33 – The Marshall Report – Episode 33

Today is Thursday September the 1st, 2016 and this is the 33rd episode of the Marshall Report. Welcome to the podcast.

In this week’s podcast:

1. How I feel about September

2. Getting the keys

3. Uber

4. Gourmet Kitchens

5. Short-term rentals

6. Closing up the summer office.

7. The fading home inspection business

8. Working from home or Ho Chi Minh City

9. Just say ‘no’

10. Going there and getting there

Let’s get on with the show.

 

September already

Well, time flies like a banana. Fruit flies like a garbage truck.

September already. I like September, a lot (but I love October). I love the cooler nights and normalcy that September brings. I like the back to school, back to work, the run up to thanksgiving and pumpkin pie, making chilli in the slow cooker, throwing a big duvet on the bed.

 

Question of the week:

When can we get the keys?

Homebuyers feel that once the paperwork is signed and the mortgage approved, the inspection done, they own the house. They have mentally moved in and would like to get in and do some painting and preening before moving or even do some moving before moving day. Home buyers are, after all, moving from somewhere themselves and have to be out on a certain day. They need time to move out of their current house and clean up after the move out before they begin the move in.

Unfortunately, there are laws and liabilities in the way. I wrote about this here.

 

Uber

Waterloo Region is a forward-looking place. Our success is because of it. It didn’t start with the University of Waterloo, but it is a wonderful example of it. What other university can go from zero to hero in 50 years?

There are other examples past and present or our forwardlookingness. We are building an LRT where other cities voted it down. And now there is Uber.

A couple of weeks ago the regional council pretty much paved the way for Uber to begin (or continue) driving the roads and serving the patrons of Waterloo Region.

I’ve never taken Uber. I drive, walk, bike or board everywhere. But my daughters have taken Uber and I have friends who take Uber all the time. It sounds pretty good. Pretty hip, cheaper and all-in-all a better experience than taking a taxi.

Taxis, just like travel agents, vacuum cleaner repair shops and black smithing are fading fast into the past.

 

Updated kitchen vs. Gourmet kitchen

According to Realtor magazine, listings with the following word pairs tend to sell faster than those without.

Those words are:

Fenced backyard

Open concept

Updated kitchen

Natural light

Single storey

On the other hand, listings with the following word pairs stay on the market longer. Those words are:

Golf course

Gourmet kitchen

Ceramic tile

Granite countertop

Two storey

Is it that homes with gourmet kitchens and on golf courses are more expensive? Is that maybe why they take longer to sell?

I think so.

 

Short-term rentals

A couple of weeks ago I blogged the question, ‘would you like to live next to an Airbnb?’ Turns out that a lot of people would not. In Toronto, according to a recent story, condo owners are getting fed up with transient renters treating their condo buildings as hotels. And condo boards and management companies are fighting back. With hundreds of thousands of condo units in Toronto and a high number of them investor units, the problem will likely get worse before it gets better. A well run Airbnb unit can make more than twice as much revenue than a straight rental and they are not governed by the established rules and legislation. Many condo boards and property management companies do not have the power to outlaw short-term rentals but they can make it difficult for unit owners to operate.

This story is much like the current taxi/Uber debate playing out in Kitchener Waterloo. It is at the old economy versus the shared economy. Some property management companies and condo boards are appealing to the municipalities to pass legislation to tighten the rules on short-term rentals.

It is not just Airbnb either. There are a number of short-term rental companies like Boardwalk Homes and Premier Suites popping up and buying homes and condo units operating them in the midst neighbourhoods and condo buildings.

I’m sure there will be more on this story to come.

 

The lost art of porch sitting

I live in a 100-year-old house in UpTown Waterloo.

My house has a large covered front porch. I call the porch my summer office. In the morning, over three or four cups of coffee and sometimes in the afternoon or early evening, you’ll find me out there, writing in my blog, talking on the phone with clients or other realtors and sometime discussing and writing up offers to purchase a home or two.

My house is on a tree lined street. The traffic is a little heavier than it was before the LRT construction began, but it will calm down again. Early in the morning, the joggers are the first out and then the cyclists. There are the regulars, the people who walk past, some walking their dogs, others on their way to work. I see the folks who are going shopping and I see them on the way back. My neighbours look for me as they pull out of their driveways. They wave. I wave back. They must think have tons of time on my hands, but I’m working. I’m getting things done in my shorts and t-shirt from my front porch.

I’m working, really.

With patio furniture instead of office furniture. I can work from anywhere. I like the hot weather. I like a light breeze. A light rain is ok but a heavy rain is too dramatic to get any real work done.

And the dog sleeps at my feet and has doggie dreams. Sometimes she wakes up and watches the other dogs go by. She wags her tail and sometime has a low growl for passersby.

We know the mailman. The old one would stop for a chat. She carried dog cookies. We are still getting to know the new one. No cookies.

With September, I’ll soon be closing up my summer office for another season. Another season of porch sitting is coming to a close.

 

Not expecting an inspection

Until this year, except for condominium and new home construction purchases, in the decade that I have been a licensed realtor, I would say that nearly 100% of my offers to purchase have had the condition of home inspection in the offer.

This year, not so much.

I was talking with a home inspector I know the other day and he said that business is down this year, maybe by 50%. Because of bidding wars, condition-free, cash offers are the winning way. Great for home sellers. Not so great for home buyers or for home inspectors.

For the record, maybe 10% of the home inspections that I have been involved in uncover serious issues. However, the seriousness of those serious issues has always been highly serious. I’m talking about rising damp, mould, foundation cracks and structural shifts. You don’t want to buy someone else’s problem but you do want to buy a house.

Some home sellers are doing home inspections and leaving them on the kitchen table ahead of showings. Some buyers are doing pre-offer mini inspections. And some are trusting their own eyes, knowledge and realtors and going it unprotected.

 

Working from home or Ho Chi Minh City

Earlier in this podcast, I talked about my summer office – essentially my front porch. I have a real office too, much like a law firm with wood panelled walls, thick baseboards and trim. You have got to love 100 year old houses.

If you follow me on LinkedIn you will know that I just had a work anniversary too. It was two years ago that I left the traditional brokerage world with an office and a strip mall parking lot and set up shop on my own.

And it is not just me, around the world the working landscape is changing. According to a report by Regus, there are fewer full-time Canadian workers doing the 9-to-5 grind. Over the past five years, Canadians have seen a 76% rise in remote workers, 70% rise self-employed workers and 54% increase in freelancers.

No longer are we tied to a single desk in a single office with regular working hours. In fact in terms of working hours the majority of us report that the traditional 9 to 5 is not the most productive time to work. Most of us like earlier starts and some of us are night owls.

But what really makes the typical work day, work environment unproductive is the lengthy meetings, the traffic jams, the IT glitches and conference calls.

It used to be said that 80% of life is just showing up, but now we are in a results-based work culture which is less interested in when and how work is done as long as it is getting done.

 

Call to action. Just say no.

We meet a lot of salespeople when out shopping for a new home. We all know the tricks, the sales closing techniques.  Bad salesmanship is infuriating. I hate the pressure, the false optimism, the upscale, the goldilocks principle, the impending doom close. It’s all an obvious con game. Pushy, dishonest salesmanship isn’t fun. Buy it now, I’ll give you a good price if you buy now!

Good salesmanship isn’t pushy or dishonest. Informing the client or customer of all their options, and help them to pick the best option for them, without pushing them to buy at all, that’s golden.

A bad salesperson is a predator, but a good salesperson is a trusted advocate for the consumer.

This week’s call to action. When you meet a bad salesperson, just say ‘no thanks’ and then move on.

 

I’ll leave you with this parting thought.

You may not have gone where you intended to go, but hopefully you’ve ended up where you needed to be.

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