🎙 Episode 12: What Real Estate Agents Want You To Know

What do real estate agents really wish their clients understood?

In this episode of NOBODY LISTENS TO LIZ, the gals share honest truths behind buying and selling a home — from inspections and negotiations to contracts and expectations. If you’re navigating the real estate market in Kentucky or Ohio, this is your insider guide to avoiding mistakes and getting better results.

🏡 If you’re buying or selling a home, this is the real estate advice you didn’t know you needed.

🎧 Listen now and learn how to navigate the real estate process like a pro.

#NobodyListensToLiz #RealEstatePodcast #HomeBuyingTips #HomeSellingTips #KentuckyRealtor #CincinnatiRealEstate #LouisvilleRealEstate #RealEstateAdvice

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:15

Welcome to another episode of Nobody Listens to Liz. I'm Leah Frederick. I'm Liz Eric Dykes, and I'm Sierra Peluso. Welcome back, guys. We are just sitting here talking and actually been shooting the uh stuff. Uh, and we wanted to kind of just talk about what real estate agents want you to know. What do we want them to know? What are things that actually are burning like I wish you'd know this?

SPEAKER_01 0:42

Uh I had one come up yesterday. Yeah. Um, inspections are not pass or fail.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Yeah. People always say, well, it won't pass inspections. And I'm like, well, that's not exactly how I would word that. How would you word it? Um I would say it may pass or fail your personal inspection of it, not like or lender. I mean, even if you've got an appraisal or something. Well, and they'll call the appraiser, like they do an inspection, and I'm like, no, they don't. Not like a home inspector does.

SPEAKER_01 1:19

Yeah. They do an appraisal. Two different things. Yeah. The home inspection and then the appraisal. Yeah. Now the appraisal for government programs like FHA, USDA, and stuff does have to meet certain guidelines. Yeah. The appraiser could call things out that you might think were inspection things, like well, even conventional does that. Yeah. Because I feel like recently they've caught out a lot more than what they have, like in the past. Absolutely. They've really tightened down. And another crazy thing that they've tightened down on is the roof age. Like, if you can't prove that a roof is within 10 years old, yeah. They don't want to insure it. So now they're calling that out on appraisals and stuff.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

Like 10 years is nothing for anything. Yeah. I've always heard of 25, 30 year roofs.

SPEAKER_03 1:59

What's 10 years? I know. They just think they won't be able to get the home insurance because the home insurance regulations are tighter. They don't make anything to last nowadays. Well, no. Nothing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 2:09

Don't make them like they used to.

unknown 2:11

No.

SPEAKER_01 2:12

Which is why I have a 200-year-old house. No, so I think it's a little bit different. It's not pass or fail for a home inspection, and you can get different inspections, right? You can have a whole home inspection that combs through the entire house. Their job is to tell you anything and everything that is currently or potentially wrong with the house, right? Or anything that's kind of at the end of life so that you know any safety hazards, that kind of thing. Um, you could do a wood-boring insect inspection, which most people call termite. So they look for wood-boring insects on the home and under the home. Um, what else do we have? Sometimes we have cistern inspections, septic. Well, septic inspections. Or like a sewer scope. Yeah. Radon.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

I think the whole inspection period is people don't understand what that, you know, that's the time when the buyer is checking out, see what their home interest or home home insurance rates are going to be too. Um, the sex offender, um, you know, doing their due diligence to get to know the neighborhood and and see if this is the house and the location and exactly what they want.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

So I like I like the so other states use due diligence period. Yeah, and I think that is so much better than in special.

SPEAKER_02 3:25

I was gonna say, you can also do all these other things. There's some areas of the country that you're supposed to do all that before you write a contract.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

Yeah, before you make an audience. I like to see them try and you know the recent uh seller's market we had, you know. I know.

SPEAKER_02 3:42

So I'm like, do homes not do you not have two hours on the market then? Yeah, I'm curious how that works. Yeah. I mean, I guess if you were from that neighborhood, you would already pretty much know.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yeah, if you're in an if you're an agent in a state that does like the due diligence period before the contract, please let us know how that works. Right. I'd love to.

SPEAKER_03 4:01

We're very curious. So all right, so we have the inspections and the the whole pass fail kind of uh fairy tale, which isn't true.

SPEAKER_01 4:09

So you just have to decide as the buyer which inspections you want. Your agent should be able to help advise on what you should get, what you could consider getting, what's needed, what's not necessary. Um, and then it's whether you're satisfied with those inspections, whether you move forward or re negotiate, right? Satisfied. So it's not pass or fail, it's whether you're okay with the findings or if you can reach a negotiation between the buyer and seller.

SPEAKER_02 4:34

Yeah. Inspections are 100% for buyer's knowledge. No one else is gonna pass or fail them. Like that period is for your satisfaction.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

Yeah, I think it's important too with inspections, particularly, and we should bring in, you know, Chris Robinson, our inspector that is licensed here in Ohio and Kentucky. Yeah, we've got a few we could talk to. Yeah, we could talk to actually. So, um, because you the whole idea of the inspections being a repair list, too. Um inspection is not a repair list for the sellers. No, not at all. Not at all. I mean, again, there are some things that are just gonna be general maintenance and and maybe you don't have a GFCI in your bathroom, you know, outline in your bathroom and you know.

SPEAKER_01 5:20

Yep. My aunt actually just retired um last month, and she we her and I were talking about this the other night, and it's like, yeah, you might as well just assume on your home inspection your GFCIs don't work, your anti-tipping device is not on your oven. Um, and there were a few other things that like just assume.

SPEAKER_02 5:38

I think I saw that same clip. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 5:42

So all right, so other things that uh real estate agents want buyers and sellers to know. Um differences between modular and manufactured homes.

SPEAKER_02 5:53

Yeah, that's a good thing. I have that come up a lot. Oh, yeah. Because there's lots of manufactured homes in Brown and Adams County.

SPEAKER_03 5:59

Yeah, more world.

SPEAKER_02 6:01

And um, people a lot of people don't understand the difference between them. They're like that.

SPEAKER_03 6:06

What are the differences?

SPEAKER_02 6:06

So a manufactured home is where it's brought in on a trailer, half no, that's manufactured. Where it's brought in on a trailer, like half of the house. Like, and it you they just put it on a foundation and it has a steel beam under it that's manufactured. Modular is where they build a piece of a wall off-site in a factory, and it's a very green process. And then they bring that piece of a wall to the site and they build it. And modular, you don't see that on a tax website, it just becomes a stick-built single-family home, and that's how it's rated for taxes. Manufactured is rated differently on taxes, really, they have different taxes in Ohio. I'm not sure on Kentucky. I'm not sure about Kentucky, I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_01 6:57

But in Ohio, we're not accountants. So I feel like that's kind of I have a different, a little bit different perspective. So for manufactured, I think a double wide. They're bringing two pieces of a house and they're putting them together, or a single wide is a manufactured house, which is more often called a mobile home. Because the mobile homes, the difference in them is they come with a title like a car. Um, so you have to put it on a permanent foundation, whether it's a double wide or a mobile home, you have to put it on the permanent permanent foundation, convert it to real estate, and then it becomes a sellable piece of roof. Right.

SPEAKER_02 7:33

Otherwise, you would just be selling land with a camper on it. Right.

SPEAKER_03 7:37

I mean, yeah, no bank is going to. Yeah, they're not going to send you a mortgage if it has wheels. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yes. It could be thrown away. It's like modular, I think of the houses that I don't know the house to say it other than modular, but they come in pieces. So, like there might be six pieces to the house, there might be ten pieces of the house, there might be, you know.

SPEAKER_03 8:03

By the way, the dogs are here today because uh my back gate is open and being repaired. So that's why you hear the clip, clip, clip. Come here, girls. It was just Vonda. Stop it.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

Yeah, but I do um so I I guess I think of them differently, or maybe I'm just saying it differently. You're saying it differently. They're coming in on a truck. They both come in on a truck, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:24

Um, but I think the biggest difference is modular when it's finished, it's a single family home.

SPEAKER_01 8:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:30

And I mean stick bill. Yes. And it's rated the same. Insurance is the same as any other house. Yes. And it doesn't necessarily depreciate. And as far as getting a loan on it, it's the same as any other house. Yes. Manufactured double wide or single-wide, um, they don't necessarily depreciate, but the older they get, the harder it can get can be to get loans off.

SPEAKER_01 8:58

Especially government loans, yes. And the they don't hold their value as much. So if you're thinking about investing in a home or real estate, um, the mobile homes, the uh manufactured homes do not hold as much value typically, um, at least in Ohio and Kentucky, as a stick-built home does. Right.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

And as far like when you look at an appraisal, the comps they're supposed to use is all other manufactured homes. Right.

SPEAKER_03 9:27

Right. Comps that uh it was a stick, but we had a stick built as the subject property, and they were using manufacturing. They were using uh double wide, yes.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

Not that there's anything wrong with them. I mean, they're they're great. No, they are, they're uh really wonderful housing solutions.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

And now nowadays some of them they're made with the same material as a stick bot house.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

Yeah, but yeah, so and we're back and we're back with nobody listens to Liz. We had a small little commercial break there, uh, primarily because the dogs had to go out. Uh but uh we're back talking about what real estate agents really want buyers and sellers to know. And we were talking about the difference between modular and manufactured homes, uh, that inspections um are not perfect or um they're not a blessing.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

Well, they're not maybe and they're not past bail. Has anybody ever had a perfect home inspection with nothing on it?

SPEAKER_02 10:31

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

What?

SPEAKER_02 10:33

Really? It was they're kind of inspection.

SPEAKER_03 10:37

I was gonna say I would be questioning the inspectors.

SPEAKER_01 10:39

It was just a very well-maintained house.

SPEAKER_03 10:42

Really?

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Was it pre-inspected before the listing?

SPEAKER_02 10:46

I don't remember. Because honestly, I can't, I don't even remember which house it was. I just remember being like, wow, I've never seen an inspection this clean.

SPEAKER_03 10:53

I mean, I've had one where it's had a few things on it. So I was like, you can tell they maintain it well as well.

SPEAKER_02 10:58

Even if it's clean, it's still 50 pages.

SPEAKER_03 11:01

Well, yes, that's true.

SPEAKER_02 11:02

Because they gotta be like, check, check to everything they have to terrify you.

SPEAKER_03 11:06

But it was like there was nothing. Have you guys ever had a property where the inspector was like run, run, run as fast as you can?

SPEAKER_01 11:16

Yeah. Yeah. Kind of. Plenty of them, actually. I used to have a really good inspector. He's retired now, Dale Mays. He was wonderful. Um, but especially when it was like a lot of bank owns and stuff years ago, he'd be like, Hmm, your people probably might want to keep looking. I mean, I can give them the list, but they're gonna be terrified. Would you like me to terrify them? Yeah. Or would you like to find something else? Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

I like those inspectors that actually care. Well, they yes, those. Yeah, actually give it in a fair, like almost just the facts kind of thing, you know. Um I I really appreciate that. That the the integrity is there. Um, but yeah, I've had one say two. Yeah. And it because it was a young couple with a baby on the way, and they're like, health and safety now.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 12:07

Yeah. Yeah. Those are the best kind.

SPEAKER_01 12:09

Yeah, the only perfectly clean ones I've had are ones that have been pre-inspected for the listing, which are usually higher-end homes. And it's a great idea. Yeah. If you're gonna sell a house, it is a great idea to go ahead and have a pre-inspection. You know what you're up against, you know what needs fixed, and especially if it's already been pretty well maintained. I mean, you know how well you've maintained your home. Go ahead and have it inspected, see if there's any issues that need taken care of before you sell, and then we don't have any negotiations. Once you get an offer and accept it, it should be you're good to go. Yeah, as long as we've priced it right where it's gonna appraise, you have basically hardly any process to go through other than if the people are getting alone. I finance and contingency. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:52

And I think it's really smart if you're going to purchase another house before selling, but you need to sell it, but you don't want to put that contingency on there. Yes. Well, I would definitely get one then.

SPEAKER_01 13:04

That's good advice. Yeah. Getting a pre-inspection, especially if you're gonna buy before you sell.

SPEAKER_03 13:09

Definitely worth the money. We're doing it for mom and dad's house.

SPEAKER_02 13:12

Because you don't want to be paying two mortgages and uh something comes up on the inspection. Huge surprise. Yeah, what if you had a faulty foundation or something and you just never knew it? Right. Or just I mean, people have leaks all the time and they don't know about it until it falls through their ceiling, or they need a new proof and they don't know about it.

SPEAKER_03 13:30

You know, yeah, all these things happen. All these things happen. So, yeah, big fan of pre-inspections and then sharing those. And I mean, I've been to any number of ones, like, there you go, here's the pre-inspection, here's all the stuff, and it gives peace of mind to the buyers too.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

For a few hundred bucks, you know exactly what you're dealing with, you know what we're gonna get into, makes everybody's job a lot easier, takes all the guesswork out of it.

SPEAKER_02 13:52

Two things a few hundred dollars though can end up saving you, you know, if you fix it beforehand, then there's no negotiating it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:02

If the buyers come back and say, okay, we want, you know, five thousand dollars off the price.

SPEAKER_02 14:06

Because buyers are gonna be a lot more afraid of it and they're gonna want more money for it in case something comes up or XYZ. Yeah. So Google to start with, yeah. There's no issues to start with, and it's yes, no negotiating. And the second thing that I was gonna say Oh, I definitely didn't just forget that.

SPEAKER_03 14:27

Definitely, definitely didn't black out, blank out the home. Isn't she pretty?

SPEAKER_02 14:32

If a home is pre-inspected, do you still recommend your buyers to get their own inspection? Yes, yeah, okay, yes, 100%.

SPEAKER_01 14:41

Totally up to them, but yes, I would I would highly recommend it. Um, at the very least, as the agent, I would want to know the inspector and know what kind of work that they do. Um, if it was somebody that my clients have used all the time and very trustworthy, you know, great reputation and something like that. Yeah, maybe I just call and have a conversation with them or suggest that the buyer does. Right. But otherwise, you know, you you still want to know what's going on on your own accord.

SPEAKER_03 15:06

Yeah. And yeah, it's kind of like the whole idea of you having your own agent. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

Yeah. Yeah. And the seller may say, Well, we're not, we're still not negotiating. You can have your own home inspection, but it's for your own information. And that's fine. Yeah. As long as the buyer's satisfied with the home inspection. Right. And make sure your agent is putting that into your contract, right? Like that you have to be satisfied with the home inspections. Keyword satisfied. Yep.

SPEAKER_03 15:31

Yep. Excellent. All right. Other things that real estate agents want you to know. Let's talk about the legal contract. I mean, the offer, when it's signed, is a legal contract. It is. It is. It means, and we're not lawyers, but there are consequences to that. So that's why, you know, I always go over, even though it's the most tedious thing for my buyers, exactly what they're signing. Signing. And also with FISBOs, like I just had a FISBO this past week. I went over and I presented, like, so you understand exactly what this says because they're my customer. You presented the offer to them. I presented the offer to them in person. In person. That's awesome. So because you need to understand what you're signing. Yeah, absolutely. You're doing a lot for your buyers there.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And as long as everybody's on the same page, everything goes so much smoother. Right. If you leave stuff up to people's interpretation, you just they're not always the same.

SPEAKER_03 16:28

Or try and put one over them on them. I just I can't stand that. I mean, it's completely contrary to our code of ethics. Yeah. So not agent, not all agents are built the same. This is true. This is true. So the legal contract, um, you know, have you guys had contracts actually just canceled for arbitrary reasons? Well, what we would interpret arbitrary reasons.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

That were not reasons in the contract. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I've had buyers walk away because they just get cold feet. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's unfortunate when that happens or when they want to do that because we're not lawyers. So unfortunately, we have to be like, you need to contact your lawyer if you want out because there could be legal reproductions. We don't know exactly what these those are because it depends on what the seller would go after. Um, but yeah, it's a legal contract. It's not just something that you're signing saying, I think I might want to pay you money for your house. You know, this the sellers could have already I'm going to.

SPEAKER_00 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:28

The sellers could have already moved. They maybe could have got a different price if they had stayed on market. They've got days off of market, months, weeks.

SPEAKER_02 17:35

Yeah, taking a house off the market and marking it pending and then putting it come back like back on as active um gives them a bad reputation. Everybody thinks there's something wrong with it. Yeah. No matter what. And it could just be if the buyers got cold feet. Yeah. Or could be that they had a water buyer. They had to take it off for a minute. Yeah. You know?

SPEAKER_03 17:54

And then they fixed it the right way. Everybody's going to start looking for reasons. What's wrong with the house? Yes. They're always, if it comes back on, even if because I've just had two back to back where the deals fell through, which we were seeing more and more, particularly this past fall. Um, it just seemed that I was like, but it was it had nothing to do. It was these buyers that had cold feet.

SPEAKER_01 18:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

And just decided to cancel. Now my sellers got to keep the earnest money. Um, it was released because one was canceled at the 11th hour, like we're about to close tomorrow.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

And yeah. I've had I've had that where the buyers, for whatever reason, needed to back out. And I was like, well, just no, I would give some of the sellers earnest money because you don't really have a good leg to stand on here. So if you want to have them to sign the in Ohio, we have like the release where it releases everyone of their reliability.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

We have in Kentucky too. Okay. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:55

Well, and just because you release a contract doesn't mean you're releasing earnest money, right? That's right. Um, no, ours has it on there as well. In the same one. So two different forms and not yeah, not always our Ohio used to be two separate ones. So just because you release a contract, we do have you have two different ways to do it.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

Well, okay, but the one where the buyers or sellers can release and only one party has to sign, and you have to check mark which contingency the other party did not fulfill, so you are legally allowed to cancel the contract. Cancel the contract, and only one party signs it. So that's not actually releasing liability because if the other party feels like, no, I'm still within our bounds, well, then I have a problem.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

The other one releases liability and earnest money. Earnest money. Yeah. Yeah. So just because you get the contract release, say there's some reason that you went out of a contract, or you feel like it wasn't fulfilled properly, just because the seller agrees to release you from that contract doesn't automatically give you back your earnest money. They have to also agree to give you back the earnest money, or you have to agree to give it to them, or you can have a stalemate, and depending on which state you're in, there's all kinds of things. Or you can do 50-50.

SPEAKER_02 20:15

Yeah. You can split it up. That's right. 80-20, you know, lots of things.

SPEAKER_03 20:19

It's kind of like in many ways, a divorce. You have the divorce, the dissolution of the marriage, but then you have the assets. It's a different conversation. Or the kids. I mean, these are perfect. Different conversations. Again, it's it's contractual law, right? Marriage is a marriage contract. So, and speaking of the contract, um, there is this one little thing in there. Um, time is of essence. Always yes, deadlines. Deadlines are so very important, and they are written in there for a reason. And you know, they will mention, you know, three calendar days. So you have to count. It's not Monday through Friday, it's on business days. It's you get some Friday, then you gotta get Saturday, Sunday, Monday is it.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

So my favorite is when you get a loser lender that's like, oh, that closing date was just a suggestion.

SPEAKER_02 21:15

No, I've never heard of a contract to have suggestions.

SPEAKER_01 21:18

Yeah, I know you didn't go to law school because you're lending money. However, that's not how it works, not a suggestion. Even a little bit.

SPEAKER_03 21:27

Not a suggestion. So, so yes, so time is of the essence. Um, and and that goes also, you know, uh, I'm jumping from different little things. Pre-approval. Why is pre-approval an important step, first step when you're in the home buying process?

SPEAKER_01 21:47

So that we know how much house that you can afford and want to buy. So they might, you know, if you go get a pre approval for half a million dollars and you only want A $2,000 a month payment, and that includes your taxes and insurance. Yeah. We're not half million dollar house shopping. They don't change the monthly payment for you. We need to adjust what price we're looking for.

SPEAKER_03 22:13

I always do enjoy those that have been pre-approved for, you know, like $600,000, but they're looking at houses that are in the $900,000, $800,000 market. Like, you don't think they'll come down that much? I don't think they're going to come down that much.

SPEAKER_02 22:26

So no, they just came on the market. I don't I don't think so.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

It's a million dollars. We've got a $600,000 budget. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02 22:33

Let's go see it. It's gonna be $400,000 that someone's gifting to you. Offshore bank account. Can you give me their number? I'd like to be friends.

SPEAKER_01 22:43

Well, that is possible. They could put cash down as well. However, that's not typically the case. Yeah. But we want to make sure you're confident with your payment. It's something you can afford. You have to include your taxes and insurance and be able to pay for those as well. Unfortunately, you are responsible for those as a homeowner.

SPEAKER_02 23:01

And you're not like one, you are kind of wasting our time, which we don't like our time. I mean, they're doing the business. You're 100% wasting their time. And especially if the home's occupied, it they do a lot. If you're a good seller when you're selling it, you do a lot to keep your house clean and ready to go to leave. Yes. And they might be taking dogs with them, dogs. Yeah, like an hour's notice and trying to get the thing. You do a lot to get the house ready for the buyers. Yes. So if you're just wasting their time, it's just disrespectful.

SPEAKER_01 23:41

So what we want buyers to know is we want you to be respectful of the seller, of your agent, of yourself in your own time. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean, if you don't have a pre-approval, it's a waste of time because unless you're paying cash for the house, even if you we've had instances where, you know, you go into a house and you think, oh, of course I could buy this house. No problem. I'll be able to get my loan, no problem. No problem. Yeah. But then there's flood insurance on top of the price. Right. Or maybe the house is garbage, it needs a total overhaul, and you can't qualify for that type of loan in that area.

SPEAKER_02 24:20

I've had one buyer that was, I mean, very, very good job. Like they could definitely afford a house, you know. But then we looked at one and then they got pre-approved after, and they had a hidden, I think it was a medical bill. Oh and I'm not even sure if it was it it I think it was like an ex-wife's oh yeah. Yeah, and it affected their buying. Yes, yes, and so it took him a month to figure it out, and that house was gone, and then you know, he was able to be pre-approved. But there could be things that you don't know about on your credit.

SPEAKER_01 24:55

Well, and you don't want to go fall in love with a house. Like let's say, hey, you know, this house just came on the market, Liz. I want to go check it out. Okay, I'm happy to take you, but if you fall in love with that house and then we can't get you pre-approved because of an incident you don't know about on your credit, or you just bought a car yesterday and didn't think about what the difference in your payment open of credibility is gonna be.

SPEAKER_02 25:18

I haven't made a payment yet. I didn't know what it was gonna be. I just signed the papers.

SPEAKER_01 25:22

Yeah. I mean, you don't want to go fall in love with the house and then we can't get it because then we have wasted everybody's time. Yeah. And her own. Yeah, and your own, including ours. Yeah. What's what about the difference in a pre-approval and a pre-qualification?

SPEAKER_03 25:34

I was actually going to bring that up because I just had that conversation with another agent when I received uh a letter he called a pre-approval, and I said, um, you know, this is actually a pre-qualification. It should stay on there. It does. It does. But I think sometimes you get banks, you know, you get loser lenders. So we're back. Welcome back to another episode of Nobody Listens to Liz. So we're talking about what real estate agents want you to know: buyers and sellers. And we were talking about modular manufactured homes and that the inspections are not pass and fail. Um, let's talk about uh the pre-approvals. We were told we were kind of going about talking about that a little bit and stuff. And why do pre-approvals matter?

SPEAKER_01 26:24

So that we know how much house that you can buy and you are comfortable with the payment. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 26:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:30

And we're not wasting anyone's time.

SPEAKER_02 26:32

Yours, ours, the sellers, anyone's.

SPEAKER_03 26:35

Yeah, because the sellers have to get their houses ready, usually on a moment's notice. They might have to leave, they might have animals, animals, children, kids.

SPEAKER_01 26:44

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_03 26:45

Oh, and I will say, as a total sidebar, sellers, you should leave during showing. Oh, yeah. Please. That's something we want you to know. Sellers should leave. Yes. Yes. Just had that twice back to back, and I'm like, I know it's weird.

SPEAKER_02 27:00

100% of the time, if a seller is there, my buyer feels extremely uncomfortable. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 27:05

And awkward. Yeah, and they're less likely to pursue a house. Yes, showed a house, checked lists, checked boxes of all of the things I thought my buyers were looking for, but it was a for sale by owner and the folks were there. I mean, it was nice because you get some extra intel about the house.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

Yeah, it's that part is it's not a dangerous game to play. It is, it is on the seller's side.

SPEAKER_03 27:31

On the seller side, exactly. But on the buyer side, I know the buyer's side, and of course I represent the buyer, so I'm like, tell me more. Yeah, and they will. And they will, and they will, but you know, it it's still, and I get it, for particularly with Fispos for sale by owners, you know, you have these complete strangers, even if they are accompanied by an agent coming into your home. But we walked out of there and they were like, Yeah, we don't know. We like this, we like this, but we got a weird vibe from the house. And I'm like, that's because the sellers are there the whole time.

unknown 28:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:04

I feel like buyers can't picture themselves in your home when you're there with all your stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:11

Yeah, that's they would have a hard enough time without you there. Right. Yes, right. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 28:16

So no, that's a good point. Very good point. So, so yes, please leave. Please leave.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Well, on the seller's side, too, you do not want to be there because you do not want to be telling them anything about the house that is not printed on that property disclosure for Ohio and Kentucky. Um, even if you think you were helping, a lot of times you were hindering a sale or hindering the purchase price that you could get. Um, or you know, it's just sometimes buyers and sellers don't drive super well, or the personalities don't personalities. You can fill a deal just because you're there because they don't like you. And that's not discrimination, they just maybe don't like you. Yeah, they don't.

SPEAKER_03 28:59

You you really, it is one of those things. You just kind of like just go ahead and some people just aren't likable people. And those people sell houses too.

SPEAKER_00 29:07

Yes, yes, they do. They also buy houses, yes, they do, and unfortunately use HAC.

SPEAKER_03 29:13

So, all right, so let's talk about my clients. Not your clients. I've never had one of those. So let's talk about the contract. All right, so you put an offer in, it is accepted. You are under contract, a legal contract, a legal contract, legally binding. None of us are lawyers, but let's talk about that contract and how it has uh consequences, right? Time is of the essence. Yes. Within the contract, there are specific dates, there are specific time frames, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 29:47

And it'll say calendar days, business days, there's dates that things have to be done. You only have so long for your inspection period, you only have so long to get your clear to close.

SPEAKER_02 29:58

And in Ohio, if someone sends you a defect notice, you only have so long to respond to that, or now you've agreed to everything on it. Yeah, automatically. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 30:09

So one thing I do, whether you know these people are my clients or a customer kind of thing. Like, for example, I just had FISBO, where I did read the contract, so you know, you understand these are consequences. This is we're all on the same page with everything. Um, you know, though you need to understand what you're signing. You do need to understand if you and if your agent can't explain it, go talk to a lawyer.

SPEAKER_01 30:34

Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_03 30:36

We're not lawyers.

SPEAKER_01 30:37

And unfortunately, if you decide do you want out of the contract and it's not for a reason that's already accounted for in the contract, we're not lawyers. We cannot advise you on legal matters. And you will have we'll we'll advise you to go talk to your lawyer. Yeah. Because the sellers can, if you're a buyer backing out because the wind changed, the sellers can sue for that, right? And we don't know what the implications are because we don't know what they're gonna be asking for. Right. So you're gonna be instructed to go to a lawyer. This these are legal binding contracts. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 31:10

So if you're not ready to sign those in there, yeah, be aware.

SPEAKER_01 31:16

And if you don't understand what you're signing, make sure your agent's going over it with you or go to a lawyer. No problem.

SPEAKER_02 31:21

Yeah, I'm always happy to explain every single part of the contract. Yeah, yeah. Just ask.

SPEAKER_03 31:27

It is. I mean, I what is our our contract is what 12 pages long? It's I lose track, yeah. It's an it's it is involved and for a reason, you know. So you understand there's different sections, yeah. So you need to understand.

SPEAKER_02 31:40

So that way you're covered. Right. But when you don't follow the timelines in it, now you're not covered.

SPEAKER_01 31:48

Yeah, you know? Yep. And it's it is built to protect the buyer and seller, and that's why we use realtor contracts. Right. Because there are real estate agencies that have their own contracts that might only be a couple pages long, and they don't actually protect anyone. Hardly anyone. No. The agent, the buyer, the seller, nobody brokerage for that matter. Yeah, nobody. Um, so I understand like agents hate more paperwork and more paperwork, but I'd rather cover your tail than I would have a three-sentence contract, you know, and that doesn't cover anyone, or what happens if. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yep. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

I think these are all good things. Um, other little things real estate agents want the buyers and sellers to know. Um, we have revisited or we visited this um in a previous episode as far as uh the misconception of needing 20% down. So, you know, things like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Yep, there's all kinds of different loan programs, different types of down payments. You can now get a conventional loan with as low as like 5% down, just depends on the lender.

SPEAKER_04 32:54

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 32:55

And piggybacking on that piggybacking, yeah. I guess that's the what one term I'm talking about. The idea of, hey, uh, why pre-approvals matter? You know, the pr difference between pre-approvals and pre-qualification. You can tell we've had to do this more than once because now I can't remember what we've said.

SPEAKER_01 33:13

So what's the difference in a pre-approval and pre-qualification?

SPEAKER_03 33:16

Pre-approval is like pre-approval light, is what you mean pre-qualification.

SPEAKER_00 33:21

A pre-qualification is pre-approval. Let's do that again. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Pre-qualification. Pre-qualification is not pre-qualification. Is they're not actually they're just basing on what you're telling them. Like just a phone call. Just a phone call. Like, yeah, I make this much, I owe this much of my student loans and stuff like that. There's no way they can confirm or deny this. So they're like, well, based on what you've told me, you're pre-qualified for X amount of dollars.

SPEAKER_02 33:47

I could get qualified pre-qualified for a million dollars. I mean, I can't get pre-approved for that. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Because I can exactly. And so that's an important difference. Pre-approval, yes, they are gonna pull your credit score and you know, verify your employment. Verify your employment, all of those things.

SPEAKER_01 34:07

But they can do that really quickly. I mean, that's oh, it takes, you know, it's a good lender less than 24 hours. Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 34:13

So there's no reason to wait, go ahead and get the pre-approval. Pre-approvals usually last, what, 90 days? Yeah. 90 days.

SPEAKER_01 34:20

And if you have, well, it depends on what location you're in, what state you're in. Um, but also if you have the pre-approval, it's like, okay, I have it's the equivalent when you're a teenager to I've got mom's credit card. Now let's go shopping. Yeah. You can't buy anything without that mom's credit card, right? But if you've got mom's credit card, you've now got your pre-approval. Now we can go shopping because we can prove to that seller we can buy this house no problem. We're ready to go. We know what we can buy, we know how much we can spend, we know what the payments are, we're comfortable with, we know what loan programs. So we know what the house has to qualify for as far as like safety issues.

SPEAKER_02 34:59

Like as a as a listing agent, I would never advise my sellers to accept an offer without a pre-approval, proof of funds, or anything. I would say this would be a great offer, but we need to make sure it's verified before we take your house off the market.

SPEAKER_01 35:15

Right. Yep. Or if you accept it, they need to get it to you within a certain amount of days. Yeah. And that agent, you've got to trust that agent that they know for sure that it's coming and that it's going to be for the amount. Because if you take that offer and yeah, take the house off the market, and the people aren't actually pre-approved. Now what?

SPEAKER_03 35:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 35:33

Now then you have the stigma, right?

SPEAKER_03 35:35

When anytime you take the house off the market, whether it's, you know, the the deal didn't go through because the buyer pulled out or whatever the reason, there is a I hate to say it's like a stigma, but everybody wants to know what happened. Yeah. Something happened and then what's wrong with the house. They assume something is wrong with the house. The house. They don't think that maybe the buyer got cold feet or the financing didn't happen. Yeah. So, but there's there's this uh kind of bias now towards the property that you're you as the listing agent have to fight, kind of thing. So yeah, so those are all good things that we want you to know.

SPEAKER_01 36:13

I'll tell you something I really want them to know. What do you really want to do? And I'll say this until I'm blue in the face. Yes, I'll tell them again so they listen. Good. That's good because they're not gonna listen to me. Any agent can show you any house that is licensed. So in that state, you don't have to call the number on the sign in the yard. You can actually call your friend and they can show you the house. You want somebody working for you.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

We're gonna make a drinking game out of how many times in these episodes she's gonna remind me of that almost mistake I made before I became a realtor and was shopping for. But you didn't know, but I didn't know and they may not know. Yeah, but they're listening, they know now. They know now.

SPEAKER_02 36:59

Get your own representation. Yes, call the agent that's not on the sign, call an agent that's not on the sign, and you know at least 12 of them. They can show you the house. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_01 37:09

The average person is at least 12 real estate agents. Think about that. Do you know 12 agents? How many do you know? Lots and lots and lots and lots. I mean, I know a lot, but yeah, but that's kind of our job. That's our job.

SPEAKER_03 37:19

That's our job to know all of it. Right. So well, thanks again for tuning into another episode of Nobody Listens to Liz. If you have some questions or uh you are interested in what are we going to offer them this week, the did you knows? Uh let's give them a list, uh maybe 10, 15 of things did you know? That's a good idea. So DM us did you know, and we'll make sure you guys get that. So you are ready to buy or sell. That's right. And if you have any questions, send those to. Absolutely. Nobody listens to Liz at gmail.com. Thank you for not listening. I'm Leah Frederick. I'm Liz Eric Dykes, and I'm Sierra Pelusa. We'll see you guys next time. Bye.