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Still best to keep one bathroom with a tub

From the president’s desk

Everyone always says, “Be careful what you ask for because you just might get it.”

Well, I asked for your questions in my last article. And, boy, did you respond. The amount of questions that have come in over the past two weeks are more than I even imagined. With every email, I felt like Sally Field standing at the podium holding her award saying, “You like me! You really like me!” So, thanks for that.

I filtered through the questions and I’m excited to answer a few in this week’s column. I say, “filtered,” because when I said to ask me anything, well, some of you took that to the extreme. While I’m sure my color underwear, whether the Buckeyes are going to cover the point spread this weekend or what my favorite pizza is in the Mahoning Valley are the talk of the water cooler on Mondays after my column, I’m going to stick with the real estate questions. Maybe we’ll save those questions and answers for my last column of the year. Who knows?

In any event, there are a few questions I thought were great to kick off this new format so, without further ado, let’s see who has our first question:

“I have a 4-bedroom home. 4 1/2 baths. One bath has a tub. It is not easy to get into it due to the glass doors and size of bathroom. I would like to make it into a shower bath as well. If I go to sell, will not having a bathtub be a ‘downer’ if I decide to sell?”

• Lenora D.

Thanks for sending in this question, Lenora. Sounds like there is no waiting in line at your house to use the loo. This has been a question that has been coming up quite often with sellers during the pandemic as they look to improve their bathrooms or create new ones in their home. While walk-in showers and elimination of tubs have become more popular, eliminating a home’s only full bathroom could turn off potential buyers. According to The National Association of Realtors, if the home has at least one tub, switching other bathrooms from a tub to a shower only design shouldn’t negatively impact resale value.

“I have put in offers on multiple houses and continue to get outbid. How is this even possible if I’m putting in an offer that is the asking price or even above it! Don’t I get a chance to respond?”

• Jeremy P.

Jeremy, unfortunately, you’re not the only one experiencing this disappointment. The housing market continues to be a bull in a China shop for sellers. Houses are staying on the market for an average of nine days after being listed and selling more than 20 percent higher than what they were selling for back in January, according to MLS data in the Mahoning Valley for August of 2021. It sounds like you are putting your best offer in, which is key. However, if you are willing to go higher, you should work with your Realtor to put in what is called an Escalation Clause. Back in February, I wrote about this and advised to have this in your contracts. It helps protect you in these scenarios and shows you are serious about purchasing the home. Thanks, Jeremy!

Well, look like that’s all the space we have for this installment of Ask Me Anything. If we didn’t get to your question, we will try in the next column or, if you have a question you want to ask, feel free to email ThePrez@ycar.org and I’ll add it to the list.

Patrick Burgan is the 2021 president of the Youngstown Columbiana Association of Realtors.

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