American Heart Month is special to me…

It was Tuesday, July 29th, 2014

It was a pretty normal Tuesday, just like any other really, I had just scarfed down Chipotle during our weekly sales meeting… but I didn’t feel very good. Luckily we had a couch in the office and I thought maybe if I layed down for awhile I’d feel better.

Didn’t seem to be getting any better, maybe I should head home. I packed up my stuff, got in my car and started to head out of Ames. Then it really hit me…

That slight pressure across my shoulders was now a lot of pressure and I broke into a full body sweat… like wet hair and everything.

Something wasn’t right.

I turned around and drove myself to the Mary Greeley Emergency Center. It was quiet in there, just a few people in the waiting room. I walked up to the desk, insurance card in hand and told the nice lady… “I have this pressure…” and gestured toward my chest & shoulders…next thing I know they’ve whisked me away in a wheel chair, down the hall and into an exam room.

A very nice, Doogie Howserish doctor and his nurse hooked me up to every imaginable monitor & testing apparatus, they fed me Nitro, gallons of blood were drawn (ok, that might be a slight exaggeration) and fifty million questions were asked, but after about an hour and a half… they couldn’t really find anything wrong with me other than a high blood pressure reading.

By then Cory was in the ER exam room with me and the Dr was going over what they did and didn’t know. He highly suggested I stay the night in the hospital, they’d keep me on the monitors and do a stress test in the morning. Although I wasn’t very happy (I had plenty of things to do & I’d decided I was fine) I agreed and we were checked into a room.

Somewhere around 8:30pm I was sitting in my hospital bed, Cory and I were talking and I said to him, “That feeling is kinda coming back,” and all of a sudden my hospital room was full of Drs and nurses, buzzers were going off and everything goes really fast from there!

I’ll spare you all of the details of the next few hours, a couple funny stories and jump right to the part where… I had a heart attack.

Yep. 41 years old. By most standards healthy. I was a couple pounds overweight but not much, worked out 2-3 times a week and had never smoked… but I was having a heart attack.

Fast forward to me waking up in a different hospital room around 3am with Cory and my sister in law, Megan watching over me. I immediately started tugging at this tight plastic thing on my wrist but was told to leave it alone! They quickly explained that I’d had a heart attack and they’d gone in thru my wrist to put a stent in my heart.

I was very lucky. I nearly kept driving home that day. I nearly convinced the Dr to let me go home instead of staying overnight in the hospital. Worse yet, I had to admit that I’d felt that weird pressure across my shoulders before…

The pictures above are before and after my stent was installed. My arteries were blocked… my Left Anterior Descending (often called the widow maker)  was 100% blocked (that one got the stent) and 2 others that were 50 and 70% blocked. The Dr also said there was evidence of prior damage to my heart (hence the part where I had to admit I may have had that feeling before…).

All in all, from the time I checked myself in at the ER until they released me was 41 hours! Ah, modern medicine! And I felt amazing. Amazing how much better you feel when your heart is working near 100%!

I’m doing great so far, haven’t had any more problems. I got off most of the medication they sent me home on after about a year although I still take a beta blocker, cholesterol and high blood pressure meds. I cut a LOT of salt out of diet, I eat a little better, still trying to work out 2-3 days a week and see my Dr at Iowa Heart Center twice a year. Good news is I’m coming up on my 5 year anniversary this summer.

Thank you for reading my long story. Since February is American Heart Month I try to re-tell my story in the hopes that it will help someone. Please read up ton he signs of a heart attack, cut back on salt, reduce stress (I’m still working on this one), watch what you eat and exercise. Take care of yourself!

Happy Heart Month!

 

Buying our house… chapter 4

If you haven’t read chapter 1, 2 and 3…

STOP right now, go back & read them.

It’s important.

Let’s get started right where we left off at the end of chapter 3…

It’s finally CLOSING DAY! Friday, August 31st 2019 would be the day that we would buy and take possession of our lake house!!

Here’s how it was supposed to go… sign closing papers at 10am in Ames, leave by 10:30 to drive to Clear Lake, hand the seller his proceeds check by noon, spend the rest of the day/weekend deliriously happy, celebrate our purchase, show it off to friends & family, take measurements, make lists and start planning our remodel.

But…

Here’s how it actually went… arrived in Ames for closing at 10am, had a brand new closing agent so we finally finished signing paperwork around 11am but then we realized there was no proceeds check for the seller, spent 45 minutes tracking down the seller’s proceeds, put a new plan together to have seller proceeds wired to his bank, drive to Clear Lake finally arriving there around 2pm to find the seller still at the house and not completely loaded up/out of the house!

This is not how my plan was supposed to go. Not. At. All.

Even though I had explained the mix up on the proceeds & the new wire transfer plan to the seller’s banker, she hadn’t called to explain it to him. There before me stood a very skeptical, old school gentleman who expected a large check in exchange for the keys to his home. So I explained what had happened and that the funds were wired to his bank so he should go there & close on his new house (closing was scheduled for 2pm) as originally planned. Did I mention he was skeptical? So he called his bank to check… the funds were not in his account… his banker lady was out of the office… great.

We’re still standing outside our new house and now I’m nearly in tears. I’m a Realtor. I do this stuff every day. After 14+ years and over 600+ transactions under my belt why on earth was this happening to my own purchase? Approximately 10 more frantic calls back and forth til we learned the wire had actually gone out, but due to business practices of both our lender and the seller’s bank the funds wouldn’t actually “show up” in his account until after 3pm. He was going to have to trust us and head to his closing.

Luckily he did trust us.

He handed over the keys and headed off to his closing. He left behind a bunch of stuff in front of the garage that he said he’d be back for on Saturday and hopefully someone would come next week to get his boat lift. I was so relieved I wasn’t even worried about the stuff. If he comes back for it great, if not, no big deal. We finally had our house!!

Cory and I promptly walked inside to check out our new dream and the first words out of my mouth… “What the Hell have we done?”

In my defense I was pretty stressed with the highs and lows we’d already been thru that day. The house wasn’t exactly clean. The heavy drapes were all shut and it was pretty dark. Even after we opened the shades you couldn’t really see out with all the plastic on the windows. The orange counter tops were a little brighter than I remembered. The kitchen was painted blue and the living room green. I’d never noticed the heavy accordion doors used to divide the living room/dining room/ kitchen. The tub/shower in the main bathroom was baby blue. And the nearly white carpet in the living room had stains… deep breaths… deep breaths…

Our lovely shades…

Calf Sh!+ brown & baby blue…

Orange counters/Almond appliances

Then my amazing sister, Betsi and her boyfriend Brian showed up. They brought tools and lots of ambition. We all immediately went to work on removing the heavy shades, the window plastic and the accordian doors. It was getting better! We had light! Then Betsi and I started on painting… white.. everything white for now. I needed a fresh palate, a clean slate! The guys removed the plate rail from the top of the cabinets, filled holes in the wall (from shades, pictures, etc), cleaned out the garage attic & garage and made 3 trips to the local landfill.

Needless to say Betsi, Brian and many other friends who stopped by helped us all weekend. Cory and I hadn’t planned to start on the house at all that weekend but we were (and are) so happy that we had help. It was truly amazing what some elbow grease and sweat equity could do to a place in 3 days.

Some other things we “learned” about the house that weekend… the freezer side of the side by side fridge only opened about 4″ because the fridge was too big for the space & it ran into the wall, the “stackable” washer & dryer worked great but it wasn’t a true stackable unit so you need a step ladder to access the settings/on/off buttons, the electrical for the house was going to need an upgrade, the original carpet in the house was an ugly brown shag (still in all of the closets), the fireplace doors are just decorative for now (not fastened in the least bit!) and the dishwasher didn’t work (later we would realize the dishwasher wasn’t even hooked up anymore and a wine cork was used to block off the hook up to the garbage disposal!)… on the plus side, the garage was much bigger than we expected!

And the view from our deck… was breathtaking!

 

Buying our house… chapter 3

If you haven’t read chapter 1 and 2…

STOP right now, go back & read them.

It’s important.

Let’s get started right where we left off at the end of chapter 2…

“We’ll take it!”

OMG. We were REALLY doing this…

Deep breaths… big, deep breaths…

This is chapter 3 and it’s a really, really long chapter. Well. Maybe the chapter isn’t that long but let me tell you… the time from “pending” to “closing” was really, really long. June 19th (accepted offer) to August 31st (closing & possession date)… that’s 2 plus months… almost 11 weeks… 1,776 hours… 106,560 minutes… you get the picture.

You have to keep in mind a few things about our offer & the time between pending & closing…

1. We knocked on his door out of the blue.
2. He didn’t have the house actively for sale.
3. As hesitant as I may have been in the beginning, I was now ALL IN & IN LOVE with the idea of buying this house.
4. I’m a REALTOR in my 14th year of helping people buy & sell homes.

Let’s talk about those first two items… we caught him a little off guard. Yes, he did want to sell the house & we had a deal but he didn’t have a plan for the future. No plan for where he would move, he didn’t even have a town picked out…maybe stay in town, maybe move closer to family, maybe buy another house, maybe just rent… no set in stone plan.

Keeping those first two items in mind we offered a long “pending” period before closing, 74 days. In our area cash sales & some conventional financing sales occur within a 30 day period and USDA, FHA, VA financing sales usually take around 45-60 days. When we made our offer to him we wanted to make sure that he didn’t feel rushed and that he had plenty of time to find a place to live. Hence we gave him almost 2 1/2 months before we possession and closing. Not only did he need to do some soul searching and find a property, he would likely need to get pre-approved & have 45 days to close on a property too.

Keeping item #2 in mind… We offered to take the house “as is” and we did no inspections. Ok, that’s a little bit of a lie, we had to do a pest inspection because our financing required it. As is, no inspections was a way to make our offer more attractive and “easy” for the seller. I didn’t want him to worry or be hassled by what we might find and subsequently ask for if we did a typical home inspection. And honestly, Cory and I knew the house would need work (the roof was obviously shot, he said the furnace and a/c system were old, wood siding has issues), we knew we wanted to make a lot of changes (did I mention the orange counter tops?) and we were aware/prepared for items that would need addressed. And just a side note here: I always suggest that buyers do a home inspection, do what I say not what I do. I (and my husband for that matter) were leaning heavily on my experience & knowledge and were very comfortable taking our future into our hands without an inspection. Great article on why to have a home inspected… Importance of a Home Inspection Contingency

Keeping #3 in mind… 74 days is a long time to wait for anything. If you think back to chapter 1 and 2 you’ll remember that we knocked on his door, took a 10 minute tour of the house, made an offer and spent maybe another 10 minutes at the house. That’s a grand total of about 25 minutes. Again, do as I say not as I do… always take your time looking at a potential home before you make an offer.

If you know me, you know I’m a planner and a list maker so I did what I’m good at and started making lists… Things We Need… beds… hmmm… this could be a problem… I have no idea how big the rooms are or what size bed will fit in them. Ok, furniture… another problem… no idea what will fit or where outlets are, windows fall… ugh. Let’s move on…  Things We Need to Do… Call the contractor, flooring company, kitchen guy – easy enough but what am I going to say… we’d like you to come look at our house in 74 days to give us an estimate on projects? Electrician… wait did we even look at the electrical service?

I knew the seller had a lot on his mind already and I refused to be a pain in his you know what. I preach to my buyers that they shouldn’t ask to see the house over & over or schedule follow up showings for measurements and estimates. We were just going to have to be patient. For 74 days…

Keeping #4 in mind… I had 14 1/2 years of real estate experience under my belt when we made our offer. I’ve got stories upon stories to tell of deals gone bad. My colleagues and I often joke we should write a book, but we wouldn’t want to scare away innocent buyers so we haven’t done it. My experience is what makes me a great Realtor (yep, I just referred to myself as great) but it does not make me a great buyer…

You have no idea how many times I reminded myself that this must be what my buyers go through when they are buying a home. The middle of the night panic attacks wondering if we’re doing the right thing, grumbling about tracking down more documents for the lender, all the hurry up and wait, worrying about the 88 things that can wrong in a transaction… oh wait, normal people (read NOT Realtors) probably don’t worry about those 88 items (if you’d like to know what they are, message me & I’ll send you a handy list!) but I did worry. I knew how unique this deal was and I knew how many things could go wrong… What if he changes his mind? I mean we knocked on his door… What if his family or significant other talk him out of selling? What if someone else offers him more money? I mean, I know how unpredictable FSBO (for sale by owner – which is basically what he was) can be… What if he can’t find a house he wants? What if he can’t get financing for what he wants? What if something stupid on our end falls thru? What if the house doesn’t appraise? What if he finds a house to buy, gets a deal put together but then that purchase falls thru?

Keeping all of these things in mind I insisted that we tell NO ONE we were buying a house there were just too many things that could fall thru. NO. ONE. Have you met my husband? 😊 I absolutely love the guy but our promise to tell no one lasted about… 22 days. Then it spread like wild fire. So for the next 31 days I fielded “I heard you bought a house!” with “We haven’t bought it quite yet… still have to get the appraisal and thru underwriting, closing isn’t until end of August…” and then the last 11 days I kept replying “Not quite yet, closing isn’t until the 31st!”

We finally made it to closing day… and then… deep breaths…

~  to be continued  ~

Buying our house… chapter 2

If you haven’t read chapter 1…

STOP right now, go back & read chapter 1.

It’s important.

Let’s get started right where we left off…

Me: “Are we really going to do this?”

Cory: “Yep!”

Me: …long deep breath… “Ok… Now what?”

Cory: “I don’t know! You’re the Realtor!”

This folks is the deep conversation that Cory and I had in early June of this year as we pulled away from the house we would eventually buy in Clear Lake.

Oh jeez. He’s right. Deep breath. I know how to do this. I do this every day. We can totally do this. Who am I trying to convince? OMG. Stay calm… Cory’s counting on you. How do my clients do this? This is nerve wracking…

Mind you… I’m driving us back to Ellsworth (home). My mind is spinning & my heart is racing. This is the last thing I thought would happen today when I got up this morning. I’m making to do lists in my head as I drive. Damn… This is not how this is supposed to go. This is not the neatly formed path that I lay out for my clients. We’ve already fallen in love with a house, that we aren’t pre-approved to buy and Cory is counting on me to make it happen. Needless to say… I didn’t get much sleep that Sunday night.

Ok, Brandi… relax the F… down! You of all people know how to do this and what needs to be done. Attack it like every other transaction you do 50+ times a year. What would you tell your clients to do…

• Does it fit “most” of what you want/need in a property? If it doesn’t fit some of the your wants/needs are you ok with settling on those items? (yep, fits every single one!)
• Crunch numbers on purchase price, interest (wait, what are interest rates at right now?), insurance (I have no idea!), taxes (holy cow, these aren’t Hamilton county taxes) here’s a great calculator to use… Karl’s Mortgage Calculator
• Gather documents to get pre-approved (2 years tax returns & W2s, 2 months bank statements, last 2 pay stubs)
• Decide on a lender (this was horrible and wonderful all at the same time)

8:01am Monday I emailed Tyler Osby with the Tyler Osby Team at Fairway Independent Mortgage.  Like I said earlier, this was a hard decision. I have 5 lenders that I absolutely love working with, lenders that I frequently refer and trust any & all of my clients with… but I can only choose one. Tyler was the lender that we’d decided to use for our purchase. I explained that we’d fallen in love with a property… no we didn’t have a purchase agreement yet… nor do we have a purchase price… but we need to get pre-approved and fast! What did the great Tyler tell me… FILL OUT THE ONLINE APPLICATION. Hmmm, turns out I’m just like every other person who needs to get pre-approved!

I filled out the application and attached the documents that I knew we’d need. This is where the rubber meets the road folks… it took us 2 full days, numerous requests from Tyler for more documents, hours of searching & gathering to get pre-approved and I’m supposed to know what I’m doing! Here’s a more complete list of the items that you need… Pre-approval checklist. Our situation is a little complex, we have a couple of business partnerships, Cory and I have ownership in the company that he works for, some of his income comes in the form of bonuses, I’m self employed… Tyler didn’t want any surprises. I could do 2-3 blog posts just on the details involved with getting pre-approved, maybe I’ll do that later… back to the topic at hand.

Safely pre-approved, I called the seller and told him we’d like to make him an official offer. He said great, I’ll be home tonight… wait, what?!? Ah yes, he’d much rather do things face to face than use technology. At first I was a little annoyed, it would be so much easier to email him the offer, I could set it up for electronic signatures… but once I took another deep breath, two things came to mind. 1) think of this from his perspective – he doesn’t do this every day, we’re the ones that caught him off guard, this is a big deal, put in the time & effort, it’s worth it …and 2) I get to see the house again!!!!!

Written offer in hand (with all of the extra “stuff’, addendums, disclosures, etc) we went to the house. More chit chat (did I mention he’s super nice?) and discussion of the weather… this is kinda awkward… I laid our offer on the table, put on my Realtor hat,  started thru the offer and all the extra stuff. He asked some questions (all good) and asked if he could have a few days to think it over & show it to his lawyer. Think it over? I don’t think my heart nor my sleepless self can handle a couple days… but ok…

Even though I was heartbroken that he hadn’t just accepted our offer and signed all of the paperwork on the spot (what was I thinking!) I stayed calm and asked if I could take another quick look at the house (YAY!) & snap a few pictures. He gladly obliged while he and Cory went outside to look around. That was a Tuesday evening…

Six really long days later on the following Monday, he called me… deep breath… with a counter offer. Stay calm, act like a professional… “Ok, I’ll need to talk it over with Cory and then I’ll get back in touch.” Deep down inside I was doing cartwheels. I knew that we would accept his counter offer because we’d already discussed our limits, our non-negotiables… We were going to buy a lake house! I resisted the urge to call him back 2 minutes later & scream… “We’ll take it!”

I patiently waited all of 27 minutes…

OMG. We were REALLY doing this…

Deep breaths… big, deep breaths…

~  to be continued  ~

 

Buying our house…chapter 1

Me: “Are we really going to do this?”

Cory: “Yep!”

Me: …long deep breath… “Ok… Now what?”

Cory: “I don’t know! You’re the Realtor!”

This folks is the deep conversation that Cory and I had in early June of this year as we pulled away from the house we would eventually buy in Clear Lake.

Maybe I should back up a little bit…

Cory and I have dreamed of owning a house in Clear Lake for a long time. For years we’ve spent the better parts of our summers, almost every weekend in Clear Lake. In the early years we sponged off of friends and slept on sleeper sofas in their campers, then there was the aptly named “shack” we rented for 3 years, then another 3 years in the apartment across from the DNR boat ramp and then the last 4 years in our own camper in the Deer Valley campground on the Ventura side of the lake.

We have some truly great memories of all of these places and times but still we’ve always wanted a house. A house we could stay in/visit all year round. A house where we could invite friends and family to stay.  A house we could call our own, make our own. We had looked on and off but never found the right one. We wanted the American Dream.

Fast forward to a beautiful Sunday afternoon in June. Cory and I were just starting to pack up things & shut down the camper for the weekend when we g0t a text from our friends… “Stop over. Have something to run past you.” Hmmm… that’s kinda cryptic. Oh what the hell, let’s go see what they’re up to.

“I think the neighbor is ready to sell his house again.”

And that folks… is where this journey really begins.

You see, their neighbor had his house listed for sale 3-4 years earlier but never got it sold and I had made a comment one day that if it ever came up for sale again…

So what did we do? We sent the neighbor over to knock on his door, invited him over, chit chatted over a cold beverage on their deck and after about 10 minutes we just blurted out… “Do you want to sell your house?” Pretty sure caught off guard would be the understatement of the year!

Neighbor: “Umm maybe… I guess… I kinda thought about it…”

Me: “Great! Cory and I would be interested. Can we look at it?”

Neighbor: “Now? It’s not really ready… I wasn’t really planning on… but ok, sure…”

Me: “Awesome, right now would be perfect. Just so you know I am a Realtor but Cory and I are looking for a property for ourselves. I’m not looking at it in any professional capacity, just something for us personally.” *State law dictates I have to inform him of that, more on this topic later!*

Off we go… me, Cory and our friends to tour the house. My thoughts… It’s not very big, 2 beds 1 1/2 baths… there are bright orange counter tops (think Home Depot orange), great view of the lake… plastic on every windows, wait it’s June… wow, he’s got a lot of stuff in here… 4 couches & 3 chairs & a treadmill… dammit Brandi look at the house not the stuff… oh ya, the garage… omg, you can’t even walk in the garage… I think it’s pretty big though…

As we walked back to the front of the house our friends made a quick get away so that Cory and I could talk to him on our own. We asked a few questions, got a little background… house needs a roof pretty bad, he’s got an estimate… mechanicals are in the crawl space, they’re pretty old… asking price? He shot us a price… don’t gasp out loud… we can do this I thought to myself! I could feel my heart race. Can he see my heart race? Cause it feels like my heart is gonna jump out of my chest. OMG.

Approximately 12 minutes after we’d first stepped inside his front door I heard myself say… “Thanks for letting us look, we’re very interested. We just need a little time to talk it over & get pre-approved for financing. I’ll call you this week.”

Yep, you heard me. We weren’t even pre-approved.

But we’d already fallen in love with the house.

Deep breaths… big, deep breaths…

~  to be continued  ~

Leaves…

Leaves. Leaves, leaves and more leaves. Holy cow for leaves. I feel like I never noticed them before… sure I’ve noticed the pretty colors in the fall, I hear about people going on “leaf watching” trips, I usually feel a little sad when they are all gone from the trees… but leaves that need raked & bagged? Nope, not in my normal routine.

Cory and I have lived on an acreage for 20 years as of last May. For 20 years I’ve never had to deal with leaves. For 3 years before we bought our acreage we lived in a little rental house in Roland but I’m convinced we were too young and too naive to even notice we had leaves.

Some of you may have seen my Facebook post last week when I was cleaning up the leaves at our Clear Lake property. It was unreal. How can one, just one, pretty tree drop so many friggin’ leaves?!? Lucky for me (ha!) the wind had piled most of the leaves in 2 spots, up against our garage and in the walk way between the neighbors’ house and ours. In most areas they were 2-3 feet deep!

I’m quickly learning this a yearly task that I’m going to need to add to my fall to do list and it’s a task many, many people face every year. So here’s what I learned & some helpful tips.

#1 Make a plan for your leaves. If you’re really lucky you have a bagger on your mower & you can skip the rest of my steps completely! But if you don’t keep in mind that some towns allow you to burn leaves, others don’t. Some allow burning during certain times of the year. Some towns have yard waste pickup (make sure you know the rules & have the right bags, etc). Some towns have a yard waste site where you can take your leaves. Here’s a few links below to different towns’ rules on leaves, sorry I haven’t included every town but you can call your city hall or look up the city’s ordinances online. My plan was to bag our leaves & leave them on the curb on a Monday for curbside pickup as Clear Lake offers this service.

Here’s a handy site that seems to have links to all the towns… Iowa Municipal Codes.

Ames Yard Waste Days

Ellsworth (chapter 105)

Jewell (page 425)

Nevada

#2 Get your tools organized. Like I said, this whole leaf thing was new to me. In my newbieness glory and excitement I bought a big rake and 3 of the “leaf bags” I kept seeing in all the hardware stores. This was going to be a fun adventure! As soon as I arrived at the house I knew I was in over my head. I’m not real good at math but even I could compute the fact that all of those leaves = way more than 3 bags but I started to work anyway. I quickly realized my huge rake was worthless for the leaves already piled up on the concrete driveway and way too big & awkward to use as a scoop. Several trial & error sessions later I found that a simple broom and dust pan worked great. More on my technique later…

#3 Buy quality equipment. I’ll admit at times I can be a real cheapskate. Why spend money on something just to throw it away? Why buy something different/new when we have one that works already? Well, let me tell you… cheap leaf bags and a not-so-good leaf blower… that’s why. As soon as I announced I was heading up to the house to “do leaves” Cory said, “go buy a good leaf blower.” No, no… we have one & it works fine I said and off I went. That didn’t last long. Within the first hour my $.19 cent leaf bags I bought on clearance were in the trash because they’d torn easily and wouldn’t stand up, I’d worn out 3 batteries on our cordless leaf blower and I was on my way to the local Ace Hardware Store for new bags & a better blower. I know it’s overkill but I bought and highly recommend a really good leaf blower … the Stihl Kombi KM 111. The main motor unit can handle a bunch of other attachments too. And let’s just say it’s the bomb!!

#4 Have some entertainment. It took me two days at about 4 1/2 hours each day to get all of our leaves rounded up. The first day I had a lot on my mind and it was very therapeutic to be in my own head but by the 2nd day… I needed something to occupy my mind! Grab some headphones and fire up some music, a true crime podcast (I can suggest several!) or your latest audio book and get get to work.

#5 Get your technique down. I mentioned earlier I ended up using a regular broom and a normal/large dust pan. Now our leaves were pretty dry and there was not much wind the two days that I worked on leaves. I was also working on a concrete surface, not dirt. My first suggestion is to stomp on the leaves. Yep, stomp. I’m not sure that this is actually necessary but it made me feel a lot better. Hearing the crunching and seeing the leaf pile get smaller (read more condensed, not as high) was well worth the extra effort. I also felt like I was getting a little bit of physical work out in too. Then I used the broom/dust pan combination to get a big scoop of leaves & drop in the large, heavy duty leaf bags (don’t be cheap, buy the good ones the first time). Next step… this is important… use your broom to tamp down the leaves in the bag after each scoop. I didn’t do that on the first bag and it’s amazing how much more I could get into a bag when I pushed the leaves down inside the bag.

#6 Be a good neighbor. The picture below is the walkway between our house and our neighbor to the south. Technically it’s not our property, it’s theirs. But technically it’s our tree that dumped all those leaves! I had some time on my hands so I did the good neighbor thing and rounded up 90% of the leaves that were in that walkway. Only 90% because I ran out of daylight and I got really cold! I’m not saying you have to always do your neighbors leaves but be kind, don’t blow your leaves into their yard or driveway, go a little further than have to… just be nice. Four different people/couples from our little street stopped for a quick chat while I was working, every one of them thanked me for bagging the leaves and every one of them mentioned that the previous owner hadn’t done anything with the leaves and they usually blew into everyone else’s yards.

All in all, it was a great experience. I have the right tools to jump right in next year. I spent 9 hours in the great outdoors during some of the best fall weather we’ve had in years. I got a little bit of bonus physical activity. I met 4 really nice people/couples from our neighborhood. I’m completely caught up on all of my podcasts.

And I have 13 big bags of leaves!!

 

3 things to do after you pay off your mortgage…

Paying off your mortgage is the goal and dream of almost every American. In fact over 30% of Americans own their own with no mortgage. If you pay/paid off your mortgage do you know what you need to prove that it’s paid off?

Our team recently had a listing where the home was debt free, the owners had paid the mortgage off over 15 years ago! Woohoo! We listed the house, we received 4 offers and it went pending the first day on the market. Closing was set for 36 days later. Should be a nice, simple deal.

During the pending period (36 days in this case) one of the important steps of the process is a “title opinion.” A title opinion is the written opinion of an attorney, based on the attorney’s title search into a property, describing the current ownership rights in the property, as well as the actions that must be taken to make the stated ownership rights marketable. It also reveals if there are any liens or encumbrances… like a mortgage.

The sellers of the above property had told me they didn’t have a mortgage anymore but the title opinion showed a mortgage and a home equity line of credit were still “open” against the property. No worries, we’ve seen this before. Occasionally the bank or lender fails to record the release (pay off/close) of the mortgage.  The closing agent in our office contacts the lender, they confirm the mortgage has been paid off and the bank/lender sends us a release to record at the county.

But in this case the original bank is no longer open. We research and find out it’s been absorbed by a big bank. No problem, we contact the big bank, sit on hold for long amounts of time, get transferred and transferred and transferred again. Finally talk to someone in charge and they promise to send the releases before the day of closing. We follow up every day… fast forward to the day before closing. Still no release. We can’t close, we can’t sell the house until we have the releases.

My seller, the closing agent from my office and myself spent over 2 hours on the phone, my seller sat in the local branch for almost 4 hours, we collectively sent 27 emails and left 13 messages and finally at 4:34pm the night before closing the bank finally emailed the releases. No explanation. No I’m sorry this took so long. Good news is that we were able to close at 9am the next morning.

Back to the moral of my story… if you have or plan to pay off your mortgage make sure that you #1 – keep a copy of how you paid it off (cancelled check, wire transfer, funds transfer, etc) #2 keep a copy of the bank statement, account statement, etc that shows the transaction and #3 about 30 days after your bank/lender for a copy of the recorded release!!

10 things polite Realtors hate to tell sellers (even though it’s important)

Sometimes the truth hurts. Sometimes I offend people when I tell them their house smells. Sometimes I die a little inside before I tell them their house is filthy. Sometimes I hurt their feelings when I explain not everyone loves 7 cats in the house. Sometimes I come off brash when I explain, “but you didn’t actually do those things you planned.”

But sometimes, ok most times, it’s the little things that make a big difference.

Being a Realtor is easy…

I’m generally pretty laid back, but when I let things build up, it can get a little ugly. That’s where this story starts, let me tell you about my week…

It all started on Monday when I ran into a past client in the grocery store. She was so excited to see me and tell me that she’d gotten her real estate license and was now “working” for (a not to be named, but obviously not C21) real estate company. I told  her I was happy for her and that I had no idea she was interested in the business and she said… “When you  helped us buy our home it was so easy I knew immediately that I wanted to switch to something easier.” I’m not upset with her getting in the business, not one bit. I wished her the best, in fact I told her we should have lunch sometime and if she ever needed anything to call me.

Tuesday I was driving between appointments and saw a For Sale By Owner (FSBO) sign in a past clients yard. Like any good Realtor, I called them immediately and asked them if I could help… “Oh no, we’re good. You know when you sold our last house all you did was put a sign in the ground & it sold,  so we thought that was easy! we can do that and save all that money.”

At 8:30pm last night, I finally took a little time to catch up on some reading, clean out the “extras” in my email, etc and found this lovely little article on Inman News (a leading real estate news source for Realtors)… Why a real estate license empowers women & could change your life.  Should be a great, uplifting article right? WRONG!!! It promotes women having their real estate license in case they get divorced. That you should have your real estate license even if you only do one deal a year. Let me do the math… if you do 3 deals in 3 years then subtract license fees, e&o insurance, office splits, MLS dues, continuing ed classes, lockboxes, signs… well you’d be in the hole, big time and I didn’t even go into business cards, gas, advertising, etc.

Topping it all off was a call this morning at 7:32am. Nice lady called, asked some questions about a house I have listed and said it might be something her son would be interested in. She asked if we’d had any offers, any showings… I said there is a showing scheduled for tomorrow but no offers yet. I asked if her son was pre-approved for financing? “No, not yet, but he just got a great job.” Ok, has he looked at other properties? Is he looking at any other towns? “No, he hasn’t looked at anything yet, he’s very busy. I want to make it easy for him.”  The she asked if I could show her (not the son, his time is very important) 19 other properties (not interested in my listing since someone else is looking at it) this Saturday. I stuttered a little, I started to explain the need for financing pre-approval and that we should narrow down the list a little… she screamed “You’re not making this easy. I will find a Realtor that values his time.” and hung up on me.

So now I’m in a mood, need to go for a walk and have a glass of wine and try not unleash on the next unsuspecting person I run across. I’m having Dr Jekyll / Mr Hyde type conversations with myself. I go to great lengths to make my clients transactions go smoothly and without stress… maybe I should just let some of these deals blow up! No, that’s not a good idea. Maybe I should email/text them every single time I do any single thing on their transaction so they know I’m doing something… no, again not a good idea, I’d need a full time person just to send out those text/emails. Maybe I should call & email my past clients more frequently… no, I think that might qualify as stalking. Maybe I should have agreed to show 19 homes to the mom of an unqualified buyer on my Saturday… no, probably not the best use of my time.

So here I sit repeating… “I love my job, it’s easy. I love my job, it’s easy. I love my job, it’s easy…” in my best mocking, snotty, rebellious 15 year old, valley girl voice and writing a blog post to vent about it! Because in the end, I do love my job. No it’s not easy but I still love it. I’ll work tonight and I’ll get up tomorrow and I’ll keep doing my best because I do love my job.. most of it. Like 98% of it…

On the bright side… I’m doing an awesome job of making this gig look easy!

 

 

Innovate or…dissipate?

 

I started in the real estate world full time in 2005 at the ripe old age of 32. New career, new goals, new outlook on life… yep, I was a bonafide newbie. I was scared to death yet had the whole world in front of me. I was willing to try, didn’t have any bad habits (yet) and didn’t know what I didn’t know.

Agents who had been in the business for years and years were quick to tell me how lucky I was to be getting in now. You see, they remembered when you sat next to your corded phone in the office and waited for a buyer/seller to call, then they called the other party 17 times until they answered, waited 11 hours for that party to call back and then had to physically drive 22 miles to get real, ink signatures then drive back to the office, make 4 copies (buyer/seller/closing dept & one just in case) and then snail mail them out to all parties. Then they got a fax machine!  I could keep going but you get the idea…

Back to me… I was young, ambitious and tech savvy. I had a cell phone, access to a color printer and… a website of my own (gasp!) I was cutting edge! Within a few years I upgraded to a smart phone with unlimited talk/text/pics, my own color printer, a better website and Facebook business account.  Never one to get behind the times I moved on to an iPad,  and hired a professional photographer & drone videoer (is that a word?) for my listings, downloaded an app for on the go scanning & started using Dotloop for electronic signatures. I assume you’re seeing the trend here…

Now here I am starting my 13th year in real estate. I no longer feel like a newbie in the business. I love when any of the “new” agents come to me and ask how to do something because I finally feel like someone thinks I know what I’m doing! My new fear is being left behind. It seems like every day I see or hear of something “new” I should be doing or trying to market my listings or find new prospects.

But staying cutting edge is a daily grind in this business. Just this morning I read an in depth article on how virtual reality tours will be the norm in our business within 1-2 years. I checked on my ads on Homes.com, Adwerx and Zillow. I updated leads from Agent Machine, Premier Agent Concierge, Lead Router and Zap. Last week I downloaded a new app (you should see the # of real estate apps on my phone!) last week that would make quick, visually pretty, videos for my listings. In the past two days I’ve texted, called, IMd, Messengered, Instagrammed, Facebooked, Pinterested, Snap Chatted, Skyped, Ripled and blogged all in the name of business. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to Google+, do anything on Facebook Live, my Contactually account is behind and my BombBomb account feels neglected.

All of this said, I absolutely love Century 21’s new commercial (see below) “Not an App” because it reminds us that even with all of the innovation, even with all of the real estate websites like Zillow, Trulia and Realtor.com there are things that machines, apps, programs can’t do. That’s where I/we come in… the real Brandi Nelson, a real person with two real buyer’s agents (The Brandi Nelson Real Estate Team) to take care of real clients.

So yes, we plan to keep innovating but we like to talk to and meet our clients in person. We spend sleepless nights worrying about clients being homeless or complicated deals falling through. We do everything we can to make the process easier & simpler for our clients but at the same time, buying/selling a home is most likely the largest financial decision of your life and that deserves our personal attention.

 

One last look at 2016 & our stats…

Check out the pictures below of most of the 58 homes & 2 businesses (sorry missing a couple of pics!) that my team helped people buy and sell this year. Here’s the rundown…

• 46 homes, 11 acreages, 1 condo & 2 commercial buildings
• 16 transactions were double sided (we worked for both the buyer & the seller)
• Sale prices ranged from $22,000 to $385,000
• Our listings averaged 43 days on market and sold within 5.3% of their asking price
• 15 of our listings went pending in 10 days or less, another 11 pended in 11-30 days
• 4 listings sold on the first day they were listed & had multiple offers

The Brandi Nelson Real Estate Team is extremely proud of our 2016 stats and we’ve set higher standards and bigger goals for 2017!

To see our current listings, go to BrandiNelson.com

If you’re thinking about buying or selling in 2017 we’d be honored to help you, contact Brandi at 515-291-0914 or email her at brandi@c21sre.com

2016… was a BIG year!

Before we completely forget last year, let me say 2016 was a BIG year for the Brandi Nelson Real Estate Team! I added two buyer’s agents, moved my main office, hit an all time sales high and helped over 60 individuals/families buy and or sell homes!

Let’s start at the beginning… Nicole Haberkorn (now Krauel!) quit her real job and became a full time real estate agent in April, then got married in October.  Karissa Elgersma, my assistant got her real estate license in April and started working with buyers too. Now I have two right hands! I couldn’t do this without them, nor would I want to try.

  

Nicole Krauel

 

Karissa Elgersma

 

As you can see from the map below (its a little hard to see but its the best my tech savvy self could do!) we covered a lot of territory in central Iowa in 2016. This is a map of the 60 transactions we were able to handle and successfully close from January to December of 2016, from Highway 20 in the north to Highway 80 in the south, as far west as Stratford and as far west as Clemons. Whew, our mileage deductions should be amazing for 2016.

Personally, I moved from the Ames office to the Story City office (see New Year, New Goals, New Office ) and I had my best, highest grossing real estate year yet. I owe all my success to Karissa, Nicole, Cory (my husband), my family, a ton of great friends, my co-workers/support staff and all of my amazing clients!  I truly believe it takes a team to thrive in the real estate world. The encouragement that I received this past year from my husband, my family & friends was nothing short of amazing. The support from my team, my co-workers and support staff at Century 21 Signature Real Estate was above & beyond the call of duty. But let’s not forget the ever essential, incredible clients we got to work with and for this year – without them, none of this would be possible!

 

New year, new goals, new office!

Don’t panic. I’m still with Century 21 and still very happy there!

Late last year, Century 21 Signature Real Estate (Ames, Story City, Huxley, Ankeny, Urbandale & Altoona) bought 511 Broad Street in Story City. For years and years it was the Story City Herald’s office building. It’s a beautiful brick building on the west end, north side of Broad St. (main drag), tons of woodwork and charm.

Moving our Story City office to the new building provides more office room for agents and private conference rooms to meet with clients. Lucky me! Now there’s room for me to work from the Story City office, be closer to home and be in the center of my sphere of influence. I’m super excited and I’m already loving hanging out here.

My desk space/daily hangout

The plan is for Karissa Elgersma (my assistant and buyer’s agent) and Nicole Haberkorn (my buyer’s agent) to still work out of the Ames office, no changes there. I still have a spot in our Ames BNRE team office and will spend Wednesdays in Ames, go there for closings, meetings, etc.  With all the advances in technology and our office being 95% paperless this is a pretty easy transition, plus realistically I’m only 20 mins from Ames if I’m absolutely needed!

That’s my big news, stop in and check out our new office, I’d love to see you & we have a Keurig… just sayin…

 

 

It’s 2017… now what?

Woohoo, it’s 2017! I’ve got all my resolutions made, goals set, plans in the works, a brand new year to look ahead to… but… wait… maybe we should start with a little reality…

The last 10 days have been great. I had a wonderful Christmas, played with some new kitchen gadgets & gifts, spent time with the family (but not too much time!), had two closings, celebrated a couple of birthdays, enjoyed a few late night/early mornings with friends, ate some really awesome food (maybe a little too much), slept til 8/9/10am everyday, relished a few really quiet hours setting up my new office, popped by a few clients to say Happy Holidays, did the whole shop/spend/return thing, ran errands for the hubby, spoiled my dogs rotten with naps/walks/cuddling,  completely cleared out our Tivo and actually loved my 10 days “off”.

It all started to go downhill about 1pm yesterday… panic and dread started to set in…

I. HAVE. TO. WORK. TOMORROW.

Like, actually, really work. I know, everyone does and I’m not special. Not looking for sympathy or anything, its just never really hit me like it did this year. You see I rarely take days in a row off. There have been a few vacations where we’ve left the country, I had zero communication but the longest was 7 days and I’m usually a wreck before & after. There are times when I “say” I’m off work but I’m still checking emails, answering calls and my mind is still in real estate mode because I truly love my job. I rarely think of it as work.

My alarm went off at 5:30 this morning (Resolution #1). My FitBit silent alarm went off at 5:45. My overly ambitious self sent me a an appointment reminder at 6am that I should already be downstairs working out (Resolution #2). I literally sent a SnapChat from my bed about how unexcited I was about going back to work. At 7am I opened the fridge to find a lot of pre-made, healthy food, fruits and veggies (Resolution #3)… to be honest, it was already looking bad for the future of my resolutions. It’s early, it’s cold & windy outside, it’s January, whose bright idea was this?

But then it was like a little miracle… the phone rang…it was a new prospective client that had been referred to me (a glowing, only person you should use, type referral), then an email from a client I thought had given up the search for real estate saying they want to buy in the next 60 days, then a call from a lender that wants to do lunch and see what they can do better this year… and then the stars aligned, my to do list reappeared, ideas started flying onto the paper and I’M BAAAACK!!

Here’s to 2017 and getting back to my routine. Yes, there are some changes I’d like to make, some improvements I hope to make and new projects to start. But I’m really happy to be back to work! Speaking of which… gotta go…I need to drink another 20 oz of water (Resolution #4), still have lots of clients to call (Resolution #5)…

Why? How? What? What?

I repeat WHY? at least 1,000 times a day in my head and probably a few too many times out loud. Why did this deal go bad? Why did this happen? Why do they think that? Why didn’t I say it this way not that way? Why did they list with them not me? Why didn’t we already know this? Why are they getting involved? Why on earth did they do that? Why hasn’t this been done yet? Why didn’t I see this coming?

Why… why… why?

The only thing that keeps me sane (please don’t laugh, I’m sane & I’m sticking to it) is going from Why? to How? and What? I usually try to allow myself a few minutes of whying and then I try to move on to more constructive thoughts and questions. How did this happen? What could we have done differently? What do we do from here? Some days that’s easier said than done.

Today is no different. Today I had a deal fall apart. Not just “a” deal but both sides of a deal, I represent both the buyer and the seller. Yep, as soon as I heard the bad news I could feel my blood pressure go up, tears of frustration welling up in my eyes, the muscles in my neck stiffen and the not so nice words swirling around in my head. But I took a couple of really deep breaths, took the dogs outside for a 5 minute walk (I’m working from home today, internet at the office is down) and did everything I could NOT to think about it for a few minutes.

Once I calmed down a little and after I had talked to the buyer, the lender, the seller and made sure our closing department knew to stop everything,  I went back to WHY? Why did this happen? No finger pointing, just the facts. Then I moved on to HOW? Again, just the facts are important here. Then immediately asked myself WHAT could I/we have done differently? In this case there are a couple of little things I found & noted we could have done, a lot of this one was out of our control and probably wouldn’t have changed the outcome. And most importantly, I asked WHAT do we do from here?

There are more steps to cancelling a deal than one would think, so we’ll get started on those things and the paperwork asap. I’ve also got to work with the buyer and the seller to get new plans of action in place for each of them moving forward. Then I went back over those “little things” that I noted we could have maybe done different… I added another reminder a little earlier in the process for the buyer, I added another email to the buyer program in our pending communications, I added another item on the pending checklist to ask the lender and a I made a mental note that sometimes things out of our control happen.

It’s the annoying little things…

Yesterday I was walking thru Lowes picking up some lightbulbs and spray paint (that’s a whole ‘nother story) when I spotted the one thing I desperately needed, staring at me right there on an end cap, the one thing that could make my entire life better, lower my blood pressure… a small, glorious can of WD40.

Cory and I have lived on our acreage for a little over 18 years now. We live in your typical old farmhouse circa 1910 and our abstract even notes that it all started with “a cabin of unknown origin.” Needless to say its been updated and remodeled numerous times over its 106 year lifetime but let’s face it, she’s still old.

When we bought this place we were young and…poor. We bought all we could afford at the time and we were delighted! Oh the things we were going to do to this place. Now 18 years later, 3 sets of carpet, a kitchen remodel, 2 roofs, new siding, new windows, new furnace and a/c and countless coats of paint we still have a lot we want/need to do. But it’s the littlest of things that annoy me the most.

For 18 years the hinges on the cupboard in the bathroom and our bedroom door have creaked. In the early years it wasn’t annoying, no it was the cute reminder and euphoria of owning a home with character. In the mid years it was a slight nudge, gentle reminder of the list of things we really need to work on & update. But now? Now it’s just downright, absolutely, ANNOYING. I can hear the bathroom cupboard open from clear upstairs (it’s downstairs) and every time one of us gets up in the night to go to the bathroom the creak in the bedroom door wakes the other one up. CREEEAAAAK… (insert high pitched scream!)

I quickly picked up the can of WD40 and hurried home, I couldn’t wait. I dug thru my shopping bags, grabbed the can, awkwardly inserted the straw thingy into the spray nozzle thingy and went to work. I WD40’d every single hinge in our entire house. I was a woman on mission, no more creaky hinges on my watch! Something that’s been irritating me for 18 years took me all of 5 minutes to fix. Why on earth did I wait so long?

I now have 95% of the bottle of WD40 left and I quickly hit up Google to see what else I could use it for, check this out… Almost 2,000 uses for WD40 … Who knew?

This morning without thinking I opened up the bathroom cupboard and it hit me… no creaking!!! It was glorious!!! Now if I can just figure out how to make the dirty clothes put themselves in the washer…

To do… to do… to do…

My to do list is never ending. Actually I should make that plural, my to do lists are never ending. I’ve moved well past one list to several lists… in several categories… some business, some personal, some broad, some detailed, some are items that need done ASAP, some are for today, or tomorrow, even next week, there’s my bucket list and let’s be honest some are just a wish and a hope and I will never get to them.

I’m a serial list maker. I admit it. There is something very soothing to me about making a list. I’m pretty happy when I can check something off the list too but it’s the creation of the list that I like the best. And there is nothing better than taking a bunch of road worn, ragged 3 day old lists and combining them into one again. AHHHHH, bliss.

I’ve always known this about myself but I’ve never really thought about why it is, or how to “harness” the beast but last Thursday it all started to come together for me. Myself and about 20 other agents from my office took a Kolbe A Test, then we went over our results and discussed the why’s & why nots. I’m sure you’ve heard of DISC, Strength Finder, Briggs Myers and this is kinda like that but way different.

The short version of the story is that I’m a 3-4-9-3, my strengths are that I simplify, maintain, innovate and envision. I have lots of ideas, plans, my head is always spinning with new ways to market properties, add clients, better the client experience, get more business and on and on – that’s the innovate and envision part. But I naturally want to simplify my life and my business, so I make a list of all those things and then I make a sub list of what needs done for each item. Then I start to get overwhelmed with the details and I combine them back into one list that I’ll look at tomorrow.

Like I said earlier, I’ve always know this about myself to some degree and this test reinforced that its not something I can will to change but I can manage it. I will try to remind myself to tackle one project at a time and get thru it. 80% done is better than 100% never done. I’ve also learned the fine art of hiring help and delegating items to my team. I don’t mean that in a bad way, its a great thing! Every person is different, every person has a different set of strengths and some even thrive on the things that bog me down! Another AHHHHH moment!!!

Maybe someday I’ll show you the checklist we’ve created for every new listing, or the one for new pendings, and there’s the price reduction update list, don’t forget the list of projects to accomplish this winter, or my weekly social media posting checklist… ooh that made me remember… write blog post on Sunday, CHECK!

 

It all started with…

It all started a few days ago when I saw this great picture on Facebook and I just had to re-post it. I mean its totally me. I wear heels a lot. I’m 5′ nothing on a bad hair day and I love my stilettos. I’ve walked thru the timber in my peep toe camel pumps, I once took off my leopard print Jessica Simpson stilettos because I was sinking into the grass in a clients yard and there is no way I’m going to admit to how many pair I currently have in my closet.

Then I got to wondering what #bossbabe really was, so of course I Googled it. Yep… I’ve fallen head over heels in love. One little search lead me to about a thousand awesome pictures and enough witty, smart assy, girl sassy sayings to last me a lifetime.

I think I’ll change my Facebook cover photo to this one for a few days.

You’ve been forewarned. There’s a good change this could get out of control.

It’s all relative…

relative 

[rel–uh-tiv]

adjective

1. considered in relation to something else; comparative: the relative merits of democracy and monarchy.

2. existing or having its specific nature only by relation to something else;not absolute or independent: Happiness is relative.

3. having relation or connection.

4. having reference or regard; relevant; pertinent (usually followed by to): to determine the facts relative to an accident.

5. correspondent; proportionate: Value is relative to demand.

6. (of a term, name, etc.) depending for significance upon somethingelse: “Better” is a relative term.

There are a few words/terms/lingo in real estate that should be used with caution. No matter how you use them, it’s always relative to the person who is hearing or seeing them. I’ll give you a few examples… clean, nice, big, quiet, reasonably priced… just to name a few.

Clean to a surgical nurse and clean to 4 college guys living in a rental house… completely different meaning.

Nice… means so many different things depending on your age, your up bringing, your current living situation.

Big… if you currently live in a 400 sq. foot New York apartment, then a 900 sq. foot bungalow is big.

Quiet is a big one. Think about a young couple with two kids, 2 cars and a dog vs an 80 year old widow with a cat, who’s never driven a car.

Reasonably priced… surely you’re catching on by now…

If you are just browsing real estate ads, you’re buying your first home or selling your 5th home you’ll inevitably run into some of these words. Take them with a grain of salt, seek clarification if something is very important to you and above all else… please try to remember its all… relative.

So… it’s been over a year…

Word Press was nice enough to remind me last week that it has been over a year since I wrote a blog post. Ironically that last post was We Need You(r House)!! and we still do, but I’ll get to that later. First I want to apologize, I didn’t really mean to abandon you!

Let’s do a quick recap of 2016. Overall its been a great year for real estate in central Iowa. Personally I’m on track to have my best year yet. Sales are up, prices are holding steady, days on market are down but we are really short on listings.

There was a time early this summer in the Ames market when we were referring to “hours on market” and I overheard one agent in our office say… “I was a little disappointed, we only had 3 offers over asking price.” I think it is safe to say we’ve been spoiled. I’ve found myself saying to listing clients “We need to think about a price reduction, your property has been on the market a week with no offers…” It’s crazy. It’s different. It’s just a phase.

Like I said, personally I’m on track to have my best year yet and The Brandi Nelson Real Estate Team is on a roll!  I’ve got two great “buyer agents” to back me up, Nicole Haberkorn and Karissa Elgersma who are doing a wonderful job. I’ve got them running all over central Iowa, writing offers, competing in multiple offer situations, and winning deals which allows me to focus on listings. David Whitaker, Whitaker Marketing Group has had some great auctions this year.

Now we’re already in September and people are talking about how much we will slow down. I don’t think we’ll slow down as much as usual. There are still a lot of buyers who haven’t found properties yet. The smart buyers will keep looking in Fall and into Winter, they’ll gobble (like my T-Day reference?) up properties that weren’t on the market during the crazy season. They’ll choose to move in less than ideal weather so that they can buy that perfect property. Sellers will realize that although there won’t be as many showings as a Spring/Summer listing, the showings will be better quality buyers.

That’s my quick synopsis. I don’t have a super clear agenda on where I’m taking this blog yet but I’ll cover hot topics that come up, go in depth on explaining common practices, discuss tools/marketing strategies and I’m always open to questions or ideas from you too!