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Hello You Beautiful People Welcome to
Selling Greenville a wonderful real estate
podcast here in lovely Greenville South
Carolina I am your host as always
Stan McCune real realtor here in Greenville I
don't know what I was about to say there
realtor realtor actually the way
we're supposed to pronounce it is
realtor
but nobody does that because that
sounds really weird realtor here in
Greenville South Carolina all of my
contact information like always is in
the show notes and I always ask you guys
to do this but just a reminder because I
really would like for as many of you as
possible to do this please leave me a
rating or review for the show I need
as many of those as possible and and if
you get any tangible benefit from the
show that is giving me back a little bit
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you subscribe as well downloading
episodes apparently helps the algorithm
in some way as well so any of those
things that you do that helps the show
that encourages me to keep going so I
appreciate that today we are going to be
talking about turning a real estate
weakness into a strength now that can go
in a whole lot of different directions
so I want to be very clear I'm talking
about from the standpoint of an actual
piece of real estate not necessarily you
as a real estate mind or you as a real
estate investor turning a weakness into
a strength that might be something that
we can discuss in a future episode but
I'm talking specifically from the
standpoint of updating a property and
turning a weakness into a strength
within a very specific property and I
think this will be very practical for
anyone no matter who you are what
properties you have or may have in the
future I think that this will help you
for starters here we know that every
house has some sort of weakness on a
very basic level a home might just have
a floor plan that doesn't really have
great flow it doesn't flow very well
that's a weakness maybe the closets
are too small that's that's a weakness
maybe the bathrooms there's not
enough bathrooms or or there could be
more bathrooms or or maybe the the
location of the house isn't very good
there's all sorts of different things
when you're looking at homes you're
processing this in in the back of your
mind right if you're looking to move
you're thinking through all of the
potential pros and cons of a house now a
lot of the weaknesses in a house are
correctable if if the location is bad
that's not an easily correctable thing
now now there are ways that you can
potentially correct it but it's not
easily correctable I'm not going to even
discuss that in this show I'll leave
that perhaps for another episode but
others of those things that I mentioned
before floor plan
bathrooms closet space etc etc
those are things that can potentially be
corrected and what I want you to think
about is that some of the greatest
opportunities for a house for adding
value to a house and for making a house
more marketable or a property more
marketable or more valuable some of the
greatest opportunities for that lie in
those weaknesses those
weaknesses should be seen as
opportunities potential
opportunities and you might be asking
hopefully you're asking okay how how how
are there opportunities in those
weaknesses well for one thing those
are are not those weaknesses typically
those those obvious weaknesses they're
not subjective those are weaknesses that
perhaps won't be as important to some
people as others but will be things that
the majority of people notice and are
bothered by and that's important right
because a lot of people they don't
know what updates they need to do in
order to make a property more valuable
and and one of the things that I do
frequently as a realtor is I'll give
consultations for people looking to sell
their house they'll ask me hey what do
you think about this should I spend
money doing this or should I spend money
doing this what what is a space
that you think that I need to focus on
to bring up the value of the home etc
etc and I always think about it in terms
of will you get that money back at the
end of the day that that's what people
are really asking if I spend $500 I I
got this question recently should I
upgrade the
dishwasher in the kitchen all the other
appliances have been upgraded should the
dishwasher be upgraded and I simply
approached it okay dishwasher it's going
to cost what 5 600 bucks will you get
that money back when you sell the home I
came to the conclusion no the dishwasher
was was functioning fine it looked fine
in the kitchen I told that homeowner no
you're you're not going to get that5 or
$600 back and that's how I always
approach it but those are those are
questions that are always going in
people's minds is what do I need to do
in order to update a home to make it
more valuable well these things that are
weaknesses these are are things that are
really obvious so there's not that
subjectivity and as well because it's
not subjective to you it's also not
going to be as subjective to other
people looking at it these are going to
be weaknesses that by and large I'm
talking about things by and large when
you go into a house what are the things
that you that frustrate you the most
about the house or that practically on a
day-by-day basis you are frustrated
about one one of those things that I've
run into is there are a lot of homes
that don't have very big pantries
big pantries really make a big
difference if you have a really Slim
Pantry being able to go from a very
small pantry to a very big Pantry that's
something that provides value to a lot
of
people and so the point being is that
these weaknesses when you go into a
house and you see these weaknesses
they're not subjective cosmetic things
these are things that if they are
updated in some way they will provide
tangible objective value to the bulk of
the market and your personal preference
even though it might be different on
some other things on something like this
your personal preference is probably
going to align with the with the
Market's preference with the average
buyer's preference so so weaknesses
clear straightforward weaknesses of a of
a home that can be updated there's
opportunity there because a my first
point here I feel like I'm preaching a
sermon my first point is that they
they're very clear-cut and you update it
it will immediately provide
value
I I have an example of this
from my previous home that I used to
live in that I now rent out as a as a
short-term rental on on Airbnb and
whatnot
we had a very choppy floor plan in
that house it was a split level try
level home and the main level of the
home just had walls everywhere I mean
there were all sorts of walls there was
a living room a dining room and the
kitchen and this is all within like a
600 square ft piece of space so it's not
a it's not a huge area I mean that's
only a little bit bigger than a than
your average two-car garage but there
were walls everywhere
and that made the dining room small that
made the living room small that made the
kitchen small that gave it poor sight
lines poor lighting it impacted so many
different things and anyone who who went
into that house would feel that way
again that was an objective weakness
with the house anyone would feel that
way and the
solution not easy but simple there's a
difference there's a difference between
a simple solution and an easy
and an easy one I would actually
prefer a solution that's simple over one
that's easy because an easy solution can
sometimes be very difficult to come to
I'd rather a simple one that's that's
difficult to accomplish because at least
you know what to do all right that's a
whole another topic for a whole another
day and the solution was simple
remove the walls add a kitchen island
because the kitchen was small it didn't
have a lot of counter space it didn't
have a lot of cabinet room
and voila the main level that's all
we did now now we went ahead and and as
part of that we renovated the kitchen
but the main level went from being the
black eye of the house to becoming the
focal point of the house we turned it
from a
weakness to now you go in that house and
that main level is just gorgeous it's
perfect it's functional it is everything
has been updated we even had there
there's another small little example
there as we were doing that we had to
put a big LVL beam across the the center
of the ceiling because it was a a
loadbearing wall was one of the walls
that we had to remove well unfortunately
the way the home was
framed there was no way to completely
remove one small little section of the
wall
up against where basically the dining
room and the living room were
juxtaposed were were next to each other
so there was going to be I can't
remember exactly how much but maybe like
a foot of wall that was going to come
out from the back wall well that was
kind of lame we were we were
disappointed for that we wanted that to
all be flush and so I started thinking
okay well what can we do with this how
can again here's another weakness anyone
that walks in here is going to see that
and is going to going to be like oh man
what that's random why is there a little
piece of wall sticking out there like
that doesn't make sense so what we did
was we actually Incorporated cabinets
into there and the the wall was
centered on that wall on that big back
wall the the part that was sticking out
and so we were able to put a big cabinet
almost like a small pantry cabinet but
we we used it as a cleaning cabinet and
it actually was perfect I I can't
imagine that living room without that
that little cleaning cabinet closet
whatever you want to call it because it
actually completed the room and if it
wasn't for us just kind of locking into
that honestly we would have never even
done that and so we were able to even
take that to take that weakness and to
make it functional and to and to turn
that into an opportunity and into a
strength of that little renovation
that we did there as well so so
that's an example now there are other
reasons though why weaknesses are some
of your best
opportunities and that is simply because
a lot of homes in the area in a
neighborhood or in an area are going to
be built the same way so what does that
mean if your home if if a home that
you're looking
at has certain weaknesses let's say the
the small closets or whatever the case
may be odds are the other homes in that
neighborhood have the same weakness
because they were built by the same
Builder or built at the same time period
where that where people you know didn't
have as many clothes or or their clothes
weren't as bulky or whatever the case
may be they didn't need as much closet
space and so your weakness that
you're identifying here is going to be a
weakness that anyone looking to move in
that area are going to find with finded
with a lot of the homes in that
area and so by addressing that weakness
and by mitigating that weakness now you
have just improved that house in a way
that's going to differentiate it from
all the neighbors the neighbors are
going to have homes potentially that do
have choppy floor plans that do have the
small closets whatever the case may be
and yours won't now that might be that
might seem like a silly way to think
about it on the surface but when you
sell your house or when you rent it out
or whatever the case may be whatever
you you do with a house you won't be
competing with other homes that are 25
miles away right people that are looking
at your house at least in this market in
the Greenville Market they'll be
you'll be competing with homes that are
close to your house whether you're
competing with rentals whether you're
competing with other homes for sale
that's what people will look at they're
not going to look in you know if you're
in Greer you're not really going to be
competing with homes in pedmont that's
just not how this local market works
you'll be competing with your immediate
neighbors buyers will be looking at your
neighbors homes as they look at your
home and if you have a way like that
where to to to take the weaknesses that
are prevalent in that area area and you
mitigate that and then you turn that
into a strength then you have just
created a ton of value for your home
relative to that micro Market relative
to the micro Market of that
neighborhood you're you're going to blow
the competition out of the water you're
going to when you go to sell or to rent
that house or whatever you're going to
have something that nobody else likely
will end up having
and this is one of the things when I'm
listing a house that I try to do I try
to find those little differentiators I
try to think through okay people that
are looking to move potentially into
this area or potentially into this
property what are the things that are
going to to stand out in their mind that
are going to pop as like wow this is
what differentiates this home from other
similar ones that I am looking at right
now or that I have looked at and then
I I take those things and I make that a
big focus of my marketing I want to not
just make people impressed with this
house but I also want to sew that seed
in the mind of potential buyers that
that this unique feature is here because
then that might help them also as they
look at other homes to see that those
homes don't have that so if I focus my
marketing for instance let's say that a
home has had small closets and the
owners were able to either had closets
in order to mitigate the smallness of
the ones that are there or they were
able to to expand their closets in
some way well I'm going to focus on how
much storage the home has and that the
the owners have actually upgraded that
storage and then what's going to happen
is when people read that they're going
to go look at other homes in that area
and they're going to be like wow you
know that home that we went to it talked
a lot about storage and now I'm looking
at this home this home doesn't a lot of
storage like that's that's honestly kind
of a big deal that was that was a big
point with that house and that's what I
want to do I want to sew that seed of
Doubt for the other properties and also
making this house that has had that
weakness mitigated make it even more
desirable even more differentiated from
from the rest of the market from the
rest of the
competition now of course the the tricky
part in all of this as we've already
said often times these are simple ideas
but not necessarily easy to do
finding ways to increase closet sizes or
figuring out what to do once you take
down walls for instance you take down a
wall now you've got ceilings that have
to be somehow tied in you got flooring
that has to be tied in there's a lot
of different things that go into
something like that it it's not
necessarily easy and there's some of
this that me as a realtor I can help
with again I I provide a lot of
consultation I have a lot of experience
rehabbing houses I'm not necessarily
the most handy guy so I'm not going to
be the one that's going to actually be
doing the work but I understand what
needs to be done and I understand the
different approaches and so I can
provide you know a good voice in the
room on that and as well I know experts
who can help contractors Structural
Engineers people like that that can
can step in and can do some of that
work as well if you don't in in fact
when going back to to me Consulting when
we actually did that that remodel of
our old home I actually designed the
kitchen myself I designed the kitchen
myself online I'd never done anything
like that and it turned out really
well and and by the way going back to
that and talking about that that
differentiating from your neighbors I
saw a home in that neighborhood that
sold recently that had the exact same
floor plan as my old house which again I
still own it's an Airbnb right now
someone sold their home in the same
neighborhood for a really fantastic
price and they had not done any of that
work they had not done any of that
opening out the the opening up the floor
plan and taking down walls and whatnot
so I'm really happy about that that the
amount of value that I added the fact
that that home that hadn't done all of
that and honestly hadn't done very many
updates at all sold really high in
the market let's just say I was very
excited to see that and it made me even
more happy that that we did that work
when we did it and and shows that
other people in that neighborhood
they're not doing it so it really would
if I ever do decide to sell that
property which is always a possibility
it will be differentiated from the
competition it it will it would
definitely shine online and It Shines
on Airbnb it's it's a it's a great
property that we get a lot of good
feedback on
that's pretty much all that I have to
say on all of that except that I'll say
this I would encourage you guys if if
you're doing this to your own home do it
don't wait until you're about to move or
about to sell to to do these updates do
this while you're living in the home it
might be tricky financially some people
just don't have the money to do it
but you want to be able if you can you
want to be able to enjoy these updates
not just in order to enjoy it but
also you may discover other simple
updates that you can do off of those
other updates for instance if I were
getting my old house ready to sell if I
had done those updates with opening up
the floor plan simply because I was
trying to to rehab the house to sell it
I probably wouldn't have added that
cleaning closet on the end off that wall
I probably would have just been like you
know whatever people are just going to
have to to deal with a little bit of a
wall you know sticking out here but
the fact that I was living there I was
more invested in it and it didn't cost
hardly anything to add that cabinet
there but I was more plugged in and more
focused on it and then having lived in
it for several more years after we did
that it just showed just how more Val
how much more valuable that was and
we did a whole lot of other updates as
well that after we had opened up that
floor plan now it revealed okay we need
to do this we need to do that and it
just
really when you're living in it you're
just a lot more aware of things that can
be done that improve the property and
again all of those things do add value
and and it gives you you something again
more things that you can Market more
marketing ability with the property more
value it makes the property shine in
the eye of a potential renter in the eye
of a potential buyer whatever the case
may be and so that's how you can turn
a weakness into a strength and and this
applies to Investments as well you can
consider the weakness of an investment
property and try to figure out how you
can turn that into a strength I'm I'm
not planning in this episode to go
down that road but now that you have
kind of gotten your your mind thinking
about that start thinking through okay
if I'm buying an investment property
what are some weaknesses of an
investment property that can be turned
into a strength what are some of those
things and again you're adding value
you're you're increasing your rents
you're doing things you're you're by
improving a property by converting
weakness into strengths as an investor
that allows you to make that property
more valuable and it allows you to
potentially increase your rents to a
different type of renter or whatever the
case may be it gives you a property that
is more valuable and can do more for you
because it's doing more for the renters
I'm not going to go too far down that
road I'm not going to go any further
down that road I'm just going to leave
you with that maybe we'll do a
separate episode where we discuss that
at some point but for now that's it
that's how you turn a real estate
weakness into a strength I hope you guys
have enjoyed that I hope you guys are
staying staying warm out there we're
still here in the doldrums of of the
winter buying large it's been a
relatively warm winter but it's still
chilly out there stay warm stay safe and
until next time let's buy and sell some
houses here in Greenville
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