Meiners

The Meiners Dreams House

Meiners A love letter THAT HELPED LAND A DREAM HOUSE
BY AISHA SULTAN St. Louis Post-Dispatch
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
17 April 2016

Mike Meiners recognized the stately brick house the moment he saw it. He had passed by it hundreds of times as a kid walking on the neighborhood path that connected his street to the Delmar Loop. His wife, Christa Marren, 51, had discovered this tree-lined street decades earlier, before they had even met. Her affinity to historic homes and architecture drew her to the Parkview neighborhood as a 19-year-old where she shot pictures of the Georgian-style houses.
Together, they found a house for sale just a block from where Meiners, 58, grew up, and fell in love with the idea of coming home.
A week earlier, they had lost to a developer’s all-cash offer on a house in Maplewood, and they were determined to avoid the same fate. They offered $1,000 over the list price. They offered to skip the inspection and accepted that the house would be sold as-is. They knew a developer was also looking at the property, the home of a former Missouri governor, as a potential rehab.
Marren drove back to their home in St. Charles, dug up an old black-andwhite photo of the Meiners family when they lived in the same neighborhood and wrote the sellers a letter.
She mentioned that they had once lived in the same parish where the owner’s son, now selling the property, lived. She talked about the memories her husband’s family made in the neighborhood as children. She said how they would love to have their adult children come back to visit them in the same area with their own families one day.
“Most of all,” she wrote, “if we are truly to be the new owners, we are excited to restore Henry Caulfield’s home with graceful and elegant decoration ... that would make you, the previous owners, proud.”
She created an emotional connection between the sellers and themselves, touched on their commonalities and appealed to an image of what the home would be under their care.
But, would it be enough?
WHAT MATTERS MORE THAN MONEY
Getting the house of your dreams means wooing the seller. While the financial offer and terms matter a great deal, selling a home can be an emotional descision, as well. But in a large metropolitan area, buyers and sellers rarely meet face-to-face. Sellers are advised to leave their residence when it’s being shown to potential buyers.
That’s why Tamika Evans, an agent with Redfin Corp., who represented Mike and Christa, suggests to all of her buyers that they include a personal cover letter with their offer. She estimates about half do, and they tend to be more successful in landing a deal.
“In a competitive market, you have to think of things outside the box,” she said.
Crista Hilmes, an agent with Re/ max Results, says she had a client interested in a home that had been in the family for generations. There were two other offers on the property by investors. Even though her client’s offer was lower and required financing as opposed to all-cash offers, the seller loved the idea that the buyer was going to live in the home. Her personal note won her that deal.
Re/Max Results real estate agent Lisa Hare said one of her clients included in their cover letter that they were a young family and owned a dog the same breed as the seller’s. It tipped the scales in their favor.
“Many sellers want buyers like themselves or someone who will be good neighbors to their close neighbor friends,” said Cindy McReynolds, also an agent with Re/Max Results. “My recent seller took less money because the buyer was a veteran like himself.”
Experts say the key to an effective letter is finding genuine commonalities, such as a shared profession, alma mater or even loyalty to a sports team. There may be clues in the home that can be incorporated into a personal appeal.
Jonathan Smoke, chief economist for Realtor.com, says there’s a limit to how much the most eloquent letter can move a seller.
“I don’t think a letter will make a difference if you are low-balling in a high-demand area,” he said. But, it may for a seller who has loved the home and lived in it for a length of time and is considering two similar offers. “The one that conveys that they love your home as you did, it makes a difference,” Smoke said.
If the seller is a developer or builder, however, don’t bother with a letter, experts say. Their connection to the property is the bottom line.
THE MARKET HEATS UP
The St. Louis residential real estate market is projected to be one of the hottest in the country this year, according to Smoke. “St. Louis has reached a point where its economy and housing market are in substantial recovery mode,” he explained. The data show first-time home buyers, who are the dominant home buying group nationally, participating heavily in the St. Louis metro area, he said. “People under 35 are a huge part of demand,” Smoke said. And they are drawn to St. Louis’ affordability.
Sandy Hancock, president of the St. Louis Association of Realtors, said the forecast is proving true as the market moves into the prime real estate season.
“There are lower inventories, and properties are moving incredibly fast,” she said. They are seeing multiple offers for homes every day, she added.
“It’s absolutely going to be a good year for sellers,” Hancock said.
COMING BACK HOME
Our personal histories are connected to the places and homes within which we’ve lived. Meiners remembers walking in the neighborhood with his father when he was in fourth grade. They were seven children living with their parents in a small two-story house at the time.
His father stopped in front of a house on Westminster in St. Louis, which was for sale.
“Would you like to live here?” he asked his son.
“Well, yeah, sure,” Meiners said, looking up at that sprawling house and thinking about the army of kids at home.
His father bought the place and the family lived in the house for eight years, where two more children were born. The Meiners family ended up moving to Town and Country — considered far west in the early 1970s. Meiners was 16 when the moved and continued going to high school at Christian Brothers College High School. He would carpool in the morning and hitchhike along Highway 40 in the afternoons in his senior year.
All those memories came back to him when he walked through the three-story house on in Parkview.
The family members who were selling the house had said they were worried about what would happen to their parents’ pet cat once the property was sold.
“We said we will take the cat, if need be. If that helps us get the home,” Marren said. “It was an outdoor cat,” she added. A neighbor took the cat. Christa and Mike closed on the house a few days before the new year.
Their agent said their letter made the difference.

Mrs Corby's Service

Margaret Mary McBride Corby passed away March 16^th, 2016 at the age of 89.

She will forever be loved and remembered by her children, Robert Jr. (Pamela), Kevin L. (Teresa), and Carolyn.  She will always be loved and held in high esteem by her grandchildren Malcom, Demetria, Kristian, Sebastian, Kevin D., Audrey, Brigid and Caroline and her great grandchildren Jordan, Jenna, Maciah, Ralph, Bella, Libby and Waylon, and her great-great grandchild Ava.

Meg was preceded in death by her husband Robert Sr., her son Steven, her daughter Kathleen, her

Grandson Ralph, all 5 of her siblings and their spouses, and her parents, Margaret and Thomas McBride.

A dear friend to so many people in her lifetime, she was a treasured sister, aunt, mother, grandmother,

great grandmother and great-great grandmother.  The life of the party, she was always the last to

leave and her huge pots of spaghetti and mostaccioli will never be forgotten.

Meg was a long time employee of St. Mary’s Hospital and DuBourg House where she had a passion for

caring for the sick and elderly.  It was her nature to take care of everyone around her.  She cared for so many people in her lifetime that included her family, friends and patients.

 Erin Go Bragh!!

Her family welcomes you to the Church of the Little Flower, where she was a parishioner for over 50 years, for a visitation from 4:30 to 6:30 and a Memorial Mass immediately following at 6:30 on Friday

evening, April 15^th, 2016. The Church is located at 1275 Boland Place, Richmond Heights MO., 63117.