Bryan: Welcome back everyone. Thanks so much for rejoining us. I’m your host, Bryan Vogt, the host of Ready Set Sold. We talked about garages, things of that nature. But now we’re gonna be talking about decks and outside patios and things of that nature. And Kelly, not being specific, but we know the situation recently that a deck became a problem in the sale of a home.
Kelly: Yeah. We found out in the inspection that the deck was not up to code. The seller had put the deck in themselves, and didn’t do some of the things they needed to do. So, they’re getting up to code and it’s gonna be okay, but that’s something you’ll talk about in inspections. If they had had that looked at beforehand, we wouldn’t be here.
Bryan: Wouldn’t be [inaudible 00:00:58] too. And I think also, is especially dependent on the age of the deck. No one wants this to have happen. And depending on the age of the deck, but I can tell you that I have had buyers fall through the deck. Here’s the ironic part about that. When they fell to the deck, and luckily, they weren’t hurt. That’s the number one thing.
Kelly: Absolutely.
Bryan: Because again, there could be rotted wood, sometimes. They didn’t buy the house, either. So, they didn’t get hurt, and everything was fine. But they didn’t buy the home. And I think that’s the most important thing to keep in mind. So, again, getting these things checked out, getting the deck checked out, and we’ll talk about that more next week, but one of the things we’re gonna be, as far as having a home inspection done prior to that, but, just do a visual if you need to. Or have a friend, or if you know somebody, or things like that, just have a visual done.
Just so you know, even if you have the decks that are supposed to last forever, or 50 years, I’ve known situations where, I’ll just say that doesn’t always hold true. So, even though it’s guaranteed for “X” amount of time, sometimes that guarantee doesn’t seem to hold up. I’m not saying all the time, but I am saying a few times that’s happened. So, making sure that the deck is safe.
And also, that the stairs are not wobbly and shaky. Well, yeah, and just so you know, Kelly gave me the sign of the handrail-
Kelly: Handrails.
Bryan: We’re not on TV, Kelly, so we have to talk. That’s okay, I do it all the time. I raise my book up all the time, as if people can see me when I’m talking about getting the book. So, it’s all good. But yeah, I mean, talk ore about that, the handrails.
Kelly: If your handrails are loose and wobbly … not all our buyers are spring chickens. We want to make sure our buyers are safe. And you want to make sure your visitors are safe, and you are safe, your family’s safe. Get those handrails tightened down.
Bryan: Right. And again, not only is it a safety issue, but again, we talk about that first impressions. And again, if the handrails are loose, well, maybe the deck’s about ready to come down. Again, this is the first time they’ve seen your home. They don’t know. They don’t know that maybe, that handrail’s been that way for the last three years, whatever. It doesn’t matter. But the thing is, now you’re getting your house on the market and you want to get top dollar and you want to get a fast sale. And those things are very simple fixes, for the most-part.
But even if it takes a few dollars, it’s well worth the money, because the impression that you’re giving to the buyers is not the one that you want, and it’s gonna cost you thousands on the one end, where it may be a hundred dollar, or hundreds of dollars in fixes. Always keep that in mind with that final offer, or what that offer is, all these things play a part into it.
And I think patios is the same way. Again, if there’s gigantic cracks in the patio, I appreciate that you may have bought it that way, but again, most buyers are sitting there saying, well, you may have boughten it, why didn’t you fix it? Because it’s something that they’re at least going to be thinking they’re going to have to fix. So, these things, again, deal in hundreds of dollars of fixes, usually. It can cost more, depends. But, you’re talking thousand of dollars on the other end, on the perception of what the buyer is looking at.
So, we talked about the decks, we talked about the driveway, the sidewalks. We talked about all those things, and getting the lawn cut and that. And it’s okay to get a professional in. Again, many, many more sellers now are getting a professional in. They’ve never used one before. They’re very cost effective. Look, as sellers, our lives go on. We don’t always have that time. We’ve had people that are selling their home, but just to maintain it, they’ve hired a professional for a month, to make sure it gets mowed up.
And this is all different price ranges. Some of these people say, well, you must be talking about the very … No, we’re not talking about the very wealthy. We’re talking about middle-class people that have a lot to do on their plate too, and they’ve got their kids or they’ve got their work, and we all have our emails. Now they’re on their phones and we never get away from them. So, those things are really, really important to understand. That you don’t have time, so it’s either time or money. And sometimes you have to have that trade-off.
So, getting professionals to get these things done is becoming more and more common from sellers because look, we all want to have a life, we still want to get top dollar, but no, we’re not Superman or Superwoman. And we need time to kind of chill, ourselves. So, that becomes really important. And I think, there may be some other things that we can talk about, too, but I think those are the main factors that we really want to focus on.
Kelly: Well, another thing is your mailbox. If your mailbox is worn out, or a few years old, has a dent in it, kids came by, hit it with a bat, just replace it.
Bryan: That’s a great point. Again, visual is what they see when they drive up. If you have a dented mailbox, it’s always the same thing, right, Kelly?
Kelly: Yeah.
Bryan: Well, why is it, right-
Kelly: Yes.
Bryan: Why is the mailbox dented?
Kelly: Yeah. Is this a bad neighborhood? What is this?
Bryan: Yeah, what’s going on?
Kelly: Just replace it.
Bryan: Yeah, just replace it. It happens. It’s no big deal. Again, very cost effective, but it’s that first impression. Like we talked about, having the flowers on there, the colors and things like that. Seasonal.
Kelly: And, back to decks, if your deck … You might have a solid-as-a-rock deck, but it might need to be painted. It just makes a great first impression if you stain your deck, paint your deck.
Bryan: Absolutely. That’s a great point. Yeah, again, just general maintenance … Again, how you maintain the outside gives the impression of how the house is maintained on the inside. You want all those things to be working together. Fences, I think we even talked about that.
Kelly: Same thing.
Bryan: Same thing with fences.
Kelly: If you have a solid fence that’s got some green moss growing on it, please, please, please power wash it. It just makes a huge difference.
Bryan: Also, the side of your house, I guess the north side, there’s always the moss. Yeah, that’s a great point. It’s a great point. Hey, I tell you what, we gotta wrap up the segment, here. But, in the meantime, this information, and much, much more information is available in the book. If you have a friend, if you have a family member, maybe you’re thinking about it, look, you don’t have to use me, use whoever you want, but this information will get you top dollar. It will get you a fast sale. It is 12 Proven Steps. Go get the book where you see it at sold.org [inaudible 00:07:46]
Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #07-04: Kelly Etheridge RE/MAX Preferred #2: How decks, patios, fences, pay a key role
July 8, 2017