Seller’s Corner – Page 6 – The "Prescott Pickle Lady"

Simplifying to Sell

Real estate has gotten kind of spiritual.  Life coaches and spiritual healers will tell you that the first and most important step in selling your property is to create a canvas that allows your buyers to paint a picture of their new lives inside your home.  

Deep, right?

While all that may make sense to sellers drinking mushroom tea, you may be looking for some more specific steps - a little less spiritual and a little more concrete.  

Well, in this Wine Down, we bring this concept straight down to earth (where most homes are sold anyway).  Come check it out!

Video Transcript

hello hello hello hello beats randall and i am bro here your local prescott pickle team that’s us i am the pickle lady uh happy to join you today and uh we want to talk a little bit about something that i think everybody should learn when they’re about to list their home and uh you know just listen to the advice of your agent and one of the main things we’d love to talk about when you are ready to go live and we’re getting ready to take pictures and video of your home you want it to be shown in the best possible light possible mm-hmm i said that this might be possible best possible light as possible forget about that yeah only one possibility just take one of those possibles ignore all that but yeah possible ignore the extra possibility if it’s possible if it’s possible ignore the extra possible that’s right so this is yeah seller tips staging tips so in this town uh professional staging is relatively unusual in some markets it is a matter of course that sellers will pay a professional stager they’ll come in and stage the home for the most part that doesn’t happen in prescott usually yeah there’s some uh you know usually staging you’ll see if the home is empty right and uh they don’t think it shows well empty they may put a few things in absolutely uh but state professional staging is not that big a deal in prescott but that does not mean that staging isn’t important it’s super important but it’s up to you to get it done that you are my agent right so the most important thing is i’m sure most of you have heard this if you’ve sold a home before declutter declutter declutter yep declutter i’m famous for this i have a stack where my mail goes i have a stack for here stack for there yeah i have my books tucked you know irregularly that’s a good word they’re regular books yeah in the in the in my bookcase and things like that and you get little pigeonholes like yes you stuff stuff in the in the space between the book and the top of the bookshelf just as a temporary holding spot and three years later that paper is still there well we’re not here to talk about the issues you have with you no i’m not trying to i i’m i’m assuming that i feel like he’s he’s addressing that to me because that is what i am famous i am uh we see that in homes that we are listing we see that in homes that we were taking our buyers through it’s like you know they really should spend a couple of minutes to stage the home better right and the decluttering is just sort of a base you know you you you get used to seeing that paper in the pigeon hole or whatever it is you don’t even see it anymore and after a while you stop seeing you don’t see it but other people other people will yeah and then they’re like oh that was you know and and they get not fixated but that’s all they see yeah and they don’t see the other good qualities of your home yes and so anyway it’s very important to get rid of the stacks of magazines you may have okay national geographic oh my gosh my parents must have had 150 right i have never had a buyer ask them you think you can get them to uh give me those copies of national do you think that’s not gonna happen just letting go interested in your national geographic that’s right yeah and and you know people need to understand that a home purchase is in large part an emotional decision absolutely investors maybe not so much they’re looking at the numbers and that kind of stuff but typically uh buyers either fall in love with your house or they don’t right and they don’t always know why they fall in love or why they don’t fall in love and honestly you know some clutter on top of the books in the bookshelf might be enough that that little you know brains and synapse or whatever shut it down just doesn’t fire and the home doesn’t really connect they won’t connect with them and they don’t even know why yeah uh they couldn’t even explain it so absolutely it’s not like we’re being irrational oh they can see past the papers like honestly we’re here to tell you but they won’t they most of them can’t they just they just it’s like they don’t have the imagination so it’s very important um when we say declutter we don’t mean to be insulting to you or this that and the other we’re just telling you we’ve been in homes and the ones that are decluttered they’re so they sell quick they sell fast just say bye bye bye yeah you know if you haven’t used it in two years get rid of it and it doesn’t bring you joy is that lady says that japanese lady who yeah i can’t think of her name condo yeah it’s actually she’s she’s she’s on the money which is absolutely if you haven’t used it in two years it’s never going to happen get rid of it and make your house look good just but if you’re a child of the depression you just can’t throw things away that’s fine too get some storage get some storage and get it in storage correct pull it out yeah roll it out it’s got to go go down yeah one of the things you need to be aware of is that in large part people coming to prescott are looking to retire they are typically coming from homes that are much bigger than the homes that they will be buying so if your home feels like it’s not all that spacious uh it’s gonna be a stumbling point for them they’re trying to fit their 3 000 square foot life into 1700 square feet you want to make your 1700 square feet or whatever it is look as big and spacious absolutely and then they can envision wow maybe i could take my china hutch and put this here yeah um that’s that which leads us to our second point if you’ve got a ton of furniture jammed in there pull some pieces up if you’ve got two end tables and a sofa table and a coffee table and huge sofas pull some of that stuff up pull it out it’s too much people think oh gosh i would never fit in here i can’t bring my stuff that is yeah and people don’t think about that they’ll have a small uh a small living area and his and hers big fat lazy boy chairs or something and they just put them side by side in front of their 50 000 square inch tv uh you know and that’s how you want to live that’s fine but those big chairs take up a lot of room and and you come in you say well this room only holds two chairs yeah yeah you know and they can’t they can’t envision for themselves so it’s always good to de-furnish yeah pull out some of the bigger pieces um and just go put them in storage uh just present it as open and as spacious as possible so that people can envision their pieces of furniture in there yes and if it’s too much furniture i’ve seen it time and time again because i take hundreds of buyers out a year if they go in a house that is heavily furnished with big big pieces big king-size bed four dressers it shuts them off they’re like uh yeah i can’t i can’t no this is not for me it’s too small the reality is it’s really not too small you just may have a little bit too much furniture more than once we have been out with buyers looking at homes and we show two homes that have the same floor plan yes and they will talk about how one of them is so much more spacious than the other same square footage you understand those homes are exactly the same they have but they can’t they they can’t that’s not that’s not the impression it was so much darker and it was just because there was too much furniture in the room that’s a really good point a lot of furniture too will also make a house seem much darker than it really is if you’ve got a lot of big pieces especially if it’s dark wood or this that in the other yeah it does tend to darken the home even if you’ve got your curtains open and blinds up so again just take some advice and just say okay i will remove some of these pieces and i’ll go put it in storage it will just save you some time and time on the market yeah because we’re always like let’s wrap it up let’s get this sold for you so you don’t have to have the torture of visits and showings and it can be hard to do that so we want to make it as easy and stress-free as possible so listen to mom and dad when we say please declutter and please remove some of this bigger furniture it’s not meant to be not an insult but it’s not meant to yeah it’s just to allow you to sell your home more easily and for more money you can get an extra buyer uh interested in your home uh that could mean tens of thousand dollars absolutely time on market is time that you might lose some money absolutely the more time you’re on that market the price could you know be affected yeah absolutely all right keep that in mind and uh we hope to see you soon i’d love to take you out and show you some declutter defurnished homes yeah that’s right i’d love to do that if we have somebody out there thinking about listing we’d love to come talk to you in person and help you in those steps to get ready to get on the market if you’re just looking for more information at this point whether you’re a buyer seller somewhere in between check out pickle411.com that is our information center everyone everything there is uh free and it’s also highly entertaining it can be finally i watch it all the time you watch yourself all the time absolutely good for you me and john travolta he takes me up in that plane of bits all over gosh okay well good for you i’m glad you enjoy watching it

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Escalating Things

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.

Video Transcript

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

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Animals at Your Service

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.

Video Transcript

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

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Real Estate Twilight Zone

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.

Video Transcript

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Love Letters

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.

Video Transcript

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

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Utilities – How to Contact

Here is a document with the contact information you need for local utilities: Prescott Area Utilities

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Close of Escrow Reminders

As you approach the close of escrow (COE), there are any number of things that you have to accomplish before the Big Day. Here are lists of reminders for buyers and sellers to help keep it all straight…

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Stained Glass

Whether it’s those three little square windows over your master bed or a particular spot that gets too much sun during part of the day, if your home has any of those “weirdo windows” and you’re not sure what to do with them, we may have the perfect solution: stained glass.

Turn full sun exposure into an asset with a gorgeous custom creation from our good friend, a local glass artist… or re-purpose an antique window from one of the local shops.

Check out some beautiful examples in this week’s episode.

Pete Churchill – (805) 205-3202

Video Transcript

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Toilets and Tushies

The latest rage in home decor is sure to take some of your most private moments up to a whole new level, plus a new game-changing technology that is just a blast… right where you need it most.

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Obstructing the Buyer

When you’re selling something, it’s a good idea to make it as easy as possible for buyers to buy – especially for big-ticket items like real estate. You’d be astonished how often sellers’ agents violate this basic, commonsense rule, creating outrageous roadblocks for potential buyers for your home.

Here are some easy tips to keep your agent from doing this to you.

Video Transcript

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