ashley marsh

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This is a common thought to many folks who are getting ready to sell their home. “I can save on commission if I sell my home myself.” Have you had that thought before?

The reality is that you really do not save on commission and you likely will be riddled with headaches that you were not prepared for. Let’s look at an example.

Mr. Seller has decided he wants to sell his home in 2019. Has has lived in said home for 20 years. His home sits on about an acre of land. His home was one of the first in the area and he is surrounded by neighborhoods comprised of “New Builds”. He wants to downsize and his goal is get top dollar for his home so he can pay mostly cash for his new house.

Makes sense. Most people who downsize are looking to get top dollar and spend minimal money when moving to their new home. He puts his house up on Craigslist and sets a few for sale signs out. One week passes with no calls. Two weeks pass with no calls. Now he gets a call in week three.

This call is from an investor that is looking to purchase land and wholesale it in order to turn a profit. He tells Mr. Seller that he will buy his property site unseen and offers a pretty low ball offer. Mr. Seller thinks about it for a couple of days and isn’t quite happy with the price so decides to pass.

Now we are onto week 4 then 5. No bites. What is going on?

Let’s take a look at what would have happened if Mr. Seller used an agent that is an expert in the area. Mr. Seller would have met with said agent and discussed a pricing strategy. It would have been discussed that he needs to price his home strategically in order to compete with the brand new homes surrounding him. He has a nice lot and the home has good bones, however it has not been updated and needs some repair. These are possible reasons as to why he was not getting any calls.

Once they agree on the price the agent would go through staging and repair opportunities, get professional photos taken and list it on the MLS. By listing it on the MLS, the home is being marketed online and sent to all the major platforms such as Realtor.com and Zillow. The agent also markets the home on social media platforms in agent to agent groups offering maximum exposure to the listing.

The same investor sees the ad and calls the listed agent. He again offers a low ball offer. The agent is able to explain the benefits of the land and the home and additional opportunities the investor may be able to take with this area and therefore is able to drive up the offer through negotiations. During this time a growing family also sees the listing and calls the agent. Now we have a multiple offer situation. All within a week of listing.

Mr. Seller is now able to weigh the offers and decide what works best for him with guidance from a professional. This enables Mr. Seller to be able to move out quicker, not incur as many holding expenses, depend on a professional to handle negotiations, and walk away happy.

Bottom line is that you would probably not represent yourself on the surgical table, or a major law case so why would you choose to risk one of your largest investments by not using an expert?

ashley marsh

Here are the top 5 upgrades you can make with the best return of investment according to HGTV.

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5) Basement Remodel – Finishing the basement adds extra living space and is very appealing to potential buyers. It offers another area for the kids to be in, a man cave, gym, office space, you name it!

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4) Exterior Improvements – This can be relatively simple. Just paint the front door, fix the shutters, power wash. Cleaning up can add tons of curb appeal

3) Minor Bathroom Remodel – A basic tile project and paint can transform a drab bathroom to an updated sought after one.

2) Landscaping – Keep this simple and add a ton of bang for your buck! Some simple annuals and a few shrubs along with cleaning out the beds and weeding will make a huge difference! Remodel – A basic tile project and paint can transform a drab bathroom to an updated sought after one.

1) Minor Kitchen Remodel – You don’t have to completely gut a kitchen in order to increase value. Simple paint, new counters, lighting or pulls can add major value and appeal to the prospective buyers.

Talking to an agent can help you through all of these steps. You need to see what the present value of your home is and whether you even need to do any additional remodeling in order to get a better price. Factors such as market trends, rates, etc can change the pricing substantially.

ashley marsh

With subarctic temps on the way we need to talk about what to do to help prevent freezing and busting pipes. Here are a few simple tips

1. The Slow Drip – Make sure all of your faucets are on and slowly dripping. The movement of the water will help prevent the pipes from freezing

2) Cabinet Doors – Open all of the doors to the cabinets that the plumbing runs through; especially if it is on an exterior wall. This will help heat get to the pipes.

3) Small Heaters – If you have small electric heaters and can set them in the basement or in front of the sink cabinets it will help keep everything heated.

4) Keep the Heat Up – Keep the furnace heat up a bit higher than you may normally keep it at night. A few cents on your electric bill is far less than repairing a busted pipe.

5) Fans – Reverse the spin on ceiling fans. This helps pull the hot air up and circulate it around.

Please post any additional tips you may have and let us know if you have any questions!

written by ashley marsh

In this week’s tips, Troy brought us the top 5 reasons to use an agent when purchasing in a NEW BUILD. Check it out!

5) Insure you hire the right builder – Not all builders are created equal so you need to make sure that you are getting someone with a good reputation and a great warranty.

4) Lot location and neighborhood guidance – Not only do you want to make sure that you are buying in the right neighborhood; you want to make sure you are buying the right lot. There are things like building set back lines, easements and reserve spaces that all affect the value of your lot when it comes to resale.

3) Contract negotiation and representation – It’s important that you have someone with you when you are negotiating the contract to make sure that all the appropriate items and contingencies are included and you understand what you are getting.

2) Guide you through the home inspection – Most people think when you buy a new build you don’t need a home inspector, however, builders make mistakes too so it’s always important to have a good home inspector to make sure your house is being built the right way and the way you want it

1) Help you choose appropriate upgrades and modifications – It is extremely important when you are building a new home, that you don’t over improve it for the neighborhood and end up not being able to sell it down the road when you are ready.

That’s it for us this week. If you think we missed something, please put it in the comments below. Make sure to like us on Facebook and Instagram @marshhomegroup so you don’t miss next week’s tips.

ashley marsh

written by ashley marsh

Today was not the day for our coworker Bertha. It started off just as a normal day. We all get to the office and get settled in with our coffee and agendas. A few of us headed over to the conference room for our weekly meeting and when we got back we realized Bertha must have overslept.

We called her up and no answer. This is a typical thing with Bertha as you all well know know. We tried again, still no answer. Off to lunch we go. Maybe she will come in this afternoon. She does whatever she wants anyway!

We get back from lunch and there she is in all her glory. Acting as if she wasn’t late to work. We are so annoyed, just as anyone else would be if they had to work with someone like this. I mean seriously where is your sense of responsibility girl?!

Monica needs her help scanning a few things for a newsletter she was working on. Would you believe that Bertha lost her ever loving mind all because Monica asked for her help. RIDICULOUS. She gave her the silent of treatment of silent treatments. It was like someone literally turned her off. She sat there with a blank stare and wouldn’t make a peep.

This went on for a good couple of hours. I think she got even more mad when Monica gave up and went and asked Bertha’s friend Agnes for help with the scanning. You see they are friends but Bertha kinda thinks that Agnes is a brown noser and is trying to take the top seat in our office. Right now Agnes works in the common area and doesn’t get any type of quite time to get her work done.

When Monica walked back into our office, Bertha started spitting at her. Repeatedly. Like alot! Can you believe that? So gross. She was also growling and looked as though she was having a seizure. (I know she wasn’t so don’t jump to any conclusions – she just has anger issues) We ended up having to turn her off and send her to take a nap. Hopefully tomorrow will be better for Bertha. Actually, hopefully Bertha’s contract will be up soon and we can watch her ride off into the sunset. Until then!

written by ashley marsh

You all have seen the millions of Flip or Flop type real estate shows on tv right? I was thinking that we could produce our own show showing the “this is only funny because it isn’t happening to me” side of investing.

Don’t get me wrong – Investing in real estate has offered me an amazing opportunity. I run my own businesses. I typically run my own schedule. I have passive income. I love it!!

The journey to the end result in each project has it’s hiccups though. Here are just a few. #HGTV I hope you are paying attention!

1. The Fly Apocalypse – So we had this one beautiful two story in downtown CBUS that we completely gutted and remodeled. This is by far my favorite project because I got to plan everything from the studs to the cabinet hardware. This was a real blood, sweat and tears project. We worked on the home all through the winter and spring then our new tenants moved in during the summer. Well all is well until I get a text with a pic of literally 1,000 flies on the inside of the living room window (brand new windows none the less) What in the “H” is going. All I could wrap my head around was the idea that there must be a molded McDonald’s burger under the couch or something rancid that just got missed somewhere by the tenants. (Then I remembered that those burgers don’t actually decompose but that’s another blog topic for later) After called every exterminator in town and researching a dozen different possible reasons as to why these flies are taking over the home, we find that there is a type of fly that can get in the walls during construction because they are looking for a warm place to lay eggs and low and behold they all hatched at one. G-to-the-ross to say the absolute least!! Long story short a few sprayings and it was all good but …are you kidding me right now????

This was after a few of the spraying. I wanted to show you the first one but I can’t for the life of me find it. Just imagine the entire top part of the window being covered

2) The Sump Pump Disaster of 2017 – Oh yes folks imagine this one. We have a cute little condo with a basement that we literally just finished- with carpet. Do you all remember the inches and inches of rain we got in CBUS a couple years ago toward the end of summer? Oh no you don’t – well I do!! We get a call that the basement is flooded. Flooded? We have a sump pump!! What in the world???? Troy get’s over there to take a look and there is at least 2 inches of standing water in the basement. On the carpet. That we just put in. Not to mention our poor tenants actually used the basement and had stuff down there. OMG! So Troy and a buddy move all the furniture, take out the soaking piece of carpet and put that and all of the soaked pad in the back of the truck. Where did it end up? MY HOUSE!!! We had trash cans leaking water for a week until the trash guys came. And the carpet? We had it out drying in the sun for two days. Beverly Hill Billies much? Nightmare…

Not our house but you get the idea – This is pretty much what it looked like

3) Hamlet Falls – This one takes the cake. We bought a cool 3 story on Hamlet St. in CBUS. We had renovated it. All new kitchen, flooring, paint, fixtures. Everything updated while keeping all the original Victorian Woodwork and statement pieces. Our contractors are finishing up while we are on vacation. On the way home I schedule a showing for the next day. I take my at the time 1 year old son down with me to do a walk through before the showing just to make sure we don’t need to mop or anything else. We walk up to the back door where the lockbox is to find the door kicked in. WHAT WHAT!! Ok I’m totally freaking out and especially since I have the babe with me I am jetting out of there. I call Troy spazzing out and then call the police. Once the they all get there we follow the officer inside to find a waterfall coming through the kitchen ceiling. HOW IN THE WORLD??? Ok so we jet to turn the water off while the office keeps walking through. He gives us the all clear and we walk around to see if there is anything else wrong. Some turd broke kicked the back door, unhooked the drains to the bathroom sinks and ran the water on full blast. For those of you that are not familiar with plumbing; picture there being no pipe under the sink. Where does the water go? Oh – anywhere it wants!! For what had to be at least 2 straight days. Oh and the cherry on top – said turd opened up the one can of paint that was sitting in the house and kicked it over on the brand new carpet. THANK YOU TURD!

This pic only shows the Turd’s footprints heading toward the door. Not cool dude. Not cool.

I will tell you that there are bumps in the road with investing and these were a couple stories that happened throughout our journey. I love investing, remodeling, and getting people into our homes. It is a very rewarding industry and, while bumpy, it is amazing in the end.

Do you all have remodeling stories you want to share? Post them below. We would love to hear them!!!

written by ashley marsh

So – I was partially right! The day went the same as the last post up until about 10pm. We went to the rink in freezing rain at about 1015am. We were at the rink until lunch time. Left and there was still no snow – just regular rain at that point. Blaine played his next game and then we were heading home. We did in fact decide not to go snowboarding as planned though because it was almost 40 degrees and raining and that did not sound like any fun.

Instead of playing in the snow, the boys played some epic games of Madden and then the kiddos hit the hay. Troy kept checking the forecast and the weather forums (for those of you who don’t know this he was in fact a meteorology major in college) Ask him about it – He loves talking about the weather! – until finally, finally the snow started. At like 11pm.

This was after the an hour of ensuing ice pellets. The snow, however, did not just start. It came with a fury along with 35 mile an hour winds. It was ridiculous. We literally went from laughing about my prior blog post jinxing us, to asking if we had enough gas for the generator and batteries for flashlights. What in the world just happened.

So at this point Troy is totally geeking out because the snow is not just snow. It’s the “huge flake” snow. Ok so what does that mean? I guess that means it is legit snow that will accumulate quickly. Alrighty – While he is geeking out I am think we need to take advantage of this.

Do you all remember the video of the weather dude during one of the last hurricanes that got busted over-dramatizing the event? The dude was bent over holding onto something like he was about to go to Oz. Then, in the background, comes two teens gingerly walking across the street. STONE COLD BUSTED. This was all I could think about so I grabbed my gear and we went to work. The problem – The winds actually felt like we were going to Oz.

Realizing this wouldn’t work, we improvised and you can see the full video on our Facebook Page (@troymarshkw). Do it. It’s worth it!

So we were stoked because we got to play in the snow for a hot second. The morning though. Different story. We had to be out by 645 for the first round of games and I actually felt like I had put my foot in my mouth regarding my last post. The roads were crap and there was ice and snow drifts everywhere. As we went to the game we counted the cars the has spun out and were stuck on the side of the highway from the prior night – 6 in a 20 minute drive.

Honestly I realize that the weather here is sometimes ridiculous but I am thankful that we were home during the worst of it. Lesson learned – You just never know!! Hope you all had a safe and happy weekend!

written by ashley marsh

The phenomena that takes over CBUS the same time each year. The pandemonium that engulfs the city. SNOWMAGEDDON

You get a little hint that SNOWMAGEDDON is coming when you hear there may be snow in the forecast at the end of the next 6-7 days. You want to let the thought pass but there is a small part in the back of your brain that keeps it in storage.

You go about your life the next couple of days and then you hear that little thought so you pull up the weather to double check. You find that there is in fact a storm coming. SNOW – like a foot! Ok I have a few days before this so no worries and it’s at the end of the week so we are fine.

Thursday comes and you are bombarded with weather reports stating that we will get anything from .01 inch of ice to a foot and a half of snow. And here it comes.

There is a mad dash to the grocery stores. Everyone, and I mean all of CBUS, is buying bread, milk and cases of beer and wine. – CASES PEOPLE.

The snow shovels fly off the shelves. Sleds can’t be found. Everything for the weekend starts to get cancelled because this uber huge storm is brewing and we are going to be snowed in! People leave early Friday because it is 40 degrees and cloudy so, you know we have to leave because its going to snow tomorrow.

Saturday comes, you wake up expecting a winter wonderland with feet of snow. You look out and the grass is hardly even covered and there is nothing on the streets or sidewalks. Ok, they did say snow all weekend so maybe I just got a little excited and it’s really not coming until later. So you have a hockey tournament for your oldest kiddo that day and you get everyone ready to go and take off.

By the time the first round of games are over you would think we would have 3 or 4 inches on the ground. You had planned to take the family snowboarding since there will be fresh powder – and hey you live in CBUS so there is pretty much never fresh powder. You leave the rink and there is like a dusting on the ground. What the H?

You decide to just go anyway. So you head up to Mad River Mountain and do your thing because they are awesome and have stockpiled all the snow. On the way home – still nothing more than flurries. You must have read the forecast incorrectly. I must be hitting later on this evening.

You get back home and turn on the tv because you are uber confused and want to find out when the heck the snow is coming. You know what you find out? The storm already hit and is out of here. The foot and a half of snow, the ice, the chaos – all summed up in less than a half of inch of snow and a messed up calendar because everything you had scheduled for this weekend needs to find a new home within the next week. Awesome-sauce!

Yes folks this is the recipe for CBUS! Let’s see if we called it right for this weekend! We will check back in after SNOWMAGEDDON hits! Have a wonderful and safe weekend!

written by ashley marsh

So you are ready to buy your first home. You have been searching online and found the perfect two story victorian with original wood floors, ten foot ceilings, updated everything, fenced in yard and even a garage. You are ready to pull the trigger and can’t wait to move in. You call the agent listed on the property to schedule a showing. You are so excited. Tomorrow is the day! Your are going to see your dream home!

You currently live close to the burbs and have been looking to move closer to downtown because you are hip and love to go on gallery crawls and eat awesome food. Right now you have a decent drive including in your day every time you want to do this so moving closer would be ideal for your lifestyle.

Tomorrow comes and you hop in the car and put the address into Waze. You are excited and are talking about all the decorating that you are going to do once you buy the house while you take your normal route downtown. You are still chatting and dreaming of the new sofa when the gps takes down a street that you normally would not use to get downtown. Ok no biggie there must be a reck or something and its diverting you. Cool.

You keep following the directions and you don’t really recognize the neighborhood you are in, but, you can see the downtown buildings so you figure you are just about there. “Your have arrived at your destination” is voiced over your bluetooth.

Hmmmm… This is weird. Oh there is the house! It’s on a one way street and you are just past is so you have to do a quick round-about around the block. What you start to notice as your are driving though is that there is no one walking on the sidewalks you are still a little far from your normal dive bar and you see boarded up windows and vacant houses. Ok maybe this side of the street is being redone. You keep going.

You arrive at the beautiful two story victorian but you cannot go in because there is a police officer sitting in front of the drive way. He states that there was a robbery down the street and they are not advising anyone to be out in the area at the moment. PEACE OUT!

So bummed – you head back home and look up the house on the internet again. You start to see now that the home is in an up and coming redeveloping neighborhood. You realize that this wasn’t exactly the vibe you were looking for. You thought that all of downtown was like the couple blocks that you normally hang out at. This causes you to get discouraged and pause your search for a while.

This is a common thing that happens when searching homes. It is so very important to understand the neighborhoods and locations of your dream homes. Are they, in fact, close to your favorite spots? Are they in good school districts? How is the crime? Make sure you do your research and ask the professionals!

Comment if you have had an experience like this. We have some more good ones to to share!!