Category: Finding Your Home

We've just selected a new venue to serve as our new headquarters, and it could not be cooler.  Check out our latest digs and get the backstory on the coolest conference room in town.

hello hello hello hello peeps bonjour hi hi hi what’s happening getting a little punchy you’re getting a little punchy diane bro randall bro we’re both career twisted realtors in uh prescott arizona correct coming at you our latest find them good morning good morning we are with exp realty which we’re really proud to be a part of yeah it’s a new and progressive fast-paced brokerage it is a national firm it’s not independently owned and as a result we do not have a brick and mortar building yeah yeah exp not yeah it does not invest in brick and mortar nope uh it’s all technology it’s all virtual it’s all very fast moving uh you know people are concerned the real estate market goes up and down guess what when you don’t own a whole lot of uh brick and mortar you don’t have mortgages you don’t have leases uh you can weather storms a lot better so it’s a great business model whether you’re doing well you’re not doing well but it does mean that we don’t have a conference room right which is okay because sometimes we couldn’t access conference rooms yeah we had access our old brokers we did have access to a conference when it was available and scheduling the conference room was always an ordeal so this is nice what we do now is either we meet you uh where you’re staying or our new favorite place and this is what we wanted to announce is we like to meet at the lobby of the hacienda inn yes which is a very historic older building built in the early 1900s very art deco very charming a lot of history it’s it’s it’s just a cool place it’s a really cool place right in the heart right in the heart of the city right by the square and they’ve got a great little coffee shop so we get a cup of coffee we sit down and we meet and we chat and it’s just lovely sometimes we even get our own little private room it just depends yeah yeah if we have to write up an offer with you or something like that that’s right we have private little nooks where you can close the door that’s right so if you call us to meet typically we’ll say hey we’ll meet you at the hussey and we’ll have a great time uh we love to go to dinner there as well they have a great crunch and a great bar too beautiful bar yeah they have uh live music it’s a great menu it’s a great venue it’s a great introduction you’ve never been a prescott before it’s a great introduction to the city so if you call us and we say hey we’re going to meet you at the hacienda inn that is why my friends that’s why that’s our new headquarters our new headquarters but we also had the time of our life there in fact we’re going to have a surprise birthday dinner there so i want to give a shout out to the hacienda because they’re just awesome yeah a beautiful place beautiful people who run it lovely lovely restaurant lovely bar great eating place and so if you hear from us this is why we go to the hacienda it’s our it’s our new little place our new spot we’d love to give you a little taste of the history there a little feel of being near the square and what that’s all about yeah and then we head out from there to go on our home tour so i shared a few uh shots of the lobby one of my favorite things is they have an old switchboard yeah and an old piano they get some great what was the deal somebody rode their horse all the way up the stairs yeah yeah there’s a there’s a legend there’s a lot of people ask about it riding a horse up the stairs correct and there’s some ghosts yeah some ghosts i haven’t seen any ghosts yet myself we as a matter of fact stayed at the hacienda inn the first time we came in when we were deciding to move here yeah great great place to stay as well a great courtyard too yeah so shout out to the hacienda inn and uh we can’t wait to meet you and have our own personal meeting at the hacienda bay inn that’s it else theater yeah yeah which is our second favorite place second favorite you go there for live music good stuff yeah lots of good stuff and you can find about all of it at our free information center that is pickle411.com whether you are a buyer seller somewhere between there’s information there for you and it’s all free and it’s all just really high quality just give us a call give us a call we’ll fill you in on even more all right hope to hear from you soon have a lovely evening take care bye

One of the most important and perplexing questions to answer in real estate is what to offer on a home that interests you.  Wouldn't it be nice if there were a simple formula that works in every case?  In this episode, we offer our thoughts on what that might be.

hello hello hello hello peeps i make a little dance move with yours preschool pickle lady here diane bro i am the sidekick scum pig randall why thank you i don’t know i like that it’s the happily skunk pizza anyway this is diana randall bro here in prescott arizona coming to you this afternoon to talk to you about with this changing market what to offer when you’re here and you’re ready to pull the trigger yeah you’re not you’re a buyer and you know there’s a house on the market how do you know what to offer how do you know what to offer so the i’m going to cut to the chase here and just tell you the bottom line is you need to have good real estate agents who know what to offer yes no we always always always run a cop first and then we really look at everything and decide hey you know this one was priced a little higher than it should be or this one’s priced just right uh you should have an agent that will always agree to write a copy instead of just diving into and writing an offer right off the bat that’s the first thing always do your homework and make sure your agent will do that due diligence for you and let you know so if you’re looking for some kind of formula oh you always offer five percent class you can’t go buy a formula in this market it’s not like in the 50s where mom and dad would say always go in 10 less sometimes that is the case sometimes that would be a dreadful dreadful mistake yeah so you need to look at uh first of all the home how long has it been on the market is this something that is your dream that you’ve connected to and it’s everything you ever wanted then you don’t want to low ball yeah if you lowball you probably won’t get it yeah if it’s something that makes your heart sing maybe go in a little less yeah um or go in and ask depending on market conditions the competitive situation if we’re anticipating the home may have a lot of um repairs inspection you don’t want to low ball because then they’re not going to be willing to negotiate with you on the repairs i mean they’ve got so many different factors absolutely and you really need to do we strategize with our buyers for every offer we look at all the different factors there are times when we tell people you’re going to have to go well over asked this is about where you know you need to go there are other times when we tell people this one’s been sitting a while they haven’t adjusted they’re asleep at the wheel we think you can not uh knock them for a bit and we come in lower their times i can think of at least a couple of transactions where you know this listing agent has underpriced this home and they don’t know it yet we need to get the offer do full and just go just move fast and everything in between it really depends on the situation and you really need to have some agents who can help you strategize that way it’s all about strategy it’s not formulaic you can’t say a plus b and we’ll get this no every house every property is different every house may be on market days on market maybe longer maybe shorter that all comes into play as well sometimes if it’s been on them for a while you might have some wiggle room and you can go in a little bit lower yeah you know it’s all just a strategy strategy strategy and the situation you got to know the situation you know oh there’s a building project right around the corner that may affect property values how does that play into what we offer you know you got to look at all that stuff and so you need to have agents who are educated they know what’s going on in your current market uh what’s going on uh with this particular neighborhood versus this neighborhood what can i expect so try to get an agent who’s willing to strategize with you let’s sit down over coffee let’s really look at this in depth and get you the offer that you will win that’s right especially if it’s the home of your dreams and why not just get the home to get the home at the best price right so we would like to think and we know that we are the team for you to help you strategize and get you the best deal and just a word of warning i wanted a warning we do a fair number of listings as well and if we have a buyer agent that comes in and we know that person’s not particularly savvy you’re gonna lose value i mean we’ll we we know how to adjust what we do for the seller for that so if whether we’re the selling agents and someone else is the selling agent if that selling agent knows what they’re doing and you have an agent that doesn’t that is a distinct disadvantage make no mistake yes so we hope that if you’re thinking about buying or selling give us a call we love to strategize sit down over a cup of coffee make it happen and lay out a really good plan of action that’s what it’s all about is getting you the best deal on either side and making it happen that’s right all right my friends if you need more information you can go to our website at pickle411.com whether you’re a buyer or seller or somewhere in between that is the place for you they have free information there that will rock you out it’s true i know why there are some times on my name yeah i go by and i watch videos of myself in a moment well i don’t do that i i don’t do that at all but the website is pretty healthy that’s pretty good it’s a lot there i’ve gone there sometimes i forget what it put on there yeah so anyway we hope to hear from you soon and we’d love to plan and strategize with you on your next steps take care and have a wonderful day bye

Want to avoid overpaying for real estate in a competitive market?  Want buyers to be aggressive in bidding for your home?

As controversial as it is effective for both buyers and sellers, this real estate power tool is the focus of what turned out to be an exceptionally vigorous lecture on just what you need.

hello hello hello hello yahoo i’m very energetic i am i got a lot of energy today feeling good about myself feeling not so good about me well i feel good about i’m just saying feeling i’m randall i’m the skunk pig so uh i’m with my remember the skunk pig yeah they’re the javelinas oh yeah no i’m just here with the preschool feeling good today lots of energy yes this is my handsome husband randall bro best smelling skunk pig you’ll ever see in your life we are here today to talk about something kind of technical yeah uh kind of controversial but if you if you want to invest in real estate uh or get a good price when you’re home uh you need to know about it and that is a escalation escalation clause now uh in the heyday when everything was going crazy we saw a lot more use of this yeah we are still seeing use of it but it might be dying out a little bit but an escalation clause is a really good thing to employ if you’re up for it correct so we’ve been doing escalation clauses for a while and then when the market went crazy with cobit and everything that everyone kind of discovered them it was kind of the thing to do right so just to be clear an escalation clause is a clause it’s a phrase on your offer your the contract that you are submitting to the seller that says let’s just say you know i might i offer 500 000 but i am willing to beat any competitive offer by x dollars and you know that what that x is we you know that’s part of the strategy does that have to be how high do you really want to how high do you want to go so typically you know i offer 500 000 and but i’ll offer 2 000 more than any competitive offer up to and including say 520 yes yeah that would be an escalation clause to 520. and uh kind of weird uh here’s the thing it kind of makes the situation work more like an auction so it allows the buyer to raise their bid if they’re in a competitive situation and obviously from a buyer’s standpoint that’s a good thing you don’t have to pay more than you need to that’s right in order to beat us so maybe you could beat a competitive offer at 512 instead of just flat 520 yeah right so just yeah so as an example let’s say you offered you know the 500 000 escalating to 520 uh let’s say there was a competitive offer at 5 12 well you would get it at 5 14. you would beat the 512 at 5 14. let’s say someone else escalated to 5 15 when you would get it to 5 17. but it’s still you know you’re going to max out at your limit of 520. but instead of paying 520 you might get it like you said 512. yeah which you know yeah would you know you’d like that yeah so uh buyers like the idea of escalation clauses um sellers maybe not so much we do have sellers uh listing agents who will put in mls oh no escalation no escalation just bring best and final yeah best and finally technically speaking if we send in an escalation clause they have to present they still have to present it they might not but they should and uh it is in our opinion it is a mistake for a seller to say no escalation costs and that is the reason why is that buyers will get much more aggressive if they’re allowed to do an escalation clause what they don’t want to do is to go thirty thousand dollars over list price when all they had to do was five thousand right so if you tell them no escalation clause they’re not going to go to 550. they’re going to go to 505 you know because they don’t want to leave money on the table so our opinion in seeing the dynamics of the situation seeing buyers facing very competitive situations our buyers will go much higher as part of an escalation clause than they would ever do just putting a single best and fun and the best thing about it is because people will say yeah but how will i really know there was a competitive offer and i want to say yeah well the other side has to present yeah they got to give the other offers so that you can see for sure yeah they did get an offer for 5 15 but i will win it for 517. yeah you have to have proof of that so it’s not just taking word taking someone’s word um so you do kind of have a little check and balance there so don’t worry about that yeah if you if your listing agent is pushing you back as a seller against escalation clauses um number one not in your best interest that’s our opinion and number two i’ve actually come across a number of listing agents who just kind of have trouble with the arithmetic honestly if you’ve got it i understand because if you’ve got a lot of offers and you’re trying to you know break them out yeah it’s a little extra you know it can be i’ve actually been in a situation where it kind of had to work yeah and it’s a lot of work it’s a lot of good through the calculation but making a mistake buyer or seller escalation clauses are a good thing that’s why they do auctions yep you know and the way it works real estate is set up there it’s not well you can do an auction there are systems where you can actually do an aux auction for real estate they do that for distressed uh real estate um you know repossessions and that sort of thing but typical real estate transactions they don’t an escalation clause is is a way to introduce an auction-like mechanism and it benefits both buyers and sellers that was a lot of words that was a lot that was a lot of words other than that i have let me help you catch you bro my god thank you oh lord i feel very passionate i think anyway it’s a useful tool that we’d like to share with you guys especially our buyers and give you a little education about it yeah don’t be afraid of them um they can be great be your best friend they can be your best friend you’re my best friend i would never put an escalation clause ahead of you yes you would of course you depends on the deal depends on the there you go there you go that’s the truth folks that’s the truth so anyway that’s our little lecture and escalation on escalation clauses yes if you are looking to buy or sell a home do not hesitate to reach out to us yeah the pic prescott pickle lady hotline is 713-302-1964 yes it’s a it’s a houston number we haven’t changed it like most people relocating the press it is a houston number that’s where you find her if you’re looking for free information the place to go people is pickle411.com.com pickle41199 or somewhere in between there is free and vigorous information waiting for you cigarettes yeah i don’t know whether whether you’re looking for real estate information events restaurants well i think the escalation clause lecture you just gave was quite vigorous yeah it was very vigorous yeah but other vigorous things that people 411. you’ll enjoy it yeah you’ll learn something all free it’s cool all free we don’t charge people we should charge [Music]

If you have never been to Prescott or haven't made up your mind yet where you want to end up, then scheduling a non-buying trip to tour the city and see representative homes in the area is a great idea - and we'd be glad to help you with that.  Just make sure we know what kind of trip you're on, because buying and non-buying trips are very different animals - which we discuss in this episode.

i’m going to change this up and say good midday good midday good midday good news good okay [Laughter] it’s crazy i tell you but anyway it’s been a long day sometimes when i film with him um but i am diane bro this is my better half cheese pickle eddie that’s right randall brown sidekick we are a husband and wife team here in the heart of prescott arizona we love to help people come here find their dream home just like we did several years ago we love it here and we embrace all people who come you guys will love it it’s just a really unique tale this is our way of telling you kind of what life is like that’s right you can find here what people do here that’s right all the good stuff so sometimes when people will call and they’re like hey i want to come in and let’s set a date great please first step always call me first or enter your appointment on our calendar um don’t just show up in an hour before say hey we’re here could you meet with us a lot of times i’m booked yeah and so i hate nothing more that i hate than saying i can’t meet with you because i’m booked up for the next couple of days so call me first we’ll put you on the calendar and then i may call you back or email you and ask a number of questions it’s not to be intrusive or nosey or anything else but it really helps me hone down on the home search the most important question is is this a buying or a non-buying trip and some people like well i don’t want that kind of pressure it’s not really meant to pressure you it’s just to help me if it’s a non-buying trip i will maybe just include a few homes a few neighborhoods and maybe try to select those homes that are vacant or you know no one’s there so that you know we don’t interrupt the owner too much yeah it’s also a matter of focus so if you know we understand that this is a pro a process and we have no problem with non-buying trips absolutely we’re just trying to figure out what you’re trying to achieve if you’re trying to buy a house we need to show you specific houses because you’re going to buy one that’s right if you’re not going to buy one you’re kind of thinking prescott might be the place to go but you’re not sure it’s not just about homes it’s about the city and what goes on in the city and the different areas we’re going to focus more on trying to find the areas that make the most sense for you rather than the specific homes that won’t be available when you’re ready to buy exactly i mean so for my non-buying buyers i say hey you know what i want to give you a sampling of all that the city has to offer so if you’re a golfer if you want social amenities let me focus on those neighborhoods and show you a couple of homes in there and then i’d like to give you a i call it a potpourri sampling we’re going to kind of go around and mix it all up and see all areas all different neighborhoods so you can kind of decide you know what i really love i really love stone ridge or i really love prescott lakes or i really love talking rock and that’s fine so the next time when you come back and it is a buying trip that’s all we’re going to focus on yeah if it’s a buying trip and you know hey this is exactly what i want i’ve already been there i want this then guess what i’m going to exclusively concentrate on those areas and try to find the best home that exactly fits your requirements it’s a lot of fun for me i enjoy it especially when i have bigger inventory yeah yeah um but we try super hard to find one that you will connect with yeah yeah we give you a sale if it’s a non-buying trip we’ll get you in a few homes just to kind of give you a sense of what different price points will buy you correct what kind of features are available whether they’re views or not what kind of architecture you know what style of home you know that sort of thing we’ve given you more of a feel rather than trying to fit you into a specific home right and we also tour you as well as we go along so whether it’s in prescott valley or prescott we point out all the major places stores etc so you really get a good education on what prescott has to offer and then when you’re ready and you come in to buy we’re ready to do it let’s let’s let’s hone in on that and let’s find that perfect place and let’s do it yeah so uh uh you know sometimes people are a little taken aback when i ask that question i’m really not here to make you feel pressured i am the worst i am not a hard sell i am the softest cell i think probably on earth um first of all i don’t think i have to do a hard sell i think prescott sells itself it’s a it’s a lovely town it’s gorgeous i think a lot of the homes here sell themselves i don’t have to force you to do anything and i would never do that anyway right that’s not who i am and it you know i just don’t believe in that everybody has to be here 100 and then it works out beautifully so when i ask you is this a non-buying or a buying trip don’t be like i’m feeling pressure it’s truly not meant that i’m trying to serve you better by figuring out exactly that’s exactly it so anyway if you hear from me and start asking you some questions don’t get nervous don’t get don’t get uh wigged out it’s just for me to kind of either make it a an intense day of finding you the perfect home or just a nice tour sampling the areas and so when you do make that final decision you’re ready to to to go in the air you want to go to yep absolutely so that is all so i don’t want you to ever feel pressured i’m not all about that i’m all about the soft sell and um just finding what’s you know touches your heart because that’s what it’s all about for me it’s an emotional decision as well as an investment but the most thing is what attaches what connects to you i should say what connects to you absolutely that’s more important because that’s the only way you know you have to be some place you want to be and then you’re super happy with your decision absolutely okay so if you need to reach us to buy or sell or anything else any other questions believe me i get questions all day long and i’m so happy to answer and help and where’s this and where’s that what about this and what about that give us a call at or you can go to our information site you can start at pickle411.com whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere in between lots of free information about real estate about prescott about prescott valley and yep uh restaurants and things to do and all kinds of stuff all of it all of it yeah very informative there’s a search bar so you can look for whatever that’s right you can just type in where to get your nails done yeah that’s true on and on and on exactly so anyway we hope to hear from you and thank you for listening have a fantastic day bye bye

If you have a Corvette or other type of car that rides low to the ground, then you'll want to tune in for our latest Wine Down episode.  Here's the rub: Prescott is a town with terrain, so low-riding vehicles can bottom out easily here - especially in driveways that are steep or have not been properly graded.  

In this episode we reveal our very own Cajun-style invention you can use to check to make sure you can get the Corvette in the garage without scraping.  And like all good DIY tools, it's cheap to make and easy to use. 

You can find our episode on Bridjits here...
https://prescottpicklelady.com/vehicles/

More info on the Bridjit device...
https://www.bridjit.com/ 

good morning good morning peeps randall and diane bro here he’s breast piccolating i am i am the gherkin sidekick he is the gherkin sidekick yes i just jarred another five gallons another five gallons doing our part in production yeah so if you give me a call or we see you i’m happy to bring you a jar of my famous cajun that’s right logistics problems do not hold back never the pickle production that is correct always in production and always excited to share yes um my pickles with everybody but anyway uh we are i digress we are here to talk today about something called driveways and corvettes driveways and corvettes well what i’ve noticed yeah how about you lately everywhere in prescott i see people driving corvette after corvette yeah lots of corvettes here it’s a big cars of all types are big here vintage cars and they have uh uh we’ll have shows with mg and but it seems the corvettes are kind of uh taking center stage yeah vintage corvettes brand new corvettes um the new ones have beautiful colors yeah beautiful so shout out to mr goodman and to the lucex who are also fellow uh friends and clients yep who corvettes yeah corvettes here’s the thing about corvettes they ride low to the ground super super low to the ground not the only cars that ride low to the ground no they’re producers also ride low to the ground priuses uh any number of so the hot rod cars you know testosterone and all that stuff that they ride low to the ground which helps you i guess with the air flow when you are i get it i mean i get the design yeah um the design doesn’t always work for us as realtors that’s right yeah the problem is we are a mountain town so we do have terrain they have any number of areas around town you’re driving your corvette you’re going to bottom out yep and sometimes when you don’t expect it and i hate the sound of that we have a sedan uh we also have the pickle van the pickle band rides low the scene does not ride very high yeah uh from time to time you know we get a bit of a scrape if you have a car that’s really low you’re gonna be scraping a lot so be careful with that and in particular be careful about your right way yes so but the pickle lady team yeah we’ve come up with a solution yeah we did yeah so a lot of times kind of thing right people will come in and they’re like oh my gosh i love this house i love everything about it the driveway is not going to work for my corvette we just had this with a really super nice climb so i was out i came home and like where are you because we were getting ready to go meet them and randall says well i’m i’m over here at lowe’s i’m like what are you doing we need to be gone and he came back and he actually devised this tool that helps us measure yes um the the the how low the car is the clearance on the driveway so just it’s very science you think it would be easy you know it’s not about the front of the car it’s really not about the back of the car it’s really about the middle of the car so what happens is you have you have like a little hump in your driveway you know because it’s it’s you’re going up terrain or whatever and you have like a little hump if the front tires go down faster than the back tires are going up uh you may scrape in the middle so i made a little device where it uses yardsticks and uh it’s pretty much it you know it’s orange and engaging contraption it’s our own invention nobody tried to patent this that’s right i think i’m gonna make one instead of instead of rope i might do one with uh with some kind of wood to get but the idea is you uh you measure the clearance of the tires and how far apart the tires are and the yardsticks kind of show you they represent the tires and if the rope is touching your driveway then you’re probably going to scrape and it’s not an exact thing but barring you know actually bringing the car in and trying it out it’ll give you a good idea um i don’t know why they don’t use a device like that to actually pave what else did your driveways what else did you bring oh we also did uh the other issue was the the slope of the driveway may be of concern for the the pods the storage units the storage containers so we had to we had to measure the pitch to see if they were going to allow the client to put the storage unit in the driveway or it was going to be too angling that’s right so here’s the thing people you think we’re just here writing up a contract and chit chatting as we do with this on these little videos we actually are full service yeah uh we’re out there measuring we’re coming up with new measurements uh measurement uh equipment we’re inventing a group correct we we are we’re double time here we’re like you know what we’re going to figure out about this corvette for sure before you make a decision the other thing we love to talk about and we have it in our own house is something called a bridget oh yeah the bridge shout out to the bridgette the bridgette company yeah i think we did it we did a video i think on bridget’s so in our particular little babies subdivision or neighborhood of uh prescott lakes called creekside they did a really horrible job on the curbs the curbs are too high yeah so in effect it you have a speed bump going into your home driveway okay so most of the neighbors here have this device called a bridge which is made out of the same kind of rubber that make tires it’s amazing so shout out to the bridge the bridging company so that’s a tip for you guys yeah definitely if you are having a hard uh you know jump up over a curve into your garage look at the bridge of the company yeah i’ll put it if i find that our old wine down on the bridgette i’ll put to think on it it’s it’s supersize so between the bridget and our measurement tools and uh knowledge and know-how yeah we will make sure that car is gonna work it’s gonna fit yeah yeah because a lot of times homes here are built into terrain we don’t have super flat necessarily driveways and uh it’s important to understand that when you’re coming here um either get rid of those cars or we’re gonna try to figure it out and make it we’re trying to make it work don’t be disappointed if not listen buy a new car and get a higher higher clearance because you’re going to you’re going to want that we’re going to run into it time and time again here unfortunately just because of the nature of the terrain if you’re you’re a collector or you know you have a a really beautiful car and that’s kind of what you’re in you may want to consider some sort of alternative storage you know a garage or something where you can store it might you might do better than keeping it in your own garage but the main point of this particular video though was just to talk about how we’re full service um we have a measurement uh equipment now in place to help you really determine with pretty much 95 accuracy i would say well i mean you’re going to really tell you you just you know if it says you’re you’re not going to scrape you probably want to try the car you know i mean the ultimate test is the car itself um but if it tells you you’re gonna scrape and you’re probably gonna scroll i mean it’s it in the end it’s yardsticks and it’s rogue it’s yardstick you know and i’m not an engineer now you know but i mean we will try to help you do your due diligence for it and show you what’s going on but the good thing is is that uh you know if you’re coming in from out of state you may not have that car with you right we try to in the interim give you some idea of whether or not it’s going to work yeah so that is our tip of the day yeah it is important here so cheers to you for coming up with that little system we love it we love it and we love it so give us a call if you have any questions or if you’d like to see a home or list a home we’re at 713-302-1964 yeah if you’re just looking for information place for that is pickle411.com that is our information site whether you are buy or sellers somewhere in between all kinds of information about prescott and uh real estate and life and restaurants and all kinds of things that are going on you never know what will pop in our little in our little p brains and out of cons trying to make it informative and entertaining try we try that’s what we do okay well good luck to you if you’re out there looking call us we’re happy to help you and have a great rest of your day absolutely bye

We've always been one tool short.  All over the country, sellers have used a "coming soon" status to let buyers know their homes are going up for sale.  But not in Prescott.  The local Realtor association has always deemed it a big no-no; that's changing.  In this episode, we talk about the policy change and what it will mean to buyers and sellers in the area. 

hello hello hello hey peeps welcome back to the preschool pickle lady talk show yeah right we like to call it the wine gum or the wine down because you know we’re winding down we’re not drinking wine yeah [Music] just coffee it’s coffee strong coffee yeah but we are excited to be here today absolutely i am diane and this is randall bro she’s the prescott pickle lady we’re realtors here in prescott arizona that is correct and now we’re excited to be here today because something is changing with the prescott area real estate it’s changing now yep and we’re ver we are super excited something that needed to happen for a long time we are now allowed as realtors to start advertising a little bit ahead of time about coming soon coming soon homes that are about to come in the market yeah so i i don’t know why they’re changing now they were so anti coming soon for so long you can’t do it coming soon you can do coming soon we’ll beat you with a stick well i don’t think they were quite that dramatic but they work for me they knew i was gonna be the i was gonna be the one i don’t know i i i it was it was uh it was a strong position that they were taking uh in most areas of the country they do do come soon your house is about to go on the market in about a week you can start marketing and putting a sign out there that says coming soon and everything else but we were not allowed until march 1st march 1st 2022 march 1st we can start doing that so when you list a home it’s a process you know the seller says okay go and at that point things start happening so you’ve got to get a post in place you got to get your sign in place you got to get the mls uh form written up you got pictures taken before you do the pictures you got to stage the house or do any kind of cleanup and it’s a process and usually it takes a week sometimes two to kind you like to do a drone too yeah we do a drone yeah so we’ve got a lot of moving parts that need to come into play before it can actually hit mls and uh traditionally during that time we would be calling our buyers and telling them it’s coming but that’s really all we could do we couldn’t do any more than that that’s right but now we’re super exciting fast we do have a coming soon yeah we do we have a coming soon and it’s going to be a great house out in prescott valley valley yeah four bedrooms yeah two baths big yard no waitre all newly redone all new completely renovated completely renovated really really nice very conveniently located uh yeah you need to call us so uh we still can’t even do coming soon for this one because we don’t even have one picture uh no but we are in the process we may end up doing uh you know a week in advance coming soon or something like that uh the renovation still isn’t completely done uh but we’re excited about that that gives us an opportunity to have other agents uh beginning to think about the home before it actually hits the market people coming in town uh can plan around better you know that’s what i want to see uh so once we get the front of the home shot you know just the the basic exterior and uh you know we’ll we’ll put it coming soon up on that that’s right yeah and in the meantime you know don’t be afraid to just calm wah it’s a reference to uh when harry mentioned good job i was wondering if you would remember give me a call you know because it’s a great it’s a great family house for starting you know if you’re just starting out it’s going to be a great rental yeah um but i help a little bit with the very low inventories that we’ve been having for buyers uh you know they help out the buyers a little bit when they can kind of see some things that are coming so we’re excited about the new policy very excited aggressive about trying out some some new tactics using it so that’s right so we wanted to share that with you um some of my past clients and you know maybe future clients when we’re talking about a listing i would always be like i can’t put a sign up yet i just can’t yeah um and we never could understand it and we agree with you yeah um we didn’t understand either but now we can um effective march 1st and we are fully ready to take advantage oh yeah yeah absolutely very psyched so if you are interested in listing your home anytime in the near future and you’re excited about coming soon give us a call we’re happy to help you with your listing um we’re happy to get you started um look out for us in in this house in pv right oh yeah pv is what we call it here the locals from prescott valley um give us a call at 713-302-1964 we’ll give you more details yeah if you’re looking for good information a place to start is pickle411.com that is our informational site we call it the prescott relocation center in particular if you’re a buyer or seller lots of information for you if you’re buy or sellers somewhere in between lots of information about prescott what’s going on about real estate just life in general and life in general that’s what we’re gonna go for that’s what we’re all about life in general teaching you educating you specific things about life in general well sometimes yes sometimes it’s just malarkey yeah foolishness and malarkey yeah it just depends on how the mood hits us whatever i like we don’t like to be too serious no we want to do a good job for you but also at the same time keep it light easy and breezy breezy that’s right

In this episode, we discuss how to get a decent deal even during adverse market conditions, celebrate leaving the craziness of 2021 behind... and hold on to our cautious optimism for what lies ahead in 2022.

hello hello hello my fellow prescott pickle peeps out there that’s right this is diane and randall bro that’s right realtors in prescott arizona correct here we are here we go cheers to that love it here love it here um we’re very excited first we want to wish everyone a happy 2022. 2022 hard to believe yeah isn’t it well you know the last two years went by were so crazy very crazy and uh went by so fast and at the same time it lasted forever well it has they were the best of years and the worst of you i mean honestly it’s been pretty grim things have can only go up can only go up can only go up from here that’s what we’ve learned and i think they will i think 2022 is going to be good i think it’s going to be an amazing i think we’re going to recover from a lot of the stuff absolutely yeah people will get nice again yeah with all those things absolutely tough year for our buyers very tough 2021 but we are happy to say that uh oh well i can’t think of any any any of our clients who ended up with either crappy homes or prices that they shouldn’t have paid correct we tried super hard even though as you know a lot inventory was very low very low very very good usually we have like 1200 homes uh throughout the year um inventory dropped to like 300 at some point below 300. one point it was below 300. it was in the same hundreds and when we say below 300 homes we and that covers all price ranges so really hard yeah but i am happy to say so two one or two things were happening you had buyers that were just getting into stupid money and paying homes uh prices for homes that could in no way be worth that right exorbitant going over uh ask uh in exorbitant amounts and uh we are very proud to say yeah we did not let our clients do that it’s very easy to get swept up into it and like where am i going to live i’m going to be homeless so yeah i need to go 50 000 over and at some point we would just say it’s time to stop you know prices are appreciating you know and as best we can tell we think the home might appraise for maybe this much and you might want to think about going maybe a little over that but we’re getting into the realm now where you got to stop and so a lot of them you know ever they listened and we said don’t give up hope we will find the right one and we will find just the right price i think our record but you know what he ended up with a great home he did for a really good price even in this crazy market uh most of our clients got pretty good prices yes uh and the other thing is there are always homes that no one ever wants to buy even in the strongest seller markets they don’t sell because there’s a reason they don’t you don’t want to sell and you know when you’re a buyer and you your home is already sold and or you’re desperate for home or uh you’ve been through 10 offers and you still haven’t found one there’s there’s this little nagging thing well maybe maybe it’s not as bad as you think and we were like no we had to wave off a couple of those too we don’t want you to settle yeah we’re gonna try as hard as we can to find the right fit the best house maybe you might have to replace the flooring maybe you didn’t like that but we never got anything that was just so awful but it was like oh i can cry every night the inspector report comes back about two or three times the length that it ought to be he’s like you know this is not a good sign you know maybe you know you know inventory was low you might have to do some painting but nothing major and we tried really hard to get some great houses and some good neighborhoods uh maybe put your personal touch on it without exorbitantly overpaying so proud of that so we are very proud cheers to us and to our clients who are patient correct and you know who really had the trust and faith in us and it’s very important in this business to have a good relationship with your realtor and have a level of trust that they have your back and they’re trying as hard as they can which we do we try super super hard yeah uh and honestly one of the things yeah one of the reasons why we’re able to do that is because our clients did trust us yes you know if you have your clients trusted you’re really acting your clients best interests you can reach those kind of outcomes really in very adverse market condition and i would recommend if you’re working with someone and you’re just like i just don’t think they care they’re really not into me they’re really not look around find someone else this is one of the most important financial decisions you will ever make and you want to have someone who is in your corner and has your back they’re not just looking for their next commission and paycheck they really want to make you happy they want to you know make you uh welcome to the community and everything else so if you’re not feeling that look around look around you don’t have to come to us we’d love to help you but we yeah there are lots of us out there yeah but uh they’re you know being in the business you come across agents and you know that there’s some that uh you know you would recommend uh wholeheartedly and and others well maybe we’re more run-of-the-mill you know and that’s okay i mean but you want someone you can you can trust and you feel confident and you feel confident 100 so if you’re not feeling that keep on searching because this is a very important decision you’ve got to have someone in your corner that can help you with repair people that can help you with where do i get carpeting where do i get you’ve got to get somebody with a complete package and something you trust enough that when she says you need to stop yeah you don’t want to pay any more than that you feel you feel like that’s good yeah yeah so anyway this is twenty-two words of advice 2021 is over who are coming in 2022 looking for a new house make sure you have good working relationship with your realtor um and we are very proud this year we were able to get some people into some lovely homes despite despite our super low inventory and we wish we could promise you a better market for 2022 but i know nobody knows what really will happen i find it hard to believe it would be worse but yeah and we’re we’re uh what do you call it cautiously optimistic we are cautiously optimistic so but we will sure plug away for you if you decide to give us a call and help you find that right place for the right price without too much work and have a great time and help you every step of the way so if you’re thinking about coming to prescott and trying this out give us a call we’d love to show you around our lovely town if you want to schedule a tour there’s a place website where you can put yourself on our calendar there you go we talked a lot about market conditions uh we do a monthly market report which you may be interested in so the best place to get started if you need information on any of that is pickle411.com that is our information hotline whether you are a buyer seller anywhere in between free entertaining insightful information yes yes so get on that site and check us out and uh give us a call we’re here we’d love to help you buying or listing not a problem have a good day and most importantly happy happy 2022. absolutely and here’s to an amazing year i feel like the tide is turning for the whole world i just think it’s going to be great cheers to that exceptionally good coffee yeah have a good day good to see you bye bye

Moving to a mountain town may bring to mind images of rugged outdoor living in remote forests... eating wild nuts and berries with the other animals. Well, dreams of getting away and off the grid are possible, but you'll need water. Here's how that works.

well good afternoon hello peeps this is diane and randall bro yes i am the pickle lady here in prescott and this is my sidekick here he always makes sure the car is stocked with pickles that’s right because everywhere i go somebody’s like could i have some could i have something so uh he’s my little stock boy yeah and uh making sure he’s stuck in the van with pictures right he makes sure the inventory is up he’s like uh are we down on pickles time for you to get i’m gonna do production she that she’s i do all the production production i just stock the heat stocks and make sure hey i think you need to make some more yeah i’m like okay let me get right on that right on there but anyway pickle lady pickle lady that’s what that’s all about so if i see you or if you come visit you too because we’ll get some pickles but we’re here to talk about something interesting i had never heard of i’m from the deep south yeah it’s called hauled water yeah that’s how we call it that’s how we say h-a-u-l-e-d it’s like called gas except it’s water right exactly so halt water i’m like so i heard this term but it wasn’t i say hall they said hurled girls i can’t even say we’re not allowed to say that people in arizona have an accent because we’re not from here right yeah we’re the ones with i can’t do it it was like um anyway so somebody was saying i need to get um some hold the hold hold water and hold and hold hold on and i said i don’t don’t know what that they were like don’t you have the number and i’m like i don’t what is that could you say it again and they kept saying it the way they were hauled her and i said i’m so sorry i don’t know what that means and then i said could you spell it and then i said oh hold hard okay i got it i got it and so what that is is sometimes in some areas here because where we live we grew up in the suburbs and everybody was on city water and water whatever and things like that yeah it came from the tap um so here uh especially in some more remote areas up the mountains and everything you don’t you either have to have a private well or a shared well there’s no city you know they can’t get the the water to you i mean up a mountain so they’ll have uh wells and sometimes even that is not enough and the well may run low so in addition to that they will get hauled water ordered and that comes in giant what is it like two or five hundred gallons yeah i know more than that that yeah i think it tanks like two thousand gallons or something and so they’ll bring this giant plastic container that will sit on your property and that can be used for additional things or emptied into that well and that’s another way to get that water there yeah so it’s literally driven in a truck yeah and driven into the actual they literally call it yeah so if you have a well particularly if your well doesn’t produce that that much water quickly you know the the quantity is not good you’ll have a storage tank you get a storage tank so the well is constantly pumping water into the storage tank and you draw the water from the storage tank uh if you consume the water faster than your well as pumping into the storage tank well you’re going to have to top it off or eventually you’re going to run out and that’s hot water that’s what they do they’ll they’ll come out and they pour the water into your storage tank and uh i i it’s like i don’t know three or four hundred dollars to have the water hold out right and uh we looked at one house and particularly had two storage tanks so you’re looking at you know about 700 bucks to uh to fill up and uh the people who were selling the house there were just two people living there and i mean this part time yeah it was a weekend getaway yeah cabin but it so that was sufficient yeah for two people it worked fine the well produced enough that if there’s a shortfall there it’s not much so you might have to haul the water out once or twice a year yeah uh but our buyers wanted to use the property for an airbnb and that’s when four people come in like they will burn they would run through that water fast so a lot of times people will call us and they’re like i want a cabin in the woods and i want that these are things to think about um because it isn’t going to be on city water yeah and you will have to make sure your well doesn’t go dry and you need to consider if you want to use it as an airbnb that you have a very good producing well yeah that you won’t have to rely on halt water because that could get costly for you yeah well if you’re if the place that you’re again running with the with the uh scenario that you want to do in airbnb uh you don’t want to buy a big house because lots of people will go in there and use that water water yeah but if a small place that might work it might work you know if it’s just you you know you and your spouse and every now and then you have the kids in for a holiday you’re probably going to have to top up the tanks for the holiday uh but that might be doable you know it really depends on how much your wells producing how big your storage tanks are uh and how many people are going to be there so i put together like a little spreadsheet so yeah we as your agent if you’re interested in that we we’ve kind of learned some information yeah we now have a spreadsheet so when we look at how many gallons per minute is that well producing and we can tell you that’s going to be a problem or that’s great yeah you’re you’re done how many people yeah so it’s something as a realtor here in prescott you kind of have to be educated on um it’s kind of unusual we weren’t used to it coming from suburban areas and now we know what hauled water means even when they pronounce it a weird way now we get it so every day as i say living and learning or as my daughter sings that song all the time living and learning every day she says that every day yep she well it’s her song it’s her song it’s not not a not a popular one but not like a jay-z no no jay-z so yeah so that was something that we learned and are are now quite educated yeah so if you are coming here yeah and if you’re looking for some place remote particularly up the mountain uh you might be looking at hot water yep and uh and we can help you make a good decision there it’s it’s not necessarily a deal killer depends on um you know what you’re trying to do what you’re trying to accomplish so that is our little chapter on hold [Music] but i got it now so anyway i hope that this is a little tip for you if you’re thinking about living remotely things to keep in mind and to ponder upon yeah there are a lot of pieces and parts and if you want to learn more the place to go is pickle411.com our hub of free information whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere in between lots of useful and highly entertaining information you need to know if you’re considering either buying or selling a home particularly here in prescott some people may argue with that about being entertaining but some people may not agree but hey we try hard i was entertained we entertain ourselves myself we entertain ourselves living and learning all day long living sometimes i’m learning lessons i don’t want to learn yeah there’s a lot of that yeah but that’s life yeah those are the ones we have to share that’s right i don’t know why that’s hilarious but it is it just makes more poor things more things more people yeah i heard water

In this episode we discuss an approach to making competitive bid situations more fair and effective for everyone.  No, it's not an auction.  It's simpler and getting more and more popular in the Prescott real estate market.

what’s up what’s going on folks randall and diane bro here uh we are so excited to have our next little episode of prescott pickle lady press completely [Music] yeah that’s what we like to do we have a lot of fun and sometimes i’m out in a store and somebody will come up to me and say are you the pickle lady yes i am and i’m like what did i do and they’re like oh my gosh i watch your windows i love them they make me laugh and i’ve learned a lot so some are interesting some are just fun some we try to educate you but we try to bring something to the table every time every time every time this time we’re talking about escalation escalation clause weren’t used too much uh two years ago didn’t have to yeah a contract with an escalation clause and a lot of times the agent would call me back and say what is this what does it mean but in this crazy moment everyone’s learned about escalation it’s heavily employed heavily employed so just say very important just so you know an escalation clause uh so so you you offer a certain price on a house and then you have an escalation clause so let’s say you offer you know five hundred thousand dollars on a home and you are in you expect that you’re going to be in a competitive situation you definitely want the house but you don’t want to pay more than let’s say 550. so you could do an escalation clause you know i will beat uh you know we will beat any offer uh by a thousand dollars up to and including 550 000. and so that way if there are other offers that are less than 550 you’ll get it and you only have to pay a thousand dollars over the best alternative offer right and so it kind of it takes a static situation and turns it into kind of an auction correct yeah and people will get you know multiple off what we at one point we’re getting you know tons and tons of offers on we might get 10 offers on one house and like three of them will have an escalation right and that kind of separates you out of the others and gives you a little bit more winning room like okay somebody came in at five 550 but you have an escalation clause to 555. so with a thousand over so you might be able to beat them out you know even by a thousand dollars which is really important yeah in this crazy market yeah in this crazy market you don’t want to pay any more than you have to right and it’s really it’s the most fair to do it as an auction uh obviously it’s better for buyers who really want the house but they don’t want to pay any more than they have to but it’s also in the best interest of sellers because a lot of people you know they don’t want to just stick their necks out and offer a whole lot of money but they are willing to participate in what would be an auction and if they feel oh yes it was very competitive and i do have to do my top dollar they feel uh they feel comfortable doing that right a lot of people like some some agents uh some listing agents will say no escalation clauses and i really believe that is a disservice to their sellers because you know our experience is a lot of buyers will say well in that case i’m not gonna i’m not gonna offer anything uh even even buyers who really have a lot of money to spend like they could be the top offer right but they’re not willing to just go 100 000 over asking price without knowing how competitive and that is one key thing to remember so don’t be alarmed if you do an escalation clause and you say okay um i’m going to put an offer in a 490. i’m willing to escalate a thousand over 500 000 and you you you put your offer and everything and then somebody else comes along that might beat it but they have to present that other contract yes so you’re not tied into i know i said i would go up to 500 000. if the other contract you know yeah they can’t just come back and say oh no well we’re gonna take your 550. well then you’re going to show me right you know another offer for 449 right because and then you otherwise we the escalation clause doesn’t kick in and and the clause does say that it says as demonstrated by uh so don’t feel like okay i’m putting an offer in but i’m doing this escalation but i’m really kind of hooked into this escalation and i’m just going to overpay anyway not so yeah they have to present the other offer and see where that one came in yeah so in other markets where uh there are a lot of buyers present in the market at any one time let’s say phoenix a lot of people living in phoenix and buying in phoenix all at the same time auctions work in cities like that you know because everyone’s kind of there they can follow the auction um prescott you know a lot of the people who might be participating in the offers they might not be in town uh right you know auctions have not really taken off here like they have in phoenix uh but we’re doing escalation clauses it’s kind of our alternative right and i think it’s smart i think it’s a good way to do it it kind of gives you a little extra advantage a little more uh you can be a little more competitive yeah so if you’re open to it and you have a final bottom line this is really truly how i want to go sometimes it works and it works in your favor yeah and it’s a very useful tool very useful tool okay so that is our little saga on escalation they work they can be good and help you separate yourself from the the rest of the crowd okay if you guys are looking to buy a home or you’d like to list your home please feel free to reach out to randall and i yep you can find her at 713-302-1964 i also bought you a 928 number but i don’t know it yet yeah yeah not too late or reach us at piccolo 44111.com lots of online information lots of information check it out check it out let’s go i’m checking you up yeah i’m checking you out right now i’m escalating yeah okay that is all for today’s lesson and we hope to see you next week absolutely

Exotic pets can be all fun and games... unless you run afoul of the latest real estate laws on what's allowed and what's required of buyers, sellers, and their agents.  In this episode the Pickle Lady reveals all the latest updates, so you can be sure to not step in that.

what’s up hello peeps this is diane and randall bro here she used pickle lady we’re in prescott arizona yes the lovely brisket arizona talking about life and real estate life in real estate and with our little pickle mugs that’s right coffee mug waiting for it looks like a little monsoon might be coming in again which would be so nice great monsoon season this year absolutely so today we kind of went to talk about something uh service animal rules service animal rules yeah and this is very interesting there are service animals which you just think would be a dog correct um but you were wrong it’s dogs as well as miniature that’s right miniature horses miniature horses so when it’s service what constitutes a service animal does it have to just give you emotional no no no no those are two different things okay there are service animals and those are highly highly trained um animals uh it could be dogs or your miniature pony if that’s what you have uh which apparently they’re supposed to be super super smart and they’re just as trainable as a dog and they are house broken they are everything but anyway a service animal really serves its owner these are people that it will help guide them it can sense if a seizure is coming on it can sense if um you’re about to faint whatever and they will if you do fall they will go and seek help um they guide you they lead you uh they’re they’re totally there to serve their owner who whatever in whatever capacity they may need see i don’t need one of those i keep you just in case you know i need any help i i am i am the servant she is yeah so uh when it comes to looking for homes uh and you bring your if you have a service animal your animal or your miniature horse has to be allowed it has to be allowed it has to be allowed 100 when you’re going into a home um that is permissible the difference what you were talking about emotional support animals that’s a little different um they are those are more varied it can even be a ferret it can be a little pot belly pig it can be a cat some people have snakes i can’t imagine that being emotionally supportive but hey i’m no offense to you people who love snakes and lizards and all that good stuff um but uh those critters those uh you have to have a certificate that it’s an emotional support animal and if you wanted to rent or rent a place they have to allow those animals into your into the rental into the rental that’s you you know you’re allowed to do that um but it’s not mandated so it’s just kind of interesting that you know they can let you bring them in um you have to be very careful as long as they are not a threat okay as long as they’re not uh danger a danger to other you know other people surrounding neighbors like a snake correct so it’s just kind of interesting yeah service animals really just do more performing for their so if you are a seller and someone requests is showing yeah your agent is obligated to let their service animal through now can you ask for i assume you can ask for documentation no uh service animals will have it on there should have it on their collar and everything emotional support no they’re not gonna you don’t have to so you don’t have to let an emotional support animal in but you do have to let the service out yes you have to you have to obey so it’s just something kind of interesting a little differentiation um but we all love our pets all of our pets so uh just to be clear if you are a seller and your listing age you are the listing agent uh refuses to let the service miniature pony into your house um you could get sued you could get in trouble for that yeah get in trouble with license trouble and stuff like that because it’s not an option this is not an option that is correct it’s not an option um for people who want to rent though you do have to accept your emotional support animals as well as long as they’re not aggressive threatening or anything else and uh you’re not even required if you’re renting and you have an emotional support animal you will not have to pay the extra pet deposit oh yeah yeah so just make sure that’s deposited from yeah service animal or the emotional support both both yeah so just be sure that your emotional support animal is is sweet and taming yeah and you’ll be good to go and so yeah if you want to anybody out there who has a service dog or a service pony we would love to help you we would love it i’d love to see you get your service pony into your show absolutely yeah i don’t know if i have a place to put a service pony in the van but uh we’ll try we’ll try to figure it out absolutely so new rules times are changing just wanted to share that with all of you guys so lots of information if you’re looking for yeah they look for more information a great place to look including i guess service animals and the rules and everything pickle 411.com is our online connection to you whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere in between or you can call the pickle lady hotline at 713-302-1964 you got it give us a call we’ll be happy to help you we take all pets that’s right all service animals all emotional we’re here for you the pickle lady also gives emotional support during the buying and selling process yes that’s why she’s alive i could be like your own personal sometimes emotional support and i’m happy to do that absolutely i don’t even need a certificate yeah i’m okay i’ll i’ll i’ll try to fill that capacity in whatever way i can i’m getting one of those pigs oh yeah i like a little pig too that’d be cute i always wonder what but then you gotta be careful because sometimes they’re not so miniature they end up tricking you yeah and then they get to be 400 pounds and you’re like what has happened delicious yeah you could have a couch on uh yeah yeah which is uh suckling pig suckling pig barbecued over a fire pit it’s a louisiana thing folks

We've been getting lots of questions about homes in Prescott that are "Active with Contingency."  It's a state of nature that can only be found within the confines of the Prescott-area MLS.  In this episode, we explain this eerie twilight state and how it came to be.

good afternoon my little fellow pickle
peeps out there hello peeps cheers to
you
can you see my lady yeah we got our
green screen ready coffee mugs now yes
won’t bore holes into us anymore that’s
right although i’m wearing green stripes
i think you’ll be okay
we’ll see we’ll see we’ll see
today we wanted to talk about something
that we get a lot of phone calls about
and it is
i think this house is still available it
says active with contingency
with contingency it’s really kind of the
bane of our existence it really is all
right so so just to be clear there’s no
such thing
as active with a contingency that does
not exist that’s like saying
dead and breathing
that’s a contradiction of terms you
can’t have a contingency
unless there’s a contract right and if
there’s a contract it’s not active it’s
not active
um so in the olden days this used to
just be called plano pending
and everybody knew what that meant it’s
under contract and sometimes they put in
there uh we are taking backups but
essentially was a done deal yeah now
they’ve changed it you know we can still
use pending occasionally but it’s a cash
deal and they know it’s going forward
yeah so just to be clear what this is
about is a complete screw-up
uh on our uh a local association
they redesigned the menu pull down
i have been doing computer programming
since i was in eighth grade
and i have never seen menus so poorly
designed and create more confusion
than these it is confusing it’s um i
think they had the best of intentions
they did they did but it doesn’t
translate well yeah so let’s talk a
little bit about what the reality is
like what what are the different
statuses
of a contract in real estate so
it’s not complicated either it’s active
on the market right or for sale yeah for
sale
or it’s pending which means there’s
contract yeah that’s right it’s either
active or compended or pending right and
that’s kind of it
uh so it used to be you had active you
had pending and you had pending taking
backup
meaning we already have an offer but if
you want to put in a backup offer you
can do that yeah and everyone understood
that it was pretty simple it was pretty
simple
uh there is another another shade of
this and that is uh
pending but there’s a buyer contingency
so if there’s a buyer contingency and
you have
say a cash offer or an offer without a
contingency that’s right uh you can
knock out that’s right the offer that’s
there you you can approach the seller
and the seller has the option of uh
telling the current buyer with the
contingency look you either either have
to get rid of the contingency or you’re
out and you can take your owner’s money
that’s correct so i guess what par was
trying to do
was to let people see if if there was a
contingency if there was any opening
yeah that you might wiggle in yeah and
so really all they had to do was add
pending with contingency yeah uh and
instead they created active with
contingency which as i said is a
contradiction in terms
and instead of just putting it all on
one drop down menu they’re two drop down
yes uh so you have to check the other
one i it’s it’s oh my god it’s um it’s
pretty bad
so active with contingency essentially
means pending yeah
and and actually it means it needs a
little more than that right now very few
people are taking contingencies so if
you if you see active with contingency
essentially that means pending with a
backup
right you can’t you can’t take a backup
and you can’t set it in mls so if you
want to you’re the listing agent and you
want to accept backups you have to call
it active with contingency and there’s a
separate field i forgot what the
separate field is and it will say take
it back up so take them back up the only
way you can say pending and sometimes
thinking back up is using this crazy
active brand and sometimes it will
indicate uh buyer contingency which you
kind of gives you to go ahead like hey
if you guys have cash we might be able
to wiggle in here which is that’s kind
of nice to know yeah
so if you consider think about
active with contingency just translate
that in your mind it means
pending taking backup essentially and
you can check the other field to see if
there’s a contingency involved right now
they’re they’re basically they’re really
aren’t yeah
no one’s accepting contingencies
um especially buyers contingencies
absolutely not you know what i mean it’s
just it’s too hot of a market friends
there’s something something about
having something in print
on a website though
that people think it’s real yeah whether
it’s zillow or it’s this active with
with contingent well it says active with
contingency well let me explain with
that but it says i know so don’t get
confused although it is confusing it’s
very good um just take it to me it’s
pretty much pending and
that door is closed yeah
yeah well unless you want to put in a
backup offer yeah you can always do a
backup offer and of course if you are
cash and it has a uh it does have a
condition you know yeah then you might
be able to then you might be in there
but that happens very few and far
between yeah and when you see the you
know hundreds of
pending uh
contracts uh uh transactions
that all say active with contingency
what is going on in prescott yes what’s
going on is they have people in charge
of menu design that really just kind of
don’t know
and uh you know it’s everything here is
pretty much sold sold sold so yeah
so if you get in here and you want to
put an offer in make sure your house
number one is at the very least on the
market number two it’s even better if
you have a contract on it with a firm
close of escrow and number three the
best of the best would be if you’re
already sold and closed and you’re ready
to move forward then you get in here you
see something get that offer in toronto
yeah pronto because time is a wasting
something to be said for for backup
offers too although it’s gotten better
uh when the market really started
getting crazy we saw a lot of
transactions falling out
and the the number of transactions that
are falling out of uh out of escrow is
still higher than it normally was right
but it’s it’s it’s lowered quite a bit
but still you know backup offer might be
a good idea
so don’t let that throw you we will find
you one we will hunt down one that
doesn’t say active with contingency
that’s right that’s just plain old
active no active and ready to go and
we’ll make it happen for you as
hopefully as quick as we can
so uh anyway come on in come visit us
uh you can reach us at
at an 713-302-1964 we’ll spend a great
day going all around town looking at
some great properties and hopefully
we’ll write a contract for you on an
active property on an active property
you can also find information at
pickle411.com
that’s right our website whether you buy
or seller somewhere in between all kinds
of free information
very useful yeah check out pickle411.
411.com cheers to that
okay everyone out there have a great
rest of your day
and uh i hope to see you soon bye

Buyers desperate for a home often like to send the sellers a "love letter," explaining who they are and why they love the home.  If you've ever received one, then you know how touching these letters can be.  Unfortunately, the powers that be have put the kibosh on them, so they're going away.  In this episode, we explain why.

hello my little friends out there my little pickle friends pickle peeps randall and diane bro that’s right and we are here today to chat with you uh kind of a new development something that the arizona department of real estate has brought up and honestly never thought of i never thought about but it makes good sense and it’s what we call love letters so a lot of buyers are looking to do love letters now as you may know bitty wars yeah we’ve got a lot of bidding wars it’s been really hard to find uh properties across the country we are having historic lows in inventory uh which makes it hard as fire right not just us all over the united states all over everybody’s running across the same thing so everyone’s trying to yeah so everyone’s trying to differentiate themselves so obviously if you just give a lot of cash then you are likely to win cash is king but nobody wants to flush money down the toilet so they try to differentiate themselves in other ways that’s right so they’ll say you know what can i just write a letter from my heart about how much this home means to me and what this neighborhood means to me what this town means to me and in the olden days i would say sure i love that i think that’s very touching uh sellers like to receive that go for it however the arizona department of real estate and i think nationally as well now the national association of realtors has decided that love letters are a no-go anymore and uh they really would rather realtors not encourage that practice because it can go against fair housing yeah it’s a fair housing and explain mr brown why it can go against well a very obvious sort of thing uh might be that let’s say you have a buyer who’s jewish and they write a love letter to the seller that says oh i love the location of the house it’s right around they don’t mention they’re jewish but they mentioned oh you’re it’s wonderful your house is right around the corner from the synagogue well let what happens if that person’s offer isn’t accepted now it may not be accepted because the price isn’t right or you know it could be not accepted for any any number of things but it opens up the possibility that the buyer will say oh you know they didn’t take my offer because obviously they knew i was jewish and that becomes anti-semitic and obviously subject to fair housing right so it’s it’s primarily a liability thing a potential lifestyle and i think for some people too like if they say hey i have a family i’m so excited to move here um and maybe this neighborhood doesn’t want kids and the owner you know they may say well you didn’t choose me because you don’t want kids in this neighborhood which by the way is protected children and families are protected correct if you are a seller and somebody comes with children you can’t deny them the right to buy the home because they’re a family absolutely part of fair housing there are a number of things under fair housing yes the jewish thing excuse me the jewish thing was maybe more a lot more common is my kids love the house right you know and and that kind of thing and so anything with religion families and handicapped races if you even make the slightest uh connection uh and and you try to write about that in your letter and the seller chooses someone else it opens the door for the people who were not chosen to say well was it because i had a family yeah was it because i practice a certain religion that you don’t like was it because and it opens up the door to a lot of possible uh lawsuits yeah and so by the way we really don’t see all we don’t really see that no it really doesn’t happen people are very accepting here people are super accepting and super it’s it’s a liability thing the brokers don’t want to spend their days reading all these love letters uh and to be honest the sellers have gotten very jaded and a lot of sellers are like you know what i’ve actually had this uh some of the listings we’ve had the sellers are like i really i don’t want to be swayed i don’t want to hear any of the stories please don’t give me any of these letters i need to just make this decision almost like a business decision they don’t want to attach emotion to it yeah so we thought we’d talk about this with you so you would understand what’s kind of going on with the national association of realtors and where they’re coming from on this ruling yeah and also to let you know some of the sellers perspective they’re like look business is business i don’t want to be swayed i don’t want to hear any sob stories about a widow or you know or anything like that yeah and um well the pickle has kind of an inside track on that so i will tell you our secret so when we send in your offer on the home uh the pickle lady does a cover letter to the agent and in that cover letter she will mention things that may sway them towards you i try i mean well being a veteran is an obvious one well and without being overly we have to be careful yeah you can’t be too soppy because as you know the if the sellers are getting seven love letters after a while they kind of we’ll try to mention a few little tidbits nothing nothing extreme um but when we explain to you when you come in and you’re like i want to win this bid because as we know there’s tons of uh bidding wars going on and we say to you i’m so sorry we can’t do a love letter please understand it’s not us it’s new rulings it’s uh kind of a changing tide so to speak a turning of the tide and uh that’s where it’s coming from it’s not an us thing yeah it’s just um i remember things are changing we were selling our home uh in texas and uh that’s where we we raised our family and when we sold it we got a love letter from a young family it’s very touchy but it’s very nice i it’s very hard for me it’s very hard for me because i love love letters yeah yeah i think they’re cool i think they help the seller connect with the buyer there’s a lot of memories and emotion attached with all homes and love letters help you make that connection i’m personally i’m all for it yeah i don’t make of the rules though no and another one was wonderful things about the past that people people will reminisce about because so don’t shoot the messenger if it were up to me i’d have you be you know writing a beautiful love letter a long long missive whatever it would be it’s amazing i think it’s gorgeous and i think it’s a wonderful way to connect uh however we are precluded now from doing that so we just wanted to share that with you and um i mean i love love letters i have all of my love letters that this one wrote to me i have all the love letters my parents had we were all trying to buy a house from her at some point no my parents i mean i’m i’m a big fan of the written note it’s always lovely to have and you keep it from unfortunately a real estate transaction so just want to share that with you and give you a little bit more understanding of where that’s coming from so that is our little tidbit of the day we hope that you learned something a little bit from that if you’re looking for more information about real estate and all the trends market forces and restaurants and places to eat and things about press kit and i can’t even think all the stuff that we have it’s a lot your search begins at pickle411.com yes our source of information to buyers sellers and everyone in between and if you want after the deal is done you can write us a love letter we always appreciate those we have a lot of very nice letters yeah um i love those letters i love them all all right guys so i hope you understand and we hope to hear from you soon have a great rest of your day bye