My Trip to Chicago and Snow

Here are a couple of pictures of my recent visit to Chicago. I had never been to Chicago before and I was excited to be there. I wish I was able to be there longer to actually see some sites. We did drive down Michigan Ave for the Magnificent Mile, but didn't get to stop anywhere. We had dinner at the Navy Pier, then back to the hotel and then the airport the next day. My flight got canceled, but I did manage to hop another flight.



Maybe I shouldn't have tried so hard so I could have stayed one more night... oh well, there'll be another time!

There are a couple of new shows on HGTV that I've watched a few times, House Hunters and Hidden Potential. These shows really tell me how much my buyers choose houses that THEY love and not choose houses for themselves that I love.

House Hunters is where they take people out and show them house after house. I remember when I first saw it, the people were given the choice of three houses and they had to make a decision. The last time I saw it, they made a comment to the effect of, "three weeks and several houses later, choice #4 is such and such house." That's great that they're now acknowledging that it takes more than seeing just a couple of houses to make a decision.

Hidden Potential is where you take a couple that has looked at several homes already and they're just not finding what they like in their price range. Typically, these buyers are trying to get into a pricey neighborhood for the lowest end of the price range possible and then they're not happy with the condition of the homes. Hidden Potential takes them to three houses with a designer and he completely redesigns the houses on his computer. Then the buyers go "WOW!" The problem with this show is that you take someone's budget of 300k, and you show them houses around $200k, but you show them $100k worth of improvements to the house. What they don't acknowledge is that if you're buying a house in a $200k neighborhood and you're putting in $100k of repair, you just over updated your house and there's a huge possibility that you're never going to see that money back on resale.

Anyway, back to the point of this post... On both of these shows, I listen to what the buyers are saying that they want and watch intently as the hosts are explaining the different features and the Hidden Potential of each house. I then make my educated guess on which house they should choose. I have been correct ONCE!! That's right, only once! Can you believe that?! This is my job, and it takes into account my degree in Psychology and I've been picking the wrong houses for these people all these years! It's no wonder why I get so shocked sometimes when my buyers call and say they want to write an offer on such and such property though I'm prepared for them to say the other property.

No matter how much training you've had over the years with reading people, most are still going to shock you with their decisions. I mean, a family that keeps talking about how they need more space and an extra bathroom actually "settles" for a 2 bedroom, 1 bath home just because they liked the designers plans... I don't get it. If I was the agent working with them, I would keep reminding them over and over again about resale and how 3 bedrooms and 2 full baths will resell so much better than a 2 bedroom with 1 bath any day of the week! My job is also to remind them that the point of their move was for more space and how does 2 bedrooms accomplish this. I wish they would do follow ups on these people later to see when they resell and why.

Does anyone do any better when guessing which houses these people are choosing on the shows?

The Sense of Accomplishment

I have the sense of a HUGE accomplishment today!

Whenever I would show 2-story houses that had a "dust collector" above the front door, I would tell myself that if I ever had a house like that, I was going to decorate it, and it would involve one of those treasure chests. When we bought out current house about a year and a half ago, it actually has the "dust collector"! I was so excited. For those of you who don't know what a dust collector is, it's a plant ledge that just collects dust, mainly because it's too high for you to dust it.

I wanted to decorate it, but when it came down to it, I didn't really know what I wanted to do for that spot. My husband was very much against putting anything there because "who is going to dust it?" I told him that the point is that no one dusts it, the stuff just sits there and looks pretty. So, all this time goes by, and I had secretly been looking for a reasonably priced chest and I would build around it. I looked several places, but I was not going to spend $100+ on something to collect dust.

I received a referral last month from an agent in California. They came into town and we were looking at many houses. While looking, I had mentioned my plans for the "dust collector" but hadn't been able to find any chests worth the price. Before these buyers left town, they stopped in a store and called me. They said they were there and that they had tons of chests at 50% off! It's weird because I had gone to that store, but not that location. It turns out that the location they were at was one of the biggest in the area so they carried more things.

The next day, I drove up there, and I got my chest for only $34!!! I brought it home, and my husband was like, "we're not putting that up there!" I was like, "Oh, yes we are!"

I bought that chest about a month ago, and yesterday my husband looks at me while watching TV and asks, "Are you ready to put that stuff on the ledge?" I immediately jumped up and got my jacket on so we could bring in the HUGE ladder from the backyard.


I have a huge sense of accomplishment that I had been wanting for many years and finally did it. Yes, it's something simple, I didn't cure cancer or anything, but it's my own creation and I like it. It's a chest, a chair, a throw blanket, and a plant that was just sitting around the house. All for under $65!
As for Mike, he thinks it blocks out too much sun, but we'll just have to open the windows in the front formals! I told him I would climb up there twice a year to dust, but that means he's going to have to bring in the big ladder from outside! I wonder if that's going to happen....