Southern Oregon Radio Show with Builder John Clason

Full Video Transcript Below

[00:00:00] Well, good morning, Southern Oregon. And welcome back to the real estate show. I'm Alice Lema. I'm a broker here in Southern Oregon with John L. Scott real estate. I'll be your host today and we've had a week to remember, you know, we finally started getting some more listings on the market. Yay. And thank you.

[00:00:25] Thank you to all your sellers who put your homes on the market. And the exciting part is that it wasn't just the luxury people. We love you luxury people, but we needed homes in the lower price points for the rest of us. And we got a nice batch of new listings on the market this week in Southern Oregon.

[00:00:43] And, you know, You can really tell that you're in a transition market when you get all these new properties and some of them sell real quick ,and some of them just sit. So one of the things we're going to talk about today at the end of the show in our market watch, segment Wade Smith, a broker at John L. Scott is going to be joining me to talk about the transition market, what you can do, if you're a buyer, what you can do, if you're a seller.

[00:01:08] And some of the key points to look for, because you want to be that home. You want to be that buyer that gets that home and, and not all listings are created equal. Some of them are not priced, right? Some of them are not show ready. And some of them just aren't getting enough marketing. So Wade Smith, broker John L. Scott, and I will be talking about that. And Wade is also bringing with him today for us to chat with his builder, Jon Clason. John Clason is the owner of ClasonCompany LLC.

[00:01:41] He's one of our local developers and I am so excited to have John Clason on the show, because think about this for a second. Can you imagine trying to do real estate development, trying to build new houses right now, post pandemic post, post Almeda fire, supply chain problems, labor problems, blah, blah, blah, all these things going on. John Clason has his stories to tell, but he is successfully completing homes for sale and they're beautiful. So he's working down at what we used to know as the old Cedar links golf course.

[00:02:16] So those of us that have been around a while, we remember that place. We remember the family that owned it and now John is one of the developers down there. So they're super cute. They're nicely proportioned single story. They have a natural space around them. They're called the cottages at Cedar Landing. They're averaging square footage between 1300 square feet, 1500 square feet inside finished garages. They're just beautiful. And I know this because my clients, Gloria and Roy are having John finish building one for them. And they're super excited. So thanks to Wade Smith of John L. Scott and John Clason of Clason company, LLC, for being on the show today. We're going to have a quick word from our sponsors and we will be right back.

[00:03:03] Well, welcome back to the real estate show folks. I'm Alice Lema broker here at John L. Scott in Southern Oregon. I'm here with Wade Smith who is also a broker at John L. Scott in Southern Oregon. Welcome.

[00:03:14] Wade Smith: Thank you very much for having me.

[00:03:16] Alice Lema: Yeah. Thanks so much for being here. And we have our special guest Wade's builder, John Clason, Clason company, LLC.

[00:03:26] John Clason: Thanks for having me on well.

[00:03:27] Alice Lema: We're jokingly calling you the bravest man in the world because you're doing this beautiful subdivision in east Medford. Post pandemic, post Almeda fire, all kinds of, you know, stuff on the news about supply chains and you know, Gloria and Roy, my clients are just so happy that you were brave enough to do development during these times.

[00:03:49] John Clason: Yeah, I, you know we were, we broke ground on that thing, you know, just before or just, you know, the pandemic was starting to unfold and it was in the news and I kind of had a decision at that point. Do we proceed with this and the associated and uncertainty or do we wait and see? And I, you know, I decided to proceed.

[00:04:12] I didn't want to sit around. Sit on a patch of land and, and watch the birds fly. You know, I want to get something, get something going, comewhat may. So yeah, it's been, it's been difficult as it has for just about everyone, but I'm glad I did. And we're, we're moving ahead and doing the best we can with the circumstances that are upon us.

[00:04:31] Alice Lema: So you were ready. Did I hear you right? You were ready to get this going when the pandemic hit, is that what happened?

[00:04:39] John Clason: We had just you know, back in Let's see, March, 2020 is when it really kind of exploded for, for most of us here in this area. That was right about as we were starting to get ready to do the, the, the underground work. You know, we'd gone through the approvals process with the city and, and we were essentially ready to go.

[00:05:01] And so I had to make a decision. Are we going to proceed to make this investment of capital? And so forth, despite all these crazy things unfolding the world. Or do we do we put the brakes on things and see what happens. And, you know, I elected to proceed and, and get things moving.

[00:05:17] Alice Lema: That is so gutsy, but we're so glad you did. I mean, now coming out of it you must be really thrilled that you went through the project cause you're one of the only people providing new construction.

[00:05:29] John Clason: Yeah. I'm glad, you know, otherwise it would still be, you know, just a patch of land with heavy equipment, moving things around, you know, and we've got some houses that coming up and got the first few that are almost done. So we're glad that we've come to this point.

[00:05:46] Alice Lema: Well, and let's talk about your your development. It's on what the the rest of us used to call the Cedar links golf course, and we remember the family that used to own it. And you're doing cottages which are super, super popular.

[00:06:01] John Clason: Yeah, the, that area or that the, the parcel that I acquired originally, you know, when the master planning was done by some of the other you know, folks previous to me, that area was designated the cottages even back then. And was had a master plan associated with it that had small lots and smaller streets and, and was given some, unique benefits through the city as a PUD overlay, allowing for smaller setbacks and things like that.

[00:06:32] So even from before I got involved, it was envisioned, envisioned as a you know, more of a dense type community that suited the cottage type product very well. And clearly there's a significant portion of the market that wants smaller yet nicer homes with very low maintenance yards yet still in a very nice area.

[00:06:53] And that's what this ended up being. So as I put that together, it, it clearly made sense. And, and we're seeing the fruits of that come through right now, as houses are nearing completion .

[00:07:02] Alice Lema: Well and the fact, you know, most of them are, are they all single-story or just most of them?

[00:07:08] John Clason: Yeah. The, the current designs we have that are under construction are all single story. But we do have, we can accommodate, you know, kind of some, one and a half story type builds that might, might have a loft upstairs or something like that. Generally, we'd like to keep things to, you know, one story to one and a half.

[00:07:26] Alice Lema: Well, and that seems to be what everybody wants. A lot of the downsizing folks seem to be the people that are buying these from you and that square footage of 1300 to 1500 is just perfect for them.

[00:07:40] John Clason: Yeah, that was the idea as I studied the market early on, you know, that demographic was such a significant part of our marketing. And that product was, was underserved or under, under provided, I would say so that it fit well with the location and land. And, and it was a motivating factor in pursuing the project.

[00:07:59] Alice Lema: So, Wade as a real estate agent, do you find that the older population are really attracted to, to this design where you have a few bedrooms, smaller yard newer constructions, not fussy. You don't have to worry about it forever.

[00:08:14] Wade Smith: Well, yeah, and it's very nice to be able to walk them through the products. And so they can actually see and feel, and then set them up with John to be able to meet with the builder. I think that's a big point, but they are the, these, the buyers that are in the cottages are really looking for low maintenance. But high-end you know, finishes. And so they really liked the use of the space that is nicely done.

[00:08:39] Alice Lema: Yeah. Well, they're just, they're just absolutely beautiful. So John, supply chain, it's all over the news. Everybody is experiencing it. Even if you try to go to a restaurant, like their menus are crossed out, you can't do that. You can't even get that thing at Applebee's, you used to eat. Oh, let's talk about what is this like for you bravest builder in the world.

[00:09:02] John Clason: It's hard, you know, I'll, I'll be honest. What used to be easy? It's not easy anymore. It's tough. You know, we, thankfully we're still still able to keep things going, kind of clipping along at a reasonable pace. You know a lot of people come into the development and say, Hey man, you guys are moving so fast and things are going well.

[00:09:19] And I, tell him, well, it doesn't feel like it's fast and well sometimes. But you know, we just try to focus on what's available and make amendments as necessary without compromising the product in any way, but just try to choose things that are have a low lead times or, or stock items.

[00:09:38] And we just roll with it, you know, every morning we get up and we roll with the punches and, and solve the problems of the day. So You know, there's many things, as we all know that they're having delays and supply chain issues and stuff like that. So we just kind of navigate that as best we can and and keep at it.

[00:09:57] Alice Lema: So can you, can you tell us any stories about like, what's happened in the last couple of weeks, products that you thought were coming that didn't come.

[00:10:06] John Clason: Well, glass is a problem right now, you know glass for windows, glass for shower enclosures. Often times five to eight weeks out. Most recently I was dealing with a stone veneer, you know, for accent, the portions of houses.

[00:10:23] And that's very, very limited. If you don't choose something that's already in stock, you know, you're looking at a minimum of about 15 weeks to get material.

[00:10:31] Alice Lema: 15 weeks, That's more than three months.

[00:10:34] John Clason: Yeah. MDF, you know, you're a lot of your, your interior trim is made out of pre-primed MDF material. There's a lot of shortages with that. You know parts for cabinetry drawer slides. Yeah. It's, it's really kind of across the board. You know, some plumbing fixtures are, are tough. Yeah, it's just, it's kind of everywhere.

[00:10:55] And I I've heard, I haven't seen it personally yet, but I've heard, you know, the Hardie siding, like the Symetra was slapped siding, that is a very common material in our area, I've heard that that's going to be problematic in the near future. But we'll see. We'll, we'll just have to see.

[00:11:10] Alice Lema: That siding you're talking about is a concrete or cement type. It's not wood, right?

[00:11:16] John Clason: Correct. Yeah it's oftentimes referred to as Hardy board. But it's just a product it's very, very commonly used in our area.

[00:11:25] Alice Lema: And you're thinking we're going to have a shortage of that soon.

[00:11:28] John Clason: Well, that's just based on kind of rumors and, you know, kind of word on the street, if you will. I haven't had direct supply problems with it. It's just kind of what I've been hearing from people. So we'll see, hopefully not, but we'll see.

[00:11:42] Alice Lema: So this is very interesting because you're not building custom homes. You're building, what would you call them? You're building up a pre-planned subdivision. So normally your materials would already be picked out.

[00:11:57] John Clason: Yes, they're definitely picked or at least identified, but they're not necessarily ordered or, or waiting in a warehouse for me somewhere. You know sometimes, you know, with your, with your procurement, you know, some of the larger builders might buy in bulk and store a lot of materials in a warehouse somewhere.

[00:12:18] But with my size, I typically don't order until we're ready to put it in or, or sometimes a supplier can keep it on their site for a while until I'm ready. But yeah, I'm not doing massive bulk orders in advance for all the houses, for sure.

[00:12:34] Alice Lema: How many houses did this subdivision start out as, and how many do you have left?

[00:12:39] John Clason: So there's a total of 22 lots in the subdivision. And of those lots there's construction is underway on seven units right now. And I've got six of those. I did sell off a couple of lots to a couple of third parties, but I do plan to build out the remaining 20 and of that 20, I've got six under construction right now with several more that are we'll we'll commence, well, hopefully later this year.

[00:13:06] Alice Lema: And do you do you have a pretty good market response? Like how are the buyers reacting? Are they sold before you're done. Or do you have to wait until they go on the market?

[00:13:16] John Clason: Yeah, the market the response has been very positive and I've actually been somewhat conservative about listing the houses early on during construction, just because of the supply chain issues.

[00:13:29] It's harder to maintain you know, schedules and deadlines and things like that. And also, you know, once people come in early, prior to completion or early in the process, they oftentimes want to select their own materials or make changes or whatever. And, you know, with all the supply chain problems that kind of having lots of options early on is a very difficult, or can be a very difficult thing to manage.

[00:13:52] Alice Lema: And unless they have their own warehouse right.

[00:14:01] Wade Smith: Prior to, you know the very couple of the homes that are being finished right now, we were selling dirt. So the concept was really keen with a lot of people out there. And just this morning was able to bring somebody through one of the houses that are nearly finished. Right then they were telling me they were looking and they haven't found anything that met their standards.

[00:14:22] They wanted to buy that house and then they wanted to buy other houses, be it that your, your clients are on. So they're looking forward to getting the plans on the house next to you. I know. But it was, it was such a great response, but for the concept, but being able to see it now, it's, it's bringing everything in line.

[00:14:48] Alice Lema: Yeah. Well, I, and I know people do like picking out their own stuff, but it's really precarious right now. So of the, of the property, the lots that you have left, when do you think you'll be finishing? So the whole subdivision will be done built out.

[00:15:04] John Clason: Yeah. That's the million dollar question right there. Alice you know, I think, oh, I would probably say I would say the whole thing will be built out with within a couple of years.

[00:15:17] Alice Lema: Okay. Okay. Well, that's pretty steady. So we got to take a quick break, have a word from our sponsors. We're talking to John Clayson, the Clayson Company, one of the brave builders doing new construction post pandemic, and Wade Smith of John L. Scott .Do not touch that dial. We'll be right back.

[00:15:34] Well, welcome back to the real estate show folks. Alice Lema here, broker John L Scott with Wade Smith, also broker John L. Scott. And we're talking to John Clason of Clason company, LLC. There'll be a repeat of this broadcast tomorrow, Sunday at 6:00 PM on this radio station KCMX radio 880 am. And we were just talking to John about the subdivision. He's doing the cottages at Cedar landing in east Medford. And you know, the rest of the homes that he's doing might be done in another year or so.

[00:16:08] But you know, John, this is not your first rodeo you've been building for quite a while and you have a really interesting pedigree, graduate MIT done some building overseas. I just want to let our listening audience know what it was like to be building overseas.

[00:16:25] John Clason: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. So I spent six years living in Dubai in the, in the United Arab Emirates or the UAE. And while I was there, I was there with my wife and children, and I worked for a firm, an international development firm based in Dubai.

[00:16:45] And we did a large mixed use commercial and residential projects, master plan communities, and so forth. Both in Dubai and in other emerging markets such as Saudi Arabia. Worked on some stuff in Russia and some other parts of the world as well. So that was very large scale, you know billions of dollars versus a much smaller scale now now that I'm back in the valley, but but yeah, I'm happy to be back here.

[00:17:12] You know I'm from this area, went to middle school and high school in Ashland. You know, spend some time after college in California, then we went abroad to Dubai and then I've been back here in the valley with my own development company since the beginning of 2014, but we're happy to be back.

[00:17:28] Alice Lema: Wow. So how did you, how did you get international building jobs? How does somebody from Ashland middle school get to work in Dubai?

[00:17:39] John Clason: Yeah, interesting story. So I studied mechanical engineering at Brigham Young University in Utah, and after graduating worked as an engineer in the aerospace industry in the bay area for about six years.

[00:17:53] And during that time I'd worked construction jobs during high school and college, a little bit in the summers and gained enough experience to you know be somewhat competent as a very young person. And I was interested in potentially doing development and doing larger scale projects.

[00:18:11] So when we were living in California, my wife and I acquired a home that was built in the mid 1940s. And I was, yeah, that was my first you know, major, at least major to me construction renovation project. And just loved it and had a great time. I was profitable and decided, you know what? I think I'd like to do this on a larger scale.

[00:18:31] And so we applied to MIT and got into that. They've got a one year real estate development master's program at MIT. So I did that and you see more formal training and finance and other real estate elements. And then through the MIT network and other other connections, they able to locate a gentlemen inDubai as an American guy working over there.

[00:18:52] And he was working for this company that that I worked for. So he hired me and I worked for him a number of years. So that's the brief story. I had a great time abroad considering.

[00:19:03] Alice Lema: We should have your wife on, maybe she's the bravest builder's wife. I mean, I've listened to this and they're thinking because you had kids, right. And she went overseas with you.

[00:19:14] John Clason: We all went over.

[00:19:15] Alice Lema: We should gave her a medal.

[00:19:17] Wade Smith: Alice I want to bring in at that point, she does a lot of the decore. And so she ties everything in really well. If you saw the one on lot gray, just got a lot of praise today. She does a great job, the decor.

[00:19:34] Alice Lema: Yeah. You know, those materials in those colors. Yeah. She has a lot of continuity bringing, bringing to each of those projects. Good for her. We should talk to her. If that would be all right. Yeah. Yeah. Design brains are important. They make everybody feel good. So, so, so that's very interesting. Was she helping you overseas at that time? Or is this something more recent?

[00:19:58] John Clason: Yeah, it's more recent. Overseas you know, I was an employee at a larger company and she wasn't involved with the professional side of things. But she was certainly had her hands full with five kids. Living abroad and she did great. So I'm sure she'd love to come.

[00:20:14] Alice Lema: Yeah. Yeah. Well, I think, you know, anybody who's partnering with a a contractor builder person, male or female, you know, that's a, that's a really, that's a big support. You know, that's a big, important support network. So when you started, when you came back here and decided to work on the cottages at Cedar Landing who picked the floor plans. Like, how did you decide how these were going to look in and how the flow was going to be.

[00:20:44] John Clason: Yeah, that's a good, that's a good question. So essentially prior to doing the cottages subdivision, I'd done here in the rogue valley, a fair amount of custom homes and, and spec building as well, both on large, lots and small and, and so forth.

[00:21:00] And, you know, anytime you you're doing a spec project or project that has a spec element to it, you want to make sure you really understand the market and the part, you know, the target market you're going for, you know, what kind of buyers going to, you know, what do they want in a floor plan? What kind of amenities, what kind of location?

[00:21:19] All those things. So those were the driving factors behind the, each of the floor plans. And of course they had fit on these smaller lots. And so really the floor, I developed all the floor plans. Some of them were variations of projects I've done in the past. But many of them were brand new and really custom designed for this project due to the smaller size of the lots and some of the unique shapes that exists in these lots. But I did the majority of the design work in terms of floor plans.

[00:21:54] Alice Lema: Well, they seem to be spot on the market. The market seems to be reacting really well. And so were you anticipating an older, an older demographic for these?

[00:22:09] John Clason: I was, I knew it, it certainly wouldn't be limited to, you know, the older kind of retiree or empty-nester. And it I didn't intend it for it to be exclusive to that demographic at all. But was aware that most likely there would be a significant component of the buyers that did fit that demographic, just because of the nature of the homes, the size, the price point, the location and all that.

[00:22:33] Alice Lema: Yep. And you know, Wade I bet you get asked for this kind of a, a house all the time, too. Newer construction, smaller yard, nicer neighborhood walkable. Does that, like how often do you get hit up for that?

[00:22:45] Wade Smith: Well with our names on the sign out there, we get almost daily.

[00:22:50] Alice Lema: Before it's like people call from all over the United States and this is what they want. And they can't find it online because so many of the, the homes we have here, even though they're beautiful, they're older.

[00:23:00] Wade Smith: Yeah. And a lot of people come in there and take a look at the houses. They say this exactly what they want. They want something with low maintenance. And then they get inside and they can see the finishes and they're really excited about moving forward.

[00:23:15] Alice Lema: Well, and even the smaller floor plans, you know, you have some that are 1300, 1400 square feet. The flow is amazing. It doesn't feel like a small house. The rooms are ample. Yeah.

[00:23:25] Wade Smith: Yeah. It really does. And it shows up pretty well. Matter of fact, John and I were just talking about possibly this next spec home to be a 1300 square foot home because that's what people are wanting.

[00:23:38] Alice Lema: That's great. Is this another cottage at Cedar landing or we started something somewhere else. I thought maybe we're at breaking news here. Yeah. So let's talk a little bit about the the natural landscape. Cause you've got some water features or some, some public space what's going on there at the Cedar landing.

[00:24:02] John Clason: So basically the Cedar landing master development has an integrated storm water management system. And the cottages at Cedar landing or my subdivision connects into that. And it's part of the overall master plan system. And so the current water features that are there, there's two ponds nearby that are part of the storm water management system that have water in them year round.

[00:24:31] And basically stormwater flows into those. And then it flows out of those and the storm water flows through a network of, of drainage channels and ponds either wet or dry detention ponds. And it's all interconnected and designed to allow the stormwater to sink back into the ground and to refill the local aquifers. And so forth, rather than just piping it straight out to the storm mains and into the end of the river.

[00:24:59] Eventually the, you know, if there is surplus, it does trickle out and go into a storm main and into you know, whatever the discharge areas are. But it is a fully engineered, integrated storm water management system that my subdivision connects into, in addition to the other development going on in the master plan.

[00:25:15] Alice Lema: Wow. So That sounds really expensive, and a lot of engineering. That's, that's a lot to have going on with all that water movement.

[00:25:25] Wade Smith: Yeah. You know, it's just part of the reality of the location. And you know, the state has in recent years has impose stricter requirements on storm water management and basically has mandated that.

[00:25:39] So residential development of this nature has to comply with those requirements and it is what it is. And so that, that just goes into the budget. Yeah.

[00:25:49] Alice Lema: So you're making the best of the requirement. And they turned out beautifully that you can't really even tell that they're kind of semi man made, human.

[00:25:59] Wade Smith: It's actually been a bigger request to have a you know a sight of the ambiance of the natural terrain, especially with the Willow tree and the views of the ponds in the background. It really ties everything in really nice. Yeah.

[00:26:13] John Clason: And it's actually the open space. So the pond that's on the east and then the open space that goes along the north, and then on the Northwest that's all city property.

[00:26:26] And so basically the residents can enjoy the view of that and enjoy the fact that no one's in their backyard. At least on the perimeter and they don't have to pay for it or maintain it.

[00:26:42] That's one of the reasons I bought the parcel, you know, a few years ago to begin with was that, that element, I knew it would be a desirable factor.

[00:26:51] Alice Lema: Well, it's an absolutely beautiful subdivision. The cottages at Cedar landing being built by John Clason, Clason company, LLC, and listed for sale, with John L Scott, Wade Smith and Kelly Hokinson, I believe. Is that right?

[00:27:05] Wade Smith: That's correct and Jim Zandel.

[00:27:08] Alice Lema: Yes, we, we should talk to Jim too on the show sometime. He's got a great history with development in Southern Oregon. So say hi to Jim for me. So John do you have any other projects going or contemplating for the future? Well, it's not that you don't have your hands full now.

[00:27:26] John Clason: But yeah, this is the only you know, larger subdivision that I have. We of course have other other one-off builds, custom home clients. We've got a couple of burn, burn rebuilds going on, and some we've got some remodels and duplex buildsand things like that. But so, you know, a good handful of one-off single, you know, single structures. This is the one neighborhood that we have underway.

[00:27:49] Alice Lema: Well, that's awesome. John Clason, Clason company. Wade Smith, Wade how do we get ahold of you ifsomebody wants to talk to you or John about one of these brand new houses?

[00:27:58] Wade Smith: Yeah, you can get ahold of me at my phone number (541) 622-4479. And I'll be more than happy to take everybody on a tour at the cottages at Cedar landing anytime.

[00:28:10] Alice Lema: Yeah, that's great. Well, thank you gentlemen. We really appreciate you folks. Wade Smith and I are going to do market watch, right after this segment. John, thank you so much, please come back.

[00:28:19] John Clason: Okay. My pleasure. Thank you very much.

[00:28:21] Alice Lema: We'll be right back. Don't touch that dial. Welcome back to the real estate show folks.

[00:28:26] I'm Alice Lema, broker John L. Scott here in Southern Oregon, Wade Smith and I, who is also a broker at John L. Scott. We just finished having an amazing, amazing interview with Jon Clason. Thank you so much for bringing him.

[00:28:39] Wade Smith: Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you very much for having us on, on the radio. This is a great show and it gives a lot of insight to the real estate here.

[00:28:48] Alice Lema: Yeah, well, and what a brave, what a brave builder .My hat goes off to him. So this segment is our market watch and appreciate you doing it with me. Just want to talk a little bit about kind of what's happened this last week and what's going to be coming in the future. Your thoughts on how the market is doing, you know, that transition thing is kind of happening. Some things are selling some things aren't, what's what's going on with your real estate business?

[00:29:12] Wade Smith: Yeah, absolutely. And from what I see out there, and we're pretty active as a team every day, and we're seeing that the inventory still remains very low. And what I mean by that is, is that the good houses that are, you know, what I would consider cleaned up, ready to show and go on the market to, to maximize the dollar amount is, is extremely low out there.

[00:29:37] And our buyers that we see there, and we see a lot of them from the seller standpoint as well, is that they don't really get to a point where they're overpaying anymore. And so they're kind of backing down and they're paying what we consider a market value.

[00:29:55] Alice Lema: Right, haven't you seen that it's changing, right? Yeah, I agree.

[00:30:00] Wade Smith: And so, you know, with that in mind, the people are, are being more savvy. And they're looking at more houses and are not making instinctive or, you know, impulsive decisions right away. And, you know, get with a, with a great realtor, such as you as yourself, Alice, and we'd do a market analysis on every single home before you make an offer. That way, you know, where you're sitting at before you make that offer.

[00:30:23] Alice Lema: And don't you think also that because people have a few more choices now, it's not great, but it's more than it was that that's kind of giving them pause.

[00:30:33] Wade Smith: Well yes and no. We don't see as many buyers out there. So the ones that are taking advantage of this extremely low interest rate, remember the interest rates haven't changed. They're really extremely low. Yeah. And so they're taking their time and looking at houses. And we're looking at five or six or seven houses. Before it was like, this is the house we look at. You make a rush decision on it. You're overpaying by $20,000, $30,000 than what it's actually worth on paper.

[00:31:03] And so you're making emotional decisions. So people are, you know, you know, looking at how well the sellers have taken care of their house. How clean it is, how it's, how good it smells that sets them off right.

[00:31:16] Alice Lema: We were talking about that before. People think I'm joking. But please tell, tell the listening audience how important clean smelling is.

[00:31:24] Wade Smith: Absolutely. So I, I have just showed a house you know, to a buyer, several houses and the one that fit them the best really smelled of, you know, of an odor that wasn't pleasant and just leave it at that. And so they ended up making a offer on a house. It was clean, it was tiny, it was ship shape.

[00:31:44] Alice Lema: Oh but they made an offer on something that was not their first choice because of the smell. That's so interesting.

[00:31:52] Wade Smith: They told me, that it just reacts. This shows them how the seller took care of the house. And that's a big point now, especially when in the past people would just throw up whatever they had in the, on the market. Not clean it up, not even have a professional cleaner company. Imagine throwing away $20,000, I'd spend an extra few hundred dollars to clean it up professionally, have somebody come in there and educate you on what to, to remove and declutter so that you can get more. $20,000 is a lot of money. And that's where you're at.

[00:32:28] Alice Lema: It's really interesting, the psychology of selling. And sometimes sellers don't believe us when we say have a professional crew come in, and even clean the little tracks on the sliding glass door and the windows. If you do that, it's like you just said, the buyers are trying to guess what else is going on with the house. Don't you think those little things matter so much?

[00:32:49] Wade Smith: Absolutely. And especially the way that I I've had several people talk to me about when they go into the garage and see how organized it is. They know when they go through the home inspection, that person is taken care of things.

[00:33:05] Alice Lema: By how the garage is organized. Wow.

[00:33:08] Wade Smith: Overall, the whole house, you know, they could tell.

[00:33:11] Alice Lema: I always like it when the garage is full of their stuff, because it makes them think that they're ready to move out now. But I like your, I liked your comment about an organized garage, because I think it does speak to the mentality and the personality of the owner.

[00:33:28] Wade Smith: Yeah, absolutely. And, and if you really compare to what is going on in the market, You know, older houses that are 20, 30, 40 years old or gathering new home prices. And so if you, if you compare them side by side, you know, a lot of the new homes that are being built right now, they can't build fast enough.

[00:33:51] If you wait, and you get in with a contractor like John Clason in one of his homes that he's building over at the cottages and you get in there, all of a sudden, by the time you get done building, you have built equity. And we're, we're seeing that on the very first house that he had up for for sale, that, that the equity is already there.

[00:34:09] Alice Lema: And that doesn't happen every day, right. That's a unique confluence of the market right now.

[00:34:16] Wade Smith: And I was reading a a unit, you know, everybody could read the internet, but Goldman Sachs said that 8 20, 22, the, the market is going to increase by 16% by the end of the year. You know, they, they spent a million, they still may, or millions of dollars just to research that we need to listen to the experts out there.

[00:34:38] Because of Mike down the street that tells us everything's going to crash. And I'm like that doesn't sound like a crash to me. It's a time, it's a great time to be in the, in the market, if you're a buyer.

[00:34:50] Alice Lema: Well, but it makes me worry because first of all, that's a national statistic and second of all, Southern Oregon is a little more vulnerable just because we don't have the same economic base.

[00:35:02] Like we don't have the manufacturing like Seattle or the tech of San Jose or whatever. So it worries me a little bit that sellers are gonna say, well, I'm going to price my property 16% higher than.

[00:35:17] Wade Smith: Yeah, that's, that's true. Cause it takes away from the lower income. But if you're, if you're a seller you get with the within the market itself and you're sitting there looking to buy, at least you'll move a laterally.

[00:35:30] Even if, if, if a house go up. Yeah, well, but the good, the biggest trend is what happened during the pandemic, is everybody's working from home now, or they have second jobs that they can work from home because people need, or employers need people to work. And we just seen an executive from Intel moved down here because she was given a three year warranty that she's going to you know, the window that she's going to work from home or a longer. And I'm like, wow, that's, that's great.

[00:36:06] Alice Lema: It was going to happen though. Those tech workers, they're going to love living here. They're going to love it.

[00:36:12] Wade Smith: And we're seeing that more and more. That's that's the biggest trend right now is to have that four bedrooms, three bedrooms with an office because people are, you know, make it a very good living, working from home and now I, I don't like to work from home. I like to work here in the office because you work longer hours when you're in your house.

[00:36:34] Alice Lema: I disagree, but, well, we'll have to have you back and talk about that again, cause we're almost out of time. WadeSmith broker, John L. Scott. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for bringing John Clason in. Maybe you guys can come back and give us another update when the cottages at Cedar landing are all sold out, which hopefully will be soon.

[00:36:52] Wade Smith: Okay. All right.

[00:36:53] Alice Lema: Thank you to our sponsors. John L. Scott Southern Oregon, Rogue Valley Association Realtors, Guy Giles Mutual of Omaha mortgage. We'll be back next week.

[00:37:02] Bye folks.