Five Clues your Real Estate Agent is Working for a Commission - NOT You

Real estate agents work almost exclusively by commission after a  property sale. This can be good, if they are working hard for you. They will be rewarded. But,  it can be a negative. Some agents work for a commission, and not you. 

How can you tell?

In episode 35 of the Getting Your Edge: How to rights-size your home and life podcast, hosts, Dennis Day and Judy Gratton, will present Five Clues that tell you if your real estate agent is working for you, or just a commission. Don't miss this valuable information, that's great for Sellers and Buyers. This is episode one in a series of two episodes.

Transcript

Five Clues Your Real Estate Agent is Working for a Commission – Not You

*Times listed will not match the edited audio version, because of editing.
 
 @0:0  Welcome everybody. This is Dennis Day with the YouTube team, and it's getting your edge how to right-size your home and life podcast and YouTube channel.

@5:55 - Judy Gratton

I'm with my co-host Judy Gratton. Welcome. Hi, Dennis.

@6:00 - Dennis Day 

Hi everybody and our topic for the day is five clues your realtor is working for a commission and not for you.

Now realtors usually work for are almost exclusively our independent contractors and they get income based on the percentage of the sale of a property.

For a few who are on a salary year of any type and this so this is their sole source of income and many of our agents don't work for you.

I hate to say that but they are working for a commission. How can you tell? We're going to give you five ways to find that out.

Number one, your agent is not willing to do a listing kickstart and open house event. Can you kind of explain this to me?

@7:00 - Judy Gratton

Well, agents that are working for commission are kind of working out of desperation because again, we are strictly commission and so they need a paycheck, but they don't have the funds and sometimes not the time because a lot of agents also do this part time so they may be working another job to focus on actually doing the best marketing to get the best price for your home and it really requires that you also have a listing kickstart where they're preparing the marketing and they're getting out and letting people know that your home is on the market and having an open house event to get as many people through it as possible and the open house event, the way we do it, it is an event.

We try and have a lender there if we can get them there. We have snacks, not any big deal.

but things that people can take out with them. We have toys for children, we have balloons, we let the neighbors know that we're coming in.

It's a real open house event that lasts normally three days, three days over the weekend. so oftentimes, and I've heard agents say this, open houses are only for the agents to get buyers.

Well, don't you want to buy her for your house? And so if your agent is not willing to do a real open house event and not just slapping a sign up in the front yard, that could be a sign that they're not totally dedicated to getting the highest and top value for your home.

@8:44 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Totally agree. One of the biggest jobs that a real estate agent needs to do is get as many number of eyeballs or bodies in the door.

As many people see it, the more people see it, the more chance you're going to find that buyer who

really, really wants it. The more chance you're going to have for multiple offers and the better chance you're going to have a larger income from the sale of your home.

get a better price.

@9:14 - Judy Gratton

Again and again where you're doing an open house and suddenly you have multiple parties in the open house and it creates this sense of urgency and suddenly everybody wants it.

And that's when you start seeing multiple offers come in. That could even happen in a slower market than what we're in right now.

Right now it definitely is a seller's market and you're pretty confident if it's priced right you can get the right price for it but it's getting it above the asking price that's the goal of getting as many eyes on it as possible.

@9:52 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

I think you're a lot nicer than I am. When an agent is not willing to open house often here is well.

Open houses don't work. It's going to sell so fast. Anyway, I think they're just not willing to do the job.

I mean, this is part of the job, because as many people looking at the home as possible. And I just think it's, I hate to say it, but somewhat lazy.

All right, we got that one. Let's go to number two.

@10:22 - Judy Gratton

All right.

@10:24 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

All right. The age just does not present you with data to help you make an informed decision about the fair market value of your home.

June, you did this last week with one of our clients. Explain this.

@10:39 - Judy Gratton

Well, what you want to allow the seller to see is the comparable homes to theirs, both active or all of them, active pinning, sold, and then what we call the unicorns, the homes that have either been on the market for a long period of time, or they expire

or were canceled out of frustration because they didn't sell, and buyers are very, very capable now of having a pretty good idea of what a home is worth long before they ever walk into it.

There's access to information online that can give them an idea of what the fair market value of a home is, and your home will sell for what the market dictates, not what you dictate unless it happens to hit the same number, but the market will always dictate what a home sells for, it's what someone is willing to pay.

So you can say, I want this much, and that's wonderful, and we want to get that for you, but sometimes it's more than what the market is willing to pay, and so to get as many eyeballs on it as possible, you have to bring it in at number at either level one, two, or three in interest within your area, because those are the homes that are going to move quickly.

and they're considered fair market value. And they're based on your competition, the homes that are pending, and already have, we know they were in a price range, somebody was willing to make an offer, and the solds within the last six months at most, tell us what people were willing to pay.

Sometimes it's shorter period of time than six months because the market moves so quickly. And this is all information that your realtor understands and can present to a seller so they can make an informed decision because they are the decision makers on what price they want to set for that home.

@12:43 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Oftentimes we see a home that's sitting on the market for days and days, I mean, even up to 100 days or more.

Why, when that's happening, what is that telling you, the seller, and the seller's agent.

@13:00 - Judy Gratton

That chances are pretty good that based on the condition and location that home is in, it is overpriced. People are not willing to even make an offer.

A lot of buyers have been conditioned to believe that they don't have a lot of negotiation power on offers.

I've had a lot of sellers say, just bring me an offer. Well, if you can't generate an offer, it means that in general the buyers on the market think it's so overpriced.

It's not, they're not going to make an offer.

@13:33 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

And, you know, what happens to those listings that sit on the market, even up, you know, 30 days or more, is they become stigmatized.

People think, there's something wrong. Nobody wants at home. I don't want a home that nobody else wants. So, yeah, go ahead.

@13:52 - Judy Gratton

No, that's your absolutely right. They think what's wrong with it. In a market like we have today and particularly where the.

average days on market or somewhere around a week at best in high moving areas, if it's sitting on the market for 30 days, that's exactly what the buyers are thinking, what's wrong with this home.

I don't want what someone else doesn't want.

@14:18 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

It's because I've seen homes in the listings in the Northwest MLOS, which is 30 days, and they have not changed the price, they have not changed the pictures, they have not taken it off of market and brought it back.

They've done nothing. It's just sat there. And of course, nobody wants to buy a home that is just sitting there without a sale.

@14:48 - Judy Gratton

mean, I always say every home sells at some point. I actually years ago there was a home that was listed on our multiple listing service that's

said, no key box, no door. It didn't have a door. That home eventually sold. But the situation is at what price.

So time and again, what we see when a home is overpriced in the long run when it sits there for a long period of time to get an offer, they're going to lose money from where you initially said, this is a fair market value.

If it went higher, it will come in below that fair market value, and they'll actually lose money. That's why it's so important in this, in what, how we run, not how we run, but how real estate runs, the marketplace today is you've got to be priced right on day one.

@15:48 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Number three, do you want to share that with us?

@15:52 - Judy Gratton

Oh, little or no contact between the contract and closing, and sometimes not even a closing. I've heard this time and again, when I ask clients, you know, have you had, have you had experience with real estate before?

Tell me a little bit about that. They'll frequently say, oh yeah, the agent put a sign in my front yard and I never heard from them again.

So communication, unfortunately, as an industry, we've been given a bad rap, but an agent who is not communicating with you on a regular basis is just not doing their job and therefore probably just after a quick commission.

@16:40 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Those who have difficulty with or had problems with their realtor, so much of it, most of the time, it's the communication or lack there of a text, a phone call, email, constantly.

In between signing that contract and you're closing about 30 days later, there's a lot that happens in that time, there's important dates that you have to meet and the buyer has to meet.

And one of the things we do is provide a timeline so you'll know what you have to do and when everything's going to happen.

The buyer's got to do this. You have to do that, the buyer's got to do this, close at that date.

It's not that hard, okay. Communication is important. The agent, looks like I need to add a word in there too, does not pre-arrange with you a strategy in case the home does not sell in the first weeks.

If it doesn't sell in the first two weeks, what does that mean, Judy?

@17:58 - Judy Gratton

Well, it could... I'm... I mean, what we do in addition to the timeline when you're under contract is we provide you with a report weekly, normally on Monday or Tuesday, after the weekend, where we tell you what kind of feedback we have received from clients, or from potential buyers and agents who have looked at it either online, or come through the house itself, we tell you what kind of feedback we've gotten from them.

And we also look at what kind of competition you may now have that you didn't have last week, so did a home sell and yours didn't, and then we look at photos and we look at the homes and we suggest, you know, if there's an open house there, stop by and look at it and see what they've got so you know what your competition looks like.

generate interest. And then based on that. If your home has not moved in the first two weeks, maybe we've discovered through feedback that that we need to do something with the photographs, or maybe the landscaping needs to be cleaned up, although we're hoping that we have that done before we ever go on the market.

But normally, what it boils down to is we need to make a price adjustment. We didn't hit it right the first time.

And so we look at what we need to do on a price adjustment, and then we put that out in the marketplace that we have an adjusted price, a new price on this home.

And once again, we go through the open house process and we start trying to generate interest at that new price.

People look at homes normally in $5,000 increments. And that's why you'll see a lot of homes at like $7.99.99 because under the $8,000,

$100,000 mark, they're going to collect everybody from $750,000 $800,000 or just under, and then if you go $800,000 to $850,000 and if you keep it in there in some number, it will attract attention.

But if you're at $800,000, may have missed all those buyers that we're looking from $750,000 to $700,000, $700,000, $799,000, whatever.

And you might miss them by as little as $100, so we try and make adjustments and then bring the market back to your home to the best of our ability through our marketing and open house efforts and things like that.

people know.

@20:46 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Back to it. If the agent plunks down the sign and then hasn't got a plan for you and your home, they're probably working for that commission.

just want to get it sold. and get out of there and move on to the next one.

@21:03 - Judy Gratton

I mean, flyer boxes are empty. is no flyers or no type of permafliers so that people can get the information when they drive by.

There's no QR code where they can scan it and get to the listing. I've driven by listings where the sign's laying on the ground and nobody bothered to pick it up and put it back up again.

So that's a real, you see a real lack of care on the part of the agent when that happens.

They should be coming by the home and making sure it's okay, especially if it's vacant. That lights are all on and curtains are open so that it looks its best that the temperature is the right temperature, that it smells good.

All of those things need to be monitored by an agent. If they're not doing it, let's another sign that they're not really focused on getting you your highest and best price.

@21:57 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Well, they're working on volume. they're constantly chasing new clients instead of treating that current client really well, getting a referral from them, getting repeat business from that client.

It's kind of like the old college basketball, they're one and done. Once you've gone, you're never going to hear from them again, and they're just constantly moving from the next sale to sale to sale.

All right, let's move yes. Right, lowers his or her commission with little or no negotiation. Now, wait a second here.

This seems kind of counterintuitive because if I'm a seller and my listing agent is willing to lower their commission, isn't that a good thing?

@22:48 - Judy Gratton

Maybe, but you don't know because you don't have their own income. How do you think they're going to negotiate when prices start coming in for you and other Aspects of the contract that are important to your best interest if they can't negotiate for their own commission What are they going to do when it comes to negotiating for you?

@23:16 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

I think it's a really good clue of a person who is Interested in helping you there.

@23:23 - Judy Gratton

they're willing to fight for themselves So they're going to fight for you when it comes to difficult negotiations And they have the ability I mean oftentimes there are there are agents with not a lot of experience And they just want to deal so they can get some money because they're only paid by commission and they're hungry But they just want that deal so when the offer comes in they may not be willing to Or capable of negotiating to the degree that would bring you the highest dollar oftentimes with the marketing that is done that we do

We bring the value of the home up far more than the the commission that we charge. So you could save, you know, a couple of thousand dollars here.

You could make 10 to $50,000 there. It's kind of up to you. It is up to you.

@24:16 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

So let's talk about what a how you can tell a an agent is working for you. So. Number one, they consult you to make a home preparation for sale plan.

And this is before it goes live. And they're telling you, you need to clean this. You need to remove this.

You need to mow the lawn. You need to add paint here. All these little things to prepare it so that it shows the very best it possible to be on the first day.

It goes live to get the most dies on it to get that sense of urgency.

@24:59 - Judy Gratton

I want this. house to get the top dollar to get the multiple offers. But we also say you have a choice.

You don't have to do any of those things. You can sell it as is. This is what you're this is again an agent with experience is going to be able to say this is your as is price and this is if you fix it up here's your fix it up price.

What do you want to do? You always get to make the choice or you should and so that that consultation on helping for preparation of the sale of the home it talks about all of those things and also safety issues for you as the owner especially if you live in the home.

@25:42 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

two develops a pricing strategy. What does that mean?

@25:49 - Judy Gratton

Well once again we provide information on your competition the homes that are currently on the market the homes that are pending meaning the homes that people that we're willing to make an offer on so that

They went under contract. We don't know exactly what they're going to sell for yet, but we know they were in the right price range to generate interest.

And then the recently sold homes. And we're trying to compare apples to apples. And as close to your home, as much like your home as possible.

And we provide the information of how long they were on the market, as much information as to what they had going on in their home.

And then the actual pricing. So those are the things that you want to compare, location, condition, price. And when you've done those things, you can see what the market is telling you approximately in a range, what it's willing to bear.

And so that is the information that we bring forward in the pricing strategy.

@26:55 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

One of the things you want to avoid is if there's more than one home for sale in your neighborhood.

You probably don't want to be the highest priced one unless you are just an exceptionally better home.

@27:11 - Judy Gratton

And sometimes, what is the definition of better? Is it, you know, that you put a lot of upgrades and different things into the home?

What are they? Are they really going to generate the interest on the marketplace? Or were they things that you really loved?

A good example of that, especially in the Northwest, is a pool and sometimes a hot tub. People who have them and enjoy them, they love them, but in general, we have a very rainy cold climate here.

And so most people, especially swimming pools, they don't care about them hardly at all. And so it may have cost you thousands of dollars to put a brand new pool in that is not going to generate a dime.

because people just are not interested or you're going to wait for the one or the two. What we want is the most people who are interested in your home as many as we can get and the pool is not going to be the factor that's going to drive that here.

Now if you were in California or someplace like that it probably will but not here.

@28:22 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

All right I think this is one of our strengths is it presents and delivers a marketing plan not just okay I'm gonna put up some flyers I'm gonna make a Facebook post but a plan yes yeah so one of the things we do is we mentioned it earlier is the listing kickstart yes and that is with a three day event about your home on a weekend yes we canvas the neighborhood invite all your neighbors why

right? Because the neighbors have friends who say, Oh, I really love this neighborhood. I'd like to live here. And those people who do live there start talking.

Or I have an aunt who really wants to live near us. This is just more bodies, more people talking, and more excitement about that plan.

We also have what's called a neighbor, what invitation only, open house. And so we're inviting just the neighbors, making it really special.

And that's another way to kick up, because they're going to want to come in and see that home anyways, right?

@29:44 - Judy Gratton

And they'll go back to work. They'll go back to their friends, like you said, or their family, Hey, there's this home for sale in my neighborhood, you should come see it.

It's really cute, something like that. then that person shows up, it just spreads the word. The more we can.

spread the word, the more eyes we can get on it, the more people we can get interested in it, the more we can drive that price and conditions of contract.

@30:11 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

So what are the other things we do is a virtual open house on Facebook. So just before it goes open to everybody else.

We go into the unit and we go live on Facebook and we're filming it showing the great parts of that home.

It might last only a few minutes, but it's another way of getting interest and people looking and talking and thinking about this home.

Also, that then becomes a Facebook post or an Instagram, we can use that multiple times in multiple ways.

@30:54 - Judy Gratton

And one of the one of the really important things to consider in a marketing process plan that's being delivered to you is, you know, what type of media are they going to produce?

Are they going to produce videos? Are they going to produce floor plans? Are they going to produce? I mean, we have so many things that we can do now that we didn't used to be able to do.

What's the quality of the photographs? If the agent is not encouraging you to make the beds and it's going to come in with their phone and take photographs and I've seen this, that does not bode well for you when people are looking at your home online.

If the bed's unmade, the home's not fixed up and if the colors are too dark, the curtains are closed, there's all kinds of mistakes that can happen within the media that send out there that may hurt your home versus help it.

@31:45 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

No, it baffles me but to see a bad picture probably from a phone of a home that's got clutter everywhere.

It's just, it's not attractive and it's to dry people away. way rather than to the.

@32:02 - Judy Gratton

Yeah, it's not helping the seller at all.

@32:04 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah. For bears, you with a negotiating strategy. You're a great negotiator. Do you want to talk about that?

@32:15 - Judy Gratton

About a negotiating strategy. Well, we just talk about what to expect when the offers do come in and that it's not always just that somebody is offering you a higher price than someone else.

Especially when they're getting financing. We look at the letters that come from the lenders and what do they say?

Do they say based on what you told me? I believe you qualify for this home. That does not have a lot of teeth in it nor is it, you know, to me it's not worth the paper it's written on whereas if they're fully underwritten it says we have checked all of your your employment and your money and we verified all this and we have put our stamp of approval.

on you, you are certified, you are ready to go. That is as close as you can get to cash.

an agent working for you is going to be looking for all the different aspects of the contract that benefit you and then showing you that to make sure you understand, well, this person, you know, this person has more earnest money that they put down.

It does tend to show that they are a stronger a stronger buyer, but there may be other aspects of the contract in your area that are weaker here.

Inspections are probably the weakest link for a seller in a contract because a buyer who has an inspection contingency as part of their offer can literally not have any inspection at all change their mind and walk to walkway based on inspection.

And that's something that we want to try and avoid because when we're required by our MLS rules, That once a home is under contract, we must state that it's under contract and how it's under contract.

So if it's pending inspection, we have to say that. And if they go away and it goes back on market, what do you think people are going to think about that?

@34:21 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

What do you think Dennis? Probably think that in the inspection, they found something catastrophically wrong and they don't want to house.

@34:30 - Judy Gratton

That can cost you a tremendous amount of money. And as a listing agent who's doing their job, you want to, if you can, avoid it.

And there are ways that we talk about where we might be able to circumvent having the buyer have an inspection or shorten in the period of time of the inspection, different things like that that we might be able to do.

And talking to the other agent to find out how serious their buyers really are sometimes buyers are panicked and they just want to get it tied up so nobody else can take it and we want to try and avoid that because they may change their mind later and there are outs for buyers in contracts.

@35:16 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

So what's not always about price too I mean sometimes people more importantly is that they get two weeks after closing to rent back so they have more time to move there's lots of variables into that contract that it's not always simply who gets who has the most money or who's you know willing to put out the most money there's lots of different factors.

@35:44 - Judy Gratton

Yes there are a ton of them and in our I'm sure in any contract anywhere in this country it's not just black and white the highest price.

You want the highest price with the best terms and conditions that you can get for your client. in the market that you're in.

And that varies depending on the inventory, how many homes are for sale, how many buyers there are out there.

There are a lot of things that go into that.

@36:13 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

We've talked already about this. Communicates. I mean, that's so critical. I think it's one of our strengths that an agent who's working for you is going to talk to you daily or near daily before you go live.

Why? Why? You've already settled on price, etc. Why is that important?

@36:33 - Judy Gratton

Just to make sure if they have any questions or it's, you know, this is a complicated thing that you're doing.

It is a legal contract that you will be entering into. Well, it's a legal contract on the listing standpoint.

It's a legal contract on the buying standpoint. You're trying to figure out where you're going to go most likely.

You might have children and dogs and packing and. There's so many different things going on in this transition. That's why moving is like in the top 10 of stressors that you can experience.

so we try and communicate with you as much as possible to try and take out some of that stress or alleviate it to a degree.

@37:21 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Also, if the home in your neighborhood, just down the street sells for 100 over asking price, and you're comparable and eulistic, you might want to change your starting price at all.

@37:38 - Judy Gratton

We have change right before it goes live. If we've been talking and communicating with you right before it goes live, we're going to do another market analysis just to make sure that it's priced right and provide you with that data again, just to ensure you that we are going on the market at a fair market value that is going to attract as much attention as

@38:02 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

And you're in contact, right when we start that whole kickstart, how many people came to the open house, would anybody bring an agent?

Just the feedback you're getting from people, we always try and get people to give written feedback so we can pass that on to you.

We can't make people do it, but we, you know, we wish we can, sometimes we offer drawing if they're willing to do that.

Contact, when offers arrive in until mutual is done, about the agent who puts up sign, don't hear from them until contract comes and then they negotiate a contract, you sign, don't hear them until it's closing time and you have to sign the documents.

Okay, this is stressful time, this negotiation.

@39:00 - Judy Gratton

It is. And everybody has different things, including the agents that they have to do. The agents have to verify that the earnest money has been deposited and they should be providing you with the receipt for that earnest money once it's gone into escrow.

And they need to verify most often if there's financing, how the financing is going and trying to get that contingency waived prior to closing.

So that it's becoming a stronger and stronger contract for you to sell it.

@39:33 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

On the other side, the buyer side, if the agent is a strong and experienced, is there when you originally say, well, I have other offers, they might do things to sweeten their deal, and that's really can occur so frequently.

@39:54 - Judy Gratton

Well, in a good agent is going to your client what is it they're trying you know what is what's most important to them it depends on what site you're representing but but everybody has specific things they're trying to achieve and it helps the other side tremendously to understand that just sending an offer over with no communication at all to a listing agent doesn't give them much to go on and so you know if you've got 10 or 15 offers sitting there and only one or two bother to reach out and tell you a better about your clients now you now you have something you can pass on to your seller communication doesn't have to just be verbal I mean text email but providing people with a timeline you know a document that they can refer to that says this is going to happen on this day this is what you have to do on this day the buyer is going to be required to do this before 9

@41:00 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

p.m.

@41:00 - Judy Gratton

on this day so you know every step of the way what's happening and that people feel a lot more comfortable going through the transaction with that sort of thing that they can look at and then being available and one of the things that we do as far as communication goes and and I highly recommend and and hopefully whoever you're dealing with and and that it's changed not all people want phone calls some people feel better with emails other people feel better with texts so how do you want to be communicated with and then as much as possible trying to stick with that so and frequent check-ins in all the steps before the contract during the contract after the contract and after closing yeah

So if you ever have real estate questions, hopefully the agent that you're dealing with has that same philosophy, they're there for you to answer questions for you no matter what when.

So you, you can stay informed about, about real estate, especially, you know, if you've purchased a new home. Every time a home sells in a neighborhood, it changes the value of all the other homes in that neighborhood.

Go to bed. So it's kind of a good idea as an owner to understand that and be as informed as you possibly can.

When you make updates to a home, is it going to increase the value of your home or is it just not going to have much of a return at all, like a swimming pool in the Northwest does not.

@42:50 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay, we don't want you to be in the dark. No, it shouldn't be. All this stuff is.

@43:00 - Judy Gratton

You got mushrooms, it's not to be too dark.

@43:05 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

This is extremely stressful time.

@43:07 - Judy Gratton

It's one of the biggest, it's probably the biggest financial decision you make.

@43:12 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

No matter what price range is. Yeah, and you shouldn't be left in the dark. You should know what's going on and when it's going to happen.

All right, let's move to the next one. There's just a few more. Okay, regular follow-up and contact after closing.

@43:32 - Judy Gratton

Yeah, we kind of touched on that. We're here for you to answer questions. If you're buying, we like to make sure that you're getting, we have access to annual and monthly equity reports.

How much money is your home worth to you if you walk away today? That's taking your loan out and what kind of money can you expect to to walk away with?

If you were to sell today, probably aren't thinking about about selling today, but it's good to know. It's good to know in emergencies what your home is worth.

So.

@44:07 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Well, we become friends with our clients, not everybody. Not everybody wants to be a friend, you know, but it's so often that you and I, we end up being coming part of their family.

We, you know, remember their birthdays, and one of the things you're really strong at is every January, you send a, a tax statement to each, each of the buyers so they know, use that document for their taxes.

@44:45 - Judy Gratton

The settlement statement from the closing is what we send out. And the closing costs are deductible, I think, in your taxes.

I think it's not accredited, it's a deduction, I think. Don't quote. me on that. But you really need that document and frequently people, they get them from the escrow company, but it's such a, you know, frantic time, they're moving from one home to another.

And sometimes the document gets lost and they don't think about it. And it's money, you know, that they could lose on their taxes.

So we send that out to all of our buyers and sellers in January to make sure they have that settlement statement.

We save it for them. But we also, like I said, we also send out at minimum and annual market analysis.

And in some cases, set them up on a monthly market analysis of the new home that they're in. So when we can do that, we do.

@45:47 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Number seven, I'm not sure people agree, but if you're an agent who cares about more than just a commission, they're going to

ask you for referrals and go review.

@46:03 - Judy Gratton

Absolutely. That's our lifeblood referrals and reviews. Just like any other company, those reviews are really important. And if they're not asking you, it may be because they're afraid of what you might say.

And so when we're asking you for these, it's because we're pretty sure we did a good job. And hopefully if we're not doing a good job, but there's something else you want, you communicate that during the process so it could be corrected.

But you know, I look at, we all have family doctors and we have family dentists and we have family lawyers.

And a real estate professional is the same sort of person. They have access to information that is valuable to you.

If you stick with someone you know and you like, they're going to provide that information to you. It's not going to cost you anything when you need it.

And all of that is just part of what we do in our career. That's why the whole knowledgeable good agent does during their career.

@47:20 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

I hope this has been helpful to people. There are, unfortunately, there are agents out there who are the one and ones, and they chase a commission, and they move on.

And some of them can be pretty successful. It's not how we work. It's not how we want to work either.

@47:40 - Judy Gratton

And most agents that are going to make a career out of this don't work that way. They want to build relationships with people who can trust them.

So they're a trusted advisor. That's really what we're trying to achieve.

@48:01 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah, I know I wasn't in this for the money. I mean, I thought public schools for 31 years. If I was in them in the work world for money, I wouldn't have chosen that career.

I'm somebody who wants to help people make their lives All right. I think that's it unless you have any more of the tree.

I think that's it, Dennis. All right. Well, I hope you have gained some value and information. Another way to know is to interview agents, both buyers and sellers.

Talk to several. Don't just go with one. Talk to them. And, you know, some of this information will come out as you talk the more you talk to them.

Absolutely. That's it for episode 35. Get your edge out of the right size. home life podcast. We hope you enjoy this.

As always, we would dearly love to hear from you. Contact us at edgegroupteam.com and we'll hopefully help you out.

Thanks, Judy.

@49:16 - Judy Gratton

Thank you, Bye.

@49:24 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay. Well, let me see how long 50. I think we are 12 minutes in or so. So it's about 40, 42 or so minutes.

It seemed to move along pretty well. Yeah.

@49:41 - Judy Gratton

Hopefully, hopefully it was well received. So as I was sitting there thinking about Google reviews, I went, Oh, Chuck van Court.

I mean, he's still ghosting me. Remember, he threatened a bad review.

@49:57 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Oh, yeah.

@49:58 - Judy Gratton

My brother Yeah.

@50:06 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

I'm not gonna worry about it. Yeah. I mean, there's gonna be somebody out there that wants to be mean.

So, Okay, manana, what's going on?

@50:18 - Judy Gratton

What is tomorrow, Tuesday?

@50:21 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah, I do. I don't know.

@50:24 - Judy Gratton

trying to get today.

@50:26 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Hold on. Let me look.

@50:26 - Judy Gratton

I know Jim has, in fact, he's supposed to be taking, um, he's alert. He was allergic to aspirin.

@50:37 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Oh.

@50:38 - Judy Gratton

And so, yeah, tomorrow afternoon, he's busy with all kinds of things. Um, I don't have. Oh, tomorrow is Houdi Houde.

Houdi Houde.

@50:54 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

What's that?

@50:55 - Judy Gratton

Houdi who? Houdi Houde. That I written this down for our social media, so I would not forget Hootie Hootie.

So hold on, let me let me look it up again because I found it somewhere. Hootie Hootie, February 20th, People in the community gather in a place at noon, wave their hands, and shout Hootie Hoot to say goodbye to winter and welcome to spring.

Could we post an invite for people to join us for Hootie Hootie somewhere?

@51:37 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Let's do it. It's to be a good place.

@51:43 - Judy Gratton

We need to make up big signs that say Hootie Hoot. Goodbye to winter, like that. Well, of course, This is National Day, Hootie Hootie Hootie, February 20th.

say goodbye to winter and welcome to spring. What is Hootie Hootie? Hootie Hootie is February 20th. If you are sick of the heaters, coats on sweaters, red noses and boots, mark the end of winter with fun as you join your community.

To say goodbye winter, spring is a beautiful season of the year and we always look forward to it. That's what it says.

@52:29 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

How do you spell H-O-O-D-I-E.

@52:35 - Judy Gratton

H-O-O. This part of this. Overcome the winter blues and prepare for the coming of spring.

@52:53 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Did they have anything pre-made?

@52:58 - Judy Gratton

Ooh, they.

@53:04 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay, that's spelled the first part again.

@53:07 - Judy Gratton

H-O-O-D-I-E.

@53:10 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay, foodie. Foodie sale.

@53:17 - Judy Gratton

H-O-O-D-I-E dash H-O-O.

@53:27 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Oh, wait. Oh, I got all that stuff on foodies.

@53:33 - Judy Gratton

So you go out at noon, wave your hands over your head, and shout H-O-D-Hoo to scare away winter and make way for spring.

@53:42 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

All right.

@53:46 - Judy Gratton

Copyright copyrighted. was invented by wellcat.com, who have also created many other special days. If you like this, crazy. See holiday, you'll also like, put a pillow on your fridge day, which is May 29th.

Hello. Put a pillow. I'm going to send you this site, the fact site. And we can actually share this this site and add.

So where would be the best place to do this? I'm thinking the bottle park. Welcome to bottle for a day in our, our lifetime.

@54:36 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah. Do you think we did anybody to go there?

@54:40 - Judy Gratton

If, yeah, if we, we need to send an invite out right now. To do it. And maybe we could send it on, even on next door.

@54:56 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

If you're having something next door, I, I gave up.

@55:00 - Judy Gratton

Well, I have my my own. I mean, we still do. Yeah, but at the entry sign on bop away to bop.

Welcome for a day or lifetime. Okay. Yeah, I'm sending you the link. You can actually share the link and then maybe add and whatever if you put it on like Facebook, I will add it to next door in this area.

Okay.

@55:43 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

All right. Only two.

@55:48 - Judy Gratton

Only two.

@55:50 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay, I can get to work on that. I already have the trivia Tuesday done. So I. said that on Thursday at 6 p.m.

we will anybody who writes the correct answer. Basically what I said a moveable choice which generational group was the first for the first time which generate generational group bought the most homes in 2023.

It was millennials and so if they get the right answer they like the post and they make a comment with the right answer 20 bucks gift card.

@56:39 - Judy Gratton

Okay so apparently Janice said that you said you would send something to say with it today on the revive.

@56:48 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah I mean I didn't so you know she's somewhat right but can you is there something more we need to say maybe I'll look at

Maybe I'll get one of those texts, know, or one of the emails about that they sent out, just, just kind of say, if you, if you could get your home renovation is done without upfront costs, what'd you do it?

@57:23 - Judy Gratton

Is, yeah. Okay. Should you add the words to sell without upfront costs?

@57:41 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Well, I think the guy said that he just said home renovations or remodel because they thought people thinking they got more people than just the ones who are going to sell.

@57:52 - Judy Gratton

And we're not, it's not false advertising, right?

@57:57 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Well, he was sending in an email since That's not in a newsletter. Yeah, that's a gray area. But yes, I can if you were thinking of selling, you could get the renovation stuff for upfront with zero cost.

@58:20 - Judy Gratton

Zero upfront costs, zero upfront costs.

@58:26 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Would you consider it? Contact us. Yes. We'll show you how. We'll show you how.

@58:31 - Judy Gratton

All right. Can you send that to her?

@58:33 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Yeah, it will. And I'll try and figure out something that I just want to be done.

@58:39 - Judy Gratton

I just want to be done in that way, you know, whatever we end up doing. So we're going to meet at that spot then.

@58:50 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Go back. Yeah.

@58:53 - Judy Gratton

Who do you who? Huh?

@58:55 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Who do you who?

@58:56 - Judy Gratton

Who do you who? Okay. All right.

@59:00 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

All right, it's up to Janice, and who do we do, who do we do, we and Janice revive, let's say, I hope I get on it, anything else.

On Thursday and Friday, sometimes, or that John is open to me.

@59:30 - Judy Gratton

I saw that. I'm going to call her as soon as we hang up.

@59:33 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay.

@59:34 - Judy Gratton

Let's see. The intersection of both away and state route. 522. Is it state route 522 or 527.

@59:52 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

I'll see if I can find a picture of it. sign.

@1:00:09 - Judy Gratton

I'm putting it on next door. Okay. Now I'm committed.

@1:00:15 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

If I get you an image, I'll do that.

@1:00:18 - Judy Gratton

Huh?

@1:00:19 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

If I can get you an image, I will do that. Okay. Okay. You're going to send me a link to that website.

@1:00:26 - Judy Gratton

I did.

@1:00:27 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

Okay. Great. Okay. Okay. think that's it.

@1:00:33 - Judy Gratton

Okay.

@1:00:34 - Dennis Day Dennis Day

See you later.

@1:00:36 - Judy Gratton

Bye.