Buying a Home

If You Wait For Perfection You Will Miss All The Fun!

Terri Pontzious 1 Comment

I have been selling homes in San Diego for a long time, 20+ years. Before that, I worked for a home builder and a general contractor. So, it’s no wonder that I love everything about homes…looking at them, imagining them, planting gardens, filling my home with the glorious smells from the kitchen, decorating for the holidays, hosting family and friends in our home, and helping my clients buy and sell their homes. Yes, I love keeping a loving, warm and comfortable home for my family.

I was reading an article posted by one of my favorite cooks and bloggers, Ree Drummond of The Pioneer Woman about cooking in small spaces.  It brought back memories of another time and place, about starting out in life as a young wife in a foreign country.

About a gazillion years ago (is that really a word?) I lived for two and half years in what was then West Berlin, Germany. Berlin SignThe story of why I was there and what I was doing there is another story for another day! I was young, in my early twenties and our apartment was not what I was accustomed to here in the US. We took very few possession with us. We looked at the opportunity as an adventure, and it certainly was.

The kitchen was teeny tiny, and I mean tiny. Just imagine filling up a little water tank on the wall above the sink and having to turn it on to heat up water to wash dishes. No garbage disposal. The oven/stove was apartment size, I could not get a regular size cookie sheet in it. Counter space? There wasn’t any. I did have a tiny kitchen table and I could put a board on top of the stove burners for prep space. And you know what? It did not bother me at all. I don’t know if it was because I was young or because small oven 2 (2)there was really no other choice!

I think about the holiday dinners I made, turkey and roasts with all the fixings. I even made Duck A L’Orange one time. I was young and fearless and not afraid to tackle anything. We had parties in our tiny place and no one seemed to mind the lack of enough seating for everyone, or juggling plates on their laps.

While I still like to “set a pretty table” (thank you Mother), plan and prep ahead, and cook wonderful food, the article from The Pioneer Woman reminded me that you can do that anywhere. It is the joy we give and receive that’s important, not the location or size or your kitchen that matters. Entertaining is so much more relaxed today. I find that many of my clients don’t even want a formal living or dining room any longer. In Southern California, we are blessed with the ability to entertain outdoors almost year-round.

table10So, don’t worry about everything being “perfect”. Don’t wait for the perfect home, kitchen, or cooking ability. Just go for it and have fun. Discover your own personal style, likes and dislikes. Learn from and laugh at your mistakes. Fill  your home with laughter and joy!

They Are So Cute!

Terri Pontzious 2 Comments

Shoes 1I love shoes, always have. I am embarrassed to say how many shoes I have owned over the years. I mean, you need high heels, mid-heels and flats in all the basic colors. Sandals, Espadrilles, tennis shoes, shoes for those dressy occasions. Shoes for working in the garden and boots to ride horses. And then there are those shoes that you just have to have because they are so cute!

I have reluctantly donated many shoes over the years, and worn out even more. I am a real estate agent, so I am hard on shoes. When showing property, I sometimes walk two to three miles in an afternoon. I walk in dirt, over rocks and wet grass to find lockboxes when other agents don’t put them in convenient places and when taking photos. I am constantly scuffing and dinging my shoes on my office chair.

Yesterday, my eyes were drawn to a pair of cute little high heels on the shelf. I hadn’t worn those shoes in a while, at least over a year. I couldn’t remember why, and they were so cute and went perfectly with my outfit. Why not? They were my shoe choice of the day!

I spent the morning in my office and met clients at a home inspection in the afternoon. You might think a home inspection is boring and that the Realtors spend most of our time sitting around. But I usually take the opportunity to do my Agent’s Visual Inspection if I am representing the buyer. Of course, my clients and I follow the home inspector around while he explains what he has found. Because I love gardening, I usually spend time walking around the yard planning what I would do to it if I were the new owner. When the inspection is over, my clients usually like to walk around the home again, measuring rooms, space for refrigerator and washer/dryer, visualizing where they will put their furniture. It is such fun to see their excitement and anticipation, so I tag along!

On my way home, I stopped at the grocery store and walked every aisle. Then went by the dry cleaners to pick up laundry. And stopped at a client’s home to drop some paperwork off. And, my feet were killing me!

I have to admit, I am just not 30 years old anymore and what my feet could take then and what they can take now just aren’t the same! I hate that. But it is my reality!

Reluctantly, these cute shoes are going in the donation box today. I hope someone will enjoy them as much as I have. THEY ARE SO CUTE!

Is Your Agent Keeping Your Home From Selling?

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I recently spent a few days with clients being transferred to San Diego. They had never been to San Diego so we toured several areas and homes that seemed to fit their needs. My clients were here for a very short period of time, just a few days, and had limited time available to view homes each day.

I never expected to experience such difficulty in showing homes. Only two of the homes I showed had a seller’s phone number available for scheduling appointments. The others required an appointment made through the listing agent or their assistants. I have no problem with calling the listing agent for an appointment. What I do mind is the lack of cooperation we experienced for about half of the appointments.

When I show six to eight homes in a day, during a specific time period (usually two to four hours), I provide the seller, or their agent, an hour window of time when we expect to be there. I always call if we are running early or late, but that window usually works out. Being told that I need to “narrow it to a 15-minute time period” so the listing agent can meet us is an impossibility. Being told that “1 pm doesn’t work, can you be there at 5 pm” doesn’t either.  So, there were several homes we were not able to view, and my clients are well-qualified and motivated.

Don’t get me wrong, I am a listing agent also. I know what it is like to have agents who have made appointments to view a home and then they do not show up; I have received those phone calls from irate clients. I have had clients who had a situation that prevented the use of a lock box – an elderly client, an illness, when children are at home alone after school, a newborn, and other extenuating circumstances. But, the number of instances I encountered this past week makes me wonder if the industry is creating an illusion for sellers. That we, as the listing agent, need to be present at all showings; that we are somehow “protecting” them.

The new lock boxes actually track who has been in a home, the date and time. By making a home difficult to show it significantly reduces the number of buyers who can see your home. One of the buyers who can’t view your home may be the perfect buyer, but you will never know it. And, while we are experiencing a “Seller’s Market” in most areas of San Diego County, there were plenty of homes to view this last week, even though we were unable to view many.

Is this trend actually preventing buyers from being able to view the homes? We all know that we want as many buyers as possible through a home.  It will bring the best price and best buyer. Making a home difficult to show is like opening a new store in town and then have it open only an hour a day, and not at a time when most customers will be able to visit.

I recently sold a home in an area in which I was showing homes this past week. We had multiple offers within a week and sold the property for the full list price, much to the amazement of the “area expert”.  The home was priced well, but I wonder if the fact that it was on lock box and I had a very cooperative seller who let the home be shown at the convenience of the buyers and their agents made the difference?

Should we do a better job of educating our sellers about the importance of having their homes shown? Are we playing into our own egos when placing ourselves at every showing appointment?

And, don’t get me started on only being able to communicate with a listing agent via texting….

Want To Live In The Best Place On Earth?

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Beach

Being a Realtor in San Diego is different that being a Realtor in most parts of the country. We don’t have to take pictures winter and summer to show our homes at their best in various seasons. We don’t have to worry about shoveling snow or a snow storm keeping people from home shopping. We have to drive our kids to see snow! We usually don’t have to worry about people tromping mud through a home, or forgetting their umbrellas, or having to shed their warm coats and where to put them when looking at homes.

We can barbecue outside year round. You can go to the beach, the mountains and the desert all in the same day if you want to (not that I usually want to). We do have some amazing beaches…my favorite? Wind and Sea…it’s breathtakingly beautiful.

We complain about traffic, but it’s really nothing compared to Los Angeles traffic. That is serious traffic. They don’t count how many miles it is to go somewhere, it’s how many minutes or hours it is to go somewhere.

We can be outside enjoying beautiful weather all year round. I think that’s why our sports teams, while they have fans, don’t have fans like on the East Coast. There are just so many wonderful things to do here, so many choices every day that people often forego a sporting event for the beach, or a round of golf.  Our fans are called “Fair Weather Fans”, and I think that describes us pretty well!

I love that we can garden year round, vegetables, fruit, flowers, you name it. And, nothing tastes that food you have grown yourself. Although, my broccoli does not love the 80+ degree weather the last few weeks, may have to replant them. Such problems!

So, if you think about moving to San Diego from one of those “snowy” states, stop thinking and take some action. It is like living in Paradise!

The More Things Stay The Same…

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coupleatvanwebYou have probably heard the old saying “the more things change, the more they stay the same”. Well, it is often true in the real estate industry.

For instance, when I started helping clients buy and sell homes in the 1990’s, most people who wanted to “move up” to a more expensive home had to sell their current home first. That was considered normal.

In the early 2000’s, when lenders “loosened” their guidelines, most people could obtain a loan to purchase the new home and keep their current home, either to sell it later or turn it into an income property by renting it.

We are back to the “way things used to be done” when it comes to “moving up”. Most people these days will need to sell their current home before buying the new one. Homeowners have a couple of choices when they are in this situation.

  • They can sell their current home and move to temporary housing (with family, rent a place, I have even had people live in their RV’s).
  • They can sell their current home contingent upon finding a replacement home. Then we try to close both transactions within a day of each other.

I successfully closed a few transactions this way last year for the first time in many years; and I have another transaction closing this week where this was done. But we had three “legs”…my seller’s buyer had to sell her home and her buyers had to sell their home. We are closing all three transactions this week and have four happy families.

How do we do this? It requires cooperation, creativity, and tenacity!

Would you like more information about how it works? Just let me know!  I would love to help you, too!

What I Have Learned After 20 Years As A Realtor?

Terri Pontzious 2 Comments
  • house_keysUnderstand the documents your prepare. A contract is a legal document and most likely binding. Your clients have hired you to understand the contracts and advise them. If you don’t understand something, ASK.
  • Have “Professional Standards”, standards that you determine. Be realistic, but have standards. By the way, they can change over time!
  • Your friends and neighbors may not work with you — it’s okay. Some will, some won’t. Keep in mind that just about everyone knows a Realtor; they may have a family member or friend in the business. And, they may not want you to know their business. It’s okay. Don’t be mad.
  • It’s not about you. Nope. You have an agreement with your clients to represent them and their best interest. That means you do what’s best for your client. It’s not about you, your commission, or your problems. I always tell new agents, “If it is in your client’s best interest to get them out of a transaction on the day before closing, it’s your job to do so, even if it means you DO NOT GET PAID…” You have a fiduciary responsibility to do what is best for your client.
  • Think before you send that email or speak those words. You may not be happy with the agent representing the other side of a transaction. You may not like them or ever want to work with them again. But, five years from now, you may find yourself in a position to do just that. And, you won’t be as mad then as you are now!
  • Sometimes it’s a good idea to write that email, but don’t address it. Write it, read it, sleep on it, and read it again. Then you can decide whether or not to fill in the address field and hit send.
  • Your clients don’t speak Realtor lingo. They probably don’t know what COE, RPA and DOM mean. Don’t expect them to.
  • Be happy when your clients contact you after closing. Answer the phone, email or text. You WANT them to contact you for help and information!
  • BE FLEXIBLE! So your professional standards say you only show property in the afternoon. What happens when you have a client who works the Swing Shift? You don’t work Sundays, but a client can only look at homes on Sundays and Mondays? When in doubt, “Use Common Sense”!
  • Schedule time with your family. I never missed a school assembly, field trip, concert or any important event in my daughter’s life.  My husband and I take vacations and days off.  It is an “appointment”, just like any other in your life. You will work lots of early mornings, late nights and weekends. It’s okay.
  • Get to know the people who are your clients. Most of them are great people, real people, you have helped them with a major event in their lives. Become a part of their lives and families. It’s awesome!
  • Make sure you make room for JOY in your life everyday…otherwise, what’s the point!

Autumn IS A Productive Time Of Year!

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Pumpkins

We harvested the remaining pumpkins from our garden this week. We had a record-breaking crop of pumpkins this year. Actually, it is the only year I can remember when we had more than one very small pumpkin on the vine. I don’t know what we did differently this year, I know we did not have big expectations. But, our garden was certainly bountiful this summer!

When you have a garden, you plant the seeds, watch them germinate, pull weeds, water, fertilize, chase critters away. You help the plants through hard times…too much heat, too much cold, not enough water, too much water. Some don’t make it, some surprise you.

Instead of letting the garden become dormant, we are preparing for a winter garden and then the spring garden. Even though the garden looks bare right now, there is a lot going on. Planning, sketching, mulching, reading about new plants. It is definitely a busy time for a gardener, just different.

In my real estate business, I am also preparing for 2014…preparing my business plan and goals. Looking at what works, what do I want to change. It is an exciting time for me as I look at all the possibilities ahead and the families I can help in 2014.

Someone asked me the other day if I am taking off the rest of the year! Ha! Some people DO think that the real estate business comes to a grinding halt during the last two to three months of the year. Nothing could be further from the truth. I almost always have a very busy fourth quarter. It is a great time to sell a home. The buyers who are looking are usually serious buyers, the looky-loos have other things to do. And, if you are a buyer, the sellers who have their homes on the market this time of the year are almost always serious sellers. Negotiations are usually easier this time of year – people are happy. Homes look great this time of year. They are decorated, the smell like pumpkin pie and turkeys in the oven. And, you won’t have to ask “I wonder where they put the Christmas tree”, you will be able to see for yourself!

So, if you are contemplating buying a home in San Diego, or selling a home in San Diego, looking for investment properties, or are looking for a vacation home, don’t let the holiday season stand in your way. This is a GREAT time of year to take that step!

Pumpkins & me

A Military Way Of Life

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I have lived in San Diego for over 30 years, so it’s easy to forget that this is such a military town. It is a way of life here, something that too often is taken for granted.

I have been around the military and military families most of my adult life. Living in San Diego, most of us have friends and business associates who are, or were, in the military. I think all branches of the service are represented here, but mostly Navy, Marines, and Coast Guard. Once when we were attending a Century 21 event in Coronado and were staying at the Hotel Del Coronado, we were awakened about 4:00 am to Navy Seals storming the beach as part of their training. We got up and had our coffee on the balcony while watching them. It was awesome!

I had the privilege of attending a client’s Retirement Ceremony from the Navy on Friday. She has served as a Navy Nurse for 22 years. A remarkable woman, I don’t think I have ever seen her without a smile.  She is an optimist, a lover of animals, and has a great laugh. When she moved to San Diego, it was with the goal of finding a home that would enable her to reach her ultimate goal of expanding her dog rescue organization. We found the perfect place in Dehesa Valley.

While I have seen it before, the Passing the Flag – Old Glory Ceremony, always makes me cry. It is so moving. And, this week, it reminded me how honored I am to be able to work with so many clients and friends who serve in the military, whether active duty or retired. Why I am so glad I can help them with buying or selling a home, and help to ensure their move is as stress free as possible. That we find a place where their families will be happy and secure while they are deployed…perhaps a home they can return to at retirement…an investment in their future.

If you have never seen the ceremony, take a few minutes to watch. I think you will be proud of our military men and women, too!

What To Do With Too Many Limes?

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You may know from some of my posts that I love to garden and love to cook. We have a wonderful lime tree that was supposed to be a “dwarf” tree. Well, it didn’t turn out that way and we have hundreds of limes on the tree! We give them away by the dozens, but can’t keep up with the limes. IMG_8906

Inspiration sometimes comes in strange moments. This morning while I was enjoying a cup of coffee I decided there had to be something to be done with some of these limes. So, I found a great recipe for Lime-Ginger Marmalade. It was really easy to make and I had a great time making it – and it tastes really good!  It has been years since I have made jam or anything like that. I had forgotten how getting lost in the moment of doing something you love is so good for the soul.

Gardening and cooking are such creative outlets. I love the planning, planting, caring for and harvesting a garden, whether it is flowers or vegetables. Cooking for a family has so many dimensions. The planning, shopping, looking for what is in season, what’s on sale, making what your family likes and trying out new things. Cooking together, setting the table, giving thanks, having great conversation, that’s what I remember about meals in our home.

I guess some of the creativity carries over into my real estate business. Challenges almost always seem to arise and thinking creatively about how to best resolve the challenges, and do what’s best for the clients, is a necessity. Whether it is a loan gone bad, something major found in a home inspection, clients who have life altering things happen to them while in escrow…I could go on and on. Thinking creatively to make it all come together is fun and very rewarding. Guess that’s why, for me, being a Realtor ranks right up their with gardening, cooking, and making a happy home!

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Cultivating a Garden, Isn’t It What Life’s All About?

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We have been planting and harvesting gardens, in some size or another, for almost 25 years. We usually planted pumpkins along with tomatoes, peppers, corn, zucchini, you get the picture. When our daughter was growing up, we wanted to have home-grown pumpkins to carve into jack-o-lanterns for Halloween. Most years, we were lucky if we had one or two pumpkins out of the crop, and they never got really big.  We harvested them and used them for decorations during the fall holidays. They served a purpose, but we were always a little disappointed. We could buy really big pumpkins, better for carving, at the grocery store.

This year, we have the most amazing pumpkin patch ever. It has expanded into garden space never intended for the pumpkin patch. But, we are so amazed at what’s happening, we are just letting it go and see what happens. I knew we had a few little pumpkins growing. But when I peeked under the leaves this weekend, I was astonished by what I saw. Pumpkins, lots of pumpkins. And they are going to be big!

In a way, the pumpkin patch reminds me of my business. I sell homes in San Diego, and have been for over 20 years. While I never “farmed” (as they call it in the real estate business) an area, I did try to cultivate relationships with the people I worked with, all over San Diego. Why? Well, I really do like and care about the families I work with. I have always believed that the best business is referral business, word of mouth, people recommending your services. You work hard to provide great service and really care about clients. You take care of their needs; you care about their families, their problems, their triumphs. You help them over rough patches and celebrate the good times with them. You answer questions and give advice.  And, one day, you realize you have this wonderful group of people who want to help you, too! And, 20+ years later, I am amazed and grateful how my business has grown. Kind of like our pumpkin patch!