.

Emotions between buyers and sellers getting in the way of a successful deal is a problem that all real estate agents come across. One of the most common scenarios is when the buyer starts out with a really low offer. The seller will some time take this personal and take offense at it. They can not separate their emotions and realize that it is business transaction. I have had sellers say that they will not sell to that person not matter what because of the low offer - why? what does it matter to them? There is no reason to get personal about this. Just make a counter offer for the price that you want and go from there.

Another time that emotions become involved is in the inspection process. I plan to write an in depth post about this process soon, but for purposes of this entry I will just say that some of the little things that buyers can ask for, things that were visible to the buyers when they made the offer, can cause problems. I have had a buyer say after a building inspection that they want a dent taken out of a garage door, or say that they want light plate switch covers tightened. A large list of little fixes, that were in plain sight can make the sellers, understandably, very upset. The sellers feel that if it good enough for them, and not worth the effort for them to fix when they lived there, why should they fix it for someone else.

This is where it is very helpful to have real estate agents act as the voice of reason in these cases. We are not as emotionally invested in the situation. This can be a problem that For Sale By Owner seller will come across.

Okay, that is all I have to say for today, I might have more to say on this topic after my closing tomorrow in which the buyers and sellers are really feuding.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

New Security Form Due to Assault on Realtor

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 15:31:18 -0600

Here in the St. Louis Area I am sure most of you have heard about the assault on one of our Coldwell Banker Gundaker Agents. On March 4th 2007 an agent from one of our offices had a gun pulled on her in a home she was showing. She was handcuffed to a post in the basement while all of her money, credit cards, wedding ring, cell phone, etc. were taken from her.

Our company has now created a form called the "Prospect Identification Form". This form is to be filled out by all new clients. The form requests Name, Address, Home and Business phone numbers, Employer, Auto Make, Model, and Licenses number and a photocopy of their Driver's License or other photo ID.

I think this is a very good idea to protect agents. While I do not worry for myself, we have lots of young female agents who go to meet people that they do not know at vacant homes, sometimes in remote locations. I know many female agents in our office that have their husbands go with them on their evening showings.

I am very curious what the general public thinks about this. Do you feel that this is an unacceptable invasion of your privacy? or do you sympathise with the vulnerable agents showing property late in the evening to strangers? I personally do not plan to have my clients fill this out, but then I usually like to meet with my clients in the office first and learn more about their situation and how I can be of the greatest service to them. Please let me know your opinions.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Problems with a Home Purchase

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:02:50 -0600

I just had a situation come up on a deal that I was working and I thought I would share it in the hopes it would help someone else out. I represent the buyers who first tried to by my own listing and then we moved on to another home in the same area.

We wrote a contract on a home and specified that the buyers would be using an FHA loan. The seller counter offered and eventually we came to an agreement on price. We setup a quick closing and everything was going way to smooth.

Then we hit a bump, a huge bump. The sellers had let the husbands parents purchase the home and get the loan for them. The sellers then made all of the payment on the home for the last 5 years. Now that the home was going to be sold, the drew up a quit claim deed transferring title of the home from the parents to the sellers. They then filed this deed two days after receiving the contract.

Normally this would not be a problem, but due to the amount of flipping that has been going on for years (when someone buys a home, makes minor repairs and then sells it for a large profit) FHA has a rule that the title of a home must be under the same owners for at least 90 days to get an FHA loan- NO EXCEPTION.

This has caused huge problems in the successful closing of this deal, I will have to tell you later if we are able to work something out.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Septic Inspections

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:09:27 -0600

Septic Inspections are a very important part of the real estate deals in Jefferson County. Do to all of the changes in Codes over the last year it is rare for a home to pass their inspection and the repairs normally range from 6 to 15 thousand dollars. This unexpected expense is usually a deal killer. I tell all of my sellers up front that their system will probably fail but they always think that their home will be the exception.

I had two deals fall apart last year over these inspections, the sellers accepted an offer for as low as they could go and then they were asked for $15,000 for a new septic tank and drainfield. the sellers decided not to sell. I now ask sellers with a system over five years old to get an inspection up front before I list the home for sale. This is an added expense, but a least there are no surprises.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

Why Are There Part Time Real Estate Agents?

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 12:00:13 -0600

Do you see many part time lawyers? part time doctors? part time stock brokers? The answer should be NO. Yet in the real estate profession, where people make the largest monetary transactions of their life, they use an agent who drives a school bus during the day and only sells real estate at night. Now there is nothing wrong wiht driving a school bus, but being a real estate agent takes extensive knowledge in so many different things: Marketing, Sales, Municiple Codes, Fire Codes, Technology, Negotiation, Financing, Staging, and so much more.

I just do not understand why people hoping to sell their home fast and for top dollar, do not use agents who do this to feed their family, instead of someone who does this as a hobby. I know agents at my office who do not even know who to check email. Agents ask me every day how to write contracts, how to do searches, how to price a home; yet when we offer training classes for the agents (at no cost to them except time) No one shows up (such as at my computer training class last night). It is your money, but please make sure to question your agent - I am not saying not to use a new agent as long as they have a mentor who will help them through any rough patches. Best of luck to anyone hoping to buy or sell.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/

The Market is Picking Up

Chuck Deiss (Re/max Results) — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 11:17:33 -0600

Spring will be here soon and I have already seen a huge increase in the homes sold. I have sold four of my listings already this year and have had more showings and calls than normal for this time of year. I think that the slow fall with very few people buying and selling has lead to a better than usual start to the new year.

Another growing trend is the number of foreclosures that have been going on the market. I hate to see this but I feel that it was caused by all of the 100% loan that were given out over the last few years to buyers who did not have very good credit. With very little money invested by the buyer, they do not feel like they are losing very much if they just walk away from the home. When buyers puchase a home have spent less than $30 out of their own pocket (as I had happen last week) they really have nothing to lose.

Please visit me at http://www.stlouisliving.net/