S2 Ep 7 'FIRST HOME SELLERS 101'- Meet JACKSON WHITE (Ray White Umina) Part 2

Selling your first home can feel daunting.

In this episode of Meet The Agent, Jackson White of the NSW Central Coast's Ray White Umina returns for an encore episode with host Wendy Clare to break down the process for us, with our original music and a few lighthearted laughs along the way.

This is a grounded, role play style conversation designed to demystify the process.

Whether you're preparing to sell or simply want to understand how great agents go about it, this episode offers a clear, intelligent framework for approaching your first sale with confidence.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

First home buyers have been in the news and getting all of the attention. But for first home sellers, it can be just as scary and overwhelming. What do I do? How long is it going to take? What's the process? Today we want to help with that. We've got our favorite Central Coast agent, Jackson White from Ray White, your minor, here ready to run through the process with us. From beginning to end. It's Home Sellers 101.

SPEAKER_02 0:47

Kitchen table, nervous laughter, but trusting you with what is our time.

SPEAKER_01 0:54

Welcome to Meet the Agent Podcast. I'm Wendy Clare of Juge Interiors. Today, meet Jackson White or Ray White, you minor.

SPEAKER_02 1:06

I still watch it unfold.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Tell us from the very beginning, A to Z.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

What happens? So usually if you're prepared to sell and your house, you deem your house is ready, people will usually give me a call, send me an email, send me a text and say, Can you come out, have a look at the home and you know, run through the process. Where I will go out to the home, I'll have a look and go, hey, well, I think you should do this, I think you should do that. If the house is ready to go, it's it's quite a simple process. Yeah, so I come out, I see the home, once we have a bit of an idea of what we are looking for in terms of price, we sit down, we go through commissions, we go through how we go about selling the home, whether it be private treaty, whether it be auction, usually what the customer feels most comfortable with. I know auction can be a bit of a stressful process, but yeah, if someone's happy just to do private treaty, we sit down, go through all those things, go through the marketing, what's involved. Once we've agreed to everything to do with those kind of things, we would go, all right, here's an agreement. Now, with the agreement, we'll just have the owner's details on it. I also have a solicitor's details. If you don't have a solicitor or a conveyancer, we usually point you in the right direction.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

So is this the agreement with you representing them? Like let's start right at the very beginning. So yes, I'm I'm wanting to sell this place. You've come around and we're having a look at the place first.

SPEAKER_03 2:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 2:28

This is the agreement between, say, theoretically, yeah, yourself to yourself nice.

SPEAKER_00 2:33

Usually m most people go, all right, we'll have an agent come out. People will get a couple of agents out. And I always say, get a couple of agents out because there'll be a particular agent that you deem will do. One, the best job for them, might be tracked record, might be experience, it might be you just get along with them better, which is a massive thing these days. You want an agent that you know you can have a chat to, you can speak openly with, and you feel comfortable with. But yeah, you have an agency agreement that you would sign and just say, All right, yep, Jackson, I want you to sell my home. We'd put all your details on that agreement, which would be your address, your full name, contact number, and email. And then we'd say, Do you have a solicitor conveyancer? And then if you don't have a solicitor conveyancer, then we would be like, All right, well, here's a few ones, give them a call. It's the same kind of process. Find out how much they charge, find out who you get along with the most. So it's because it's a you're building a relationship as well. It's not just a business transaction. You want to make sure, oh, I'm I'm I'm on this person's level, I feel as though they're doing the right thing by me, and then we're gonna get the best best results. That could be a solicitor or a conveyancer. We we jot those details down on on a on a contract or an agreement. And in that agreement, we'll also have all the marketing stuff and the commissions and things like that. Once we have that in place, the solicitor, conveyancer, whoever you choose to go with, they will prepare a contract. That usually takes about a week. A week? Yeah, a week, yeah. So they'll get some uh a couple of council documents, they'll reach out to council and they'll prepare the contract for you. And within that week, uh, we have to make sure the house is 100% presentable to organize photos. Now, photos can be organized literally within 24, 48 hours. The turnaround for the photos is usually another 24, 48 hours. So the photographer will come in, he'll take all his shots, anywhere from say 12 to 20 photos. He'll also do a floor plan, so he'll measure up the whole room. That process usually takes an hour, an hour and a half the whole the whole time. And then within those 24, 48 hours, you'll have your photos. We sit back down, go through the photos and go, hey, which is going to be our number one photo to put online. We pick that shot and then we nut down a few ideas, uh, nut out a few ideas in terms of writing our ad. Always like to involve the owner when writing an ad because they're the ones that live there, they're the ones that experience the home, they're the ones that know little things that I probably may miss.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

So then we sit there, construct and can you give me some examples of that while we're while we're on that topic? Yeah, treat us as an example.

SPEAKER_00 5:09

So we go, all right, let's talk about we've got we've got a ceiling fan, we've got air conditioning, we've got plantation shutters, we've got a good size like an entertaining area, like live indoor living space, separate dining area, kitchen, updated kitchen, some of the appliances, how many bedrooms there are, things like that. Things that I I will see. But there could be things that you've done that I didn't, I I I don't know about. Jackson, I just recently uh updated the air conditioner, so we can say the air conditioner is brand new. I've just done landscaping out the back. Right.

SPEAKER_01 5:39

Um there's a like there's irrigation that you wouldn't notice by it took a lot of work to do. The little bites hidden underground.

SPEAKER_00 5:48

Attic storage is another one. People go, oh, I've got addict storage. Well, I wouldn't have known that, so I'm glad you told me.

SPEAKER_01 5:52

And that's pretty valuable now, isn't it?

SPEAKER_00 5:54

100%. So that's why I usually like to involve my clients in that process of writing the ads because, all right, how does this sound? Yeah, all right, we throw some ideas in chat GPT because that's what we've got there.

SPEAKER_01 6:07

GPT's so good.

SPEAKER_00 6:08

Excellent. Usually we just usually put it a couple of dot points and they write us a nice real estate ad. Spit something out of us, are we happy with that? But also things like council rates, strata fees, we get the property management team to come through to get a rental estimate because in case it's an investor, the investors will want to know what the return would be. Things like how long you've actually owned it for, what made you want to buy it in the first place. All these kind of selling points are good things to put in the ad for the agent to know to relay that on to buyers because it could be the exact same person that buys your house for the same reasons that you bought it. Right. So, yeah, once you've gone through that process, you've got your photos, you've got your contract, we've got the ad drawn up. We send you a proof. You go, oh yeah, I'm happy with how it all looks, Jackson. And then we just literally go online, goes to realestate.com, domain.com.

SPEAKER_02 7:01

From the first small steps.

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Midweek is usually the best time to launch a property online because towards the end of the week is when people start to look and go, all right, let's plan our weekend. What open homes are there? You have to have it out by say a Wednesday or Wednesday's usually the day I like to do them because you have say if you do it in a late Wednesday afternoon, people coming home from work, whether we're on a train or something, they're more active on their phone in the afternoons. They see and go, Oh, that's someone that's something I'd like to see. They inquire if there's no price on it. That's another thing we talk about. If you want, for instance, auction, no price, whether it be contact agent, a set price, a guide, a price range. These are all the options you have.

SPEAKER_01 7:45

Oh, this is interesting too, because this is where this whole new rule has come in. I don't know much about it, but about the price valuations and all that, the underquoting, overquoting. Yeah, yeah. So it's it's at this stage where you're deciding with uh the buyer what price you're going to add. Yeah, with the seller. Yeah. Sorry, just seller, yeah. With the seller, you're a seller agent. Exactly. So you're deciding now what range you're going to say on the marketing?

SPEAKER_00 8:17

Yeah, pretty much. So just before we put it on the market, we will sit down and have that conversation. So when I originally go out, we'll have like a list of comparable sales and go, this one's sold, this one sold, this one sold. And I always ask the question, how do you think this one compares to your own home? And they go, Oh, okay, well, it's got three bedrooms, it's got one bathroom, it's got a single car garage, it's in a complex of X, it's renovated like mine, and it's sold for this. Well, that seems like a pretty good comparable. So you can sit there and together agree you're probably worth something around that mark.

SPEAKER_01 8:51

Interesting. Okay, yeah. So you're kind of discussing it because there's no such thing as an actual precise valuation, right? It's all in the mind of the beholder.

SPEAKER_00 9:01

It's it's funny when a lot we go out to things, people go, Oh, well, an agent told me it was worth this amount, and it could be more than what I say. I always ask the question they that agent thinks it's worth X based on what?

SPEAKER_01 9:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 9:14

Or Uncle Tom said Yeah, so it said it's worth this. It's like, okay, well, why do you say it's worth that? Well, is there any evidence to justify that? I could say your house here's worth three million dollars. Is it worth three million dollars? No. So that's why you've got to back it up with evidence and go, you know, you just said someone in your complex recently sold. Wendy, this one just sold here, X, Y, and Z. Uh, how do you think it compares yours? Well, it's in my complex, it's very, very similar. Surely I'd be around that kind of mark. With rangers, we always say, all right, well, we think we're worth, say, a million dollars. A buyer can have your best buyer might think it's worth a million. Your worst buyer might think it's worth 900. But at the end of the day, us as agents, it's not our job to tell your price, it's our job to negotiate on your behalf and use our resources and knowledge to get buyers through the door, try to create a bit of an emotional attachment for the buyer, for them to really want it, and then putting them in that competitive environment to fight out against other buyers in a transparent situation, in an environment, obviously, so it's completely open and honest with other with other buyers. But at the end of the day, whoever sees the most value for the property will pay the highest amount. But if you can put them in that competitive environment, it's obviously going to be better for the owner. Uh, because yeah, in as we all know, competitive environments are just kind of price to catch each other up. Yeah, yeah. And whoever's got the deepest pockets and the the the the I guess the biggest love for the home will be the ones that ends up end up getting it. But we always use comparables just to guide initially.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

So say, okay, we've decided now on what we think is going to be the the rate, like say theoretically, I've said, okay, Jackson, yeah, let's go for a meal. And then what happens now?

SPEAKER_00 11:01

So once we've set our price, we know we've got the and we've got the photos done. We've had the photos done, we've got the contract, we're already ready to put on the market. So you go.

SPEAKER_01 11:09

Let's say I say, Oh, you know, we got these photos, but someone was telling me about staging. Should we have done that before? The photos? When is that gonna happen?

SPEAKER_00 11:19

So should I do that? Yeah, in it in our like presentation, we sit down. If the house is vacant, we'd go, all right, let's do some staging. It varies from property to property. If a property is is fully furnished, there's no real need to do staging unless we have one of our stylists or interior designers to come in and go, all right, the house is a bit cluttered. Let's move some stuff, let's store some stuff in the garage, which rearrange this room to have more light come in, to make the room look larger, put this lounge here, put the TV on against this wall. All those kind of things, depending, it varies property to property. Like every kind of presentation is different. Yeah, it's just the the basic things that we always have to cover. Every conversation's different, but if it was a vacant home, staging is definitely something we we bring up.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

And you generally do that before the photos or before the first listing, rather than trying how it goes and then going, well, we're not getting a lot of interest awards.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Always, always at the very start. So once we have the property listed for sale, so I know like I wouldn't go out and say, All right, let's go get some staging if I didn't have it listed because there's a potential there that I actually don't sell it and I'm wasting my time. So once I've got a property listed for sale, I go, all right, these are the next steps. All right, we are gonna do staging. I'll get my stylist to come in. You can meet them around there, you can bounce some ideas off one another, and then once you're happy with what they what they're saying, the furniture they're gonna provide and how they're gonna set it up. We engage their services within a week, they'll have the the furniture in there, and then we get the photographer in. The photographer does his job. And then from there we do our ad. We have the contract, and then we put it on the market, set it for whatever price the owner wants to do. Like we obviously have our opinion on certain properties. Some properties are auction type, some that there may not be many comparables to justify a certain price that we're trying to achieve. So we may not put a price on there and say, you know what, we're a little bit unsure about price. At the end of the day, it's a home's only worth what someone's willing to pay.

SPEAKER_01 13:20

Oh, okay. So that's like when you see on the listing it just says you know, contact doesn't say anything more.

SPEAKER_00 13:28

So the main reason why we tend to do a like put contact agent down there is if, for instance, if you put your photos out, you have a good ad and you have a price, you've given the buyer everything they need to know about the home. There's no reason for them to call the agent. So you're sitting there as the agent crossing your fingers going, oh, please come into the open home and have and have a look. But if you take one aspect of the campaign away, like the price, it gives the buyer reason to reach out to you.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

So then you get some feedback on whether that's getting some interest.

SPEAKER_00 14:02

Straight away, yeah. So people will email and we'll have a template email set up. So someone goes, Hey Jackson, I just want to know a price. Okay, thanks for your email. At this stage, we're gonna guide around this amount based on X, Y, and Z, these recent sales. So then people go, All right, okay, that seems like a fair price because that sold for that, that sold for that. They're similar properties. And in that email, you you might say, Oh, what exactly are you after? Find a little bit more about the buyer. Hey Jackson, first home buyer. I've just got my pre-approval, financially to go, got a budget of say$700,000. I'd love a house, but also looking at villas, 10 houses, and units, things like that. And then we can kind of build a bit of a profile for that person, and that feedback gets passed on to the owner, and they go, Oh, okay, well, Jackson had that conversation with that person. This is their situation, this is what their maximum budget is. And then if they do come to the pro come to the property and have a look, I already know roughly what they're that what they're willing to do to spend. If it is out of their budget, or if it doesn't suit, there might be another property that I can tell them about to try to help the help the buyer find something else. And it's the same for for every owner. I might meet a buyer at another property and go, you know what, I've got the perfect thing for you. Come have a look at Wendy's. Yeah. They may not have seen yours or known anything about it. It's about manufacturing and sale. Right buyer for the right home.

SPEAKER_01 15:21

Right, okay. In our theoretical example, we've started the listings now. It's a Saturday, so it's gone out on Wednesday. On Wednesday first. And is it like several different listing sites and all that?

SPEAKER_00 15:38

Does it uh the two main ones are realestate.com and domain.com. We also have it on our own website, but there's like it was all homes, there's an abundance of other ones. We tend to only really get emails from our own site, realestate.com and domain.com. They're the three.

SPEAKER_01 15:51

And as the the seller, theoretically, have I had to go off to Fiji now or somewhere? I mean, if I can. Or am I having people come over while I'm here?

SPEAKER_00 16:02

I mean, what Yeah, so some people do tend to like to go away and don't like to be involved in the process. Honestly, it's not that stressful. And I it it appears of being as stressful, but if you have the right agent, they can hold your hand through it and you're not going to have any issues. But yeah, when buyers come through, some owners will like to vacate the home and don't like to be around when the buyers around. That's usually the best situation because some buyers feel uncomfortable having the owner there.

SPEAKER_01 16:26

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_00 16:27

Like, what are you doing over here in conversations? We have an open home.

SPEAKER_02 16:37

Open windows, coffee brewing, comes on the line in the Bologna. Come on in, take your time.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

We'll have to have another episode, especially about open homes, I think, because I know that there's a bit of etiquette about that.

SPEAKER_02 16:55

Someone's future walking through that door.

SPEAKER_01 16:59

So, alright, so Jackson, you've started showing people on on the Saturday. What's gonna happen now? Are you gonna like call me on the Saturday night and tell me how it went, or do I just wait to hear from you?

SPEAKER_00 17:09

Yeah, usually like for every aging is different, but for me, I have 15 minutes between all my open homes because I'm kind of cram as many as I can in. If you have a lot of opens and you have a lot of time between the open homes, you end up doing an open home at like three, four o'clock in the afternoon. If you have an open home so late in the afternoon, buyers are doing their inspections from say 10 o'clock. By the time it gets to two o'clock, buyers are exhausted. And the last thing they want to do is want to look at more homes. So I try to cram as many as I can into like the middle of the day, morning and middle of the day.

SPEAKER_01 17:43

Right, because by four, they're like, oh my God, this is so overwhelming.

SPEAKER_00 17:47

I think I'll just they don't even remember the first house they saw. Yeah, go to feedback.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

Right, it makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

So, yeah, after each open as I'm leaving the home, if the owner's not around or out the front or something like that, I'll just send them a quick text and say, Hey, we had this many people through. I will follow everyone up, whether it be that afternoon on the Saturday or the Monday morning. And come Monday morning, they'll have a full report of all the feedback that came through. Obviously, you call a buyer, if they don't answer, you leave a voicemail and send a text. During the course of the day, they might respond to you or call back. A few days later, they might respond to you. But yeah, usually on a Monday, I will have a full report to pass on to it to an owner.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

That sounds exciting.

SPEAKER_00 18:25

Yeah, yeah. Monday's always the most exciting day for us. Yeah, yeah. Very, very busy.

SPEAKER_01 18:29

All right. So, what what do we expect's gonna happen now? I mean, again, you know, let's say there's been a little bit of interest, maybe a few nibbles. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Not yet got a big fish.

SPEAKER_00 18:41

So after the first open home, people may ask a request a contract to review, may request a second inspection, may ask any additional information. They might submit an offer. If I get an offer, I usually, yeah, I submit the offer to the owner pretty much straight away.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

And then I go and buy the bubbly.

SPEAKER_00 18:58

Yeah, that's important.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

Hold your horses, hold your horses. Wendy calm down.

SPEAKER_00 19:05

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's see what everyone else thinks. All right. But yeah, we don't tend to really make a decision on any offers from a Saturday until we've gotten everyone's feedback that had come through because you don't want to kind of jump the gun and go, someone's made an offer, I'm happy to take it. And you talk to someone on the Monday and go, Oh, Jackson, I actually love that short. I'd like to make an offer of X. And you're just like, Oh, we've already accepted an offer from another person. No, you not once once you kind of pay the buy pay deposit and sign the contract, you can't. So I always say, Yeah, that's just cool the jets, let's just make sure this is the right thing.

SPEAKER_01 19:37

So a yes on the phone of okay, we accept that we'll we'll have to stand even right, even if they haven't paid the money.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

It's it varies from person to person. Like morally, yeah, it should. But I've had instances where the owner says, Yep, let's take it, we're gonna go for it. I told the buyer, come Monday, another buyer comes in and offers, say, 20, 30, 40 grand more. I by law have to pass that information on to the owner, and it's the owner's decision. The owner's decision if they want to. So obviously it's it's they're the worst ones for an agent because that's an ouch, yeah. Yeah, the buyers get angry, the first buyer gets angry at me. You're just a messenger. You it is like don't get it.

SPEAKER_01 20:17

Jackson say don't shoot the messenger.

SPEAKER_00 20:19

Don't shoot the messenger. But I kind of always try to educate my owners with that kind of situation that could happen and say, let's just not make any rash decisions. Give me a few days. Sleep on it. Yeah, sleep on it, and then we'll we'll reassess it and you will come back in the next 24, 48 hours. And a good agent will be able to keep that buyer on ice and just say, hey, this is obviously a big move for the owner. We just need a day to think about it, not saying no, it's looking very promising for you for your offer to be accepted. But just give us a little bit of time to massage the situation and we'll we'll get an answer back to you as as soon as possible. Because you don't really want to lose a buyer, say potential to another property with delaying. So it's you kind of each situation you just got to play how the cards are dealt, I guess. Sometimes you do have to jump straight in, sometimes you can work your magic and drag out a few days to make sure the owner's 100% making the right call for themselves.

SPEAKER_01 21:14

Cool. So let's skip forward and say we've decided, yes, we've got the biggest fish.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

And I'm like, show me the money. What happens now?

SPEAKER_00 21:26

Yeah, so now the buyer will give us their all their details. We'll put those details on the contract. The contract was prepared by your solicitor, obviously. And then we'll run through what the terms and conditions are with that with that buyer's offer. Buyers' details will be there, there'll be a settlement period.

SPEAKER_01 21:44

That can be all different, can it? Whatever the terms and conditions are.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Yeah, yeah. So for instance, there's one I'm selling at the moment, and the purchase actually wants to purchase the furniture included in the sale.

SPEAKER_03 21:54

Right.

SPEAKER_00 21:54

Uh yeah. So there's certain items there's I would love this, I'd love this, I'd love this. And then we can insert those. Inclusions. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 22:01

I mean so you can have it all, just not my dog.

SPEAKER_00 22:03

Just not my dog. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

All right. Cool. So we've decided on the terms and conditions.

SPEAKER_00 22:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 22:10

Excellent.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

And then the buyer will pay their deposit. Once we've got that, we get the buyer to sign, and then we get you as the owner to sign. In most situations these days, the buyer will have a cooling off period. Usually about five business days. In that time, they'll do a strada report. Their solicitor will engage somebody with a strada report. They'll do like a pest and building inspection.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Oh, my dogs are the only pests around here. Oh good. Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

And they'll usually get a bank valuation if needed. These days, banks will usually do like an online valuation if they're borrowing a certain amount of money. That's usually the back-end stuff. Owner doesn't really have to worry anything about that. The solicitors will kind of take care of it. And then after those five business days.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

So this is when no news is good news.

SPEAKER_00 22:57

No news is good news, exactly right. Yeah. And after those five business days, the the buyer will pay the additional, say, five or ten percent deposit, and that's when it's done.

SPEAKER_01 23:06

It's it's legally that's how it's done.

SPEAKER_00 23:09

Bindings, yeah, it's sold. It's sold. And then the next step for you is shift your stuff out.

SPEAKER_01 23:16

Okay, and uh and how long do I have to do that?

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Usually every contract's different standard is six weeks, but for instance, that one I just mentioned before, they're probably gonna have about a 12-week settlement. So the buyer has because the place is vacant with furniture in it, the buyer needs a bit of time to have their home sold. So yeah, they're proposing a 12-week settlement, and if they can move quicker, well then we'll bring that settlement forward.

SPEAKER_01 23:39

Oh, okay, so it can have a kind of if-then situation as well.

SPEAKER_00 23:44

Of course, yeah, yeah. So we'll set a certain date, and then if if things need to be changed, usually the solicitors will communicate with the two of them uh uh between each other if there needs to be a change, but usually I'm not really involved in that kind of part of it. No the the solicitor will liaise with the owner, but yeah, it kind of just takes care of itself really.

SPEAKER_01 24:04

And so you just go on to other business and and then come back again into the picture in that 12-week time frame or whenever.

SPEAKER_00 24:16

Yeah, no, you go to Fiji. I go to Fiji. Now, within within that six-week period, say for a settlement, I'm still talking to my owners every couple of days. Oh, okay. Uh, how are you going with stuff? Like where where are you moving to? Do you need uh someone to come help you pack? Do you need a removalist contact? Uh trying to align things for them to just to make it as seamless and stress-free as possible. I don't really sell the home and go, all right, thanks for that, I'll catch you later. And just leaving the lurk. They're holding your hand from the start to the end. Oh, I mean. So you're never alone. You're never alone.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Excellent. Excellent. So you're kind of making sure it's all staying on track with the buyer as well. Do you check the side?

SPEAKER_00 24:57

Yeah, so I check checking with the buyers, go, how's things going with, say, for instance, your home, your home selling? Usually their agent will reach out to me and go, hey Jackson, had this many people through on the weekend. We've had these offers, we're getting close to a sale. But you usually say pretty close contact with the buyer to make sure everything on their end's fine, everything on the owner's end's fine, and it all just kind of comes together and it's uh yeah, like a simultaneous, I guess, transaction.

SPEAKER_01 25:21

So that sounds very good.

SPEAKER_00 25:23

So it's not as scary as what some men think.

SPEAKER_01 25:26

Yeah, exactly. I I think it sounds very scary going in, but yeah, it all makes a little bit of sense. Yeah. So so let's say we're we're now at that 12-week part, and I've got the removalist all done, and I'm just waiting for it all to finish up so I can move to Mexico or wherever you like, wherever you like. Yes, up north. Um what what's going to happen now? What's all the formalities?

SPEAKER_00 25:57

The day of settlement, yeah. The buyer will usually come in and do their final inspection. Now, if the house was there an inspection before?

SPEAKER_01 26:04

You said final inspection.

SPEAKER_00 26:05

Final inspection, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:06

So when was the first one? Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 26:08

First open home. Could have been when they first viewed the home. Wherever they they might have had a second inspection, third inspection, but after they pay the deposit and the contracts are exchanged, the buyer usually doesn't come back until the final inspection. Right. And that's when all the stuff's out, and all they're doing is coming in to make sure there's no damage to the home. So for instance, there's a hole in the wall. Well, that wasn't there before. Well, you as the owner has to fix that because you sold it to them without that hole in the wall, and now there's a hole in the wall.

SPEAKER_01 26:34

Oh so it's only changes that have happened since they sold it, potentially.

SPEAKER_00 26:40

Sign the contract, yeah. That's and they just want to come in and go, all right, you haven't left any rubbish. So for instance, you moving all your stuff in, oh, you've left a lounge and a table. Well, I don't want that. That wasn't in the contract. You as the owner have to get rid of it. In some cases, owners do leave things and they don't want to come get them. The solicitors will actually kind of negotiate between them.

SPEAKER_01 27:00

Not that I own it, but I think they left a kind of you know signed limited edition art print in the story. So I was like, thanks very much. I think I'll be keeping that.

SPEAKER_00 27:10

Yeah. But yeah, little things like that, if the owners don't uh remove them, the solicitors will kind of negotiate between each other and say, all right, to remove these things is going to cost us five thive hundred dollars or something. Right. They'll hold some money up on settlement and then we'll use that five hundred dollars to have the place cleaned out and and whatnot. So it's perfect for the buyer.

SPEAKER_01 27:29

Ah. All right.

SPEAKER_00 27:30

And then very rarely that happens though. But yeah, it doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

So but the big check has has already gone through or is only going through then at that 12 weeks. And then lipstick.

SPEAKER_00 27:43

Day of settlement. Day of or day before settlement. That's when the very last check, the buyer's happy, they call the solicitor and say, Yep, everything's sweet, process the money. And then the solicitors will just transfer the monies over and that's done. You've sold your house, you own the house. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_02 28:00

This is how we sell it from a promise to a sign out from so what that day?

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Do they then pick up the keys or something?

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yeah, 100%. So the solicitors will allocate a time for it. It's usually 12, 1, 2, 3, 4 o'clock. Nothing usually past four o'clock. But yeah, the solicitors are the ones that you know dedicate a time, and then they'll email us and go, hey Jackson, it's all done. Hand the keys over. Buyer comes in, drop the keys in their hand, and away you go.

SPEAKER_01 28:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 28:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

That's all good. And then that's that's it. Happy days.

SPEAKER_00 28:38

That's it. That's that's all that's all it is. As I said, it's not as well.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

When do you come around with the big bouquet of flowers that I've seen some that one I sold that one the other day?

SPEAKER_00 28:48

We sold the house and we popped a bottle of champagne out the front with a sticker. So they put the sold sticker on and we pop the bottle of champagne. But on day of settlement, when we hand keys over, we give uh our vendors and uh buyers a gift. At the moment, we're giving out a box voucher at a long.

SPEAKER_01 29:06

Oh, the box is superb.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yeah, so like a dining, a dining voucher.

SPEAKER_01 29:10

This is not paid for by the box. It's not yeah, yeah, good choice. Absolutely. And then when when do you take your lovely face away from the the ad outside? I mean, that's that's got to be a difficult thing for you, right? Like, no.

SPEAKER_00 29:25

No, no, there's enough amount of it.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

You stop the sold sticker over sometime back.

SPEAKER_00 29:29

You don't need my you don't need my head out there, don't worry about that. The um usually day of settlement, the signboard company, because it's outsourced, we don't do the signs, we outsource the signs. The signboard company will get a notification to say, hey, this one's now sold and settled. You can come get the sign. And usually within 24, 48 hours they come out, they take it away, and on to the next one.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

Really? I've seen a few hanging around, and someone told me that agencies sometimes, you know, forget to pick them up quickly because it leaves them a little bit more advertising.

SPEAKER_00 30:00

Some some maybe, some as I said, we outsource them. So yeah, the signboard company gets a notification as soon as it's done. So we don't really get the choice, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01 30:10

Well, that's fantastic. And then do do you finally get a chance to to celebrate then? Is that your moment when you're like hip hip a ray? That that contract's done and dusted now?

SPEAKER_00 30:21

Yeah, well, once it actually sold is sold in terms of the buyer pays the big deposit and you put the sticker on out there, that's usually when we sub that we celebrate because that's the most exciting time. By the time the owner has to move out or a buyer has to move in, they're exhausted. They're just like, oh, get me in there. This has been such a long process. Packing houses, moving things, like no one really likes to move home. That's it's the most stressful part about it. So, yeah, we like to celebrate before that, and that's when we put the sticker on out the front, and that's after they pay the big deposit. I always give the owner and also the buyer the opportunity to put a sticker on themselves. So we always carry it, carry a fair few stickers. So the owner will whack one on and then we'll let the buyer whack whack one on, and especially first home buyers. First home buyers love to get like a bit of a quirky little photo or something like that. As I said, I saw one the other week. We popped a bottle of champagne and sprayed it everywhere. It was um it was good, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 31:11

That was good. That was good. I like that a lot. Well, that is brilliant. I think uh it is a little bit simpler than I would have imagined, but I guess it it it obviously would be overwhelming for anyone. So understandably it's a we try to take that stress away.

SPEAKER_00 31:27

We try to take the stress away and just leave uh leave us with the stress, and then yeah, we we just let you know when the big decisions need to be made.

SPEAKER_01 31:35

Yeah, well, thank you for running through that. I'm sure that knowing in advance as you must with all your clients must help as well, like knowing this process. Yeah. So everyone, you can replay this as many times as you need. It's all going to be okay. You're in good hands. Thank you so much, Jackson. And thank you everyone for listening in.

SPEAKER_02 31:59

This is how we say that.

SPEAKER_01 32:01

I'm Wendy Clare of Juge Interiors. Join us next week for another episode of Meet the Agent Podcast.