We have a great story to share today. It’s about how we were able to help some clients out of a stalemate during the inspection period. Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleJust before Thanksgiving, we were introduced to a couple who weren't having much luck with their current agent. This agent was selling their house in Woodinville. She'd finally found them a buyer, but she was not returning phone calls and took days to follow up on requests. They knew that on their next purchase they needed an agent who was much more responsive. We talked with our couple that day, looked at five homes the next day, made two offers that night, and had one accepted by the weekend. We accomplished this even though this purchase was contingent on the their existing home selling. Next, it was time to schedule the inspection. It was really a clean house overall, and the inspector didn't find many issues. Then we went out to the back porch, and the light wasn’t turning on. I thought that maybe the bulb just needed to be replaced, but the bulb just turned in circles when I tried to unscrew it. “We take active responsibility and make things happen. ” We asked the seller to make sure the light was working. To our surprise, they refused this simple repair. They said it had worked the night before, so the inspector must have broken it. Because I had tried to unscrew the light, I knew I could have been the one to break it. Either way, I wasn't going to get in the way of my client’s dream home because of a broken light fixture. I volunteered to have the light fixed and we moved on with the deal. That’s just a little slice of what we do. If we cause a problem, we take responsibility to fix it. We look for solutions, and we won't let our pride jeopardize our clients’ goals. 

Marysville Real Estate Podcast Sandy Eagon

We're On It For Our Clients

The art of winning a negotiation for our team is based on our ability to find a solution to any problem. To show you what I mean, I have a quick story to tell you.  Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleWhat does it mean for us to go the extra mile for one of our clients? Let me tell you a story. A few months ago, I got an email from one of my past clients who needed to sell his home and buy a new one for him and his fiance. We were excited to help him. Ultimately, he chose a home in Monroe. We competed for this house against another buyer and won. When we scheduled the inspection, though, we found that the roof was toast and asked the seller to replace it.The seller took this request hard because he had just put $20,000 into the house to fix it up after he had renters in it. Since he decided it was too much for him to handle, we offered to split the cost with him. We raised the price of the house a little bit, but that wasn’t a problem for my buyer because he was going to get the full value of that roof. To give the seller confidence that we weren’t going anywhere after they put another $7,000 into their house, we also agreed to make our earnest money non-refundable after the roof was finished.Everything moved along nicely...until the house didn’t appraise. We went back and forth a couple times with the seller and his agent, but the seller wouldn’t budge. He wanted every single penny that he had originally been promised. My buyer, though, was not going to pay more for the house than he could finance, and he wasn’t going to pay more than what it was worth.“On our team, we work to find solutions. ” At this point, we started talking with our lender about different finance options that could breathe life into this transaction. My lender suggested raising the interest rate a little bit so that instead of my buyer having to bring in his money to pay for his own closing costs, he could use it as a down payment and cover the roof expense. The process was a tad complicated, but the numbers equaled out in the end and my buyer was excited to hear about this compromise.When I emailed our proposal to the seller’s agent, I got no response. So I reached out again, with still no response. I decided then that I needed to jump in and make this deal personal. In our business, we don’t have a lot of face-to-face conferencing anymore. Communication in today's real estate transactions rely on text and email. I decided, though, that it was time to show up at this agent’s office. I cleared my calendar and got in my car. When I arrived, he was in the middle of a meeting. I waited for him to finish. Once we got the chance to actually talk face to face, he relayed his seller's frustration to me. He had already put so much work into the house, he shouldn’t have to bite the bullet and eat the whole expense. When I pointed out the counter-proposal that I'd sent to him, he hadn't even seen it yet. He asked whether my buyer had agreed to this proposal. He promised to contact the seller and get back to me right away. The seller wasn't excited, but it was a good middle-ground compromise. They took our proposal.Now my buyer and his fiance are having their first Christmas together in their new home. All because I went a little old-school and met face to face to explain our proposal.  That’s what I mean by going the extra mile for my clients.If you’re looking for an agent who is willing to be a part of the solution, I’m your gal. If you’re interested in buying or selling or just want to hear how today's market affects you, please don’t hesitate to call me or send me an email. We're happy to help! 

How Do We Go the Extra Mile(s) for Our Clients?

Here at Sandy and Company, if we’re going to serve you, we do it with your whole life situation in mind.  Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleToday, I wanted to talk about sales—how I serve you, and how that service also serves me at the same time.Picture a salesperson. Sometimes, I hear from people about what that picture looks like to them. In the last month, I’ve had two people share their assumptions of what it means to make a living from sales. Their emphasis was on the “sales” portion of that paradigm. Let me tell you: at Sandy and Company, we’re on the opposite side. At Keller Williams Realty, just like in many other businesses, we have mottos. One of these is “Customers always comes first.” If I can’t get a customer what they’re looking for, I will tell them. Likewise, when I believe I can help, I jump right in and make it happen.Going back to the two who shared with me. One of them said he knew I was tempted to withhold information about what might be wrong with the house in the name of getting the sale done. I told him that wasn’t true at all. Don’t get me wrong, I have temptations, but that’s never one of them. In the other conversation, she assumed my goal is to push my clients to the very top of their purchase point. In theory, that would serve me best. Once again, I had to correct her. That’s never my goal. as long as we can meet their home needs for less. On the contrary, I love it when my clients purchase well below their price points. “My job is to serve you—not the almighty dollar. ” Why? Because my goal is to make sure that I serve your whole life situation. This means what’s most important is meeting your needs in the long run. If a client of mine purchases for less than they can afford, that means they could save extra money for other needs in their life. And when I serve you well, you are going to be so excited that someone is taking great care of you and giving you all of their expertise and knowledge. You're going to tell others about me, and that meets my needs in the long run.When I’m in sales, there is a transaction happening, but what I’m thinking about is how I can serve you today. If that means we make a transaction together, great! If not, I’m satisfied as long as I know that I helped you. My clients know that about me, which make them comfortable to introduce me to their friends, family and colleagues.Just yesterday, some clients and I let go of a project we had been working on for six months. It was an arduous process, and we weren’t sure it was going to work, but we gave it a shot anyway. When the numbers didn’t add up in the end and my clients asked to kill the deal, I understood completely. My job is to serve you—not the almighty dollar. If you’re looking to buy or sell real estate, please give me a call or shoot me an email. If I’m not the right person for the job, I promise you I’ll find someone who is. I look forward to helping you! 

Why We Don’t Chase the Almighty Dollar

Working with a team means knowing that everyone is on the same page to find the best solution as quickly as possible.  Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleWhen you’re thinking of buying or selling a house, what you’re really thinking about is yourself. You aren’t thinking about your Realtor’s system and whether it’s set up to help you. Knowing whether that system involves working with a team or not, though, can prove critical. Some people might assume that more people means more problems, but that’s not usually true. Let me share an example.Just this last month, we were working for one of our buyers who had a few hiccups in his transaction. When we initially wrote the offer, I knew his loan wasn’t going to be the easiest. Still, it was only a matter of following a step-by-step process. Which is why we asked for a six-week closing. After the listing agent talked with the seller, she came back to me and asked,"Could we close sooner?" My standard response to this request is,"Sure, although we may ask for a couple extra days at the very end if we need them." As per the listing agent’s wishes, we made the closing date sooner by about a week. From there, everything started moving forward—the client got the house, we completed the inspection and appraisal, and we were just about to get documents to escrow.“On a team, everyone has to work together to find a solution. ” Just before the underwriter fully checked off, however, she realized that my client’s IRS auto-payment had not been deducted out of his account. Because we needed time to work with the IRS, we asked the seller for another week. Of course, the seller was not happy with this request. They were in the process of buying their own house, and they were getting charged by the builder every single day that they were late for that closing.I felt very responsible for this quagmire until my office manager reminded me that we'd originally asked for this closing date. With this in mind, we went back to the listing agent and asked for the time back that we originally gave them. Doing that made our responsibility much easier to handle and freed us up to find a solution.So you see that when we have more people involved in a transaction, we work more efficiently to get the job done. Let me know what we can do to get my team working for you, whether that means buying a house today or six months down the road. 

How Working with Our Team Benefits You

Though golf is a new hobby of mine, it shares many characteristics with the real estate world. Each practice has taught me something about the other.    Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleOur warm weather is winding down here, but one of the things I really enjoy about both summer and autumn is that both seasons give us a chance to get outside and play golf. It’s a relatively new hobby of mine, and I’ve had a great time lately strengthening my game and thinking about how golf is like real estate. Golf is different than my previous hobbies like quilting, gardening, or scrapbooking. Then I could produce something tangible to show for my efforts. In golf, when I have a great score, I still feel like I’ve accomplished something. How does this relate to real estate? Real estate has an end product as well. Most of the time, you have a closing at the end—someone bought a house and someone sold a house. Whether my clients get a paycheck, a new home, or something off their shoulders that they don’t have to think about anymore, it’s a great thing to look back on.“In both golf and real estate, I can depend on feedback in order to get better. ”  Also, when I make a mistake while golfing, I can ask for feedback from my group and advice to improve my game. When real estate issues come up, my amazing team provides feedback and advice on the best way to serve our client. It’s very much a group effort, and we have something great to show for it at the end. As you may have seen from my Facebook post this summer, I'm using the budget model of golf. This doesn’t mean it costs less money: rather, I'm squeezing every last pennies’ worth of value because my score(strokes) are so high. I’m going to enjoy my game, appreciate the people around me, and learn from my mistakes. I was also fortunate enough to have been able to join golf and real estate in a literal sense when I sponsored a charity golf tournament this last summer for Leah’s Dream Foundation. Whenever I can put golf and real estate together, I get the chance to know people, serve them, and have a great time. So if I ever see you out on the golf course, be sure to come up and say hello! In the meantime, if you’re looking to sell or buy real estate, don’t hesitate to give me a call or shoot me an email. I look forward to hearing from you!

What Do Golf and Real Estate Have in Common?

When everything is going groovy for you, it’s easy to think of fall as a time of harvest and ample supply. However, there are many out there who are hungry. We need to be a resource to them too.    Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleFall can be a really exciting time. The leaves start turning, the air gets crisp, and the holidays are just around the corner. When everything is groovy around you — the roof over your head is solid and your cupboards are full — it’s easy to think of the fall as a harvest time, a time of ample supply. Unfortunately, that is not the case for everyone. In the Marysville community, we have a large population of people who are either hungry or on the verge of hunger. This is true in every community, including Everett, Stanwood, and Lake Stevens. Jesus said that the poor will always be with you, but we don’t want them to be the same people all the time. It’s really important to make sure that we do what we can as the hands and the feet of Jesus, caring for our neighbors. Jesus also said that when you give out a cup of water in His name, you are giving it to Him. We need to help our communities in tangible ways. October is the food drive month for Realtors, and that’s why I’m sending you this. If you can, please drop off food or cash donations to our office and we will deliver them to the Marysville Food Bank. I can even swing by and pick up your donations from you. If you are not from Marysville but would like to support the food bank, let me know. I can put you in touch with someone either in Marysville or in your own community. Remember, it’s important to give where you live. “Let’s be good neighbors to each other. ” One reason the food bank is so near to my heart is that when I was a child, we often got those baskets of food. We got the commodity cheese, powdered scrambled eggs, and powdered milk from the government. I didn’t even like real milk when I first tried it because I wasn’t used to it. It’s very important to me that when I am experiencing abundance that I give back as well. Please help us be a resource for others. If you are on the other side of this — if you are struggling right now, please let me know. I can put you in touch with someone who can help you. The Everett Gospel Mission not only helps people with housing, they will also give you a bag of food. They even have a little store that you can walk through complete with household items, clothes, and food that you can have for free.So this fall, let’s be good neighbors to each other. If you are my neighbor and you need help, please open up. I am here to help you. At Keller Williams, we are a team. TEAM stands for Together Everyone Achieves More. Let’s work together to put food on the table for our neighbors and make our community a great place to live. Again, if you have any donations for our food bank, just drop them off at our office at 1027 State Ave #102 in Marysville. If you can't make the trip, let me know and I will collect the donations for you. I look forward to hearing from you!

Donate to Your Local Food Bank This Fall

I have a story I wanted to share about a buyer who we recently helped downsize into a newer home that better fit her needs as she transitioned into retirement.  Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleToday I wanted to tell you a story about a Baby Boomer buyer we just helped downsize and why she's so excited about her brand new home in her retirement years. I got a call from a lender with a client who was very stressed out–she had a nearly 4,000 sq. ft. house with three living spaces and a huge garage. It was an older brick home that needed some paint and just some all-around love. The payment was also huge, nearly $4,000. It was just too much.She has been working hard all her life and is coming up on retirement. She was also having a hard time making ends meet because of this monstrous payment and all the maintenance required. So my lender spoke with her about her whole financial situation and found that she was in a position to buy a reverse mortgage. Now, a reverse mortgage is not for everyone and there are some important criteria to consider, so I'll refer you to my lender for that conversation if it's one you want to have. “Where are you in the cycle of your home life? ”  With the reverse mortgage, our buyer was able to put down a significant chunk for a down payment, and now she's not going to have a payment for the rest of time she lives in her home. All she has to do is maintain her insurance, taxes, and the home itself.When looking at houses, she needed something with separate spaces for both herself and her adult son who lived with her. We were able to find her a split-level home where he has the lower level and she has the upstairs, and the home is much newer than her previous home. It's perfect for them.And this was the very first house we looked at. We looked at a couple others, but the first house ended up being her perfect home. It really does happen once in a while. We're getting her previous home ready for the market, and we know it will be perfect for someone needing more space. If you're looking into your retirement years and you're thinking about your house and your mortgage, I'd love to talk with you about it. The question is this–where are you in the cycle of your home life? Give me a call or send me an email and we'll talk soon.

How Our Buyer Shrunk Her Home and Evaporated Her Mortgage Payment

If you’re an investor looking to sell a property you didn’t live in and avoid paying the capital gains tax on the sale, you need to think about using a tax deferred exchange. That means, basically, rolling the profit you’d make from that sale directly into your next purchase.In our market, it’s the perfect time to sell. Is it the perfect time to buy for an investment property, though?Let’s say you sell a 1,500 square foot house and buy a 2,500 square foot house. Then, let’s say you sold that slightly bigger house and bought a duplex. With those three purchases, you’re getting a bigger investment and putting your equity to work for you by having your tenants pay rent, and still not paying any capital gains tax. You’re delaying paying any meaningful taxes until further down the road when you’re not in your strongest income years. “If you’re an investor, you need to think about using a tax deferred exchange. ” The question, then, isn’t whether investing in real estate is a good idea, but how to do it in a savvy manner. I have no problem paying taxes; I just don’t plan to be paying more than I need to.If any of this interests you, reach out to me by giving me a call or sending me an email. I’m excited to hear from you!

Be a Savvy Investor by Using a Tax Deferred Exchange

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleLegal deadlines are one of the most important facets of real estate, so it’s important to have the help of your real estate expert with you all along the way.In a perfect world, you sign a contract and in 30 days, the buyer has the keys. This is a really complicated transaction though, with legal and physical issues, lender criteria, and much more in between. It’s our job to understand this process so we can assure your success down the road. We track when your loan gets out of the underwriting process, so you have time to sign disclosures and have the correct documents reviewed. There may also be agreed-upon repairs to inspect prior to closing. Sometimes these repairs aren’t done to the buyer’s satisfaction, which can cause a lot of heartache and delay. We deal with the appraiser who may expect things to be done a certain way as well. Appraisers can’t simply take our word that repairs were done right on the home - they re-inspect as well. Many things happen in 30 to 45 days, and much gets pushed into the last two weeks.  “We’ll make sure you have a Plan A, B, and C to achieve your real estate goals. ” Both buyers and sellers have other issues going on in their lives, which also complicates matters. For instance, the seller may be buying a new home too, and they’re being held accountable to their seller to get the funds for their closing. If they can’t close on the home you’re buying, they may not be able to close in time on their next home. It’s extremely stressful. Consider services like a moving truck as well: many are booked three weeks in advance, and can't accommodate changes on two days' notice.My job as a consultant is to talk with you about all these different issues and to ensure that you’re prepared for Plan B and maybe even Plan C. We want to make sure that if we don't take the exact path we planned on taking at the beginning, we still get you to your destination.If you have any questions about the real estate process or you’re thinking about buying or selling a home in Puget Sound, give me a call today. Make it a great day!

Agents Must Take the Lead through the Home Sale Process

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleWhen homeowners are going to build or remodel something in their home, do they really need a permit? It might seem tempting to just skip this step, but as you’ll see, it can have some horrendous consequences.A client of mine is currently buying a home here in Washington. However, he needs to sell his home in Alaska first. Things were going just great until he found out that there was a problem with the garage he had built behind his Alaska home. The county found that the garage was built three feet into the setback from the property line. He had to go in front of the zoning board to ask for a variance to be able to sell his property with the garage. They said no.Now the owner has to take three feet off his garage, and that involves removing the stairs, the roof, and changing the foundation.“IT'S IMPORTANT TO CONSIDER ALL THE POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES. ” He thought he was making the right move because he was very handy and knew how to build a garage. What he did not take into account was that he needed a permit. If he would have spent the $100 or so to get the permit, he could have discovered the setback and updated his building plans accordingly. Now it is going to cost him more than $18,000 to remove three feet from the corner of his garage. We’re confident that we’ll be able to find a solution in the end, but the transaction is a hot mess right now. He’s wishing he got that permit right about now, and you would too if this happened to you.So, when you’re considering a remodel or home improvement project, ask yourself what the possible consequences could be. If they’re anywhere near the trouble that this seller had to go through, go ahead and get a permit. It will save you much more in the long run.UPDATE: As it turns out, this my client had originally gotten the permit for his garage. However, he changed the project plans after getting the permit and did not check with the county. He wanted the lines of the garage to match his house instead of the property line. So he turned the garage, and that's when the corner of the garage pushed into that setback. Since he didn't follow up with anyone about his permit after changing the plans, he's dealing with a lot of heartache along with the almost $20,000. He lost his Alaska buyer and the Washington home he was hoping to move into. This is still a lesson in not only acquiring a permit, but following a permit closely.  If you have any questions for me don’t hesitate to give me a call or send me an email. I would love to hear from you! 

To Permit or Not To Permit

 Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleOur real estate market has been wildly hot for the past few years. It’s even been so good that some people think we’d made another bubble, but we’re starting to see some of that growth slow down. Between January 2015 to 2016, we experienced 11% growth in our market. That is pretty typical from what we have been seeing, but from month to month after January, we have seen that growth trickle slowly down to 8%.What does this mean for you? If you’re thinking of selling, you may want to do so soon. Prices are still rising, and they certainly won’t be falling, but you may be better off selling your home right now. Most people look to the past to predict their outcome, but I have to look towards the future for you, and our market is slowing down.I can’t tell you what the future will be like, but I can tell you that growth is slowing for right now. This doesn’t mean you need to rush to get your home on the market, but it’s a good idea to step in sooner than later. If you’re buying, this slowing is helping you. Remember that interest rates are still very low. This is why you need to call me and discuss all the factors in our market that affect your home search. Give me a call today!

Puget Sound Real Estate Market Update

Want to sell your home? Get a FREE home value report Want to buy a home? Search all homes for saleIf you’re in the Puget Sound area and haven’t been able to sell your home in the last few years because your value isn’t quite where you want it to be, we’ve got some great information to share with you. A homeowner reached out to me about a month and a half ago. They had tried to sell last year, but they owed more than their market value. When they'd bought, they needed all 3200 square feet: they had three children at home and were holding church services in their bonus room. But now it was time to downsize, both for size and money. The husband had just changed jobs and travels a lot, so they weren’t even sure whether Snohomish County was where they wanted to be. Two of the three children are moving out in the fall. Their budget was stretched, the market is peaking, and they knew it was time to sell.After looking at the home, we decided that if the home was going to sell, this was the market to do it in. We did our full marketing blitz, including personally inviting the neighbors to our open house that had about 30 buyers go through. We really pushed the top of the market with our price, and we were hoping for one or two good offers. We had several people come through multiple times, and the right buyer showed up. We secured a full-price offer for our sellers, and the home sale just closed. This family decided to rent so they have the flexibility to decide where they want to settle in the next year. They have 1,500 less square feet to clean, pay $1,000 less per month on their rent, and they accomplished all of this in today’s market. We are at the peak of the market, the growth is slowing. There’s a shift coming up, so your top window of opportunity in this market is closing. Who do you know who we can help with our expert service and proven systems to get top dollar?If you or someone you know has been wondering whether it’s the right time to sell, we would be happy to talk to you. Just give us a call or send us an email and we’ll be in touch!

Now Is the Time for Sellers to Act

If you are looking to buy or sell a home, get all the information and the latest updates, tips, and tricks from Sandy And Company your professional Marysville Real Estate Agents.

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Marysville Real Estate Podcast Sandy Eagon

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