From Anxiety to Assurance: Guiding Clients with Intuition, Care, and the Right Questions

High-anxiety buyers are more common than you think—and honestly, we get it. Buying a home is a big deal. 🏡💭

On the podcast, we talked about how we slow things down, meet clients exactly where they’re at, and really listen to what they’re asking… and sometimes what they’re not saying out loud. It’s about using intuition, asking the right questions, and getting to the root of their concerns so nothing gets overlooked.

We make it personal—because no one should feel like they’re going through this process alone. 🤝

And having an experienced agent like DaMara in your corner? Game changer. She knows when to be aggressive, when to pull back, and how to protect her clients every step of the way.

The right team doesn’t just guide you—they understand you.

NMLS 506822 & 1802853 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Built on trust. Fueled by kindness. Powered by providers. Welcome to the Ben Reback Mortgage Podcast. One thing I was thinking about is, and you kind of alluded to this, when you have a client who has a lot of concerns, maybe they're higher anxiety, they have lots of questions. He checked you. He kind of was like, no, this is normal. This is how it's going to look. Yeah. That's something that I see a lot that I have to do with like the number side of stuff. Is like people will ask questions in a way like, is this negotiable? Like for an FHA loan, like, I don't want to escrow or something. Like you have to. You have to escrow. It's not a choice.

SPEAKER_01 0:42

The government said so.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah. But I think meeting them where they're at with that question because they don't know. It's like understanding. It's really their question. The real question is why. And that's what I wanted to ask you is how do you handle it when someone asks a question and you know that the question they're asking isn't what they actually want to know.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

I think part of it is my personality, to be honest. I am a very intuitive person and I can kind of sense immediately if it's like a panic question or if it's like truly confusion. And I think that depends on how my response is going to be. Like, for example, I just had um an offer that we got accepted. I told you about it. 27 offers. Yeah. And we won. It was great. But I February 2026.

SPEAKER_00 1:31

February 26.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

And it's Brookfield. Like we all know. Like that's kind of how it goes. Uh, but you know, clients of mine and their, you know, dear friends, we were talking about the appraisal gap because when you're competing against so many offers, it's not always about price.

SPEAKER_00 1:49

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 1:50

And there was a lot of confusion about the appraisal gap. And I had explained it, you know, we've written other offers. This wasn't the first. I had explained it. You know, I had them talk with their lender about it. And they were still like, they just weren't sure. And so I broke it down. I said, is the issue that you don't understand how much money you have to bring to the table? Is the issue that you don't have a grasp on what your payment's going to be? Or is it just the whole concept? And it it turned out that they just really didn't understand like what their monthly payment was going to be. Sure. So I broke it down for them the best I could that really what that appraisal gap is discussing is where is that chunk of money you already have going to go? How much of it is going to your down payment and how much of it is just going to go on top of the price? And I explained the lender lends on the appraisal value minus your down payment. And that's going to determine your monthly payment. If you have less of a down payment, you're going to be higher. And that's when we run into that issue. So after I had explained it like that, that really what you need to focus on is talking with your lender, saying at this amount of money, $10,000 versus $30,000, what's my monthly payment going to be? And then that kind of helps you determine your risk of how many thousand dollars can I promise the seller that I'll bring.

SPEAKER_00 3:11

And it's usually not much.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:14

Payment changes usually pretty minimal.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Right.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

$150 million.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

So I said, let's just calculate two scenarios. The worst case scenario, let's say we have to give them the whole appraisal gap and you're going to only have a $10,000 down payment. What's that payment? Are you okay with that? Yeah. Yeah, that's good. They said, great. Then the rest doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_00 3:33

Yep. Yep. Because we want to win. And they were like 27.

SPEAKER_01 3:36

And they're like, ah, okay. And I said, focus on your monthly payment. So, so really to answer your question, it it really breaks down trying to understand what the confusion is or anxiety. You know, I've I've had before people get under contract on a house and they immediately freak out.

SPEAKER_00 3:54

Oh, yeah. The next morning they turn.

SPEAKER_01 3:56

And they're like, oh my God, I don't think I can do this.

SPEAKER_00 3:57

You can't do it.

SPEAKER_01 3:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:59

I think it was together actually.

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Yes, we did. And, you know, I I talk with them and I say, is it the house? Is it just buying a house? What's exactly the problem? And typically it's I'm just really scared. And that's okay. That's normal. Like when we built our house and I signed all those papers, I'm like, I'm committing to this regardless of what happens over the next year and a half of building this thing.

SPEAKER_00 4:24

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

And whatever.

SPEAKER_00 4:26

And you don't know where rates are going to be.

SPEAKER_01 4:27

You have no idea what's going on. Like it is so much risk. But at the end of the day, I can say, like strategically, I've had so many conversations with those buyers before we even get to the point of an offer that there's really no question on what we're looking at if they're able to afford it. It's just based on the contingencies and how much risk are we willing to put in. And that's property specific.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

That's what I do too. I'll I'll ask deeper questions, like program questions. Is the house? Yeah, like tell me more about it. It's a great question. Can I ask you why you're asking? And then it opens the floodgates of what's your thought process. Cause then you can figure out like, well, you're you're making an assumption that's incorrect and that's asking this question.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Well, and a lot of it I think too is I'm really I'm really good at putting like personal situations out to them of what I've experienced, whether it was when I was buying our first house or when I was building, or like something goes wrong in our house, and like how do we handle that? Or previous clients and trying to offer them another perspective on something that not to push them in a direction by any means, but to let them know that this is fairly normal. And while it's really scary right now, if it's the house or they're just, you know, like inspection, that's another thing, you know, everybody's waiving an inspection, you know, offering a different perspective of what that really means to a buyer on their risk and what they need to prepare themselves for versus this big scary concept of we're never gonna get a house because everyone's waving their inspection. And maybe we don't waive the inspection, but we offer them a higher cap. Like $10,000 we're not going to ask for. You know, that unless it's the roof or a major foundation issue, you're probably buying that house.

SPEAKER_00 6:24

And the seller would know too, and they would know if there's any roof foundation issues.

SPEAKER_01 6:29

Typically, yeah. Yeah, foundation's a hard one.

SPEAKER_00 6:32

Whether or not it's a condition.

SPEAKER_01 6:34

I've been in many houses where listing houses where I'm like, I think we should get that wall taken, taken a look at. Oh, what do you mean? And they it's just they have no idea. Yeah, they they live with the house maybe like 20, 30 years and they don't notice it because they've, you know, they have things piled up in front of it. They're just, you know, you're not staring at your basement, looking at the walls. And I've I've not had ones that are like that extreme that I'm like, you should have known about this.

SPEAKER_00 7:02

But but you have an eye for it because you go into so many right.

SPEAKER_01 7:05

Like I really want I always tell people, I don't want you to have surprises. I want to be the one to tell you about it so that when it happens, we've already made a plan.

SPEAKER_00 7:16

God, that's like exactly what I tell people. I say if I've done my job right, there's not going to be any surprises along the way.

SPEAKER_01 7:21

Yeah. You know that it's a risk that this could happen. You know, it's with sellers.

SPEAKER_00 7:26

That's the breakdown. Like that's why I built the total cost breakdown, is because I want to be able to show people this is the worst case scenario.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 7:34

Yeah. We can simulate like an appraisal gap. It's easy to simulate. Here's the worst case scenario. Here's how the appraisal gap fits into your cash flows. Here's what your payment would be, you know, because if you go from 15% down to 5% down, your mortgage insurance cost is going to be probably 40% higher.

SPEAKER_01 7:50

Right.

SPEAKER_00 7:51

So that'll affect your payment.

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

So we can run all those numbers and give them an exact breakdown of this is your worst case scenario. Then they know.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

Then it's confidence. It's confidence going into an offer.

SPEAKER_00 8:02

And you need that if you're competing against 27 offers, your buyers need to be confident in being that aggressive. And they can't be that confident if they don't understand the numbers. Yeah. So that's I've leaned into that heavily because I'd rather take 20 minutes up front and talk through it so they have the confidence. Because that's what you need to get out there in the field and win an offer.

SPEAKER_01 8:23

Yeah. I don't have people come to me when we work together and be confused on how any of it works. And that's one of the things that I'm just don't pull me. Yeah, I mean, there's confusion always about, you know, like I just want to make sure. But you make it so crystal clear and you have such a process, like your spreadsheet. I tell buyers that all the time. Like when I'll meet them for coffee, I'll be like, all right, Ben is going to be a great match for you. Because especially like when they're like analytical, or like I work with a lot of like engineers and doctors. And like that type of like you have to meet somebody where they're at with their learning. Are they like a visual learner? This is a great tool for them to be able to like just plug and play. If they're very analytical, also great for them. And sometimes they need a little hand holding, even if you give it to them. But that's what we're here for.

SPEAKER_00 9:13

That's what we're here for.

SPEAKER_01 9:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:15

Yep. We can always help. Yeah. As long as we can get to a computer.

SPEAKER_01 9:18

Sometimes I, you know, I'll work with lenders that my buyer brings and, you know, they're fine, they get the job done. But I end up like having to step in sometimes and be like reciting later. Be like the lender, but not the lender. Yeah. And say, Well, did they tell you about this? Did you, you know, did you ask about this? Well, no, we didn't know. I said, as you shouldn't, you've never done this before. Um, I I had one recently where, you know, three, four weeks after we had closed, they were still like, we don't understand this, we don't understand that. Like there was no discussion of like how escrow works or like what to expect when the tax bill comes or anything. And you know, it was closer to the end of the year that we had had, you know, I had had this discussion with them. So they like kind of knew to watch out for it, but they had no idea if like the money was in their payment or anything. You know, they had signed up for auto pay, but they didn't, they had no idea. And I'm like, that is such a basic concept.

SPEAKER_00 10:16

Very basic yeah. Yeah, I think just on putting yourself, I I see you do this constantly. You put yourself in the shoes of the person you're helping, and you think if I were them, what how would I feel right now? What would I need to know?

SPEAKER_01 10:27

Right.

SPEAKER_00 10:28

And I do that with every borrow borrower. It's like, what what do does that borrower need to know right now? Because there's a lot that they don't need to know.

SPEAKER_01 10:37

Right. A lot of behind the stuff to take care of.

SPEAKER_00 10:40

That yeah, you just take care of it. They need to know high level, what are the numbers, what's their payment, what's their cash to close, what are the risks involved, what are their options if they have several different options, like talk about appraisal gaps and how that could play out. Sometimes people are like, hey, I can sometimes it gets really complicated, to be honest. Like you might have a phone that you have to sell and you're not sure what your proceeds are going to be.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:04

And that that variable of proceeds is sold up in the air because maybe it's October and we just don't know.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:11

Maybe you're slowed down. You might be going between conventional and FHA, right? Depending on what your proceeds are, because that's how tight the numbers are on your purchase. And there's just no way to it's different for every situation, but I think that's where experience comes in. When you have an experienced agent, an experienced lender, yeah, like a power duo. You can make sure that that client has a great experience through the whole process, no matter how complicated it is.

SPEAKER_01 11:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:36

And it doesn't mean that we can work magic and make someone qualify who doesn't qualify, but we can make sure that if you do qualify, you're gonna know what your options are, you'll know what your risks are, and you'll be confident when you're out in the market looking at homes. You'll know if you can afford it, you'll know what the payment is. And when you come time to write an offer and there's 27 other offers, you gotta at least be aggressive to the point where you have a shot at it. Yeah, what I always tell people is be as aggressive as you can be and sleep at night knowing what's exactly what I say. Yep, because you don't know same brain. It well, it's the truth, you know. We come to the same conclusion because it's the truth.

SPEAKER_01 12:10

Because then you can you know you left everything, all the cards on the table.

SPEAKER_00 12:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 12:14

And if it didn't work out, it was not meant to be the house for whatever reason.

SPEAKER_00 12:18

100%.

SPEAKER_01 12:18

You know, maybe they have asbestos everywhere and you didn't know about it because you didn't go in the attic, or maybe the whole thing's covered in mold, you know, probably not, but you just don't know.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Yeah, that kit that new kitchen floor has asbestos tile under it. Yeah, exactly. Good job installing it.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Yeah, and you plan to like renovate the whole thing and then you've got yourself an abatement.

SPEAKER_00 12:35

Yep, yep. What's this? What is abatement real now? Eight to ten.

SPEAKER_01 12:38

A lot of money.

SPEAKER_00 12:39

Yeah, it's not cheap. Yeah, yeah. So there goes your flip, the profit on your flip.

SPEAKER_01 12:44

Yeah, good luck.

SPEAKER_00 12:45

All right, so I know you've been doing this a long time and you've had some doozies, but well, what is the what takes the cake? What's the craziest transaction you've ever had?

SPEAKER_01 12:53

Oh man, are you ready for this one?

SPEAKER_00 12:55

No, I don't know if I've heard this story.

SPEAKER_01 12:58

Oh, I like told this story on TikTok a while ago. Like it's I don't have TikTok, so I don't see okay. So back when it was crazy, I think it's 2021. Okay, I had listed a house in Menominee Falls and my sellers were moving out of state. They had, you know, interviewed like five agents, they picked me, everything's going good. I staged the whole place, normal. Uh, we had gotten 17 offers. Mm-hmm. Cash offer. It was great. Uh, little Demara at that point didn't think that anything would go wrong with a cash offer. You know, there's no inspection, it's cash. No contingency. Um, and in a cash offer, you have where you have seven days to provide proof of funds. At the time, that's how I operated because that's within the contract, not anymore. Or it's not so uh we got pretty much through the first like four or five days, they submitted earnest money. Nothing was weird. Um, my sellers had actually gotten an accepted offer on a house in another state, but it was contingent on the sale of this one. Um and they ended up, it was uh they were moving to Tennessee, which is a crazy market, if you know. And they ended up, I believe, having to waive that contingency to be able to like continue because they had gotten a bump or something. So they were non-contingent. Yeah, they were non-contingent um at this point. And the getting the proof of funds is a little weird. It looking back at it, it was a little bit sketchy. But um, you know, he was saying, well, I gotta drive to Madison to get this letter from my financial advisor or something, something. I don't know. But anyway, I had flags start. Red flag start flagging, just many red flags, big old one. And he got it to us and I looked up the person, legitimate, someone at Fidelity, all good. So I didn't think anything of it. We get to the closing table, the day of closing, and the wire doesn't show up. And this has happened before. You know, sometimes wires don't show up, sometimes it was sent too late, sometimes it it gets sent, you know, weird things. Uh, my sellers luckily weren't closing for another, I think, two or three weeks on their new place, but they had already moved. They'd cleared the whole place out. They were in Tennessee, they were living with family, all was good. And then the money doesn't come to closing. So I had gone to closing three days in a row trying to like figure out where this wire is. The title company didn't know where it was. We were getting all these weird stories. The buyer was telling us that, oh, well, it's like funds that I have from like investments and selling properties, and I have an attorney that manages it. He told me the, or he told his agent that this attorney was like on vacation in another country. And then this guy was like at a funeral. And so like we would only get responses from whoever this guy was managing his money at like 2 a.m. Because I was getting the email chains of like, oh yeah, money's been sent. Oh, it's been, you know, held up. Oh, he's got like like child care or um like I don't know what you call it. Like a child support. Yes, yes, exactly. He had like a child support lien and it just needs to be cleared. It was coming out of Cook County, like all these like weird things. And by the end of it, or I didn't even let it go that long. I let it go like three days, and I'm like, I gotta get a new buyer in here. Like, what's going on? By the end of it, it it became this this issue that we don't even know if this money's real. So, you know, I'm talking to the agent and he's like, Well, I worked with, you know, uh Mrs. Buyer before, but like Mr. is new. I've never I don't know anything about it. Turns out that it was seized by the FBI.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

The wire.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

The wire was seized by the FBI. He was trying to money launder through our house.

SPEAKER_00 17:01

So yeah. Did you ever find out like the source of money?

SPEAKER_01 17:04

Was it like drugs or no, no, I didn't. And honestly, like because my broker was involved and he he called me to tell me, like, all right, well, this is definitely not closing. The FBI's involved. And I'm like, uh, yeah, real funny. He's like, No, I'm serious. I talked with the agent later and he's like, Yeah, it's a big thing.

SPEAKER_00 17:23

Sounds like a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 17:24

It was it was a thing. So did you find a new buyer? I found a new buyer. We during this, I think I waited like a day and a half, and I was like, I think I'm gonna call all other 16 offers. And one of them was like real bummed that they missed it, and they ended up putting in an offer. Um, we accepted it as secondary while this whole thing was going on. We eventually moved it into primary. My sellers got the earnest money from crime development. Yeah, yeah. So they got to keep all and it was a lot, it was like ten thousand dollars. It was a lot of money. Silver line. Yeah. So he uh he forfeited that earnest money, and then they ended up getting pretty much a no contingency except financing offer, and it was more money than the offer we had had, like 13,000.

SPEAKER_00 18:07

It works out just like it should. Just like I said. They able to close on time on their purchase.

SPEAKER_01 18:11

Yeah, even until we closed in like two weeks. It was insane. So, but yeah, the FBI don't try to launder money. That's why they have that new form coming out now.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

Situation like that, that you put yourself in the seller's shoes and you're like, look, this is what it is. This happens sometimes. It's not always the FBI. It was panic. Things fall apart.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

Yeah, things and I had told him, I said, look, I will restage the whole place. I'll go find furniture, I'll do whatever I need to. It's gonna get sold, and you're not gonna lose your house. Yeah. Because they had how much money on the line as well. Oh, yeah. Prior to purchase no contingency. Yeah, it was it was wild. So don't try to money launder kids.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

What is the most underrated home upgrade for under a thousand dollars?

SPEAKER_01 18:58

Paint. Paint, paint, you gotta aesthetics, you gotta paint.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

You know, it's funny. We just used Chat GPT to simulate painting our entire first floor, a different color, and it worked so well. And we actually called a painter right away because it was that convincing looking at the You're like, I gotta do it.

SPEAKER_01 19:16

Yes, yeah, it changes the whole aesthetic of your house.

SPEAKER_00 19:22

Not gray, but just a like an off-white, not beige. And it looks so good with the woodwork. It's like the original 94 like oak woodwork.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:31

And it, you know, it looks like 94 woodwork, but it's still in really good shape. And god, just that light color just pops.

SPEAKER_01 19:38

That's awesome. Yeah, paint and then staging, staging a house. It's worth every penny. And sometimes it's not about brand new furniture and everything. No, it's included.

SPEAKER_00 19:51

Really? Because that's not cheap.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

No, I have two storage units and my basement.

SPEAKER_00 19:58

Once again, the reason it makes sense to work with somebody who knows what they're doing.

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah. I mean, I will stage a house, even if it's with their old furniture, and uh, you know, just pillows and new artwork and throws, and uh, you know, if I grab a new coffee table or some ottomans and you know, decorate it, yep. They're always like, I didn't I didn't know that my house could look this good. And I mean it was a lot of work, but you know, it's a few hours and it's crazy just how much it changes photos too. A lot of times they'll take a before and then an after photo, and it's nuts. It it's all about the HGTV effect, I say. And some people think it's funny. Yeah, yeah. I and that, you know, back to the why I got into this. I always have been very into like home design. I have a a music degree, so I've been very artsy forever.

SPEAKER_00 20:48

That it just kind of naturally Brennan actually prefer interior architecture than appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

Oh she we had to have known each other because I was in that building all the time.

SPEAKER_00 20:58

Yeah, yeah. It's she was she was in the um she was in the CPS.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 21:04

She was in the CPS all the time. Cool. Small world.

SPEAKER_01 21:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 21:09

So you got a listing. What is the number one thing that kills a home's curb appeal?

SPEAKER_01 21:17

Maintenance. Bad exterior maintenance.

SPEAKER_00 21:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Even if it's like the flower beds are all overgrown and terrible.

SPEAKER_00 21:27

No fresh uh mulch.

SPEAKER_01 21:29

Yeah. Just pulling some weeds and some fresh mulch. Ten out of ten. Or like an an old roof that they're haven't done anything about for 30 years.

SPEAKER_00 21:38

The lines.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

Yeah. Yeah. Main lack of maintenance for sure.

SPEAKER_00 21:43

So your first time homebuying. Tell me what you know now. What is the most important thing for you to do? The very first thing you do when you're interested, you think you might want to buy a house.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

Don't I've got two answers. The first don't listen to the experience. That your friends and family may have had because everybody's experience is different. Uh, try to take that noise out of it. And it's maybe an unpopular opinion, but I really think you should meet with more than one realtor. Because I think that's gonna save you from choosing the wrong one. The wrong one for you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:26

I have like talk to everybody you want to. Like if I'm if I'm not head and shoulders above who you talk to, yeah. I'd like I want to earn the business I get.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

And it's about service. And and I tell that to buyers too. You know, I generally will give them a couple options that I think would be a good match for them based on what they've told me that they're looking for. And I remind them that a rate is a rate, it doesn't equal service. And you really need to understand the process and know that you have like somebody in your corner, not just me. And your lender's a huge part of that. And back to our discussion earlier, if you can't get a hold of them outside of business hours, that's a red flag. Or if you call and it's a call center, it's red flag.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Never gonna order it.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:16

When was the appraisal ordered? We don't know.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

Yeah, you're not applying for a credit card, you're buying a house.

unknown 23:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:22

Yep. So when you walk into a house, what's the very first thing that you look at?

SPEAKER_01 23:28

How clean it is.

SPEAKER_00 23:30

Interesting.

SPEAKER_01 23:31

Why is that many times you can tell the condition of a property and what you're going to walk into by the cleanliness. Are there cobwebs everywhere, everywhere? Have the floors uh not been clean. You just had one is I just had one of those. They're separate. I just had one of those, and going into the inspection, I'm just like Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:54

We'll see. Yeah, we'll see. Work out like it should.

SPEAKER_01 23:57

Yeah, and and I'm not talking like you're on the floor with a toothbrush scrubbing things, but have you done the proper other old pizza boxes in the corner? Right. Are are we walking into a place that looks like a frat house? Because that's probably how it was maintained. If that is at the most important time that you're showcasing your property and you didn't bother to put away your underwear, it's an indication might find some issues with the house internally. Might not have those good phones.

SPEAKER_00 24:27

You just got the bucket under the leaky pipe in the basement because heaven forbid you have to pay up on it.

SPEAKER_01 24:32

Yeah. Otherwise, I mean, another answer is the roof. Because you know, roof and I will go straight to the basement with buyers. Because if that foundation isn't good, we have to have a discussion before we look at how nice are those countertops upstairs.

SPEAKER_00 24:48

And that's pretty common. I see that a lot, even houses built in the 50s, 60s, 70s, that you know, we have so much play in the area.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Right.

SPEAKER_00 24:55

If the grading isn't right or if the foundation isn't, you know, footings aren't right. Like you have a lot of potential for issues.

SPEAKER_01 25:02

Yeah, over the years, it's just really affecting the foundation.

SPEAKER_00 25:07

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

What is the craziest story that you have of something a buyer did while they were under contract that just invalidated the deal?

SPEAKER_00 25:18

Craziest thing I can talk about on the podcast. Yeah. Well, this is unscripted, so I had a I had a borrower who was closing on a Monday and he calls me and he goes, I'm so excited, man. I this is Friday. I'm so excited. Like, I just wanted to call and say thank you. This is like three o'clock on Friday. Just wanted to call and say thank you. 9 a.m. closing on Monday.

SPEAKER_01 25:39

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 25:40

I'm so excited. I cannot wait to get into the new house. Like, I have all my stuff packed up. I wish I could move this weekend. Um, I took, I took like Tuesday, Wednesday off next week. Like, my like life is just looking up. My new house, my new job. And I'm like, hold up. New job?

SPEAKER_01 25:56

Oh boy.

SPEAKER_00 25:57

He's like, yeah, I just got a I just got hired at a new company doing the same thing. I'm gonna start in three weeks. And I'm like, you didn't quit your old job yet, right? He's like, no, like, thank God. Because if you had quit your old job, you would not be closing on Monday because we had not done our final verification call yet. And I'm like, my friend, like you you need to talk to me about this. This was the first that we've been going on six weeks under contract. He had not once mentioned looking for a new job. And we tell them verbally, don't quit your job. We tell them when we pull their credit, we tell them when they're clear to close, and we send them an email after they're under contract that explains things you can't do.

SPEAKER_01 26:35

Big flashing lights, don't quit your job.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

I don't think he saw any of it. And he was just like, I'll get a new job. We're like, Well, I'm making more money. Chicken vision. It doesn't matter. Yeah, absolute chicken vision. So I'm like, you're still employed, you haven't quit your job yet. If you choose to take a new job after closing, that's a different you know, there's nothing.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

That's right. So just give it 48 hours, dude.

SPEAKER_00 26:57

Yep. Yep. That was uh that was years ago, and that was uh that was probably the closest that I've come to a deal like falling apart at the finish line. Thankfully, most of the stuff in my world you can get pretty far ahead of, you know. I think it goes to if you ask good questions, you really understand the client situation. Like if you're rushing through stuff and and skipping over things that could be important, that's where problems arise. Like taking the time on a pre-approval to really do your due diligence as a lender, I think that's a big part of my role to make sure that you're not out there wasting your time with someone who either doesn't qualify or is likely not going to qualify based on the situation and think choices they might make. So a lot of people that that don't understand job changes, how it impacts in their writing is huge.

SPEAKER_01 27:46

I had a person, uh, a friend of mine lose her job while we were under contract when everyone was losing their jobs during COVID.

SPEAKER_00 27:54

I had a girl, this is six months ago. She lost her job three weeks under contract, lost her job. She literally, the day she got an accepted offer in her home sale, she got fired from her doing. But she had about four weeks left. She went and found a new job.

SPEAKER_01 28:09

Yeah, same letter.

SPEAKER_00 28:11

Yeah, got them closed.

SPEAKER_01 28:12

Yeah. This my friend, she was a friend. She went, uh, she she didn't like the job, but she, you know, was whatever. It's COVID. I need a job. Uh got laid off. Yep. Within two weeks, she had another another job lined up, and the seller was courteous enough to extend a little bit for us so that she could actually get all of the due diligence done and be cleared of any contingencies.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

And I'm like, I found that most sellers are when situations like that doesn't work.

SPEAKER_01 28:40

Right. Self buyers.

SPEAKER_00 28:42

And and at the end of the day, you have a seller who wants to sell a house, you have a buyer who wants to buy a house. Right. And you have a situation out of everyone's control. And if you're transparent with each other and you're honest, usually people are very understanding.

SPEAKER_01 28:56

Yeah. What is an industry standard or a common practice that you think is kind of BS?

SPEAKER_00 29:04

Oh God, there's a lot of things. Um I think overall, like the the there's two things. Uh how I see many loan officers talk to clients and not really explain things in a way that anyone could understand. Like, I I really believe this. If you are an expert at your job, you can explain what you do to a five-year-old so that they understand it. I see a lot of people in all industries that their ego, it seems like it's the ego, gets involved and they have to make their job seem very complicated and difficult. It does not have to be that way. And so when I talk to clients, I explain everything in a way that anyone could understand it.

SPEAKER_01 29:49

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 29:50

That's really important. And I think that is probably the biggest thing. The second biggest thing is soft credit pulls. Doing soft pulls to do a pre-approval is a terrible idea.

SPEAKER_01 30:00

Not gonna tell you anything. Um terrible idea.

SPEAKER_00 30:02

You want to, as a realtor, if you have a lender that does soft credit polls, you should think twice about them because they're because when I do a soft pull, I get one of three scores. It's a guest. I don't even get a score, I get a guesstimated score.

SPEAKER_01 30:15

It's like going to credit karma and hoping for the best.

SPEAKER_00 30:18

I just did a pre-approval for a gentleman about two months ago. He is he has two million in the bank. He owns a home in Florida free and clear. He wants to move up and buy a second home in Wisconsin so that his wife, who's has dementia, can come home during the summers and be around family.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Sure.

SPEAKER_00 30:35

Totally said, right? He could buy this house cash. One of his three bureaus had a timeshare reporting. He signed up for a timeshare, all those high pressure sales.

SPEAKER_01 30:47

Bad investments.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

14 months of late payments on a timeshare. Timeshare is real estate secured, which means it's a mortgage. So he had 14 months of mortgage lates. He's not getting any, period. That was on one of the three bureaus because that timeshare finance company only reported to one of the three bureaus. That's common for timeshares. This guy knew it was out there. He didn't think it would, he, I don't know if he forgot about it, didn't think it would show up, whatever it was. I couldn't pre-approve him. If he had gotten a pre-approval with a softball because everything else looked out, the other two bureaus were like 810 credit. You'd be three weeks in and then you'd be under contract.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:24

We'd pull your three bureaus, you'd be straight up denied. There's no way to do that alone. And now he can back out of the deal or he can pay cash for it. All right. And so as an agent, you do not want to be running around spending your nights and weekends showing people homes based on a soft and getting people's hopes up. It's an absolute waste of time and money.

SPEAKER_01 31:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:43

It costs, you know, a south pool now would cost me like 35 bucks. A hard pull is like 130. It's worth the investment every time. What is a lesson that a client taught you about life, resilience?

SPEAKER_01 31:59

You know, I'm gonna say collectively, my clients, that have it, I think it works really well in like the political climate that we're in, that everybody has a different perspective on life and it's purely based on their experience. And that doesn't mean it's wrong. And we have to meet people where we're at. A lot of my job is meeting people where they're at, where how they feel about their finances, how they feel about living in a certain place. And it's not a it's not about judgment, taking the judgment out of it, but really understanding that how they have their lived experience is gonna tie right into their home and their financial goals with that home.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

I'm pretty sure it was Einstein who said that a trait of genius is being able to hold two opposing ideas in your mind at the same time. That's good, not go insane.

SPEAKER_01 32:57

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:58

Like you can see both sides, and both sides are truth and reality.

SPEAKER_01 33:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:02

For those people.

SPEAKER_01 33:03

And understanding that I think in general, the world everybody, everybody wants the same thing. It's just they have differing opinions on how to get there. And sometimes we just need to focus on the first one. Yeah. That would that would be it. That or like how far investments can go. Like if you're really a smart saver, it doesn't always mean the same as somebody who's an investor. And it doesn't mean real estate all the time. But getting clients that have five million dollars of cash and they can buy a property, and you think, how, how do they get there? And being able to learn from them, that's like just the secret nugget of opportunity that we get in our job to just see so many different types of people and how not only do they make a living, but how they set themselves up for success. And a lot of it I is very admirable.

unknown 34:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

I I have a lot of admiration for my clients and and on the flip side, struggles that they've gone through to be able to even purchase a home. I my favorite is when somebody comes to me and they say, I just don't know if I'm gonna be able to buy a house. And when we look at it and we make a plan, maybe it's not in the next six months, but maybe it's next year. And then seeing them succeed in that and closing day and knowing how big of a deal that was to them, like that's why we're here.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

And the tears aren't that they guys are closing.

SPEAKER_01 34:32

And and you get the text of like, I just can't believe this is our house. And we're so happy. And, you know, thank you so much. You're such a you know, we're just so appreciative of like the team that we had and we felt supported and makes it all work. Yeah, totally. Yeah.