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The Perfect Home Time Savers and Hacks List

February 25, 2019 by Travis Hightower

Real Estate Tips 3 Time-Saving Hacks I Wish I Knew About When I First Moved In

Now that you purchased Your Perfect Home, it’s time to make it your very own and a reflection of who you are. We’re moving from the vision of discovering what your perfect home looks like to actually living there. Yay!

Right now you could be excited to have a housewarming party with all your friends or having your extended family visit and see what you’ve purchased. It can be anything! But how do you make that happen in the shortest period of time between work and life? Here’s how.

It Starts with Time

The most ideal scenario is having plenty of time to set up your perfect home exactly the way you want it. Taking time off work or creating specific time blocks to focus on your home is step #1. Begin by sizing up the amount of work to be done and create a timeline for completion in the weeks leading up to closing.

Time the one asset none of us are ever gonna get more of gary vee quote travis hightower

For simplicity purposes let’s assume you bought a home that needs little to no repairs and the only handy work is interior decorating and customizing the home to fit you. So we aren’t talking about a 3-month schedule or managing multiple contractors. That’s an entirely different conversation!

Move-In Priorities

I’m not going to lie… moving is stressful! Help minimize stress by focusing on these top priorities on move-in day. Setting these up quickly will make everything else much easier.

The bedroom where you sleep and wake up.
The bathroom where you start and end your day.
The kitchen where you snack and refuel.

Master Bedroom

There’s something about having everything you love about your comfortable bed in place when it’s time for rest. Plus waking up to see your master bedroom set up gets you primed for the day. It’s the first things you see when you wake up! Having it organized will give you sense of accomplishment and pride when you open your eyes.

Who has thrown just their comforter on top of the mattress because he’s totally spent after a long day of moving? 🙋‍♂️ I have. SMH.

Master Bathroom

The same is true about your master bathroom. Taking the time to set this up will allow you to end your day with a quick shower before bedtime without sifting through boxes for a towel or toothbrush.

Just like your bed, having your bathroom organized gets you into the flow from the time you wake up. It allows you to quickly tackle what’s ahead instead of problem-solving which box has what at 6 am.

Kitchen

Remember how much time it took to carefully wrap your kitchen glasses, plates, etc? This space will take time to get set. However, this space is vital in keeping you going when taking on full days of moving or having a space to unplug and connect to your significant other after a long day at the office.

Knowing where things are located makes getting a glass of water or whipping up a healthy meal easy. If you enjoy cooking, eating food on the go gets tiresome and isn’t the best fuel for a long move-in days.

For me, I love being able to take a short break for an almond butter sandwich or starting my morning with a huge veggie omelet and coffee. Getting your kitchen set up early eliminates the eating out cycle and won’t require you to leave when it’s time to eat. Or worse….waiting until you’re starved to eat!

Activity Batching Explained

The best way to explain batching is to think about doing your laundry. Most people wash their clothes after waiting for enough to run a large load, then sorting everything by color or material and washing everything at once. Versus wearing 1 outfit and then washing it every day. Make sense?

Batching Priorities

Setting up, scheduling, and meeting utility companies
Trips to the hardware store – Home Depot, Lowe’s, & Ace
Shopping for home decor and/or furniture. IKEA, etc.

Real Estate Meme Batch Please Travis Hightower Colorado Agent

Utility Companies

When setting up, new service utility companies only require a call to transfer service into your name. While internet, satellite, and TV providers will need to meet you in person. Just an FYI, in Colorado the title company will transfer water and service on your behalf.

When making these calls set aside 1-2 hours to call in your initial services. Literally go down your list of providers and schedule all of them and if you do this ahead of closing you can schedule your services on your move-in day. Another option is to choose 1 specific day where you’re available the entire day to meet various service technicians during their timeblocks.

Keep in mind, companies like Xfinity will give you a half day window for installation and it’s no fun spreading this out over the course of a week with multiple companies. With a little planning, you can batch schedule your appointments and have services complete over 1 day vs 1 week.

Hardware Store

Have you ever been in the middle of a project and needed something to complete it? It happens all the time and that’s why batching trips to the hardware store will save you a ton of time. However, this takes patience and discipline as you move from project to project.

Let’s say you’re hanging curtain rods and realize you need drywall anchors to do it right. Instead of dropping everything to drive to the hardware store, put that project on hold and start making a list of what you’re missing. Why? Because when you move to the next project, like installing a ceiling fan or light fixture, you might be missing electrical tape or wire nuts. Right?

Batching trips to the hardware store at the beginning or end of the day will avoid peak shopping times and/or traffic around the city. Getting the times on your list will be faster and easier, especially since Home Depot opens at 6 am and closes at 10 pm. I’m sure you get my point here.

Home Decor & Furniture

It goes without saying, you want to set up your perfect home to see what you’re missing before shopping for new things. This means your entire home and not just room by room. Once you have an idea of what you need it’s easy to batch things like delivery, set-up, and even “pick & pack” service.

Similar to the Perfect Home Process, creating clarity for what you need will eliminate having to return something you don’t want or spending more time than you need wandering around stores.

For example, one of the biggest shopping hacks I know is offered through IKEA. They will literally pick anything in the store for $40 and deliver it to your home for $60. No matter how many items you request for $100, it will be delivered to your home.

Service Contractors

In 2019 almost anything can be contracted out. From car rides to cleaning, you can have tasks done for you quickly and efficiently. The sky is the limit right!?!

This can be your lifestyle or something you do temporarily. Using these services allows you to focus on getting your new home 100%. And saved time will reduce stress during the first few weeks of your move-in and initial set up. Here are the services I recommend using:

Grocery Delivery Service
House Cleaning Service
Laundry Wash and Fold Service

Grocery Delivery

This has been an absolute game changer and similar to Amazon, you can do it all from home. I don’t ever have to leave my house and fall victim to any 10 for $10 gummy bears that sounded amazing while at the grocery store.

To save time is to lengthen life quote travis hightower colorado real estate

My favorite is InstaCart because I shop from my iPad while walking around my house to see what I need. It saves the drive and shopping time because they deliver from Costco, Sams Club, Whole Foods, Sprouts, King Soopers, Safeway, Restaurant Depot, and a handful of others. Plus you don’t have to have a Sam’s and Costco membership either!

For example, I can order toilet paper, paper towels, shaving cream, and coffee from Costco and my groceries for the week from Whole Foods. Then everything arrives in 1-2 hours. It’s so easy and must have when you’re trying to move in, unpack, set-up, and eat healthy.

Cleaning Service

This is pretty self-explanatory when you’re spending a lot of time getting your house organized.

It’s something that you can certainly do but it’s gonna take you like 2 – 3 hours to really clean up in most cases, right? So to have a good cleaning service come out to take care of it, totally on point.

And for me personally, I’ve been availing the service of the same cleaner for myself. She handles my Airbnbs and it’s pot-on every time. She never lets me down and and does an amazing job. I’m happy to refer her to you if you’d like.

Laundry Service

This is wash and fold. They come pick it up and bring it back a few days later folded up, all ready to go.

Again, you have to consider time vs cost. If you have a lot of comforters, towels, sheets or a lot of laundry that needs to be done and you’re just looking to save time, this is a great way to do that.

I have another provider that helps me out with my laundry in Airbnb. She charges me $25 a bag full of towels and other stuff. She takes it home, washes it, fold it, and brings it back.

Real Estate Infographic about Moving In Fast by Travis Hightower Colorado Realtor

Next Week…

Now that you’re finally settled in your perfect home, it’s time to help others find theirs! Next week, I’m going to talk about the lifeblood of my real estate business which is personal referrals. I’ll share how it looks like when you refer to me and the best ways to connect me with the people in your life.

You Love It Right? Go For It!

February 11, 2019 by Travis Hightower

Just like the Perfect Home Exercise, we have to be intentional about making an offer. Our #1 goal should be creating a win-win with the seller by presenting a winning offer that speaks to their motivations. Ultimately we need to push the seller’s hot buttons and get them to accept what we are presenting.

What are Hot Buttons?

These are the things that motivate and speaks to the seller. It’s always more than the bottom line price. A seller’s hot button can be for an obvious reason like having a vacant home that’s needing to sell. Or for not-so-obvious ones like the seller’s personality or way of being. We’ll get into it later.

Price vs. Value

In today’s market, there are tons pricing strategies. Some sellers will price their homes above market to see what they get. Others will price aggressively below market to get their home sold. This is why it’s important for us to determine the fair market value of the home before making an offer. From this space, the result of our comparison will imply how motivated the seller is to sell. And we’ll get an idea on what price it’s going to take to win the deal.

Determine Seller’s Motivation

During any home tour, we will observe how the property is maintained and any other indicators of how the seller lives there. This can give us a hint on the seller’s personality.

Do you see that the house is well-cared for and organized where everything is in their rightful places? This seller might be meticulous.

Is the house vacant and it looks like it hasn’t been lived in for quite a while? The refrigerator and closets are empty. And maybe there’s a huge stack of realtor cards in the kitchen. To me, it means the seller is motivated to sell. It means that their timeline is as quick as possible.

Want to Win the Deal Understand the Seller's Hot Buttons Travis Hightower Real Estate Q[ote

For example, when have happy hour with friends. We may have a friend that’s super chatty and energetic. Tons of fun, right? That’s who they are. That’s their way of being.

And how about when we’e going out on a trip. Having that one friend create the plan for everyone to follow. That personality is very different from the chatty person. 1) They are planners. 2) They think about it into the future. 3) They often like certainty by having a strategy or plan where they’re plugging along to execute that.

And so the same is true with the seller. There’s going to be a way of being for a seller and we want to use this information to create a winning offer that speaks to his motivations. Later I’ll share how my clients and I win the deal with this strategy.

Just Ask

After touring the home and discussing what we observe about the seller, I contact the listing agent to ask about the seller’s motivation. I typically ask the reason why the seller is moving, what closing timeframe they are working with, and the number of offers they have. I also tailor the conversation to what we are observing and what to discover.

Also if we ran into neighbors as we’re walking around the block. We talk to them and ask, “Hey, the house down the way that’s for sale. Do you know anything about it?” It’s a simple question and a lot of times that can help develop the winning offer that really speak to the seller.

Writing the Offer

Price is the #1 motivating factor for a seller. Next to that are the terms and conditions. However, the highest price doesn’t always win. Oftentimes it boils down to terms like Appraisal Gap Guarantees, Post-Closing Occupancy Agreements, or a waiver of certain inspection rights. And all of these have been winning strategies for buyers during the hot real estate market.

When the market stabilizes and homes take longer to sell, it’s a different story. Buyers can negotiate price and use terms and conditions for bigger discounts, or use the strength of borrower to create certainty for a seller. All based on what motivates the seller and pushing those hot buttons to get your offer accepted.

Getting the Offer Accepted

Price and terms depend on the pace of the deal. If there are multiple buyers competing for the same home it’s important to make a strong offer out of the gate. You will need to compete with price and terms that play into the seller’s motivation while gaining an edge on the other buyers in the hunt.

However, the rules change when you’re the only buyer negotiating with the seller. Getting an offer accepted requires everyone to work toward price and terms that all parties can agree upon. Meaning we have to get the deal done by submitting a strategic offer with price and terms that speak to the seller’s motivation. All of which fall within your expectations as the buyer.

The Highest Price doesn't always win speak to the seller's motivation to seal the deal real estate

Putting it All Together

Negotiating to get an offer accepted sets that tone from acceptance until closing. It’s super important to set the right expectations with the seller and maintaining a win-win atmosphere, while not compromising on your needs. Here are a few examples of how this happens:

Example #1

Here’s what we observed about the home and learned from what the listing agent shared about the seller. All of these were built into the offer strategy

The house is vacant.
Seller moved out of state.
House listed for more than 90 days.
Property is well maintained and cared for.
After price reductions home is priced to sell.

In this example, the seller has to sell and has been attempting to do so for over 90 days. The seller is motivated and the MLS history would confirm this with multiple price reductions.

Since the property is well maintained and cared for, it’s fair to assume the seller was overconfident and listed above value but the market rejected their initial list price.

Below are the hot buttons I would push to win the deal:

Certainty and strength of borrower. This deal will close.
Quick inspection deadlines. Out in a week if the deal breaks.
Limit inspection to health and safety items to drive for price.
Uncertainty with the home value. Lower comps in the area.
Offer below the next anticipated price reduction. > $10,000 off.

We are speaking to the seller’s motivation by creating certainty in the strength of borrower and offering quick inspection timelines. While limiting inspection items to health and safety to negotiate price and asking for a number in line with the next anticipated price reduction to get this home sold today vs. having to wait.

Example #2

Here’s a different scenario outlining what we observed and learned from the listing agent:

Property had just been listed and priced below value.
Home is well maintained and meticulously detailed.
Seller is currently under contract on a new build home.
New built is scheduled to be complete within 60 days.

In this example, we know the seller is currently under contract and waiting for their new home to be built. They face carrying 2 homes, a double move, or a lease-back scenario before they can move into their new home if this property doesn’t sell.

Need a Home Call Me Travis Hightower Colorado Real Estate

We also know time is of the essence since this property is listed below market value. An offer must be made immediately with terms that speak to the seller’s motivations. If this is the “The One”, it’s time to go!

Write an offer immediately. Get the property under contract ASAP.
Offer a fast seller acceptance and short inspection contingency.
Offer a $0 leaseback for 60 days with a $1,000 security deposit.
Close within 30 days so the seller has their proceeds in hand.
Offer at list or $5,000 to $10,000 below, depending on buyer competition.

In this scenario, we are solving the seller’s concerns by creating certainty in many ways. They don’t have to double move and get their home sold within 30 days. Having proceeds from the sale in hand allows them to comfortably wait for their new build to complete.

I also want to point out the importance of the home being meticulously detailed. This reflects the seller’s way of being. Planning and preparation is a function of predictability or certainty. Observing this inside a home is worth speaking to and a valid hot button for a seller when negotiating and creating a win-win.

Negotiate to Win

Negotiating is not order taking and not a straightforward action as I have pointed out above. The days of a home seller having all the power are gone. Now more than ever, home buyers have the ability to negotiate and the art of putting together deals is back!

How to make a winning offer in real estate Travis Hightower Colorado

Next Week…

We did it! You’re officially under contract. What’s next? Let’s cover contingencies for under contract buyers. I’ll discuss the 3 most important deadlines in a typical real estate transaction (excluding cash deals). And guess what? Some may require negotiating. Thanks for tuning in!