The Mudcat Report Episode 19: Redistricting

The Mudcat Report Episode 19: Redistricting 

HOST:  Hunter Dawkins -  Owner/Publisher of the Award-Winning Newspaper - The Gazebo Gazette, SuperTalk Mississippi News contributor, former Congressional Staffer, former Public Relations for the Attorney General's Office

PRODUCER:  Jeff Clark - Award-Winning Journalist, Multimedia/Podcast Host, Director for the Harrison County Senior Services

GUESTS:

• Frank Corder - Editor-in-Chief of the Magnolia Tribune, native of Pascagoula, former city councilman of Pascagoula
• Taylor Vance - 3 Year Political Reporter for Mississippi Today, Member of the State Capitol Press Corps, Former Government Reporter for the NE Mississippi Daily Journal

Transcript

SPEAKER_12 0:07

Welcome to the Mudcat Report, community news, politics, and culture with a local twist. Here's your host, owner, and publisher of the Gazebo Gazette, Hunter Dawkins.

SPEAKER_06 0:22

Good afternoon. My name is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mudcat Report. This is the 19th episode. It's a Mississippi Gulf Coast community news podcast sponsored by the Gazebo Gazette, Harrison County's independent newspaper, the Beau Revage Resort and Casino in Biloxi, Nine Toes Brewing Company in Pascushan, O'Dwyer Realty Agent, Stephanie Mankowitz, Joseph Kelly, Attorney at Law, Coast Casual in Pascushan, the Rotary Club of Pascan with their Paddle the Bay fundraiser, the insurance bar in Gulfport, Gulf Coast Veterans Associations carry the load, honoring Memorial Day. It's on May the 20th. And we're always in the U.S. Marine Inc Studio. I'm here with the wonderful producer of the show, Jeff Clark. Jeff's a well-accomplished and award-winning journalist and the director of Harrison County Senior Services. Jeff, how are you, my friend? I'm well, Hunter. How you doing, man? Doing well, doing well. The theme for today is redistricting. This is a hot button topic nationally with the emphasis on donkeys and elephants. I know we always try to stay away from that. But the more important thing is we want to discuss the implication of redistricting or in Mississippi of future redistricting. After the Supreme Court's recent ruling, there are a number of states that are lobbying to change control. But the most important issue that we have to be dealing with this redistricting is voting, and or at least how people will vote. Now the change in voting rights act of 1965 by the Supreme Court case, CA versus Louisiana. I know there's a lot of Calais, well no, what you say in Louisiana is CAI. CA versus Louisiana. Um after that ruling, uh made the Voting Rights Act made some changes in it. There are potential changes for voters in Congress, state legislatures, and judicial elections. And you never know, even some locals. I you know, because we have some pretty good guests here up and coming, I think uh I think this will be a good uh a good episode, Jeff.

SPEAKER_03 2:56

Yeah, always. You know, I I I like for you know, you you bring the experts in, uh the the policymakers and the stakeholders, and you know, it's uh always lively, uh intelligent conversation here. Uh, when was the last time we had a federal redistricting in Mississippi?

SPEAKER_05 3:13

Was it like 2002? 2001 2002.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Okay, that's what I thought. So that's when I was working at the Daily Times Leader in West Point, Mississippi, as uh as a reporter then. And that's when Roger Wicker was in the was in the house. Um, and you know, I've known Roger since he, you know, was in in in the state house. Like I've known I've known Roger for for a long time for Tupelo. So anyway, he got read the long story short, he got redistricted so that he picked up West Point in his district when when he was a congressman before he was a senator. So that's I thought that was uh 2002, yes. So correct.

SPEAKER_06 4:01

That was uh, you know, I was heavily involved in that as I I worked for a gentleman that was defeated, uh, who was the Hattiesburg Congressman, and he was his district from from Hattiesburg reached up all the way to Starkville, and that was uh that was what consolidated uh the district, and that was the shrinking of five congressional districts to four.

SPEAKER_03 4:27

So that uh that that that put Starkville in Chip Pickering's district, correct?

SPEAKER_06 4:31

He didn't have formerly Chip Pickering, who uh who formerly was the congressman, but I was uh the I worked for Congressman Ronnie Schaues, who Chip Pickering beat in the consultation.

SPEAKER_03 4:45

But so Chip, my my recollection of it is like the Golden Triangle, which is uh West Point, Columbus, and Starkville was Columb Roger picked up Columbus and West Point out of that, and then Chip had Starkville on down, correct? That's correct, all the way down to Jones County, yes, sir. Gotcha. Well, cool. Well, look, that's uh you know, I I will say this that that that was a very regardless of what happened along the way with personalities and things like that. I thought Roger, Chip, Thad Cochran, and and Senator Lott, you know, those a very strong congressional delegation there for a hot minute. So awesome. Well, look, man, we're gonna go to our first commercial break and we'll do that, and then we'll come back and let the experts speak on it.

SPEAKER_01 5:30

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SPEAKER_06 6:30

I would love to introduce my Coast Native friend and the first guest of the show, Frank Corter. Frank is the editor-in-chief for the Magnonia Tribune, an online publication which documents daily activity throughout the state. And Frank also has a bunch of former other titles, former Pascagoula City Councilman, a little bit of this and a little bit of that. I'll let him fill out the rest of those gaps if he wants. But Frank, tell me what's going on or what's going to happen in the special session called by the governor in a few days.

SPEAKER_04 7:07

Yeah, you know, Hunter, um, thanks for having me on. Um the question now becomes do we actually have a special session now that the Fifth Circuit has uh has basically said that uh there's no need to have Judge ACOC's order for the state supreme court redistricting um based on what the the that Calais decision was. So just today the Fifth Circuit said that they have uh they you know that order is no longer valid. And so now it's the uh the question becomes does Governor Reeves keep that redistricting uh special session in place? And if he does, does he add uh congressional redistricting? Does he add uh state redistricting as well? Uh he's being pushed to do that by the White House and on down. So that's that's kind of the the uh question right now. Does it actually stay on on task?

SPEAKER_06 7:59

Well, and Frank, you know, just to make this clear, the special session was called for judicial redistricting. Am I correct about that?

SPEAKER_04 8:09

That's correct. So the all these, you know, on X and Facebook, all these uh up and down uh things about uh he's gonna be calling a session for all this. No, the actual session that his call was going to be for was state supreme court redistricting.

SPEAKER_06 8:24

Now, do you know the legality? Can Governor Reeves change his call or does he have to to amend it? Is that even possible?

SPEAKER_04 8:35

Based on what I've seen, he actually hasn't issued the call. He's actually he's basically only said he intends to make the call. So the actual call hasn't actually gone out yet. Um, so at this point, he could say we're not gonna have it, or we're gonna have it, but we're gonna have it for uh a changed agenda. But the governor does have the that that right to or that legal statute to uh make that agenda based on whatever he prefers.

SPEAKER_06 9:01

Is this an attempt now? Let's just say uh we take this on the governor takes this on and says, okay, we're going to uh to to amend this and we're gonna set up a redistricting for congressional maps and state maps. Uh is this an attempt, an overall attempt to reduce minority votes, or is this just to ru to be able to restructure the lines?

SPEAKER_04 9:30

Well, if he stays with the state supreme court redistricting, you know, we haven't had a a judicial redistricting of that of that level since 1987. Um, so that would be to essentially comply with Judge ACOC's order to um comply with section two of the Voter Rights Act, which which has now kind of been declared uh unconstitutional based on just using race as that as that criteria. So I I kind of have a suspicion that you know moving forward on on this Supreme Court redistricting is kind of up in the air with the governor's office because we asked today if if that was still on and and there's been no response quite yet. Uh if he goes through with the the congressional redistricting, this the the U.S. Supreme Court has said that it can be for um political purposes. So if so if a state is you know um predominantly Republican or predominantly Democrat, that those purposes can be used for redistricting. You just cannot use racial quotas uh per se as the guiding factor on these these district lines.

SPEAKER_06 10:38

Let's talk about this, Frank, really quick financially, because the state of Mississippi's already had their primaries. How would this work financially? As I'm sure the Secretary of State has some issues with this because you have to redo the primaries, uh, possibly and redo the ballots if that's something that could happen.

SPEAKER_04 11:01

Well, you know, the the question is going to be from a uh 10,000 point view is uh most of these states who are doing these redistricting battles right now haven't held their primaries yet. Our state has. We held ours back in March. So to actually undo those primaries and have a different primary could be a lot of legal conundrums, uh, both from those candidates who ran and either won or lost, and from just the the Secretary of State's office trying to figure out what the heck do we do now? Um, so that's gotta be uh accounted for, not to mention, as you said, the the financial aspect of it. You know, primaries um and elections in general, statewide elections, they cost millions and millions of dollars. And we've already spent that money for this current year's primary. Does the, you know, do lawmakers want to go ahead and and appropriate more fines to the the Secretary of State's office to accommodate this? That's the question that's gonna be raised.

SPEAKER_06 12:00

With the previous maps being drawn by the GOP controlled legislature, a heavily GOP controlled legislature, what exactly is gonna change if there is a change?

SPEAKER_04 12:14

Yeah, so you know, back in 2022, I believe it was, they they redistricted the congressional districts, they added uh a number of counties to district two, which is currently represented by Benny Thompson, uh the Lone Democrat in our state at the federal level. Uh, because about 65,000 Mississippi had moved out of that district so to accommodate and allow for Section 2 uh certification to allow for that majority minority district, they had to add additional counties and kind of gerrymander in a way that uh allowed that basically to stand. Now, from what I've seen uh being passed around, they uh the the the contention is just do it based on population in general and spread it across from the top to the bottom in some ways. And and and then again, I've seen some maps that are being thrown out there where basically you're trying to cut out Thompson. Um, so the the question is, you know, how far do they go? It is a Republican majority legislature. Do they yield that strength in that manner? Or do they say, you know, we've already held these primaries and let's address this next time?

SPEAKER_06 13:26

According, and that's a good segue, and according to a few media reports, including yourself too, Speaker Jason White has already appointed select committee chairman, and especially for redistricting, but he said this would not be until the 2027 session. Is there any plans to move that up if the governor changes his uh agenda?

SPEAKER_04 13:52

Well, I I know for a fact that Senate leadership and house leadership, as soon as the Calais decision was handed down, they directed their staff attorneys to begin looking at ways to comply with the new order by the Supreme Court. Um, so there's already been some conversations, I'm sure, of how to make this work, but but you're correct that Jason White, the speaker, he's appointed this special committee on redistricting. I fully expect that one to delve more into state district lines um uh going forward, unless the governor does decide to put this congressional uh districting up now. And then you also got to take into account that counties and cities are also gonna be considering this, especially in the more predominantly Republican areas, I would I I'd guess, uh, because they now have, you know, all of them have also had to comply with section two of the Voting Rights Act for the last 60 years. So those cities and counties are then also able to go back and readjust those lines as well. So it's a it's a top and bottom-down uh endeavor that's going to be wide-reaching across our state.

SPEAKER_06 15:01

Final question for you, Frank. The um I know that under the constitutional uh amendment that this is supposed to be the census. Well, what does this say about the census every 10 years? How are they going or how are legislatures going to use this uh based on the census to make you know something that would be more fair rather than just based on a consensus of uh selecting a democratic area or a republican area?

SPEAKER_04 15:36

Well, having sat on a city council and and through a redistricting process, I can tell you that um my personal uh experience with it was I fought like peck to just use population totals and and clear in a can you know as concise of districts as possible that made sense based on geographic boundaries, uh and you know, no worries about race, no worries about political affiliation, just based on sheer population. And I think using the census in that manner does, in my personal opinion, has a lot of uh weight still. Um, and I think whenever we we've added on these extra descriptors like race or political affiliation or wherever it may be, we we kind of get out of the our lane, if you will, from trying to make sure we have fair districts where everyone has a voice.

SPEAKER_06 16:24

Frank, my friend, tell everybody how they can contact you.

SPEAKER_04 16:28

Yeah, sure. Just look at uh you can find us on Magnolytribune.com or on X uh or Facebook and um also me at at at Frank Quarter at X or on Facebook as well. You take care of yourself, my friend.

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SPEAKER_06 18:25

And now I would love to introduce one of my final guests, Taylor Vance, a three-year political reporter for the Mississippi Today, a statewide online publication, and he is a member of the Capitol Press Corps. Taylor, tell me if the maps are already being changed before the special session has even been called by Governor Reeves.

SPEAKER_02 18:52

Uh well, Hunter, thanks so much for having me on. I think first I'd just like to say I I think I need to hire you to come follow me around to staff meetings so you can introduce me uh beforehand. Uh so that uh more people might might could be impressed. Um but uh but so thank you for uh that that introduction. Um but to answer your question, um you know, I this may be a bit evasive, but uh the the short answer is I don't know. But the longer answer is I don't know, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me um if they were. Um you know, I um I'm I'm not sure what all you discussed in the the earlier parts of the podcast, but you know, the only issue on the redistricting agenda right now for the upcoming special session is the state supreme court districts. And it, there are only three districts. So I would not be surprised at all if uh legislative leadership, if the governor's office, excuse me, if the governor's office is at least tinkering with them a little bit, um, but it certainly wouldn't surprise me if they have at least a gentleman's agreement on redrawing uh these districts.

SPEAKER_06 20:08

And is one of the uh what I spoke with earlier about the guest before you, he said that the governor, under his for the the things that he has learned that the governor does have the authority to change the agenda. I've never heard of that happening, Taylor, but you know, I won't put it outside of Tate Reeves, you know, wanting to do something, he'll make it happen. But what's the governor's goal, in your opinion, after that?

SPEAKER_02 20:39

When you when you say after that, what what what do you mean?

SPEAKER_06 20:42

I mean as far as for changing it to a congressional slash state legislative redrawing of maps.

SPEAKER_02 20:50

Yeah. Um I I mean, you know, I'm I'm not in uh I I can't read the governor's mind. And you know, uh and he has not said anything publicly, but you know, I think it it's certainly no secret, he is not a fan of Congressman Benny Thompson, um, nor is President Donald Trump. Um so I I mean I think if they could find a way to probably redraw him out of power, they would love to do so. Um, but the I I think there are some legal and quite frankly, some political um sort of nuances and troubles they have to work through first. Um, you know, the the the first issue is is is legally, you know, say if the if the governor wanted to tack on congressional redistricting um to the special session agenda, you know, the the first issue is is legally. I mean, we've already had party primaries in Mississippi, and so it's not just as simple as sort of having a do over. I mean, I think it would be unprecedented to Sort of just invalidate, cancel out a primary election and have a do-over. You know, I I think the congressman on the Gulf Coast, Congressman Ezelle, I mean, he spent um a lot of money uh in his primary race. And I, you know, I I I don't I don't he has not told me this. Um, but I would think that Congressman Ezelle doesn't want to spend even more money just to have another do-over election to have another primary race. I mean, he's he's won that race. I think he wants to proceed to the general, I would think he would want to proceed to the general election. And I think the same would probably be true of the other incumbent um congressmen. Um so and then sort of so so this gets into the sort of the political sort of hurdle here is you know, when you whenever you you redraw one area, I mean it affects it's sort of like a domino effect, it affects the other areas. Um and so if you know, right now as we as the second congressional district is drawn, in you know, it includes the Delta and a lot of southwest Mississippi. And I don't think anyone really disputes that that has essentially just put as many black voters as possible into this one area. Um, and so when you want to start tinkering with that, you kind of are looking at at tinkering with the third congressional district in some parts of the fourth congressional district on the coast. And when you do that, you're essentially putting more black voters into these areas. And I think that where that's going to be a problem is in the third congressional district in in central Mississippi, and you're probably gonna look at the high 40s in terms of black voting age population in the third congressional district, and probably you know, 45-48 percent in both the second and third. Well, what you've essentially done is you've created two very purple districts, two hot pretty competitive districts. Yeah, and I I sort of the dirty secret of congressional politics in Mississippi is I think you know, the incumbents love the way it's set up. They essentially have a primary election and then an extremely safe general election, and then you get to have three Republican, three easy Republicans, you know, one one one safe Democratic seat. And so now what you're gonna do is potentially have two safe Republicans and then two safe or two, excuse me, two competitive districts. And I I don't know if anyone really wants that.

SPEAKER_06 24:53

No, and I I'm pretty certain about that too. That was something I was I was speaking to some some members of yours as well, too. Um you're certainly right about that. With the previous these previous maps being drawn by an overwhelmingly GOP controlled legislature, yeah. I mean now outside of congressional maps, let's just talk about state maps. Just like you said, you know, they like to have non-competitive almost an 80-20 all the way around the the board uh elections. How is the legislature do they want to re to change what they have? Because from what I understand, at least from the GOP controlled majority, they have it pretty much the way they like it. Am I am I wrong?

SPEAKER_02 25:43

I mean I I don't think you're wrong. Um you know, the you know, the sort of the loudest people right now are the ones just kind of saying, well, let's just redraw Vinny Thompson out of power, and and as I've you know, as we've just gotten into, I it's it's a little harder than that. But no, I mean I think I think you're right. I think a lot of you know, a lot of a lot of the Republican uh uh legislators, I would think, you know, kind of like the current setup. Um and uh because again, you get three safe Republicans and then you kind of have a Democratic punching bag, you know, you kind of have this one Democrat who you just get to blame everything on, and it's kind of a perfect kind of setup for them. Um so you know, I I don't really just see too many people just chomping at the bits to do this, but you know, as I've kind of alluded to, there's only really one person that matters who can change a lot of that, and that's President Donald Trump. And if he applies enough pressure, he I mean can certainly make make state state house members and state senators change their mind, I I I would think.

SPEAKER_06 27:00

Sure. Or the highly populated areas that have you know the last 20 to 30 years from the coast into the Memphis area, is there any real potential change? You know, not necessarily that it would matter congressional, but from a state legislative perspective, from House seats or Senate seats. Well, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:21

So, you know, I I you know, I thought about mentioning this this earlier. Um you know, in a lot of the proposals I've seen coming from a lot of like national MAGA people and people sort of in the the the president sort of sphere of influence and a lot of their proposed maps um for how they would change up our congressional districts, it splits the Gulf Coast into different districts. Now, Hunter, I would defer to you as sort of the the Gulf Coast expert here, um, because I've never lived on the coast before, but I am a lifelong Mississippian. I would think Gulf Coast leaders would be highly ticked off at that and would not want that. I mean, I don't think that people in Biloxi or Ocean Springs or Gulfport want to be in the same district as you know certain counties in the Delta and certain counties in the Jackson metro area. And I don't think that has anything, there's not nothing wrong with that. It's just that you you know the Gulf Coast is such a distinct region that it has its own certain per particular set of issues and challenges that you know the Jackson metro area or the Mississippi Delta doesn't necessarily deal with. And then in some other areas, I mean in some some some these same maps I've seen where it splits up Lee County and and Northeast Mississippi and Tupelo. I don't think they want that up there either. And so I again all this all this to reiterate, it it's not just as simple as flipping a light switch and carving all these districts up. I mean, you know, these have consequences, you know, you have to do a lot of math to make sure there's equal population in all these areas and potentially splitting communities of interest up and splitting counties up. Um, but then I guess to answer your your your latter your next question of could this impact other areas as far as state legislative districts? Um you know, the answer is yes, absolutely it could. It's just a matter of if and when the governor and the legislature want to tackle this. You know, again, um legislative districts are not on the governor's special session call, but he can certainly amend that call and add that to the agenda um as well. You know, uh Hunter, you may recall um that there uh was a federal uh federal court order that um said the legislature had to redraw certain legislative certain legislative districts um to uh give black voters in in certain areas uh more representation. And that was um two Senate districts. That was uh in the DeSoto County area and then the Hattiesburg area, and then there was one House district up in the Chickasaw County area in northeast Mississippi. And uh a lot of the Republican leadership in the legislature got kind of ticked off about that, and so I certainly don't think it's outside uh of the realm of possibility for them to, if if nothing else, to go back to those districts before that federal court order, if that makes sense. Um yeah.

SPEAKER_06 30:47

Final question for you, Taylor. Yeah. Now as I've talked to the previous guests too about this uh financially, and you spoke a little bit about this financially. I mean, of course, as as you and I have spoken about the Mississippi already had their primaries. If you know POTUS really wants this, you know, there's no reason that that uh Governor Reeves would deny you know the POTUS the uh the the right on this, but if uh you know, of course, uh financially having to redo this, uh these uh these districts uh or these prime primaries having to redo this would just be a complete hassle. Not only that, but remind me, isn't it still under law that every day there's a special session, it's ten thousand dollars for taxpayers?

SPEAKER_02 31:42

I believe that is correct. It it's or no, not not ten thousand. I mean, I I mean, well, I'm Hunter, I'm not to be quite honest with you, I'm not sure of the cost, but it is a significant cost. I mean, because you know, legislators get paid through a per diem, uh, you know, per diem rate. And so you gotta there are 174, you know, lawmakers that you've got to pay, you know, for mileage to drive to Jackson, and then they get living expenses, and so you have to, you gotta, you gotta, you know, taxpayers have to foot the bill for that. So it is, it's it's a good bit of money. But you know, 100 beyond that is if you want to have a redo of a primary election, you've got to pay more money for that as well. And that's money, I believe, for your um for your local uh local governments for you know your election commissioners, your local circuit clerk, or not for a primary, uh, the circuit clerk's office wouldn't fit that bill. It would be, but it would be your election commissioners, it would be your your local party leaders. Um, you know, it it it wouldn't they wouldn't have to pay anything for you know the general because we have a general election planned right now. Um but um but sure it would it would certainly be be an extra cost.

SPEAKER_06 32:58

Yeah, and with the ballots too included, that would uh those definitely are expensive and having the machines working, all the things, uh yeah, I definitely see that. And uh I appreciate everything you're doing, Taylor. Thank you. Let everybody know how they can get in touch with you.

SPEAKER_02 33:15

Uh yeah, you can uh you can follow us on MississippiToday.org. Um, I'm on Twitter at TaylorC Vance, and I would welcome anyone to email me at uh tvance at mississippytoday.org. And um, hunter, I certainly appreciate the work that you do um with the gazebo gazette and with this podcast. You've uh always been a great friend and uh appreciate you getting information out to your audience.

SPEAKER_06 33:42

Yeah, thank you very much, Taylor, and we look forward to hearing from you again. All right, take care.

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SPEAKER_06 36:13

We gratefully appreciate you listening to this podcast. And Jeff, we thank you again. It was a great show, and I think it's only going to get better. And uh, you know, we we of course try to stay away from the donkeys and elephants, but when it's around the bend and it's important issues, especially about voting and you know, where people are going to vote at and if they're gonna have other things coming back again, um, it's that's obviously important.

SPEAKER_03 36:40

Yeah, I mean, you can we we can try and stay away from donkeys and elephants all we want, right? But you know, it's uh sometimes donkeys and elephants just are in the room with us. And uh anyway, it was uh it's a really good show. Uh Frank and Taylor both very knowledgeable about the subject, a lot of great conversation.

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And here we are talking about Realty again with our O'Doire Realtor Agent sponsor, Stephanie Mankowitz. Let's talk about the tips this week from Stephanie about what realtors should be doing for you.

SPEAKER_10 37:25

Thank you, Hunter. As always, it's a pleasure to review realtor topics and uh hopefully it helps people, right? So, what should we do we be doing for you, the buyer or the seller? First thing I would say is, and it's in the actual disclosure everybody signs when they work with an agent, is ensure all parties are represented fairly and honestly. It's called fair and honest dealings. And if I'm helping you or anyone out before I can even show you a house, you know, you sign that disclosure, and it's not even a contract, it protects you as a person, and I'm supposed to explain that for him to you and say, hey, before we do anything real estate, I am licensed, I am liable, I am here to help you, give you fair and honest dealings, get the most I can for your house, confidentiality. I'm not gonna if you're a seller, I'm not gonna tell people your bottom line, that's a secret. So, um, so we'll start with that. The first thing is that we are fair, and sometimes realtors get a bad rap, and sometimes there's realtors that have caused that. But uh, I know I'm one of the realtors that considers myself pretty by the book and just trying to solve the problem. I just want to be part of the solution, right? So if you're selling a puppy or Avon, whatever it is, there's liabilities when you're selling a house times three times ten. Okay. Alright, well, I would say uh another thing we do, we we make sure that uh the people who maybe they were they've never sold a home before or they've never bought a home before, we make sure that we weed through the shaky buyers or the sellers, buyers that maybe aren't a good idea to deal with, we can see problems coming before they start when a realtor's been doing this 10 years. And if it is a buyer, we're also looking for sellers that might be a problem. You know, if we're putting in a really healthy offer and it's like full price or near full price, and then we hear there's a multiple offer situation, it doesn't mean you panic. You know, sometimes you leave your offer right where it is, even though there's other offers. So we're making we're weeding through the shakiness and the things that come up that seem unpredictable. And one of the other unpredictable things, like for sellers, is you know, they get an offer and it's got 10 contingencies on it, and the price looks great, and they say they're cash, but there's all these contingencies, so um, you know, you're not you're not really aware how much we help you until you actually deal with a good realtor. That's one thing I would say, and and we want to help them determine the value that's correct if they're selling.

SPEAKER_06 40:17

What are some of the things that determine the value?

SPEAKER_10 40:20

Oh, okay, that's a good one. Let's start with location. You know the old saying, location, location, location. All right. Uh, let's start with what are things selling for around you? If you're in a nice neighborhood and and you think your house is a castle, we all kind of feel like that when we love our home. Doesn't mean it's worth three times what the market says. Uh so people will hear realtors say, Well, the market says your house is worth this. And some sellers don't want to accept that. No, no, it's it's got to be worth more. I've got a double granite countertop, I've got a fountain that shoots out gold in the backyard, and I've got three kittens with it. So I think I should get a hundred thousand more. And we have to rein people in and say, 'I love your kittens, I love your granite.' And the last year in your neighborhood, people have paid this amount, and though, and that's where we start thinking like an appraiser. So we're like, okay, wait, we can go out two miles and look at the last sales in the last year within two miles of this property, and we can see what people have been paying. And we also look at the square footage, and that's really important, Hunter, because if your house is 2,000 square feet and you saw one sell for a million and it had 3,000 square feet, and you're like, Well, mine's worth that too. You're a thousand square feet smaller, so I can't even count that house as a comparable sale, right? When we determine the value is the critical, probably the most critical thing we do as your listing agent, because that price is the first thing they see, just like the pictures. And if we priced you so high that you seem ridiculous, they're not coming. And then guess who you don't like? Me, the realtor. You don't like me anymore. So I'm kind of an upfront realtor. I think a lot of us are after we've been in a while. And we say, look, in all honesty, right now, this is what the market says your house is worth. Other things we're gonna help you with is um determining what is the inside of the house worth. Um, appraisals are gonna change next year uh across the country, and there will be different data inputs into determining what your house is worth. So we're gonna be on top of that. Um, and so if you're trying to sell on your own, you know, we can be really helpful and deal with all these unexpected things that happen when you try to uh sell on your own. Um you know, we've talked about sellers a lot, so okay, I'm just gonna put this out there. If you're thinking of selling on your own, that some of the things we're doing for you, the seller, to make it easier is photos, professional photos. We pay for those. A lot of our photographers have drones. We're taking the calls because it's our number on the sign. So if it's a looky loo, it's not an ideal buyer. We've got our radar out there, so we're taking that hassle, you know, out of it.

SPEAKER_06 43:35

If you are thinking about selling on your own, maybe ask Steph. If you would like to talk to Stephanie to help determine your next steps, call today at 228 563 0471 or call her at the office and ask for Steph at 228 452 4242. Steph has the The latest information to help you get through the process with reasonable expectations. Again, that's 228-563-0471 to speak directly with Stephanie. Absolutely. We want to thank all of our sponsors again, Jeff, including the Beau Revage Resort and Casino, Nine Toes Brewery in Paskristian, O'Duire Realty Agent, Stephanie Mankowitz, Joseph Kelly, Attorney at Law, Coast Casual in Pasquestion, the Paskristian Rotary Club's Paddle of the Bay Fundraiser, the insurance barn in Gulfport, and Gulf Coast Veterans carry the load on May 20th. And we're always in this U.S. Marine Inc. studio. We thank you very much. And make sure you follow us on the gazeboazette.com where the podcast will be posted next week, as well as on Facebook.com backslash the real gazebo gazette or on X at Gazebo Gazette as the handle. The Mudcat report is available, as Jeff says all the time, on every podcast. And if you don't have one, or if you don't you have a podcast and you don't see us on, let us know and download. Download, subscribe, write reviews, tell us all the good news that we need to hear. And or tell us, give us criticism. You know, we obviously want to hear everything you guys have to say. And these are all on Apple, Spotify, iHeartRadio, and Amazon Music under the Mud Cat Report tag. Signing out, this is Hunter Dawkins, the host of the Mudcat Report. And now you know the rest of the local story.

unknown 45:56

Good night.