Real Estate in Kansas City North

Good-morning.....

I have a question for all you realtors out there.....

I previously wrote about a REALITY CHECK... Stepping Into the Buyers Shoes.  It's about how my wonderful husband and I were looking for a new home. And as  buyers, it gave me a real reality check about how we present ourselves as realtors.  It was one of those occasions that make you go "Hmmmm."

So now we have our home on the market and I am in the Seller's shoes. And sometimes these shoes are tight and hurt my bunion!

I'm not a messy housekeeper, but like most of you we "live" in our home.

Being a REALTOR® I'm even MORE of a perfectionist when it comes to showing my home.  EVERYTHING has to be in perfect order, not out of place, spotless, show room quality, etc. before we run out the door before a showing.  Let's just say "P R I S T I N E"...  I'm driving my family nuts with this, but they are complying and contributing it to my OCD.  (singing: they're coming to take me away ha ha, they're coming to take me away...)

When I make showing appointments - unless it's a second showing - I set them up for a one hour time span.  If I pull up in front (and we've all had it happen) and the buyer says "OH HECK NO, I'm not EVEN going in." I call immediately and cancel the appointment if I'm not successful in convincing them to just take a peek.

Yesterday, as a seller, we had a 1-2 pm second showing.  I'm thinking FANTASTIC! (still no feedback from that agent, but that's a post in itself)  So we got everything in order and boogied out the door in plenty of time.

While we were out, I received a call of an additional showing with another agent from 1:30-3:30 pm. COOL!

It was a stormy Kansas City afternoon , but figured we'd sit at the coffee shop and then find something to do.

We came home after the appointments were scheduled..... no business cards left from either agent.
(Hmmmm, perhaps they just forgot)

At 5:30 pm, I get a call from Centralized Showing saying the agent who had the 1:30-3:30pm appointment had JUST CALLED to cancel, stating the buyers didn't want to live on a busy street.

My question to all you REALTORS® out there......

1. How long do YOU make each showing appointment?

2. If a buyer says "NO WAY I'm going in."  When do you cancel the appointment?

Fran White, REALTOR®  Kansas City Real Estate

Don't be surprised if you want a REALTOR® to list your home and they say "No Thank You."  It could happen to you if you fall into the following scenario.

Last week I went on a listing appointment.  Before I go on an appointment I spend a lot of time getting my presentation packet all in order and I also spend a lot of time studying the comps (comparable: what other homes in the neighborhood have sold for) for the area.

I entered this home as I always do with an open mind and the ability to visually remove the contents.

This home was totally outdated (carpet, bathrooms, kitchen), it had rotten windows, it was cluttered and messy and bottom line the sellers wanted me to list it for 20K more than the highest comp.  The sellers were wanting to build a new home and the husband wasn't up for making any repairs.  They had no cash for a down-payment and wanted to get their down payment out of this poor house that they already had mortgaged to the hilt.

In this tight market, your Realtor has to price your home accordingly and still expect (in the mid-west) for someone to come in and offer you 5K immediately off the asking price.

Sellers need to be able to do some work or be willing to have it done, or not expect top dollar for your home.

A simple comparison would be (although I'm not fond of car salesmen) trading in a vehicle for a new shiny one.

Would you take a filthy car and expect top dollar as a trade-in if you had Micky D's fries in the cracks of the seats and popcorn remnants on the floor from the drive-in the night before? 

Another thought:  When you go to an outlet that carries scratch and dent products - you pay scratch and dent prices.

Buyers think the same way about houses.  Sure every home has some issues - but if it presents itself as a scratch and dent product, expect scratch and dent prices.

Even the best REALTOR® in town cannot perform miracles (although I like to think I can)... at some point they have to step back and say "no thank you."  And that's a really difficult thing to do.

If you need assistance in the Kansas City Real Estate market...... give me a call  816-682-3897

All I can say is it was a total BLAST!  Nick the Appraiser offered some great information for consumers regarding appraisals!  He explained what to expect when an appraiser comes to your home, how they determind the value, what to do if the appraisal comes in under the sales price and much more!

Thanks Nick!

 We even put a gigantic plug in for Active Rain, the place that brings us all together.  We gave the url and told consumers what a useful site it was for information.

I'm still working on getting a confirmation from the Next Mystery Guest for next weeks show... stay tuned!

Here is its.. Fran interviewing Nick

In honor of my 100th post, I'd like to announce a very special mystery guest from Active Rain on our next Kansas City BlogTalk Radio Show.

Here's three clues to his identity:

1.)  He is compared to Superman in that he can touch the top of the Eiffel Tower with the tip of his finger

2.)  In his spare time you'd most likely find him up to his eyeballs in salty water.

3.) He has the ability to drive 95 mph and take pictures at the same time. (What a gift)

Yes.... you guessed it.... Nick The Appraiserwill be the Guest on Kansas City Real Estate BlogTalk Radio Show.

When:  Tomorrow, Wednesday 4-11

What Time:  2:30 PM Central Time

How Do I hear it?:  You have 2 choices

a.) You can call in and participate and ask questions (that's limited to 5 callers in the queue)
     @  646-652-4268

b.)  You can listen to it LIVE on blogtalkradio.com (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/kansascity-realestate)

c.) Or come here tomorrow afternoon and you can click on a link to hear the podcast at 4:30 CST

Yes tomorrow 4/11 Nick will give consumers the 411 on appraisals and insights on how the value of a home is determined.

Be there or be square. 

When I was a kid in the 70's the "thing" to do when you got your drivers license was to cruise
Antioch Shopping Center in the Northland.

Cruising the open air mall that contained stores like Adlers, Bakers shoes, Topsy's Popcorn, Zales Jewelers and House of Flowers.  It was fun and innocent.

Now that I'm 52 I think about how silly it seems and what a waste of gas. But at that time it was harmless and gas was roughly about 25 cents per gallon.  (My how times change)

Through the years Antioch Center evolved.  Patrons were tired of being exposed to the elements when they shopped.  And listening to their patrons, Antioch was enclosed with a roof that kept shoppers dry.

Rather than driving around Antioch, some of those same people had greyed and were walking inside the mall as a form of exercise.

Unfortunately Antioch Shopping Center in the Northland has been dying a slow miserable death with the newness of strip malls and larger shopping centers moving further north.

In 2003, the leaders in the Northland had a vision for a revamped open air Antioch Center (history repeats itself) that would help stimulate business around Vivion Road and Chouteau Trafficway.

It's sad to say that the 82.7 million dollar project was recently denied state tax increment financing of 8 million dollars.

Now it's back to the drawing board for the owners of Antioch Center.

Platte County Can you Say Property Tax Increases ? 

The Missouri State Tax commission isn't helping the residents of Platte County any!

Most recently approximately 18,000 Platte County residents received an unwanted letter from the Platte County assessors office.

It seems that it's been as long as seven years since some Platte County properties have been reassessed and now the State Tax commission is using their heavy hand to force it done.

This isn't the first time this has happened!  I personally know someone who had to sell their home in the 80's because their property was reassessed and their taxes sky rocketed causing their house payment to rise to an unaffordable level.

This is just crazy to me that people should have to take this kind of hit on their property tax.  Let's take for example someone who just bought their home and when they bought they purchased at the top of what they qualified for financially.  Now they are faced with their house payment going up due to reassessment and they aren't going to be able to afford it.  What options do these folks have?  I just don't see this as being fair.

If this has happened to you and you need assistance with your Kansas City Real Estate, please feel free to give me a call. 816-682-3897

If you would like to contact the Platte County's assessors office and begin the appeal process
their number is 816-858-2232.

Kansas City Real Estate goes live once again on Blogtalkradio!

I did a test run on blogtalkradio.com months ago.  www.blogtalkradio.com

It's a pretty cool place where you can host your own live radio talk show!

This is just a heads up to watch for the announcement coming of the next talk show with a special guest star from the Active Rain Community.

You can dial in an listen live and participate or you can listen to it on-line in it's entirety....

Stay tuned for the announcement of the special guest......