090926 ~ Reinhart Realtors - Diana Morning

0:00Our Saline Area Chamber of Commerce report today, building community through home sales as we welcome Diana Mourning from the Cadence Group of Reinhard Realtors as an experienced Realtor and License Builder. Diana has dedicated her career to helping clients confidently navigate one of life's most important investments with a degree in construction management from Eastern Michigan University. She brings a unique perspective that combines real estate expertise with an in-depth understanding of home construction, quality, and long-term resale value. That is a great skill set to have together when you're trying to navigate someone's purchase of a home or sale of a home to have that background in that EMU program is fantastic in construction management. Absolutely. And good morning. It's so nice to have you here. Thank you. Before we get started, I've got to bring up about her name. So Diana Mourning is how it's listed. You prefer Diana. I do. We're going to continue calling you

1:00by your birth name, Diana. OK. Today, you've asked for me to do that. But you didn't find out your real name until you were 12 years old. Right. I saw my birth certificate. And my family always called me Diana. That's when I found out I was named after Diana Sans. It's an actress from many, many years ago. Really? Oh my gosh. No one told you that? No one told me that. Oh, that didn't find it necessary. That's why. So all your formal documents, et cetera, are Diana. Yes. And you've gone by Diana. So it's great to have you here with us today. Thank you. How did you get into this line of work? Why real estate? Why construction management? Construction management was because it was a program that gave me a scholarship. Oh. So I was in the structural steel program. And I didn't like it. It was just drawing these steel beams all day.

2:00And then I found out about the construction management. And they would pay for certain women to get into the field, minorities to get into the field. And so I ended up loving it. Oh, that's wonderful. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Inxter. OK. Graduated from there. And then I've been everywhere. I've had a restaurant when I was 19 for seven years. OK. A restaurant. Seafood and so forth. Oh, really? So I've done a variety of things. Wow. And how long have you been in a real turn now? Almost eight years. And you've expanded your business. I've expanded my vision. So I basically do a lot of first time home buyers because I like to walk them through the process and make sure they understand every step of the way when they buy their house, they're able to walk another person through the process. But I do want to do more and get into the luxury market because I feel it's underrepresented.

3:01And so tell me about the cadence group then with Ryan Hart-Royer. So the cadence group with Carmen Nick. Carmen and I knew each other. We live next door to each other. And I would always call her with questions. And she always had a ton of ideas. And this year, I ended up joining the cadence group. And they do a lot of luxury listings and representing luxury buyers. And so that's the market I wanted to get into. And Carmen is basically like mentoring me and helping me to grow and to gain access to that market. How is that market different, obviously, price point? But in regards to your clientele, is it a longer term type of thing because it takes longer for those kinds of houses to sell or not really? Really? No, it's just, if you think about the home buying process, it is pretty much the same for everyone. But with luxury, the way you market it, the way you stage the home, the people

4:02that you market it to is different. And so that's the part of the business that I'm learning. Because when you deal with first time home buyers, you're low to mid-market. And so the skill set needed to sell or to list those homes. It's the same as for luxury, but the marketing is different to find those clients. Yes. What are the markets like right now in both of those arenas? So it's kind of strange. Some of the higher ends are selling, getting multiple offers. And some of the lower ends are sitting on the market. But if the house is... And surprises may actually. I know. It's not a normal market. But some of the houses, if they are moving ready, you basically, you can sell them quickly. And you have to be able to differentiate yourself when you're in the luxury market. Because there are a lot of luxury listings. And so you have to make sure that everything is on point.

5:06When you talk about moving ready that a lot of people want to have that, they don't want to have any projects to do. Exactly. If there are projects though, with your background in construction management, I'm sure you're able to talk with them about how they could accomplish this easily. I am. And we have a list of vendors and contractors to refer people to that work in the area. That we know their work is good. The prices are... They may not be the lowest, but we know that the prices are good and that they're going to do an excellent job. You're not going to have to worry about them. You're not finishing or running off with your money or anything like that. So do you recommend that people, whether they're on the low end or the high end, that they just go ahead and put their house on the market or get it prepped, get it ready. Do not just put your house on the market. Why not? Because people are very critical. And so when you live in your house, you see it one way. But when a person walks in your house the first time,

6:06they are just really tearing you down mentally. Because if they see one thing wrong in their mind, they're calculating taking the price down. So you want to make sure that you paint. If you can, you want to make sure that you replace anything that is not in top condition. You want to declutter. You want to depersonalize. So you want to make people come in and not see you, but see themselves in the house. Yeah, it's really true. Diana, morning with us, she is with the Cadence Group, Reinhardt Realtors. You also are really involved in the community. And the Selene community, this is our Selene Chamber report. Tell me about that. So I am chair of the Selene Arts and Culture Committee. And we just had our big event, which is this year it was jazz at the mansion. We usually do jazz in the park, but we change locations because of... That was a huge success. It was a huge success. It was very satisfying and gratifying.

7:10And so other than that, we do art around Selene and we're trying to like branch out. I want to bring a Selene Art Festival. Oh. Like the Ann Arbor Art Festival. So that's one of the things that we're going to be working towards next year. And I volunteer with Selene Main Street. We do the Thursday, Thursday sounds. We just had the last one week before last. Thursday and I throughout summertime. Yes. Yes. And I also... I volunteered Sunday with the mansion committee. They had a fundraiser to make the house 88 compliant. And so I get involved with the city a lot. And why is that important to you as a Realtor? It's more important as a human being because I live there and I want to be involved. I want to bring more arts and culture to the city. I want to showcase the city. So we try to do activities that bring people from outside

8:10to Selene. To me, I think of it as like Ferdell and Royal Oak. We're Ferdell to Ann Arbor, which is Royal Oak. And so now Ferdell in terms of culture and bringing people has almost a big house. They really build up there. Having things. You have to find your identity, especially when you are a small town. And this is... Let's talk a little bit about how important that is, just in terms of someone wanting to put their family in Selene. That's elusive. You want a community that's vibrant, that provides these kinds of arts and cultural events that matters. Good schools matter. All of that combined. That's what people are looking for. And we're seeing a lot of people moving into Selene from Ann Arbor. That's right. Because of the taxes, our law. The school system is excellent. And so that's why we want to provide more to do, especially for teens and young people. Because teens tend to get left out. It's either the older people or the very young. And so we did get the teens involved at Jazz at the mansion

9:12and they helped out. What did they do? So we had a kids corner. And four teens from Selene High, they ran that. And we have a member on the Arts and Culture Committee, who's a high schooler. This is the first time. I love that. And so we can tap her brain and get ideas about how to attract younger people. That's great. Diana Morning with the Cadence Group, Reinhardt Realtors. How long? Let's go back to the housing market for a moment here. So how long are houses sitting generally, would you say, right now? So there is a two month supply. OK. But condos seem to be sitting a lot longer. Single family homes seem to be moving. What's wrong with the condo market right now? The HOA, there's changes with the lenders the way they're qualifying whether the HOA's. So they have to go in. And FHA has to approve them. They have to make sure they have enough money in their reserves. And so the HOA fees are increasing.

10:15And that is holding a lot of people back from purchasing a car. Right. And that is something you have to, as someone who just sold a condo a few months back, that's something you really have to be concerned about. Because you don't always realize when you buy a condo that, OK, those fees can go up at the will of the board, which is why I got on my board. And I was president. Right. Right. But it is something that people don't really realize. That's got to figure that into your budget. You do. And if there's a big expense, like if the roofs need to be replaced, or maybe the siding, I was a condo I sold, and they were reciting the entire condo. And so the fee had went up, I think it was $100 a month for a specific amount of time to cover that. On the other hand, there's ease of mind of owning a condo too. You don't have as many concerns as when you are a homeowner, and you're responsible for your lawn and everything else, right? Because you only own the inside of a condo. Yes. The association takes care of everything on the outside. Do you see that market improving then, the condo market?

11:17Because this downturn was just really recently within the last few months. Yeah, exactly. Which within the last several months. Right. So it's kind of like been a steady just, they're sitting on the market longer. They are selling, but they're not selling as fast as they were previously. Who's buying condos? Older adults? Are they young professionals? Who's doing this? Everybody. Are they really? It's not just one group of people because you also have the students at Michigan, and their parents will buy a condo for them. I just saw one, well that was last year, well I sold it to them when the daughter started in medical school. And now that she's finished, I sold it again. So you have a lot of students in this area. Older people are staying in their houses now. Yeah, that's another issue here, and that's why we see a market where we don't have enough stock in some neighborhoods, right? Yes. And so that's, I'm also going after the senior market.

12:18I'm a senior myself. Oh, no, you're not. I'm a senior myself. That shocks me. So I'm going after that market too, and it's because when they go to move, the prices are so expensive, their interest rate is so low, they just decide, well I'm just going to stay here. Stay here. Yes. So it's an interesting conundrum with how the market has shaping, and do you see it evolving though that maybe getting better as far as you do? I do. I do. So people are waiting for the interest rates to at least stabilize because they're up, they're down, they're up right now. And so I try to get people to focus not so much on the interest rate, but on your payment. Is the payment within your budget? Right. So if they could just like not think about those 3% rates because they're not coming back. Well, and I think what people lose sight of is the fact that you can make so much money by buying a home too. Yes.

13:19The equity that ends up in there, and when you sell it down the road, the money that you're going to make off that is incredible. It's one of the best investments I think anyone can ever do. It's still the best investment that you can make. Yes. Great. Well, I always tell people, you are paying a mortgage, even when you're paying rent, you're just not paying your mortgage. That's right. That's a good boy. Diana Morning with us. She's a realtor with the Reinhardt Realtors, the cadence group. How can people reach you? Where's your website? Tell us a little bit about that. So it's on Reinhardt Realtors. Our office is right here on Eisenhower. And if you go to Diana Morning.ReinhardtRealtors.com, you'll get right to her page. Yes. I'm on there now. Diana Morning.ReinhardtRealtors.com. And she is selling everything from the low end all the way up to those luxury homes. Exactly. We seem to have a lot of those in Washington, County. Oh, yes. And they go pretty quickly. Yeah. How long do you think generally for a luxury home on a market?

14:2230 to 45 days. Really? Not that long. Well, no, that's not. It's not that long. People tend to want to be an Ann Arbor. And so those houses, it's like Ann Arbor, it's its own little stuff. So those houses move a lot quicker. Well, on behalf of the community, thank you for the work that you do, particularly in the Saline area with all the activities that you're doing to make that community vibrant and beautiful. And I love the work you do with the Cultural Committee, etc. So thank you. Yeah. It's great getting to know you. We love it. Diana Morning, also known as Diana Morning Realtor with the Cadence Group, Reinhardt Realtors on our Saline area Chamber of Commerce report today for information about the Chamber and its members like Diana. You can go online to salinechamber.org. This is Ann Arbor's talk station, 1290 WLBY.