Put yourself in the place of a couple who find a great rental on Craigslist.com. The house was beautiful, it was in a great neighborhood, and it was being listed below market! They were happy with the pictures they saw in the ad, so they called the number. The landlord said there had been a lot of interest in the property, so if they really wanted it, they'd have to make a decision quickly and send in their application and application fee quickly, so they did.
A few days later, they got a call from the landlord to let them know that of the 7 applications that he'd received, he'd chosen their application. Of course they were very happy and eager to know what to do next. The landlord said he was about to go out of town on vacation for a week, so if they'd just mail money orders constituting first and last month's rent and security deposit, he'd meet them at the house on the day the lease began to deliver the keys.
On moving day, they showed up and wondered why there were other moving trucks on the street. It turns out that the person they'd thought was the landlord actually didn't own the property, and the real owner had no idea what had been going on. The scam artist had made the same promises to 7 different callers, and had made off with roughly $80,000 in money orders that had been sent in to cover rents and security deposits. Even worse, the scam artist had all of their personal information from the application and stole their identities, opening credit card accounts in their names!
It's scams like this that underline how important it is to have a real estate agent working on your behalf, even if you're renting a home or apartment. Their services are completely free to you, and they have access to resources that will help to ensure you're never the victim of a scam artist. Listen to this story and more in this episode!
In this episode, we welcome Nicole Normandin to the show to talk about Stuff The Sleigh, the charity we are benefitting at the upcoming live event on December 14.
In the interview, we learn about her, and her personal connection to the mission of Stuff The Sleigh, which benefits pediatric cancer and hematology patients.
Nicole gives us a behind the curtains look at how Stuff The Sleigh delivers its services and what it takes to manage and grow a Non-Profit organization.
Finally, she shares some gripping stories about the children that have benefitted from Stuff The Sleigh.
Don't miss this episode!
Not all offers are the same. There are many ways a crafty buyer can hide costs in their offer that reduce the overall value of deal for you as a seller. This is one of the many reasons why you need a competent, detail oriented agent looking out for your best interests in your transaction.
In this episode, we delve in to some of the nooks and crannies that make up the offer and walk you through your options when you're selling your home. For example, did you know that your buyer's source of financing can have an impact on the total amount of money you end up with in your pocket? I didn't know that either until we recorded this episode!
It's been a frequently repeated position on the podcast that the barriers to entry into the real estate business are far too low, and that results in a lot of unqualified people getting their licenses. These agents frequently get frustrated with how difficult it is to be consistently successful as agents. They frequently take these frustrations out on their fellow agents by making transactions harder than they need to be.
In this episode, we tell a number of stories of agents who refused to maintain their professionalism, and in the process ended up costing their clients money. The upshot of these stories - as an agent, it is your JOB to be professional and dispassionate so that you can act in the best interest of your client at all times.
As real estate dorks, we enjoy watching HGTV (well, 2 out of 3 of us do). There are some great pieces of information you can get out of watching the many great shows on the channel. For example, you can get a very good idea of what styles and finishes you like in homes, and you can get a great idea of what kind of layouts appeal to you.
However, while watching any television show, it's important for you to remember that pretty much everything you see is scripted, and only about half of it is true. For example, on renovation shows it's pretty common for the contractor to give a cost estimate on the spot after eyeballing the house for 2 minutes. This will not happen to you in real life. Furthermore, the prices they quote differ greatly when they are on camera versus how they would answer to you in real life.
Enjoy this episode as we delve in to our favorite HGTV (and other channel) shows and point out the things you should be taking with a grain of salt.