Podcast 6/23/23

I'm Tom.

I'm Jay.

Jay Day and the Day home team of real estate teams with our weekly real estate podcast. What's going on this week in the real estate industry?

I thought of, I'm trying to think of all these different things that we get questions asked about and what we have covered, what we haven't covered. So I wanted to talk about situations for our sellers and it's a common question. What is the process for selling a home?

First thing to do, I want to move, what do I do?

Yeah. First thing is they reach out to do some preparation to get a home evaluation, figure out what has to happen then. And that process is when they reach out to a real estate agent, the real estate agent meets with them, tours, the home, gives an idea of what needs to happen, and then they may interview, some people hire the first agent they meet, some people want to interview multiple agents. So the next step is they have to select the agent, and it's just not a, Hey, I want to work with you. They actually engage with them as far as signing a listing contract, which sets them up to be able to get everything else rolling. The next thing, and during that process, we're dealing with getting the home prepared with us. We're having stagers come in, we're having the professional photographers come in, potentially videographers all of that. And then what happens is we get everything written, everything ready to roll. Then we put it into the multiple list as a coming soon, and it's in there for about a week to two weeks. And then we go live, which means you can have showings. After that, we launch our full out marketing, we start having showings on the property for the showings. You just get a notification. We have a system set up where they'll get emails and text or phone calls. They get the feedback. We made our feedback forms really simple. Were there multiple choices?

Can I ask you a question about this? Yeah. So at that point, coming soon, do you get calls on that house at that point?

Oh yeah.

People reaching out to you. How serious can you take those phone calls? Do they go first in line when consideration comes up?

Well, what we do once we launch coming soon, we actually set it where, because we'll have a go live date. So we go coming soon. Let's say it's, it's Monday and we're going to go live the next Friday. You can't schedule, you can't see the home until the go live date, but we allow you to schedule those. Your agent can schedule those. Or if you don't have an agent, you call us. One of our agents can schedule it. And it depends on your schedule. If it's open at as early as nine or eight 30 and you want to lock in, we will lock you in for that time as soon as it hits the market.

As soon as it hits the market, not any time before.

Right.

That's just my question.

And so the multiple lists will not allow anyone to see it prior.

I see.

So it's sometimes our sellers get a little frustrating because they're like, well, why would I, I'm fine with that. And we're like, oh, we're not allowed to do it. And they're like, what do you mean we're not allowed to do it? Isn't it my house? Can I make the decision? And I'm like, I agree. You should be able to make that decision.

That's why you call the pros.

Yeah. So as the marketing happens, then eventually you end up getting offers. So the negotiation of offers starts, and that's when, let's say for example, I'll give you one that we had recently. It went on the market for Memorial Day weekend, and we had, I don't know, probably close to 40 showings. I think we ended up with nine offers. Once the first two offers came in. I called the seller because our job is we deliver the offer to you immediately. That's our job. We have to present the offers quickly. And then the seller has to make a decision. Are they comfortable with what offer they have? Or if they have a ton of showings, do they want to say, I'm going to set a deadline. And what that deadline would be is, okay, I'm going to stop taking offers, or I'm going to, all offers are due in by 7:00 PM on Sunday.

Jay Day:
So then we send a notification out to everybody, let them know their offers are due and we want their highest and best. That means the seller most likely will not counter back to anybody. They just want the best offer that you can put forward. And then a lot of times people think, is it on Is the highest price the best one? Not always. I mean, you know, have appraisal things to worry about. Some people are waving inspections. So all these different things go into play. And how we handle it is once, if seller chooses to set a deadline, we review all of them and we say, okay, so which of these are you not interested in? So we start to do the elimination that way. And then most of the time it comes down to two or three of the offers that they're sort of trying to figure out what they want to do.

Jay Day:
And then they dig into the terms, okay, well this one's going to let me stay here for free for two weeks after closing. This one waived the inspections. This one, they're not, they're guaranteeing, if it doesn't appraise, they'll pay cash out of pocket. So all these different things come into play, and that's one of the important parts of what we're dealing with. And the next thing, let's say, you know, negotiate the offer. You accept one, you sign off on the contract, you're now officially under contract. If in those terms you had financing and you had inspections, the next thing that happens is the inspections get scheduled. Depending on the situation, some of those, you know, may end up having to negotiate repairs. And also at that point, the appraisal is ordered. The appraisal is basically handled by the bank. The bank sends out a professional appraiser. Their job is to confirm the value is there so that the bank has protection of their asset, which is the home, because the bank doesn't want to lend $500,000 on something that's worth 400,000. So that's part of the process.

Are these appraisers busy people?

Yes.

Is that, and is that pretty much just what they do?

That's all they do. Wow. Yeah, that's all they do. Then you have the closing. And the closing is basically, you know, go to the title company. That's where you sign the deed. That's where you end up getting paid. Most people get their money wired to them, because going to the bank, again, with all these escalating values we've had, some people are walking away with $200,000- $300,000. It's going to take a while for that check to clear. It's a whole lot easier if you have it wired in. And then after that, all that squared away. Then there's post sell responsibilities. We got to make sure that they're ready to roll. They have the utilities taken out of their name. The new person has utilities, put in their name. If there was a post settlement occupancy, meaning that the seller was able to stay afterwards, we have to do a walkthrough.

Jay Day:
Then there's a release form that's done at the walkthrough. There's a handing over of keys, removing lockbox, stopping all the marketing. It's a pretty daunting process.

There's a lot.

Yeah. Well, and the funny thing is, I always think of that stuff as sort of boring because I've been doing it for so long, but the reality is a lot of people the most common. So what is the process? Tell me the process. How's this process going to work? And that's where I was like, you know what? That could probably make a good thing for the podcast.

No, it is, man. It's fascinating. There are so many moving parts. That's why you just called the pro right away.

Yeah, and I mean, that's a really quick water down version, but it gives you the big highlights, the big steps, and what the expectation should be. So you ready for the house of the week?

Give it to us.

All right. Our house of the week is a picturesque four bedroom home located at 50 Rum Trail in Fairfield, Pennsylvania. It's situated on a private 1.55 acre lot. This charming home offers a tranquil setting. The main level of the house features luxury vinyl plank flooring throughout, and an additional primary suite has been added for convenience. So there's what used to be called master bedroom on the upper level, and there's a master on the main level, which is super, could be great for people that need that. The traditional floor plan offers three spacious bedrooms on the upper level, providing ample space for family or guest. The basement is unfinished, offering a blank canvas for new homeowners to customize according to their preferences. The property boasts the large deck perfect for outdoor entertaining or relaxation. Additionally, there's a detached garage/shop offering plenty of space for storage. The private lot surrounding the home is adorn with mature trees providing peaceful and secluded backyard. Despite its serene location, the property remains close to everything Fairfield has to offer, including restaurants, shopping, major commuter routes. This allows for a balance between country living and convenient access to amenities. If you want to see photos of this one, go to wfre.com. Look up Tom and Jay's real estate podcast. If you like what you see, click schedule showing, and one of our agents will get you in to see that home immediately.

Tom Whalen:
I'm Tom.

I'm Jay

Jay Day and the day home team of real estate teams with our weekly real estate podcast. Thank you for listening and tell your friends all about it.