Stories abound as Governor Whitmer talks about our stay at home order in Michigan.  I greatly appreciate hearing those stories and have one of my own.  My husband's uncle had a fall and contracted COVID-19 in the hospital.  We were devastated!  He chose to stay in Florida to live, with no family.  Now, our family could not legally travel to be in Florida and he was in isolation. Take a look at the presentation, who is impacted most, and how John shares the why he decided to look at the numbers. Enjoy! 

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/michigans-population-coming-out-covid-19-john-ruther-cpa-mba-cgma

As a former board member of the HOA for Whispering Springs Lake Association, I am delighted with the board's decision to lower our fees on both the North and South Lakes.  The lower fee is $100 off!  Why does a board make this move?  Well, we have an abundance in the savings account. 

Our annual dues pay for lake maintenance, goose roundup with the DNR, and fish. Fish are one of the highlights of living on the lake. The fish have increased at a healthy rate after the minnows were added to the lake two years ago. Whispering Springs has a fishing catch & release rule.  Both young and old have a blast catching these big fish.  Just one time a year there is an all lake fishing contest for home owners.  All the fish are kept and measured to determine the winner and luckiest fisherman that day.  The contest happens around the 4th of July!

Living on a lake is great fun! And now a little less expensive. 

Freshen up with Paint

As you may have guessed since gray has been the rage for several years, popular paint colors for 2020 are light gray and an additional new color, which is blue.  Why does color matter? Color invokes feeling.  Your home feels bigger with light colors, and a little less warm with the gray tones. How do you bring in the warmth? Pair the grays and blues with deep brown wood accents and brushed bronze for a soothing atmosphere. White accents help sell homes.  White kitchens, countertops and trim bring top dollar and are most likely to help homeowners sell quickly. 

I like BEHR paint, specifically Marquee One-Coat.  Marquee is an excellent product and who has the time & energy to put on multiple coats of paint?!  

Here are the BEHR colors I selected to share with you:

Chic Gray--a soft gray color perfect for bedrooms
Weathered White--fresh, no trace of yellow, just a flat white that pairs perfectly with black
Dove--main areas of the house look smashingly great with this color
Burnished Clay--be careful with the lighting, if you use warm light then this color will look almost purple in low light
Fast as the Wind--a pale blue for your powder room or a small area
Platinum--lower level bedrooms, just a bright gray that can almost look blue

Best of luck with your painting project!  Share your photos with me at kristin@remaxgrmi.com  I can't wait to see your creativity! 

It is December, with just a couple weeks left until we celebrate the day of Christmas as a family.  The holidays bring warm feelings toward those we love and those we lost.  Add a heavy dose of patriotism to the mix and you typically find a veteran or a family member touched by a veteran.  I am one of you.  

Buried in a pile of memories is a box with 21 spent rifle shells.  My husband is a surviving son.  His father was killed in the Vietnam conflict.  A man whose child was just 6 months old.  Jim was a proud, enlisted Marine that went by ship to Okinawa.  After Okinawa, the hell in Vietnam was to follow.  No stranger to the military, he served in the Navy prior to this deployment, sneaking away from home while in high school and signing up to serve while being just 16 years old.  After the Navy and some college, he drove to California in a car he built. And through a series of bad luck in finding employment decided to enlist in the Marine Corp.  His finance couldn't have been more surprised!  Jim came home to Michigan to marry her and they moved back to California, to the base at Camp Pendleton.  The photos from their first years of marriage of their wedding and the grin on Jim's face while looking at his newborn son tell it all.  He was happy and a goofball.  I would have like him.  

He died unexpectedly.  While unloading the ship in Okinawa, Jim was responsible for guiding the chained boxes to their location on the dock.  The crane operator crossed a power line--a complete accident--and the chains Jim held discharged deadly electrical currents. Jim was electrocuted. 

I think of Jim at Christmas.

What does this all have to do with real estate, you may be asking yourself.  Well, if you find yourself ready to embrace the American dream of owning a home, as a veteran you are qualified.  Just reach out to me and I will fully assist and support your dream.  I come from a veteran family.  

 

Before I came to learn real estate, I was unaware about how you put a price on a unique feature of your home.  Let's pull back the curtain and show you OZ.  

Ready?

First you research to find recently sold properties in your area.  'Great,' you think, 'that leaves me with hundreds if not thousands of homes.'  Next, narrow down two very similar properties located close to your home, and be sure one of the two properties has that unique feature that is most like your home: a pool, a sauna, a three season room, and more.  Now look at the price per square foot.  What is the market willing to pay for the unique feature?  Remember, you are dealing with sold homes.  Be sure you have an 'apples to apples' as a comparison.  

In practical terms, will homes match exactly in our comparison?  Probably not, so deduct or add the value of an extra bedroom or what ever the plus is on the home without the unique feature.  Call your favorite real estate agent to see if they agree.  You may have learned in a very concrete way how to price your home.  Now go confidently in the marketplace and get the best price.  You did the work, and you deserve the confidence in your listing price.       

There was a new plaque on the house indicating the age of the home and area.  Impressive.  I opened up the door and began turning on lights and getting a feel for the property.  The former dining room was ahead, it was gutted and the long windows let in enough light to give the impression of cheerfulness.  And there it was--the Seller's letter.  A one page letter on stationery paper.   It began, "I am a pilot..." and included a story of why the seller selected this home and his lifestyle.  I looked around me and saw not one area that was renovated.  Fluff--that letter was full of fluff, and I was looking at a crumbling, unloved home that smelled of urine. 

My buyers were a darling, newly married couple that wanted to live downtown, and walk to work.  The location was perfect. We walked the gutted home that looked like squatters lived there at night.  I advised them to not go out on the sagging deck.  You can do "ugly" as a young inexperienced buyer by painting, adding new countertops, but this was too much. Hundreds of thousands of dollars would be needed to make it livable.  (I won't mention the condition of the bathrooms.)

That Seller's letter stayed with me.  The psychology behind making the Seller an adventurer.  Just wow! 

There is a housing shortage in Grand Rapids, with the average time on the market being 1.5 months.  Sellers are afraid to list their homes before putting an offer on another home.  They feel their home will sell quickly.  And it will!   It is not uncommon for a home to sell the first day if it is priced right and clean.  If you find yourself in this situation and are motivated to move, you may look at a bridge loan.  

What is a bridge loan....well, it's 'a sum of money lent by a bank to cover an interval between two transactions, typically the buying of one house and the selling of another.' (according to Google)

Here's what you need to understand.  For the bridge loan, the maximum amount that can be borrowed is 85% of the appraised value.  For a home valued at $160,000, the maximum bridge amount would be $136,000.  The loan will take 30 days to process, and you will need an appraisal and title work completed.  Is a bridge right for you?  You decide. 

Do you know someone like this?  

I met "Andy" when he moved in my neighborhood--he was a young dad, playing soccer with his son in the yard.  We chatted about our dogs, soccer and children. I saw him 'off and on' around the neighborhood, then at an Association meeting.  We both volunteered for a board position with the Association. As Andy talked at our first  board meeting, I realized that he knows a lot about our neighbors-- much more than me, because he makes a point to meet people and learn their stories.   

Six small tornadoes touched down in our community recently.  After we came out into the yards from our safe basements to assess the damage, guess who was on the sidewalk asking if everything was alright.  You guessed it--Andy.  He already knew about damage to nearby homes and who needed help in righting a pontoon boat which had flipped upside down in the storm. He was on his way to help, but, of course!  I looked at him again and thought--there goes a guy who will one day be mayor of our town.  I'm glad to know him, for he's remarkable.

Count up the number of places you've lived.  The number of homes, dorms and apartments quickly add up.  I am currently on #11.  And of all the places I have lived, none has been as friendly as my current cul-de-sac on Whispering Springs Lake in Grandville, Michigan.  Here is what makes this place special: 

• When I moved in, my neighbors invited my family to their home one evening to welcome us and give us tips on the best physicians, dentists, animal hospitals and the like.  
• Beginning at Thanksgiving, my neighbors will come by and drop off a homemade treat that they made for the holidays.  Warm cinnamon rolls, dutch treats, cookies, bread and a bottle of wine.  
• The view is really beautiful!  Sunsets are so expansive when you see the water in the foreground.

A small picture given by the Lake Association has rested on my kitchen counter for 3 years which states exactly how I feel about Whispering Spring Lake.  It says, "If you are lucky enough to live on the Lake, you are lucky enough."

I'm lucky enough.