This is the time of year when most of us give things, get things, and give thanks. All my shopping is done. Everything is wrapped. I’ve attended and hosted all the parties, and I’m finally slowing down.
Time to say thanks …
To my clients
Over my 10 years in this business, with 130+ deals under my belt, I can honestly say that about 99.5% of my clients have been fun and gratifying to work with. Crises and emotions and speedbumps do occasionally come up – that’s part of the process – but, on the whole, it’s been a fabulous bunch. Grateful for all of you! Keep it coming!
To Onward RE
When PARKS sold itself to Compass RE, I knew I didn’t want to go with the sale, so started looking for a new place to hang my license. And Onward was absolutely IT! So, thanks to Bob and Marie Parks and Jenni Barnett for starting an all-new, all-local brokerage where individuals still matter. And thanks to Scott Cornett, my broker and all the other happy realtors who made the jump and make Onward the best place to work. More of you are coming. Welcome, and believe that the best is yet to come!
To friends and family
You are the bedrock of my ongoing life. Love you all!
To Nashville …
for being such a dynamic, expanding, interesting place to live and work. It wasn’t always this way. When I arrived in 1976 fresh out of grad school, Nashville was so dead, I thought I’d moved off the edge of the planet. What a difference 48(!) years makes. Sure, traffic sucks, but show me a dynamic, expanding, interesting American city where it doesn’t. We’ve joined the big leagues and I’m happy about that – traffic and all.
To everyone who reads this
Thanks for reading. And thanks for your nice comments, and for trying the cocktails and giving me feedback. More of the same up ahead …
Happiness, peace, and prosperity to one and all!
Goodbye Coppertone Kitchen
Last month I said goodbye to my all-original, 1962 coppertone kitchen. And the process was – for a moment or two, at least – surprisingly emotional.
Backstory: I live in a 3-bed, 2-bath ranch built 62 years ago by an African American family in College Hill, one of a few areas where affluent black citizens were allowed to live before housing discrimination was outlawed.
When I moved in seven years ago, the house was almost completely unaltered. Stunning bathrooms – one yellow and blue, the other pink and green – in mint condition. Intercom. Beautiful hardwood floors. And a 1962 kitchen – coppertone cooktop, wall oven, and dishwasher, along with linoleum floor, original cabinets, and original Formica.
This kitchen and I saw a lot of good times together: friends, food, cocktails and – during covid lockdown – cocktail videos posted on Facebook. I loved it! But when the dishwasher finally ground to a halt and the wall oven caught fire, I knew it was time to start over.
So, what’s the real estate connection? There are two: holding on, and letting go – and they both go back to the meaning of a house. What is a house really?
I’ve said this many times before: a house is more than the sum of its parts. It’s more than shelter from the weather. It’s more than dollars and cents. It’s a place to do your life. As both container and stage, it’s where so much of our lives unfold. And that’s why there’s often a great deal of emotion tied up in a real estate deal.
The existence of this kitchen represented a significant achievement for the Driver family who built it. In 1962, the odds were stacked against African American home ownership. In addition to being barred from living in many areas, they often had to borrow at higher rates – assuming they could get a mortgage at all. This kitchen was a testament to the Drivers – they had beat the odds!
For me, it was a refuge from a storm. My business went bankrupt during the 2008 economic collapse, and I lost everything – including my house. It was a tough time, both financially and emotionally, and getting into this house was a signal that I was finally coming out of the woods. It felt great! I just loved my coppertone kitchen, and it was hard to say goodbye.
For both those reasons – and for just a few minutes the day before demolition started – I found myself wanting to hang on to the kitchen just as it was. However …
On the flip side there’s this: when it’s time to move on, it’s time to move on.
In spite of the legitimate and the totally understandable emotional entanglements we have with our houses, too often I find that sellers place too much value on these entanglements when it comes time to sell the house.
Buyers care about their own lives, not about yours as it occurred in the house. Your attachments are not theirs. And no one wants to see closets and a garage crammed with your stuff – even if you promise to move it before closing.
Treasure your memories, but keep on moving.
As for me, I’ve said goodbye to the coppertone kitchen – both for myself, and for the Drivers. But a little bit of that coppertone will always reside in my heart.
What are you looking for …
… in a realtor?
With the changes in real estate practice brought on by the recent class action lawsuit against our industry, that question may be more important to you than before.
Briefly, in case you missed all the noise, a class action suit against the real estate industry alleging price fixing and collusion among realtors was settled in March of this year by the National Association of Realtors. The NAR (correctly) admitted no wrongdoing, but the settlement mandates two changes in the way we do business.
First, listing agents are no longer allowed to offer commission to buyers’ agents via an MLS listing. Second, buyers’ agents are no longer allowed to show listed properties without a signed buyer representation agreement.
Simple. But the ripple effects are more complex.
Despite the accusations in the lawsuit, realtor commissions have never been fixed or mandated. But post-lawsuit, the question of how, and by whom, the buyer’s agent gets paid has gotten more fluid and open to negotiation.
Traditionally, buyer agent commission was factored into the price of the house, offered to the buyer’s agent via the MLS listing, and paid at closing. This allowed buyers to pay their agent as a part of the purchase price of the house and amortize it over 30 years through the mortgage.
But now, there are lots of open questions …
Can sellers still offer compensation to buyers’ agents? Yes. Just not through the MLS listing.
Will they? Well, they certainly should – assuming they want to attract the largest pool of potential buyers.
If not, how will the buyer’s agent get paid? A good question! It is possible more sellers will now decline to offer compensation to the buyer’s agent. If so, how will buyers pay their agent? Out of pocket? Maybe, but that can be a big chunk of change for someone working hard to scrape up enough for a down payment.
Will lenders lend additional money to pay agent commission? Nope.
Will buyer agents work for free? Not a chance!
Can buyer agent compensation be worked into the deal through negotiation? Yes, it can.
Will the practical specifics of all this stay fluid and evolve over the next year or so? Almost certainly, they will.
So, what do you want in a realtor? I’ve got a list you might want to consider.
Someone who is …
Well-trained. Who knows the process, knows what’s in all the contract forms, and knows why it’s there.
Well re-trained. Only someone with solid basic knowledge (see above) can fully grasp how to work with the recent changes, and the changes that might lie ahead.
Is supported by great brokers. Something new comes up in every deal. Every. Single. Deal. So, having accessible, knowledgeable brokers on hand for counsel is critical.
Not afraid to advocate – for his client and for his own value. Honoring a client’s value as well as the value of one’s own counsel is fundamental to getting the best deal for a client.
Not afraid to advise. Someone who understands his duty to advise a client on the best way to market a property, and the best way to write a winning offer.
Hmmm. Sounds a lot like me.
Losing Weight
I did a thing last week. I called a junk hauling company and had them empty my basement. I’ve lived in six different Nashville zip codes over the decades, and I get rid of things every time I move. But this was big.
After sorting and organizing some tax and real estate files, and moving the file cabinets into a corner, I had the junk guys take everything else. No questions, no exceptions. I didn’t look at any of it. I’m not sure what all of it was, but it filled up their truck. And it’s gone.
It feels like I’ve lost 20 pounds.
While not everyone is a full-on hoarder, we all do this to some extent – hang on to stuff that we don’t need, that we don’t even want, stuff that holds us down.
In the past 12 months, I’ve had six sellers who spent weeks – even months – clearing out so they could move. Deciding what to take, what to sell, what to junk. Hard, sometimes actually painful, work. Psychology underlying the issue aside, there are ways to avoid this extra weight, and make moving easier when the time comes.
The fact that I had a truckload of junk in my basement notwithstanding, compared to some friends, family, and clients, I’ve done a pretty fair job of keeping the accumulation down to a manageable level. Here are a few tricks I’ve used to make it happen.
Throw as you go
One end of my guestroom closet is reserved for things that need to go to Goodwill, or the dump, or somewhere other than my house. When the corner fills up, I get rid of it. Right now, I have a basket of clothes and household items ready to go, and I’ll take it to Goodwill the next time I’m headed to Green Hills.
Take it slow
If you are facing tons of accumulated stuff, go easy on yourself. Be ruthless – gradually. Whittle it down one box, one closet, one basement at a time. I did this with books. At one point I had almost 600 books on the shelves. Little by little – a box at a time – I took more than half of them to McKay and sold them for cash. It took a year, but what a relief!
Gift before you die
Why wait until you’re dead to give things to friends and family? Why not give it away now – when they can thank you in person. I’ve given lots of things away to family, and earmarked others as future gifts. But remember this: if friends and family don’t want it, it's likely no one else does either. (see below)
Remember, it’s only stuff
You can’t take it with you. If you don’t use it or want it, and no one else does (see above), why are you hanging on to it? It’s not relationships. It’s not experience. It’s not friends, not family. It’s none of the things that really matter. It’s just stuff!
Home is where the heart is
Over the nine+ years I’ve been doing my monthly message, I’ve made this point a number of times: A house is not a home. A house is where you make a home. Home is where – wherever – your heart is.
Well, what’s true in personal life, can also be true in business.
In November 2014, almost 10 years ago, I placed my brand-new real estate license at Village, a firm founded by local visionary, Mark Deutchman. On the advice of a friend who was a Village realtor, I attended one sales meeting and knew immediately – this was the place for me. I found a diverse group of like-minded individuals who formed a supportive community – always learning, always working for our clients’ success, and helping each other out. As independent contractors we were technically in competition with each other, but it felt like I had joined a team. And that felt really good!
Over the years, the company drifted farther and farther away from the community I joined. New ownership and leadership, a change in name (the Village brand ceased to exist), and finally a sale by the current owners to Compass RE, completed the transition to a company I no longer recognized.
And so, I’ve made a change.
On Thursday, June 27, I moved my license to Onward Real Estate.
Unlike Compass, a national corporation, traded on the NYSE and beholden to its shareholders, Onward is a brand-new, local company, owned by local people and focused on the local market. We are backed by Bob Parks, who built Parks Real Estate into the biggest firm in the mid-state before leaving that company earlier this year. Since going public three weeks ago, more than 220 realtors have joined Onward, and more are coming.
But this is about much more than size. It’s about focus. We are local. Every one of us from the leaders and brokers on down, live here and work here and are focused on our client’s needs and wants – in this market.
It’s also about home. We do our best work when and where we feel at home and thoroughly invested. After several years of drifting away from the home base that was once Village, I’m back. And the vibe is good!
Back at home, and moving Onward.