Podcast - 9/1/23

Hey, it's Andy Webb.

And Jay Day.

And this is the Tom and Jay Real Estate podcast from 99.9 WFRE. I'm Andy Webb back again to fill in for Tom Whalen this week. Now, Jay selling a home. You guys aim to make it as easy and as beneficial as possible for each and every client you have. But selling a home can often have its own pain points regardless of the situation.

Oh yeah. It's a rollercoaster no matter how things are, there's so many things that are out of your control, and I mean, I thought it'd be pretty helpful to talk about diving into the challenges that sellers face in the real estate market. So number one, staging stress. Have you ever heard of that?

I've heard of people getting frazzled when they realize, oh, my home has to be shown. What do I need to do to it?

Yeah, so the staging stress, it's really interesting. We have clients we'll meet with and they're like, well, I really don't want to stager coming in to tell me I need to do this. I don't want to stager telling me I need to do that. And the funny thing is, I had one recently and with her situation, and actually now that I'm thinking about it, that person is our house of the week. So that's really funny.

Stick around for that.

So she is like, well, I do design. I don't know if I really need this. And I said, well, lemme tell you. Everybody's stress level when I talk about a stager is up to their eyeballs out with stress. And then they call me afterwards and say, that really wasn't that bad, Jay.

It's like going to a dentist.

Yeah, well, sometimes a dentist can be a little rough.

You're right. It's even better than going to a dentist.

Another thing, and this has been an issue that's been ongoing, market uncertainty, whether we're in the market we're in now or where we were 10 years ago, one of the big things that sellers struggle with is when is the right time to sell? Is it spring? Is it this time? Is it that time? And we tell people it's not a season. The right time to sell is when all of your ducks are in a row. You know what you need to do. And regardless of what time of year it is, homes sell, period. We've sold homes Christmas Eve, we've sold homes around Thanksgiving. I tell everyone, I'm like, don't be discouraged by that at all. There are buyers always looking. People are relocating, things are happening. Life happens. And when life happens, that impacts things. And some of the stuff forces us to make a change. And that change could be buying or selling a home. The pricing dilemma, every seller is like, I don't want to list it for too low where I lose money. And then if you list it too high, what happens if then all of a sudden you're perceived that you're not going to get it sold and then you're going to get a lower offer because you shot too high? We tell people there is a balance between it. We give them an idea of what strategies exist. And after informing and educating our sellers, we're like, okay, so now that you understand this, now you understand the strategies. How do you want to go about it? We never force anyone to do one or the other. It's always something that's up to our seller clients. Our job is to inform them of the pros and cons both ways. And then they make the choice of what is most comfortable for them at that time. Another one, the waiting game. That whole closing process, it's a marathon and there are lots of hurdles. It's not like you're just running on the track and there's nothing there. Even when you have very little to no contingencies, there are still bumps in the road that can happen. We had one recently that someone was purchasing a home that we had listed and the person had a horrific accident and they're in the hospital and they may not even survive. So again, the human side is, oh my God, that's horrible. And it's nothing wrong with the seller. Also is like, well, we were supposed to close in like three days and we'd tell 'em that's not happening again. We made it through all the hurdles we were a couple days away from closing. Things can just happen. It's all out of your control. And again, we always tell people, when you try and address things, you only should worry about what's within your control. And what happens in the universe in the world is not within our control. Inspection hurdles we've had, and I don't know what it is, we've been talking about this, I've had a lot of issues recently with septic systems. Well, septic systems can be minor fix or it could be a very expensive fix. Once you have a septic that fails, you're in a situation, you're going to have to deal with that. Or let's say you find there's something seriously wrong with the structure of the house. So taking inspections and we're seeing more and more of these offers, even though the market is still hot, we're finding people are really wanting to do those inspections because they're paying top dollar for the house. They're paying a higher interest rate. So they do not have a bunch of discretionary funds to fix anything after the fact that they may have missed by not doing an inspection. Loan approvals, this is another one. I mean, you get a letter. How solid is that letter? Does the letter really mean anything? And candidly, we've talked about no disparage to loan officers, but I do think that there should be some repercussions for loan officers that give faulty approval letters. There's no way you can guarantee it's going to be fine. Or even if it is say that the lender put everything through, it was all great, and that person has been at that job 10 years and then all of a sudden with the economy, they stopped the overtime. And as part of their pre-approval it was baked in that they were going to have the overtime. They get the next two pay stubs and they see there's zero overtime. Now they don't qualify. So again, loan approvals are something heartstrings. This is one of the biggest ones. You live in the, it's your home. And we have people say all the time, but this is my home, this is how I like it. And when people say that, we're like, we understand there's a lot of emotion tied to the home. There's a lot of memories that have happened good and bad. But when we're preparing your home for sale, the good thing is by doing the depersonalization, by maybe painting, changing some things, it should help you separate a little bit from that and let a little of the emotion out. But the reality is we know it's an emotional experience for most people. The only ones that we see that get really excited are maybe a divorced couple. One person leaves the other one's like, I can't sell this place fast enough. I want to get rid of all these memories. Full disclosure, honesty is the policy, but it's not just being honest. It's a legality. If you know that there's something wrong. If you know that the roof leaks when it rains, if you know that something isn't functioning, like we're in the summertime and your heat doesn't work, but the AC works, we don't hide those things. These are things that we have to put out there. And we get into the nuts and bolts of how the house is functioning. Communication woes. One of the biggest complaints that sellers have is the agent shows up. They're all in their face to get paperwork signed and then they disappear. And it's a stressful time. People get nervous, people get worried, and they want to know what's going on. So we always chat with our sellers and say, Hey, during this process there's going to be lots of walls where we're just waiting. It's almost like if you're building a house and you see it's so exciting when you see the foundation go in, then you see the walls go up, then you see the roof go on, then you start seeing framing, and then two weeks goes by and when you drive, it doesn't look like anything's done, but there's wiring that's happening, there's plumbing, that's there's all these things, but it looks like it's at a standstill. So while we're waiting for inspections to happen, while we're waiting for responses, sellers do get antsy and want to know things. So we always say, Hey, what is the best way that you like to communicate? Do you want us to get in touch with you when something changes when we have news, do you want to have a conversation once a week? Do you want to have a conversation once a day? Do you prefer phone? Do you prefer text? Do you prefer email? It's just so much easier if you ask the seller, which we do, what is your expectation as far as communication so that we can meet and exceed that goal? And most people don't ask people that, they do it their way or they're like, this is, I do it. This is my system. Well, we're dealing with people and everyone is different. That's what makes us unique. Competitive markets. And this is not where we are right now. Sometimes there's too many fish in the sea, there's too many homes out there, and there are pockets where maybe you're in a neighborhood and there's five homes in the neighborhood that are on the market, and you can overprice your home and end up missing out because there's something better. Or somebody decides that they were going to list their home. They see you got yours on the market, they put theirs on the market two days later, and they have a lower price and their home is a little bigger. We don't know what people's motivations are on these other situations. And sometimes people will try to come in and undercut just to try to get done faster. And another thing that's a big one is relocation, juggling. And this is refer to it as a real life game of Tetris because it is one of the biggest challenges that you have, especially if you need to sell to buy in this market that is extremely challenging. Or let's say you're relocating, and I have one that closed last week. My people, they didn't want to have the home on the market until they moved. They were relocated to Florida and they had a child at home that had special needs, and it was just overwhelming for them to think of having the house in perfect show condition. So they made a decision, we're going to buy our house in Florida. We're going to move everything to Florida, and we're going to list the house once we're gone. And when I met with them, they're like, but we're a little worried because we're going to have to come back. We're going to have things that come up. Let's say we have an inspection and we need things done. And I said, well, actually, our team, we deal with relocation stuff all the time. If you don't want to come back, you never need to come back. Not even for closing. You can get your money put right into your bank account. You never need to be here again. And we handled that where they never had to come back. Their home didn't hit the market until after they were in Florida and their home was in West Virginia. I'm like, if you don't want to come back to West Virginia, you can enjoy Florida. I was texting with one of the sellers that their son is loving the pool, he's never been in water before. Loves the area they're loving. And I was like, well, I'm glad that you guys like heat because August is a little rough in Florida.

Absolutely.

But those are just some of the detailed things that people get worried about. And even in a market where we are now, where there's a low supply and a high demand, all those hurdles, if you just think you can do this on your own, I mean you can try, but what do you do when you run into these situations? That's one of the advantages of having a licensed real estate professional who has lot of experience in your corner. We can help you navigate through these things. There may be things you worry about that you shouldn't have to worry about. I had another one recently where the person, we got an offer on the house and they wanted to get it under contract before we even hit the market. The buyer didn't see the house. They're just basing it off of knowing those homes in that area. And I had to lay out to the seller, the pros and the cons. And same thing. I'm like, could you get more money for the house? Maybe? Could you have a better offer? Maybe? Could you end up getting not as good of an offer? Maybe? So we talk through all the things and say, well, where do you really want to be? Again, it boils down to, here's your pros, here are your cons. And then you make that ultimate decision of what makes the most sense for you. And you need to feel good about it, feel like it was a win, and the other side needs to feel that way. If everybody feels positive about it, it's so enjoyable when we have that as opposed to you don't need to have two people and one's in one side and one's on the other side, and they're duking it out. That's not fun for anybody. So if you're thinking about selling and any of those things have been concerns of yours and you want to talk through it, there's no obligation. You can reach us at 866-702-9038. You can go to dayhometeam.com. We're more than happy to chat with you about it. We've had clients we've talked to three, four years before they actually make a move. It's never too early to start a conversation, is what I would say.

That's a great point. And speaking of conversations about making a move, if there's maybe a move in your future, is there our house of the week that they might be considering?

Yeah. This one, and this house is meticulous. 

You mentioned this, the owner, the seller earlier is actually a designer.

Yes, 1802 Whispering Meadow Court in Frederick, listed for 625. 4 bedrooms, two full baths, two half baths, an open floor plan, updated kitchen with stainless steel appliances in a kitchen island. There's a morning room extension, which offers plenty of natural light, partially finished basement. In today's world, people don't like to say things, but I'll quote what my client, one of the sellers, it's his man cave, and it is, I mean, there's pool tables. There's a freestanding bar down there. It is his man cave. There's a family room on the main level with a fireplace and built-in shelving. The yard is already fenced. There's a deck, there's a large shed. This house is 100% move in ready. And again, the people have been meticulous. It's very clean. You can move right in. If you happen to have any furry friends again, the yard's already done. You've already got the fence, you've already got a deck. You don't have anything you need to do to make this home. Again, the basement's partially finished a big area, and then you have the storage area and you have a half bath down there. So go to wfre.com, look up Tom and Jay's real estate podcast. You can see the house of the week. If you like what you see, let us know and we'll get you in for a private tour.

I'm Andy Webb.

And I'm Jay Day.

And this has been the Tom and Jay Real Estate podcast from 99.9 WFRE.