My Real Estate Buyer Wants Me To Put On A New Roof Before Closing in Carolina

      You have had your house for sale for too long in North Carolina.  Finally, you get an offer.  It is almost acceptable.  The buyer wants you to install a new roof before closing at your expense.  How do we handle that?

     Step one, let's guesstimate the price of a new roof.  No.  Let's forget about guesstimating and let's get a proposal from a roofer.  Mr. Roofer says $9000.

     Would it make you mad if you put on a new $9000 roof and the buyer backed out on the deal one day before closing?  Let's don't let that happen.

      In the North Carolina real estate sales contract that almost all Realtors use in North Carolina,  we have a thing called "due diligence".  We also have a escrow deposit.  These two are not the same thing.  If you are a seller of real estate with something as complicated as putting on a roof before closing, you need to understand both.

If you are selling a house in Carolina, understand due diligence

     The standard residential contract calls for the buyer to pay a fee to the seller for "due diligence".  There is a time frame for "due diligence". For our example let's make it thirty days.  This is a time for the buyer to do their "due diligence".  Get the house inspected.  Get the financing approved.  Get a termite inspection.    How much is the "due diligence" fee?  It is whatever the buyer and seller agree to.  If you read my previous article about due diligence,  http://rondclimer.blogspot.com/2015/09/when-selling-real-estate-in-carolina.html  you know that I believe that most sellers don't get enough "due diligence" money.  Here is the important thing.  Until the "due diligence" time period has expired, the buyer can back out FOR NO REASON with no penalty.  

     There is another fee called the escrow deposit.  This is often called earnest money.  This money is not the same as the "due diligence" fee.  The "due diligence" fee is paid directly to the seller.  That money belongs to the seller no matter what happens next.  The "due diligence" fee is almost always less than a thousand dollars.  The escrow deposit is a amount of money that the buyer puts in escrow with the Realtor to let the seller and the Realtor know that Mr. Buyer is earnest and sincere and intends to close.  If, after the due diligence period has expired, the buyer does not close, he forfeits the escrow deposit.  How much is the escrow deposit?  You know the answer.  The escrow deposit is whatever Mr. Buyer and Mr. Seller agree to.

     This article is about putting a roof on your house BEFORE closing.  How much should the escrow deposit be?  The answer is it better be enough to pay the roofer.

     Let's say you have entered into a contract to sale your $300,000 house.  You have a thousand dollar "due diligence" fee.  That money belongs to and is in the pocket of the seller.  Let's also suppose that the "due diligence" time is thirty days.  Thirty days go by and the buyer informs the seller that everything is A- OK.  The inspection was good.  The termite inspection was good.  The financing is approved.  "Due diligence" is over.

     Now, the seller calls the roofer and authorizes him to put on the roof.  How much was our escrow deposit in this example?  It needs to be at least nine thousand dollars.  When the roofer is finished with the job, he wants to be paid .  He will be paid.  If, for any reason, he is not paid, he can place a lien on the house.  He will be paid.  This is no problem.  We close the deal and the closing attorney pays the roofer from the seller's proceeds at closing. 

     What if the buyer backs out and does not want to close one day before closing?  Someone has to pay for that roof.  That escrow deposit better be big enough to pay that roofer.

     What if the buyer does not want to put up an escrow deposit enough to cover the expense of the roof?  PUT THE ROOF ON AFTER CLOSING.  

      www.ronclimer.com    

        

A New Liquor Store in Tryon,North Carolina

     My good friend, Ken, just opened Bird Mountain Liquor Market at the state line between Tryon, North Carolina and Landrum, South Carolina.  Ken tells me that his goal is to have the wine and spirits that his customers want on his shelf. 

     Ken tells me that if a customer has an unusual request, he will get it on the shelf as soon as possible.  If you drink something that is off the beaten path, stop in and see if Ken has it.  If he doesn't, he told me he will  get it soon.

Bird Mountain Liquor Market on U.S. 176 in Tryon

      If you are too busy to stop in, call Ken on the phone at
864 457 1500 or send him an email at
birdmountainmarket47@gmail.com  .  

     Ken tells me that he intends to give extraordinary service
in the wine and spirit business.  If you are in Tryon,
North Carolina, stop in and say hello.  If you are too busy to stop, honk and wave as you go by on U.S. 176. 
    


    

Saluda Toy Run in Polk County North Carolina

     When Kathy and I arrived at the Saluda Fire Station at noon on November 28, 2015, there was already a huge crowd.  Bikers coming from all around Polk county to donate a toy to the Saluda Fire Department.  There must have been one thousand bikes.

Thank you Saluda Fire Department for hosting the Toy Run

     The Saluda Fire Department served us Bar B Q and hot dogs.  At two oclock, we left and headed down U.S. 176 towards Tryon.  We went down the Saluda grade which is plenty of excitement for most motorcyclists.

     People were out in the yard waving and cheering as we rode by all along the route.  We rode through Tryon, North Carolina.  As we approached the South Carolina state line, my friend, Ken was standing in front of Bird Mountain Liquor Market taking still pictures and movies as we passed into South Carolina.  I hope he posts those pictures on Bird Mountain's Facebook page.  I am certain that movie will end up on You Tube.

     We rode on into Landrum, South Carolina.  We turned left on Highway 14 and rode through downtown Landrum, South Carolina.  It is nice that the local police and fire department have blocked the streets for us.  There were lots of people waving and cheering as we went by in Landrum.

    We proceeded on Highway 14 to Highway 9.  We turned north towards Mill Spring, North Carolina.  This is one beautiful strip of highway.  You see the big mountains of North Carolina in the background as you motor up and down the foothills.

Highway 9 heading north towards Mill Spring

      In Mill Spring, we turned left onto Highway 108 and ended up at the Polk county courthouse in Columbus, North Carolina.  The steps of the courthouse was covered with donated toys.

     It was a fun ride.  We had perfect weather.  Thank you God.  There had to be over one thousand motorcycles on this run.  There were lots of Harley Davidsons.  There were BMWs. There were Suzukis, Kawasakis, Hondas, Yamahas and Victorys.  There were Ducatis and Triumphs.  There was a sidecar.  There was a Can Am.  There was even a Polaris Slingshot.  There were Gold Wings. There was old bikes.  There were new bikes.  There were big bikes.  There was little bikes.  There was only one Suzuki Calvacade.                  

There were big bikes and small bikes at the Saluda Toy Run

The weather was perfect for the Saluda Toy Run

A Polaris Slingshot at the Saluda Toy Run 2015

Lots of pretty girls at the Saluda Toy Run

Triumph Bonneville at The Saluda Toy Run

Sidecars were welcome at the Saluda Toy Run

Custom Paint looks good at the Saluda Toy Run 2015

Can Am at the Saluda Toy Run

The Polk County courthouse steps was full of Toys

There is another side car in the background on the Saluda Toy Run

Lots of Motorcycles in Columbus from Saluda Toy Run

That Indian is looking good on Saluda Toy Run

Cool Boots

Did I mention we had small bikes at Saluda Toy Run?

The Tryon Rolling Art Antique Car Truck and Motorcycle Show

     October 31, 2015 in Downtown Tryon, North Carolina was the Tryon "Rolling Art" Antique Car, Truck and Motorcycle Show.  I thought I would take my 1961 Harley Davidson Super 10.  Maybe I could win a prize.  I knew there was no chance of that when that 1927 Indian Four showed up.

Tryon Antique Car and Motorcycle Show was won by a  1927 Indian

There were over a hundred great looking antique cars and trucks and bikes at  The Tryon Car show in Tryon, North Carolina.  A Ferrari won for the cars.  A 1930 Ford Truck won for the trucks.  The prizes were decided by popular vote.  The weather was perfect.

     Thompson Garden Center donated their parking lot for the Tryon Antique Car Show.  They had the movie,"The World's Fastest Indian" playing on the DVD in the lobby .  If you are a motorcycle enthusiast and you haven't seen that movie starring Anthony Hopkins, check it out.  It is a super motorcycle, human spirit movie. 

Start your saving account now!

 Harley Davidson Super 10 at the Tryon Antique Car Show

Any antique car show is fun.  This one seemed a little cooler than most.  There were lots of British cars including a 1937 Rolls Royce.   Antique car shows let you know how far automobiles have come since they were invented.  Here,in 1937, the finest car in the world was built with no heater.  That luxury Packard didn't look like much of a car compared to that Rolls. There were lots of Volkswagen.  There were a few rat rods.

1937 Rolls Royce at Tryon Antique Automobile Show

Rick Greer's 1960 Willys looks good at the Tryon Car Show

There were 56 Chevys and Plymouths and cool looking trucks were everywhere.  The Tryon "Rolling Art" Antique Car Show sponsored by Mother's Car Polish is one car show will be at next year.

There were lots of Triumphs at The Tryon Motorcycle Show

There were over fifty old bikes at The Tryon Antique Show

This Lotus has the steering wheel on the wrong side

Side Car racing?

An antique Porsche at the Tryon Rolling Art Car Show

Several Racing Ducatti bikes at the Tryon Motorcycle Show

Rat rods and Chevys at The Tryon Antique Car Show

1960 Ford Thunderbird at the Tryon Antique Car Show

Yesterday's RV at the Tryon Antique Automobile  Show

A BMW dragging a trailer at Tryon Antique Motorcycle Show

     Put the Tryon Rolling Art Antique Automobile, Truck and Motorcycle Show on your list of events to be at next year.  It was big this year.  It will be huge next year.  It is in October in Tryon, North Carolina.

Christmas Shopping At The Tryon Antique Mall

      Christmas will be here in no time.  You don't need to go to Target or Wal Mart or Sears or Macy's.  This year, put a little creativity in the nativity.  You can go to Bass Pro Shop and buy your husband a new pocket knife.  You can go to the Tryon Antique Mall and buy him an antique pocket knife that was made in the U.S.A.  You could buy him a gun cabinet or a gun rack at the Tryon Antique Mall.  The price would be a third of the price at Cabella's.

     At the Tryon Antique Mall, we have a plethora of musical instruments.  We have vintage guitars and bass guitars and horns and drums and trombones and cellos and other musical instruments.  You could start your own band at the Tryon Antique Mall.  You must have a relative that wants a xylophone under the tree.

In the box above the  map it tells you to ferry your car to Cuba

     Do you think Grandma might like a new rocking chair for Christmas?  We have a bunch from which to choose. Maybe Grandma would like a copy of Life magazine from the year that she turned 21.  We probably have, at least, one copy.  How many relatives do you have that own an antique car?  Maybe we have something to help them enjoy that antique car more, something like a drive in movie speaker or a road map of Florida from 1958 with a map of Cuba on the back.  We might even have an owner's manual for their 1969 Corvair.  We might even have a model car just like it.  If the antique car is a 1955 Ford Thunderbird, we do have a model car just like it.  Stop by the Tryon Antique Mall and look around.

Six 1955 Thunderbirds licensed by Ford Like new

     Chess, Checkers, Chinese Checkers, Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly or Candyland are just a few of the games we have available at bargain prices.  Stop in between now and Christmas.  The Tryon Antique mall is on U.S. Hiway 176 between Tryon, North Carolina and Landrum, South Carolina.  We are right at the state line.

     Are you going to eat Christmas dinner on those old ugly plates?  Wouldn't a set of antique fine china be a memorable gift for the Mrs.  She pretends that she doesn't care whether she is serving on Melmac or Noritake.  She does care.  Come in and buy her a set of China.  It doesn't cost $40 per plate like it does at Macy's.  Two hundred bucks will have your table looking as good as the Rockefeller's.  Maybe a set of matching antique flatware would be appreciated. You buy it for Christmas this year and the wife passes it on to the heirs.

Fine China is so inexpensive when you buy it at an antique shop 

     You know what is dull and boring?  Christmas presents in boring boxes are dull and boring.  Stop in at the Tryon Antique Mall and pick up a fun, interesting box to put your Christmas present in.  A small wooden box that was sold new at a tourist trap in 1953 that says "Great Smokey Mountains" would be a lot more fun on Christmas morning than that bland vanilla box from Sears.  We probably have a heap of interesting boxes at the Tryon Antique Mall for less than ten dollars.  Do you know what else you can buy at the Tryon Antique Mall for less than $10?  You can buy an old piggy bank.  What a great Christmas present that would make!

     Stop by the Tryon Antique mall on U.S.176 in Tryon, North Carolina.  Put a little bit of creativity with a little bit of $$$$.  Make Christmas morning memorable .  You can find that perfect gift without breaking the bank.      

When Buying A House In Hendersonville, Feel Free To Make An Offer

     A couple of months ago, I drove five hundred miles to look at antique motorcycle.  The price was right or I would have never left home.  When I got there, the bike was nice as pie.  I bought it for the asking price. 

It does not always happen that way.  Sometimes you go to a lot of inconvenience to look at a house for sale in Hendersonville, North Carolina.  You feel like the house is not worth the price that the seller is asking. 

My wife and I have a cliché that we use a lot.  When we drive  a long distance to look at something that is for sale, we say to each other," We have done the hard part.".  The hard part is traveling there to look at whatever is for sale. 

Ron Climer says when you have done the hard part, make an offer

If you have driven five hundred miles or five miles to Hendersonville, North Carolina and checked into a hotel and gone to look at a $200,000 house, if you don't like the price, make an offer.  If you don't like it for $200,000, would you like it for $160,000?  If the answer to that is yes, make an offer.  You have already done the hard part.  Your Realtor is not to busy to present your offer.  The listing agent is not too busy either. 
 
In Og Mandino's book,"The Greatest Salesman In the World", he tells us in one of the ancient scrolls that teach us to be better salesman a little bit about human nature by describing a man that will today not buy gold chariots for a penny will,tomorrow, exchange his house for a tree.  It is true.

You make that $160,000 offer.  Something has happen in the seller's life. that causes him to accept that offer.  You have done the hard part.  You have inconvenienced yourself to look at the property.  Make an offer.  All negotiation begins with an offer.  Do you want it at some price?  If so, tell your Realtor,"If we could get this for$160,000, we would buy it.".  What is the worst thing that could happen?  The seller says,"No" You have done the hard part.  Do the easy part.  Make an offer.

My wife is an antique dealer.  She spends a lot of time at yard sales and flea markets.  We were at a yard sale last July.  It was hot.  It was 2 P.M.  There was this beautiful rocking chair with no price.  It was well worth a hundred dollars.  Kathy asked the price.  The seller said,"Make me an offer.".  Kathy hates yard sales with no prices.  She replied,"$25" .  The seller went crazy.  He broke into a ranting tirade monologue about how tired he was dealing with yard sale varmints and how valuable that rocking chair was and the state of the national economy and how he was ready to throw everything into the street and set it on fire.  Kathy calmly replied,"Will you take the $25?'.  He said,"I will take $30.".  He helped me load it into the truck.  You have done the hard part.  Make an offer.

I am not sure why so many potential home buyers would rather spend their time looking for a seller that has priced his property right.  If everything else is OK but the price, make an offer. You have done the hard part.  

Often, the seller knows that his price is too high.  An equal amount of time, the seller does not know the price is too high.  Father Time will let him know.  If his property has been for sale for too long, he will sooner or later get the message.  Maybe his listing agent is not obnoxious enough to nudge him to lower the price.  You come along and offer $160,000 for his house with the $200,000 price tag.  He counter offers at $170,000.  You buy it.

Nobody else in Hendersonville, North Carolina knew that house could be bought for $170,000.  You have done the hard part.  Make an offer.  A reluctance to make an offer will inhibit your ability to find the home of your dreams in Hendersonville, North Carolina or anywhere else.  If everything else is right except the price, Make an offer.  

www.ronclimer.com        www.lakeadgerforsale.com     www.climerconsulting.com 

Hendersonville North Carolina Toastmasters Club

     Many people find themselves on a career path where the ability to speak to a group is an essential skill.  Even if your career path does not require you to speak in public, this skill can enhance any career.  Public speaking is is a fun and profitable skill to learn.

     This is what Toastmasters in Hendersonville, North Carolina is about.  Toastmasters is a club.  It is not a class that starts and ends.  It is a club that meets weekly.  It goes on for as long as you find it beneficial.  For me, that is over thirty years.  Four Seasons Toastmasters in Hendersonville, North Carolina meets every Wednesday morning at 8 A.M. We invite you to join us.  www.fourseasonstoastmasters.com .

     Toastmasters is not a service club.  It is a club to learn.  You will learn to speak better.  You will learn leadership skills.  People join Toastmasters for lots of reasons.  "It will look good on my resume", a young lady told her audience was the reason she joined Toastmasters many years ago.  It was obvious from the eloquent speech she had just delivered that she had gained a lot more benefit from Toastmasters than just a bullet point on a resume.  

Betty McCallister has used her Toastmaster skills to enhance her real estate career

     Once, we had a young man join our Toastmasters club.  He told us the reason he had sought us out and joined us was because he had attended his best friend's funeral.  He was asked to speak but he could not.  He was afraid to stand up in front of a group of his friends and express his feelings.  He joined Toastmasters to get over this fear.

     Then there is me.  I joined Toastmasters thirty years ago because I read in a book that joining Toastmasters would make me a better salesperson.  I had just started my real estate career and it made sense to me.  Today, I am certain that much of my income has come to me from what I learned at Toastmasters.  Maybe, I would have learned these things anyway.  I doubt it.

     People join Toastmasters for a dozen different reasons.  They all boil down to self improvement.  There is not much that affects your success more than who you associate with.  The one thing that all Toastmasters have in common is a desire to be better and teach others to be better.  You can't go wrong associating with people like that. 

     Join us at Toastmasters in Hendersonville, North Carolina at 8 A.M.on Wednesday.  I can promise you that you will meet some very nice people.  I can promise you that you will learn to be a better public speaker.  I can promise you that you will learn leadership skills that will enhance your career and put money in your pocket.  I can promise that it will be fun.  Join us on Wednesday morning at 8 o,clock.  Call me at 828 755 6996 if you need more details.

     If you are not near Hendersonville, you can still benefit from joining Toastmasters.  There is a Toastmaster club in most cities.  Go to the Toastmasters website at  www.toastmasters.org .  Toastmasters has been around since 1927.