In this episode, Chris and Jeff catch up with Belle Tunstall, top 30 for 30 real estate agent, and buyer agent extraordinaire, focusing on strategies for real estate agents in buying homes in competitive markets. Belle discusses the importance of setting client expectations, strategies for handling multiple offers, and the significance of agent-client relationships. Her insights offer a comprehensive guide for agents striving to excel in the dynamic real estate environment.
In this episode, Chris and Jeff catch up with Belle Tunstall, top 30 for 30 real estate agent, and buyer agent extraordinaire, focusing on strategies for real estate agents in buying homes in competitive markets. Belle discusses the importance of setting client expectations, strategies for handling multiple offers, and the significance of agent-client relationships. Her insights offer a comprehensive guide for agents striving to excel in the dynamic real estate environment.
[00:00:00] Jeff Saferite: Hey friends! Welcome here to another episode of your Uncommon Real Estate Podcast. Today we have on your favorite guest that's been on a few times, Miss Belle Hunstall, one of, if not the absolute best buyers agent not just in the country, but probably in the world, you all know it. But Chris, anything else you want to say about the rockstar known as Belle before we jump in?
[00:00:21] Chris Craddock: / Her accolades include being voted 30 under 30, not local 30 under 30, but nationwide 30 under 30 out of the 1. 5 million agents.
[00:00:31] Chris Craddock: So pretty incredible top 30 in the world. So yeah, no, super, super exciting. I we've seen the market starting to heat up, at least here in the DC area, we're seeing multiple offers and a lot of stuff. And I know that during COVID all of us that were working with buyers at all
[00:00:51] Chris Craddock: just lost our minds. We're like, how do you win in this market? And then we spent a lot of time working on how to win, and thBelleell was able to start kicking butt and getting people under contract in the midst of really difficult situations and 97 offers and all the other stuff.
[00:01:10] Chris Craddock: So we're like, if you can win as one of 97, then, one of five again it's just child's play. So we're back to it. So anyway, with that said yeah that's pretty much what I'm excited about talking about today.
[00:01:21] Belle Tunstall: Awesome. Thanks for having me
[00:01:23] Chris Craddock: on. All right. So Belle real quick, you want to give
[00:01:27] Chris Craddock: some information about yourself just for anybody that has not heard you on the podcast before.
[00:01:33] Belle Tunstall: Yeah, sure. Hello. Thanks again for having me on. i'm from northern virginia born and raised. Went to school like three hours south. And got licensed in august of 2016 and it was my full time job from the start and so Just have been working at it ever since I would say in the last maybe four or five years I've been in it about eight years.
[00:01:54] Belle Tunstall: I'm in my eighth year. So I'd say the last four or five years have really seen, probably a lot more success. But also that's I think the success I've seen the last handful of years is from just that consistency and that total grind of all the eight years. So I feel like a lot of people want to get into real estate and make six figures in the first six months.
[00:02:11] Belle Tunstall: And it is possible sometimes, but ultimately that's not everybody's story. So I think the success I had ' 19 going into 2020 was from those, huge, like just those years, '16, '17, '18. Learning the scripts, doing the grind, getting the reps in for sure.
[00:02:30] Chris Craddock: And I think owning the story as well.
[00:02:32] Chris Craddock: We've joked about this a number of times, when you first started, you were doing so few deals that you had to borrow money from your sister to buy running shoes. I had to lend you money to fix your car. Yeah,
[00:02:43] Belle Tunstall: rough, rough times.
[00:02:45] Chris Craddock: Yeah. And that's why most people never succeed is because they get into this and they're just like, Oh man, I, it was hard the first year, it was hard the second year, Oh, maybe real estate's not for me, instead of saying,
[00:02:57] Chris Craddock: if it was easy, everybody would do it, you got to stick it out and work hard. So yeah, definitely
[00:03:03] Belle Tunstall: Yeah, so and I remember going into I guess like 2020 when rates started to trend down and it was just getting insane I just never seen You know 15 offers out in Bristow and in Gainesville and homes going like 60 grand over and we're waving septic and well And i'm like what is happening?
[00:03:20] Belle Tunstall: And so we had to You know, what was that app called at the time? I deleted it off my phone eventually, but it was the one where we would get on and, have like little mini masterminds. Oh, Clubhouse. Yeah. I remember you and me and a few other people like within Northern Virginia, we were just trying to mastermind.
[00:03:37] Belle Tunstall: I'm like, what, like, how do we get buyers to win? Like it's no longer. Okay, to just put, all my first time home buyers are like we've saved, we have 20 percent down, we can cover our closing costs. And I'm like, and we're going to get steamrolled because we're not, like you don't have $200k to put down and, escalate crazy.
[00:03:53] Belle Tunstall: So that was, those were heartbreaking conversations to have. I'm like, yeah, and it's not enough, not even close. But yeah, I just remember at that time, it was like, what can we do? You know, I Obviously our team, we have a lot of off market listings. We have a lot of coming soon. Like we just know a lot of things.
[00:04:06] Belle Tunstall: So definitely was trying to pair up and take advantage of that when I could. But ultimately, some of these locations that are just cutthroat, we were just putting in seven offers and, whatever. But I remember on that call, that's when some people were mentioning you could pull from retirement, you can get a gift, like we were just trying to network and trying to figure it out.
[00:04:24] Belle Tunstall: But ultimately I think the biggest thing for us was setting expectations. But I think what was so frustrating for me between 2020 and 2021, I felt like every quarter we were readjusting. And by the time I finally felt comfortable and confident in my scripts and how to like really set realistic expectations, it would change.
[00:04:42] Belle Tunstall: I mean, To me, you know, and I would have to like reassess and re, work the scripts and look at economics and look at the, different indicators and stuff. But ultimately I think as an agent and, definitely not necessarily, I'm not newer anymore, but I think just during that time.
[00:04:57] Belle Tunstall: It was definitely the first time a global, I mean, we were going through a pandemic. So I was excited because I'm like the whole, Oh, I've been doing it 30 years, 20 years. And I'm like, at that point I was in my like, whatever, fifth or sixth year, whatever. I'm like, okay, but have you ever done this in a pandemic?
[00:05:12] Belle Tunstall: No. None of us have we're all like level field here. So it was pretty frustrating at times just trying to set those expectations with clients and keep them, you know, you really have to know your client. And know, okay, if I tell them what's their personality?
[00:05:25] Belle Tunstall: What's their disc profile? If I tell them when we're headed into their favorite house, that they already have six offers, even though it's been on the market for two hours, is that going to make them like, okay, what do we need to do to win? Or are they the type that it's going to be well, fine, they can have it.
[00:05:38] Belle Tunstall: This Nova market, is it going to offend them? So you have to really, Walk that line as well. But yeah, finally we were able to, I mean, Chris, I, yeah, I give you credit too. I think we all sat down, for a while there during some of those years, just what can we do?
[00:05:51] Belle Tunstall: How do we win? And so I think we've come up, I mean, for me, it's a standard at this point. But I would say out of all the things we have and we can kind of park here for a little bit, but I think the expectations is huge. That starts when you're having that buyer consultation initially.
[00:06:05] Chris Craddock: Yeah, there, so there's three things that I really want to get to. And then obviously whatever else you want to talk about is good. But one was expectations. Two was the shocking thing was in a multi offer situation and offer deadline. I thought that was crazy, but it turned out that there was a lot of value in that.
[00:06:23] Chris Craddock: And three, ways to waive stuff by finding other places to bring cash from retirement or other opportunities there so that you could waive appraisal gaps and stuff where, in the scripting around asking people to take money out of retirement, if they needed to put money, more money down. Cause I, that was a new ask for me during the pandemic,
[00:06:44] Chris Craddock: and I thought that was huge.
[00:06:45] Chris Craddock: Can you talk about the expectations conversation?
[00:06:48] Belle Tunstall: Yeah, definitely. I think initially it's so important to know, seller and buyer, but we'll focus on buyers today, but you got to know where they're getting their information. So I feel like when you're first talking with them. Also just figuring out like who's involved here, is it just you do you have a partner?
[00:07:02] Belle Tunstall: Is there somebody else is you know, are mom and dad helping and then also you know I'm kind of off the bat like, you know Tell me do you have any horror stories like your co workers or family members anything with realtors or the process? And then that's where some of the things come out.
[00:07:17] Belle Tunstall: Well, Yeah, like my old roommate, she really felt pressured into just buying this house and she felt like she overpaid or felt like, or she bought it, and then there were all these issues and with the home that the home inspector missed, or, is it no longer okay to ask for closing costs?
[00:07:32] Belle Tunstall: And again, we're taking on new buyers every week. So it's like, all right, are we in the fall? Are we in the summer or spring? You're resetting those expectations. But I think for me, just really again laying it down and explaining to them, Yeah, if a house has been on for two days or if it's coming live on a wednesday or thursday They already have an offer deadline and they already have word of offer.
[00:07:53] Belle Tunstall: So they already have one in hand, We're definitely not getting closing costs. It's definitely going to escalate. It's going to go over the asking price. People are going to waive contingencies. But I also set the expectation that if a house has been on for more than, especially in our market, if it's going into its second weekend with nothing on, I'm not saying we can low ball at 50k, but there's definitely room for negotiating on that.
[00:08:13] Belle Tunstall: And then especially if the house has been on for like Almost a month. And I was kind of shocked. Maybe at this point, two and a half weeks ago I submitted two offers with home sale contingencies. One, we were already incoming soon within two days about to go live. And the other, we were not even on the market.
[00:08:28] Belle Tunstall: 1, we were actually in a multiple- it was us versus somebody else. And through stuff we can get into later was able to just negotiate that, and they went with us, and then the other, they went with us. I felt more confident on that one, just because it had been on for almost 30
[00:08:40] Chris Craddock: days. It's unbelievable.
[00:08:42] Chris Craddock: You're I we were talking real time, like you said, I've got three people that want home sale contingencies and two of the three got accepted and one got accepted against another offer.
[00:08:55] Belle Tunstall: And I was a little bitter cause I was like, oh my gosh, this is insane. And I would have had the third, but, and I think we were multiple offer in that one, but our terms were just pretty tight again
[00:09:05] Belle Tunstall: minus we had to sell a place, but the agent told me, at 11 PM or like after hours, this like random offer came in and had a two week close. But I had great rapport with her so she was like sharing stuff with me before. And actually I'm still talking with her and she has like
[00:09:19] Belle Tunstall: a couple others in that neighborhood and we're talking about it. But anyways, I just was like, man, like we were that close to actually getting three for three when I really going into that was like setting expectations, we're probably going to be 0 for 3 this weekend and that's okay. But yeah, again, setting expectations.
[00:09:32] Belle Tunstall: So that way it's not, they fall in love with the house and now this is the first time they're hearing of a waived home inspection. What does that mean? And now I have to escalate and offer more in my earnest money and give a free rent back. That's not the first time they're hearing these things.
[00:09:45] Chris Craddock: Waived home inspection. Cause I remember probably the first time you ever asked the client to waive a home inspection, you probably felt what am I doing here? This is crazy. I know. I know it was for me. Yeah. Walk me through the scripting of how you're talking to a client about that. And also how you feel about making sure that they're not getting into a house that
[00:10:04] Chris Craddock: is it a money pit that's going to destroy them? Cause that is your job to protect them. It's also your job to help them get the house. So how do you think about it? And then how do you talk to them about it?
[00:10:13] Belle Tunstall: First of all, I am human. And I feel like if you sell anywhere between 50 and 80 homes a year, which is about the production, I do, I have to sleep at night.
[00:10:21] Belle Tunstall: I am not crazy. Like I, I cannot, I don't go, get all nestled into bed knowing, "Yeah, everyone, all my clients are buying these terrible homes." That's not happening. I know the client my clients are getting good homes, or at least we know in advance some of the risks we're taking on. So I have to, I always lay that out.
[00:10:38] Belle Tunstall: I lay that out with them. I'm like, I will not allow you to get this sinkhole money pit house. That will not happen. So Yeah, of course, depending on the house, right? If it's a condo, all we care about is like the HVAC, maybe a water heater and like the dishwasher, right? But if it's a single family home you've got a roof, there could be a sump pump, septic, there's so much more.
[00:10:57] Belle Tunstall: So we'll just focus on maybe more of a traditional single family home. Just making sure you call the agent, you figure out, okay, how old is the roof? If the roof's within five years, great. Someone's been in the attic. There's the the trusses. There's, like, all the shingles and everything.
[00:11:11] Belle Tunstall: So that's good news. If it's like more than 20 years, you're like, oh shoot, who knows? Not only the roof on the outside, but Who knows even about the attic, but just figure out like the big ticket items, right? So the roof, the HVAC, water heater, if it's like dual zone, that's two systems, outside AC unit, different things like that.
[00:11:27] Belle Tunstall: And if all those things are pretty new, okay, that's good. Like check, check. And again, it's not that I'm going to take that at face value. I actually just I was pretty bummed. I submitted an offer for clients. We were one of 17 and we got second place, which there is no such thing as second place in real estate.
[00:11:41] Belle Tunstall: You get it or you don't and you lose. we were very close, but this house was listed at $865K. And we escalated to $970K, but we only did, and I'm going to backtrack, I know I'm getting into appraisal and we're talking about inspection, but $865K, we went to $970K, but we only did a 20 grand appraisal waiver because I was like, this $865K house, first of all, is already the highest in the neighborhood,
[00:12:05] Belle Tunstall: there's no way this is going to appraise north of nine. And then I don't want us on the hook for that difference. To bring it back though, I'm We were one of six pre offer home inspections. And so that's something that I will also recommend with clients. And again, we're talking homes that like, this is the house, right?
[00:12:20] Belle Tunstall: The client is
[00:12:20] Chris Craddock: identified. The pre offer home inspection and just walk through that real quick.
[00:12:25] Belle Tunstall: There's two ways to do it. You can do the whole, the real thing where you have your inspector, he's taking pictures, it's probably $800. Or you can, we have an inspector and I'm sure you could ask
[00:12:33] Belle Tunstall: yours, if they would just do what we call, it's a "walk and talk" and it's just $350 or $400 flat. And you usually, during a showing time just walk with the inspector and he checks everything quickly. All the major things, he'll go in the attic and then he'll get to all the outlets if he can.
[00:12:47] Belle Tunstall: So my clients. Working jobs. They couldn't go. I went. I know I went with the inspector. So we felt comfortable with the things we found To waive the home inspection and so and then again with financing assuming your client Has like a sturdy job and everything usually you can talk to the lender and see if they feel comfortable Waving financing now, that's not always the case That's a conversation between you and the lender and then explaining that to your client But for us we waive total inspection we waive financing and then a partial appraisal wave.
[00:13:17] Belle Tunstall: Explain
[00:13:18] Chris Craddock: the partial appraisal wave just
[00:13:20] Belle Tunstall: for yeah, totally. So there's three options with appraisal, right? You have the normal one. So whatever the bank thinks it's worth. That's what we're going with then you have a partial appraisal wave where You know, you don't want to completely waive it because then you feel a little you're exposed, right?
[00:13:32] Belle Tunstall: You could get a an appraiser from another area or someone, they don't really know the area that and it could plummet and then you're on the hook for that. So the partial appraisal waiver you're pre negotiating that, which is nice because at least your client gives them time to look at their numbers.
[00:13:46] Belle Tunstall: Okay, what can we afford like on top of our closing costs and on top of our 20%? how much is left over for us to potentially put towards a low appraisal. So for easy math, let's say let's say we're under contract at $925K and we're going to waive the first 20 grand. It's the first 20 grand.
[00:14:04] Belle Tunstall: So if it comes in at $850,000, it's the first 20, it will go to $870,000, not the full amount. So it protects your client. And also, best case scenario, if we're at $925,000, it appraises at $920,000, okay, $5,000 more, $925,000. So you're pre-negotiating this before you go under contract and fully commit to some of those terms.
[00:14:29] Chris Craddock: And can I throw this out there because I've seen this happen a few times where somebody says in the event of a low appraisal, the client will reduce the price or by $20,000, which basically means if it appraises by five grand low that you are agreeing in writing to lower the price by $20,000.
[00:14:47] Belle Tunstall: Yeah, I saw the same thing and the way the agent, he was a newer agent, and he put In the event of a low appraisal buyer will pay 20 grand and it was and it appraised five grand low, So I was like reading it with him. I'm like the way this reads S just because it appraised low, your client needs to.
[00:15:04] Belle Tunstall: So I don't know, did you talk, did you work with him on that? I don't know how, I was kinda like, call Chris. I was like, I don't know how, I don't know what to do on
[00:15:10] Chris Craddock: that. But yeah, we've we've gotten around. Thankfully most agents and most people are okay with it, but and will go. But the reality is we're professionals here and so if our contracts are bad, like that's on us and yeah, you just work for.
[00:15:25] Chris Craddock: Free now. Yeah.
[00:15:27] Belle Tunstall: Yeah. So talking to your clients if systems are newer and things like that, and if they still want like a pre-offer inspection, again, you got to make sure this is on a house they really want because they're going to be out and you explain this to them you're going to be out $400 and we may not get it.
[00:15:40] Belle Tunstall: So trying to waive the appraisal, waive financing if you can, do a partial appraisal waiver or a full appraisal waive if you find that, like honestly in that neighborhood if there was a house like around $950K or even $925K my clients do have cash so I would have felt more comfortable but $865K was already 25 grand higher than the last comp. So I was like I've got no, you know, I mean maybe this house appraises at nine and then what we bring 70 grand to the table. So yeah, in terms of multiple offer situations, just trying to make you stand out, things like that,
[00:16:09] Belle Tunstall: I guess setting expectations. So yeah, just going over these things with your clients initially, like for the right house, I will lead you through these steps when it makes sense. You want them to know you have their back. You're not just going to have them waive the appraisal or the home inspection on this house that was built in the Sixties and never touched since.
[00:16:27] Belle Tunstall: So that doesn't make sense. We're not going to do that. so it's nice because it's not the first time they're hearing these terms of waiving the inspection, a pre-offer inspection, escalating in price, maybe waiving financing cause you don't, the lender has checked all your assets and debt to income and all of that.
[00:16:43] Belle Tunstall: And you're, you've got a steady job. So expectations are huge because you have to have those conversations initially so that they're already getting comfortable with it. And then continue to have that. And also it's a learning process. So sometimes with clients and it stinks for us, Sometimes you have to lose an offer or two for them to finally understand, okay, it is normal to waive these things and not ask for all of the closing costs.
[00:17:08] Belle Tunstall: That's just not realistic right now in these locations I'm looking in. So sometimes they got to lose a few times and you have to be like, yeah, the winning offer escalated X over and they waived everything and so did the other seven. Actually we were at the bottom because we didn't do any of those
[00:17:20] Jeff Saferite: things.
[00:17:21] Jeff Saferite: Well, One of the things that. You said at the very beginning, which I thought was, it's fantastic because it lets the landmines that may potentially be theirs. You ask them to share any stories that they've heard of. That could bring out, potential yeah, they bought a house.
[00:17:37] Jeff Saferite: That was a money pit, like you said, a house that they may regret, but it allows some of those things to come out so that you can really. hash some of that stuff out even before because especially anybody that's bought a house in the last four or five years, they have this, "I've been outbid 50 times" stories, right?
[00:17:54] Jeff Saferite: So many people have that. And so you can really utilize that to explain, this is why we do X, Y, and Z. And this is how we can still make sure that you're covered and your bases are covered as we, Make some of these adjustments. Absolutely.
[00:18:08] Belle Tunstall: Yeah. They can't, not that it's genuine.
[00:18:10] Belle Tunstall: It's not Oh, I want to figure you out, but they teach you not how to sell them. I don't want to say that, but just they teach you what's important to them. And they'll just tell you straight up. You can, of course, always ask that question, but I think stories are more powerful because that's really what guides us and that's what like pulls on our heart.
[00:18:25] Belle Tunstall: And that's what keeps us up at night sometimes and like our fears. So yeah, to hear that initially is, yeah, it's huge.
[00:18:32] Jeff Saferite: It's a great way for you to be able to lead them, right? Because those anxieties and fears or those thought patterns are already there. And it's it allows you to lead them through that and help them to know that,
[00:18:43] Jeff Saferite: you've been there, you've done that, you have a plan, you have a plan for those
[00:18:47] Belle Tunstall: realities. And you know, where they're going to be unrealistic. If they're like, "yeah, I had friends and they had to pay all their closing costs, isn't that crazy?" Or like, yeah, we can talk through it like it allows you to be like, all right, we're going to have to hash that out.
[00:18:59] Belle Tunstall: I need to explain that better. I need to set better examples and stuff around that. Totally.
[00:19:05] Chris Craddock: So we have a couple of questions from Facebook and then those that are watching live and also my buddy Jeremy mentioned he's down in the Smoky Mountains where they had like ridiculous amount of offers when everybody was buying cabins.
[00:19:18] Chris Craddock: So he's seen the appraisal gap just kick butt for them as well. Shalita is asking if you need to let, if you let the seller know that there's going to be an inspector present when you do your walk and talk. Yeah. And Sean was asking if when you, he's asking what your take is on this, when you waive financing does that also, does that supersede the appraisal waive or what do you do to keep the appraisal in place?
[00:19:43] Chris Craddock: If you are waiving financing because I know some people will see it differently.
[00:19:48] Belle Tunstall: Yeah this was a lesson learned forever No, I would be like I don't want them to know we're doing an inspection because I don't want them to shop us that we're Doing pre-inspections, but I actually did get a little scolding.
[00:19:57] Belle Tunstall: And learned that yes, you do need to so it's nice When you schedule it online, you can put like showing one showing two appraiser now I'll give the agent a heads up. And again, with, especially if you're doing a walk and talk, it's a little less invasive because you're really only doing it during an hour time frame.
[00:20:12] Belle Tunstall: You're not there for three and a half hours and family's there, you're camping out, you have a snack. Like it's. It's quick. But yeah, I definitely, you should let the listing agent know. And I remember that
[00:20:22] Chris Craddock: one time where the agent called freaking out because we were trying to do a pre-inspection or whatever.
[00:20:28] Chris Craddock: And the inspector, and so we just scheduled a showing and then they called saying the neighbor said, somebody's on the roof. What are you guys doing at your showing?
[00:20:38] Belle Tunstall: Yeah. That was not good. Don't forget there's cameras everywhere. Um, Yeah. I we, we're gonna go there, but yeah, I, it was more than a scolding we'll leave it at that.
[00:20:47] Belle Tunstall: I called Chris like a hundred times, he was like, I'm in a meeting, I was like, call me now, I'm gonna get fired I was like, I'm gonna, anyways. So yeah. Long the short of it, learn from my mistake and let them know. And then the
[00:20:59] Chris Craddock: appraisal financing wiave and keeping the appraisal in place. What are the mechanics of waiving financing and still having an appraisal?
[00:21:08] Belle Tunstall: Yeah. And also here's the thing, just because you waive appraisal, you still have an appraisal. You just waive your right to void. On a low appraisal or an outcome that you didn't wasn't necessarily your favorite. Because that was a big thing I think some people were like, yeah, we just won't have one.
[00:21:22] Belle Tunstall: I'm like no, we still have one so but when you wait financing it just has to do with the overview of your client and especially I think the easiest way for me to explain it is just like with their job security. So if it's something like government worker or they've been there for years and like they don't foresee 20 days Or I guess even two weeks after closing in the next month if they don't think there's a chance that they could lose their job or You know any issues with that then again, it's like they're secure in their finances, the lender's pulling, you know Looking at everything so you can waive financing I guess, again, it's if your client were to lose their job or something crazy or take out a credit card or buy a car or something, and no longer are qualified for the house, you would have
[00:22:09] Chris Craddock: question.
[00:22:09] Chris Craddock: I think the question more is if you waive financing, doesn't that waive the appraisal too? What is the piece, like the procedure to keep appraisal when you waive financing?
[00:22:21] Belle Tunstall: Oh, I mean you just do it. I don't know you keep financing because- I'm, sorry, keep appraisal because the bank will still send somebody out.
[00:22:28] Belle Tunstall: And if you have the full appraisal if it's high low at value It's fine. You'll
[00:22:32] Chris Craddock: i'll jump in because I don't think i'm here. Let's see your question There's a there's an appraisal contingency form where you can waive financing and still have an appraisal. So it's if you have a cash offer, you can still have a cash offer with an appraisal.
[00:22:45] Chris Craddock: If you waive financing, you can waive financing and still ask for an appraisal contingency so that you're just like Belle saying if you lose your job, it doesn't matter. You lose your EMD. But if it appraises short, then that is up for negotiation. But if you waive financing, the appraisal doesn't stay in place.
[00:23:02] Chris Craddock: You have to have a separate appraisal contingency in order for that to stay in place if you waive financing. All right, we're at the end. Jeff, what questions should we have asked Belle that we haven't gotten to ask her yet?
[00:23:13] Jeff Saferite: Oh, man. What questions should we ask her? You stunned me with a question, man.
[00:23:18] Jeff Saferite: Dang it. I
[00:23:21] Belle Tunstall: mean, I'll just say the topic is how to win a multiple offer situation. So you have to stand out. So I feel like calling the agent ahead of time, even if it's incoming soon, introducing yourself, say, Ask them to save your number, you save their number, text them make sure that you're memorable and can build rapport and you figure out what do the sellers need, a rent back, a quick close, and then when you go to submit the offer, please have a cover letter, for my listings when I get it and I can't even, I literally, there's no cell phone for the agent there's just nowhere to be found anywhere and I'm having to like search and zip files and oh my gosh, where's the lender, it's a landline... no, make it organized because again, we talked about this in our training this week on this topic: This is like an interview like you're choosing if you're the listing agent or if you're the buyer agent you're interviewing to be like this person's co worker for the next 30 days. So are you going to be a nightmare and a headache and annoying or are you going to be useful,
[00:24:10] Belle Tunstall: Organized and making it so easy for them to just say yes to this offer and you know again sellers just want certainty So providing that
[00:24:19] Chris Craddock: I love how you just phrased that. And I know we talked about this the other day, when you are submitting in a multiple offer situation, you are interviewing with the listing agent, right?
[00:24:29] Chris Craddock: When you think about it as a job interview, you change how you talk to them. Cause I know you and I were talking about that agent on one of your listings that was annoying. Whenever you ask for anything, she'd be like, maybe I can do it, and they're like, Somebody came in for a job interview and said that when you were in like.
[00:24:48] Chris Craddock: You're fired.
[00:24:51] Belle Tunstall: And also realizing that you are interviewing for that, you want them to know that you are competent and you close a lot of deals and your team closes a lot of deals, and you want them to know that you will get this to closing.
[00:25:02] Belle Tunstall: This isn't your first rodeo, they're going to be using your preferred lender title whatever, like making it easy. So cover letter with all the highlights. CCing the lender, having a letter to seller, a video to seller, a neighbor's letter to seller, if you, if your client's no neighbors, like creating this whole little beautiful project, and then you just give it off to the listing agent in hopes that you continue to stand out because already for that week or two weeks, even three weeks, if it was initially in coming soon, you've been building that rapport and they remember you and they know you.
[00:25:32] Jeff Saferite: That's clutch to, Belle's doing our homework on coming soon as right and developing. Developing that relationship, because I think it's important to, stand out, but also not be there's certain agents that try to stand out. Right. But then they're just. overly obnoxious or they're There's just so many different things, but I love that idea of interviewing, because I do think that's absolutely clutch, right?
[00:25:58] Jeff Saferite: Is there anything else that you do just agent to agent to to make sure that your buyer gets heard
[00:26:07] Belle Tunstall: I guess I just briefly went over it but just like In more detail, it is like letting the agent know I've been working with these clients. Like they're well qualified. We did a pre-inspection, whatever, just letting them know that for me, it's I'll let them know about the volume I do per year.
[00:26:23] Belle Tunstall: So it's not like I'm doing five deals a year, you know, it's, cause there's just a difference in that You know when you're doing this all day every day because again, you're creating confidence in your buyers. Like again, like not only are you interviewing but you're also in a way interviewing your clients, too You're like me and these people that i'm representing.
[00:26:39] Belle Tunstall: They trust me. They know me and they trust what I say Like they're realistic. They want this house. They already have measurements for their couch and it's like just creating that and it's not like a story. It's not fake, but you're like just representing them, And again, we've all had listings where we get like an offer.
[00:26:55] Belle Tunstall: We're like, who is this? Who are you? Where did this come from? And also there's, I can't even, everything's so disorganized. So
[00:27:03] Jeff Saferite: I, I think, I know we're wrapping up, but you're building that rapport and knowing that especially, I'm guessing you run or you run across agents that you worked with in the past or that you've at least, discussed properties with in the past or, you've networked like understanding that kind of fraternity, or sorority, whatever you call it there. Like you're going to work with that agent again more than likely. And if you're bubbly and happy and super easy to work with, but if you don't get the offer or whatever, and then all of a sudden you just shut off communication or you found another house, whatever it is.
[00:27:37] Jeff Saferite: As a listing agent, I've had that happen so many times you get this agent, man, this is, this agent is great. And then they find a different property. And then they just like leave you cold turkey, right? No more communication. Just remember that you're also going to the likelihood that you work with that agent again, especially if they've had success,
[00:27:54] Jeff Saferite: if you've had success, you're going to do that. You're going to be around more often. Also leveraging your team. That's one of the things I remember doing back, especially going back to the pandemic. Look, we have a large team. We got properties coming up all the time. I know you guys do as well.
[00:28:07] Jeff Saferite: So just keep us in mind. If you have something in this area, whatever, and, just continuing to knowing what you can leverage outside of just that context there and that there will be repeat opportunities to work together.
[00:28:20] Belle Tunstall: The last thing I'll say real quick is also like. I mean, unless you have to, I'm not going to go on that narrative, but don't burn the bridge because it's rare, but there have been times where it was my client's dream home and darn, we got second or we didn't get it.
[00:28:32] Belle Tunstall: And then within a week or two, that agent's calling me first. I don't know what happened. They got cold feet or whatever. And, or even this was like two years ago when it was like really crazy, they were way into it and already appraised all the things. So we're talking like three weeks in and my buyers are experiencing a buyer's fatigue and this agent called me back and was like, they already did the home inspection.
[00:28:52] Belle Tunstall: I can give you that. It already appraised at this. I can like, can you, are your buyers still looking? Could they hop in on this? And then we still close in two and a half weeks. And I was like, yeah, actually. Don't burn the bridge and I'll, even if it ends up not being that house, but they'll keep you in mind on other ones too.
[00:29:06] Belle Tunstall: So I think just also being, mature and an adult. And if you don't get it, just try to, for me and also to save face with your clients, learn why, because nothing's worse than, yeah, we didn't get it. I don't know why it's no, we didn't get it.
[00:29:19] Chris Craddock: Yeah. So we need to call it because we're over time and I'm actually late for an appointment personally.
[00:29:24] Chris Craddock: But what what I do want to say is anybody on here. I know there's been a lot of info on the Facebook chatter as well. So make sure you go to the Facebook post and And also, I know we didn't get into offer deadlines and stuff. So maybe we're going to do a part 2, we should do a part 2 because I can see a lot of people are really engaged in this.
[00:29:41] Chris Craddock: So we'll definitely do a part 2 maybe even next week if we can do it next week. But. I'll do a part two soon. But yeah, go to the Facebook group, see some of the information people are offering because other people are winning as well there. And this is awesome. So anyway Jeff, why don't you take us home and Belle also tell us how people can get in touch with you if they want to send their amazing referrals to you.
[00:30:03] Belle Tunstall: Yeah, no, I cover the DMV area, Belle Tunstall with an E at the end on Facebook or @buywithbelle on Instagram. Check
[00:30:12] Jeff Saferite: out her Instagram. Check out her previous podcast with Uncommon Real Estate on social media because she does crush it there as well. She's got a funny story for the, about that. We'll save that for next time.
[00:30:23] Jeff Saferite: So this does conclude another episode of your Uncommon Real Estate podcast with host Chris Craddock, myself, Jeff Saferite. We'll be back next week if you want to join us live. Same time, same place. Until then, continue crushing it. Have a great day. Thanks guys.