Ep.34 “The First 30 Days After Closing Will Wreck You (And Why Your Offer Didn’t Win)”

You finally bought the house…

Keys in hand.
 Smiling at the closing table.
 Thinking the hard part is over…

👉 That’s where most buyers are dead wrong.

In this episode of Real Estate UnRaked, Eric, Dane, Bridget, and Jaycee break down what REALLY happens in the first 30 days after closing—and why this is the part nobody prepares you for.

We’re talking about the stuff buyers don’t see coming:

•  The money that keeps going out after closing 
•  Repairs, surprises, and “wait… that wasn’t in the inspection?” 
•  Utility setup chaos, mail changes, and real-life move-in stress 
•  Emotional whiplash from excitement to “what did we just do?” 
•  And how fast small issues turn into expensive problems if you’re not ready 

Because here’s the truth…

👉 Buying the house is just the beginning.

Then we flip the script…

🔥 Why are buyers still losing offers—even when they think they did everything right?

We break down what actually separates winning offers from the ones that get ignored:

•  Why the highest offer doesn’t always win 
•  The power of terms vs price 
•  How clean contracts beat “messy money” 
•  What listing agents are REALLY looking for 
•  How to position your offer to stand out in a competitive (and confusing) market 

And yeah… we’re calling out the mistakes:

•  Overcomplicating offers 
•  Weak communication from agents 
•  Missing key deadlines and leverage opportunities 
•  And the small details that kill deals behind the scenes 

🎯 This episode is for:

•  Buyers tired of losing homes 
•  New homeowners wondering “what now?” 
•  Anyone about to jump into the market without knowing what’s coming next 

Because if you don’t understand these two phases…

👉 You’ll either lose the deal… or win it and regret it.

The Music and Sound bites, we do not own the rights to them

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Why do so many buyers fight like hell to get a house?

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Win the deal, get the keys, and then go, what the hell did I just get myself into? And on the flip side, how do you lose a house even when you offered more money?

SPEAKER_02 0:12

That's the part that nobody explains.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

So today we are going to go and talk about two things nobody talks about. What really happens in the first 30 days after you close, and why you your strong offer wasn't actually strong at all. So grab your coffee or something stronger and let's unranke it. Let's do it. It's a beautiful day. It's a wonderful day. I know Masters was last weekend, but I'm still trying to get over it this week. It's great. That was a great tournament for the weekend.

SPEAKER_02 0:55

Who won?

SPEAKER_01 0:56

Rory back to back. Back to back.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

That's what I had money on last year. No, I guess I had a monker TPC.

SPEAKER_01 1:02

Ooh, you're a gambler?

SPEAKER_02 1:03

No, it was like a real estate fat. That was like a it was like a so you had money on Rory last year? I guess just for TPC because I lost. Whenever it was, I lost.

SPEAKER_01 1:14

Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

I can't get behind golf. Like what?

SPEAKER_01 1:17

We don't condone gambling by no means, but it is fun. It gets you involved in sports. That's why I like fantasy football so much.

SPEAKER_02 1:25

I've made a lot of NHL bets and I won my first parley ever. And it was just like straight out, like pulled it out of the way.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Maybe we need to start talking about sports betting and stuff on this.

SPEAKER_03 1:35

Yeah, we'll give them great bad advice.

SPEAKER_01 1:37

We all got jokes today, right? Well, that leads way right into the dad joke time.

SPEAKER_03 1:42

Let's go, Dane. All right. My wife called to tell me she saw a bear on the way to work. I asked her how she knew it was on the way to work. She hung up on me. Oh boy.

SPEAKER_02 2:00

I love that you always bring Denise into it. Gotcha.

SPEAKER_03 2:03

I love her so much.

SPEAKER_02 2:04

She's a sweetheart. What sound does a nut make when it sneezes?

SPEAKER_01 2:12

What is the sound? Cashews. Cashew.

SPEAKER_03 2:16

Cashew.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

I got it. Dane's Jane. Dane's a smart one in the group, just so you know. Just so you know.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:25

All right. What did the lunchbox say to the refrigerator? Don't hate me just because I'm a little cooler.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Oh my gosh. That's crazy.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

I'm a little cooler. I know, I know. So let's let's jump right into the first 30 days after closing. Everybody's obsessed with getting the house, but nobody prepares you for what happens after. And this is where people either feel like a genius or feel like they just bought a problem.

SPEAKER_00 2:57

Emotional damage.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

The oat crap moment usually is what hits first and fast. You know, and you got the first night in the house, feels amazing. Right. You remember that movie? JC, you probably have never heard of this movie.

SPEAKER_02 3:10

Oh no.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Tom Hanks, Money Pit. Yeah. Uh was it Shelley? Shelley Long. Did you? Yeah. Oh my goodness. The first movie reference that I had that you picked it up. I I don't I guarantee you, Bridget probably had no idea. No, she would not know. But that was a great movie. Yeah. Remember how they say that every time they had to talk to somebody about repairs is always two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 3:31

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:32

Two weeks.

SPEAKER_03 3:33

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

The thing that I love the most about that, I'm sorry, I'm going off in a moment here, but the thing I love the most about that is when nothing was working right, and they're like, you know what, just a hot bat's gonna work. Then he had to bucket everything up there. Right. And they pour all that water in, and then it falls through the floor, and then he starts laughing.

SPEAKER_03 3:59

You know, I need to watch that again. It's been what, 30 years at least?

SPEAKER_01 4:03

Yeah. Wow. It's been a while. It's a great, great movie. So if you've never seen the movie Money Pit, do it and you'll think twice about uh some of the homes you're looking at. Some of the homes you're looking at, the DIY stuff, and then also it's really not that bad.

SPEAKER_03 4:18

Ah, home crap home.

SPEAKER_01 4:19

So yeah, first night in the house usually feels amazing that first week, and then small issues kind of start showing up, and by like week two or three, it really sets in. So this isn't HGJ. HGTV. I know what you're trying to say. Yeah, HGTV. Say that five times fast. No, you're just gonna tell me I need to say it once, Dane. All right, all right. All right, it's it's not that, it's your responsibility. Absolutely. So you get past they always call it the honeymoon stage, right? Right. You know, you're excited, you get in, you want to do all this stuff. That first 30 days getting in there, we have already kind of really set that up with your inspections. You really know what you're gonna get kind of get into. Education-wise, you're gonna know that, but there's always, always, always gonna be something else that's gonna hit you.

SPEAKER_03 5:06

Well, you know, you like you said, the inspection shows you, which is the more noticeable, there's always those little bitty things that pop up out of nowhere, and you're like, where did that come from? Yeah, and and so you gotta be prepared for that. I mean, it's just it happened that happened all the time, but it happens.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

It does. Home ownership is usually the the the caveat cover word to use welcome to home ownership.

SPEAKER_03 5:29

Well, you know, you not only do you have issues, but there's things you want to do to the house too that makes it there.

SPEAKER_01 5:35

And then you go and and do that and you realize there's more to be done. Exactly. There's nothing more entertaining. And you know, I should have thought of the Home Depot idea years ago in doing this because they make a lot of money off homeowners. Yeah. Huge amount. So when I do a project at the house, and you think, well, all right, I got a list, I got all my list, and this is what I'm doing. I gotta go to Home Depot just one time, get everything that I need.

SPEAKER_00 5:59

A few moments later.

SPEAKER_03 6:02

Exactly. And thousands of dollars later. It never fails all mixed up.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

I'm not really a hands-on type of girl, but I even I end up buying stuff at Home Depot. Yeah, their cleaning section, are you kidding?

SPEAKER_01 6:14

Yeah, it's amazing. And then when you go there and you're working on something, you you go, oh, hey, look at that. That's really nice. I'll get that later. Then you go back and it's later. You have to go get something because you either broke something or you gotta fix it. And you're like, you know, that thing I wonder, I'm just gonna go ahead and get it.

SPEAKER_03 6:30

Right.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

It never fails. Never fails.

SPEAKER_03 6:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

So don't be afraid, don't don't be worried about it. It's gonna happen. That is the joy of owning a home. So you kind of get past that honeymoon stage and excitement. You're gonna run into that, but make sure maintenance is a big thing because it will catch up to you really, really fast.

SPEAKER_04 6:47

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 6:48

The other thing that's a real shocker and is your first payment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:54

What'd you do?

SPEAKER_01 6:55

That payment sometimes feels higher than it was expected. But remember, the escrow includes insurance, taxes, and those two things always go up. Always. There's nothing you can do about it. That's right. Most of the time, buyers are through that whole thing about excited about getting into the house and doing that stuff and getting everything, but they never really fully understand that breakdown.

SPEAKER_03 7:14

No, I mean it's unexpected because uh unless you, you know, done it before once or twice, you know, it the first time buyers, especially, it's a shock because they're not aware that the insurance and taxes will go up. I mean, it's not if, it's when.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I get a lot of phone calls from not really. I'll be honest with you, I really don't get a lot of phone calls on this. I usually hear it two or three months after the fact where they go, hey, wait, why is my payment not what I thought it was? Exactly. And it it just happens. There's there's so many moving parts, there's so many uncontrollable variables in there that it could be quoted that way. That's why it's called a quote. And having it set up that way, and then once it actually starts hitting in, for the most part, it's gonna be legit.

SPEAKER_03 8:00

It's gonna be close to that number.

SPEAKER_01 8:01

Very, honestly, very rarely do I see it change. Right.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

It's usually the following year.

SPEAKER_01 8:05

It's the following year that that hits you because you've got the tax assessment that comes in based on the purchase of that time frame. We're going off an estimated value. You see that more prevalent with new homes, new construction.

SPEAKER_04 8:19

Right.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

The resales, you don't see it as bad. Though that that new construction, though, I tell everybody, yeah, they are quoting you this, this is what it is. But beyond your escrow payment, take an extra hundred to two hundred dollars a month and put it aside because that's gonna help you with the tax bill when it comes.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

I don't think I've ever had a builder like really explain that to my buyers, and like, especially like when they're using the mortgage company, and I'm waiting for it. I'm like, you're gonna make me break the news.

SPEAKER_01 8:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:48

I'm breaking the news, okay. Please warn buyers.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Maybe I always make sure that I talk to them about it. And it it's it's such an important thing because they're not they're not gonna pay attention, but I always remind them, hey, remember, you got this coming up. I remind them about the homesteading and everything else, but I always remind them, hey, your first payment's coming up. You know, I hope everything's going great in the home. Just a reminder, we talked about those taxes and how that's assessed that way. Let's be proactive and for you guys, you do it how you see fit. I'm just gonna let you know it's better to niche it away now instead of having to come up with that extra two thousand dollars at tax time. Or they what what they end up doing is they're taking it out at the end of November, and then your payment goes up the entire year next year. Right. And it doesn't not only does it do the increase of the normal the normacy of everything, but it'll increase with the difference that escrow had to pay. Yeah. So yeah, be careful. Those things are very, very important. And then you get into things that's gonna just start breaking. So we passed the honeymoon stays or past our payment, you know, craziness. But then you have things that kind of go out, and sometimes things can go out immediately. One is probably one of the biggest things that I see that goes out immediately. You've done the inspections, everything looks great, we're all good. We close. A few weeks later, in the middle of summer, your AC goes out, and stuff doesn't break on schedule. You know, water heater, appliances, minor plumbing issues. Everything worked during an inspection, but it's not gonna work forever. You just never know. Right. So home warranty? Home warranties.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Please. Please. If you're buying, ask for a home warranty.

SPEAKER_02 10:36

A seller-paid home warranty.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

Seller paid, yes. Exactly. We will suggest it. Um negotiate it. Yeah. Even get one on a new house. Yeah. You just don't know. I mean, not everything's foolproof, you know? So better be safe than sorry.

SPEAKER_01 10:52

Yeah, you're absolutely right. And I know the last three new homes that I've sold here, and the two I got under contract right now, got a home warranty on it. Yeah. I asked the builder to do that. Just because it's got a well and it's got a septic and it's out in the country, and it's a private builder, so you want to make sure you do it. They still offer the builder manufacturer on that on top of the other warranty, right? Which is going to help you with your appliances and everything else, even though those new appliances have a manufacturer warranty on them as well.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

Yeah. Double cover.

SPEAKER_01 11:23

Double cover. Because you never know what can happen. Never know what can happen.

SPEAKER_02 11:27

My parents just asked me. They've been in their house like eight years. The microwave stopped working, and it's like a built-in, and we have to like slam the door like three or four times before it actually starts doing its thing as a day. Do you know anything about a home warranty?

SPEAKER_04 11:41

Thanks.

SPEAKER_02 11:42

Thank you. Yeah, I do. Do I? I know.

SPEAKER_03 11:45

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Seven, eight years you're cooked.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Well, the other things like other costs that people don't think about that start stacking up on you, lawn care, pest control, utilities kind of go up and down. Right. I mean, we've had a spike with that. Yeah, electricity, especially lately. Oh, and furniture purchases. So you get a bigger home, you know, the pizza box, coffee table, and lawn chairs just aren't going to cut it no more, right?

SPEAKER_03 12:11

No, not at all. So you want to do that. And then, you know, you got to worry about, you know, decorating blinds, curtains, you know, change it to fit what you want, not what the you know, the person had it that had it before you had.

SPEAKER_01 12:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:23

So, you know, you're gonna upgrade a little bit, and that's gonna cost money. Here, here's a kicker.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

You get into a nice community, it's like a resort-style community, like, oh, this is great. I love it. And the HOA does a special assessment about six months in. Oh, this is what we're gonna be doing to the pool area. We didn't know all this stuff was going on. What is it gonna do? It's gonna raise your HOA costs, right? Oh, yeah. Which is either something that's gonna be in the escrow or something you chose to pay individually, and then it's that's just another assessment that's gonna get tacked on top of that.

SPEAKER_03 12:57

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

So nobody's budget, nobody budgets for lifestyle, just the mortgage. So think about all the things that that that are gonna come into that. I'll be honest with you, you're not going to think about that as you buy. No. Because you're thinking about that, you're you're tunnel visioned in on that one thing. All right, it's okay, it's not the end of the world. You're gonna figure it out.

unknown 13:20

Right.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Just like I talked about it in past episodes and talking to my kids. It this is a lifestyle event. Right. It is things are gonna change. Yeah, you think about all this stuff. If you can't do it, break it down in pieces that you can. Emergency situations with the HVAC or something else that breaks, yeah, you're gonna have to do something about that. But I I've seen a lot of AC companies that that do that zero down, no payments for 24 months, that kind of thing. Right. That that makes it a little bit more affordable, affordable, but same time, it is what it is. Yeah, I mean, and an AC is not cheap. No, what what's what do you think the average cost is right now on AC?

SPEAKER_03 13:57

It depends on the size of the house, but I'd say about average it'd be about eight to ten. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

That's pr I think you're pretty good on with that.

SPEAKER_03 14:04

Eight to ten thousand for sure.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I I have I've especially get these homes with the two AC things, they're spending upwards between fourteen to almost twenty thousand dollars. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:14

Especially if you get a big house. Yeah, you can get thirty, five hundred plus square feet.

SPEAKER_01 14:19

Five ton units, two of away we go. Away we go. And then tankless water heaters. Did you know tankless water heaters? You have to make sure that you flush those out yearly. Did not know. I've never never had.

SPEAKER_02 14:34

This is my favorite hack that you've talked about, like that type of thing.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

Yeah, no, the the basic water heater, in I know you know we all know that we have these ploys. You know, like you know, Valentine's Day is a Hallmark holiday and a couple other things, you know, you talk about that. I think age of the age of the roof is important, but it can be justified. The water heater and the AC always seem to come up on every resale.

SPEAKER_03 15:04

It does.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Oh, it's 10 years old. Okay. You know that my grandparents have a refrigerator that was built in the 40s that still work better than the new ones that I have.

SPEAKER_02 15:14

The microwave probably does too.

SPEAKER_01 15:16

Just because they're appliances, right? And you still have to maintain them. They're they're pieces of equipment. And if you if you do the maintenance on them properly and you're educated with that, they're gonna last a lot longer than what. Okay, you ready? The insurance company tells you and how they deem it, because what is the whole reason behind that? The insurance companies will say it's a higher risk and they don't want to do it. Right. It doesn't make any sense. Nope. So basic water heaters, you drain them out every year because we have hard water down in Northeast Florida. Well, most of Florida's got hard water, hard water. So you drain those out, get it cleaned up, get all the settlement out, replace the cores, which is really cheap. But you've got to do that on tankless water heaters too. Did not know that. You flush the lines and you flush the interior part of it. You don't have to replace the the core because it's it's all heat through gas and everything. But no, you just drain it out. And that's actually a little easier to do than a regular water heater is. Regular water heater, you've got to hook up a car and all stead, so here's the thing. We get this, usually you hear about this in the car business buyer's remorse.

SPEAKER_03 16:27

I know where you were going. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 16:28

Nobody talks about this. You know, that that emotional crash after your honeymoon, I'm all excited. Or, you know, you get a new house, and that that excitement kind of goes away, and then your best friend goes by a house a little bit bigger, a little bit better, and a little bit nicer neighborhood, and you're like, shit. That that sets in. You and the significant other are looking at each other going, did we make the right decision? Oh, I gotta hate this thing. I should have never done it. Yeah, I should have waited. Yep. Yeah, that emotional crash after a big purchase is always gonna happen. Yeah, totally normal, but dangerous if not expected. It really is. I've seen somebody, I haven't really been involved in it, but I've seen somebody put an offer in a house, buy it, do their thing to do, and then in three months say nope, come out, and then turn around and want to sell it for more and try to get their money back. It's uh listen, there's a cost of sale to everything. It's just like anything that you do, you know. We're gonna we are going to see the the cost of sale of selling something more prevalent in the upcoming years when it comes to the no property tax thing if it passes.

SPEAKER_03 17:41

If it passes. Hopefully, fingers crossed it will.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

Because do you I know you don't pay taxes on your car every year, but you sure did pay a hefty tax on it whenever you bought it, right? That's right. Imagine paying the hefty tax on the purchase of a home.

SPEAKER_03 17:57

It's coming. So you think it's one it's gonna be one big lump sum at the beginning?

SPEAKER_01 18:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:02

Wow. Uh so that's gonna make the prices go way up.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

Well, yeah, it's not gonna be a consistent flow of cash. There's gonna be other things that's gonna happen. I can get in, we could sit there and talk about that no property tax thing.

SPEAKER_03 18:14

Yeah, we might need to do an episode to educate ourselves and understand.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Because I really, really, really wanted to know about it. Right. Because everybody's like, oh, I don't have to pay property taxes. That's fantastic. That's great. Well, what about our infrastructure? Where do you think the money comes to pay the firefighters, the police department, the ambulances, the city roads, all the stuff that we're in? Yeah, those are county, and we all have to pay a millage, especially schools and teachers and everything else. Where do you think that money is gonna come from? We may not have to pay property taxes every year, but that stuff's gonna increase.

SPEAKER_03 18:50

Well, also, will they increase the regular taxes in uh each county? Yes. So uh everything's gonna increase.

SPEAKER_01 18:57

Yeah, so you take that income away, something's gonna supplement it. Right. I mean, if you don't, what's gonna happen is you call 911 for an emergency, an ambulance comes, and they got a credit card swiper on the back of the car.

SPEAKER_02 19:11

I'm gonna ask for a tip afterwards, too.

SPEAKER_01 19:14

Right, exactly. Oh my gosh. Oh boy. Yeah. Well, at this point in time, I'm gonna take a break. We're not doing a game this time, guys. This is what we're gonna do. You ready? Yeah. This is gonna be called get to know the team.

SPEAKER_03 19:30

Oh.

SPEAKER_01 19:31

All right. So I'm gonna put you guys on the spot.

SPEAKER_03 19:33

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 19:34

I want you guys to tell me one thing that we don't know about you, or something that you're like absolutely love to do that you're passionate about. I know I brought up the whole like what's your favorite music, or what's one of your things that we did this a couple out, like almost six, seven episodes ago, but let's get in some detail a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 19:51

So little secrets on us, huh?

SPEAKER_01 19:53

Yeah, let's all right.

SPEAKER_03 19:54

What do you want to uh you tell me what you want everybody to know about you that you really wouldn't share? That I wouldn't really want to share. All right, well, I'm I'm 58 years old and I love the game. I love playing Call of Duty on Xbox, you know, at 58 years old. That's you know, people think it's a young junk. Yeah, I'm a COD junkie, man. Are you kidding me?

SPEAKER_01 20:16

So, yeah, that's uh I I know when I call him on the phone, and I can hear the clicky clicky click-click click. Yeah, and then he he sometimes delays the answering my question. But it's there, he still does it in a timely manner, just not as responsive as usually. I'm like, what are you doing, playing COD? Yeah, yeah, every time he catches me every time. Gotcha. Well, I was gonna I'm a retro gamer. I love the nostalgia of when I grew up in the 80s, and you have the Nintendo and Mario and all that.

unknown 20:49

Here we go.

SPEAKER_01 20:50

That that classic stuff, because I'm a huge, huge Zelda fan.

SPEAKER_03 20:54

Oh, yeah. See, you you call that nostalgia. I'm Atari guy back in the day. I had Atari too before all that. You know, I I loved it. No Nintendo. This the Nintendo didn't even exist, it was Atari, and you had the little stick thing, you know, the joy stick whatever. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 21:12

Did you guys watch that Adam Sandler movie where like the video games come to life?

SPEAKER_03 21:15

Yeah, Pixel or something like Pixel. That's what it was.

SPEAKER_02 21:18

Yeah, I've watched that recently. It was it's kind of shocked me. It was pretty good. It's pretty good. Pac-Man and the mini cube, so cute.

SPEAKER_01 21:25

Yeah. The game thing is is is is our way to kind of like shut down a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

It is. That's how I decompress, it's how I get away from stuff because sometimes uh life gets stressful, you know, and that is my uh getaway, if you will.

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Very good.

SPEAKER_03 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

All right, I like that. You know, I you know, one thing that I actually really enjoy doing besides you know the video game thing every once in a while, is I like to read.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

God, I wish I could. People that read are so smart, and I just cannot I I'll fall asleep.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

And I was never a big reader through high school, grade school, and college even. I hated it. But what got me into actually start reading and really enjoying it and really, really, really understanding it was when I when somebody threw a Harry Potter book at me.

SPEAKER_03 22:09

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

And when I read that and how I could relate to what was actually happening, that changed everything for me. Wow. And I I'm really into history too. I love reading history books.

SPEAKER_03 22:21

I don't mind reading history. I do enjoy history as well. So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:24

What about you, JC?

SPEAKER_02 22:27

Well, there could be a few. There could be a few. I think it has to be how I let the Florida Panthers ruin a few nights of mine this season. It's a very sensitive subject right now.

SPEAKER_01 22:44

So what you're telling me is you're a hockey fan.

SPEAKER_02 22:46

I am a I am a big hockey fan.

SPEAKER_01 22:48

Very cool.

SPEAKER_02 22:49

Playoff started on my birthday, and my team did not make it.

SPEAKER_01 22:52

Oh that's a shame.

SPEAKER_02 22:55

We're all injured.

SPEAKER_01 22:56

It's so what you're telling me is you're you're a Panther fan.

SPEAKER_02 23:00

I am a big Florida Panthers fan.

SPEAKER_01 23:02

Okay. Were you ever a Lightning fan?

SPEAKER_02 23:06

So I made this decision based off of color.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_04 23:12

New Jersey?

SPEAKER_01 23:13

The jerseys.

SPEAKER_02 23:14

Well, like I was I had friends from Chicago that introduced me to hockey. Come from Florida.

SPEAKER_01 23:19

Yeah, I was a Blackhawks fan.

SPEAKER_02 23:21

And that's what I learned hockey. I was watching the Blackhawks. But I had a I had I needed a home team, so I kind of looked into it. Both teams just really dislike the lightning.

SPEAKER_01 23:33

Well, now you know how passionate JC is about hockey.

SPEAKER_02 23:36

Playoffs started my birthday. It's a terrible birthday present this year.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

I'm sorry. Well, you want to hear some more bad news? Oh gosh. We're gonna talk about why offers get not accepted. Well, uh, even if they're if your offer is more than everybody else's. Which, for the most part, you don't know that. But we're gonna talk about this one thing because it really ticks people off. Losing a house when you know that you had a better offer. But here's the truth your offer wasn't better. All right. And here's here's some really, really good hot buttons that that we need to focus on when writing an offer that we, you know, uh we talk about to the customer, you know, because we kind of understand both sides of what's going on. We've already had that conversation with the listing agent. We kind of know where the buy the seller needs to be. We kind of need to meet, you know, kind of be not really meet their demands, but how do you want to say this? You want to give a little to get a lot, right? Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_04 24:35

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

Okay. So clean terms are gonna beat that. And you know, if you have the the least amount of contingencies as possible, that increases the strength of the offer. Right, it makes it much stronger. The financing versus cash perception. Let's talk about that. What is your true thoughts about that? Because we we all hear the word cash is king. It is because you have no contingencies with it, you don't have to worry about any appraisal contingencies or anything like that. Or inspections. Or inspections if you choose so not to have.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Right, which I would not recommend, but I have seen that happen.

SPEAKER_01 25:10

Is it true? You know, I I could be talking myself into a corner here, but is the offer really less strong if it's not cash?

SPEAKER_02 25:21

I think it's important that you talk to the listing agent and really figure out what is important to the seller and base your offer based on that. Because if it's if they're not worried about time, then they cash offers aren't really making a difference there. They don't mind the inspection appraisal or yeah, cash you can close a lot quicker for sure.

SPEAKER_01 25:38

Yeah, usually you know, I remember like right in the beginning when I was in real estate, a VA loan, FHA was 30 days was awesome if it happened. Right. It was usually more like 45. The the lending side has gotten so much faster now. I just had an FHA get CTC in 18 days. Wow, that's huge. It is. Yeah. The financing thing, it depends on the situation. Usually a cash deal, why it's considered to be the perception of it's being stronger, is you can close in in 10 days or less, or 10 days or more. Right. You can't do that on any loans because you gotta have the appraisal and you gotta have a few other things. Yes, there is some contingency firewalls with this, but it I think it's still a pretty strong offer because I mean, always have a pre-approval. We always submit that with the offer. If you don't, that's just telling somebody, I got it. Don't you worry, I got you. Right, you know, that's like IOU from like dumb and dumber.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Samsonite. I was way off. I knew it started with an S though.

SPEAKER_03 26:43

Pay back. Well, uh well, here's the deal. If I had a listing and I get two offers, let's say they're exactly the same. One comes with a pre-approval letter, one does not. Guess which one we're going with? Pre-approval. Pre-approval letter for sure. Because that is a stronger offer. Shows that they've been, you know, with a mortgage lender and they've looked at their finances and you know they've been pre-approved. Yeah. Plain and simple. The other one you don't know. It's a you know shot in the dark.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

I mean, honestly, people and sellers want a more of a proficient kind of deal. They're they're wanting certainty, not maybe. So, regardless of how much you offer, hell, I'll I'll tell somebody offer a million dollars for it. Right. Are you really gonna do it? No, no, of course you aren't. You know, it doesn't matter if you were paying $10,000, $15,000 over asking, if the deal still ends up falling apart in two weeks or after the due diligence process, it doesn't matter. So you you do a realistic, strong, real market value offer on a home. If there is some things that you need to have out of this, understand that there's a cost to everything. Right. We don't expect the seller to cover everything, and you get ten to fifteen thousand dollars off the house, they pay sixteen to seventeen thousand dollars of your closing costs, and they're gonna pay the your your agent their commission and everything else. Do you know that just costs the seller sixty thousand dollars up front? Wow, not including the seller's closing costs, the cost to sell their home. So when you add all that stuff, you know, Mr. Buyer, what what are we doing here? I mean, that's why we gotta be realistic, strong offers. You know, we can make sure that we can feel like you've got a deal. We'll make sure on that. Right. But there is the cost of buying something. There really is. The next thing that's important is that inspection strategy matters as well. Inspection is usually for information only, but it helps us with our RTA, our repair treatment agreement. Right. And getting the right things, negotiating the right stuff, that's gonna help you with that. You know, after you move in, you're gonna have a little bit more peace of mind. If there is stuff that needs to be done, we can we can address it.

SPEAKER_03 28:56

Right.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

We can address it as agents, especially if we know what kind of deal that we have, if it's an FHA, VA, etc. We know these are gonna be for certain financial contingencies. And we talk about that on the stuff all the time.

SPEAKER_03 29:06

Yeah, certain things will need to be done.

SPEAKER_01 29:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 29:09

That's right. You know, sellers fear buyers who will negotiate everything. And we we negotiate what you know is important. We don't negotiate the little things. Like I had a a listing I had, somebody came in and was just asking for little pity stuff, and I couldn't understand it. The blinds or something. It's like just one blind. There's one blind, but not the whole house, and I and I just I didn't understand it. But anyway, you know, that was that was important to them at the time. We negotiated, and of course, we went from there and everything went fine. So, but there, you know, there's little nitpicky stuff that people don't like.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

The nitpicky things. Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_02 29:48

Good, great, grand, wonderful. Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 29:50

But that's okay.

SPEAKER_02 29:51

That's when it almost starts offending the sellers, gets a little scary. Yeah, gets a little scary.

SPEAKER_01 29:56

Here's here's one thing that we always we always see. Inspections that get done, they're going to find something. Oh, yeah. It is their job to provide value to you. So they're gonna they're gonna find as many things as they can wrong with the house.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

I've seen a lot of stuff in my life.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Granted, we want that. It's for information only. Sure. But do we need to address that with this with the seller on everything?

SPEAKER_03 30:20

No.

SPEAKER_01 30:21

Especially if you've already negotiated closing costs, up and concessions, and a few other things, are you really gonna be worried about that outlet that's not straight? Right. You know, no. Let's focus on the things that are painted in red that is going to cost you a lot of money and that needs to be addressed, or something that we know that's gonna not help you get your money. The appraisal contingency means everything because if you offer ask for that during the repair treatment request time in your due diligence period, the seller says no, and we need to remind them and have them understand that hey, this is probably gonna be uh on the appraisal, and the only way that the buyer is going to get funded for that is if you fix it, and it's gonna be red flagged. So if you decide to do it now, we can still close an autonomy matter. If you wait for the appraisal, which is usually three and a half weeks after the deal's been contracted, and usually a week prior to closing, more than likely gonna have to extend. And if you still say no, then guess what? The buyer will probably terminate because they can't afford to buy a house because they're not gonna get the money. That's a financial contingency. Guess what? Cancellation, you have to return the binder. And Mr. Seller, you just left your house kind of solely off the market for three and a half weeks. Not gonna look good coming back, and after everything that you that you did, what are you gonna do? Just take care of it.

SPEAKER_03 31:46

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:46

Unless it's it's huge, you know. Right anyway.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

Something major for real.

SPEAKER_01 31:51

We uh we all know we all know kind of where that goes. Next thing is timeline flexibility when usually wins deals too. So obviously we know seller needs time to move. So does do you guys know what a post documenty agreement is?

SPEAKER_02 32:04

It's not exciting.

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Let's hear about it. You tell me tell me about an experience you have.

SPEAKER_02 32:08

Ah, so oh, I wish I could name drop. So my goodness. Negotiation process wasn't fun. Sellers needed to stay. I think I think it was honestly three days. It was after closing, so utilities Rari and the buyer's name. And it was like a almost paying rent for three days on top of the utility, like the way it was negotiated, kind of stressful. Wasn't a fan. Yeah, but they left their stuff in the home way past the three days.

SPEAKER_03 32:40

Oh wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:40

Oh yeah. Should have been negotiated better, should have been cleared out, but they whatever.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

Gotcha. This was this happened not to be the one that uh stole all the light fixtures, too, was it?

SPEAKER_02 32:52

The what?

SPEAKER_01 32:52

The one that stole all the light fixtures.

SPEAKER_02 32:54

Oh no, no, no, no, no.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

No, that was another one, huh? Wow.

SPEAKER_02 32:58

I'm telling you, it's it's just I'm a magnet to it. I am a magnet to it. We'll get through it.

SPEAKER_03 33:05

Hey, you get you're getting highly educated, is what it sounds to me. Once you experience this, you know it and you know how to uh progress through it. They're very, very good.

SPEAKER_02 33:13

My first buyer I was ever worked with, buyer. I think I showed that couple probably 60 to 70 houses. And yes, they kept changing their criteria. What they wanted, I had the time to do it. My brokerage was like, okay, you do have the time, but you got it. You gotta cut them. You should you should want to cut him.

SPEAKER_01 33:34

Right. Really? Wow. Well, you guys are talking about I'm a magnet for it. And Dane talks about his the Dane, the cousins' curse. The cousins curse. All right, guys. I I'm gonna share a little secret with you. You ready?

SPEAKER_00 33:47

I thought you'd never ask.

SPEAKER_01 33:52

Two words for you occupational hazard, right? That's okay. That is the daily life of a real estate agent.

SPEAKER_03 34:00

Yeah, nothing, nothing is done until it's done in real estate. I have learned through the years.

SPEAKER_01 34:04

Why why do you think that the the ongoing joke is that you know, we drink?

SPEAKER_02 34:10

It's the drinking industry.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Yeah. If you're not drinking, you're not a real estate agent. You know, no, that that's not really what they say, but you know, it may apply. This is this is a stressful job, there's no doubt about it. And it depends on what you want to do because your object is to make everybody happy.

SPEAKER_02 34:25

Wear multiple hats. If you're a good agent, you're wearing multiple hats.

SPEAKER_01 34:29

Yep. I know I'm wearing multiple hats.

SPEAKER_02 34:31

I know you're wearing multiple hats.

SPEAKER_01 34:33

I love it. If I'm not moving and turning and flipping it around and doing stuff, so not only, you know, the timeline of flexibility wins on everything, guys. The the seller, you said, need time to move. The the quick close versus delayed close, that it again, that's just as you go through the period and negotiate things and go after it a certain way, it it'll be okay. Here's another thing for you your lender and your agent matter more than you think, believe it or not. Having an agent that has strong lender reputation, getting something that's pre-approved and fully underwritten approval, the faster that you're fully underwritten, the better. Oh, yeah. I I spend a lot of time betting the right lenders to use. And, you know, ethically, as agents, we have to provide this the buyer three options. Right. Minimum of three. Okay. And those minimum of three that we suggest, I know work really hard to get people fully underwritten as fast as possible.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

And you know, not only that, I I know they will work extra hard for for the customer as well as us, you know, to make sure everything is smooth during the process and communicate. They're very, you know, you need somebody that communicates with you so you know exactly what's going on with the process just in case there is a little uh hiccup in the process.

SPEAKER_01 35:50

And you know, like I just said mentioned before, occupational hazard and stuff. Yeah, these experiences actually make us better because we can be more proactive. There's nothing better than having a team that is proactive instead of reactive. I've seen a lot of newer agents that uh buyers will call them, hey, have you checked about this, this, and that? That's a great question. Let me find out for you. Right. Well, you talk to an experienced agent and say, Hey, you know, we wanted to check and make sure on this. As a matter of fact, guys, I already got you because I knew this problem was gonna come up. Right. So I already talked to the listing agent, got with the seller, we got all this stuff figured out, and that's already being addressed. Right. They're like, oh wow, thank you very much. Just don't that the simplicity of that two scenarios right there makes all the difference in the world. Absolutely. So wait till things start getting tough because I will promise you, it's the 1% of the easiness of doing things. It's not the difficult part, which is mostly deals. There's always something that's gonna go wrong. There's always a hurdle that we need to jump. And having the confidence in the team is making sure it is actually gonna equal to having confidence in the deal.

SPEAKER_03 36:58

Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_01 36:59

And you're gonna have a better experience. And that's what we tell everybody that uses us. We're gonna make sure that we provide you the best experience possible.

SPEAKER_03 37:06

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:07

Because we have your your intentions, your wants, your needs at top of mind. I don't care about anything else. Right, that's a priority. It's it's it's a super priority for me. I heck, just the other night I had a listing that we were gonna get ready for an open house, and he's in the process of moving out, called me at 11:30 at night. Wow. All right. I just got done going to a softball tournament for my daughter. What do you think I did? Oh, you're just gonna have to wait until the morning. No, you know and you, nope, you got right on it. Down there. I was cleaning, and this is how it works. So the emotional connection also is very, very real. Right. Um having making sure that we're clean, professional, uh having a clean professional offer presentation is huge.

SPEAKER_03 37:53

Right.

SPEAKER_01 37:53

All right, so buyer letter when appropriate. I have to, in quotations, say when appropriate. All right. The the letter thing, I I do know that it's coming back, you know. We have a family of four in this. Right. It it helps, guys, but I it it's I know it's an emotional decision. It may not be an emotional decision for a seller. It may be all about money to them.

SPEAKER_03 38:18

Sure.

SPEAKER_01 38:19

Which that won't that won't have any. Yeah, the letter won't it won't sway them one way or the other. And most of the time, you don't even get to meet the sellers anymore. COVID really kind of changed that. Where you used to have right across the table from you that buyers would be on one side, sellers would be on the other. Listing agent, it was like it was a face-off. No, no, no, it really was not. It was, you know, hey, thank you, and we we do everything we need to do all simultaneously. And then COVID hit. And then now, really, the buyers and sellers don't sign simultaneously together anymore.

SPEAKER_03 38:53

No, I got a close in today. One is signing at one o'clock and the other signing at four today.

SPEAKER_01 38:57

So it's it's always like, hey, when's the buyer's signing? Hey, when's the seller signing?

SPEAKER_03 39:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Usually sellers signs a lot faster, and they can sign basically whenever. Right. And then the buyer's going into it. Once the buyer does that, stuff gets funded, everything's done, boom. We are done.

SPEAKER_04 39:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:12

And then we can probably all have a great time, and you guys can start your honeymoon stage. But being having a respectful tone versus being aggressive, huh? Makes all the difference. Makes all the difference. It does. What was it? You can you can attract more bees with honey than you can what? I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 39:28

I think it's vinegar.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

Yes. There you go. I'll I'll take that.

SPEAKER_02 39:32

That's all Southern saying.

SPEAKER_01 39:33

Yep. I like it. And so it's never ever just really the highest number. It's about how you present it.

SPEAKER_03 39:39

Right. And if two offers are close, you know, people choose the one that feels right.

SPEAKER_01 39:43

Yes. Yep. Yep. So here's here's one other thing, real quick, before we end this this episode, because we've been dragging on about this for a while now.

SPEAKER_03 39:50

Yeah, it's been going on.

SPEAKER_01 39:51

I know. But one this is one mistake that kills offers fast. All right. Who who can share with me real fast? If I tell you what is the one thing that will always kill an offer right out of the gate, lowballing.

SPEAKER_03 40:05

Yeah, coming in with 50,000 less.

SPEAKER_02 40:07

Especially in a competitive situation. Sure. Read the room. Read the room.

SPEAKER_01 40:11

Yep. And even buyers saying, hey, let's just see if they'll take it. Let's just see. All right, buddy. I tell you what, I guarantee the last three cars that you purchased in your lifetime was not at a dealership as one of those used car lots of time.

SPEAKER_04 40:24

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 40:26

All right. Those are the guys that you just want to see with. All right. Not not in this situation. No.

SPEAKER_02 40:32

Best case there, you get a counter.

SPEAKER_01 40:34

You hope to get a counter if you know that. That is, you hope. You might have you hope. A lot of them are doing it right now. Yes. We we are in such an interesting market right now. And I would say the majority of agents that have been in the business, I will probably say 10 years or longer, know this market because they've seen it before. And it had a different mask, it looked a little bit different, but the basis are still there. So how many agents do you really know, like, for example, in Northeast Florida, that have been in the business 10 or plus years more? Quite a few. Are you sure about that?

SPEAKER_03 41:10

I'm not 100% sure, but I know in this area that we're in. Yeah, I know in this area that we're in. Quite a few.

SPEAKER_01 41:17

All right. Do you want me? I do you want me to tell you? Yeah. I will do my best. Don't quote me on this, but this will just give you the idea of where at. Out of the 22,500 agents that have their hold their license in Northeast Florida, there's only 2% that are actually full-time active license agents. So you got 2,200, right? And less than 0.3% of them have been in the business longer than 10 years. Wow.

SPEAKER_03 41:44

Well, I'm gonna tell you they all live in Fleming Allen area. Every time they go wild. Because they're all there.

SPEAKER_01 41:51

And those people know it. So think about this. Majority of the agents that you're dealing with don't understand this market. In this market right now, the sellers are still holding out. They can still they still have 2021 dreams. All right. They are changing, getting realistic, but they are fighting this whole idea about a buyer's market right now. Right. Buyers are holding out because of the affordability issue and they want to get as much as they can. So you have buyers that say, hey, let's just put an offer in, let's just see. Well, I will promisely tell you that right now, most of the stuff that you see on the market is at real market value. When you see all these price adjustments, price adjustments, we don't like doing those. No. We would rather set the house at what we know it's going to sell for and set it there again because it's not about games. It's not about, oh, let's try to squeeze another thousand out of somebody. No. It's not about that. We want to give you a fair market value for the house. We want to help the seller recoup some of the money they invested in the home and they have some equity. Because wouldn't you want that as a buyer when you eventually sell your home? Right. But we also want to help the buyer get a deal. So we can figure that out through concessions to help the affordability sector. All right. Yes. So I'm going to tell you right now, you know, winning a house today isn't about having the highest bid. Excuse me. It's about the smartest offer in the room. Right. So make sure you have the right team wrapped around you.

SPEAKER_03 43:15

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 43:16

And if this episode did hit you a little bit differently, good. Because this stuff is what nobody's really telling you guys. Usually until it's too late. Or they've already lost the house.

SPEAKER_02 43:26

Or bought when I'm wet. Oh, this is different than I thought.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

So don't be that buyer. Don't be that buyer.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

No, don't be that buyer.

SPEAKER_01 43:36

If you guys are liking hearing what we're talking about, by all means, listen. Follow us on YouTube, follow us on Instagram, follow us on Facebook, TikTok, all the social media platforms. Right. I am still way behind the eight ball about getting these live things out. So you can see us on video while we're talking about this. All right. Yes, I have a face for radio, but Dane, Bridget, and JC do not. They're awesome people. We have an awesome team. We have another team member, Sophia, that's On the team. She's usually pretty busy during the day. Yeah. So she doesn't get the chance to do these podcasts with her. But we will get her on eventually. But we have a fantastic team. There's there's a lot of things that we're doing this year that's going to be great. If you ever think about buying and selling a house, by all means, get to know us a little bit more, watch this stuff. If you got questions, reach out to us. We're here to help. You can drop them in the comments, send us a message. Good or bad comments. My gosh, do I love reading those comments? You know, and here's the other thing, and we are we're gonna bring this up probably next week, too. We're gonna be gathering those comments. There's any topics that you want to talk about. Is there any questions that you need answered? Reach out to us because this is the things that we're gonna bring up. We'll have a whole episode and we'll call it our you know subscriber subscriber episode where we're just sitting here talking about the questions and answers and we'll go over everything. Sure. So again, whether you're buying or selling or just trying to figure out what the hell is going on with the market right now, we've got you.

SPEAKER_03 44:56

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 44:56

All right. So until next week, guys, thanks for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.

SPEAKER_03 45:00

See you next time.