Houses From Heaven and Hell

In this episode, Anthony and Barbara share personal stories about their experiences with houses that represent both heaven and hell in the real estate world including the infamous Smoke House and termites eating support beams! They discuss the emotional connections people have with homes, the challenges faced during the buying process, and the importance of prioritizing clients' needs over closing deals. Through engaging storytelling, they highlight the joys and pitfalls of real estate, emphasizing the human aspect of buying and selling homes.

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Transcript

Episode 3 (00:08)
Welcome back to the house next door I can't believe it. We're doing so well. think so too. Like I said, I don't care if anybody's watching this. I'm just enjoying my afternoons with Anthony. It's so, you know, Barbara has a beautiful house and our little podcast. I guess we should say the episode name. ⁓ yeah.

Today in talking about houses, very timely, because today's episode is going to be kind of some storytelling. Yeah. About the house.

The house is from heaven. And the house is from hell. So we're gonna talk about it Honestly, think that Barbara's house is from heaven. I do too. I love it. I love it. When I saw it, I told the, just quick segue. When I found it, I was mad because I wanted a historic home and this is not a historic home, even though it's built to look historic. And Craig was like, let's just go look at this house. Craig's my husband again. Bless his heart. And I said, okay, let's go. I'm not gonna love it.

But whatever if I have to live in a newer house, this is fine because I was sent I was set on living in a house that was at least older than 1920 and Just couldn't find anything everything in our budget looked like a dollhouse everything Right everything. Yeah, exactly. So we get here I walk out I fall instantly in love with this house. It is Everything I didn't know I needed I needed a cute farmhouse

on five acres in the pine trees with tons of storage. did not need a historic home.

And I let the agent know right away that I absolutely love this house and I'd do anything to get it. And I didn't need to tell her that because the house... to be negotiating. Yeah, one, I'm the worst negotiator for myself. But for clients you're the best. And two, I just was like fully transparent with her because it was the first time I had ever... I'd see my clients fall in love with a house where they walk in and they instantly fall in love. And they're like, Barbara, get me this house. And I'm like, okay, but let's not talk about that because we're on camera.

It's like the cellar's camera, but it happened to me I finally had that moment in this house and Yeah, well, maybe this is my house from heaven. Yeah, let's just make okay This is my house from heaven my own I remember when you were showing me on the compass app Yeah, the the houses and I knew what you were looking at. You were looking at the historic homes historic I don't know how I feel about this one. I know and I was like

I kind of like it for you. I remember you saying wasn't what you were looking for. Not at all. But it looked so, so well built. It did. And it had character. Even though it was new, ⁓ the builder did it.

It's actually a custom home, Right, it's a custom home. The previous owner built the home and lived here. And so you always know when somebody has built their home for their family, it's gonna be well built. And it is. It's such a solid house. And he built it like a vintage farmhouse. And like I said, when I saw it, I fell in love instantly. This house has been on the market over 200 days. Wow. And I just told the agent,

I love it. I have to have it. I'll do anything for it. And she's just like, and I know that like I've since became friends with the agent who had this house. And I call I call them the Janice's because they're a team of two Janice's and they're just wonderful ladies. And she's such a great realtor. And here I'm just like,

Laying it all out for her. She's probably thinking this girl is the worst realtor ever. Who's this new girl? Like no, I just know what I love and I wanted it. And here we are. And here we are. I, you know, like I said, sometimes a realtor needs a realtor when they're doing their own property because you get so emotional and you can get so emotionally attached. And I, I got beyond emotion. I hit my husband in his shoulder. Like I hit him. I'm like, get out. You're not supposed to, you're not supposed to admit that on camera. That's true.

We have to have this house and he's like, ⁓ my gosh Okay, calm down. Like I literally freaked out and he has a freaking nice garage for him. It does he has a vintage car So it's perfect. Yeah, perfect for everything. It's the first house we ever agreed on in our entire marriage Wow Yeah, we've not agreed on any houses before so maybe it'll be longer than four years like you said Maybe this is our forever home. I

I did I did I said it in the last episode and here I was gonna talk about a totally different house as the house from heaven But got squirreled. ⁓ so is this your house? I think this is my house from heaven. It's my own house. I like that. Because like I said, I had never had that experience of walking in and feeling like it's the one. Yeah, and and I was jealous because all my I had not all my clients But a lot of my clients had gone through that and gosh, that's pretty I never had it never felt connected

with a house till this one. crazy thing is ⁓

Same thing with my house, but it was a very totally different experience. we, fortunately, my mom being a realtor, like whenever I turned 18, if I went to an affordable school, then- What does that mean? Is that like a cheap private school? Not private. A public. So Texas State. Oh, oh, college. I thought you were talking about like elementary school. You went to affordable school. Like, is that like a budget private school? No, so they told

me

as long as I go to an affordable college right right that they would help me purchase a home oh that's a good deal so so the one in San Marcos that I ended up buying we we were going

town that day we were going to Dallas and it came up on the market and in my price range it was things moved quick it was 2017 it was or 15 oh it a different market was slow but it still it wasn't great it moved quick yeah and we saw it online and me mom we were in the car about to leave for Dallas and we're like this is the house and so we showed dad we wrote an offer on it without seeing it oh wow so you just saw the outside yep no we never even oh

So we did I don't remember exactly but we

We wrote an offer without seeing it. Okay, you wrote an offer without going in. And our whole thing was we'll go during an option period and see if you like it. so we offered it. That's how realtors buy houses. We tell our clients don't do that. do what we do. Never do what we do. Like I said, you need a realtor for your realtor. But you know, in our minds is we knew we were going to miss out on it and it was the home and we could always back out during our option period. Right. We were going to get inspections done and we did a little bit longer option period.

because we never saw the house. So, yeah, so it was fair. And we won the offer. So, and it wasn't multiple offers too. So it's a good thing that we jumped on it. But same thing from the pictures, we knew that was the house. You know, it's the one. Yeah. I didn't know until I got in here. And then I feel like I've been talking about my own real estate experience for our podcast a lot, but I think it's because it's just so fresh with the moving vortex. And this is again, why I believe in moving so much so I can experience it like my buyers and sellers.

Can

you these words for Quinn? I, I, know, how can you trust a realtor who hasn't moved in 30 years? No, I'm just kidding. that might be mean. Oh, but I know that wasn't your house from heaven, so. So should I still talk about that? Yeah, talk about your house from heaven because you've told me about this house and it's a good story. like Yeah, so, um.

I got connected with this lead through an online site and it was a family, I think we actually might have mentioned them on one of the other podcasts. ⁓

They were looking for their forever home. They were about to have grandbabies come, or they were hoping they would have grandbabies. these were the people who had moved in 30 years. Yeah, yeah. And they wanted to come to Austin to be close to their grandkids. They wanted north of Austin in the suburbs. They wanted to be close to 35 because he worked a lot in Dallas for work. OK. And he was still working. So. So.

you know it was a very it was a very high or a higher price point than I'm normal or that I'm used to right and so you know that intimidation but it doesn't matter it's just extra zeros yeah exactly it's the same transaction the same thing that I did with them I did with every other my clients and I had to walk myself through that because

Initially I was like I've never sold a house this expensive. Like how am I going to do this? I don't know anything. you feel like you had like imposter syndrome in a way? being I know I did that like the first luxury house. ⁓ that's not who you are though. You're so good. Yeah, even though a house is a house like yeah, I have wolf brand appliances, but it's still right. It's still a house. ⁓

So I know, but the first time you do your bigger price point, it does feel like for me, I felt like I had imposter syndrome and didn't have the confidence.

To do it. To feel like that I could do it. And it was no different than any of my other transactions. No difference. Yeah, exactly. And the crazy thing was this one was right before the NAR settlement. OK. And so literally, I was showing them maybe three days before we were required to get buyer's representation agreements. That was a fun time. And we're still going with that. But yeah, so the wife was in town. The husband was working.

She calls me up and she says, hey, Anthony, I've never met them before. She's like, hey, we're about to leave town, but I want to see this house before we leave. Are you able to show it? And I said, yes, I'll be there in an hour. ⁓ They didn't buy that house, but that was the start of, and so- That became the start of your relationship with them? Yeah, yeah. And I told them about the NAR settlement and what was coming in the pipeline because we knew about it, you know, in three days or five days or whatever.

that you would have to sign a buyer's rep. I think I might've shown them twice before that time, but it came up pretty quickly. And so their big thing was her husband had never met me. He was the decision maker.

That's always fun when you don't get to meet the decision You don't get to tour with the decision maker. Yeah. ⁓ okay, how's this gonna It was her and her mother-in-law, which is his mom. Yeah. Which they're so, they've become family. ⁓ see? That's also the client from heaven, right? Yeah, the client and the house from heaven. They've been so, so special. ⁓

And so eventually we went and, well so I told them about the buyer's representative. Let's not talk about that. That's about the client. Let's talk about the house. Let's talk about the house, Anthony. Okay. Why is this house from heaven? The house. So we went to, well we're going to talk back about the client. So there was this one house across the street. It was on Indigo. And...

The house. Cimarron Hills. Yes. I love that name. Love Cimarron Hills. It's so gorgeous. Yeah. And there was this gorgeous house. It was very Spanish style. Yeah. Very elegant. Had a volition plaster walls. Is that the volition plaster? Venetian. Venetian. I'm not confident. No, you're fine. ⁓

cares about that. ⁓ It was gorgeous. It was very unique. It had a courtyard with a fountain. love It was very unique. And that's where I have the house from heaven. ⁓ It's really not, but it's where we started. ⁓ okay. So this isn't the house that they bought. So we're gonna fast forward. We couldn't get that one because we can't agree on a price. fair enough.

So we bought the house right across the street. the house across the street was very outdated ⁓ and they wanted it to be their forever home. It was gorgeous though. It was very well done. A custom home, 4,000 square feet. There's a lot of that in Cimarron where you have these big beautiful houses that are just outdated, but nice materials, just outdated. ⁓ the wife, she kind of fell in love with it pretty quickly. She had a me moment in the house.

Yeah, I get it. It was really hard for her because she fell in love with the other house and she loved the other house We just couldn't agree on price. Yeah, and so and that happens there was another objection to that was hard to overcome the backyard looked into a neighborhood with a two-story house, so That's bummer. Yeah, so when you're paying a million dollars for a home or more than you know, you don't yeah You don't want that and then they struggled with their pool where it would go and stuff. So yeah, there was other So it wasn't from

it was from Purgatory. The one from heaven it backed up to the golf course because it was across the street ⁓ and it was you know it they fell in love with it and it was way more than enough space for them and perfect and so they remodeled they met with an interior designer when we were in

contract and the wife I remember her telling me she's like we're not these kind of people we've never done this before we don't know what to do ⁓

She's like, just decorate my house as my same, but this was gonna be our forever home. We're gonna do remodeling and all of that. So she needed an expert to Yeah, so we got a custom home builder to come in and give quotes on changing the house to make it their lifestyle. Perfect. So that was in October. They still haven't moved in. ⁓ my gosh. Has it become the house from...

But it's, she sent me pictures the other day. We stayed in contact. that's great. So they're making progress. Yes, she sent me pictures the other day. They sent by the end of this month.

Maybe by Christmas. It might be a miracle. Oh my god. Christmas miracle. That's good. That's the house from heaven. was gorgeous. It was gorgeous. And that neighborhood is so beautiful. Should we about the neighborhood? Well, yes. Let's talk about that neighborhood. For For two minutes we'll talk about it. So I used to work in Cimarron Hills a gazillion years ago when we talked about how I did graphic design.

and I did graphic design for the real estate end of Summer on Hills Country Club. And when I joined their marketing team, which was literally me. ⁓ They had no marketing. They had not sold a house or a lot in over three years.

when I went not saying that my marketing brought it that was just part of the the temperature of the market out there. Yeah. And it was pretty far out. And so until recently you start becoming. Yeah. Finally, they started to get some of prices left. Well, they opened a whole new. Yeah, they opened a whole new section. And then they have the section where they have like Sitterle homes and more production custom type homes, but they're on smaller lots. But they did open that whole new section in those

are gorgeous. Really? Yeah. Are they estate? Well, I don't know if they're calling them the estate lots, but they are large lots. Yeah, I don't know what they're calling that back area yet. Somebody told me and then it just slipped my mind because I'm periominopausal and I can't remember anything that anybody tells me. yeah, just beautiful golf course. Jack Nicolás. My son actually works there right now. Oh, I didn't that. Yeah, yeah, he's doing golf cart stuff.

between whatever else he's going to be doing. ⁓ But it's just beautiful oak trees, beautiful spa.

I heard the restaurant is really good. it's so good. We've been there a few times. Yeah, I heard it's great. And they've got tennis and swimming pool. And that's what really sold my clients on that neighborhood was the country club. community at the country club is great. It's fabulous. became friends with the neighbors before, except the one across the street. For the most part, the people are really nice. The house that was across the street, the seller was actually, they already bought a house down the street. So they were staying in the neighborhood. They were staying on the street. Yeah, so quite interesting. Our two minutes is up now.

Okay, yeah, okay. This is hard because we could talk about anything forever. So I'm gonna talk about my house from hell.

But it was with my clients that I love. Absolutely adore. ⁓ they're really good friends. They were just here visiting me the other day and I was telling them about the podcast and they said, are you gonna talk about the smokehouse? And I said, you know I'm talking about the smokehouse. And how I met them was at the time I was on a team. Did I tell you I was on a team? Yeah. Was it at Compass or at? No, this was when I was at, ⁓ again, Perry Mons.

Hario Menopausal Brain, Home City. I was at Home City and loved being at Home City Real Estate. I was on no longer in business, right? No, yeah, they got bought out by Better Homes and Gardens. I was on a team with another realtor. And I didn't know how I was gonna do on a team. I'm not really a team player. I don't think I am either. And it didn't work out, needless to say.

So it was his house, it was his listing, not his home, but his listing, and it was in Northwest Austin, and he asked me to do an open house. And I was happy, more than happy to do open houses. I love to talk to people and talk about a house in real estate. And I got there and he said, know, the previous owner smoked in the house.

for 30 years. And all of their furniture was in the house. He didn't remove the furniture or anything. So the drapes, the furniture, the rugs, the paint, that smell. The smell was just in everything. And it was like, they didn't just smoke like Virginia Slims or something. They were smoking Lucky Strikes or Marlboro Res. I mean, it was bad.

And so when we were doing the open house, he said, before you do the open house, open all the windows and leave all the doors and windows open. That's be real open. Yeah. Leave them all open during the open house because I don't want people to smell that. in the back of my mind, I'm thinking.

Well that's pretty deceitful. I feel like we shouldn't be trying to cover up something that's fairly obvious. But whatever, I'm on this team. can still smell it. Even if you open it up. Like okay, I'm on your team and evidently you know more than me. I was deferring to him. He was the team lead. So I do what he says. And these wonderful people come that's why you're not on his team. And these wonderful people came. And they lived in the neighborhood.

neighborhood and they're specifically looking for this particular neighborhood for the schools and she's just so sweet and she brings her mom and we're talking and we immediately connect. She loves the house and she's got this great eye for design. She's just amazing with design and so she could already see how she could transform this and that. She kept smelling something and she said, so it smells in here and I said, well, it's smoke. The previous owners smoked in the house.

And I said, that's something that during the option period you can figure out and see if it's something that you can overcome. You know, we can, we can talk about that and have some solutions and see if it's something that's a deal breaker for you. Right. So we were talking through that a little bit. then she's like, I'm going to go get my husband. So she brings her husband. I meet him sweet family and they love it. They don't have a realtor and I'm not representing the seller. And so we just connected and they said, Hey, do you think you

represent my family in this and I said absolutely absolutely I would love to you guys are so cool and so I represent my team leads excited he's like wow you met somebody at the open house you're bringing me a buyer we're keeping it on our team all this good stuff and my spot is still the same and so we do the we do the inspection at this time all the doors have been closed right so we go in and I remember my client we're talking in the living room

And she's just kind of like visibly kind of getting pale and seems like she's a little unsteady. And she said, can we please go outside? I think I'm, like, I can't breathe. It's so bad I'm getting a headache.

And I'm getting dizzy and it was bad. Like I was smelling it and I was like, man. opening the windows actually helped that much. It did. That's how bad this smell. mean, this smell was overpowering. It was bad. So we go outside this at the other, we go through all the how do we get the duct work replaced, clean, you know, we go through every rabbit hole. And at the end of it, she said, I part, I love this house.

I want this house, but I'm afraid every time I'm going to turn on the AC or the HVAC, I'm going to smell this." And she said, I can't even move my family into this house. This isn't even a healthy house to move my family in. She said, I can't do it. And I said, I understand. And I said, is there anything more we can research? I mean, because we spent hours researching. I got her every price, every bid. I mean, we went down that rabbit hole.

And she said, no, there's nothing that can be done to make me feel safe about this house. And I said, okay, that's okay. We can, we can get out of this contract. We're in the, we're in the option period. And you didn't, she didn't really realize how bad it was until after she had gone under contract. Cause she had seen it during that open house. Yeah, exactly. And I remember my team lead. He was furious with me, furious. He, he just yelled at me and he said, but yeah, this was his idea.

Well, and he said to me, and I'll never forget it, because it was when I just came back into real estate from being apartment locator, right? And he said, Barbara, the problem with you is you don't know how to close deals. And I'll teach you how to close a deal. And I was like, no. I wanted to say, you know what the problem is?

is you're making it about the deal and about closing and what it benefits you. I make it about what is gonna make my clients happy and comfortable so I can sleep at night.

So yeah, I'm not gonna close them on this house, but we did close on another house that they love, that they still live in, and they're my friends who come and visit me. And we go out to dinner like once a quarter. if you would have sold them that house. Yeah, because it's not about... They probably wrote a very bad Yelp review. Well, it's not about me, my paycheck. It's about them and their comfortability, and that was the house.

That was the house from how? There's security. Yes, I couldn't live with myself if they moved into that house and I pushed it and pushed it because I was going to show that I could close a deal. That's not what real estate's about. That's not us. No, and that's not us. There's some out there. Well, there certainly is and I'm not on his team anymore. I'm glad they found something though. Yeah, and they found something else and it was wonderful and we've seen that house go back. I even remember talking to my team like...

And I was telling him it was really hard for her. was kind of, I said, we had to get out of the house to talk. It was so bad. And I said, my clothes even smell like it. And he goes, oh yeah, that's, he said, oh, like, a, the toilet. I'm not saying that right of, and he said the address of the house. And he's like, yeah, it smells awful in there. And I'm like, what, what? Oh, anyway, that might be the agent from hell. No, we're not going to go there. It's too early on in the podcast to start calling people out.

We will never call anybody out, but you might infer. We might infer. so anyway, that was my house from hell. The smoke house. It's so crazy. So my house from hell was a very different experience. Yeah. So there's this little town, which Barbara knows, ⁓ Lagovista. Lagovista. It's over on Travis in Austin. So you would think it's desirable. It is? It's just very different. Very small town.

⁓ Yeah it's small, it's pretty, it's small, it's conservative, it's rocky. They don't like a lot of growth in Lago. And I think it's changing but it's still there. So this house was a little cabin, I think 450 square feet. that's kind of darling. It's like a tiny home. Yeah very small house or cabin. So the struggles with it though. ⁓

It didn't have any public water and so... so they were on well? No, no. They had no public water or well? Correct. So... So the water... the lot was too rocky and hilly to put on well. so they... ⁓

So the water came from Lake Travis. Okay. So the neighborhood had a pump that pumped water out of Lake Travis and it went to only like three homes and this one was one. Okay so it's like a community pump.

But the water was untreated, so not potable. So you could not drink it, could not cook with it. So that means, as me and Barbara know, that you can't get financing. Yeah, you can't. bank's not going to finance that unless it's land value only. Well, the land was very rocky. You went down this long easement to get to the house back in the woods. And you overlook Lake Travis. Lake is gorgeous. You were one block away. Wow.

But you gotta bring in your own water. Yeah, so that starts the house, this house. So the second, the second thing is ⁓

The septic system so in Lake Travis, if you're close to Lake Travis, LCRA has to lower Colorado River River They have to approve all of like on-site septic systems and well that can affect the lake Yeah, and it's a big lake and can't be contaminating the lake. Yeah They don't want crap floating down. They don't want crap in the lake We call LCRA out to do a septic inspection, which is always fun. Yeah, because you have to it's

The subject inspector gets there and says I can't even inspect this. It's old one. It was built in the 40s. ⁓ So I love a vintage house but not a vintage septic ⁓ It was missing some of the equipment it couldn't hold water I don't know but so gosh so my client still wanted me forward It was the perfect client for the perfect home. Okay, and so despite the hellish

conditions. Yeah. Okay. I love these clients. We still wanted to move forward. So then she does an inspection. Well, okay. So she didn't get a real inspector, which we do not advise. We advise always getting real inspectors. did it herself. she did. ⁓ wow. She really didn't get a real inspector. Yeah, she did it herself and she had a checklist and went in and what we determined there was ⁓ termites in the house. So we've got termites? From a non-licensed inspector.

We have a termite infestation. No water, no septic. 1940s, vintage It was like 1940s or 50s. it probably had asbestos on the siding. Who knows? Probably. It probably lead to base paint too. Had you gotten a real inspector, perhaps you would have. Yeah. And um.

So that was the house from hell, you know, she had a vision. close on it? Yeah, she did. How'd you guys get a loan? She paid cash. OK, there, that'll solve She Jonestown, which is right down the street. So she bought it so that her and her son could fix it up. Oh, wow. And her son was like two years old.

As they say bless his heart It was it was so it was the perfect buyer for that house for that house Yeah, all odds going against all against her. It's so funny because I showed it a couple of times to different buyers

And you had multiple buyers for that. So it was my list. That's impressive. it was your listing at one point. OK, but I represented the buyer at the end of it. OK, long story. When I came over to Realty Austin, I can't bring it with me. ⁓ my mom took it over as a listing because she's with my old broker. OK, so it stayed in the family. Yeah. And so I represented an unrepresented buyer. Yeah. And so but I showed it to some some buyers whenever I had it as a listing. And he was actually a realtor and he's like, I love this property and I don't know why.

And his brother, who was his business partner, could not stand the property. He was like, I don't know why you like this property. It's a piece of crap property. I don't understand. And so the brother, the one that loved it, he called me and he's like, I want to buy it myself. And so it never worked out, but.

It's because the brother was somewhere with the voodoo doll with the house. No, you won't buy. But it was funny because it was the same thing. Like, she just fell in love with the house. didn't know why. It had all the odds going against it. everything, including no water, termites, and a vintage septic. Yeah, and the termites were actually eating a support beam that was underneath the house. So it was very major.

I need to reach out to her. She closed one night a couple months ago. I talked to her right after the floods, July. Oh, and she was okay? She was good. Good. So yeah. Wow. That's the house from hell though. I have a lot of houses from hell. We do. only one. This might be a reoccurring theme series on our podcast where we... Maybe once a season. If we last more than a season. Do think people are watching us? Yeah.

could do that. Yeah, we've got a lot of houses that meet this criteria, both heaven and hell. So, you know, it's great. So that concludes our... That was a lot. That was a lot. That was a great little journey. took an unexpected turn because y'all, I had another house picked for my heaven house and I was all ready to talk about it. Yeah, and then all of a sudden it was just it felt authentic.

and real to talk about really my own house and you know maybe maybe eventually I'll stop talking about my own house but I know I'll have moved again so then we'll be

wonderful day and we'll see you next time thanks for tuning in