Get ready for a wild one! Karen blows off some steam in this episode. After spending a lot of time and effort with a client, she was dismissed by the client with no explanation. Obviously it's the client's decision as to who represents them, but it's basic common courtesy to explain your thinking to someone who has invested a lot of time and money into helping you find the perfect home for you, and who now will not be paid for it.
Real estate agents are people with families too! Consider this: Most people go look at houses after normal business hours and/or on weekends. That's time people normally spend with their families. Every hour an agent spends with you is an hour they choose to spend away from their family. So yes, it's the right thing to do to offer an explanation so to why you're terminating your representation agreement.
You might say, "Well, that's the lifestyle the agent chooses by their choice of profession." True. It's also true that wasted time is just a part of the cost of doing business. However, none of that is an excuse for you as a client to be rude.
Look, we get it. This industry is filled with real estate agents who will beg, badger, plead, and otherwise devalue themselves just to get your business. That's not Karen or any of the other agents who we have in our referral network. If that's what you want representing you, there are plenty of agents out there to choose from. However, if you want to work with someone who is authentic and real; if you will respect their time as much as they will respect your transaction, we want to hear from you!
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!
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.
Jen and Mike finally made the decision to stop being renters and become homeowners. They were excited! They both knew they had great credit since they checked their credit rating with a free credit reporting service, so they called an agent and started shopping. They saw some great houses, and some not so great houses. In all, they went to 30 different properties before they found THE ONE.
It was perfect. Great curb appeal, great school district, close to work, and had more than enough room for their growing family. The kitchen and the living spaces were exactly what Jen had always dreamed of, and Mike could already see himself relaxing in the built in man-cave. Before putting in their offer, they calculated for themselves what the loan payment would be and decided that it would be a stretch, but it would be worth it! So they put in their offer, and after a little negotiation, they agreed on a purchase price of $350,000. They took their executed contract to their local bank where they'd been customers for years, and put in their mortgage application. They went back to their apartment and immediately started boxing up their things. Sure, it would be several weeks before they would actually move, but they were excited!
A few days later, Jen's phone rang. It was Chris, their Loan Officer. "Jen" he began, "I'm not sure how to break this to you so I'll just say it - you and Mike can't qualify for the loan on the house." "How can that be? We both have great credit, we both have full time jobs!" "That's all true, but there's a lot more to your financial picture than good credit and employment. I'm afraid the best you can qualify for based on the information in your application is a $300,000 purchase price."
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This is a scene that plays out far more often than most people realize, and when it does happen, it's crushing for the people in Jen and Mike's shoes. Not only have they wasted a lot of time looking for and falling in love with a house they can't afford, but they also will have their perceptions of all of the future houses they CAN afford tainted by the experience. This is why it's so important to contact a Loan Officer before beginning your home search.
In this episode, we welcome Clay Bohannan, Senior Loan Originator and Partner at Encompass Lending Group as a guest host. With Clay, we dive into the many details of the mosaic that makes up your full financial picture.
In this episode you will learn:
This is part 2 of 2 of Buyer Commandment 2.
From helping you avoid questionable design choices to helping you save big money on your new home, your Buyer's Agent is a key component of your new home build, and his/her services are completely free to you! What a great deal!
It's common knowledge that if you're going to buy an existing home, you are more than likely going to need an agent. What isn't as common knowledge is that agents are absolutely essential when buying a new home from a home builder too!
Think about it - everything the builder does and says is intended for a single purpose: to get the most money out of you as possible. When you deal directly with the builder, and worse yet, you use the builder's inspector, lender, title company, etc, there is literally nobody in the transaction who is looking out for your best interests.
Enter your real estate agent. A properly trained and experienced agent will be your advocate throughout the entire process, and will provide you with the information the builder doesn't want you to know. For instance, how much the house is actually worth based on comparable properties in the area. Buying a house that isn't even built yet? Your agent can provide even more value! Best of all, the services of your agent are paid for by the builder - AT NO COST TO YOU!
Listen to the episode to learn all the details.
In the interest of limiting the length of our episodes, this is Part 1 of 2 for this Commandment.
Not all mortgages, and not all mortgage lenders, are created equally. There is a misconception in the marketplace on the part of buyers who believe that all banks will provide them with the same basic loan plans given their credit profile. Nothing could be further from the truth!
In reality, loan terms and their associated fees can vary greatly from lender to lender. When it comes to mortgage lenders, bigger isn't always better! Smaller lenders have much more flexibility with respect to the loan programs and terms they can offer to their clients. They even have quite a bit of flexibility with respect to providing discounts on fees.
Kelly Chavez, a Loan Originator with C&T Mortgage, joins us to shed some light on the sometimes intimidating mortgage world. Kelly can be reached at 281-787-2243.