Finding a Real Estate Agent

One of the big decisions we had to make after we decided to sell our house was finding a seller's agent. We decided to interview four agents to see what they could do to sell our house quickly for the maximum amount possible. We picked 2 agents that worked in our area, 1 agent from the area we wanted to move to and 1 agent that was a referral from a friend. Before we started, we had a number in mind for what we wanted to list the house and another number for the lowest we'd sell.

All of the agents had the same data for sales comparables. Each one chose to interpret it differently; our area only had about 20 houses sold all of last year and very few for the size of house we had. 1 agent basically used the data from houses for sale and not sold houses as his first number, but then revised his number based on average depreciation since we bought. His number turned out to be pretty good. The next agent who worked in our area for 30 years, used data for the last 90 days and came up with a number that was about 10% below what others said. The other agent from our area also came in low. The agent we ended up using who didn't quite know our area all that well, used data from the last 9 months (I think) and came up with a number that was pretty much on target for what we were thinking.

We quickly discounted one agent because she came in thinking that we had four mortgages on our property; she either didn't read the reports on our house correctly or didn't think about what they said. We refinanced a few times, so in the time we owned the house, we had a few mortgages, but never had more than 1 at a time. Anyone that would have looked at the data would have seen that no one would have let me take out 4 mortgages for about the same amount on our property. Even with the loose lending rules of the recent past, it just wouldn't have happened. In addition, this agent had the lowest listing price and used comps from the last 90 days which really wasn't enough data. This agent also said that she and her husband loved doing open houses, despite her telling us that 80%+ of buyers start their searches on the Internet.

Another agent we discounted had never sold a house before. While people have to get their start somewhere, we didn't want it to be with us.

So that left us with 2 agents, neither of which worked in our area. Both agents gave really good sales pitches, but there were a few things that made us pick our agent. First, while he said that most buyers start their search on the Internet, his firm also worked with a lot of relocations which could have brought a buyer. Also, he and his partner had a very good track record of selling houses in the last year. Lastly, we just felt comfortable with him.

In the end, does it matter which agent we picked? Yes and no. Once a house is put in the multiple listing service, it ends up on various websites and then people find it. We had one open house which almost seemed like a last ditch effort as our agent said that less than 5% of sales start with an open house (the agent for our buyers told them to goto our open house, so maybe it helped). Our agent handled most of the paperwork electronically which is probably the norm these days; it made things very convenient. We also found our agent kept us informed all the time which was very comforting. Since we believed that our house was priced well, was in a good location, and in good condition, finding a buyer was basically a wait and see game. Our agent (and probably most seller's agents) aren't really bringing in potential buyers, but guiding the seller through the process.

Luckily, we had an offer within about 30 days. I have no regrets on our choice of agents as we received our asking price for our house and it sold relatively quickly.

Downsizing our house

[This is the first post in a series of posts that I've been saving up until our house sold.]

Almost eight years ago, my wife and I bought the house that we thought would be our last house. The house had all the room we thought we'd need, a large lot, a pool, and was in a good neighborhood with good schools.

After some discussion with my wife about how our plans have changed over the years, we decided at the beginning of the year to sell our house and look for a place that was smaller and a bit closer to the coast. The process began with 2 months of preparation cleaning out our house to get rid of things and store other things (we had plenty of storage). Our house went up for sale around the beginning of March and by the beginning of April, we accepted an offer.

The next step in the process was looking for a house to rent to give us time to scope out the market and find the "perfect" house. The rental house we found is about 1600 square feet. The house we just sold had close to 2700 square feet, so we had (and still have) a lot of "thinning" to do. The more we look at the stuff we have, the more we're taking a harder look at if we need it. My wife and I both realized that we aren't the kind of people that need a lot of material things; there are some things that we really like (our tech gadgets) and some sentimental things, but a lot of things we've collected over the years just aren't used and we can't even remember that we have them.

If we can survive in our rental with a lot less space (I am still determined to get both cars in the garage that is currently filled with an extra couch, a washer and dryer, a refrigerator, and tons of boxes), then I think we'll be good to buy a house of similar size and eliminate more junk from our lives.

When we've mentioned to people that we're "downsizing" our house, they kind of look at us funny. We're not that old and downsizing of a house is something that people do as they get older and no longer have kids at home. However, for us, we decided that the timing is right. It is also helping us to realize what is really important in our lives.

Review: iFrogz Luxe Original Case

Last time I was in Portland for work, one of my co-workers had an iFrogz Luxe Original case on his iPhone 4S that he had picked up at the AT&T store during a closeout of cases. Up until then I hadn't been using a case for my iPhone. Since I run fairly often, I put my iPhone in an armband holder and having a case on it would make it hard to fit in. Furthermore, most cases are difficult to get off and I didn't want to have to go through that everyday.

The iFrogz case, however, was different. It is a two piece design with a button that makes it easy to slip the pieces apart and remove the case. I was almost instantly sold on it. I started my quest to find the case for as little as possible and while I wanted the all black case, I ended up with the blue/black version that I got off eBay.

I've been using the case for about 6 weeks now and it looks like it protects the phone (prior to this, I managed to scratch the back of the phone which the case would have prevented). It is easy to remove to go running and also when I need to slip it into my car mount for navigation. There isn't a whole lot to say about a case; this case isn't bulky and gives a nice feel to the phone. The only downside is that since it is metal, it seems to interfere with the compass on the phone. I have to remove the case to use star gazing apps or the compass app.

Pros

• Inexpensive.
• Provides adequate protection to the sides and back.
• Doesn't look too ugly.
• Doesn't add much bulk,
• Easy to remove.

Cons

• May interfere with compass functions.

Summary

If you're the kind of person that wants a lightweight case for his iPhone, the iFrogz Luxe Original case is worth a look. I don't know how well it will hold up in the long run, but the price is right and at a minimum, it will protect the back and sides of my iPhone.

Facebook app ruined design

This past week, we launched a major update to an app where we got to start over from scratch with a new design and a completely new code base. While I never encourage a developer to read reviews on the App Store (the reviews are sometimes written by clueless people who have an axe to grind; some are legitimate gripes).

A number of the reviews said that they liked the old design better than the new design. The old design had a grid layout using the Three20 library that Facebook open sourced and uses in their app. This grid layout is not used in any Apple app and is pretty much against all the design guidelines from Apple. In addition, our old design used page curls and a very strange navigation paradigm that made sense to no one that has ever used other iOS apps. Our new design follows Apple guidelines as close as possible, uses standard navigation, standard buttons, etc.

I think that many people are so used to poorly designed apps that they take them as standard, so when an app comes along that more closely resembles Apple guidelines, they think it is ugly and works poorly. It is kind of sad that people can't see the difference between ugly, hard to use apps and elegant apps. Apple spent a significant amount of time coming up with design guidelines and making an SDK that allows developers to follow the guidelines.

I'll make it my mission to educate users one at a time on what apps are well designed and which ones aren't.