Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Speaker A: And we are live.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: All right, this is the fun part, right?
[00:00:09] Speaker A: This is the fun part. So we're going to do things a little bit different today. We, we are live. We are streaming on, not Tick tock at the moment, but Facebook, YouTube and Instagram. And before we dive into things, we're going to talk to you guys a little bit about upcoming events and what we have planned. So I am Heather with Head in the Clouds, and this is Andres, a.
[00:00:32] Speaker B: Real estate agent in Alabama and host of Chatter Lessons.
Excited to be here again. Another beautiful day, another amazing opportunity to be able to connect with you, Heather, and the audience that's joining us here. So this is going to be fun.
[00:00:49] Speaker A: It is going to be fun. And this is real talk where we get into it and we really dig deep and discover what's working, what's not working, and what everybody's talking about. So. So speaking of what everybody is talking about, we spent the morning mapping out what we're going to be talking about. Andres, you want to give us a little sneak peek into some of the stuff that we're going to be doing?
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think it's, it's beautiful. I know we, we started at the beginning of the month here in July, and I'll be honest, it didn't go with a lot of preparation. Right. Just two weeks before we said, hey, we should do the podcast, we contemplated this.
And a week before we said, let's go live, let's just do it. And, and we've been putting this together on a week by week basis.
And, and we, man, we're having fun when enjoying ourselves. And most importantly, we're bringing a lot of great content here for our audience that are things that are necessary topics that are valuable and details that could be overlooked in many ways and especially during a real estate transaction. Right.
[00:02:04] Speaker A: Definitely. I think a lot of people feel alone when they become an agent. If you're not part of a team, especially if you actually are part of a team, sometimes you still feel alone because you're feel like everybody's maybe surpassing you or everybody has secrets and tools that it's working for them, but you don't know what it is. It can be. Being a real estate agent can be very isolating.
[00:02:25] Speaker B: It is. It definitely could be. And, and I'm one of those. I, I felt like that a little bit at the beginning because of not having, not having that closeness with the team. Right. Not knowing what it would take to, to do the business, to do the job, not preparing myself for, for what's ahead so in many instances that I felt a little bit lonely or lost, didn't know what to do. So we want to help agents that are in that situation, at least give them a little insight into what that looks like and also to, to consumers, clients on their end as well, because that will tend to happen. There might not be a great communication from the agent to the client. And in every step of the way, maybe you're unsure what the next steps are or where to, where to go. You're not sure if you're in a position to buy or not or if it's the right moment to sell.
So we want to provide you some insights into all those areas so that you can make an informed decision and, and be able to connect with someone that's truly there to help you.
Right.
[00:03:40] Speaker A: That's what it's all about. It's all about the connections and just being a good person in general. I think if you're a good person and you have good intentions, everything else kind of flows naturally the way it's supposed to go.
[00:03:53] Speaker B: Absolutely. That's the beauty of it. Right. This, not every week we talk about this last week and on Tuesday. Not every transaction is going to be the same, not every interaction, not every client relationship is going to be the same. And just navigating that, building that relationship, building that trust and, and at the end of the day is for the client's best interest.
[00:04:20] Speaker A: Yep. Always looking out for your client, making sure you're protecting them, their assets, their money.
[00:04:26] Speaker B: Yeah. I was at a small networking opportunity yesterday, a team of Hispanics, lenders and Realtors here in the northern Alabama part.
And I'll be honest, working with the Hispanic community, I would say myself, it's a challenge. It's a challenge for, for two reasons.
We are, we don't listen.
We, we are a hard headache. We come into this country, we work hard and we always have a sense of security. Right.
And, and we don't tend to, to do the things that, that will put us in a position to buy and be, and be able to get to that point.
And, and a lot of times we have a guard up. So anybody approaches us or, or if you think about providing personal information, money, we are going to have a guard up. People have a guard up. And, and, and they don't want to allow you into that space. Right. They don't want to give you access to anything. They don't want to talk about certain numbers. I don't want to talk about certain things because of so many insecurity as they as they move into this country and, and so many challenges that they're facing. And one thing that we were.
We're talking about in the group is, you know, once you, you build a trust with the families, you have many more opportunities. Right. Because we, we tend to close and be close to one another and we pass down referral, but it's building that trust and be able to connect with people and educate them. And what. That's one of the main things in this job is being able to educate people in order for them to make an informed decision. Because you want to help them out. I want to help them out. I want to help them put them in a position not only for them to grow, but to help their family grow over the long term. Right.
And to do that, they got to trust you.
[00:06:26] Speaker A: Yeah, right.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: You got to build that relationship. And that's the first and foremost in this business.
Everything else will take care in itself. And that's something that we were going over and over yesterday.
And it's great to see that the group there, that's their focus, that's their mentality.
Because I'll be honest, I had an experience that worked where that wasn't the case.
You know, I had people helping me to buy a home that. That wasn't the case. And, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. I've talked to a number of eight people, a number of agents that became a real estate agent because either of a bad experience or because of a great experience they had with an agent themselves. So.
And the reason I share that is because it's. It's so important to, to get to that point of building a trust relationship with, with your clients and, and for the clients to feel like you are there for the best interest.
[00:07:25] Speaker A: I think a lot of people throw that word trust around and you know, oh, trust me, trust me. I'm looking out for your best interest. Trust me. You see how many commercials do you see where it's like, trust me, you know, I, I'll do this or my clients that and it.
Trust is something that you don't have in somebody until they've proven that they're actually worth trusting and you can actually trust them. It's. It's just a word until that point. I think it's hard for people now, especially with, in this economy just in this time after Covid, it's hard to trust people because most people have a very me first attitude.
[00:08:03] Speaker B: It's earned. It's not just given right.
I've always believe I Gotta earn your trust. I, I don't, I don't want you to give it to me.
I need to earn her, you know, by my actions, by my words. I'm a man of my word. If I tell you something, I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna build that over the long term of our relationship. It's not just something that just throw away and you trust someone with.
Would you give anybody $10,000 to go to the store?
I. Random stranger on the street, I'm gonna trust you with $10,000.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: Right?
[00:08:39] Speaker B: No. Right. It's.
It's not gonna happen.
It's not gonna happen. So it's something that is earning and like I said, it gets thrown a lot around. Way too much.
But yeah, to go back into your question, man, see. See how a derail I get? Yes. You asked me one simple thing. What are we going to be talking about over the next couple of weeks? And a whole spill of things because something that, that you and I would. And I just mentioned, although over the past month we talk about real estate quite a bit. I want to bring in somebody else as well to talk about their job, their industry, their journey.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: I was just gonna ask you that. I was gonna say we mentioned bringing on members that you're working with of the Hispanic community. And it doesn't have to be real estate related. It could be their small business that they're running. We would love to talk to them, find out about their business. If it's a product, let's have them demonstrate the product and show us what it is that they're doing, you know, to provide wealth and like trying to create generational wealth for their family. So let's get people on here, entrepreneurs, and see what everybody is doing.
[00:09:47] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think the beauty of it is we all have a journey, we all have a story. Right.
And I want people to share that.
Something I learned a few months ago from one of the mentors in the company I work with is a lot of people connect with why you do things, not what you do.
You know, they connect with your story, why you're doing what you're doing, rather than, they know, I sell houses, but why am I selling houses? Right.
So, and, and that's. That struck to me because it made me reflect on the reason why I became a realtor, why I'm doing what I'm doing and put that into paper.
And I know all of us as entrepreneur and own a business, we all have a story on why we, why we decided to go that route and how did we get there?
So, so I want to open this room to share some of that stories because I know for me that's very impactful and I'm sure that you can impact someone else that may be listening and, and be able to say, okay, this is not, you know, something that they had on their mind and that could be the story, the moment that pushes them to continue to follow through. Right.
Because a lot of times we are the biggest obstacle in our journey. You know, we hesitate too much, we, we think about it too much, we prolong the process a lot more than, than we should have and, and hearing from somebody else that could be in the same or was in the situation could be a life changing. So I want to open the room to anyone in the industry that has a business and want to share their story to come on board.
We'll dive into some of those questions and details.
[00:11:40] Speaker A: And if you're waiting for it to be perfect, it's never going to be the perfect that you want it to be. You just got to start doing it. Like, how long were we, like, oh, we're going to do the podcast when it's ready, when it's ready, when it's ready. And it wasn't ready when we started, but we knew we were waiting for it to be ready. It was never going to be ready.
[00:11:59] Speaker B: I still not perfect, right? I think every week we've learned something, we've identified some areas of improvement and that's the beauty of it, right?
Always looking for ways to improve, make things a lot better, a lot easier for ourselves, for our clients, bring better content.
So it's never that perfect moment.
And in fact, one of my friends in Massachusetts, he's an agent over there, he was talking about, you know, a lot of buyers tend to wait for the perfect time, you know, and we, we tend to wait for the perfect moment to do certain things.
The perfect moment is now when you decide to do something. You know, there is no such thing as a perfect moment. You just got to do it and you go from it. We learn a lot more from our mistakes and our errors done than reading about it.
So that's something that I have seen and I've heard over the past year. Many coaches, mentors, people that have success in the business, in any type of businesses, you just got to do it. You learn from those mistakes, you learn from those errors, improve, try it again and you continue on.
That's the best feature in life.
[00:13:18] Speaker A: And if you're thinking, well, my business wouldn't, wouldn't qualify because it's not real estate related or there's no way it could be real estate related.
Trust me. It can be. No matter what you're doing, we can. You know, I feel like I don't know. Andre, have you ever seen the movie My Big Fat Greek Wedding? It's an older movie.
[00:13:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I have.
[00:13:36] Speaker A: You know the part where the, the dad is like, give me a word, any word, and I will tell you how the root of that word is Greek. And then also the movie, they're coming up with weird words. And he's able to relate it back to the root of the word being a Greek word. I feel like that's how anything is with real estate. If you're like, well, I have a craft business and I make these, like, wooden sign things and I'm like, closing gifts. Because agents need closing gifts. So they could use you for closing gifts. Or if you're like, well, I have a, a house cleaning or office cleaning business. Okay. We need cleaners all the time for homes and commercial buildings. So we could use, you know, there. You're like, oh, well, I'm a construction worker.
We have people that build houses, so we need, you know, construction workers. And everybody needs a handyman. If you have a house, something, and it's going to break.
So I say you give me business, any business, and I can find a way it goes back to real estate.
[00:14:30] Speaker B: That is true.
That is true. I think there's ways to connect them, but more so more ways to connect with, with the audience. You know, you never know where people are at and where they're looking from. Right?
So just be able to put it out there and be able to connect with, with an audience.
Just, just before this, I was looking at and thinking about what is my ideal client? Right?
What is my ideal client?
And I had several questions that I want to answer. I'm like, okay, I haven't thought about that. I haven't thought about that. I haven't thought about that.
So now I gotta go back and, and really think about, you know, what my ideal client is.
Yes, I want to work and help everyone.
But on the back end, I think every industry, every, every business has, okay, someone specific that you would like to work with. Is everyone going to be that? No, absolutely not.
But there is someone out there that you are, are looking to help and be able to connect because of X, Y and Z. Right?
So I was thinking of that and I'm like, okay, I don't have that clear yet.
You know, so I need to, I need to work on that myself.
So yeah, it goes back to not just real estate. My ideal client goes back to other areas not pertaining to real estate, which I then tie them up to the real estate space.
So yes, and your business doesn't have to be real estate. So we can talk about it.
And our goal is to. To hear about it. Here's your story. Hear your journey and share it with anybody. Someone will be able to connect whether it's real estate or not.
You know, we all have a story.
[00:16:26] Speaker A: And what you were talking about with, you know, finding your ideal client, you just have to ask yourself, who is it that I want to help?
What is the problem that they have that I can solve? And, and how am I going to solve that problem?
Those are the three starting questions you need to ask so that you can move forward to try to identify your ideal client or the avatar, the person that you're trying to engage with online.
And speaking of that, let me bring up what we are going to talk about today. And that is, I don't. There we go, the home buying process.
So we have our little game board here. Monopoly, as you like to say.
[00:17:13] Speaker B: I said a Monopoly right away. I'm like, okay, there's a go.
[00:17:17] Speaker A: Monopoly was banned in my house growing up. Me and my siblings couldn't. We. It got too crazy.
[00:17:23] Speaker B: What that. That's a fun game, man. I just for a quick reference, I remember one game that lasted for hours with my, my older siblings.
I, I have at the time it was four of us, but my two oldest one, it just lasted for hours.
I don't know. No. Nobody could have give.
Give in on selling their property.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: That's funny.
I don't know.
[00:17:53] Speaker B: Here I am involved in real estate. Right.
[00:17:56] Speaker A: We got too crazy with it at my house. So it was not something that was allowed to be played more than the front first time we played it. And then my mom was like, no, no more Monopoly.
[00:18:08] Speaker B: Why? You guys fought too much.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: Oh yeah. I think like little houses went flying. It was just not, not good. But I don't even want to try it as an adult with my siblings. I feel like it'd be worse.
[00:18:22] Speaker B: Right?
Have you.
[00:18:25] Speaker A: No, go ahead.
[00:18:27] Speaker B: I was gonna say have your kids play. Have you allowed your kids to play?
[00:18:30] Speaker A: Yeah, we played Monopoly. I played monopoly with them and it was fine. It was good. We. We last year were into board games a lot. We did a lot of board games. We haven't really done it this year. So I have to break out some of the games again and have us start playing.
But no, they, they do. So this kind of, I keep calling it a puzzle for whatever reason, but it's a game board. It's a game board with the path of the home buying process. So each square is a step that gets you closer to the finishing line, which is the closing table. Now I'm going to, I know this looks really small on the screen so I'm going to attach the link so that anybody watching or listening can download this and then you have access to this board. You can go back and reference it. And then as well, on the bottom there are some scan some QR codes to scan. If you want to book an appointment with Andres or you want to book an appointment with me, go ahead and schedule those there. Andres is licensed in Alabama and I am licensed in Georgia. So if you're looking to buy sell in Alabama, that's where you can find Andres. And if you're looking to buy seller Georgia, that's where you can find me.
[00:19:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. And, and some of the regulations, although they're very similar in many states, they're slightly, slightly changes state to state but the home buying process is generally the same, tends to look out.
But yeah, those most details should be addressed with your, with your local agents, with your local lenders to ensure everything is it's in compliance with each regulations there.
So yeah, today we're diving in into the, the buyers process and we're going to touch on a key on a few key points. There's a few other points that we're going to have one of our lender partners dive into more specific next week and then over the course of the next month we're going to dive into additional processes in that aspect, whether it's the title insurance. We want to get a guest in here from the title company to dive into that process as well as home insurance. We want to dive into that process as well. We last week we had the pleasure of having a home inspector.
So, so we want to bring an expert in those areas to provide you a more insight detail into what each steps is and how they their point of view. Right. Because we're giving our point of view our perspective from a real estate agent and we want to, you know, clarify some areas for the home buyers and sellers. But we also, I think it's important to understand those other point of view from a lenders title institute, title company, insurance company, home inspector so that you get the full picture of what happens behind the scene of a real estate transaction.
[00:21:21] Speaker A: Exactly. And I'm super excited to dive into this first topic A little more later, which is the pre approval process. I can't talk pre approval process.
Let me take a drink here.
There we go.
[00:21:37] Speaker B: Absolutely.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: And I know we're going to get into that with Marianne and what all you need for that, but just to kind of explain it to you, if you're a first time home buyer and you have never done this before, or even if you have bought homes before, but your agent didn't really explain the process to you, before you can start looking at homes, you need to know what your budget is. You need to know what you can afford. Like you wouldn't go to the grocery store to buy groceries, load up your cart and then see how much money you have. You, you want to know how much money you have to spend at the store. And it's the same thing for a house. You don't want to start looking at houses in a price range that you can't afford because then nothing in your price range is going to ever compare to those houses that you were looking at before.
So what you have to do is get what's called a pre approval letter from your lender and think of your pre approval letter as your golden ticket.
And when you're going to go house hunting, you're standing on the platform, but you're not going to get on that train without your golden ticket. And your golden ticket is your pre approval letter. So, so that train ain't going nowhere until you have that pre approval letter.
[00:22:35] Speaker B: Just, just imagine going over to see a home. And, and man, you love the property. You, you walk through there, you, this is man, this is it. Like Heather, I want this property. He has it checks all the boxes and next thing you know, you don't qualify for that amount.
You are fifty thousand, a hundred thousand dollars short, twenty five thousand dollars short on that property. You're that close. But you are not.
You don't have the cash on hand and you don't have the pre approval for that amount. That's heartbreaking, you know, because you just came across what you've always wanted and it's right in front of you, but you can't reach it.
So I think having that pre approval, it's sets expectations. Right. Clearly this is what I'm going to be able to look. And now we can focus a home search based on what you can afford so that we can find the right property, your dream property within that is reachable, right. That you will be able to walk through and you'll be.
And in 30 so days you have the keys and be able to say, man, I got it. You know, honestly I, I've seen it happen. It's heartbreaking to go through a property and next thing you know, I'm like, okay.
[00:23:56] Speaker A: It is, it can be devastating. I've met several of the clients that we have gotten in the past have been from hosting open houses. So we'll have an open house and then people will come to that open house. And a lot of them don't have agents. So if they don't have agents, we're like, oh well, lucky for you, I'm an agent. And then we connect them with our lender, they do their pre approval process and it turns out they don't qualify for the amount that that home that they already toured was. And I met them at, you know, the more expensive home and then we're looking at other homes with them in their price range and they're, you know, they're devastated because they're like, I don't even want to do this anymore. It doesn't look anything like the house that, you know, I first saw. So it's always best to get that pre approval to know your budget and then to have a comfortable budget.
You know, I always tell my buyers too, I'm like, this is, you know, the maximum the lender says you qualify for, you don't have to spend the maximum. There's no law that says if you're, you know, qualified for 700, 000, you have to spend 700,000.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: Correct? That, that is true. That's something I always encourage as well. Because one thing is important to, to understand is what you get pre approved for and also what you're willing to pay on a monthly basis, right? So I always say, look, talk, let's talk. The numbers connect with your lender.
And that's why it's so important to have a lender you trust that you are, that is in constant communication with you because you can sit down with them and break down the entire monthly payment and see what you're comfortable with, right? So if you get approved for 700, 000, let's say, but you're not comfortable paying that, making that payment, let's break it down.
What are you comfortable with?
All right, now let's look at a home based on what you're comfortable with and let's find the dream home because again, you can walk through a house, you can get approved for 700, 000, you can walk through a house, but you're not comfortable without the payments, then we're going to have to take a step back.
And then, and like you said, it could be very discouraging when you walk into a house and, and you're not able to get the house. And then you realize what you can afford will not get you anything like the house you want.
And even if that's the case and I tell them you don't have to necessarily buy. Now, you know, take a step back, let's talk to the lender again.
What are you comfortable making? And let's look at a property that you're going to be able to afford within the price range and when can you make that happen?
So we can take the necessary steps and put the plan in place to make that happen. Because you approve pre approved for a certain amount doesn't mean you have to jump right in and buy a house. I want to get you the right house at a price that you can afford on a payment that you are comfortable making.
[00:26:55] Speaker A: And there's a lot of things that go into the payment you've got. If there's an hoa, you have HOA dues, you have property taxes, you've got to, when you're factoring in what you can afford monthly, you have to count those into the mortgage payment as well. And that doesn't even include, include utilities on this house.
So if it's a bigger house, you have to pay for heating, you have to pay for air, you have to pay for trash, you have to pay for water, you have to pay for WI fi. We stream everything. But if you have cable, you have to pay for cable. Then you have all the other bills that you were going to have anyways, like your, you know, your car bill, your car note, your insurance for your car. Homeowners. I don't know if I already said homeowners insurance, but homeowners insurance and then you know, cell phone bills, if you have cell phones. So there's a lot to factor into. Can I afford this home?
[00:27:44] Speaker B: Absolutely. I think that's another area that we can dive in with one of the lenders, you know, the dti, the lower dti, the high end DTI and the type of programs that they qualify for for those. But it's, it's a very important area for people to understand on how that plays in, into their, their mortgage.
[00:28:09] Speaker A: And one thing I know we've touched on this before with Marian is a lot of people get, I was gonna say they get very sensitive and like almost combative about turning in the paperwork to get the loan. They don't want to do it. They're like, why do I have to turn this in? Why do they need to know that? Why do they need to know how much I make at my job?
And just a straightforward answer is because they're loaning you hundreds of thousands of dollars and they want to know that you can pay it back. So if you want the loan, you're gonna have to show that you have the means to pay it back.
[00:28:44] Speaker B: Oh, absolutely.
Some of the, just to share some of the stories I heard from Marion and there's this deal that she had five days before close, the person lost their job, you know that, that kills the deal right there.
And it's one of the reasons why they're consistently asking for documents and, and making sure that everything's in line all the way through closing. Because like you said, it says it's several hundred thousand that they let in your bio. Right.
And just to put the, put yourself in that position, would you just take someone's word and say, hey, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna pay you the, the fifteen hundred dollars a month for a hundred thousand dollar loan.
Would you give a hundred thousand dollar loan to anybody? Just like that? Right? It's not gonna happen. Just like I said earlier, you're not just gonna give some random person 10,000 $, hey, can you go deposit this at the bank? I don't know who you are, but just, just put this on the bank.
[00:29:48] Speaker A: Promise to pay me back?
[00:29:51] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, it's not going to happen. So I think we all have to take measures to ensure that, that you are able to get that back, that the person in front of you, that the person receiving that money is able to afford it. And at the end of the day it is, it's for your benefit, right?
They're looking at your business, your finances and ensuring that, okay, given all the documents, given your debt to income ratio, you are able to make that payment and you're comfortable making the payment. That's why I said there's a difference between what you can afford and how comfortable you are making a payment. Because I could, I could afford a million dollars. Right, but am I comfortable making that monthly payment? Hell no. You know, so two separate things there.
So you have to, to be able to make that and again, connect with a lender that you trust so that you facilitate that process, you facilitate that communication.
Because like I said earlier, it's not easy. And a lot of people have a wall about sharing personal documentations, personal details.
[00:30:59] Speaker A: And the whole process.
You have people that are like, I already turned in my paperwork. They're asking for more stuff. They keep asking for more stuff. We're closing tomorrow. Why are they still asking for more paperwork?
Because that's how it is. And unfortunately, they're gonna keep asking stuff until all the conditions and underwriting are met. And that's something we're gonna dive into with Marianne coming up this month is what some of those conditions are. And just about having the stuff ready, knowing ahead of time, okay, you're gonna have to source this money. You're gonna need to have things lined up so that you can just hand them over, because you're. If you want the house, you're gonna have to turn in the documentation just.
[00:31:37] Speaker B: To share a quick story. And it happened with. I was working with Marion on a deal.
We didn't. That deal fell apart. Not for anyone's, you know, just small details, but for the client, man, and I love her. Today, they're family to me. Now with the client, I was in constant communications, and there was always little contingency, little documents, documents that the team needed that underwriting send back and request it.
And every time I call the client, I always say, hey, everything's good. You know, I haven't heard anything so far. I communicated consistently with her, but if a few days pass and she didn't hear from me, she. She will call me and say, hey, how's everything going? I'm like, have you noticed that every time you reach out to me, something happens?
They need some more documents.
And sure enough, within the day, I hear back from you, hey, I'm gonna need this. I'm gonna need that. And she stopped calling me.
She stopped calling me. I say, I told you everything is good if you don't call me. But the moment you call me, you bring something is needed. And she just completely.
Look, to this day, she's like, I don't even call you anymore because everything. Even if we're not in the transaction right now.
[00:32:56] Speaker A: But I called you, and they. They asked me for some documentation.
[00:33:00] Speaker B: So we were just having fun with it, but it's a lovely family, and. And, man, it's. It turned out every. Every little. Every time she called me, something came up. And I'm like, see what happens?
But I check with her twice a week or. Or so, and nothing comes up. But the moment you reach out to me, something will come up. And she's like, that's it. I know you're gonna call me. Certainly, I will not call you back.
[00:33:27] Speaker A: That is hilarious.
[00:33:28] Speaker B: So, man, it was interesting, you know, didn't plan out at the time, but she's moving forward in the next month or two. So excited to get her back on track and help her out. And of course that communication will be established. So nothing comes up after we get started.
[00:33:46] Speaker A: This is a one way communication only.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: Seriously. That's what, that's how it's going to be like. I learned my lesson. I'm not going to call you anytime until we're done.
[00:33:57] Speaker A: Strictly email at this point.
[00:34:00] Speaker B: But, but hey, those things come out right.
Underwriting is more documents.
Things are going to come up and it's important to have that communication where we keep things going on a timely manner because as we're going to dive in with Miriam and all of that next week, then we'll bring some more specific the type of documents and the reasons behind it so that we can clarify some of those.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Let's talk about the next step now, which after you get your pre approval. So say you've turned in all the documents for now that they need and you got your pre approval. So now you know your loan amount and let's just say your loan amount is, let's just say 350 to 400. That's your price range. 350,000 to $400,000 is a price range that you're going to be looking in for a home. So let's talk about now the next step which is actually searching for that home.
What is, what is your first step? I know like different lawyers, real estate agents. I don't know why I said lawyers. Different real estate agents have different ways of doing things with their clients when it comes to sending them homes to look at, taking them out to look at homes. What is your process, Andres?
[00:35:19] Speaker B: Well, I like to first sit down with them and, and, and identify one what they're looking for. There's on a surfers level, right, because we can say oh, I like, I want a three bedroom, four bedroom, three bath, I want a yard, I want open floor plan kitchen, not too close to neighbors.
This type of property, two level, single family, single level.
I consider that the, the surface level needs and wants. Right.
But I think there's more to it because I like to sit down with them and really understand what's important for them in that property. Right. Like what type of kitchen, what type of stove. I like a gas stove.
You know, it may not be an important area but for someone who's, who likes to cook, has a family get together, you know, gets together with the family, brings family over, likes to barbecue, there's a few things in the yard space, in the kitchen that are important for you, that may be overlooked. So I like to have a clear understanding of what's important in the home search.
What's important not just when they move in, but over the next three, five years, you know, what's important for them in that aspect and what's important for their kids, if they have kids, for their husband, you know, what's important for all the family members. So that when I put a list of, of home on a surfers level, they can tell me, okay, I like this, I like that, I like this type of property. We can take a look at that property and, and then I want to walk that property with them and see what their reaction is with the few things, you know, identify three properties, see what their, what their reaction is, what's, and let them figure it out. Okay.
This is more important than that, this is more important than this.
And then do another search and be able to point, pinpoint some of those key details because it's important. This is your home. This is your, your home, long term home.
And you want to be able to walk in there and be happy with every aspect of the house day in and day out. Right?
I will hate to see someone to say, okay, I jump into this house because I was only prompted or given a couple of options and I thought this was the best one based on what I saw.
That's not what I want.
You know, I want to be able to go as a guest to the house a few months down the road and say, hey Andres, come over for a barbecue. Hell yeah, I'm down. I'll bring some drinks, I'll cook something.
You know, I think for me that's, that's very important because there's a lot of details that goes into that. You know, as a Hispanic, I like to get together with my family. I like to get, run barbecues. I have to have the family over.
You know, I want a space for the kids to run. I want to, I want to be able to get together and not bother any of the neighbors or invite the neighbors over, you know, so for me that's important and what I in that space.
So, so that's my process. It's, it's really sitting down, identifying their wants and their needs, do a surface search, see the property, see their reactions, and then identify what's really important for all of them so that we can then do a second round of properties and, and keep identifying some, some of those areas.
And for me it doesn't matter.
We can go to five houses we can go to in a day. We can go 20 houses in the process.
For me it's important that, to find the right home. That, that's, that's why I love working with buyers and I prefer working with buyers because I love that, that moment when you walk into a home and you say this is it.
[00:39:21] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:39:21] Speaker B: You know that that makes my day. That makes, that's what it's all about.
[00:39:28] Speaker A: I, I, I love that moment. I know exactly what you're talking about. When you can just see the switch in them and they start planning where furniture is going in the house. And you're like, okay, this is the house. This is the house for you. Because of how you're reacting to the house. It's interesting with me, I do a lot of so what are your non negotiables and then what are your. I can live without? You know, like you were saying for the kitchens. A lot of people in the south are canners so they need a gas stove. I didn't know that until I became a real estate agent. And you can't can on an electric stove. I guess you'll break the, the glass top. So you need something that can handle a heavy, like a heavy pot I guess so that they can pan can and you need a gas, a gas stove for that. And then getting creative. A lot of times in the real estate market you have, you're working with blended families, right. So you need a lot of bedrooms. And sometimes in the price range you just don't have the amount of bedrooms you need for what you're looking for. And you kind of have to get creative with things.
So there have been several times where you know, we'll run a list of homes and they're like, we need a five bedroom house. And I run the list. In their price range there's no five bedroom houses. And the most we're seeing are like four bedroom houses. But those are very far and few in that price range too.
So we've gotten creative where I'm like, okay, it has three bedrooms. However it has two rooms that could be bedrooms, but they're not bedrooms because there's not a closet, not a window, but they could still be bedrooms. You've got a bonus room. And then there's a lot of times they have that little like staircase and then the little like attic type room. A lot of houses here have those like the above the garage room. So I'm like, so we can make it work. So sometimes being an agent means going through the list and Looking at all the houses, seeing what they offer, and if it's a way to make that house work for your clients, then that's amazing, you know, and that's your job as the agent. Your job as an agent is to find them the house, not just send them an email list and be like, okay, pick what house you want and you know, we'll go see it.
[00:41:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Sometimes you got to show them the vision, the potential of a home.
Someone that just walked through it may say, okay, hold on, this like you just said, this is a three barrel. And I asked for five barrel. It doesn't make sense. What are we doing here?
Their mindset is shifted completely to seeing a fiber room.
And sometimes we got to show them the potential that is there in front of them.
And, and a lot of times it's a lot at a much lower cost than what they, what their budget or their ideal house would be at. Right.
So bringing, how bringing down a house of 350 that you can turn into a five bedroom, but if I've ever run in that market is probably 450, you know, this is what you could have. You could have your dream home with that.
Like you said, it's very important as an agent to be able to show them the value that is in front of them.
Although sometimes it doesn't appear like that when you walk into the house.
[00:42:39] Speaker A: And sometimes it's talking them out of a house. They. I'll share a story. I think I shared this one before. Maybe not on our real talk, but maybe just with us talking. We had a family that I believe it was both sets of in laws were moving in with them. So they were like, they were com. I don't think they had children, but they have both sets of in laws were moving in. So they were combining families with like elderly couples. So they're like, so we need wheelchair ramps and we can't have any stairs. We need like basically a ranch. And I'm like, okay, okay, we can, we can find something. We'll make it work.
They sent me a three story house that, to get in the front door it was like these triangle type stairs to the front door. And then that was the main level and then there was the bottom level and there was a top level. And all through the house it was just like staircase, staircase, staircase. And I'm like, guys, this is not what you said you needed at all. They're like, oh, but it's beautiful. And we, and we like it. And, and they were trying to justify getting that house so we went, we saw it, and the whole time we were there, they were talking about how much they loved it, and it was in their price range and how they could try to figure out to make it work. But logistically, it was going to be a lot, and it was not going to work. And so I had to have the conversation with them. I'm like, look, guys, we work for you. If you want to put in the offer, if you want to buy this house, let's go. Let's do it. I'll write the offer, and, you know, we'll try to get this house.
But think about it, because this is not what you said you needed. You said you needed absolutely no stairs, and this is the most stairs I think I've ever freaking seen in the house.
And they ended up thinking about it, considering it. I wrote the offer because they said, no, no, write the offer. We want you to write the offer. So I'm like, all right, I'll write the offer. I wrote the offer, sent it over to them. They didn't sign the offer. They thought about it, and they were like, you know, because I had to walk them through it. I have to be. I had to be like, look, guys, so you're going to get up, you're going to get neemaw, you're going to get her in the wheelchair, and then you're going to get her up this set of stairs. Well, if she's ever going to come to the kitchen, you're looking at two sets of stairs, and the other Mima is going to have to come down a set of stairs to go to the kitchen. So you're going to be bringing four people upstairs to get to the kitchen three times a day.
[00:44:50] Speaker B: I'm tired just thinking about it.
[00:44:52] Speaker A: Right.
And what. What if we're leaving the house? What does that look like?
[00:44:58] Speaker B: Yeah, you got to have safety blankets everywhere throughout the house if anything happens, just like at the hospitals. Right.
But there's.
Yeah, that. That's. That's a tough one.
[00:45:09] Speaker A: And I'm just glad that they were our clients and we got them something that worked amazing. They were very happy, because I know a lot of agents who would have just been like, yep, let's put in the offer. All right, you got your offer, Got accepted. Here's your house. And they would not have been happy there. It would have been very, very hard. And they said that afterwards. They're like, we don't know what we were thinking.
[00:45:29] Speaker B: Yeah, that's so important, what you did there, what you said, you know, really showing them that this is not exactly what you are asking for. This is not what you need.
This is, the house is just beautiful right now. You just, it looks nice. You just want to get in there because of how it looks. But the whole thought process of living there and, and going through that consistently or doing the renovations, the cost of renovations to accommodate them to them, and the time, you know, when once they sat down and thought about all of that, then it made sense to them, okay, this is, this is not the way to go. But like you said, it's so important to be able to sit down and have this conversation because people tend to overlook that simple, simple fact that when you walk into a house, everything looks good. You're not in it yet, you know, but once you get in there and you start living, that's, that's what I said earlier.
You got to think about the whole process. You being there, you know, over the next year, three years, five years, this where you want to be. You know, this.
If this your home, then let's make it happen. But if it doesn't feel like is your home over the next year or two, three years, it's not the right place.
[00:46:50] Speaker A: And you don't really know a home until you, until you live in the home, then you get to know the house, then you get to know the layout if it, you know, if it works. So it is difficult for a lot of people to visualize things, to see the daily routine. And I always tell them too, if they're thinking about buying a house, go to the house in the morning and drive to your work. See how that traffic is from that house to your work. Because it may only look like it's a 10 minute commute, but it may be a longer commute with school and with traffic you never, you never know. So if you're buying a house off of how long it takes you to get to work, there are ways to figure things like that out.
I know we're almost out of time already today, we've only gotten to the second square. But I really love the process of finding people the homes that they want to be in. And I feel so bad for people who, who have experience being with an agent and the agent was just like basically a bully and like pushed them either into a house or, or in some cases won't even put in an offer. And they're like, no, that's not what you need. And bully them out of a, out of a house. I think the mindset should always be for the agent. You know, I work for you, I'll do what you want. But here's the advice I give you. Here's the advice.
Do with it what you will and let me know what we're gonna do. And that's seem to work so, so far so good with what I've been doing.
[00:48:13] Speaker B: Absolutely. And. And that's something I always say too, you know, you like this particular house, this particular neighborhood, if you like it during be after we saw it, you know, drive around at night, drive around different, different times of the day, see what you think of the neighborhood, the area, you know, before you.
You move forward because like you said, you don't want to get into a place. And next thing you know, you're like, okay, I was not aware of this. I was not aware of that.
You know, be familiar with where you're getting into.
And also this happened to me just a quick. I always wanted a. A large yard, you know, and I don't know why.
Right.
Yeah. I want to do barbecues, but there's a difference. Now I have a lot of grass I gotta cut every multiple times a week. And I'm like, man, who told me to get a yard this much grass? I don't. I don't need all of this.
Yeah, I could have somebody do it, but the moment I'm doing it myself. So just, Just food for thought.
[00:49:25] Speaker A: Well, do you have a riding lawnmower? Are you out there push mowing it.
[00:49:29] Speaker B: With a writing one? It takes me an hour to get the whole house.
[00:49:33] Speaker A: Oh, my God. You do have a lot of land.
[00:49:36] Speaker B: So.
Yeah.
Yeah, food for thought.
Think about what you want and see if that's really what you want. Because I wanted a lot of yard grass. And now I'm like, who told me to do this?
[00:49:50] Speaker A: Oh, and that goes into what I said about you don't really know a house until you live it. Because you weren't thinking about that. You weren't thinking about that.
How is it so here in Georgia we have, I call them the driveway of deaths. And there's two different type. There's the type that it's like a straight down drop. And then the house is kind of like in a little gully because it's very cool in here. And then there's also the driveway of Death, where the driveway like ends. And then the yard just kind of like, is like a cliff. So, like the driveway ends and then it's just like a cliff going down. And the house has a basement, but it's built into like the side of the kind of, I guess Like a hill. And so if you don't stop correctly on that driveway, you're just gonna like Dukes of Hazard it over into the. Into the forest, I guess. And I always, Yeah, I always call those the driveway of death. And I tell people, okay, so on the one that is like straight down, you got to think about when it ice is over, how are you going to get out of that driveway or how are you going to get down that driveway without sliding all over the place. You're gonna have to park up on the street and walk down to the house. Or you just don't go anywhere when it ice is over. And for the other one, you just got to be real careful you know, driving in, especially like at night or in the rain or something. I would like plant some plants there or put a fence up or something so that, you know, hey, don't go beyond. Beyond this point. And those are things I think a lot of people don't think about until they actually get into the house. Do you guys have the whole driveways of death there?
[00:51:19] Speaker B: Not of death, but some of them are inclined a little bit. Like, I have seen a number of them depending on the location. There's not too many mountains here.
It's more of a flat, flat land. But some developers, some builders have a driveway that is a little bit inclined with the rest of the yard a little bit more flat. Right.
Which actually one of my. My recent buyers turned. Love the property. Right. They love the property, love the lot. But did not put enough on the property because of the driveway. Exactly. That we're thinking long term. They're coming of age. Right. They're thinking a couple of years ahead.
They're like, okay, I won't be able to walk this driveway. The moment I get out the car, I'm gonna slide down, I'm gonna fall. You know, things are getting into perspective and making sense for them. Like, okay, I love the house, but this driveway is not doing it for me. So we didn't put an offer on that house because of that.
But yeah, for the most part, it's. It's. It's flat, not too much of an incline. Depending on the developer in the area, you may have a few houses that have a more of an inclined driveway, but not as bad as you're saying.
[00:52:36] Speaker A: I mean, they're not all like that, but there are quite a bit here that are. That are the driveway of death. Ours is. And ours has a little bit of a slope. It does have an incline, but it's not a driveway of death. But we also have, I call them enchanted driveways. Actually, you might have one since you have a lot of land. It's where they're the long, windy driveways to get to the house. I, I, I call them ways. Those are pretty.
[00:52:58] Speaker B: I've seen some of those. And I see somewhere it's all tree lines. You don't even see the property there in the back. I'm like, I need to get one of those. I just don't want to deal with all the grass cutting and all that and the trees because my wife actually, she wants a house surrounded by trees. I'm like, okay, at some point we'll do that, but I want one by the beach, actually.
So we're in different angles now.
[00:53:22] Speaker A: That's very different. She's like, you're like, I want trees. She said, wait, no.
[00:53:25] Speaker B: Who?
[00:53:26] Speaker A: She wants trees. You want beach?
[00:53:28] Speaker B: Yeah.
So I'm gonna get her one with palm trees.
[00:53:31] Speaker A: I was just gonna, I was gonna say, well, she's not gonna define the tree, do palm trees and be like, hey, you said trees. So it works.
[00:53:39] Speaker B: Yep.
So that's what I'm gonna do.
[00:53:44] Speaker A: Cheat the system.
[00:53:46] Speaker B: Yeah, attack.
So it should be good.
But, man, you see, we're having fun with this. We get kind of, we got, we got only to two spots in the finding home process. We can briefly touch on making an offer.
And then, as we said earlier, we're going to dive into more specific of the home buying process and the game board that we have in place where we're going to touch more on the London side, all the documents pertaining to that. We want to touch more on the title, on the home insurance. Home warranties is another aspect I want to touch on.
So we want to bring all that up over the next month and, and continue to play around with this game board.
And we're also going to do another game board for sellers as well, right?
[00:54:38] Speaker A: Yep. And we're kind of just a generic outline of what we're going to be doing. It may not be in the exact order, depending on the availability of the guests, that we can have to address some of these topics. But our goal is to work our way around the game board one box at a time or a couple boxes at a time and get there.
I'm super excited. I know making an offer is a whole thing in itself and how we determine to do that with our clients. That's going to be a fun one talking about that. I actually enjoy the process of making an offer, negotiating the due diligence period, because there's A lot that goes into making an offer.
[00:55:16] Speaker B: It does. And I think it's so important that first conversation you have with your client and setting those expectations. We're going to dive into that during that, that area next week or. Yeah, next week. And, and how that first initial conversation, setting the expectation, really diving into the needs and wants, can come over to the. Making an offer of the property. Right.
Because at the end of the day, we want to make sure we are helping our clients to the max.
And, and a lot of times something that, that I've heard before I got into real estate is the back and forth of you gotta feel like you win the offer, right? Like you feel like you win the negotiations.
And something I learned over the past two years is it's a transaction where there's two parties involved, the sellers and the buyer. They both have to come into a common agreement that works for both of them.
And that one, you truly feel like you won the negotiation. Because I'll be honest, there's some people out there that think that they're the ones handling that, that that negotiation like it's for them.
And not looking at the whole perspective from both buyers and sellers.
So as a real estate agent, I feel like you have to find a common ground that works for both of them, that both clients are happy. And that's when you truly.
I feel like you won the negotiation because it worked out for both.
You know, whatever agreement was, whatever came to an agreement, it was an agreement that worked out for both of them. Whether it's closing costs, you know, price inspections, contingencies, it worked for both of them. And I think that's, that's the point.
Rather than been fixing on, I gotta win, I gotta get this lower price down, I gotta get this amount of money back. It's not always that.
[00:57:28] Speaker A: I think that's a great way to put it. Everybody wins when you do it. When you're thinking about the whole picture, everybody can, everybody can win. It's got to be something that's gonna be, you know, mutually beneficial to both parties. Because a seller, you don't know, it depends on what their motivations are. And I'll just quickly touch. I know we've got just a couple minutes left. When I write an offer, I call the agent, the listing agent, ask if the house is obviously still available again, even though we made sure it was available before we went to see it. Who knows what can happen in 20 minutes in real estate?
So make sure it's still available and ask what motivate. What motivates the seller, what are their motivations for selling and is there anything we can do to make our offer stand out? And the agents don't always tell me. Sometimes they're like, submit your offer. But sometimes they do. Sometimes they'll say, and it isn't always price. It isn't always price. Sometimes they want to be out quicker or sometimes they want to be in the house a little bit longer. So it just, you know, it just depends. And if you can find out those little things that are making the seller wanting to sell and put that into your offer, you have a better chance of getting your offer accepted.
[00:58:37] Speaker B: Absolutely. Like you said, I gotta find out what's important for them. You, if I'm representing the buyer, I know what's important for the buyers, what's important for the sellers, and an offer that will make this happen because it might not be the price point.
They may need to close in 30 days.
You know, they already have another property they're buying. And something I looked at is every seller at some point was a buyer. Right.
It was in my virus position. So what's important for them to make this deal happen.
And let's make an offer to make that happen that works for both of them.
So I think this is going to be great. I think great stuff for us to be able to connect with others, inform our clients.
Hey, maybe some real estate agents will be taking some good, good insight on this too, because let's face it, we all work differently and, and I'm always looking into other agents and how they operate. How can I improve what I'm doing? You know, always continuously looking for ways to improve and be a better agent for my clients.
[00:59:44] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:59:45] Speaker B: Most of all, the man. Heather, today went by fast. What do you think?
[00:59:49] Speaker A: It did go by fast. Today went by really fast. And I'm just excited. I think this is a great launching point for next week to get into offers. We can really sit down and talk about strategy when it comes to offer and how you're presenting them, what it is that sellers are looking for, and talk about this market and what kind of offers are being accepted right now.
And then once your offer isn't is accepted, we can talk about the different contingencies there are and how to make sure all of those are met and that you don't lose track of anything and that everything runs smoothly so you can make it to the closing table.
[01:00:24] Speaker B: Absolutely. And then on Thursday, I think we're gonna have Miriam's so we can dive into, you know, the pre approval and pre qualification what's the difference between these two? Right.
And how the appraisal affects that transaction from the lender's perspective. Right. Because we want to bring their her lender perspective not just in the transaction wise and also how title and escrow affects the lender on that area.
And again, some of you know, contingencies, common underwriting conditions that are brought up, we want to hear some of those common ones from the lenders aspect of things so that we can elaborate on why they're important and why they need to be taken care of in a timely manner. So now we're expecting to that do that on Thursday.
And man, excited to continue to bring more content and continue to be connected with you guys.
[01:01:26] Speaker A: Yep. And I think that's it for us guys. This was real talk with Andres and Heather and we will see you guys on Tuesday.
[01:01:34] Speaker B: Real quick, something I wanted to share. Be on the look and I'm gonna bring up my first episode on Chad La Sencil.
So it's gonna be in Spanish and then I'm looking to have a guest over the next week so that we can record the Moon content in Spanish and also some lending partners in Spanish as well. So I want to bring some of this process, some of the things that we talk about here, bring that aspect in Spanish as well so that we can connect with the audience there. So yeah, be on the lookout for the first episode and excited to have you guys here and be able to do this.
[01:02:12] Speaker A: Awesome. And we're going to have all that linked as well. I'll get the links for those and have those linked so that you guys can click on those as well.
[01:02:18] Speaker B: All right, I'll see you on Tuesday.
[01:02:21] Speaker A: All right, see you on Tuesday, guys.
[01:02:22] Speaker B: Bye Bye.
