We had been communicating online for months with what started for them as searching for homes online… the way most people start looking for a home.

But the process really starts with listening, whether you are finding or building or remodeling a home…

• Listening to your hopes and dreams about what you are looking for in a home and neighborhood
• Consciously thinking about how you will live in the space and what kind of space will nurture you and your lifestyle
• Identifying the kind of community you are excited to be a part of

Find a Realtor or remodeler who listens… really listens to you…

• Someone who listens to not only what you say but also to what you don’t say… including your body language
• Someone who listens beyond the facts to understand who you are

Listen to your body…

• We have more nerves in our gut than in our brains, and our bodies often know before our brains whether something is right for us or not
• Don’t be afraid to listen to what your body is telling you… you will know what is right if you open yourself to really listen
• It could be you already live in the right home and neighborhood… you just need to do some remodeling to make it fit your life changes

I have been called a ‘house whisperer’ before. I am not quite sure what that means, but I think it has a lot to do with listening…

Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results - HomesMSPrealestateblog.com

Creating a culture of communication, in a remodeling company is rewarding.

In this industry, much of the focus is on quality, craftsmanship, and budget. While these are always important, I think there is something even more important and that is outstanding communication. Good communication leads to good relationships. It is critical that everyone in the organization has good communication skills.

Sometimes companies lose sight of this. For example, someone doing a standard kitchen remodel will be exposed to over 300 decisions or choices that have to be made during the course of the remodel. In order to manage that many details and choices, a remodeling company needs to have a culture of communication. Communication with each other and communication with the clients.

Not focusing on the right issues can sometimes be a big mistake. Once upon a time, the railroads were huge companies in the United States. It has been hypothesized by historians that the railroad companies went into huge decline – not because of gas powered engines – but because the railroads were focused on the wrong things.  They focused on running freight cars on tracks across the country, instead of focusing on what they were really doing, which was moving freight and people from point A to point B. Had they focused on freight and people instead of the process they could have shifted with the times.

How does a company learn how to create a culture of communication? By teaching their people to have top notch communication skills.

How do you improve communication skills?

1. Listen first and listen without the intent to respond.
2. Make sure your communication is concise and clear.
3. Summarize what others are saying to you – make sure you understand what they are saying.
4. Have others summarize what you are saying – make sure they understand.

To read more about the importance of  communication please check out Listen – Hear What You Could be Missing

Trust was a key factor this week in negotiations for radon mitigation for a buyer I am representing. Several bids were obtained and one came in significantly lower than the rest. My buyer didn’t trust it and when she did her research she found reports from some clients who were not satisfied because the cost savings came from cutting corners. This wasn’t acceptable to her. She found another mitigator who answered her questions and provided information that made her trust them, even though their price was higher.

“Can I trust you?” usually is asking if you have a mutual understanding of expectations and priorities… and are you able to communicate effectively with me. Everyone has different priorities and a different concept of quality, price, service, satisfaction… which is why actually talking with a potential service provider can be so valuable. This is also why so many people rely on the referrals of friends and family who share common values.

Sharlene Hensrud, RE/MAX Results – Minneapolis-St. Paul Realtor

 Nothing destroys trust faster than not doing what you say you will do, when you say you will do it. The same is true for organizations.

In fact, in an organization every member of the organization needs to deliver on the promises that are being made. That is why creating the right culture is so important.

Recently, I had a customer who was upset with one of our project managers.

The customer was upset because they were promised a remodeling schedule and some updated pricing on a kitchen and bathroom.

As I dug into the situation, I found out this project manager was not clearly setting expectations with the customers, which makes it hard for anyone to understand what the promises being made are.

The first step to creating a culture of integrity, is to clearly define what the promises are and when they will be delivered.

Here are 5 ways to create a culture of integrity

1. Clearly define what it is that needs to be done. Be specific.
2. Clearly set a time that this will be done. Words like end of the week, as soon as possible, next week, or get started on it are very poor choices. I’ll have this back to you by the end of the day Tuesday, sets a much clearer picture.
3. Communicate immediately with everyone if the time frame looks like it will slide. Clients may be disappointed because a deadline moves, but not meeting a deadline and not communicating that will destroy trust.
4. Provide your people with training and tools to help them understand how to set expectations and manage time.
5. Check in periodically to make sure your  company culture is what you think it is.

To learn more about your companies integrity please read the  March 31, 2012 posting by Startup Professionals Musing :  5 Ways to See If Your Business Integrity is Showing  

To see some great examples of being misunderstood please view this YouTube post.

I remember about a year ago, on a beautiful spring morning I was a featured speaker at the Mac Groveland Home Remodeling Fair. I stopped into the auditorium before the show to see some friends.

I noticed a woman and her daughter going from remodeler to remodeler asking how much a bathroom remodel costs. Of course she kept getting answers that ranged from $20k to $30k

I could see she wasn’t happy.

About a half hour later, I saw her at a table having coffee. I asked her how her search for a bathroom remodel was going. She explained to me quite crisply she was not going to pay $20k to $30k for a bathroom remodel.

Before my coffee was done I found out this woman wanted a new tile bathroom floor and a new toilet, sink, and vanity.

I still get a grin when I think about this.

It reminds me how important listening and asking questions is. In this woman’s mind a bathroom remodel was replacing a few things. In a professional remodelers mind it was completely redoing the room. Both were right.

Listening is the single most important activity my business or any business can do to help people. If I don’t listen to what problems my clients are having with their house, how will I be able to advise them? If your doctor doesn’t listen to you, how can they treat you? If your realtor doesn’t listen to you how, can they help you?

Here are some tips to become a better listener.

1. Listen without trying to think of a response
2. Repeat or paraphrase to make sure you understand
3. Ask questions to clarify any points you may not understand
4. Never negate a person’s point of view, even if you think it is wrong. To the other person their point of view probably makes perfect sense.

To read my reflections on remodeling please check out  Creating a Culture of Integrity

While I was at a social event last Thursday, someone came up to me and introduced himself.

When he found out I was the CEO of Fair and Square Remodeling he said, “Oh, I am getting my kitchen remodeled. I don’t know three remodelers would you like to have your company give me a price. I want to get three bids.”

Now, I am always curious when people ask several remodelers to give them bids, so I asked a few more questions.

I found out this person was an insurance agent, who was having one of his clients draw up the kitchen design and provide a bid. I knew the company he was working with and they are a reputable company. Now, I was really curios. Why would someone be asking a company they already did business with, to design a kitchen and and bid it out, plus ask for bids from 2 more companies?

His answer was, he did not want to be taken advantage of.  He told me that if he would go with his client, unless someone came in several thousands of dollars under his client. That set off all kinds of red flags in my head.

I understand not wanting to be taken advantage of. No one really wants to be taken advantage of. I think for many people they equate getting 3 bids with finding someone they can trust. I truly don’t think anyone wants the cheapest job done they can.

I wonder though, if people who ask for three bids and perhaps the contractors willing to give them are not aware, of the message being sent. When homeowners ask for thee bids, they are sending the unintentional message “I want to do this for the most competitive price possible.”  As a homeowner is this exactly what you want?

My experience has taught me, that when homeowners are asking for three bids they are actually asking “Can I trust you?”  I think, a better way to convey this message might be, to call several remodelers and ask if they would come out and meet to see if they might be a good fit for your project.  This sends a better message, which says “Can we work well together or not?”

The remodeling industry is awash with words; like good quality, fair price, and customer satisfaction. I have never met two homeowners yet, who had the exact idea of what good quality and fair price were.  I can promise you, customer satisfaction is not the same for everyone.

Here is a list of questions homeowners should be asking remodelers right away

1)      What kind of processes do you have in place to make sure my project goes smooth?

2)      What is your policy if there is a mistake or misunderstanding?

3)      How do you communicate to us so we know what is going on?

4)      What five things is your company best at? (Good answers are – good process, good communication, good training for the subs and staff, and of course great people – not so good answers will be price, quality, customer satisfaction)

5)      Can you give me some references or can I see some of the work you have done?

Once you have built some trust with a remodeler and you feel they understand what values you have, then you can start talking about what kind of a project makes sense.

I was talking with a friend of mine, last Saturday during a break in our improv class, about the house he bought about a year ago in St. Paul.   He and his wife are really bummed out, they had wanted to do so many things to this house and are overwhelmed and do not know where to start.  He said all the fun was gone and they are actually thinking of selling the house.

Anyone who is overwhelmed by all the changes and projects they are trying to do in their house, might find some relief in creating a master plan.

What does a master plan do?

A master plan allows you to collect all your thoughts on what changes need to be done, and helps you prioritize and budget for them. A master plan, also, keeps you from making mistakes – such as doing one project at a time, to find you have to undo some of the work once another project starts.

Have you ever painted a room, then decided to change a wall or window? Redoing a project a second time is not nearly as much fun is it?

How do you create a master plan?

The first step is to create a wish list of everything you might want to change in your house. Get this all on paper, or a spreadsheet for those of you who are spreadsheet folks.  Then prioritize the list by most important to least important. Oh, make sure you and your wife or significant other agree on this scope of work and its importance. If not, there may be conflicting priorities and confusion as you start the master plan.

Once you have this organized list, you can start to put the plan together.

If you have never tried something like this before, getting help from a contractor, architect, or designer might be critical. I have a saying that I firmly believe in “I don’t know what I don’t know.” There have been times in my life when I have tried to do something, that I had never done before – both personally and professionally – and have come to realize the value in getting help from professionals.

Understanding all your options, costs, and how to value engineer in a remodel, takes quite a few years of experience.

If you have gone through at least 7 or 8 remodels over the years, you might feel OK doing this yourself.  You will also need to know how to measure and draw your space up. There are some fairly easy to use programs out there.  Google SketchUp is one of them.  You can try measuring and drawing the space up on your own.  Don’t feel bad if you get frustrated. It happens to all of us.

Once you have a master plan in place – then it is just a matter of prioritizing what you want to do first.

For other articles on design please check out these titles:   How to Manage a Remodeling Project Like a Pro,  Can plumbing be installed on an exterior wall?,  Are Your Projects Not Getting Built Because of Budget?

The housing market certainly has gotten hotter in the twin cities. Does anyone remember the good old days, back in 2010, right after the First Time Home Buyer credit expired? It seemed like properties wouldn’t sell, even if you filled them up with $100.00 bills and beer. I remember this because, I had a house, I was trying to sell and I put it on the market back in May of 2010 – bad timing.

Now if you have a move in ready house, on the market,  it is likely to be swept up right away, with many properties going into multiple offers.

But what about those – not so move in ready – homes?  The homes with the ugly, golden shag, carpet left over from 1960. What about the homes with ugly and not so functional bathrooms and kitchens.  What about the homes with 30 years of delayed maintenance or the foreclosure that has been sitting on the market for a year or two or three.

Last year the market saw a rise in the number of buyers using renovation loans – either the FHA 203K or conventional rehab loans.  Sixty percent of these people had projects that were under $25K.  Towards the end of 2012, as more and more banks started other renovation loan programs, it is not uncommon to see projects that are over $100K and some even getting up into the $200K.

What does this mean to Realtors in the Twin Cities?

As the move in ready homes are snapped up or bid up, buyers are more likely to buy homes that need updating and do these updates to their tastes.

Three things are happening, in the market, right now that make this the ideal time for the 203K or the renovation loan.

1)      The move in ready homes are being bid up, to appraised value or slightly above the appraised value

2)      Interest rates are low and the rehab costs are at the same rate as the mortgage rate

3)      People want to have equity in their homes. Investors and flippers are buying homes, doing repairs to them and selling them at market value and making a profit. Many first time home buyers want to buy a property that needs upgrading, upgrade it to their tastes and have a home that has instant equity.

Most renovation loans or 203K loans that I have seen done, result in the owner having a house that is worth 10% to 20% lower than the appraised value. In fact, we are working on one home where the appraised value came in $50,000 over the cost of the house plus the rehab costs. Another one in the northern suburbs had an appraised value $20,000 over the cost of the home plus the renovation costs.

Imagine helping your buyer walk in to instant equity.

The 203K or renovation loan is not without some drawbacks though. The main drawback is that there are more working parts to a renovation loan. This can cause the loan to take longer to process. Most of these delays are minimal if you use an experienced team of loan officers, contractors, and inspectors.

For more information, on how to  make the renovation loan process go smoother, check out my blog post from July - Does a 203K really mean delayed closings and commissions?

Name: Decolabs

One-Liner Pitch: Create your ideal interior design using virtual pieces of furniture.

Why It’s Taking Off: Decolabs lets you arrange virtual pieces of furniture in a photo of your room so that you can see how the items will look in your home.

Have you ever struggled to imagine how a piece of furniture might look in your room? Now you can picture it better using Decolabs.

Decolabs, a free app for iPad, lets you design a room using virtual furniture objects. The app’s augmented reality tool allows you to select furniture from e-catalogs and position them onto real photos of your room to help you can visualize how the items will fit in your space.

To begin creating your own virtual interior designs, simply take a photo of the room you want to decorate. Then, you can choose your furniture by browsing through Decolabs’ e-catalogs, which feature products from top European designers and brands, including Arne Jacobsen, B&B Italia, Cassina, Fritz Hansen, Vitra and Molteni & C. The e-catalogs have detailed information about each product, such as the brand, designer, sizes and available colors.

Furniture prices are not included in the product descriptions because users don’t have the option to purchase items from the app yet – the company is working on making this feature available to users and expanding its selection of furniture.

The creative process comes in once you’ve selected your furniture: you can start to decorate your ideal room by adding and positioning the three-dimensional items wherever you want them to go. After your designs are completed, you can share them on social media or with Decolabs’ community of designers, who are there to give you creative feedback and recommendations on your new room. There are options to share your room with the entire community, or with just a select few friends.

“With Decolabs, it’s only a matter of seconds that you can start to configure your own interior designs,” Nicolas Verellen, CEO and founder of Decolabs, told Mashable. “The augmented reality feature allows you to make a better evaluation of how your furniture will fit in your space and helps you justify the big investment that you’re about to make.”

Decolabs was released in May 2012 and has been downloaded 6,000 times since then, with most of its users being 25 to 45-year-old women in Europe. The company has a white-label business model in which they charge brands a monthly fee for letting them feature their furniture items on the app. In return, the Decolabs team provides the brand owners with a full analytics platform that they can use as a marketing tool.

Verellen developed Decolabs while attending idealabs — a three-month startup accelerator program in Antwerp, Belgium — and worked with a partner who was knowledgeable about augmented reality. They started with seed funding from idealabs and received additional funding from angel investors in their network. In total, the startup has raised $200,000 in funding.

The company plans to release its app for Android in the future.

My wife and I live in an old 1887 brick house that was built by a contractor who came over from Teddington, England back in the late 1800’s.

We managed to do a fairly extensive remodel about 8 years ago, before we had any kids. Now our pristine remodel has taken on a new look. The stainless steel appliances have small dents in them and both of my boys have no idea who put them in there. However, they are suspiciously about 3 feet up from the floor, about where a grubby set of hands might be smashing weaponry into the Viking warriors invading the kitchen. Oh, when I say Viking warrior, I am referring to a Viking refrigerator. 

The floors have numerous dents, dings and magic marker marks in them, and our walls are fall prey to Arthur’s phase of drawing on just about anything.

So, I understand it when someone comes to me and says; “Our last kid is in college (and it’s paid for) and now we want to remodel our house. “

I’ve been talking to people about remodeling projects for about 17 years, and here is my unofficial list of the projects people do when their last kid leaves home.

The number 3 project is a basement remodel:

Most often, I find that the basement is the last spot the kids lived in before they left for college. Now it’s time to pull the posters off the wall, open the space up and make a great entertainment area for your friends. Many times this includes putting in a mini kitchen, wiring everything for audio and video, sometimes it includes adding a bathroom, and it seems like it always means bringing in more light.

The number 2 project is upgrading a bathroom:

Usually this is done in conjunction with a master bedroom suite. It seems that when the last kid is off to college, there is a collective sigh of relief from most parents and they feel they can now relax. Master bedrooms suites are a place many empty nesters choose to spend money in to create a wonderful relaxing atmosphere. Often an empty nester master bedroom suite combines a couple of rooms in the house, or sometimes space is added on to the house. Design is usually important here because often people are looking for more fresh air, light, and a sense of openness and I am guessing freedom.

The number 1 project by far though, is a kitchen remodel:

Kitchen remodels make up about 60% of most empty nester projects. Many times these kitchen remodels include taking down walls or adding space to the house. Cabinetry is usually important and so are the details that go into the kitchen project. Most empty nester kitchens tend towards the middle to higher end of budgets. Often professional level appliances, LED lighting, and solid surface countertops are a must.

In the end, it seems like remodeling a home into exactly what you wished it would be, for the last 10 years, after the kids are off at college or just starting their careers is a priority. Don’t forget though that sometimes kids move back home and don’t forget that grandkids are probably just as destructive (only much more adorable) as your own kids may have been.

Check out Reflections in Remodeling to see what other remodeling project people have done.