Why Your Strategy for a "Deal" is Failing

In this episode of the Listed Podcast, Christy Garnhardt and Aubra Palermo tackle the busy 2026 spring real estate market. They discuss the disconnect between national affordability headlines and the local inventory shortage in Northern Illinois and Southern Wisconsin. The episode also features guest Travis Cunningham of A&T Auction Services, who shares expert insights into estate liquidations, farm auctions, and the rising trend of online bidding.

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:00

Christy, why did the rock go to jail?

SPEAKER_02 0:01

Like, are we talking like the rumuck from Milan?

SPEAKER_04 0:04

Or the like oh no, just like a ruck. Yeah, just just like I don't know. Why did the rock go to jail? Because the courts found him guilty. Okay, so those of you that don't know, I love rocks. So I'm sorry. Some of you will get this more than others.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

I was, but this is a very good, you know, real estate joke because you know, I I love a good quartz counter top.

SPEAKER_04 0:32

You see, do you like quartz? Because some people like granite and some people don't like stone. Some people like the Korian.

SPEAKER_02 0:38

Yes. No, I'm I'm all about the quartz. All about the quartz. Okay. Yes. Legal or otherwise, apparently. Welcome to the Listed podcast. I'm Christy Garnhardt, a real estate agent in Illinois with the Remax Unites Golden Girls team.

SPEAKER_04 0:53

And I'm Abra Palermo, your local Illinois and Wisconsin real estate broker with over 25 years of experience and managing broker of the Remax Unites Golden Girls team. Listed is all about real agents talking real estate in southern Wisconsin and northern Illinois and beyond. If you're interested in real estate in our region or in general, you've come to the right place.

SPEAKER_02 1:15

You've been a realtor longer than I've been alive.

SPEAKER_04 1:17

Now watch it. That works for some of our agents, but not you.

SPEAKER_02 1:22

No, that's not even true. Like it's you can laugh at that joke. That was bad. So, Abra, how was your week? Anything fun and exciting happened? What is today? Is it Tuesday? It's Tuesday.

SPEAKER_04 1:32

I don't even know anymore. I lose track. And that all depends on what day we decide to post it to. So it has been a busy spring. And I feel like, you know, I'm getting one extreme or the other. Buyers who are like just ready to buy a house because they're so tired of looking. And others who are just like, I want to offer $20,000 less on this house. Even though it's got an offer on it already. And so it's like, I seem like I'm just one extreme or the other. Um, and sellers who have been in their home for a long time. And so we're doing a lot of helping how do they get that house cleared out? Where do they start? Because you know, buyers say to us all the time, where to start. Even more sellers are saying to us, I don't even know where to start. You know, one client's been in their home for 56 years. I can't even imagine. I know what my house looks like after 20 years, let alone 56. So yeah, how about you? How's your week been?

SPEAKER_02 2:33

It's been, it's been good. She says with a smile. Yeah, it's been good, right? I feel like good should be an acronym for something. Probably something I can't say on the air, but I don't know. I'll think that later. But um, no, uh I would say that the spring season is definitely here. The markets have picked up quite a bit, unfortunately. There's not as much inventory, but I feel like that's an old story that we keep saying.

SPEAKER_04 2:55

Right. We keep telling people that, and I don't know if they even believe us. Uh, we try and give the stats and tell them to show them. I'm not still not sure they believe us, um, because that's the thing we battle all the time is the national news saying, oh, you know, the market slowed and buyers are canceling contracts and you know, and all these things. And then we look at our local numbers and go, wait, that's not the same. Yeah, not at all. And I had to laugh, you saying, you know, good is an acronym for something else. Isn't that like there's a joke about, you know, if you ask your wife if she's fine and she says yes, you should like run. Right.

SPEAKER_02 3:27

That's yeah, yeah, same thing. That's a good analogy. Or not analogy, but I'm not sure what that exactly. Right, right. English term is, but yeah, if a real like real estate agent says they're good, you should run. You shouldn't be worried. I'm very worried, very, very worried.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Yes, absolutely. So we'll talk about some of these numbers. We're gonna talk about some of those national headlines. Like, I think you know, we'll kind of touch on all that. So stay tuned, guys, and we'll kind of get to all that stuff.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

All right, so let's get started and take a look at this month's national real estate news. The housing affordability bill clears the Senate as investor ban creates some headaches. So the Senate has passed the largest housing affordability bill in decades, which includes controversial provision to limit large investors from buying a single-family home if they already own more than 350 properties. Yeah. So while supporters argue it protects everyday buyers from corporate competition, critics warn it could actually reduce housing supply, so especially in the building to rent market. So it's gonna force investors to sell within seven years. The bill now faces uncertainty in the house where lawmakers are expected to push back and negotiate key differences. So it's setting up a major debate around whether restricting institutional investors helps or hurts affordability in the long run.

SPEAKER_04 4:41

I think this is interesting because, you know, when I saw this headline, I thought, we don't have such things around here. Right.

SPEAKER_02 4:47

That's a lot.

SPEAKER_04 4:47

That's a lot of houses. You know, there are some investors who, you know, own a hundred houses, you know. And actually I I want to rephrase that because they're talking about a 350 single-family homes. Right. A lot of investors own maybe 300 doors. Right. But that's they own an eight unit, they own a 12 unit, they own some duplexes. So for most investors, they talk indoors, not in single family homes. So it'd be really interesting to, and uh, you know, I didn't sit and do the numbers, I know. Surprise, surprise, right? Actually, right.

SPEAKER_02 5:23

I was like, where's your spreadsheet?

SPEAKER_04 5:25

If I really wanted to do the numbers and figure out, you know, how many actual investors out there own more than 350 single family homes. Um, so I think that's very different in different markets too. Plus also in our market, owning a single family home isn't always gonna cash flow enough. You know, you're gonna get let's say $1,500 for that one single family home where you get a duplex or a triplex or an eight unit or something like that, and maybe you're getting a thousand dollars per unit. And so there's two thousand dollars income there, there's eight thousand dollars income there. Just a big difference. So I don't know. This is just interesting to me. What do you think as an investor, also, not just as a realtor?

SPEAKER_02 6:13

Yeah, I especially too, you think about having multifamily properties, it really you know, it spreads your risk out a little bit too. So um, if you have one tenant in one house and it gets to be a situation where you know, obviously you have to repair a home and they can't live there anymore, you know, you have a property that's vacant that's not earning you any money. Right. So for example, like in mil multifamily houses, like you know, excuse me, multi-family um units, people are gonna move in in and out. So maybe they want to buy a home themselves, maybe they want to upsize, maybe they want to downsize. And so if you have a three-door and you have somebody move out, you're like, oh, well, you know, and if you've gotten to a point where you've been good with your money and you've been really good about the upkeep, you know, you could possibly still have a property that's cash flowing. Right. And so one renter moving out isn't gonna really hurt your bottom line. But if you have to have a property that's vacant for six months, that's really that's cash out of your pocket.

SPEAKER_04 7:06

Right, right, absolutely. And you know, as you know, getting contractors, getting things, you know, let's say even if it's just paint and flooring and just some basics, that's gonna take a month, two months, you know, and then you've got to market it and get that, you know, re-rented, get those applications done. So yeah, like you said, you're looking at three to six months on a good day and that property sitting empty. So it'd be interesting to actually see how many actual investors, you know, it also struck me as, and you'll appreciate this coming from a farm family. A lot of people think they see a um channel seed sign, for example, and they think channel seed owns that farm. And so people think there's a lot of institutional farms, and I don't think that's necessarily the case either, right? Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:50

That's a good point. Like the the seed signs are in the sometimes. That's a you know, that's a seed plot, right? They want to see how well that's right.

SPEAKER_04 7:59

But most of the time it's just advertising, right? Right, right. So, you know, but I had somebody who said that to me, and they're like, well, channel seed, look, they own, you know, channel. Actually, they didn't see seed, they just saw channel, and they're like, oh, they own all these, you know, fields. No, they just sold the seed to that field and they were allowed to advertise. And so, but again, that perception. So I think of this also, I wonder if this is some of the similar perception that people think, you know, again, all these investors own hundreds of homes and they're just sitting on them.

SPEAKER_02 8:29

Right, right. Interesting. And I think that's really it. You thinking about like how do you get into the business? Like a lot of people, I mean, it's true, you like you have to know a guy or a gal. Um, so for example, like, you know, we knew some people in the area who had um I had rented from when I moved from the area, and eventually, you know, they would like to retire, right? So it's a lot easier to sell to somebody you know as opposed to like somebody moving in and like, you know, hey, if you know the family, you know them, and you're like, okay, yeah, you're part of this community. Like, that's how a lot of people get into it, is because like, hey, I'm looking to, and maybe some people are not getting rid of all but once, but like, hey, um, you know, maybe I don't want to run as many doors as I have right now. So I'm gonna sell a couple of properties, you know, maybe use a little more of that time to travel, put that, you know, that income into maybe a retirement plan. Um, yeah, so that's interesting.

SPEAKER_04 9:16

Right. Yeah, I was gonna ask you about that. About, you know, how do you still find deals? Because in a market where, as we've talked about, our local market's still a seller's market. So prices are high. And so how do you still find, you know, deals and things like that? Or how do you suggest people find deals?

SPEAKER_02 9:32

Right, right. So um, number one is know a really good realtor. Because that's how I that's why I'm here. Um, really, and that's why I'm in real estate, is because of the investment property, um, just the opportunities that was presented in that. So again, it's knowing an agent who's gonna help you get into a home for a price that made sense. So I talk about how we accidentally bought a house once and it was a flip, and like, how do you accidentally do that? And we um, and again, so this is another people always feel bad of like, hey, like I'm so sorry we looked at house, I didn't mean to to you know waste your time. And I was like, do you realize that like my real estate agent was how it was like 14 years? Yeah, so it was like wasn't 20 years, it was more than it feels like that probably. I'm guessing now. Yeah, so Abra was my agent for uh over a decade before we actually purchased a house. And then within when we first purchased that house with her, then we purchased like three more properties within a year. And so really it's about the long game, it's about finding somebody you really trust. Abra helped us structure our first deal so that we were able to secure uh the property, and then from there, it was all everything that we did wrong. So all the newbie stuff, right? So you get into this property, you have ideas since you've seen um HGTV, right? I mean, if they can do it, I can do it. And it's it's not like that at all, you know? It's not made for it's a made-for-tv movie that would probably be more like, you know, something on lifetime.

SPEAKER_04 10:58

Scary reality movie on Lifetime TV.

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Yes. So yeah, finding a really it's finding a really good real estate agent. I'm not just saying that right because I am an agent, but we better not have gotten that first deal of a headmade for Abra because she structured it in a way were we competitive, she was able to stay within our budget. And then we walked through the house and she was like, okay, yes, you're you could get an inspection, you can fix this and this and this. However, you know, looking to mechanicals, the mechanicals are all over 30 years old, like everything in the house needed to be changed, carpets, everything needed to be painted, um, all the fixtures, like all the plumbing. So she helps us structure in a way that we were able to utilize that money for all the repairs.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

Well, and then we had talked about, you know, again, budgeting, like, okay, you know, you are gonna have to replace the furnace and the central air. And we also talked about, you know, when you decided to change, because originally you thought about buying it to move into it. Yes. And then it became an investment property that you were gonna flip. And so then we walked back through it and went, okay, from a mindset of a flip, there's some things don't do. Right. And so there's things that are not gonna be a return on investment. And there are some properties we walked through that it was like, okay, by the time you rehab this, even if you could sell it or you could rent it, what is that return gonna be? And so sometimes it's don't buy this because you know, this is not, this is not gonna work in numbers game unless you're gonna hold it for like your life, right? You know, long term, very long term. You know, so sometimes it is really that. I mean, just like we talk about even with sellers walking in and saying, okay, here's the things to do and here's not to do. And so, you know, I have sellers who are like, oh, I'm gonna rip out all this flooring and I'm gonna paint this whole house and I'm gonna, you know, do all this stuff. And sometimes, sure, you do need to do that, but sometimes no, maybe you could just clean and stretch the carpets and get the house painted, or vice versa, maybe you could just replace the flooring and the walls are okay. And so there's just a lot of those discussions. Um, you know, and like you said, finding somebody you trust and, you know, rely on and and can believe, you know, what they're telling you when they're gonna tell you, don't buy this, because sometimes we do tell people. I had a client the other day that I said, Don't sell your house, because everything they're gonna go look at is gonna take more money and they're gonna be moving just to move. Even if they just move across the same budget, they're gonna move to move, and then they're still gonna need to do things to make it what they want. And so then if you're gonna spend that dollar amount, you're gonna maybe lose a little bit even, and then you're gonna still have to make repairs to get it to where you want it. And so, yes, we're gonna be honest enough to come in sometimes and tell you, I don't think that's a good idea. Because it's not about the transaction for us, it's not about the sale. I've known you for over 20 years. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_02 13:42

Oh man, you got rid of my joke from the beginning. Now they're I know I'm older than 25.

SPEAKER_04 13:46

Okay. I've known her for 20 years. She was very young when I knew her.

SPEAKER_02 13:49

Very young, yes. She picked up in preschool when we went on our first.

SPEAKER_04 13:53

She was trying to prepare early to, you know, buy a house someday.

SPEAKER_02 13:57

We signed the contract in Crayon. It was great.

SPEAKER_04 14:00

I think we need to get one of those from your kids, right?

SPEAKER_02 14:02

Right.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

There's one that wants to be a realtor. Maybe she should sign now.

SPEAKER_03 14:06

Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 14:07

Yes. We should get her, you know, enlisted now. So yeah. So long story short of you know, how do you find the right investment? Are there any other tips you mentioned in there about, you know, kind of reaching out to people in the community you know, um, or people you knew who owned investment properties, but you also knew they weren't 20 anymore.

SPEAKER_02 14:27

Right, right. And that's exactly what we did. And then um, you know, sometimes you reach out and then they finally like, oh, or I was I was gonna sell them to so and so. And then um, yeah, it's it it's really just and that actually was interesting because we reached out to someone who's like, oh, I sold my properties to so and so, but it happened to be another person in the area who is very respected in the um in the property management business. So even though I've not been able to purchase some of those properties, I've learned a lot from this person because we've had some interactions with them um through the real estate um market in town. So it's been good connection for sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:01

Yeah, absolutely. And sometimes it isn't that they're ready to sell today. It might be five years, it might be 10 years, whatever. And you know, you just you know that they have your name and you're gonna stay in touch. And when they're ready, maybe you know, you'll be ready, or maybe not. Maybe you won't want any more doors at that point. Who knows?

SPEAKER_02 15:19

Right. Yeah, and definitely it's just you know, you can still obviously watch the market, but again, it comes back to somebody who's gonna help you through the process. Um, because they're gonna be the ones who and what's really interesting too is like when we walk through the house originally, like walking through with someone, um, and again, it when you go through a house, like people bring family, they can bring contractors with them. So it's not like you have to like go by yourself and like be like, what am I doing here? But you know, I even walked through um, I've actually shown properties with people who have walked through and they're getting into the real estate game and they're bringing other people with them that have experiences in the market because they're gonna be able to look at that and be like, why are you like, why are you gonna replace the countertops? Like, are they are they incredibly beautiful? No, but it's a rental. And if you put like really beautiful countertops at it and you walk in and they're trash, you can be like, oh, they trashed my beautiful countertops. But you want to make sure that you're you're it's an investment, right? And you why you want it to be something that you're proud to have people to live in, because I think that's really important as well, is that you take care of your tenants. Um, it's also important to look at the bottom line, because if you don't pay attention to the bottom line, then you're not gonna have any units anymore. Right.

SPEAKER_04 16:25

You're not gonna be able to be a good landlord if you can't continue owning your properties. So, and that's definitely a thing. I mean, there is a fine line of you know, you want to get good quality tenants, you want to show your tenants you appreciate them and have nice properties, but you also have to make a return at the end of the day, or you're a business that's out of business. Right.

SPEAKER_02 16:43

So when's a good time to invest in real estate, Oprah? Every day. How about yesterday?

SPEAKER_04 16:48

That's exactly that is the right answer. Yesterday when the rates were a quarter percent lower or an eighth of a percent lower because everybody is worried about what the interest rate is, but then they forget the prices keep getting higher.

SPEAKER_02 17:02

Right. And I know everybody's like, there's gonna be another crash of 2008, and that's getting to be quite a bit now. And you think about some of the things that led to the crash in 2008, there are a ton of protections now in the market to prevent something like that happening again. Obviously, we know things could happen. You know, something happened in 2020, which completely changed a lot of things as well. But I think we have to be really realistic as well because the longer you wait, the more often the prices of the property. In your opinion, what would you say? Like people are say they're looking for a deal. Like, what do you think they mean when they say, hey, Aubrey, let me know about some deals?

SPEAKER_04 17:43

Well, it really depends on who's asking. Is that an investor? Is that, you know, somebody buying a single family home? Is that somebody buying their first home? Is that somebody, I mean, like when I was looking for a deal for a condo, it was to me, am I gonna find something that I can buy, fix the way I want it? And then if I had to, I could turn around and sell it tomorrow. Um, and I think see sometimes people are thinking that, but then sometimes your investors are saying, okay, how much can I rent it for? What's the return on investment? So I don't know. That's I mean, what do you hear from people? What do they say? I want to DA.

SPEAKER_02 18:23

They want you to pay a lot less for what it's listed for.

unknown 18:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 18:27

Usually.

SPEAKER_02 18:27

But do they have a reason why they look at this estimate, they're like, that's of course right.

SPEAKER_04 18:34

Because everything I read online is right.

SPEAKER_02 18:36

Right, right. And I think, but I will say, I think too, that like I get that less than I used to of being like, this estimate says it's this, but then what they're actually doing is they're looking at the market and they're gonna be like, okay.

SPEAKER_04 18:48

You know, maybe that the algorithm is a little bit off, but well, and it's interesting if you look at the zestimate history. Suddenly when it's listed, it went from being a zestimate of let's say 100 and then it listed for 150. Now this estimate says 140. Yeah. It's it's very interesting. If you actually track back to the zestimate history, it's very fuzzy math. Right. Very fuzzy. Right. But you're like heart attack on the stuff. Yeah, exactly. I got a beat. Oh, nope, they're dead. Never dead.

SPEAKER_02 19:19

Flat line.

SPEAKER_04 19:20

I'm sorry, shouldn't say that word. Um but you were showing a client the other day, and you called me and you're like, you know, we feel like it's a hair overpriced. Yeah. However, compared to everything they've looked at today in that price range, actually in two days, yeah, in that price range, this one feels like a deal because it's so move in ready. Yes. It was clean, it was cute. And you were like, So isn't that still kind of a deal? Because she gets to move in and it's done and it's, you know, it's not all these things that have to be taken care of right away. Right. So everybody's perception of a deal, you know, is is very different. Some people just want to move in, they don't want to fix everything, right? You know, paint everything and replace all the flooring and put a new furnace in, and or let's face it, they don't have the money to. Right. Or the time. They're not handy. So you know, there's not as many handy people as there used to be. Nope.

SPEAKER_02 20:16

Nope.

SPEAKER_04 20:17

So and and I like I don't have the time. Like I could do some of it, but then that takes time. So then that costs me money. So what's the return on investment there?

SPEAKER_02 20:27

True, true. That makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 20:29

So yeah, I think everybody's perception of a deal is is very different.

SPEAKER_02 20:33

Yeah, based on what they're laptop out there for. Yeah, that makes sense. Investor, you're gonna look at return on your rent. If you are a young family and you've got little people wanting around, like you probably don't want to have a lot of construction that they're running through. Um, and then if you are, you know, retirement age, you want something that makes sense for your golden years. Yeah. So that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04 20:53

Right. And by the time you're at the retirement age, you don't want to redo it again. You've probably been through three or four homes or maybe five, six, seven, eight, whatever it is. And you're like, I am done. This is it. You know, I just want to move in here and I want to travel and I want to enjoy life. So, you know, so there's also that. Um, you know, so again, depends on what phase you're at in your life. You know, I met with a seller the other day and they're like, yeah, this is like move number, it's in the teens. And it was like, okay, you know exactly how to stage, you know exactly how to get everything thinned down and prep and you know what, and they're whatever. And they're like, Yes, and we also know people just want to move in because that's where we're at. Like we've moved umpteen times and we just want to land somewhere, we're gonna be there for a little while, and that's it. Right. So also, you know, corporate relocations and people moving in from out of the area, same thing. They're just like, I just need to get here, move in and be done.

SPEAKER_02 21:49

One of my favorite corporate clients said, She goes, You know, moving, it's like it's like having a baby. Like when you're going through, you're like, Oh, this is so painful. But then after a while, you're like, Oh, I could do it again, you know? Like Oh my gosh, that analogy. I mean, I have five kids. I totally understand.

SPEAKER_04 22:06

I do, I do understand that analogy because I have a good friend who had a horrible first pregnancy and she was like, never again. And I'm like, oh, a few minutes after they're born, you'll be like, Yeah, I could do this again. And she's like looked at me like I was growing two heads and nuts. She's like, no, you are crazy, never. And like a month after she was like, You're right, I'd do this again.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

Right.

SPEAKER_04 22:27

See?

SPEAKER_02 22:27

It was so worth it. Exactly.

SPEAKER_04 22:30

You are worth it, little people. Right. Some days we Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:35

Some days we question.

SPEAKER_02 22:37

But yeah, that was, I laughed. I laughed, like, I literally laughed like gutter, like gut laughed when she said that. Because I was like, that is the perfect way to describe it. When the dust is settled, you're like, this is a great idea.

SPEAKER_04 22:52

I'll remind you of that during your construction remodel process.

SPEAKER_02 22:56

It's all yeah, I I question everything right now.

SPEAKER_04 23:00

It'll all be worth it.

SPEAKER_02 23:03

So peak season is here and agents are pumped. So we're heading into spring and summer season with renewed optimism. So pointing to increased showings, more buyer activity, and a noticeable shift in market sentiment compared to slower pace of the past few years. I think this might be a national headline because it is not what I'm I am reading off a prompter, just so you guys know, like, you know, full full disclosure. We did say these were national headlines. Right, I know, right. So I'm sorry, it's totally fine. But I will say that with higher oil prices and mortgage rate volatility, those do remain concerns. So even with improving conditions such as writing inventory, more realistic pricing, they're helping to bring buyers back into the market. So many of today's transactions are driven less by rates and more by life events, such as relocations, marriages, growing families. So overall, agents expect a more active and balanced market in 2026 with steady momentum, building despite ongoing economic uncertainty.

SPEAKER_04 23:59

I will say, so it's interesting, you know, talking about the oil prices. So we get affected by this a lot because people will move out here because they're willing to make that drive. Yes. But when fuel prices go up, suddenly they say, Oh, wait, I'm not willing to go quite as far. Right. So that does really affect, especially when you get further west of Rockford, we cover that direction. But when you get further west of Rockford, it is even more so. Um, and so I think that does affect us a lot of you know, when people are wanting to move out this area. But I also one of the things it didn't mention was be one of the reasons people move here is because it's so affordable. Right. Where most of the country is not affordable anymore. So I think that really makes a difference for us also and why we've still been seeing we say not renewed activity, continued activity.

SPEAKER_02 24:47

Continued activity, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 24:48

Yes, continued excitement, continued, you know, interest, continued um market has been busy all spring. We've we've seen with still not enough homes for sale.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

Right.

unknown 24:58

Right.

SPEAKER_04 24:59

Right. One of the things it talked about too was building. We've talked about this to Well, what have you what are you seeing?

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Like realistically, price per square foot? Like what are you seeing right now?

SPEAKER_04 25:10

Cost to build. Yes. So I recently got a cheap and I thought this was, and I don't say cheap in the quality, this I thought this was so affordable, I was shocked. Came in at $150 a square foot. And so I'm like, okay, we might be able to do this project. Unicorn, like I'm not even telling you who the builder is. I'm not even gonna tell you who a builder is because I don't want to give it away because he'll go, like, okay, I need to raise my prices. Um, but you know, that's part of the struggle is most new construction, you're looking at $200, $250 a square foot. And that's not for fancy cork counters everywhere. That's not, you know, hardwood floors in the whole house. That is just basic construction, very simple. Um, and so, you know, it's it's amazing because our existing construction is $100, $150 a square foot or less sometimes. It's so that's the struggle. Like we're just still so much more affordable than building. Yet we need some housing.

SPEAKER_02 26:13

Yes, desperately. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 26:16

And so I was talking to an investor about rent to build. And so trying to get them to build some units that could be rented, um, townhomes, you know, two bedrooms, two baths, just very simple, one car tatch garage, nothing huge, fancy. But, you know, again, there's a huge demand for rentals, there's a huge demand for housing, whether we turned them into condos and sold them, whether we rented them, whatever we did. Um, and I say we talking to the investor, I say everything's we because I think I'm a partner in the whole thing too. Imperial realtor we right, right. Um, and we finally got the numbers to match, but then when you look at taxes and insurance and maintaining the snow and the lawn and the driveway and some days roofs and furnaces and you know, and all that stuff, and you start budgeting all of that, then it became not affordable. And so it was like, oh my gosh, I thought we got this great price from this builder. I thought we got everything figured out, it was gonna happen. And then no, you gotta figure all those other numbers in if you're if you're gonna hold on to it anyway. Now, if you sell them as condo eyes we talked about, you know, that might be an option, but this investor would really like to, you know, leave them as a rented property as an asset, not just turn it and be done. So it's it's such a struggle.

SPEAKER_02 27:29

Well, and I don't know if if if you've knew have maybe you've seen this as well. I feel like the bottleneck comes with the starter homes because you have people who are looking for affordable homes. It's you know, it's either a couple or maybe a couple with one child, and that's also the kind of houses that retirees are looking for because it's not gonna be usually not multi-story. There's gonna be, you know, fewer bedrooms, fewer like much less square footage to take care of. And when you have we got our boomer folks out there, you know, a a large population looking to downsize, and then we also have people looking to get into the housing market and they're both looking for the same thing. That's where I see um, that's where I see a lot of the crazy um escalations really is the super cute two bed, one bath. And then a lot of times in this area we have these like super cute bungalows that they have. The the attic is redone, so you could go up there and like people are so smart. So they'll do and they're like, you could have your studio up here. Or like I've seen some people do some really cool place places for kids. So people are like, oh my gosh, this house is perfect. It's our bedroom, bedroom from the kid, or maybe a soon-to-be kid, and then a fun place upstairs that just sort of brings into the older value, and that's when it's like, oh my gosh, that house went how much over asking?

SPEAKER_04 28:44

It's wild, right? Right, like you said, those cute little ranches, the cute little bungalows. Um, it it is funny, there is that certain size because like Vanessa and I were showing some clients the other day some two stories, and they're like, This is actually a little too big, like we don't want to maintain all this, you know. And so then we looked at a bungalow and they were like, oh my gosh, like this is so cute. You know, the two bedrooms on the main floor are fine. There was the bonus upstairs that, you know, they're like, well, someday, or guests or whatever. And so, you know, when they said it's too big, I almost kind of laughed. It's like, well, you don't hear that usually very often. Most people are like, this is not big enough, right? Right. And so, but there is that, you know, younger starting generation that's like, I don't want to maintain this big, giant house. Um, and thankfully they realized that, right? I mean, like, it was like, oh, this is great that they get that and they're not buying a you know 2,000 square foot, you know, giant old home. Um, but still it was like, okay, well, now how do we find you just that right little house in that right little price range? And, you know, and so where where does that fit? Because like you said, those are going quickly, especially if they are cute. Yeah. And like you said, there's a lot of those seniors who are, okay, now let's downsize. I don't want to go to senior living, I don't want to go to a condo. I want to go to just my own cute little house. Right.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

Still want my own space.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

Yes, I still want to play with my flants and have a yard and you know, grow my garden. Yeah, you know, and so, you know, okay, well, that's great. But there's just not a lot of those. So definitely, definitely a thing.

SPEAKER_02 30:14

All righty. So 15 states sue HUD over threat to withhold fair housing funds. So a coalition of 15 states and Washington, D.C. is suing the Department of Housing and Urban Development, arguing the agency unlawfully threatening to withhold fair housing funding unless these states align with the new federal guidelines. The dispute centers on HUD's attempt to limit how states enforce fair housing protections and restrict the use of federal funds, which critics say undermines long-standing anti-discrimination laws and creates confusion around enforcement. HUD maintains that it's enforcing the law as intended, but the lawsuit raises broader concerns about the federal overreach, states' rights, and the potential impact on housing access and discrimination protections nationwide. So I think a really important thing to talk about is what is HUD?

SPEAKER_04 30:58

Well, and I have to think about one thing in there too. You were talking about how the law was intended. Right. And not to get preachy or anything, but that's like deciphering the Bible. Like reading legal code and then trying to say this is what they meant when they wrote this law. Everybody's gonna read it different, right? So, first of all, like I seriously question that someone is saying this is what the law was intended when you weren't even there when they wrote the law. So it just anyway, they have to do that.

SPEAKER_02 31:30

I mean, it's true, but like anything that's written, you know, is also like a glimpse, it's like an artifact in itself. Like, you know, I I mean, I'll get out like my third grade journals, right? Right? Like Do your diary today, a basketball practice, right? Anything and even things that are published, you know, publicly, right? It's very much a reflection of what's going on at the times.

SPEAKER_04 31:52

Right, right, absolutely. And so it was written at the time to take care of something going on, and then now it's been twisted or altered or interpreted in different, you know, in different fashions. It's no different than when you send a text to me and you send a text to Christy, and it says the same thing, but we both interpret it in different ways. You hear it in your voice, in your tone, how you feel at the moment, and you read into it subliminal things that you're like, well, this is what they meant. It's like, no, I didn't mean that at all. And then you read it and go, wait, this is what she means. Right. No, no, that's not what she meant. So it's, you know, it's it's very interesting. But anyway, I side note that was. That's right. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_02 32:32

We're not attorneys, but I have watched a lot of law and order. So why is it important to know what HUD is?

SPEAKER_04 32:38

So HUD is multiple things. So HUD is not as they, not only, as they said, the enforcement arm, but HUD is also FHA financing. So that is where when you go to get a federal housing administration loan, that is coming from HUD. Because when that FHA loan goes to foreclosure, it goes to HUD. And so them, you know, holding some of these funds could potentially affect some of those FHA loans. And, you know, I know there's questions when you take your loan application as to ethnicities and you know, birth and all these different things, is that gonna be affected? I I don't know. Are there portions that they have to loan to certain ethnicities, certain minorities, certain things like that? So is there, you know, is there some question around that of certain lenders maybe have not been, you know, doing that? But then also they are the enforcement arm. So if you have someone renting or buying who feels like they were discriminated against for any reason, that's who they contact is HUD. And so are there some areas that are not enforcing these discrimination things or are interpreting it in different ways? Um, because I think there was also some question into a citizen versus a non-citizen versus a, you know, documented, you know, and that kind of stuff, someone who's here on a visa. So there's just, I don't know, there's a lot of layers into this, I think.

SPEAKER_02 34:03

Yes, very large onion.

SPEAKER_04 34:04

Yes, a very large onion that you could continue peeling because HUD does so many things. And that's I don't think a lot of people realize that HUD is really has a lot of fingers in housing. Um, it also affects um housing subsidies. So if you are getting a subsidy to supplement your income versus the cost of rent in that market, they also are part of that. And so is that gonna affect some of that housing funding? Is that going to change based on minorities or ethnicities or anything like that? So is there some type of you know discrimination going on there? Or again, with documented versus visas versus, you know, illegal aliens or legal citizens? Yeah, again, lots of lots of layers of onion there.

SPEAKER_02 34:50

I just think it's really important because I think a lot of people have heard of like FHA loans, especially if you're in the market, but I think you have to look at, you know, what is the you know, the parent entity of that.

SPEAKER_04 34:59

Right. What is the ruling over that that you know that affects that, or again, could affect that funding. Um, or again, a lot of people, you know, are getting a subsidy to help offset their income versus what the rent is, and so is that gonna affect you know that population as well, which might also push some of those people into can they buy, are they gonna have to move? Like again, that could be a huge you know, factor as well. And even though we say our area is affordable, there's still, you know, there's still a need for those subsidies.

SPEAKER_02 35:29

Right, right. And thinking about the money that you have to put down too. So that can really, at least when when I've seen FHA, it's really been um a tool that have people have utilized to get into a home. So it's made it accessible.

SPEAKER_04 35:42

Right. Well, and I had a client recently who was worried that FHA was like a stigma buyer. Oh, that it was somebody who, you know, didn't have as good a credit or didn't have as good a down payment, and they felt like maybe, you know, some of their past credit history that was way long past, more than the seven years and anything like that, felt like that was like coming back to haunt them and they were getting pigeonholed into an FHA. I said, no, I said, not at all. A lot of our buyers are using FHA right now because the rates are about a half a percent less than conventional, and it requires less down payment. You can bring more down payment, but it requires less. So it's not penalizing you if you only bring that 3.5% or 5% down, where some conventional loans are gonna penalize you and penalize you. I say they're gonna hire charge you a higher interest rate. Right. And so, you know, it's like, and so once I explained it to them that way, they were like, oh, that's why the lender said go with an FHA. Like, yeah, it's it's not a negative thing. This is to your advantage. Right. And they were like, oh, okay, now they they felt better. But I think some people too, and even some sellers see FHA and think, well, this is a bad thing. And no, that is not at all. It's not because the buyer is a bad buyer or this deal isn't gonna happen or something like that. Um, because some sellers worry about that, like how really finable is this buyer? Are we like stretching and it's not really gonna happen or something like that?

SPEAKER_02 36:58

Right. And I know we've heard a lot of nightmares about like the FHA appraisal process, and most recently, um, the things that they have brought up um in that process have been pretty reasonable.

SPEAKER_04 37:10

Right, right. Absolutely. They're not as picky as they used to be. So um, and again, that changes with different loan guidelines, changes with different underwriter guidelines, it changes with FHA rules and and you know, things like that, that they don't worry about some stuff. Um, and again, where all of that comes from is those rules from HUD. And so then that filters down. So if HUD is having shortages or having you know funding issues or things like that, then that will all affect that coming down the pipeline as well. So as any government entity, they don't always change as quickly as the market. And so sometimes we need them to keep updating. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 37:45

Like the HUD website. That's yes, yes. Well, do I click here? Like, oh my gosh, so many screen shares.

SPEAKER_04 37:53

Yes, right, yes. Well, and that also because VA just changed their rules that they're not gonna require the peeling paint question from the appraiser unless it was built prior to 1978. Oh it was like, oh my gosh, thank you. That makes sense. Because why are we checking peeling paint on a house that was built in 1998? I don't care. And so so they've taken that out of the VA loan now, which maybe FHA will do that someday. Someday.

SPEAKER_02 38:17

Yeah, I was like 1978's a long time ago, and then I realized that I was alive then? No, well, not quite, but like it's very close.

SPEAKER_04 38:25

Okay, now I feel old. Because I was more than alive then.

SPEAKER_02 38:32

Probably. You were probably thinking about contracts and crayons then, too.

SPEAKER_04 38:36

Yes, I was writing contracts and crayons, absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 38:38

That's how she started.

SPEAKER_04 38:39

No, I was negotiating, as my mother says, I was arguing from day one.

unknown 38:44

Awesome.

SPEAKER_04 38:44

So they should have been an attorney. Like, no, I get to negotiate for a different reason now.

SPEAKER_02 38:49

Awesome. We'll be right back with a look at our regional market update. All right, let's jump to the regional market update. So in Stevenson County, we're talking Freeport, Lena, Davis, Orangeville, Pearl City. We've seen 47 homes sold with an average sale price of 180,000 and a 94% from list price to sales price. So still pretty close to that target there. So currently 81 homes are for sale with an average price of 225,000, actually closer to 226 if you're rounding up. And the higher price market has slowed a little bit.

SPEAKER_04 39:24

47 homes sold last month, 81 currently for sale. So that's not quite two months. Not even two months of inventory. And those higher average sale prices or average asking price at 226, you said. So that's all that higher end that's not selling, which we've definitely seen a shift in that.

SPEAKER_02 39:43

Definitely slow down for sure.

SPEAKER_04 39:44

Yeah, definitely. I think the higher interest rates makes a big factor in that. Um, as we were talking about earlier, I think some of those fuel prices make a difference also because people are not willing to drive quite as far. So I really think that, you know, some of those prices may come down a little bit on the higher end, but not those ones that are 200,000, not the ones that are 100,000, 94% from list price to sale price. You know, this is why we tell people you can't come in $20,000 under or, you know, even $10,000 under sometimes, right? I was just surprised the other day we got a counter and the seller did come down like 5%. And I was like, right away, they came down 5%. Okay, and the buyer's like, done. Like I'm not even gonna argue, you know, right. So looking at these kind of numbers, yeah, 5% is pretty average. So yeah, they were thrilled.

SPEAKER_02 40:33

And we talked about earlier earlier, like people are looking for deals, and you have to think of deal just outside of numbers. So maybe thinking about deal as to like, hey, I got this home in this really great neighborhood and it's a little bit underpriced, or maybe it's at market price and you're able to get, you know, a home that's in great condition, um, that you can make it your own.

SPEAKER_04 40:51

Right, right. Absolutely. It's deal is a long-term thing. You know, it is looking at your rent versus buying, it is looking at your life. And most people are buying because of a life situation. You know, they are getting married, they had somebody pass away, they have, you know, they're having a baby, having twins, they're having multiple children, you know. So guess what? Suddenly you need space because the little ones I think take up more space than we do. I mean, they're toys. It is their stuff. That's what I was just gonna say. It's the toys, it's the stuff, it's all of the other things, and then wait till they get even bigger. That doesn't get any of Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:26

I mean, the amount of squishmallows that I have in my house literally could have their own room.

SPEAKER_04 41:31

And you have one getting ready to, you know, shop for colleges. So, like, I know that makes us feel really old.

SPEAKER_02 41:37

I'm gonna send the squishmallows with him, though.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

But you think about all the things that, you know, he's accumulated almost a whole household of things. And so, yeah, it's you know, it's a lot. It is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 41:52

Ogle County. So we're talking Forreston, Polo, Oregon, Byron, and Rochelle. 39 homes sold with an average sales price of 272,000 and a 94% from list price to sales price. Currently, 46 homes are for sale. We are way short on homes available. So with an average price of 324,000, the higher price homes still are moving a little bit slower.

SPEAKER_04 42:13

Yeah, because again, 39 houses that have sold and 47 for sale. Oh my gosh. And the higher average uh sale price is just amazing how you know you get to Forreston and Polo and Oregon, and they're just down the road. But that's such a sub I can't even talk today, such a significant price difference, which also is back to the like why people move here, right? And because it's so affordable. So yeah, that's just crazy. Um, the price difference. And so, so close, you know, 20, 30 minutes away. Yes. I found 26. Right, right. Oh, we've been through all those towns. Not in one day typically. No. I try not to anyway. Every once in a while, but I try not to.

SPEAKER_02 42:54

This weekend, yes. This weekend, yes. People took me everywhere this weekend.

SPEAKER_04 42:57

So yeah, what was the map that you drew this weekend? It was a circle, it was a very big circle.

SPEAKER_02 43:02

Yep. All right, Winnebago County. So that's Pecatonica, Winnebago, Roscoe, and Rockdown. So 238 homes sold with an average sale price of $234,000 and a 98% from list price to sales price. So no deals here. And why? Because you'll hear about it in a second. Yeah, right. Only 220 homes for sale right now. So with an average sale price of 299,000. So it's an extreme seller's market. They're just, I mean, that's not even one month's worth of inventory.

SPEAKER_04 43:28

Right. This is just gonna say not even one month of houses for sale. So everybody goes and buys the same that they were buying last month, and all the houses are gone. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 43:38

And have you ever had your phone and you're out and you're like doing the showing and you have like the listing, and then it pops up that the house that you're touring just went pending while you're there while you're there. Yes. I don't even the last one, it wasn't pending. It was like, hey, offers are due at 2 45. And I looked and it was two o'clock, and I was like, I was like, Do you guys like this house? Or like, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:00

I was like, you got 45 minutes. We got to decide. Right. No, I've been in the house showing it. And I got a notification with a notification update that it went pending. And it went, oh, thanks. Great. Um, I mean, because what else do you do at that point? Like we're here, guys. Um, do you really love this one? Because we're gonna have to make an offer so good. They're gonna cancel that other offer if they can, which they can't always. And so how much do you love it? Because we might just need to go on. Right.

SPEAKER_03 44:27

Next.

SPEAKER_04 44:28

Yeah. So yeah. So that's the real heartbreak is when you're already in the house and they love it. And then you're like, oh, okay. Well, and then like I said, I ask, are you are you ready to make it so exciting that they really, you know, want to take your offer?

SPEAKER_02 44:42

Like over asking.

SPEAKER_04 44:43

Right, right. With with lot of less contingency and you know, you're ready to go. And so, and that's if the seller can cancel, they can't always. So it's it's crazy.

SPEAKER_02 44:54

Yeah, and I know that you talked about this a little bit on um, I've seen on your social page lately, really talking about capital gains taxes, and they're really hurting our market. So, you know, we think about people for say 20, 30, what'd you say, 54 years? 56 years. 56 years. One of your clients has been in the house for 56 years. You think about um, you just think about the equity that the home's built.

SPEAKER_04 45:14

Right, right. And they need that equity as older clients to live on, right? Right. You know, whether they're using that equity to go buy into an assisted, to go buy another property to downsize, or they're using what everyone says it's the way to your wealth, right? Is your home. And so they want to cash out and bring that wealth with them so they can live. And now they're gonna get taxed on it. So that is a huge factor in a lot of people deciding not to sell because and I especially have this issue with clients who are widowed. And so there's one and that's $250,000. If you've gained $250,000, you're gonna get taxed on that. And as a married couple or you know, as a um, as a couple, it's $500,000. And don't even get me started if it's trust and whatever and all those things. I didn't I'm not an accountant, I'm not a lawyer, so you know, but it's it's really, really, really affecting because we are in a market where people don't move every five, 10 years. Most people, it's 20 years or more. And so after 20 years, you have you've gained quite a bit of equity and you want to cash out on that or you need to, but yet you can't. So we really, really, you know, not that I have an ear in the government's hand, but you know, if you guys are listening, would you please fix this? Right. Because that $250 and $50,000 capital gains limit was written like 30 years ago when prices were way different and 20 or 30 years ago. But anyway, in a very, very different market and a very different time. And so it really, really needs to be adjusted. That's my two cents. Oh, add in a third cent.

SPEAKER_02 46:50

We don't have pennies anymore, so I have to throw a nickel. I had to throw a nickel in.

SPEAKER_04 46:54

That's my 10 cents. Mine's worth more than two.

SPEAKER_02 47:00

So, all right, we're gonna take a quick break before we are joined by our community guest of the month. All right, so today we are joined by someone who brings a really unique angle to the real estate conversation. So, Mr. Travis Cunningham. Um, you spent 15 years in the auction world, so working from everything from real estate to estate sales, from farm retirements to full-scale real estate auctions. So in 2022, you and your wife Allison launched AT auction services, specializing in online auctions, estate liquidations, and helping people move inventory efficiently. So, on top of that, you're also a full-time teacher. Correct, yes. So we're super glad to have you.

SPEAKER_00 47:41

Thank you. I'm really glad to be here. Yeah, lots of hats, but it's okay. That's um, you know, I just I usually bounce from my seven to three and then my 330 or 345 to whenever I get done and then go home. And but uh it's it's really two different, kind of different. We'll talk about that, but it's kind of different, kind of not, as far as what you get to do, yeah. So it's um really interesting.

SPEAKER_02 48:01

Take me back to the beginning. How do you get into auctioneering?

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Sure. This is a question I was thinking on the way up here because the story is, you know, it depends on how much time you got. I could tell as much as you want, but um, the kind of halfway short story is I was in high school. I was a I was a farmhand for my uncle who farmed, uh, raised cattle crops and things. And he did a lot of business cattle-wise with another gentleman who was an auctioneer and a cattle broker. And um, I got subleased or however you want to say it to work for him. Um, I worked the feedlot, we farmed. Um, and then of course, him being an auctioneer, I also got roped into hey, we need to clean this house out, so we need to move this furniture. And hey, I need a ringman for this Saturday's auction. And then um, it just kind of morphed into this basically full-time auction gig. Um, I mean, at one point we were doing three and four sales a week uh in the summer and stuff. So uh that was I was in high school when I started there, and then I still technically work for him uh a few times a year. We do uh the Hazelhurst consignment sale down at Milledgeville. Um, and then he does several other farm retirement sales, whatever he has on the docket. But that was how I got my foot in the door, so to speak, with the auction business was just by being grunt labor, basically. And um, I could run a skid loader and I could move things, so it was, you know, part of what I got to do. And then I move furniture and whatever, you know. Um, and then I guess my stance into the business was we were having lunch one day, and he goes, You know, I'm not gonna be around forever, so maybe you should think about taking over a little bit of this stuff. Because I think he was tired of the um personal property stuff. Yeah, uh it's a fine, it's a lot of work, and farm retirement sales are a lot of work, but it's different work, it's paperwork, it's you know, uh things like that. So I said, Okay, not sure with a full-time, you know, teaching gig that I can handle that, but I'll consider it. And at that time we had just had my son the year before that. Um, and we were like, hey, you know, maybe my wife could come home, maybe we could do something with this to benefit us financially, you know, things like that. And it ended up working out really great. So I went, I bought a book online that's the Illinois Auctioneer Test book. Uh, I took about 400 practice tests, and then I went to Pearson and took the test. And that's how you get licensed once you pay your money to the state. So um got that done, opened up an LLC, and here we are. So that was you know, four or five years ago and 200 sales ago. So it's or 100 and whatever we're at now, but pretty good.

SPEAKER_02 50:29

Yeah, so um, so really it's um I guess how has the market changed since then? Because I know when we think of auctioneers, you think of people like Standing Ringside. Yep. Can you do the funny talk thing?

SPEAKER_00 50:39

I can do the funny talk thing, yes. You can do it, would you do it? I can do it. Um, it just you gotta decide what you want to sell here. Should we sell Will or should we sell? No, just um what?

SPEAKER_02 50:50

Um why don't you sell my phone?

SPEAKER_00 50:52

I'll sell your phone. All right, we're gonna sell this nice phone here by Christy Garner. You give a hundred bucks. 100 now two, number the bunda numba dun, hundred here. Now give a quarter real quick. 100 and a quarter, not a half here, number the money done. Give it down a hundred and a half, now seventy five, here's seventy-five, give a hundred and seventy-five. Sold it, hundred and a half. Um, and you do that for two hours or three hours and you get a little tired of it.

SPEAKER_02 51:13

But um like you're a musical guy in general. So did it just like come to you like that, and you're like, this guy's a Savannah.

SPEAKER_00 51:19

No, this is a brilliant comparison. Um, I spent I don't know how many hundreds of hours listening to it around me. Yeah, right. You know, you work a sale and then two days later you work another sale and it just kind of becomes a thing, right? Um, but as a ring man, you have to listen. You have to know where the auctioneer's at, who's in. So you I you listen very closely, and it's very rhythmic. Um, when I taught myself how to do it, from a music standpoint, it's dot da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. That's awesome. And then so then you just do your numbers, you know, two and a half, five, seven, half ten, twelve and a half, fifteen, and you do that, and then your fives and your tens and whatever. And it's very much a rhythmic thing for me, just as much as you know, teaching a trumpet how to do whatever. It's the same thing. So um, again, one of those comparisons that we'll make, but pretty interesting. Yeah. Um, I don't know if anybody else learned how to do it that way, but that's how I learned to do it. Um, is just to be a little, you know, you pick a rhythm. I've I've heard, you know, a hundred auctioneers do it, and I'm not as fast as half of them. I'm not as you know, muddy. Some of them like to be muddy, so that you know, but um you walk away with boxing Christmas decorations and you want to buy the first place. But it's uh yeah, it's something that you still continually work on. Like I uh we just did Hazelhurst on Saturday and I sold for two hours and some change because it's good practice, you know. So I'm the youngest one on the totem pole. I usually get the most not so great items to sell, but it's good practice. So um yeah, very musical aspect behind it, which not a lot of people think about. But when they teach the chant, they teach it very rhythmically. So they teach it um one and two and three and four and five, which is exactly how you learn to count in music. So same thing.

SPEAKER_02 52:55

Wow, that's fantastic.

SPEAKER_00 52:56

Yeah, yeah. I don't even know if I answered the question. No, you did.

SPEAKER_02 52:59

No, because I was like, I I didn't want to put you on the spot, but then I was like, now I have to.

SPEAKER_00 53:03

Oh, yeah, no, I figured that's fine. It's good.

SPEAKER_02 53:06

Okay, so you've worked real estate auctions, you work farm retirements, full real estate. So pretty different across um all the different categories. So um what did working across all those teach you that you wouldn't necessarily have learned any other way?

SPEAKER_00 53:21

It's the auction business, in my opinion, is the school of hard knocks. Um, it's you do it wrong five times so that you figure out how to do it right once. Um, and ultimately you're trying to keep your clients happy. But again, I was considering this question but before, and it's the idea of different responsibilities for different things that you're selling. So when politely speaking, when I walk into a house and there's in my head four or five thousand dollars worth of stuff, marketable merchandise, we'll call it whatever. Um I don't get as involved as if my colleague and I are walking through a million-dollar farm sale or a two million dollar farm sale, or um, we're we're meeting with a client to sell 400 acres of farm ground, whatever, right? There's there's different levels of responsibility there. Ultimately, the morals of an auctioneer should be the same because no matter what, you want your client to be represented completely with what you have to sell. But the responsibility is bigger when it comes to, hey, this is gonna be like a you know an $800,000 deal or a million dollar deal versus okay, I'm gonna make $400, you know, or we're gonna make a thousand bucks, right? Like, not to discredit that because business is great, but and that's all good. But I think the the experience in selling, and also it comes to like what things are worth. So I don't expect any, you know, if there's an auctioneer that specializes in artwork, they're not gonna know what a 7130 is gonna be worth at the auction house on Saturday, you know.

SPEAKER_02 54:48

You probably tell people what a 7130.

SPEAKER_00 54:49

Sorry, or a big tractor, right? Or a planner or 20 acres of farm ground, right? Like you you to be multifaceted like that, and I think around here you have to be because we're not in a market for really maybe we are, but you know, you have to go to Chicago really to find the art houses or the um, you know, the really antique things. There's cool things around here, but we we don't specialize like that. I have to know what to do if you know I walk into a house and there's lots of different, you know, there's 400 different items and 300 of them are different, you know, then it's not the same thing. So I think working all of those aspects of the of the auction world give you that background knowledge of what to tell clients, right? Like um, we kind of discussed it a little bit before the show of like sometimes people have unrealistic expectations of what their things are worth. And you have to calmly and politely, but still realistically tell them like, no, your beanie babies aren't worth $12,000. Or you know, like like whatever it might be, because in 1995 they might have been, right? But they're not now, you know. And so I think getting that experience, I mean, I've sold everything from Christmas lights like we joked about before, to things that are worth a considerable amount of money, and not that Christmas lights aren't, but um, you know what I mean, backing myself into a corner here, but but um you have to know what to do in those situations, which I think is important. So the more experience you get with that, the better.

SPEAKER_02 56:12

So you are someone who's bringing together, you know, from what I've seen, the tradition, like the traditional auctioneer with also the online portion. So, how have you seen that change over the years? And but it still sounds like you know, there's still that need for your traditional auction.

SPEAKER_00 56:29

I love a good auction. It's my favorite, like yes, on Saturday, like I said, we did a big equipment sale on the the 12th hour. You're like, okay, I'm done, right? Like this is this is awful, but it's a social event. It's guys to have a cup of coffee and talk about that tractor that their grandson might buy, whatever. You know, it's it's a really social event. And I think that's important. I think that's why a lot of people show up. Um, but on the opposite side of that, you know, we can talk about the COVID word a little bit. Yeah, that killed the online or the sorry, the live auction market um for a cons considerable amount of time. During that time, everybody that was an auctioneer with no other income was like, What do we do? Right. Like, I I can't have a sale, I can't find a place to have a sale. I'm not legally allowed to have one where people show up. So the market was like, okay, we have to push this online, we have to use what's in front of us. So this online market became exponentially bigger in that year, year and a half, and nobody's wanted to get away from it since then. It's just part of it now. So, I mean, even the sale, uh going back to it, we still run all of that equipment online as well as in front of us. So as you're selling a line full of farm equipment, you're selling to a computer and to whoever's in front of you because that's uh in the truest sense of the auction word, the realistic market, right? A buyer in Pennsylvania might be willing to give $22,000 for that tractor and only $15,500 here on the floor in Illinois. So you have to be, you have to, if you're doing your clients truly justice, that's what you have to do. Um, and yeah, every auctioneer, I can't speak for everybody, but it's one of those things that once you get used to it, you never want to do it another way. Some of these personal property auctions that I've done would have flopped big time had I not had them online. Um, you also got to factor in the weather, right? Like Saturday here was 38 degrees and 40 mile an hour wind. And if you don't want to come out and sit for eight hours until that planner sells, you can bid from your couch.

SPEAKER_03 58:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 58:27

You could be having a cup of coffee and sit on your hot couch and yeah, I'll give 20,000. Yeah, I'll give 21,000, and you don't have to experience any of that. So it's the best of both worlds, right? Like there's guys and girls that love to go out in it and experience it. And there's other people that are like, I'll just sit inside and I'll do it that way. And you still get the item without the thing. So it's both.

SPEAKER_02 58:45

Auctions have the best pie. I don't know if everybody knows this, but like I can't think about being in an auction without having a piece of pie. So I'm just side note.

SPEAKER_00 58:52

We do a good steak sandwich there at Hazelhurst. It is really solid. Nice ribeye. Yes.

unknown 58:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 58:57

But that's the that's I kind of think in a nutshell is we have gone to the online market for several reasons, but really to satisfy our clients better. Because yeah, maybe their stuff really is worth X amount of dollars if I can market it to the right people. And I mean, we're talking, I that gone are the days I used to when I first started, we would literally just roll hay racks up to the house. You have a week and a half of setting things out on the hay racks, and Saturday morning at nine o'clock, whether it's raining, snow and tidal wave, whatever, you're gonna have a sale. Well, that's great, but if you have to sell a house full of stuff to the same 12 people that braved the elements that day, that client is not gonna be super happy with you. Versus on my online sales, and uh not just to pat myself on the back, but we're getting 30,000 or 35,000 people to see them. You won't get a hundredth of that to come out, even on a beautiful day.

SPEAKER_03 59:49

Right.

SPEAKER_00 59:50

So you're talking getting it out to more people means better market values, better coverage of, you know, if there's a Barbie collector in Maryland that really doesn't have this Barbie, I can sell it to them and I can ship it to them, and that's all that works, you know. So um it really does the best for the client that way.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:07

Interesting. So you know, looking at like I I know that I, you know, I reach out to you a couple different times, and I think it's really like how do you help people decide like what is important versus what is sentimental versus what really needs to go in the dumpster?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:24

Yeah, I mean, it's tough. And I had this conversation with a client the other day, and it was more of an apologetic tone for me because and I'll I'll put myself out there on blast, I don't care. For me, it's just stuff. Like it doesn't matter whose house I'm walking through, it's unless it's my house, it's just stuff. It might be valuable stuff, it might be not valuable stuff, but to me, I have no personal attachment to it. So I have to separate that of like, okay, I have to look at it from the 82-year-old lady that just lost her husband and he built or collected whatever it was for 60 years, right? To her, that's their entire life together. To me, that's just a collection of bottle cat, whatever it is, you know. So I have to put myself in the shoes of the client as like, okay, how do they feel about it? And sometimes you have to be a little bit harsh about it and like, no, we don't need to sell that, that's whatever. But you also have to consider it from the fact of they built lives around this stuff, they've collected for years and went to however many auctions to get this stuff. So I can't be super abrasive when I come in and be like, oh, this isn't worth anything. Why am I even here? Blah, blah, blah. You have to really, if you want to keep a good image, which I do, I care about that in the business world, you know it's kind of important. Um, I don't want to just come in and be like, nope, this isn't worth anything. I can't believe you called me out here.

SPEAKER_02 1:01:39

You really gotta appreciate whatever it is from their side of things, and even if it might not be valuable, you gotta find a way to tell them that without breaking their heart in the process of so if you were gonna walk through like a house just kind of like you know, three-bed, two bath, um, someone who's uh looking to do an estate sale, like what is actually worth something versus what is like a great question, and it really is dependent on what they have.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:03

And I know that's not the answer you probably want, but like when I when I walk through, I'll just tell you kind of the process. I meet them, I don't ever, I shouldn't say ever, but unless I have seen it before, I don't really give advice without seeing it because I have to lay eyes on it.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:16

Somebody might say, Oh, I have this and it's really nice, and it's not, or it's not real, or whatever, you know. So I take I take it for what I see. So we'll walk through, I walk through the whole house, we make small talk, we they show me what they have, and then we kind of break it down at the end of uh, you know, the market today, there's things that are worth money that people might not think are worth money, and there's what like what something weird, okay. So, like there's here's longenburgers are coming back, really, but here's the one that gets me the Christmas blow molds from like the 80s and 90s, like you you have your four-foot-tall Santa's, or you have you know once we used to steal and repeat. Like within the last six months, and it doesn't matter if it's April like it is now or if it's November 28th before Christmas, they're still worth money. So I don't know if it's a fact, I don't I don't know enough about it, but like if they don't make them anymore or if they made them better then, I don't know what that is, but it's the that's the one thing uh that's like I've told people I I can't tell you how many blow molds I've thrown away, you know, but like working before 10 years ago, 12 years ago, like it's it's June, they're not gonna buy any blow molds, we'll just get rid of those, you know. And now they're literally like 120, 130 bucks a piece. So that's kind of wild. Um, you see that on the opposite side too. I mentioned beanie babies earlier. Beanie babies are I don't want to say worthless, but kind of worthless. Um they are great toys that you can give to kids. And if you have a box of them or a thousand of them, just keep them because they might be worth something someday.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:44

Maybe.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:45

But um, I just recently did this last fall. I did a collection of Barbies. A lady uh over about 30 miles east of here had a collection, a lifelong collection of Barbies, and I'm talking to the tune of like 1,200 Barbies in a box. Uh 1200 boxes of Barbies. Like like boxed original, unopened, like like everything from summer Barbie to like 60s Barbies that are really vintage to the 2000s Barbies, which they made millions of, you know, everything in between. Barbie towels, Barbie dishes, Barbie, just Barbie, Barbie, Barbie. Um and in my head, I thought, oh, these aren't worth as much as she thinks. And it's gonna be a really tough conversation because again, she spent her whole life or the majority of her life collecting this stuff. And I was wrong, um, which is great. Thank the Lord I was wrong. Um, because of the fact that we were reaching out to different parts of the country. And the thing I don't think about being living here, and I've lived here my whole life, is we don't have some of the markets that other people have. So I have doll buyers right now that I could call on both coasts and in Dallas. So I have like three corners of the country, and the doll markets are Dallas Buyer Barbies Club. It's like, yes, yeah. But I'll call him and I'll say, like, hey, Tom, I got these Barbies coming up. You know, you might want to check this out. And half of them will be shipped to Boston or half of them will go to Sacramento, or you know, just because they can get, we can only get this amount for them here, they can buy them for that amount and then flip them over there, and everybody's happy because everybody made money. So that's one of the things about this business that I never never thought about. And, you know, to every scale, no matter what you're selling, people have that. You know, your father-in-law is an auctioneer. Yeah, he's got he's got um probably equipment toy contacts. You could call him about any toy that's probably ever been made, and you could say, you know, hey, what's this toy? And he'd be, oh, let me call somebody. Right. It's the same thing, right? Like, um, you just gotta know your people and you gotta know who to call and and who to tell when and you get the word out a little bit. So um works out nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:44

So when if I could switch just a little bit to the real estate piece, yeah. Um, because a lot of times I, you know, I still see, yes, we still see some ground, you know, marketed um online, but also people still really lean into the the farm 100%.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:01

Yep.

SPEAKER_02 1:06:02

Like how um I guess in your experience, what what causes someone to lean into an auction versus leaning someone to list into sure.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:11

I think there's several impacts to or several things that will impact that. If it's a true estate whereas there's no uh I'll use it, you know, grandpa dies, sons don't want a farm, or grandpa had three daughters who doesn't want anything to do with it. Then a lot of times that will just they'll call an auctioneer and the auctioneer gets the land, the equipment and all to go in one basket. You get it all. It's got to go, lawyer says it's got to be sold, got to divvy it up three ways for the kids. That happens quite a bit. The other thing that generally you know is if farm ground especially is often pushed or not pushed, but people often want to get it on the auction market because of what it can do to their value. Right. Right. Because if you have and it's funny in small town politics and could name drop, not going to name drop, but you might see guys that well I own the 120 that backs up to that so I'd be willing to give this much for it. Or I know so and so that's going to be interested in that and I don't want him to buy it. So I'm going to give this much for it so I can buy it. And then you get the the true auction feel that you want and it brings $3,000 or $2,000 over an acre well everybody's happy then right so except for the buyer. But you know outside of that but yeah I think it's it's true to you know when you're the the the full auction experience like what I said where they're going to sell the line of equipment they're going to sell everything in the shop they're going to sell the farm ground at the end all of that kind of lends itself towards an auction a little bit better. And when there's how do I say this politely when there's when there's people involved that don't care about the stuff they just want the money.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:54

Yeah. Right?

SPEAKER_00 1:07:55

Like like I don't want right I don't want dad's stuff I just want and I that comes out wrong. Maybe you know love dad very much everything's fine but I don't want his collection of this I just want my third and I want to go back to my you know get away from it. So I think that often leads into it too is do you have interest in the things or do you have interest in the value in the things because that's a different they're two different things. But and also one thing I didn't think about till just now how fast do you need it done right right like if they need to have the estate settled by X date or what other factors are involved it might be an auctioneer is the only option to get it done right then. Because you you know you well know it might sit on the market for three days it might be on the market for eight months and you know you never know right so if they say nope on this Saturday at 10 o'clock in the morning we're going to sell this acres with this and this sometimes it kind of yeah leads itself to that okay so let's stick with the avatar.

SPEAKER_02 1:08:51

Okay we've got the three bed two bath we've sold all the Barbies and um the house is clean now and you decide that you um they they're like did such a great job with the Barbies we want you to sell the house now. So what does that like if I want to be a buyer and I want to come to an auction like what is that like like can I just show up with my my lender buddy can I like what is that you know what do I have to bring to a real estate auction?

SPEAKER_00 1:09:18

That's a great question. You have to do a little legwork in the process. So generally people that come to an auction are they know right away whether they're going to be interested or not.

SPEAKER_03 1:09:28

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:28

For example you don't imprompt you impromptu buy you know 20 acres in a house in a barn right like um you're not just gonna get suckered in by the auctioneer to raise your hand for X amount of it's a bit more for the Barbie and not have a bar right so you do all you usually know like I'm interested in this piece of property it's going to be sold on this date. Yeah. So you go to the bank you say hey are we can we swing this? What do we have to do to swing this um generally you have to have 10% down sometimes it's 15 um day of and then you have to have the remaining within 30 days. So uh you have to come at least a little bit prepared um you know and you also have to be prepared for the auction effect of well I'd want to give 200 for it X amount whatever but I'm in at 210 and I really want it. So I need to give 220 or he's asking for 212 and a half whatever you know um so you have to think about that and either know when to stop or be really good buddies with your banker because you know that's that's gonna happen too.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:22

Do you bring do people actually bring their bankers with them?

SPEAKER_00 1:10:24

Sometimes that happens um sometimes you can like squeeze your arm correct especially in small towns like this uh I've seen it happen where they'll either bring their banker or they'll bring their lawyer or they'll bring whatever yeah and now frankly speaking most guys that are in a position to or people that are in a position to do that don't need their banker because they know their banker well enough.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:42

Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:42

But there are some younger couples whatever they want to correct that and sometimes the bank needs to see it. You know if you're looking at a place 40 miles away that that needs to be sold or that's going to be sold on an auction sometimes they'll ask to see it. Obviously you know most real estate auctions are as is where is and how is so you you don't get an inspection you don't get anything like that. They're just selling the property the way it sits so a lot of times people will come in and see it before and check the well or check the basement whatever. So yeah you you'll see bankers involved or people involved extra people involved in that too. And so I mean you so what you're saying too is like you could you could actually go see the property before a lot of times yes um very rarely is a property sold without being able to see it before the day of so at least the auctioneers that I know will generally those dates are set well in advance especially for farm ground but like homestead farmsteads things like that um especially older homes that have been around a while they'll say hey the auction is three months from now um they don't necessarily well some do an open house viewing but you can call the auctioneer and say hey so and so I'm really interested in this property can I see it and then you set up a one-on-one meeting and they'll walk you through it and you know part of and I do that for for personal property stuff like if I was a buyer I'd want to probably see what I was bidding on. And sometimes the day of the auction or the online pictures don't do it enough justice, right? And or dolls or anything like that where it's cracked or things like that. We try to represent things the best we can but ultimately it's buyers' decision whether they're interested or not so almost every auction I know of outside of maybe vehicle auctions or things are as is and where is so however it sits is how we're selling it. If we know about it we'll tell you and if we don't know about it I can't help you you know um but yes that does happen to circle back around you can see it beforehand you can see it multiple times you can um sometimes it happens where you see it in one season and they sell it in another so you see it in early spring and the sale's not till May so you get to see it um you know what it looks like without corn surrounding it and what it looks like when the corn's four feet tall. Right or you know whatever that might be um you see it in July when the corn's four feet tall and you see it in September when it's 12 feet tall you know um small things like that that make a difference.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:55

Cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:12:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:56

Um do you are there times where you where you would say like this makes sense to do like a traditional um real estate sale or do you feel like you just do like you can like as opposed to an auction?

SPEAKER_00 1:13:09

Yeah. Yeah um I mean I think auctions have their times and places but I think there's a lot to be said about selling it on the on the real estate market especially if you have a good realtor. I think that helps a lot too um there if you're not in a hurry to sell it if there's if it's not a need to be sold at an auction I'm probably pushing business away as I say this.

SPEAKER_02 1:13:30

No you're not no I feel like I like I just think I was like man I was like maybe I need to be an auctioneer next there is there is and I've seen a big push recently against real estate auctions outside of farm ground.

SPEAKER_00 1:13:43

Yeah farm ground is I don't want to say 100% because nothing is 100% but 98% of the time farm ground is going to go to auction because that's just the way it works. You want to pull as many farmers as you can you want to get that aspect like I mentioned before of I don't like that guy so I'm gonna buy it or I don't I I want to get it so I don't want it I want to buy it so he doesn't get it or I want to buy it so my kid can live there. Whatever. But outside of that, you know if you're talking about a little two-story house in town a a realtor might do you a lot more justice that way. You know um they they'll likely take better pictures they'll have you have it inspected that things like that. You know I'm thinking as a guy that's bought a house before I wouldn't have done it without a realtor because it's you know the A, I was young and kind of dumb, but um it was like I was just like where do I sign? But um you know they do a lot of things for you that an auctioneer either won't or can't um as far as their responsibilities. So what what I'm hearing too is auction that puts a lot of re like it's all the buyer has to do yeah the buyer has to do research because I know every auctioneer if you come back 45 days after the sale and you're like well this is they're like sorry I sold it uh and we told you that beforehand and that was part of the deal. So you know politely and that it's not like they're being mean but that's their job right they they told you this is how it sits this is what we're gonna sell and they sold it. Or I or whoever you know I've had that happen with personal property things where I've sold a lawnmower and the guy was like well this thing doesn't run I said I it ran when I've sold it and I don't know what to tell you about it. Right. You know like it's is what it is. Mouse cheesed wires exactly like right like so but yeah there are certain situations where I would definitely say you know don't call an auctioneer call a realtor because it's all about who you know and it's all about who they know. Right. If they know some like you get you guys have clients that are like hey find me this hey find me that that's pretty important in the terms of you know again when you're talking about money this size a house or a property or whatever that's important stuff. You're not just gonna you know not that an auctioneer can't do it but an auctioneer might come 30,000 over he might come 5000 under you know and you all usually have the right to say no but at the same time if you don't sell it you know then you're gonna list exactly you have to list right yeah right okay so all interesting aspects of that and it's there's never one size fits all it's usually one if certain situations call for this a lot of times if a lawyer is dictating what's happening then you don't get to say much in it anyway. But as an executor or as you know some people have directly in their will that it's going to be sold at public auction. Everything I own is going to be sold at public auction. In fact to share a personal story I just had a lady call me yesterday or the day before she's 87 years old and she wanted my uh she wanted my approval to put our business in her will so that we got to do her auction. And she's very healthy and very still much alive. That is testimony. I said yes I we you can please put us in your will I knew the lawyer I said just tell him you know that's fine. Um but yeah that happens too so sometimes the executors' hands are tied. Sometimes it might be better if we put it on the market but they say nope the will says right here that it's going to be sold at auction no matter what and that's the way it goes.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:55

So so how do you balance that? Because if people are writing you in your in their wills you must be be pretty successful. And I know that I would be like and again this is like you know personally too like you do really great job especially um in the music department for especially with my kids and you're very patient man. So I appreciate you but yeah how do you do it all?

SPEAKER_00 1:17:13

Um my wife asks me that sometimes too like it's it's just a matter of sometimes I delegate which I I mean I I did the first we I should say we my wife and I did the first almost two years completely by ourselves. So the but again this was one kid um not pregnant with twins you know not getting a master's degree on my end not things like that. Yeah it's a little easier um as we've our lives have continued to complicate or get more complex I should say it's getting a little harder to balance everything but not I just delegate more. I've got three or four employees that work for us pretty regularly so I think training them has become more important than me doing it on my own. Right. So I check in with them I say hey you know how's it going? I always keep in touch with our clients and say hey so and so be here from this to this time. I do some of the work but I try to subletter you know hire some of the done so that I can be home with my kids or I can go to uh the trampoline park which is what we did yesterday instead of working that's what we did you know so um it definitely takes a lot of balance and not that this is a marriage podcast but a lot of communication too because my wife gets so mad at me when I'll say oh I got to run to Amboy and do this or I got to go meet a client here. And if I don't tell her those things I talked about it in my own head for 45 minutes but I didn't tell my wife who you know is running the rest of the house. So um that's kind of been a learning curve too is Travis yeah Travis if you're gonna do all this business that's great but we got to kind of map it out a little bit better. What skills have you found that have been beneficial in both well well I mean it's working with people um I mean I think that that's to be said about a lot of careers but working with parents on the teacher side of things is a lot like working with a client. I mean like you're you're trying to keep them happy while also provide them what they need to be provided like one is with their kids and one is with their property but same thing right like you I had a situation recently where the client was not so enthused with what we did. Yeah and I can't control that. I mean we did everything just as way we did of every other sale we've done it didn't turn out the way they wanted it. I got an earful over it I apologized I made it right with them on the bill and you you move forward right like um I've said things in the classroom before that I didn't mean to say or that I maybe set out of a little bit of frustration and then you talk to the parent you apologize for it you move on everybody's okay with it right so if you're not then you solve it. If you are okay with it then you develop and move on the tougher thing with the school part is that I get kids for seven years instead of you know three weeks. So um it's a little different on that front. But and I think the balancing you know we just talked about balancing the workload that's taught me a lot of like I in the when I was a first year teacher which you knew me very well as a first year teacher um I worked incessantly at home at I'd stay late of course again didn't have kids but my wife and I had to have a conversation of like hey this does not dominate our entire life and we had the same conversation with the business of it's helping her stay home it's doing great things for us but it cannot dominate kid time. It can't dominate family things I don't work on Sundays anymore which I used to work I'd leave church and go to work and you know I don't do that anymore. It just all takes a little bit of balance but and there's ebb and flow right like from November to middle of January I didn't have a sale I had no business I it's which is fine but then from January to now I've done nine sales so it's like or eight you're eight eight but either way like it's ebbs and flows. Sometimes I'm absolutely you know 100 hour weeks just running running running and other times it's like okay I don't have to work this week or we don't have to start that sale till February whatever you know so it does come and go but I've definitely tried to be a lot more intentional at home of like yeah business is great but it's not what's going on at home. Right. You know two separate things.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:04

So when you talk about time like we're going back to our three bed, two bath okay the Barbies are back in the house now. Okay so back in the house with all the stuff like how long would it take to get a sale set up I will give you a snapshot of a normal air quote okay house yes like standard what I walk into yeah some of it's going in the dumpster a good 75 80% of it's gonna be sold.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:26

I generally quote the client sometimes somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 50 hours completely from front to back.

SPEAKER_02 1:21:32

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:33

So that means tagging everything sorting through everything taking pictures setting up the online sale running the online sale and doing the pickup at the end. On a heavy heavy sale we'd be 60 ish on a pretty light sale we'll be 35 or 40 I can't really do one for less than I can't do one of substance for less than 40 hours.

SPEAKER_03 1:21:54

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:21:54

It's just kind of how it works. But um it also really depends on what it is which I've learned too as like I said the school hard knocks I've quoted clients like oh we could do this in you know 30 35 hours and they've got 18 boxes of China that's all wrapped one individually in the in the attic and it's like okay well this is going to be way more than that you know um and luckily in my contract it does we don't have to specify like I have to do it in this amount of hours. But when you come in 20 hours over what you quoted it's a little bit you know it's a little bit tougher of a conversation. But it does depend on what it is. I've done some um I've done some in as little as 20 hours. It just depends on how much work you know if you have a client that's willing to do some of it for you um I all often I get asked what can we do to help you and I'll say well if you're not gonna sell it move it into this room so I can I don't have to ask you 47 times am I selling this or not selling this right like um we've done it that way too but so if if it gets bought and people don't come pick it up then what? So in my contract it states that it's always the customers or sorry it's always the client's stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:22:56

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:22:56

So I never take possession of it I'm just acting as a third party to sell it. So the only transaction that technically takes place is between the buyer and the seller.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 1:23:05

Um so if it doesn't get picked up then it's still the sellers they get to do with it what they want they can keep it throw it away donate it whatever you have a timeline like you must pick it up between we usually come get your barbies. It's a good question. Some people abuse it which is normal too but I usually um we have a pickup day which we so we have a sale my sales generally run like Thursday to Sunday we'll do a pickup on Wednesday or Thursday so it gives us a couple days to sort things through a couple days to move things that didn't sell and then I usually give them seven days. So if it if it's a week after the pickup date and I haven't heard from you or you haven't showed up too bad so sad. I got to move on with my life and that is what it is. So it depends now if we're talking about a $2,000 mower or whatever I'll give a little more grace. But if it's a you know two dollar and fifty cent box of pins right too bad.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:57

I'm out right like I got other stuff to do yeah yeah so like what are some weird things that you sold you were like I can't believe I'm selling this but here we go.

SPEAKER_00 1:24:06

I thought about this because I know you mentioned asking something like this before a couple trick questions. Um I've sold more bedpans than I care to admit which is like and people buy them yes and it not specifically like the plastic ones you would get at any hospital now but the metal ones are somewhat of a collector's item which I did not know and I've probably sold 20 of those in my career. So that was one thing you know I've sold wigs before I had a guy that had a collection of wigs like real human hair wigs um but the thing that gets me is the dowels that I sell are straight out of like conjuring like eyes follow you throughout the living room and I've I'm not a scared man. I'm usually pretty solid and I've been working later at these places and I'm like things are looking at me oh yeah like the eyes definitely move you know things like that. So some of the dolls and it's like I know there's collectors out there for them. I just wouldn't want it in my house. Right. This thing's gonna sneak out of its case in the middle of the night and like do something bad to me. But like yeah there's things that you're I tell clients this all the time I say you're gonna be really shocked at what some things bring in a good way and you're gonna be kind of deflated in another way about some things that don't but it all comes out in the wash. You know I've had um boxes of uh whatever it might be little miscellaneous things that there's one thing in there that somebody sees that and that box will bring 80 bucks 100 bucks and you're like wow I expected that to sell for a little bit of nothing you know and then you have the opposite where usually it's on bigger items not always um where you're like oh I expect this to bring 10,000 5000 and it might come shy of that but it always comes out in the wash you know but yeah one of the my favorite things about this job is seeing what people have and I mean that in the nicest way like just that's my favorite part of showings too it's cool. Like I've seen some really neat like I'm a I'm a big fan of like memorabilia items so uh whether that be like you know beer collectibles things like that and some of these collections are just astound and local within like 20 minutes drive you can find some really astounding things I just was talking to a guy in uh lost nation or South of Granditou down there um who's got a really really cool beer collection and there's like eight people that know about it right like he he might tell his close friends and they know he's got it but it's not like a he's not broadcasting it and so every once in a while you stumble upon a really cool you're like oh my gosh this is jam-packed full of really cool stuff and so that's one of the cool things is you know you find things as you dig and you it's just a cool part of the job that um just people have these things and you might never know it but they they've got it buried in their basement or their attic or whatever. Cool. Pretty neat.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:46

So where do you see AT going from here?

SPEAKER_00 1:26:48

You know we've been growing every year since we started um our our client list or our sorry our customer list that they've bought from us is over 2,000 now and I've gotten people all across the country. I mean I wanted to when I first started keep a map of every state I've shipped to and I we've got to be close. I've never done it but we've got to be close to getting across the country. So um I it's a really cool business and I I really want it to stay in the family. Like I've got a son and a son coming um if either one of them is interested hopefully by that point it would be a cool like handoff. Like here we built this for you do with it you know if you want to work it great. I can't wait for the free labor when they get old enough to use it too awesome um they can pay their dues like I did. But no it's um it's been a really good uh it gets my wife home which is now that we're gonna have four kids on the ground is super important. Um and that was something we didn't think was possible five six years ago. It was a two income house for and had to be for a long time. And it's just allowed us to make some changes in our life that's really benefited us in a way. So um I just I hope people keep calling you know I talked to a really good friend of mine who Has a successful business. And he said, Travis, when you start a business, you hope the phone rings. And for the rest of it, you hope it doesn't stop. And I was like, that's pretty true. Dale. I was like, that's pretty cool stuff. So um yeah, that's just I just want it to be something that we can continue to build. I like I I'm really proud of our business model. I really, I'm I'm really, I really pride myself on doing right by people. Um and I just I like that people recommend us. I think that's really cool. Um when I get done, I I always want people to say, hey, we did a good job and we did we did right by them. So that's in a nutshell, you know. I I want it to be something my kids can take and yeah, hopefully do from there.

SPEAKER_02 1:28:39

So if someone needs you to do an auction either uh for a personal property um or you're looking at an estate sale, how do they get a hold of you?

SPEAKER_00 1:28:47

Uh yeah, I'm kind of old school, so cell phone's the best way. Uh my cell phone number 815-297-4595. Uh call, text, carrier pigeon, whatever. Just make sure uh you get in touch with me. I'm the only one that'll answer. So uh that'll be a good thing. And we do have a Facebook page too. Um so our Facebook page is AT Auction Services with the little ampersand in the middle. Uh, and you'll see we're based out of Foreston, so it'll say right on the bottom there. And uh you can send us a message on Facebook that way if that's your preferred method of contact. But somebody will be back to you. I say 48 hours, but uh as fast as we can.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:20

So, Travis, this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much for taking your time to come out and see us and wish you all the best of luck.

SPEAKER_00 1:29:25

It was a blast. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 1:29:26

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:29:27

So, guys, my tip of the month. We said earlier peak season, it's mud and rain season, let's face it, right? So it's a great time to see a house. Oh, and hail season. I forgot about that. So please don't skip the home inspection. We appreciate you listening. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to follow the listed podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can also go to golden girls team.comslash listed podcast.