I Cried When I Didn't Get the House I Wanted

In 1982 when I heard we lost the house we wanted in Marshfield, MA, I threw myself on my bed and - I hate to admit it - pounded my fists into the mattress and kicked my feet up and down. I really did.

After looking at 25 houses, we finally decided on a house to buy, a yellow raised ranch with a lovely back yard. Then the agent called us with bad news. Someone just put in an offer that was accepted.

I was pregnant with our second child and my nesting instinct was very strong. I needed a place to bring my baby home to and *sob, sob* I wanted that house!

The next day, the owners of a house we REALLY wanted but decided was too expensive, called to say they would give us an interest free second mortgage for $10,000 due and payable in three years. (That was being done in 1982 when interest rates were 11%!) My father did a quick calculation, told us what that meant in dollars saved, and we accepted! I loved that house much more than the one we just lost. "It was meant to be," I told Dave, who didn't believe in that kind of 'hocus pocus'.

Years later, we wanted to buy a special house in Grand Isle, Vermont. The house was brick, built in 1845, and was on the Vermont Historic Registry. It had 400' of shared lake frontage with killer western views. It was a huge house with decks overlooking the lake, an enormous kitchen, two fireplaces and a paneled library. We were in love with this house. This was the house I would live in for the rest of my life, I said.

Our agent wrote up an offer and called the listing agent with the details. Our agent's face dropped and we knew it was bad news. Someone had put an offer in the day before and it was accepted! Not again, I cried. And cried and cried. We tried to find another house but could not. We decided to stay put.

Then, we heard through the grapevine that the buyers of the brick house had a contingeny of selling their house first, and they hadn't sold it yet. We put our house back on the market. When the buyers' of the brick house's contingency expired, we bought it!

"It was meant to be!" I told Dave. He was starting to believe.

We lived there for 9 years and it will always be my favorite house. But it started to feel too big and the grounds were getting harder to take care of. We sold the house to Karl Lagerfeld of Chanel, to his real estate holding company. The rest of that story will come later!

Now, the story about our present house that we bought when we sold the brick house. We learned our lessons with the house lost in Marshfield and the better one found; with the house in Grand Isle that came back to us. So when we found the perfect house in Burlington, VT and we hadn't sold the Grand Isle house yet, we were sure someone else would snatch it up. And someone did. We said, "Well, it just wasn't meant to be!" We accepted it and were sure a better house was waiting for us. Then, six weeks later, the listing agent called to say the buyer's financing fell apart and the house was coming back on the market. Enter Karl Lagerfeld. We had a contract on our house, we put an offer in on the house in Burlington, and we've been here three years. It was meant to be!

Now, when buyers are upset, throwing their bodies on the bed and pounding fists and feet -- okay, no one has done that but me -- I tell them these stories and assure them that a better house will come along. It has for us -- three times -- and it will for them too.

Our story of a Fixer Upper

We bought a fixer upper in 2005 when the market was hot and we were gung-ho to buy an investment property. It was a duplex apartment building with good rents.

I first showed it to some clients who said it was way too much work for them to fix up. The linoleum floors in the bedrooms (not vinyl, but old sheet linoleum) were rolling on the edges and the space between the linoleum and the wall was full of dog hair, cat hair and general filth. One bathroom had a claw foot tub and an old toilet. The floor was a repeat of the bedroom floors but with bathroom filth added to the mix. There were dirty diapers and old pizza boxes on the kitchen table. You get the picture.

We saw potential in the hardwood and softwood floors, in the new roof and new boilers, and in the deep yard. The price was low in a hot market. If we sunk $15,000 in carpets, paint, bathroom updates, we thought it was a good investment.

When we walked into the inspection, the same dirty diapers that that were there the week before were still sitting on the kitchen table. So, no cleaning up for the inpsection. There was a new resident who hadn't vacated for the inspection -- a baby goat! It was bleeting sadly, huddled in a wire cage in the living room. Whenever I left the room to follow the inspector, the goat cried. "I'll sit with the goat," I told the inspector, "tell me when you need me." Luckily, the goat was gone at closing.

In the past six years, we've added refrigerators, jacked up one floor that sagged, upgraded the knob and tube electrical circuits, refinished the floors, put in new kitchen floors, new carpets, new shower, and an assortment of other repairs and additions. New, wonderful tenants have removed layers of wallpaper and have painted all the rooms. The house is being treated well.
Did I mention we hired everything out because we are not handy? Well, we can paint, but that's about it.

Over the years, we've invested about $30,000. We have a small cash flow every month. And I mean small. Until our current tenants, we've had problems even though we've vetted the tenants carefully. If we sold the place today, we wouldn't break even. And we haven't had a lot of fun!

Of note is the fact that we have a write-off on our taxes because of depreciation and repairs. We'll be seeking accounting advice when it comes time to sell.

Was it worth it? We'll see in about five years when Franklin County, Vermont has recovered more from the housing decline.

Personally, I think the best buyer of a Fixer Upper is someone who can personally fix it up. Or someone who has enough cash to pay someone else to fix it up. And, most importantly, buy it at a price that makes it a good investment.

Buyers Gather Information from Satellite Photos

Greg and Jess know what they want in a house and have been looking for about two months. They want a yard - but not too big - and they want a nice setting. They have to think of resale down the road, so they know location is key. We looked at a house yesterday in Franklin county.

"There's pasture behind this house," Greg said.

I looked out the back yard and all I saw were trees and more trees.

"I looked at the satellite picture," he added.

So much information is available today that was not available just a few years ago. Buyers view satellite photos of houses and check out the surrounding properties before even making an appointment to see a home.

"We were interested in one house," Jess said, "and when we looked at the satellite picture, there was a junk yard behind the house and junk on either side." Needless to say, they didn't add that house to their "favorites." It saved us all time by checking the satellite photos.

Buyers can "google" an address and see if there are any issues that come up. I once had a buyer search an address and it was near a Super Fund clean up site. Buyers are savvy and will use technology to help them.

Google maps are a great way to "walk down a street" and see what is around the house you are interested in. Not all streets have been mapped, but many have. You can get a street view of your potential house and decide if it's the neighborhood for you. Remember, your walking tour is not always from recent photos, but it's a good tool.

So, Jess, Greg and I won't have to get on our hiking boots and spray ourselves with insect repellent to find out what is on the other side of the trees. We can lean back in our chairs at our desks and see lovely pastures!

Finding a home is a Team Effort

All buyers have different styles for searching. For some of my buyers, they want me to call them as soon as a new house comes on the market. So, every morning, I check the new listings, search for sale by owner sites, and listen to voice mails from office REALTORS to determine if there are new office listings. Then I call with a description.

These same buyers ask me to drive around certain neighborhoods that they've targeted, in case a "For Sale by Owner" sign or an office exclusive listing pops up. I also check the newspaper for ads. I once helped clients who wanted Burlington south end, exclusively, look for about nine months. One Sunday, I looked at the real estate section and found a For Sale by Owner advertised. I called the seller up, we went to see the house, and we wrote up an offer. After nine months of looking, we all knew it was the perfect house for them.

Other buyers want to be placed on an automatic email service of new listings so as soon as new homes come on the market, the listing shoots into their email with photos and details. The address is there so the buyers can drive by. The computer savvy ones just put the address into Google, choose the street view and voila (a scary voila) they can see the house on street view. There is a little Google man that can be placed on the street and with the drag of the mouse or the press of an arrow, he walks down the street. Wow! I practically expect someone to walk out the door and get the morning paper, but trust me, this is not a live feed!

The best combination is team work. Most of my buyers these days search the internet constantly. And I mean constantly. Employers beware, if the monitor is facing away from your watchful eyes, your employee searching for a house is possibly on Realtor.com or even better, on Ericsonteam.com! As soon as a new listing comes on, they see it. Here's the conversation: "Karin, a house just came on in Burlington on XYZ Street. I saw the pictures and it looks great. When can we go see it?"

"Let me open my MLS," I say, "and see what it looks like." I access my MLS, and there it is, sometimes 1 day on the market. "I just checked 30 minutes ago," I say, "and it wasn't there."

"I checked five minutes ago." they say, "and it wasn't there, but now it is."

We go see it at lunch and it's perfect. We're the first ones in. And since they've been looking for awhile and have compared houses and prices, they know if the asking price is fair.

Sometimes I see the perfect house, sometimes my buyers see the perfect house. It's all about style and results. It's team work!

HGTV Generation

I love my 25 to 35 buyers and sellers. Not that I don't love all my buyers and sellers, but in this age group, I call them the "HGTV Generation". You know the shows I'm talking about: Property Virgins, Design on a Dime, House Hunters. They watch the shows, absorb the ideas, discuss what they would do differently.

As buyers, when we walk up to the property, they first talk about curb appeal. "They should totally put flowers on hooks out front and weed in between these stones. The front door needs to be painted and that shutter is crooked." We walk into the front door and living room. "This is so cluttered. They should have put away half these books. The fireplace is the focal point. They should have arranged their furniture around the fireplace. And all they had to do was put on a coat of new paint to make this room pop!" I don't have to say a thing. They are reading my mind.


They look at cluttered closets, they comment that all the counters in the kitchen are nicely cleaned off, they love the stainless steel appliances. "And look," they add, "they went the extra mile and put on all the lights and have soft music playing."


When Sellers bring me over for the first look at their home, they give me a tour and if the planned work is not done already, they tell me what they are going to do. Take Shana and Neal who got a contract on their condo in South Burlington in 13 days. When I walked in, their kitchen walls were a great brick orange, formica front cabinets with oak horizontal trim on the bottom, were painted a striking black. The hood over the stove was painted black with special auto paint, the counter tops were replaced, and the floors had great peel and stick vinyl that looked like tile. They had new black appliances. The kitchen was totally modern looking even though the condo was built in the 80's. The living room had new carpet and the walls were sage green -- two walls one green and two a slightly different green to create interest.


"I'm going to change all the lights to brushed nickel," Shana said, "and we're changing the door knobs too. We're taking out this large sectional and borrowing and buying some furniture that doesn't make the room look so crowded. We'll put a couple of artsy things on the book case over here, flowers on the table. I'll set the deck up with lawn furniture and set the table to let people know this is a great place to eat in the summer. Anything else we should do?"


There was nothing for me to say! She hit it all. Upstairs it was the same. She suggested we stage the office to look like a bedroom so people know its function. There would still be an office area in that room but it would primarily show as a bedroom. They bought a new bedspread and window treatments for the bedroom -- black and white with red accent pillows. There were black IKEA styled shelves on the walls with red art objects. In the bathroom, they found a product to coat the inside of the sink and with changed faucets, it looked new!

A buyer walked in, said this was where she had to live, and paid full price!


New carpet... new appliances... modern colors... design changes without much cost to the sellers... decluttering... correct furniture proportions... creating a mood... staging the inside and outside...

I love the HGTV generation!

New Beginnings -- Real Estate and Discipline

We all set goals. The question is whether we meet them. It's easy to make a long "to do" list but the challenge is actually doing the items on the list.

At The Ericson Team at RE/MAX North Professionals, we are great at brainstorming creative ideas. And we're great at follow through -- if we say we're going to do something, you can count on us. Trouble is, we want to do so much! And the balance of work and personal time is difficult but crucial. Because if we can't create balance, everyone suffers.

We work with Kim DuBrul as our business coach, which means we have someone we are accountable to. This is important to us because it helps us live on purpose both in our real estate business and in our personal lives. They are often too closely entwined, and quite frankly, the real estate can take over. So, our coach has us set goals, check in with her when we meet those goals, and continually work to improve ourselves and our business model.

This creates a benefit to our buyers and sellers also. We focus on what their needs are and set aside specific times to work on marketing, on ways to better present properties for sale, and on market analyses for properties our clients are selling or buying. We make calls to people who we think might like a property we have for sale and we call back agents who have brought buyers to our properites. If we stay on task, we have time for ourselves personally.

What is #1 for Karin today? Getting up early and practicing discipline. To start, I looked again at the video by Robin Sharma http://youtu.be/z6hsOLVwFc
I also put aside time this morning to write. It's a passion that has been relegated to "if I have time" status. Not okay anymore. Funny that the day after the longest day of the year is the day I decided to start getting up early. I am a night owl, so it's hard for me to change a lifetime of habits, but one day at a time, I'm going to do it. It's about discipline. If I really focus on my goals and discipline myself, anything is possible.

The more I discipline myself personally, the more work I get done because I schedule activities instead of activities scheduling me. I stay on task.

And our clients and customers benefit from extra time we can focus on their needs. Win-win has always been the best outcome.