Interview with Homeowners Andrew and Patricia Galligan and Realtor Sheila Matin

Welcome to the Home Selling Success series.  In today’s episode, I’m sharing an interview I did with my clients, Andrew and Patricia Galligan whom I’ve been working with for over 5 years. We were discussing the family home that they were in the process of selling and I also interviewed their Realtor about her expectations vs. reality on their property. I think you’ll find their responses very informative.

LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

>>The Renovation Planner™

>>Free eBook to learn how to AVOID costly mistakes on your home renovation projects

>>Shop for Your Home

SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS

>> Facebook

>> Instagram

>> YouTube

Transcript

Patricia: Hi, I'm Patricia Galligan 

Andrew:  and I’m Andrew Galligan

Alice: Okay. And we are currently sitting in your home here in Fremont, California. Can you give us a little background on this house? Like who lives here, Who's lived here, How long you've lived here. 

Patricia: Well, this has been the primary family home for many years. I was pregnant with my daughter when we moved into this house and she's 23, so 24 years. So my daughter, two boys who have long since moved out, one got married moved out, one just left the country and moved out many years now. So, just our daughter is still here. And this pretty much was our dream home when we were buying it. We loved this location. It’s in a nice, quiet part of Fremont and it served our needs very well. It's large, but not too large. 

Alice: Let's think back to our journey from where you started, when you first started working with me to where you are now, do you remember that? 

Andrew: Oh, yes. It was a house trashed by two boys. 

Alice: Can you believe it's been five years since we started this 

Andrew: As soon as the boys left, it was time to do something. 

Patricia:  Yes. Yes. Our middle son, I said to him, what are we going to do with your room?  He said, burn it. 

Alice:  It kind of needed to be. 

Patricia: Do you remember the black stuff, blackout curtains, black on the walls, things glued everywhere. 

Alice: What problem were you trying to solve when you hired me? Did you have a specific plan in mind? 

Andrew: No, it needed to be modernized. It needed to be repaired from not quite 20 years of boys living here and kind of hard-charging boys. What I had in mind was, we stayed at, because of my job, I've stayed at a lot of hotels and I've always thought the bathrooms in the hotels were really nice and far superior to anything we had at home. And so my main goal was to get a bathroom for ourselves that really would make me think, Oh, this is as good as anything I've been in any of the luxury hotels that we stayed in and we accomplished that goal. 

Patricia:  Well, we did start off with a bathroom. And so little did we realize we started with the bathroom. That was the kids' bathroom. Oh this will be simple, but then it was so nice. We were like, well, the kids have a nice bathroom. We should have a nice bathroom, but pretty soon all what you see is that the pieces in between the nice bathroom and the master bathroom also needed to be renovated. And you think, Oh, this is good. We'll just do the bathrooms. But no, no, you can't just stop at the bathrooms because then everything else looks very shabby and worn out. So we kept, we did keep going. This is why it turned out to be a five-year project. 

Andrew:  Yeah.

Alice: So what do you feel like you've been able to achieve since working with me?

Andrew: I'm still married and not divorced 

Patricia: Indeed

Andrew: Which I think, a total renovation causes a lot of marital stress because no two people agree on things completely. And what you did brilliantly was take my kind of ideas and feelings about how it ought to be and Trish’s and come up with something different that actually was much better than either of us. So I think that was one of the nice things you listened to us, ignored what needed to be ignored. Took the things that actually might be workable, melded them together and just came up with an overall schema that was far superior than anything that we could do, yet we still felt ownership in the basic design and look, that was the beauty of the whole process, which was you took ownership, but left us with enough ownership where the result was something that we were very involved in doing but we didn't make the terrible mistakes that we would make if we didn't have somebody like you. 

Patricia: Well, we have known in the past to buy things and things that we like, but then there was no grand scheme. So every room there was no cohesive look, every room was different. It was its own unique space, but in a whole house that can get to be kind of a little bit unplanned looking. And I would say, you know, we have, our tastes are quite similar, but our backgrounds to getting to stuff, you come to these decisions with a lot of baggage. So he is very suspect of my taste because his fear is that I'm doing things to keep it all low cost or spend the least. And I'm very suspect of him because I feel like he never looks at the price tag and then you can be, you know, involved in these grandiose things and then you spend a fortune, well, eventually you're going to sell your house and you still need to be able to sell it in the price range that you exist in. So the beauty about having somebody who was like a referee who has good taste and is mindful of the budget is that we managed to get what we both wanted. I have to say we one time made a terrible mistake. We did not listen to you. We did not put in the radiant flooring. It is now, you know, a saying in this family, ask Alice, don't question Alice, do what Alice recommends. 

Alice: Tile is great, especially in the summertime when it's hot. It keeps everything nice and cool. But tile does tend to get really cold in the winter. So when we were actually installing it, I recommended to the client that we install radiant heat flooring, but they opted out and that was their biggest regret. 

Did you guys know you were going to be selling in the near future when we first spoke or has that been something that just kind of evolved? 

Andrew: It was certainly something that might happen, but we took the decision of a lot of people renovate to sell just before they're selling. And we made the decision, let's renovate and enjoy it for a few years, which we really have.  If we sell, we sell.  We probably would have sold sooner had we not renovated. Yes. 

Alice: Right. And then you would have had to do it anyway. 

Patricia:  Yes. That's true. And it's been nice living in your updated place. Very nice. Very comfortable. The fireplace is, Oh my God. So awesome. And then if heats up with the high ceilings, it just travels all the way upstairs. It's always comfortable in here. Always nice and organized. 

Alice: I was going to ask, what has been the impact of actually renovating your home. How has that impacted your lifestyle? 

Andrew: Well, I find it much more restful. Maybe just because the boys aren't here. 

Patricia: Well, it shows very well. I have to say. I mean, and it always feels good to come in. and everything looks nice. Everything's got a home. It makes you feel more encouraged to kind of keep it up a little bit yourself, even though I'm not a fabulous housekeeper.  I prefer to be doing stuff outside. So once it was cleaned up and it looks great, it makes it nice to come home to and invite people over, which of course you can't do now, these days. 

Alice: Well at least you had a good four-year run. 

Patricia: We did. We enjoyed it. Yes. 

Alice: So how are you feeling in your house now compared to before If you can remember, 

Andrew: Well, it much more restful and it's a more grown-up kind of space, 

Patricia: Well we don't even want to go to luxury hotels anymore because their bathrooms are not as nice.

Alice: Can you tell us which hotel you were referring to? 

Patricia:  We went down to the Ritz Carlton in Half Moon Bay, which is very nice. And we were like, Oh, I think our bathroom holds up very well. I mean, we like our bathroom. We can have coffee in bed up there and then wire our bathroom. It's very nice. You don't have to go anywhere. 

Alice: What would you say was your least favorite part of the house before 

Patricia: The garage maybe.  We always meant to do something with the garage. And we never did until just now. Yeah, the garage. I never liked, we can never get that floor, It never looked clean. 

Andrew:  It's always been a very nice house. 

Alice: What would you say is your favorite upgrade out of everything that we've done, which is a lot, so 

Andrew: Can we talk about the bathrooms again

Patricia:  Probably this space, when you changed it from the couch to the four chairs and then we, this custom, coffee table, which, my babysitter said she wanted this to be left to her in our will and this room is always kept up. So it looks nice when you come in and the foyer always looks nice. For years, he wanted a place where, you know, he could be comfortable and enjoy his artwork and that meant keeping all the people out. So that's why there’s no TV in this room. Cause he sits here and he would listen to music by the fireplace. 

Alice: This is the epitome of a grown-up space. 

Patricia: Yes, exactly. He could do his crossword puzzles and it's spacious. 

Andrew:  Yeah. 

Alice: Yes. Is there anything that you would do differently if you had to do it over again 

Andrew: Yeah. Do the radiant flooring

Patricia: The floor! Radiant floors!

Alice: What advice would you give to other people who may be considering renovating and especially if they are planning on reselling soon 

Patricia: It's worth doing with the right person. So I would never have wanted to have had something where it was carte blanche, unlimited everything. I liked that it made me feel like somebody, first of all, was in control of the budget, knew what they were doing. And, because of your experience, of course, when you presented the budget, it wasn't just like numbers out of the sky, out of thin air. It was numbers that actually, you know, could be validated as we went forward and you kept us informed with any changes that might come up or other ways of doing things, which is nice. So you really got our taste, got it, sticking to the budget and it'll actually allowed us to do more. Right. So I think that's a really good way to go. We would never have had the expertise to do that. Never. 

Alice: You had your realtor come through. What was the realtor’s reaction to your property 

Andrew:  First that came in before looking at it saying, well, you’d want to maybe paint some walls or do something else. And they came in and came through and they said they wouldn't touch anything. it was seamless It's perfect. 

Patricia:  Yeah right.

Alice: I think, because their expectation coming in was based on what their experience is with most homes, that they're going to have to come in and do some work. 

Then I interviewed the realtor about what her expectations were v. what the reality was when she first came to see the property. They knew nothing about the property and obviously, You can’t always take someone’s word for it because they can say they renovated the property but then what kind of renovation was it?  Was it a DIY project? Was it something they just slapped together? You have no idea what to expect So Here’s what she had to say

Sheila:  Hi Alice, this is Sheila Matin with Timothy Crofton real estate. 

Alice:  And you are the real estate representative for this new property that you are going to be listing soon.

Sheila: Yes

Alice:  So my question is, What was your first impression of this property?

Sheila:  I loved it the first time I walked in.  It’s just such a beautiful design and It’s gorgeous inside

Alice: So, Was it what you expected?

Sheila:  Actually, I expected less, but it was a lot more

Alice: What did you actually anticipate needing to do?  Based on your experience.  You’ve gone through a lot of properties. You prepare a lot of properties to sell.  What did you anticipate needing to do when you walked in?

Sheila:  I thought we would need to update the bathrooms, flooring, kitchen, but everything was totally updated and it didn’t need any updating at all.  And the fireplace is gorgeous.

Alice:  That’s my favorite.

So based on this, how much prep time has been reduced on this property compared to what you were expecting or other properties that you generally work with.

Sheila: I would say, at least 2-3 weeks prep time.

Alice:  Hold up, let me jump in here.  When she says I saved her probably 2--3 weeks, I’m going to say that we probably saved her at least 2-3 months because of the level of work that was done at this property And knowing that just to do quick speed renovations to do minor upgrades, you can probably accomplish that in 2-3 weeks, but we gut renovated two of the bathrooms and we redid an entire shower in the downstairs bathroom that alone takes more time.  And obviously, if you were to speed reno it and you chose very basic materials you can get from the big box store, you can probably get that done in 3-4 weeks. But for the upgraded finish and the care that we took into renovating these spaces, we’re looking at min 2-3 months.  

The kitchen is a whole other story because we refaced it.  And that requires some custom finishes. Knowing that when realtor’s come in they’re going to paint the cabinets and maybe put on some knobs. That’s about it. Yes, you can do that very quickly but not for the same results.  Keep that in mind.

What would your advice be for homeowners who are thinking about renovating their properties?

Sheila:  Definitely use you

Alice:  I wasn’t fishing for a compliment but I appreciate it and I receive it, thank you very much. But What I really wanted to know was what her opinion was on renovating or not when it comes to resale

Sheila:  Because I work with a crew of 40 contractors, I have my own crew also but the detail work that’s done to this home with care, and color coordination, everything is just amazing.  If I  needed a home remodeling, I would definitely hire you guys 

Alice: How much of a difference would you say a well-renovated property makes in terms of  Resale value v. one that is completely untouched or even a badly done one because we've all seen renovations that are poorly done. They just slap it together.

Sheila: When a renovation like this is done, in detail, color coordination, everything is top notch, of course you get top dollar for it.  There are a lot of contractors that do remodeling but sometimes they don’t pay attention to the color coordination and they just do the work and sometimes you see the difference by corners looking at corners, that it’s not met right to the edges, you can tell that it wasn't done in detail and they didn’t take their time.  

Alice:  Without a shadow of a doubt do not rely on a contractor to help you with your color coordination, big mistake, huge!

Sheila: But with this work, I can tell it was done with care and taken their time to do it.

Alice:  And I think it helps because we started this process not 2 months before the house is on the market, 2 weeks before the market it was done over several years.

Sheila: Several years. That is why I love every detail work. I love the colors. It’s like a model home. It’s like buying a brand new home and walk into a model home.

Alice:  Thank you so much. Good luck selling it.  We’re hoping to have great news and top top top dollar

Sheila:  Definitely 100% we are going to get it on this one.

Alice:  Good news, the house sold for well above asking and now somebody else is the proud owner of this property.