One of the more interesting pieces of selling the house this time is that the Realtors in the Triangle here use a service called Centralized Showing Service.  Basically, the service coordinates showings amongst all the Realtors in the area and also provides a means for giving feedback to the Sellers via a website.  This part in particular has become my favorite part of the whole process, as often times the comments leave you scratching your head, as I’ll show below.

First, however, let me set the stage.  We own a 4 bedroom, 3 bath house, 2600 (and some change) sq. ft. in the heart of Cary, which is this idyllic little burg near Raleigh that always ranks well in national rankings as one of the best places to live.  We are asking $284K.  It is centrally located to RTP and all major thoroughfares in a nice, quiet neighborhood on a wooded lot.  Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are both less than 5 minutes away, as is plenty of other shopping.  The lot sits on .4 acres.  We’ve updated most major systems including HVAC and Water Heater, as well as painted, etc.

Now that you have an idea of the house, here are some of the comments, most of which, in my mind, fall under the category of “why did you even bother to show the house?  Don’t you know your customer?”:

Buyers were here on their first trip and have not made the decision to move as of yet. However, they have decided they do not want to be in Cary. They need more land and more privacy, therefore Fuquay, Holly Springs, Willow Spring will be the spots.

Here’s a real classic:

My buyers have decided that this home is out of their price range.

This one, in fact, came from people WHO GAVE US AN OFFER! They offered us $269.  Not bad, seems like we could negotiate and meet in the middle.  We countered with $280.  They walked away.  What, did you think this process doesn’t involve negotiation?   I mean, seriously, isn’t that all part of the game?  Why go to the trouble of making an offer?

Another good one that falls under the category of Knowing your Clients:

My buyers’ space requirements and growing family knocked this one off the list.

What 4 bedrooms, 3 baths and a large bonus room and a full walk up attic aren’t big enough for you?  How fast are you growing?  Didn’t you bother to look at the specs beforehand?

And, sometimes the comments range to the more enjoyable:

Sweet gum tree – ugh.

Anyone who has one of those trees knows what I’m talking about.  They produce, for seeds, these annoying little spikey balls that drop EVERYWHERE, all year round.  Ugh indeed.

And another good one:

clients just felt it was too old for them, didn’t like popcorn ceilings

On the MLS, the house shows it’s age (1984, but with LOTS of updates).  I suppose it’s reasonable, though, b/c you never know what to expect inside.  The popcorn ceiling comment, however is funny.  I mean, if that is the only thing holding you back, just ask.    Geez, we’ll take $2K off the price and have them removed.

Which, of course, reminds me of the lack of savvy of some Realtors.  One potential buyer came to see the house 4 times.  We figured they were the one.  Then, they go cold.  Furthermore, they were actual clients of our Realtor (at the time, we have since changed.)  Three weeks later, she informs us that the major thing stopping them was they wanted a Jacuzzi tub in the master bathroom, otherwise they loved the house.  I about lost it on her at the time.  Isn’t your job as a Realtor to present that to the sellers?  I mean, if that is the only thing holding them up (and according to her, it was), why wouldn’t you ask?  Other than the fact that most people who have those things don’t use them in the long run, they don’t cost all that much.  We’d gladly have installed one if it meant selling the house.

At any rate, if you are looking to move to Cary/Raleigh area or know someone who is, drop me a comment and I’ll point you at the actual MLS listing.

At any rate, I’ve always been happy with their work and I thought I would let others in the Cary/Raleigh area know.

If you live in this area, please help us find this person and report them to the Chatham County Sheriff.  The mere thought of it sends shivers down my spine and then makes me mad as hell.  I ride in that area often and have had close calls with cars, but I’ve never heard of someone being so deliberate.  WTF?  Sounds like attempted manslaughter charges to me, at a minimum.

So, I got yet another phone book/yellow pages today.  Thank goodness, because I think I know have a complete collection.  I figure I can look up someone’s phone number at least 4 or 5 different ways now.

At any rate, I called Keystone Directories asking them if I could opt out and they say they don’t have a way to do that.  Of course, this is a complete lie.  The truth is they don’t have a way of doing it that is doesn’t require any additional cost.  I then asked the guy if the best way to stop this is to write my government officials (half tongue in cheek) and his response was “If you don’t want it, just throw it in the trash”  Spoken like a true idiot!   The least he could say is that I should recycle it.

At any rate, I would encourage you to write to your local and state government to encourage your officials to bring an end to this needless waste.  I know, I know, they have every right to publish their wasteful book, I am not saying you ban it.  But by the same token, I have every right to tell them I don’t want it.  You know, we always love to say in this country that if you don’t like something, then don’t buy it, but I think we also need to amend that to say, if I don’t want something, then don’t give it to me!

Yeah, we might finally get some real rain here!  Seems weird to be cheering for a tropical storm or hurricane to hit, but that’s how dry it has been here in the Triangle.

I will be speaking November 19, 2007 at the Triangle Java Users Group on Lucene and Solr.   The talk will be an introduction to the features and capabilities of both Lucene and Solr, as well as some basic compare and contrast information.

So, a big thank you to all the courteous drivers on the road tonight who did that little something extra to give a guy out for an evening bike ride a little extra safety and enjoyment.

Despite the many things I love about the area, one of the things that
bothers me is the amount of waste that goes on here (much like the rest of the good ol’ USA).  Cary homeowners
are constantly being told to conserve water, etc. while the town and
business seemingly use water like it is going out of style.  How many
new subdivisions and strip malls in Cary have nice little water
fountains out front continuously using water (even when it is recycled, it is not 100% efficient)?  How many new subdivisions are clearing trees creating large amounts of waste on a daily basis while I am told I should conserve?

So, here are my top 6 things I think Cary could do to be greener, and I
don’t mean in the tree-hugging sense, I mean, practical, everyday
things.  Some are for the town to do and some are for us citizens to do.

1.   Start picking up chipboard (you know, cereal boxes, etc.) in the
curbside recycling program.  This has to be one of the single biggest pieces of
waste most people produce and I bet most of it is thrown out because you can’t put it in the green bin. While the town encourages you to set it
aside and bring it to a convenience center, I bet most people do
not.  The town says it does not have a enough trucks to manage all of
this, but my solution dovetails nicely with step 2.

2.  Stop picking up yard waste every week in residential areas.  Pick
up yard waste every other week.  Provide people with a container just
like the garbage can to hold it all.  Then in the off weeks in a neighborhood, they
can pick up all the chipboard.  Even better, reduce all pick up
(including trash) to every other week, thus keeping the highly
polluting trucks out of neighborhoods as much as possible.  In order to do this, however,
people would need airtight, odor proof trash cans, lest we stink up our garages.  Think of it as
the Diaper Genie for household trash.

3. Use Habitat for Humanity’s Reuse Center when doing home remodeling
instead of just throwing out the remains of your gutted kitchen.

4. More bike lanes.  Better driver education concerning bikes.  Find
a way to give tax credits or discounts to people who bike to work,
etc.  Perhaps we could have a program where cyclists could swipe a
card at a little station verifying they are riding their bike.

5.  Even better than putting your yard waste out on the corner, start
composting.  Make compost bins available on the cheap.  People spend
all this money on mulch, top soil, cow manure, etc.  when they have
all the makings of the same stuff in their weekly yard waste if only
they spent 30 minutes or so reading on how to do it and another 10 minutes each week tending to the pile.  Composting is
easy and it need not smell bad, either.

6. Rain barrels.  Again, make them
available for cheap.  I paid $100 for two of them, but I bet they
could be even cheaper if the city gave more incentive for people to
adopt them.  In fact, I bet they could find a local manufacturer who
they could buy barrels from cheaply and then they could be easily
converted to be used as a rain barrel.  Also, consider giving incentives to those who, when installing a sprinkler system, also install an underground storage tank to capture rain runoff from their downspouts that then feeds back into the sprinkler system.

Ultimately, I would love to see the Town of Cary try to engage a
manufacturer to make solar much cheaper for a whole community.  Perhaps if
a whole town were to negotiate buying solar panels in bulk we could
bring the price down significantly.  Think about it, Cary, NC — virtually energy independent.  How cool would that be?  What better
thing could there be for home prices than to say that your energy
bills would be next to nothing for the life of the home?  In fact, if the town did it right, it probably could setup a whole power cooperative, ensuring cheap power to homes and businesses for years to come.

Just had these guys remove 5 Pine trees and 1 Elm tree and they did a great job.  Very professional, friendly and on time.  Trees came out like nothing using a big crane.  Here are a few shots of the process:

Only incident was my glass top table was shattered by an errant rock from the stump grinder, but they notified me immediately and they took it off my bill without any squabbling over price.  The table was moved out of the way, so it was a fluke accident.   We probably should have put the table in the garage just to be safe.  At any rate, I am totally satisfied with the job.