Speaker 1:
It’s time for The Central Iowa Real Estate Scoreboard, right here on 1460 AM and 106.3 FM KXnO. Now, Misty Soldwisch and Heather Burnside.
Heather Burnside:
Good morning, and welcome to The Central Iowa Real Estate Scoreboard. I’m Heather, she’s Misty. How are you?
Misty SOLDwisch:
Great. How are you doing today?
Heather Burnside:
I can’t wait to dive into today’s show because on the show, I mean, I’m a host, I’m also your friend, well, in life and in advertising for real estate, but I’m also a client as well.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes.
Heather Burnside:
And coming up in the show and with us right now is Jeff Springer, also a client of Misty’s. Good morning and thank you so much for joining us.
Jeff Springer:
Good morning. Thanks for having me.
Heather Burnside:
Really excited to dive into some of this. First of all, want to remind you that you can follow The Central Iowa Real Estate Scoreboard on Facebook. There is all sorts of clips from past episodes, great real estate tips. There’s open house information on all of Misty’s social media channels, so make sure you check those out.
Heather Burnside:
We’re going to start though with something that I think a lot of people can relate to, even though maybe not specifically to this particular problem, but it is a neighbor that has decided to… How should I put this? Creatively decorate the exterior of their house.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Express themselves
Heather Burnside:
Yes.
Misty SOLDwisch:
… fully through the exterior of their home.
Heather Burnside:
And in this case, it was in Northern California, and it was a legal battle pitting a homeowner against a town over what they call the Flintstone House. Yard statues that blanketed the lawn, a lot of people looked at that and thought, “No, that’s not creativity. That’s not expressing yourself. That is an eyesore.”
Misty SOLDwisch:
Looking at it, it looks very accurate. It’s a passionate reproduction.
Heather Burnside:
Yeah. I mean, it literally looks like the Flintstone house, right down to all the colors and the weird shape of it, and then they decided to go a few steps further and it looks like maybe AstroTurf lawn, and all of these statues.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Crazy. It very much is like that’s why covenants exist, because of issues that people have had in the past like this. And obviously, because they won their lawsuit, there must not have been a covenant to prevent that, so they did their thing.
Heather Burnside:
And that’s where I think the majority of people don’t live in an association
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right.
Heather Burnside:
… where you could be covered in a covenant.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes. Yeah.
Heather Burnside:
So there are things that I guess, unless there is some sort of specific city ordinance against it, you kind of have to live with it.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Well, and Heather, you don’t necessarily have to be in a homeowner’s association to have covenants for your neighborhood, and sometimes people get really surprised by that, and they’ll throw up a certain type of fence and then they find out, “Oh, there was actually a covenant that prevented that.” So definitely, I’m not seeing any anticipation of people recreating the town of Bedrock in their front yard here in Central Iowa, but I think it is a good reminder to be aware if you do have covenants.
Heather Burnside:
And you must come across this too. You have a client that is maybe interested in selling their home.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes.
Heather Burnside:
And they wanted to show well, and their neighbor has a, I don’t know, an obsession with pink flamingos or something. There’s
Misty SOLDwisch:
Or a loud dog.
Heather Burnside:
Yes.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Or they don’t like lawn care, things like that.
Heather Burnside:
What do you recommend to clients that are worried about things like that? Is that proceed with caution and gently, and with respect for your neighbor and just talk to them, or what do you recommend?
Misty SOLDwisch:
I have had situations where the seller has put up a privacy screening of some sort, in a way that is tasteful, just to kind of block that. Sometimes it’s having a nice conversation, but usually people are a little defensive in situations like that. So, it is something that you have to be kind of creative and tactful about.
Heather Burnside:
So that was one thing that caught our eye here this morning
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes.
Heather Burnside:
… on The Central Iowa Real Estate Scoreboard.
Misty SOLDwisch:
For sure.
Heather Burnside:
Another thing that you wanted to talk about that kind of surprises me, is porch versus patio. I guess maybe growing up in Iowa, I kind of knew what defines a porch versus a patio, but are there clients that actually aren’t aware of this?
Misty SOLDwisch:
I hear people mix up the terms like “patio” and “deck” even, all of the time. So yes, I thought this article was interesting, because porches are something we talk about so much here, like you said. A porch is the front of the home.
Heather Burnside:
Most of the time it’s enclosed too, right?
Misty SOLDwisch:
Exactly.
Heather Burnside:
Whether it’s
Misty SOLDwisch:
Covered.
Heather Burnside:
… all season or not is another story, but.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right. It adds curb appeal, and it’s a wonderful place for people to relax.
Heather Burnside:
And do you ever see that sometimes a porch is not staged, or it’s considered an afterthought when people are preparing their home to sell?
Misty SOLDwisch:
Well, I mean, the problem is so often, the way people live in their homes, they enter through the garage, they don’t go in and out of their front door. So sometimes they forget what they can do there, whereas a lot of people use that as a wonderful decorating opportunity, but sometimes people just overlook it or forget it, so.
Heather Burnside:
Or use it as storage.
Misty SOLDwisch:
What’s that? Yeah, it’s a place for the Amazon packages to be covered.
Heather Burnside:
It’s a place for my collection of bikes to live.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right, exactly.
Heather Burnside:
But then moving to the backyard, that’s where you’re more than likely going to find a patio.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right.
Heather Burnside:
And I would assume that the difference between a patio and a deck is a deck is a structure, a patio
Misty SOLDwisch:
It’s usually elevated in some way. Yes.
Heather Burnside:
A patio is poured concrete.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right.
Heather Burnside:
And sometimes a lot of homes have both, obviously.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Mm-hmm. A great place to be able to grill or add a fire pit. And I mean, this is something the article talked about, it’s just lots of patios, and decks, and porches were added last year when people were spending a lot of time at home. So good to know what the difference is, so that you’re asking for the right thing.
Heather Burnside:
And it is a good to stage them too, if you’re selling.
Misty SOLDwisch:
So important to stage them. Having that extra outdoor space makes a home feel larger. And so, really important.
Heather Burnside:
Finally, before we get to break and kind of dive into Jeff’s experience being a client of Misty’s, a lot of people, and it’s still in the news, obviously, the tragic condo collapse in Florida, and seeing some of those stories coming out of there, there were maybe a few residents in that neighborhood that used
their condo there as a vacation spot or a second home, but the majority of people lived there and that was their residence, and to lose it all like that, just tragic.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Well, and it’s something that has shaken condo owners nationwide that live in large buildings going, “Oh, is there something we’re not aware of?”
Heather Burnside:
I guess, what advice would you give to somebody? And I understand, and we talked about this a little off the air, but some of the problems that this condo faced are things that we’re not going to see here in Central Iowa. I’m sure that maybe ocean erosion, being that close to the water, the climate down there, the saltwater, that was probably contributing a lot, and that’s not problems that we’re going to see here. But there probably are issues when you live in a building with multiple complexes, and you’re trusting whoever’s in charge to keep the maintenance up, but if you see something, say something, if you live in a building like that.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yeah, and I think it’s important to kind of understand how a condominium building works, in that you own the interior of your unit, in most situations, and then you own, along with everyone else in the association, the common elements. Those elements have to be insured, and so that’s where it’s important to be involved in your HOA, make sure to have some knowledge of who’s covering the structure, and what kind of things that you need to do to have a safe building.
Heather Burnside:
We talk all the time about being involved, and yes, I think that in this particular case too, the condo board, a lot of people had resigned because they were with how the maintenance and their concerns about the maintenance were going.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Isn’t that interesting?
Heather Burnside:
So yeah, if you have any questions or concerns, you either go to the condo board, or maybe even go a step further and become a part of the board.
Misty SOLDwisch:
And I’ll say I own multiple small condos in Central Iowa as investment properties in older buildings, and that gets to be a real issue in these older buildings when there’s major maintenance projects, because people don’t like to have their HOA dues raised or have an assessment. It becomes this personal financial burden. That’s where it’s so important for a homeowner’s association to be proactive in setting aside money for maintenance, because I mean, a situation like this, when you know what the consequence could be, of course you’re going to put the money out there, but a lot of times, it just doesn’t feel imminent.
Heather Burnside:
Right. And a lot of people ended up losing everything. I hope that their insurance will cover it, but
Misty SOLDwisch:
I would assume between homeowners’ insurance and then also the association insurance, but obviously when there’s so many tragic deaths, I mean…
Heather Burnside:
Right, and the building was a total loss.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Crazy.
Heather Burnside:
And all of its contents.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Crazy. It’s just, I think it’s a good wake-up call though. I mean, for older buildings in general, that that maintenance has to be a part of the association’s commitment.
Heather Burnside:
Well, and this article mentions a wave of inspections on the heels of this. Do you expect that this might happen in places that aren’t Florida?
Misty SOLDwisch:
Oh, absolutely. I mean, I’m sure HOA meetings all over the country, they’re having discussions about what needs to happen, and I would think cities are being proactive about that as well. But Jeff, you said you were familiar with that area where that occurred.
Jeff Springer:
Yeah. I have friends that live down there on the beach in condos, and I’ve talked to one of them recently since this collapse of this building, and one of the things they found out in their association is that they’re underinsured. Not by a little, by a lot. This insurance was bought 20 years ago, and it’s never been updated. And so, if they had a loss like that, they’d be out.
Heather Burnside:
Oh, my goodness.
Jeff Springer:
Because they’re underinsured.
Misty SOLDwisch:
So definitely gave them some good perspective on what they needed to change.
Jeff Springer:
Absolutely.
Misty SOLDwisch:
I think a lot of times it’s just about money too. It’s like, “Oh, we’re comfortable with this payment and we don’t want to rock the boat by charging owners more,” but it’s worth it.
Heather Burnside:
Absolutely.
Jeff Springer:
Yep.
Heather Burnside:
So, speaking of Jeff Springer, who is our guest in the studio, we’re going to get to know him a little better after the break, as well as talk about the experience that he had selling a home with Misty.
Misty SOLDwisch:
That’s right. I’m so excited.
Heather Burnside:
So that is coming up next on The Central Iowa Real Estate Scoreboard on 106.3 FM KXnO.
Barbara Corcoran:
Hi, I’m Barbara Corcoran. Are you thinking of selling your home, but you’re not sure which agent to hire? You have a lot of choices but really, the choice is simple, because there’s only one agent I would trust to sell my home. Go to soldincentraliowa.com and check out Misty Soldwisch’s guarantee to sell your home, or she will buy it. And there’s no risk working with Misty, she will let you out of your contract if you need to for any reason. Go to soldincentraliowa.com and get your home sold.
Heather Burnside:
It’s time to get Misty with it, as Misty breaks down the Central Iowa real estate scene. And I feel like this is worth mentioning again, because last week we were on the air during the fourth, and there may have been people that missed it, but the real trends report came out, and you are the number one large team in Iowa. Congratulations.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Thank you. At number 54 in the country, which I’m really proud of, because the Central Iowa market does not have the pricing that some of the other markets have. So yeah, it was great. I just had a shout out from Barbara Corcoran on my Facebook page about it too, so I was excited that the word’s getting out.
Heather Burnside:
Well, congratulations. Now, I was reading that the real estate market might be just slowing down a bit, wanted to get your take on that.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yeah. Not, as hectic, crazy, still very steady. This past week in Central Iowa, 273 new listings hit the market, 381 went under contract, and 310 closed. Quite a bit less than the week before. And I was thinking about this, every week we’re like, “How is it so many more homes are going under contract and new listings? When’s it going to hit zero?” One thing that we’ve talked about in the past that I just kind of connected, one out of five accepted offers right now fall through at some point.
Heather Burnside:
Oh, wow.
Misty SOLDwisch:
So, some of those properties come back on the market and resell again. That’s something that we always want to work hard to prevent, but Central Iowa market’s still hopping.
Heather Burnside:
How are the closings going? I know that that was an issue the last time we talked.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes. We’re definitely telling people to anticipate delays. Appraisals are a big issue right now, just the backlog for appraisers, and all of the extra requirements that are being put on them, it’s really creating a lot of uncertainty on timelines.
Heather Burnside:
Well, we will not maybe focus on the closings that don’t go so smoothly. Let’s focus on an experience that went very well
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yes.
Heather Burnside:
… and that’s one reason why we have Jeff Springer in here. You have a long-running relationship with them when you were with Springer Pest Solutions. Great to have you here.
Jeff Springer:
Thank you very much.
Heather Burnside:
And I guess I just tipped off a little bit about your background, but share with everybody else what your background is, obviously as a long-time local business owner.
Jeff Springer:
Well, I’m 45 years in the industry, pest control industry, termite inspections, termite treatments, that type of thing. And I moved here in 1989, started out as a one-man show, and by 1995, we were number 43 in the nation in size, which was saying a lot coming from Iowa, because it’s not a big city, population
base was not there. We were competing against companies that had 20 million people, and we had a half million people in our market area. So, we did quite well, and one of the reasons I hired Misty was due to her marketing. I have a lot of respect for that. Back in the mid ’80s, I had an opportunity to meet a gentleman named Ted Turner.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Oh, wow.
Jeff Springer:
I don’t know if y’all know
Misty SOLDwisch:
I’ve heard of him.
Jeff Springer:
… that name, and
Heather Burnside:
CBS Ted Turner?
Jeff Springer:
…it was right when CNN was being born, but I was a entrepreneur wannabe out in California, and I was running a company, but I wanted my own. And anyway, I was one of the top prospects in Northern California for under 40, at that point in my life. And so, I got to go to a meeting with 10 other entrepreneurs that Ted Turner was putting on, and I learned something about business, and it was the only secret he gave me, and he gave it to me personally. And I asked him, “What was your secret to success?” And he says, “There’s only one: early to bed, early to rise, work like hell, and advertise,” and that’s something that has stuck with me my entire life. It made sense to me, and the more marketing you do, as long as you’re performing and doing good quality work, you’re going to grow. And that’s one of the reasons why I hired Misty, because anytime anybody makes a commitment, advertising is very expensive, and whenever you make that type of commitment to your business and you’re spending that kind of money, it makes you perform better.
Heather Burnside:
Absolutely.
Misty SOLDwisch:
You got to pay the bills, right?
Jeff Springer:
You got to pay the bills. And so, that’s the reason why I did business with Misty.
Heather Burnside:
Yeah, and I feel like you also develop a relationship with the people that you’re marketing to. They feel like they know you before they ever give you a call, at least that’s what I would like to think that I’m helping do for you
Misty SOLDwisch:
Absolutely.
Heather Burnside:
… by telling our listeners not only about Misty and our services, but then the fact that I use them personally.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right, right. But yeah, that meant a lot to me knowing Jeff’s background, that he understood more so than the average person does, the commitment that a business makes when you do advertise on a large scale.
Jeff Springer:
You bet.
Heather Burnside:
Now, have you sold a lot of property yourself too? Because if you’re already dealing with somebody that’s pretty experienced, Misty, they are going to have an eye on you.
Misty SOLDwisch:
That’s right.
Jeff Springer:
I have over the years. Right now, I have about 20 residential properties that I own in the market area that I’ve accumulated over the years, whether we failed as a company and I ended up buying the home to solve a problem or whatever, but the rental income is nice in my retirement. But yeah, I’ve sold a lot of properties over the years.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Oh, that’s a good testimonial too, that it’s good to accumulate properties, because it’s such a wonderful retirement income to have.
Jeff Springer:
Yeah. Since I’m a failure in the stock market, the real estate’s always been good to me.
Heather Burnside:
So, I guess let’s dive into your story with your experience with Misty, starting with what you were selling.
Jeff Springer:
All right. First of all, this townhome, I call it the upper end of that type of home, and so it made it a little more difficult to sell. And the problem was I had a real estate friend that I had been doing business with for years, he had the property, and I think the timing was wrong for him because he was also starting a business. And anyway, I had the property listed for nine months with no activity, nothing. And I kept on
giving him three more months, three more months, and finally, we called it quits and he said, “Jeff, maybe it’s time for a change.”
Jeff Springer:
Well, that’s when I called Misty, had her come out to the home, I interviewed, talked about it, and again, the reason why she got the call, one, she was heavily referred to by people I know and friends of mine, but two, her marketing skills, and I liked that. When I’ve seen her and Barbara Corcoran on commercials, it meant a lot to me, because I know that wasn’t cheap to put together. And so anyway, we ended up making a decision, she made a deal with me. That’s the reason I’m here today.
Misty SOLDwisch:
“I like your business, man. Let’s make a deal.”
Jeff Springer:
That’s right.
Heather Burnside:
“When I get this job done for you, you’re going to come in and tell people why.” I like it.
Jeff Springer:
Yeah.
Heather Burnside:
And you’d mentioned it’d been on the market a long time, and it says here it was on the market 311 days when you took over the listing?
Jeff Springer:
Yeah.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yeah. Yeah, I looked it up to make sure that I had the accurate info, 311 days. First of all, it was an absolutely gorgeous townhome. I think we had it as our featured home of the week around Mother’s Day, seems like, because I was like, “Buy it for your mom!” But absolutely gorgeous, I felt like walking in, “This place is incredible, it’s just not being presented to its full potential.” We really needed to frame it in a new light to show how amazing it was.
Heather Burnside:
Now, I clicked through the pictures. Did you do a lot of work on it? Because we’d been talking off the air that that was an older townhome, still in great shape, but maybe had been a little dated. Did you do a lot of updating? Because the pictures look beautiful.
Jeff Springer:
No, it wasn’t that old. It was only four years old.
Heather Burnside:
Oh, gotcha.
Jeff Springer:
We had redone the kitchen in it and the fireplace, a little more curb appeal when you walked in the door.
Heather Burnside:
Right. So, you just thought that maybe it needed to be staged and presented better.
Misty SOLDwisch:
It had had some staging. I didn’t feel like it was
Jeff Springer:
Not very well, I may add.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Right. It didn’t have staging, and I think this is an issue that a lot of agents run into when they do home staging, and Jeff, you talked about it as we were chatting, because you have a lot of experience seeing staged homes in other markets that are so impressive. There’s not a lot of stagers in Central Iowa, and a $500,000 plus townhome needs to have appropriate staging to show the quality and highlight what’s there, and it had inappropriate staging, in my mind. And so, I said, “We’re going to use the best stager to show it to its full potential,” and I think you were skeptical called because you really had seen great staging here compared to other places.
Jeff Springer:
Yeah. In Iowa, I have not seen great staging compared to the California market or the Arizona market. They really go all out, and when people walk in the door, they can place themselves in the home, how they’re going to live in that home, and proper staging to me was everything when it came to selling my unit.
Heather Burnside:
The other thing I thought was interesting, and you may know this as being a buyer and seller yourself, but you’re thinking it’s been on the market 311 days, maybe it’s priced too high, but you actually raised the price.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yeah. Yeah, it
Heather Burnside:
And then it sold.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Well, and with his last listing, he had started at a higher price, and I mean, the strategy had only been, “Let’s lower the price, let’s lower the price.” Right?
Jeff Springer:
That was the only strategy working.
Misty SOLDwisch:
And so, I said, “Nope, let’s raise it up there, because it doesn’t matter. We’re going to present it better.”
Jeff Springer:
Right.
Heather Burnside:
Okay. So, you interviewed, you decided to go with Misty, and how did that go? How long did it take to sell after 311 days on the market?
Jeff Springer:
I believe it was six days on the market Misty had it, and it was sold and closed within five weeks
Misty SOLDwisch:
Mic drop.
Jeff Springer:
… after the sale.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Yeah. Whew, I was relieved. I was relieved because I mean, when someone has that kind of experience and then they come to you and say, “I’m coming to you because I know you’re great at marketing and I need a different experience,” you want to live up to that. So, I was so glad that it worked well.
Heather Burnside:
So, I guess maybe we’ve covered this already, but why would you recommend Misty if there’s any other reasons other than the marketing, the experience, the ability to hook you up with the right stager?
Jeff Springer:
Well obviously, her experience speaks for itself, her professionalism speaks for itself. Her team, probably the only frustration I had was when I picked up the phone to call, I couldn’t get to Misty, because she has a team of people that intervene, but on the actual listing, Misty came out to the house, and it was a personal one-on-one time. But that was impressive to me with her numbers that she had accumulated in the Des Moines market. Being attached to the industry like I was for 30 years doing real estate termite inspections, I knew the realtors in this market, I knew who they are, and we performed probably 70% of the real estate inspections in this market for years. And so, I got to know a lot of real estate folks over the time, and when your competitors say positive things about you, that’s important to me. And so, nobody ever said anything negative about Misty. It’s just, she’s a go-getter.
Heather Burnside:
And I don’t know about you, but even when I couldn’t get a hold of Misty, or I knew that she had… I worked with Emily as far as actually looking at homes and closing the deal, and then I had other people that were contacting me about the moving truck or paperwork, but I always knew that Misty was there in the background, should anything happen.
Jeff Springer:
Absolutely. I can turn that into a positive or a negative. To me, it was a positive. I’m kind of short-fused guy, I want what I want, and I want it now. When I picked up the phone, I expected to talk to Misty. Well, that’s not the way it worked, but they proved to me their system worked, because somebody was there taking care of whatever my issues were, immediately. And so, they proved to me over the time that they weren’t a one horse shop. She had many team members working to make sure this transaction went down well, and it did.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Another thing I loved was just talking about that I think something that we uniquely really push as part of our strategy is open houses, and a lot of agents do not believe in them, do not do them. Jeff said he bought his current home through an open house and I see that happen all the time, but we had someone visit a Thursday open house at his property, that ended up being the buyer.
Heather Burnside:
Just another reason to hire Misty. When some people are abandoning a proven method of selling homes, you’re sticking with it, and believe it or not, we’re almost out of time.
Misty SOLDwisch:
Oh my goodness.
Heather Burnside:
I know. So get quickly to the home of the week. It’s at 4400 EP True Parkway, Unit 44, and it’s another townhome.
Misty SOLDwisch:
These West Des Moines townhomes, Western suburbs townhomes, just such a great way to have an easy lifestyle in a convenient location. Priced at 230,000. It’s two bedroom, two and a half bath with a two car garage, and a full unfinished basement, which is a big plus, a lot of townhomes don’t have that. But just a fantastic location, and it’s just a cool open floor plan, it’s a great value.
Heather Burnside:
Check Misty’s social media channels for more info.