Lakes Region Homes for Sale
(603) 229-8322
brent@rocherealty.com
  • Home
  • Home Buyer
    • Step 1 for Home Buyers
    • Step 2 for Home Buyers
    • Step 3 for Home Buyers
    • Step 4 for Home Buyers
    • Why Buy in New Hampshire?
  • Home Seller
    • Laconia (Single Family Homes)
    • Laconia (Condominiums)
    • Gilford
    • Meredith
    • Moultonborough
    • Marketing Your Property
    • Out of State Sellers
  • Real Estate Blog
  • About
  • Contact

​Letting go can show more strength than hanging on

1/25/2019

Comments

 
Picture
One day a philosophy professor walked into her classroom while holding a drinking glass filled with clear liquid.
She stood silently in front of the classroom until all student chatter subsided. Then she posed a question to her class: “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students gave guesses ranging from eight ounces to a couple of pounds. The professor replied: “I didn’t ask how much this glass weighs. I asked, ‘How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?’ The answer to that question is relative.”

“Relative to what?” a student asked.

“Relative to how long I hold on,” the professor responded. “If I only hold it for a few minutes, it’s pretty light. But if I hold on for the remainder of this class, it’ll become uncomfortable. My arm will start to ache.

“And if I try to hold it all day long, my arm will eventually cramp, or maybe get paralyzed with numbness. Ultimately, this glass that feels light right now will seem so heavy--and I’d be so incapacitated with pain and fatigue--that I’d be forced to quickly put it down in some random spot, or drop it involuntarily and make a mess.”

The professor regarded the water glass thoughtfully and elaborated. “The absolute weight of the glass never changes,” she explained, “but the longer I hold on to it, the heavier it seems, right?”

Students nodded in agreement and the professor continued. “The lesson, class, is this: carrying some of life’s responsibilities can be very much be like holding this glass of water.

“For example, the responsibility associated with a new opportunity or new possession can seem light when you first pick it up.

“But in time you may start to experience discomfort—like the ache of stress—if you continue to hold on to that opportunity or possession after it no longer serves you well.

“And, just like with the water glass, if you ignore the warning signs of discomfort and insist on clinging to the things of the past for too long, just because they made sense then, the fatigue can wear you down and make life so painful or paralyzing that you are eventually forced to let go with little or no grace, and maybe end up with a mess.”

The professor gracefully set the drinking glass on a table. It had been useful to hold as a teaching prop, but that time had passed. Now that she had let go, she was free to pick up a new item that would serve her well in the moment, a red dry erase marker.

As she stepped to the white board and began to write, she concluded by saying, “Joseph Campbell, the noted literature professor, mythology expert, writer and lecturer, stated it well when he wrote:”

Picture
                                                                 ____________________________

​Holding on to real estate can be like holding onto that water glass: if the property no longer serves you as well today as it did in the past, the weight of responsibility grows heavier and more uncomfortable with time.


Maybe it’s time to let go of the first home you’ve ever owned and get a bigger one, if your growing family is experiencing the discomfort of trying to shoehorn into a house with too few bedrooms and bathrooms.

On the other hand, maybe your kids have grown up and moved out, and you and your spouse now have an echoing empty nest all to yourselves. Do you really need all those beds and baths and square feet to clean and heat and maintain for years to come? Or would a smaller, more energy efficient home serve you better today?

Or maybe it’s time to gracefully let go of a second home, a vacation home purchased when finances were better or leisure time was more plentiful. Maybe your primary residence is out-of-state and you are too far away or are just plain too busy to make it to the Lakes Region often enough to justify ongoing carrying costs including a mortgage, heating fuel, the nation’s third highest property taxes, and electricity rates 35.27% greater than the national average.

Or maybe it’s a beloved but older house, one that you picked up when you were younger, healthier, and had more energy and enthusiasm with which to keep up with seemingly never-ending maintenance responsibilities. But the reality is that both homes and homeowners age and deteriorate. None of us are getting any younger. Exterior paint blisters just as surely as skin wrinkles. Chimneys crumble just as surely as my knees ache when climbing stairs during a Nor’easter. In the blink of an eye, those asphalt shingles that you bought what seems like just yesterday are suddenly past their 20 year life expectancy and starting to curl. Maybe a newer home with less maintenance and single floor living makes more sense now.

Finally, sometimes people struggle to hold on to a property that was inherited. About a quarter of my business in 2018 came from the adult survivors of deceased parents who had owned Lakes Region property. It can be very tough emotionally to sell a home filled with so many fond memories, but it can also be difficult to add the weight of a responsibility your parents chose to carry to the load you already bear. In all of these cases my clients lived hundreds of miles away or more. In one case, the home required immediate attention so it wouldn’t fall into a terrible state of disrepair. In another, the property tax alone was a thousand dollars per month. So these clients demonstrated the strength to let go with grace.

I think of it like this… life is like a ladder. Each rung represents a different stage of life. You can’t reach the next rung and climb higher unless you let go of the one you’re grasping now. Sometimes letting go gracefully demonstrates more strength than hanging on painfully. If you’d like compassionate real estate help while reaching for the next rung in life’s ladder, give me a call.
Comments

You always remember the first…

1/19/2019

Comments

 
Picture
There’s just something special, nostalgic and memorable about the first, whether it’s a first kiss, first love, first car, or your first home.

“At the first kiss,” said poet, novelist and painter Hermann Hesse, “I felt something melt inside me that hurt in an exquisite way. All my longings, all my dreams and sweet anguish, All the secrets that slept deep within me came awake, Everything was transformed and enchanted, everything made sense.”
“A first love,” said French actress Elodie Yung, “is something that lasts forever in your heart. It’s something that marks you.”

Elvis Presley, the King of Rock and Roll, said, “The first car I bought was the most beautiful car I've ever seen. It was secondhand, but I parked it outside of my hotel the day I got it. I sat up all night, just lookin' at it.”
Life and love are unpredictable. We may stay with our firsts forever, or we may, in the fullness of time, move on to newer and better kissers, lovers, cars or homes. And yet the heart and mind will always reserve a special place for romantic memories of our firsts.

Here are some tips to help you start your search successfully if you’re ready to experience the emotional thrill of becoming a first time home owner.

What should a new homebuyer do first?
Smart buyers prioritize getting pre-approved for financing before taking any other steps.

​Granted, completing mortgage paperwork is not as fun and gratifying as searching for homes online, touring properties and attending open houses. But your new home should be your refuge from the stresses of life, not the source of your stress. Pre-approval will help you establish a realistic buying budget that considers all of your housing expenses including taxes and, if applicable, association fees. Being budget wise will help you shop smart and minimize financial stress in the long run by keeping your monthly housing expenses within reach.

Pre-approval can also accelerate and focus your house hunting, and minimize the stress of the search. For example, searching after—rather than before—pre-approval will help you avoid the discouragement of falling in love with a home that later turns out to be above what you can be approved for.

Pre-approval is also important because attractive homes and good values can sell very quickly here in the Lakes Region, and it can be absolutely heartbreaking to miss out on a home that you really want, simply because another buyer is pre-approved and you’re not. Sellers take pre-approved buyers more seriously and other offers can be rapidly submitted and accepted while unprepared buyers await financing approval.

Finally, the pre-approval process will also help you determine four very important things: what type of financing is available to you, how much interest it will cost, how much money you’ll have to put down, and how long it will take to “close” (legally transfer property ownership from seller to buyer) once the seller has accepted your offer.

For example, FHA loans, which are mortgages insured by the Federal Housing Administration, offer competitive interest rates and more flexible qualification requirements to homebuyers, but they may require a higher down payment and can add days to your closing schedule.

Once you’re pre-approved, shop smarter, not harder.
Once you’ve got your housing budget determined and financing pre-approved, it’s important to shop effectively because attractive properties can go off the market before you’ve even seen them!

Leverage technology to make your search more quick and effective. Start by viewing MLS listings and saving searches on a quality real estate search tool, such as the one at rocherealty.com.

Focus your search on properties that have the features you need and are within your pre-approved price range. A good site will allow you to target very specific areas—like streets or certain communities—will accurately list only currently-available properties, and will offer you the option of automated email updates.

Next, meet with licensed real estate professionals and establish “buyer representation” with one with whom you are comfortable. This will commit the REALTOR® to the fiduciary responsibilities of confidentiality, loyalty, full disclosure of any knowledge that might benefit you, lawful obedience, and protecting and promoting your interests as a buyer, first and foremost.

Like a matchmaker, your real estate professional will bring professional power to the search and help you find homes you may not have been able to find on your own. Sometimes they know of properties before they’re even listed!
Further, they can help you obtain valuable information on the home’s condition, location and site, provide advice on market conditions, current prices and issues that may impact later resale values, and they can help you negotiate the best price when you do place an offer.

And it shouldn’t cost you anything to avail yourself of their services as a buyer—a real estate agent’s commission is usually paid by the seller.

Becoming a first time home owner can redefine your life dramatically, like falling in love for the first time. If you’d like help from a matchmaker who will help you find a first home you’ll love, give me a call.

Comments

Sell your home like a boss

1/12/2019

Comments

 
Picture
Some home sellers act as though their job is finished the moment they engage the services of a listing agent. I’d like to make an analogy that will challenge that way of thinking.

Listed homes are kind of like publicly traded companies. In both cases privately held assets (real property or company stocks) are listed publicly (for example on the MLS or the NASDAQ) in order to attract the money of outside investors and achieve maximum value and profitability.

If you think of homes this way it becomes clear that just as a homeowner is king of his castle, a home seller is the Chief Executive Officer over home sales.

Corporate CEOs delegate tasks but never abdicate ultimate responsibility as the leader. Home sellers shouldn’t either.

If homeowners are the CEOs of home sales, Realtors® are like the vice presidents of sales and marketing.

Like the VP of an organization, a listing agent has numerous sales and marketing responsibilities. But, like any VP, the agent reports directly to the ultimate decision maker… the home owner.

If you are serious about earning the fastest, most effective sale and highest price for your home, read on.

CEOs and home sellers have ultimate authority—In a for-profit business CEOs make major corporate decisions, build the executive team, and allocate capital to priorities that will help the company achieve its goals… especially profitability.

You have similar power and responsibility as a home seller. For example, only you can make the major decision to list your home for sale. You are responsible for selecting the team (e.g. an agency like Roche Realty Group) that will pursue the goal. You alone can authorize the selling price a Realtor® proposes, and only you can make the decision to invest in priorities that will help you sell your home.

Building the executive team--Successful CEOs hire the best talent they can. Home sellers should do the same.
Would a CEO hire a senior executive just because that person is a casual acquaintance? Probably not. Yet homeowners often engage Realtors® simply because they’re acquainted.

For example, my favorite real estate hiring decision started when a colleague received an email that read: “I am hoping you remember me from Pickleball!!  I need to sell my parent’s house...”

Even if I were an expert pickleball player, that would no more qualify me to sell real estate than my graduate degree and 27 years of sales and marketing experience would qualify me to be a professional pickelball player.
You want to sell your home, not give it away for nothing, right? So why just give away the responsibility of listing? If an agent wants to list your home, make them earn it!

Meet with a few. Ask about their sales and especially marketing capabilities and ideas. Any active Realtor® can put a listing in the MLS. That should be the start of promotion, not the whole of it.

You can ask for references, just like a company does when hiring executives.

Ask if the agent works in real estate full time. A CEO wouldn’t hire an executive who doesn’t work full time, but homeowners sometimes do.

For example, I recently worked with a counterpart who was a full time educator and part time Realtor®. She was very nice but the process was delayed because she had limited availability to communicate five days per week. Purchase and sales agreements have critical timetables and vital sales momentum can be lost when delays take place. Buyers want what they want, when they want it and delays can cause deals to fall through.

A successful CEO wouldn’t hire a VP who doesn’t show up to work. But home sellers routinely do! When meeting with agents ask, “Will you put a lock box on my property?” If the answer is “yes,” it’s the equivalent of not showing up for work!

I’m amazed how common this practice is. Lock boxes don’t sell your home, they just let people in. I’ve had numerous experiences where I was given a lock box code over the phone and never saw the listing agent during showings, inspections or walk-throughs.

Further, lock boxes open real estate professionals and home owners to potential liability. What if something is stolen during a “showing” where no one was there to represent you? Or what if your pipes burst because a buyer agent unfamiliar with your home thinks they just turned off the lights in the basement, when, in reality, they just turned off the oil burner switch and it’s 10 below?

A CEO wouldn’t hire a VP of sales and marketing who lacks expertise in the company’s specific market, but home owners sometimes do.

I once acquired a listing that had expired after six months. I discovered that the prior agent’s office was in a town more than an hour away from the Laconia property. That agent may be very good, but it’s tough keep your finger on the pulse of a market you don’t live and work in, and it’s difficult to devote over two hours just to get to and from the property you’re trying to sell. (I guess she could have put up a lock box!)

Once the homeowner/CEO switched to an agent who is dedicated to the Lakes Region market, practices real estate full time, and does not use a lock box, the property was under agreement after just 18 days on market and closed for $11,000 more than the previous agent’s expired listing price.

Allocating capital to strategic priorities--Just as a good VP of sales and marketing makes investment recommendations to improve a company’s products (and therefore sales and profitability), a good Realtor® can recommend ways you can invest to improve your home’s marketability and the likelihood of a satisfactory appraisal value.

For example, many New England homes are afflicted with “deferred maintenance,” needed repairs and updates that should have been made but never were.

Today’s savvy buyers don’t want to pay for the privilege of inheriting the present homeowner’s problems, so a property with lots of obvious deferred maintenance can show poorly and be hard to sell unless you discount the price substantially. Even with an aggressive discount, it may be difficult to sell if there’s an abundant inventory of nearby homes that don’t require as much work.

A CEO is ultimately responsible for allocating capital (money) to strategic priorities, or facing the consequences if they don’t. Similarly, homeowners are directly responsible for addressing maintenance and mechanical issues that could inhibit a home’s sale and/or lower its value on the market.

​As a homeowner, you are the Chief Executive Officer of home sales. So sell your home like a boss!

Comments

​Closing Crashers

1/5/2019

Comments

 
Picture
You know the scene. It’s been in dozens of movies. The bride and groom hold hands at the altar as the pastor says: “Should anyone present know any reason this couple should not be joined in holy matrimony, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

There’s a moment of respectful silence as the prospective husband and wife gaze lovingly into one another’s eyes and smile sweetly. Adoring friends and family squirm in their seats with emotion and anticipation, and dab moistening eyes.

And then, right as the ceremony is about to conclude, BANG! someone bursts through the door of the chapel and the whole thing is off, just like that.

Closings are to home sales what wedding ceremonies are to marriages, the official culmination of a relationship between two parties. Just like movie weddings, real life closings can be dramatically interrupted for all kinds of reasons.

That’s why it’s important for home sellers and listing agents to be prepared to avoid or mitigate common problems that could cause home sales to fall apart. Some of the most common reasons closings fall through include title issues, buyer financing problems and inspection findings.

Title issues--A “title” is the crucial document that proves you own the home you think you do and therefore are empowered to sell it. A “marketable title” is one that is free and clear of any issues that would interfere with the ability to convey the property from seller to buyer.

And boy-oh-boy, just like there are myriad reasons a movie marriage can be interrupted, there are all kinds of unexpected title issues that could delay or interfere with the sale of your home. For example, conveyance without a recorded deed sometimes happens during transfers between family members, which can later interfere with or even inhibit the sale of your home.

Title research can reveal issues like this, as well as accurate or inaccurate “liens” that could crash your closing. For example, paid-off mortgages sometimes still show up as a valid lien on a property, or one might discover a “mechanic’s lien” that was filed for work done on the house by a subcontractor.

Just as it is advisable for buyers to get preapproved for financing, it can be beneficial for sellers to be similarly proactive with regards to title. Contact a good title company, find out what you must do to prepare for selling, and address any issues promptly. Whether valid or invalid, listed liens must be addressed. It’s better to identify and address any issues early.

Buyer financing--Buyer financing trouble is one of the most common closing killers. Talk with your listing agent about screening prospective buyers and perhaps focusing efforts on those who have preapproval for financing or proof of funds indicating they can buy in cash.

Although preapproved buyers can still get rejected in the mortgage approval process, they are nonetheless a safer bet than those who may be dreaming of homeownership without the benefit of an initial credit screening, and, perhaps, reality.

It’s also a good idea to communicate with your listing agent while the approval process is underway to monitor that the loan is on track. Some loans can be particularly tricky and time consuming.

Inspection findings--It is common for a “purchase and sale agreement” to give buyers 14 days to “speak now or forever hold your peace.” During that time smart buyers will hire professionals to conduct a series of inspections, ranging from the most common, a general home inspection, to possibly a slew of others including water, radon and septic.

Buyers typically schedule and assume the cost of inspections, while this is the home seller’s time to squirm with emotion and anticipation, as buyers can walk away from the deal if they don’t like the inspection results… pretty much for any reason.

If you have an older home and/or a property that is in obvious need of repairs, if you aren’t a professional contractor (or closely connected to one), or perhaps if you inherited a home you’re not intimately familiar with the history of, it may be advisable to hire your own inspector(s) in advance of listing the property. This can help you proactively nip issues in the bud and/or help you sell the home “as is” with appropriate pricing to allow concessions for necessary repairs.
 
Just like movie weddings, real life closings can be interrupted for all kinds of reasons, and you don’t want to be left standing in shock at the altar we call the closing table. Work with your listing agent to prepare to avoid or mitigate common problems that could cause your home’s sale to fall through.

Comments

    Archives

    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017

















    ​Copyright 2018

    Brent Metzger is actively licensed as a sales agent (# 072494) with the New Hampshire Office of Professional Licensure, Certification/NH Real Estate Commission, and is affiliated with brokerage Roche Realty Group / 97 Daniel Webster Highway Meredith, NH 03253 / office: (603) 279-7046
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.