Navigating the transition into assisted living and the real estate market fluctuations that come with it can be a daunting challenge, but we've got you covered with invaluable insights and personal stories to ease the journey. Join me as we step into a realm where cherished memories meet the complexities of selling your home, and where strategic planning for assisted living becomes a poignant topic for many families. With Mike from South Carolina lending his rich real estate and banking expertise, and Renee from California shedding light on the intricacies of real estate transactions, this episode promises to guide you through these significant life changes with confidence and clarity.
The nostalgia of our grandparents' homes, with their unique scents and retro decor, is a sensory tapestry we all cherish. Yet, when it's time to make the move to an assisted living facility or to sell their beloved home, the process can stir up not just emotions but logistical hurdles as well. We tackle these challenges head-on, sharing essential tips for decluttering, discussing how to make homes more attractive to diverse buyers, and unveiling the game-changing Certified Pre-Owned home concept. These strategies aim to reduce the stress of real estate transactions and provide a smoother transition to the next chapter of life.
Amidst the laughter and reminiscences, we don't forget the practicalities that come with selling a property and moving into assisted living. From understanding the importance of pre-sale inspections to navigating the emotional aspects of such a significant life shift, this conversation is filled with heartfelt advice and expert knowledge. Whether you're a senior planning your future living arrangements, a family member coordinating a move, or a real estate professional looking to better serve your clients, our episode offers a beacon of hope and a wealth of information to support you on this journey.
Navigating the transition into assisted living and the real estate market fluctuations that come with it can be a daunting challenge, but we've got you covered with invaluable insights and personal stories to ease the journey. Join me as we step into a realm where cherished memories meet the complexities of selling your home, and where strategic planning for assisted living becomes a poignant topic for many families. With Mike from South Carolina lending his rich real estate and banking expertise, and Renee from California shedding light on the intricacies of real estate transactions, this episode promises to guide you through these significant life changes with confidence and clarity.
The nostalgia of our grandparents' homes, with their unique scents and retro decor, is a sensory tapestry we all cherish. Yet, when it's time to make the move to an assisted living facility or to sell their beloved home, the process can stir up not just emotions but logistical hurdles as well. We tackle these challenges head-on, sharing essential tips for decluttering, discussing how to make homes more attractive to diverse buyers, and unveiling the game-changing Certified Pre-Owned home concept. These strategies aim to reduce the stress of real estate transactions and provide a smoother transition to the next chapter of life.
Amidst the laughter and reminiscences, we don't forget the practicalities that come with selling a property and moving into assisted living. From understanding the importance of pre-sale inspections to navigating the emotional aspects of such a significant life shift, this conversation is filled with heartfelt advice and expert knowledge. Whether you're a senior planning your future living arrangements, a family member coordinating a move, or a real estate professional looking to better serve your clients, our episode offers a beacon of hope and a wealth of information to support you on this journey.
This is the Plain English Real Estate Show with your host, rowena Patton, a show that focuses on the real estate market in terms you can easily understand. Call Rowena now. The number is 240-9962 or 1-800-570-9962. Now here's the English girl in the mountains, the agent that I would trust, rowena Patton.
Speaker 2:Good morning and welcome to the Real Estate News Radio Show. We have two guests in today. I'm so excited there are vice principals of assisted living. We're going to talk about all assisted living. I've had lots of agents go, you know well, that's not very sexy. Well, you know what, we all age and we all die. And the nice thing there is we're going to make the most of our lives and find the right places to live in, which often happens, actually, after a holiday.
Speaker 2:So people go through a Christmas holiday, an Easter holiday, hanukkah holiday, all the other holidays, and the kids come home like we can't deal with this anymore. We're flying back from San Francisco every time you have a heart attack or there's something going on in your life, which sounds kind of mean, doesn't it? But it's really what the kids say. We'd love to hear from you today. Actually, can we have a call when we've got a guest? Okay, so, 828-240-9962. If you're calling in from Mars, 800-570-9962.
Speaker 2:We'd love to hear your experiences being on a wait list. How long does it take? All that good stuff, and we're talking today about steps to get on a wait list. What does that look like? We're talking about things to consider selling your home decluttering all that good stuff and also just looking at how you choose a facility. So if you have parents somewhere and you want to give them a subtle hint or you're thinking about it yourselves or you know somebody is, maybe you've got friends who are thinking about it Send them to realestatenewsradiocom. Realestatenewsradiocom. There is a link there to listen anywhere, even on Mars. Just click link to listen live. This is broadcast and it is podcast afterwards so you can always find it there too. I want to say good morning to Mike. Go ahead and introduce yourself, mike. Mike is our VP of South Carolina. He's building out the experts there. So if you know any agents that love to work with seniors and know how to do it, we'll train them. In all the rest, go ahead, mike.
Speaker 3:Good morning. Good morning, how are we doing?
Speaker 2:He's got a radio voice, doesn't he, Randy? Absolutely yeah, I know that's great.
Speaker 3:We've got Renee on from California as well, tell us who you are, mike.
Speaker 2:Oh, you just said who I was. What? Come on, hello.
Speaker 3:Originally born in New York, grew up in Connecticut, our family moved to the South Carolina coast in Hilton Head in 77. So I've been a South Carolina coastal visitor for many years and that's what was my interest there. I moved to Asheville in 94 after a stint in California Back when you were 10? Yeah, when I got into banking and real estate and I guess I'm 30 years in banking and real estate now, so mostly private finance. The conventional game got a little boring. But I'm looking forward to the coastal Carolinas. College was University of South Carolina, columbia, so I'm real familiar with the markets and it's one of the top retirement locations in the country, just due to affordability and labor. And the coast is beautiful and so it's going to. We're going to have some serious beach trips.
Speaker 2:And Mike, serious beach trips are always good. I might have to come with you on those. And Mike also has back to the connection with New York. Actually, he's quite famous for being the agent on a rather famous building downtown that has a connection with New York. We should have done a trivia on that, randy. So tell us about that one, mike.
Speaker 3:Well, first, on the coastal trips, you could be my designated driver.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay, I'm going to need one.
Speaker 3:I sold the Flatiron Building downtown Asheville right before the COVID hit, which was pretty good timing for the sellers. I don't know about for the buyers, but they're getting ready to finally open. Now for the Boutique Hotel. The same group purchased the Bank of America property that was already approved for a hotel, and so that area downtown central is really doing quite well and the flat iron building in ashville.
Speaker 2:For those people living around the country, can you just give a quick over outline of what that was.
Speaker 3:It was built 1922 by lb jackson and as a fireproof building it's all concrete and steel and um was offices. It was an incubator, almost a town within itself. You could go in and start off with a coffee and a haircut on the first floor and get your taxes done on the second floor and see your attorney on the third floor. It always ended up on the roof for some reason.
Speaker 4:The roof where, at one time, the tower for this radio station. This radio station was located when they broadcasted War of the Worlds Exactly All these connections this always happens it's station was located when they broadcasted War of the Worlds, exactly.
Speaker 2:All these connections. This always happens, it's the vortex.
Speaker 3:We call it the vortex because it's the triangle.
Speaker 2:Yes, the V shape.
Speaker 3:It does look like the Flatiron Building in New York and the towers in the building were actually taller than the building, so the photos of the towers show an eight-story building and the towers were like 10 stories high and you could actually hear AM radio anywhere in the country from that location.
Speaker 4:Yeah that was in the early days of AM radio 570 was located there. It was called may have been called WABC at the time Asheville Battery Company Wow.
Speaker 3:We've got some of the old photos of the shows they used to bring the bands up there and play live music.
Speaker 2:So bonus points if you can say who wrote Concrete and Clay and what year it was released. It was one of the number ones the year I was born. How about that? You dated yourself, baby our sweetest roses in the morning. And on that note, we should go over to renee. How are you renee?
Speaker 5:good morning, I'm great. How are you guys today?
Speaker 2:good morning. Thank you for being part of our fun and crazy show. It's always a fun and crazy show because we like it that way. Introduce yourself, darling. You've been the most amazing VP already in the first two weeks of launching AssistedLivingcom. So introduce yourself, tell us where you are and thank you for getting up early in the morning.
Speaker 5:Yeah, no problem, thank you for that. By the way, I'm Renee Gallegos and I'm actually representing the West Coast today. I am located just a little bit south of San Jose, a beautiful location. I'm so Southern Illinois and then moved up to the Chicago area and then at that time got a job offer in Hawaii, so I loved the beach and moved to California, started out in Southern California, had a relative there so went there and after when I jumped into the real estate industry, started also in banking just like you, mike and then transitioned into new home sales and now, over the years, I've moved to Northern California and doing real estate and working with seniors on assisted living. And a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me today. It is a thrill.
Speaker 2:And for those of you listening around the country or in other countries, we have other countries listening too. You are about 50 miles away from San Francisco, something like that.
Speaker 5:Yeah, exactly. It's only about an hour. It would take me an hour to get to San Francisco or to the airport, which is a little bit south of the city.
Speaker 2:Got it Okay, because you know not, everybody knows where it is.
Speaker 5:See, I know it's hard to place if you're not familiar and you're southeast.
Speaker 2:Is that right South? I have to do it with my hands because you know, no, just straight south. Just straight south. You take the 101.
Speaker 5:Those of you who are familiar. There's a highway that, just like in most states that runs north and south. You just go on the highway south and there you are.
Speaker 2:Cool, cool, okay. So what we're talking about today is assisted living and let's kick it off with, you know, the wait list steps to get on the wait list. So what do we mean about a wait list, renee to get on the wait list. So what do we mean about a wait list, renee, for those people who are maybe it's the kids.
Speaker 2:Kids, it's kind of funny. They're 50 and 60-year-olds who are thinking of helping their parents right now and, of course, it is a holiday weekend Happy Easter everybody and often kids are going home for the holidays. Kids, the 50 and 60-year-olds are going to visit their parents and they might be in a situation whereby the last time they went to visit them on a holiday time, they realized they needed a bit more help, or they've been going back frequently to see them, or they may even be in a different state. So, renee, you know about this in terms of being on a wait list, how long do you think, yeah, on average are people on a wait list? How long do you think, on average, are people on a wait list to get into a facility?
Speaker 5:You know, it really varies by the location and where you are and the city in which you live. So there are some facilities that don't have a wait list at all but that can change quite rapidly, and there are others where wait lists can be over a year or more quite rapidly, and there are others where wait lists can be over a year or more. So it varies quite a lot.
Speaker 5:So if you think you're going to have a need, it pays to start thinking about it early, not at the last minute when you need it. It's interesting to know. I actually did a little bit of research on this there are 30,000 facilities across the US and only 1.2 million licensed beds, and they said that the growth for this industry of assisted living is going to grow 4% annually. So there's more and more seniors.
Speaker 5:As the baby boomers start to age, we know that the demand for these facilities are going to increase. So I suspect that over the years, that the wait lists are going to start to get longer.
Speaker 2:Well, the start of the boomers too is 59. So already you know that those that's the youngest boomer now. So obviously, as we go 10 years ahead, we're at 69. So 10 years time that will be the end of the boomers. And you know, there's, I think, way more boomers than any other demographic, so it's no wonder it's growing at that rate they're about double what the Gen Xs are.
Speaker 2:Wow, gosh. So start the research. Now is the point, because you could easily be on the wait list for two years, three years, you know, four years. Sometimes it requires for the better ones require a deposit. Sometimes the deposit is refundable, sometimes it's applied to future costs. We may not know what those future costs are in five years. So you know, plan ahead and start researching and visiting those. We are going to have a huge resource coming up here really in the next 90 days but, being realistic, within six months we'll have a map of the country with these facilities on it all over the country. So anywhere your parents might want to go, we're going to have a huge map, because if you're the kids, you may want them by you but they may not want to be by you. So those are some big conversations to have. You know, do you still want to fly out and be with them? I know I have a good friend whose parents were in Florida and they were continually.
Speaker 2:The kids were kids. I mean, we're all in our 50s, right? So the kids were coming from Black Mountain or Maryland or, of course, if there's more than one kid, they're coming from all different places back down to Florida and now they're in Charleston with one of the kids, one of the kids who's 59, in a facility there, so that at least that's a sort of centralized location. One of the kids lives there and the other three are scattered around One's in Black Mountain, one is in Pennsylvania and one is in Florida actually now. So you know, it's a centralized location where at least one of the kids is there and can go and visit them on a regular basis, so all the siblings can fight over who's going to visit. You know, oh my gosh, so there's a lot to do there. And then the assessment piece. So facilities usually require an assessment. So obviously that's about the level of care needed. You'll fill out the application. Have you ever known anybody that's gone through this? Mike, I mean, obviously you've worked with a lot of seniors.
Speaker 3:I made the great mistake of calling my company estate realty at one point and it was like, oh my God, I ended up with all these estate deals. And between keeping the family at bay and communicating, everyone gets on everyone's nerves at some point. Of course, the big panic was the folks waiting for I won't mention any facilities, but when their name came up on the waiting list they had 90 days to come up with hundreds of thousands of dollars to secure their position or they were out, and if that didn't give them a stroke, then they had to sell the house as quickly as possible. And if that didn't kill them stroke, then they had to.
Speaker 3:They had to sell the house as quickly as possible and if that didn't kill them, they both made it into the facility and half the time one is ended up making it within a year so it was a very stressful situation, not just for them, of course, but for the family, and their kids are generally in their 60s at that point or, and so I think having the reverse mortgage business certainly helped out a good bit. But when they need that bulk of money, they don't have time to sell the house, and that's where this really fits a niche. I love this niche because I don't know of a better program that'll transition them without all that stress.
Speaker 2:And we're talking about Assisted Living, cpo, and you can go to assistedlivingcpocom for more information. Just remember Assisted Living and then put CPO. And you can go to assistedlivingcpocom for more information. Just remember Assisted Living and then put CPO like Certified Pre-Owned after it. It is all based on the cash CPO program. So we can go in and within 12 days have 70% of the funding out to the seniors. And I can hear you saying well, well, they need more than 70%. That's just a regular cash offer. That's not what this is. So we can get them the majority of their equity very quickly, which will get them into the assisted living facility. And then we go in and we do everything from just a deep clean to paint the walls, to put, put new countertops on, to put a new roof on, if need be, basically spending the money up front to, you know, decluttering, obviously, getting all the furniture out, spending the money up front to maximize the profit on the house. But here's the good news the vast majority of the profit goes back to the seniors. So two thirds of our sellers get more than they would with a traditional listing. The difference is they get the big chunk of money first, which gets them into the facility without having to use their payment plans and pay the extra money per month, as well as having no showings.
Speaker 2:I mean, imagine this couple tends to be in their 70s, 80s, 90s even maybe, and then you've got kids in their 70s dealing with it. Imagine that. So you've got a. You know you've got a couple or a single person, maybe with a little dog you've often got a little dog and now you've got showings. That means you get a text on your phone. You know how many people have parents of that age group even have texts, and they might have a flip phone or they don't want to deal with texts. And then Mike's making the rotary phone in the background. There it's radio so you can't see it, but you can see it on the video on YouTube. So you know it's very difficult to keep the house clean. So now you've got a little dog and you do all your. You know you're at home all day. So you've got your jigsaw and you've got your. You know what do you do when you're at home all day and you're retired? You don't know, mike, because you'll never. You'll never retire.
Speaker 3:Watch Oprah.
Speaker 2:Watch Oprah. It's how you do watch oprah. Your your heat's up to 76, right, we all know we've. You've got your heat up very high. Your little dog's running around might have done a poop in the corner and you might not have noticed it and, um, you know you've cooked your bacon that morning. I mean, come on, describe your grandparents house. Everybody think of their grandparents house. Go for it, renee. Let me hear what your grandparents' house Everybody think of their grandparents' house. Go for it, Renee.
Speaker 5:Let me hear what your grandparents' house was like. Yeah, the old shaggy carpet, the the fat pan. They had an old farmhouse that just hadn't been updated in many years the Formica countertop, the old 1960 appliances, avocado, that just didn't work well enough. What?
Speaker 2:color were they. Mustard Gold Gold.
Speaker 5:Harvest gold.
Speaker 2:Harvest gold, Randy the producer always knows the names. It's so funny.
Speaker 3:I like the orange countertops. The orange countertops.
Speaker 2:Do you know what that was called? So another bonus point Can anybody name what the pattern? I had to research this, what the pattern was called on the dining table? It had a little loopy pattern on it, you remember that, and the countertops had them too. It's called boomerang. They're actually little boomerangs, isn't that wild? Yeah, it's true, never would have guessed that I know Another piece of useless trivia.
Speaker 4:My favorite was doilies.
Speaker 2:Doilies, yeah, doilies.
Speaker 4:Handmade doilies.
Speaker 3:My favorite was plastic on the couch, because the grandkids were coming over. And the mints that nobody would eat what kind of mints were that?
Speaker 2:oh, yes, green mints.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah, green mint, they show up at easter this weekend.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah yeah, hey, I'm. You know, I grew up in a different country. I don't know about the green mints. I love learning these things. This is the, the piece of life that's so important to everybody, right? So so for me it was the fat pan. They always had a fat pan that they kept on the stove bacon grease the bacon grease yeah
Speaker 2:yeah or oil or whatever, or it was lard. Actually, in england it was lard, so they'd mount a big block of lard and they'd cook, cook anything beef, burgers, lamb chops, fries, of course you would not want to subject that to yeah, but it would sit there.
Speaker 4:It would sit there for like six months.
Speaker 2:I don't know how long it would sit there, but guess what, none of us died.
Speaker 4:It stayed there all the time.
Speaker 3:I remember the smell of cigars when he walked in.
Speaker 2:my grandfather there you go yeah, the smells are so evocative as well.
Speaker 4:My grandfather's pipe, yeah.
Speaker 2:Oh, yep, oh, your grandfather had a pipe.
Speaker 5:Yes Wow, his pipe and pie were his two things Pie.
Speaker 2:Pie. What kind of pie? Pie is Randy's thing too. He likes apple pie. What kind of pie did your grandfather like? Rhubarb pie, rhubarb, rhubarb pie, rhubarb's okay, if you put it with cherries.
Speaker 3:It tastes like cherry. Maybe they always did cherries. It's okay if you put it with cherries.
Speaker 2:It tastes like cherry, my meat they always did, cherries they did, cherries because,
Speaker 5:it's so sour and nasty. I agree. That's why I don't like rootworm. Yeah, I never acquired a taste for it either.
Speaker 2:Ugh the gooseberries, ugh Mm-hmm Roots, ugh gosh. So you know, let's face it when we get or at least. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I suspect we'll do all those things when we're older too. I've kind of missed the fat pan, honestly, but anyway, Gave it a lot more flavor. All the scratchings in the bottom.
Speaker 3:Bacon bacon.
Speaker 2:And beef. What do we call beef burgers, Patties?
Speaker 1:Smashed burgers, burgers, burgers, yeah, whatever.
Speaker 2:So they'd cook sausages in there. They cook up, and all you did is heated up the fat every time it just sat, yeah there. So eggs as well. You know about eggs oh so when, when you were in that generation, eggs stayed out. But do you know why they stayed out? So if anybody gives you eggs directly from the farm, they've never been refrigerated, they've been refrigerated.
Speaker 2:But there's something else. There's a coating called the bloom on them. So what people do when you get eggs that your friend gives you and they've got a few feathers and a bit of chicken shit on them? Oh, oh, I said it. He's beeping me. That's hilarious. He's trying to beat me out. So, um, when it's got that on it, don't wash them. And here's why you wash them right before you choose to eat them. It's called a bloom and that's what keeps them fresh. So you don't have to refrigerate them. The reason we have to, he's bleeped me out. I can't believe it.
Speaker 4:Did you really bleep me out? You can't do that, okay, so we have to say it again no don't say it again.
Speaker 2:No, I mean chicken poop. I can say chicken poop, so the chicken poop and the feather on the egg. I don't think I've ever been bleeped out in 12 years so that was good going.
Speaker 2:Wow, congratulations, amazing. So chicken poop and a feather on the egg. Your friends has given them, given to you. Don't wash them, that's what keeps them fresh and keep them out of the fridge. You don't want them in the fridge and they taste way better. It's called the bloom. Just keep it on there and that's you know.
Speaker 2:Older people again have have those egg things, the ceramic things that you put the eggs in. It's got a little chicken on top, you know. So to sell the house, we really need to make it not only applicable to seniors, we need to make it applicable to young people as well and everybody in between. So having the little dog there and having the cat litter trays and having the jigsaws on the table and the fat pan on the stove and the pipes and the cigarettes and the what else that we just talked about, the beautiful cotton doilies, the doily nets I always love that too or the fluffy palmets. So you know, when you're a bit older you tend to have I'm sorry if you're listening at home and you're looking up at your palmets- right now, turning off the radio.
Speaker 2:Yeah, really it's like wait, I I got the fat pan, I've got the smoke in my pipe I think the big thing is having the inspections ready where someone comes in and you're making the process just seamless versus a nightmare.
Speaker 3:Of course, big difference between the two mike's.
Speaker 2:So like me he gets straight to the point. Except I'm trying to say I'm trying to be different to how I normally am, and actually I think everyone's house is beautiful.
Speaker 3:You just got to see through the junk of course.
Speaker 2:And the fluffy pelmets at the top of the window. People don't tend to have those anymore. It's not in style now. It was in style like 30 years ago. Um, sometimes you've got fringes on them and your curtains go underneath the pelmets, if you know what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3:How about all the wallpaper, the old?
Speaker 2:wallpaper. The wallpaper yes.
Speaker 3:The fuzzy stuff. Oh, what's that called?
Speaker 2:Flock.
Speaker 3:The paisley, fuzzy stuff, flock, that's called, it's collectible now.
Speaker 2:Yes, or maybe you've got the sponging from the 80s that was so popular on the walls. Yeah, yeah 80s that was so popular on the walls. Yeah, or I don't know, Renee, what else do you see when you go into those homes?
Speaker 5:You know the tank carpet. You know sometimes also the medications. A lot of times they'll be medications, and that's something that I don't know if you've heard, but a lot of people will go to open houses just to look in the medicine cabinets to see what medications people have.
Speaker 2:To steal them, not because they're nosy to steal them. Oh yeah, people will actually go to look at houses to steal the medications, and they do it in 50 plus communities as well. So be really careful with that. If you're listing your home, of course. If you don't want to list your home, you can do cash CPO. We'll give you a full market value cash offer and you don't have to go through all of that, because this cash offer doesn't just work for assisted living, it works for anything. You'll get 70% or thereabouts within 12 days and then you can leave your home. You can stay there for up to 90 days. We should mention that as well, in case you want to take time finding something else, and then we'll. Obviously it's just like a normal purchase. We'll move all of your furniture out. We will put new countertops in if necessary.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of homes whether you know the couple's going into assisted living or not whereby the the home has maybe been built in the 60s or 70s and those people have lived there the whole time, or maybe they're the second owners. And there's a home next door that's selling for 850 and we know we can only miss theirs for 550 because it's not updated. The difference is we can go in using our funding partners money. You'll get maybe 60% out because it's a lot of work this time. You'll get 60% out of the 550 and then we'll go in and spend the 100,000, 200,000, 300,000 and we'll increase it to the 850 that you could have gotten and we're only spending $100,000.
Speaker 2:So the profit the vast majority. Of course, they charge a fee because money isn't free. However, the profit goes back to you. Two-thirds of our sellers get more. So if you're thinking about selling your house right now, for whatever reason, whether you're going into assisted living or anything else, check out cpoexpertscom C-P-O, that's certified pre-owned cpoexpertscom. You'll find all of these options in there, and also from the build a team point of it.
Speaker 3:For the real estate folks that I'm looking for in South Carolina, look at the difference between listing a home with an aged couple in it and doing the transaction and moving them out and then having to have the home cleaned up anyway to put on the market and the extra work versus the other option where it closes, they have their funds, they move out. The team comes in, prepares the property, inspects it and puts it on the market. The difference in work for the agent is 70% less complicated and stressful.
Speaker 3:So the folks looking on the real estate end of it that want to get on the team need to let us know, because it's a whole different process.
Speaker 2:Different world. Yeah, so we launched CPO Experts back in 2007. We've been training agents to do this to help sellers since 2007. Last year, we came across this funding partner that will now pay for all of this for you. We used to do it where you, as the seller, paid for the inspection, you, as the seller, paid for the appraisal. You don't have to do that anymore. They will provide the money up front to do that. When we do the inspection, you've got a certified pre-owned home. I can't stress the importance of this enough. That's why 2007, that's a little while ago. That's why I've been doing it since then, because I couldn't understand why sales are falling apart. Over a third of contracts fall apart. You're an agent, mike, I mean. How many do you think fall apart?
Speaker 3:Since COVID I probably did the work of 40 transactions and I think maybe a third of them closed.
Speaker 2:Wow Gosh.
Speaker 3:The fallout was huge.
Speaker 2:And you're a really, really experienced agent.
Speaker 3:And it was normally property conditions or lending.
Speaker 2:Of course or neighbors. Or neighbors, of course. So there's always that. Or buyers go out and lease a car or something. What would you say, Renee? Obviously you're a seasoned agent as well. Do you think that's a realistic figure, that at least a third fall out?
Speaker 5:Absolutely, and as the agent, you're doing the same amount of work, whether it goes through as a deal or it doesn't.
Speaker 3:No, I said a third closed. I know at the deal or it doesn't. No, I said a third closed.
Speaker 5:I know yeah.
Speaker 3:That's a lot of work.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 5:It's the same amount of work whether the deal closes or it doesn't close, and you only get paid as an agent if it closes, and I think that's something that the public doesn't always see.
Speaker 3:Look how much money you made. I go. You didn't see the Ford that didn't close, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, let's take it back to the sellers for a second, because who cares about us agents who are listening, you know, let's take it back to the sellers. If you're selling your home, then yeah, of course we all do, I mean. However, if you're selling your home, and at least a third, two-thirds of the time, the contract's going to fall apart. So you're going to be very excited, especially at those higher price points or especially if your home needs some work. You know your home isn't the stellar CPO home that is out there. That's the best home on the market, other than next to a new home, and we can even compete with new homes with this process. So you're a seller, you don't have a CPO home, you haven't gone with a CPO team around the country We've got them all for you, by the way and now you're listing your home. So finally you get this offer. Come in, because it is not the market from two years ago, trust me, where we're getting multiple offers and things are flying out the door the next day. That isn't happening now almost everywhere in the country. There is a place in Alaska where that is still happening. It's not Fairbanks, it's the other one. What's the other one in Alaska? Anchorage. Anchorage is still multiple offers. The last time I checked, very, very few places in the country are multiple offer situations right now.
Speaker 2:So you finally get the offer. Yay, we can go into our assisted living. We can move to be by the grandkids in la. We can finally retire in aruba. We, we can finally get our bigger house because we have a child on the way. We can finally right size or downsize it used to be called um, you know what? What are the other reasons? Are that we're getting a divorce? Finally, we can move on with our lives? What are the reasons? Are they? Our partner's died. Our house is full of memories and we can't wait to leave this behind, especially if they're bad memories.
Speaker 2:Relocation I'm relocating. I've got a new job. That house is just sitting there. It's terrible, right? So finally you are able to get this offer. Come in. The offer comes in, and what I mean by it falling out is it goes under contract. The inspections are done. Most often, the buyers are getting the appraisal so they can get their mortgage and that is all going on. And the buyers do the inspections. The average inspection has 40 to 50 items on it. If you are in a location where somebody is moving from somewhere else. Very common, 60 to 70 percent renee. How many people in your market in in san jose, california, are moving from somewhere else into san jose? What?
Speaker 5:50 percent 20%.
Speaker 2:I would say maybe 10%, 10% okay, because everybody's leaving California.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I hate to say it.
Speaker 5:Well, because of remote, people aren't moving around quite as much because of the remote work now.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's very true. Most of our agents across the country have got 50%, 60%, 70% of people coming from elsewhere. When you're coming from elsewhere and you don't necessarily know the market, so it may be they're moving out from San Francisco to San Jose. Would that be fair, less expensive, more houseful?
Speaker 5:Sometimes we get a lot of people moving from the city, moving to more rural or moving still on the peripherals of the city is what we find Okay.
Speaker 2:So they don't know your market because they're an hour away and it's already nerve-wracking. They're moving out of the big city. Finally they've made this decision, so you present them with a list of repairs 40 or 50 repairs. That's adding to the stress of moving. It's very, very stressful. Most buyers can, and it's all dependent on how good your agent is right. So most buyers look at that list and they're like, ah, how many times have you gone through that, mike, with a buyer that?
Speaker 3:looks at the list. You've been in real estate for what? 30 years? I just look at the summary page and the inspection report's like 40 pages and they put a camera in the chimney. You look at the summary and you're like, all right, that's like two months worth of work, three months worth of work. How are we going to close this next month?
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, but how did the buyers react? Have you ever had buyers freak out? You're very calming and you're very experienced, so you sitting with a buyer and talking them through it is a whole different thing to an agent that got their real estate license last week. Have you ever had buyers freak out about the inspection?
Speaker 3:Sure sure Very frequently, right when they first look at it, you take out all the non-peripheral and then you just deal on any major issues. Of course, of course, and then of course the broker and the brokers have to figure out how to make it work.
Speaker 2:Yes, renee, have you ever had buyers freak out on inspection reports?
Speaker 5:They have, they have, and in our market it's pretty competitive. So sellers are not necessarily wanting to put extra money in their house, and so the buyers. There's kind of this standstill because the buyers want the sellers to fix everything and sellers just say nope, take it as is. And so then you have to go to negotiations back and forth. And that's where it gets to be stressful and a lot of buyers just don't have the patience for it because they are wanting, like you said, a certified, pre-owned home, something like that.
Speaker 3:Yes.
Speaker 5:Because they want everything to be perfect. Well, in a seller's market.
Speaker 3:In a seller's market, you can do that. But when you're not in a seller's market, you've got to do everything they want. So we're transitioning now, even though our region in the Asheville area is still a pretty strong seller's market. But buyers coming in they want what they want and it's not the seller's market. It was so now you've got to do a lot more to close those deals.
Speaker 2:And how much does it cost to certify, pre-own it, even if you do it yourself? So if you don't want to work with us in the WNC area or Mike in South Carolina or any of the other, we've got 1100 agents who know how to do this around the country right now I can find you an agent that can do it. And even if you don't want to work with an agent and get a full market value cash offer, not have to go through all the pain in the butt of listing your house and getting your dog out and the kids out and your spouse out and everything else, locking the spouse in the closet while the showings are going on. And you're still going to get a large number of showings in most places right now because of the lack of inventory, there aren't many homes out there. That's really what's keeping the prices strong. If you don't want to deal with that, then just go ahead.
Speaker 2:And why wouldn't you get a cash offer at this point? I know if I was selling my house I would definitely look at this. It doesn't cost you anything to get a cash offer and it's a full market value cash offer. Why wouldn? And it's a full market value cash offer. Why wouldn't you look at it? It doesn't make any sense to me, honestly. I mean I sound like I'm selling it, but honestly it doesn't make any sense to me why you would do it any other way. Because when you have it, let's say you don't want to do that. Fine, okay, you just want to. You know, take your chances on the open market. Certify, pre-own your house, get the inspection. Maybe you're selling for sale by owner. Get the inspection $450. Most markets how much are yours, renee, over in California?
Speaker 2:Our home prices are average around your inspections.
Speaker 5:Oh the inspections yeah, anywhere, depending on the size of the home, but they can be upwards of $600.
Speaker 2:Okay, so $400, $600, it's an insurance policy. You do that and you know sellers always say to me at almost all of my listings as CPA I've been doing it since 2007. Sellers say, well, don't the buyers pay for that? Absolutely. But guess what? Then you're under contract. So you go under contract within two weeks with cash CPO or assisted living CPO. You're going to have that inspection done within days. They're amazingly fast. I don't know how they do it, honestly. So the inspection comes back in days. But here's the problem when the average buyer out there 14 days into the contract, or 10 days or 7 days or whatever it is is doing the inspection, you're under contract and you have to use almost everywhere in the country a licensed contractor to put all those things right. You do it ahead of time. Maybe you're a little bit handy. Mike would do most of it himself. Right, you'd fix all the things that came up on the inspection report.
Speaker 3:Whatever I could, yeah.
Speaker 2:Right. So here's the difference when you have a certified pre-owned home, you are going to give that inspection to the buyers or the buyer's agent, whomever that is wanting to put a contract in. So if they put an offer in, you're going to give them the inspection report. Everybody just falls off their chair at this. Oh, then they won't buy it because there's all these things wrong with it. There's always things wrong with a house, and maybe you've put a bunch of them right and notated the inspection report. When everybody goes in with honesty and eyes wide open, it changes everything. I've never had somebody pull out when we give them the contract. What are you going to say, mike? You?
Speaker 3:said something interesting that there was a confidence level difference. When you give them the report, there's a lot more trust from the seller side to the buyers than there is when they have their own people come out and then you've. That's why you've got the buyer agency conflicts well of course, that's where they tend to occur. When you're handing them a report, they're going. Oh well, they're giving us yes and you.
Speaker 2:so, agents out there, sellers out there, don't let your house go under contract without giving the buyers that inspection report. Don't be scared, it's going to scare them off. Guess what? In seven to 10 days they're going to get something that is going to scare them off anyway. But A it won't scare them off, most likely because they're like oh, these people are honest and they fixed all these things on here. We know what's going on and there's a whole trust level that's completely different.
Speaker 2:But don't go under contract. Here's why you go under contract and then they do the inspection. And remember, a third to two thirds of them now we're hearing from Mike, who's a very experienced agent have been dropping out that the contract drops out. So you're under contract with the buyer and then it drops out, usually because of the inspection, sometimes because of the appraisal now because homes aren't appraising right, so they're dropping out. Those are the two primary reasons probably 90% of the time, why they drop out. You can take that off the table. Why is that important? When it drops out, we've got what's called a stigmatized listing. What's a stigmatized listing? So, rene, have you ever had one fall out? And then everybody and their dog calls you.
Speaker 3:Why'd it fall out?
Speaker 2:Yeah, what's wrong with it.
Speaker 5:No, no, go for it.
Speaker 2:Mike sounded, rene sounded very mad. The first thing they want to know is what happened. Yeah, what happened.
Speaker 3:What happened.
Speaker 3:So another thing is, when you do the inspections on it, you have you have the corrections made. So when they enter a transaction, the buyer's usually one foot out the door. Just anything can set them off. So they're worried about the radon, they're worried about the water quality, they're worried about lead-based paint I mean the list is endless. So if you can cure most of that before the transaction occurs, then they tend to come in with two feet in. So it's a lot harder for them. They're ready to jump ship. Most buyers are extremely nervous anyway, because it's a stressful process. They're living, they've already sold their place, they're waiting for that to close, or they're gypsies waiting for something else that would be me.
Speaker 2:Yeah, waiting on my next house. I'm actually moving next week. Finally, I've been a gypsy for three months now. Not fun. I've learned to dress in three different outfits. It's not fun. I can't find anything. I think you're having some fun I'm actually having. I am having fun because I've learned to live with it but it's not fun. It really isn't. I mean, there's a lot, mainly for things you can't find, and it's just, I don't know. You feel displaced and it's not. It's very stressful, especially when you have pets, especially when you have pets.
Speaker 2:Yeah, little sophie doesn't know. Yes, it's wherever she lays her hats, her home or kids or kids.
Speaker 2:Yeah, imagine with doing that with kids or somebody that's disabled, maybe, like it's not, it's not, yeah, it's not good at all. So you know they're already going through that stress. So, of course, when that comes in and there's a reason why and you know I got the idea from certified pre-owned cars, cpo cars every dealership has one CarMax that's a CPO dealership. Basically Everything's been inspected, everything's been put right. They offer a dealership warranty. There's a reason why people pay 6% more for those cars.
Speaker 2:And when I got into real estate in 2006 and I saw all these deals falling apart, I just didn't understand. So again, we have a car you know CPO in cars has been around for 50 years, probably longer than that. We have a $20,000 car that's been certified pre-owned and we'll pay 6% more for it, and yet we have a $500,000 house. In those days here it was $176,000 was our median price point. Now it's $525,000. Just this short time later, we have a $500,000 house that we put on the market, no inspections. This is insanity. I think it's insanity. And now we've found a way for you, as a seller, to have it paid for. And you know we have all of these different ways to use this and, of course, today we've been talking about assisted living. When you're getting to that stage, we can give you a full market value cash offer that you can put in your back pocket Now.
Speaker 2:Will it change in six months when you finally get that call? We're ready to go, possibly because of what the market's doing. You know the market's flattening out a little bit now. But just get that offer. Now. We're not, you know. At least you've got an idea of where you're at and it will be the full market value of your home. That means we've made that contact. We've seen your house. All of that stuff takes time. We can come in at least assess what we could do to make the most money for you. So what do we need to do? Do we need to paint the walls? Do we need to do a deep clean? Do we need to put new flooring down? You know, do you have two or three different types of flooring? Do you have laminate and carpet and tile in your house? We'll probably, you know, redo the flooring throughout. Do you have popcorn on the ceilings? Do you have old fans? And are there homes in your neighborhood which there probably are at this point that have been remodeled that are selling for $50,000, $100,000, $150,000 more.
Speaker 3:The other thing with this program that you've created and obviously backed is that we're evaluating the numbers on the property before we even go in. So your average broker comes in or your realtor comes in and says okay, these are the comps. We feel that this is the top value. They'll tend to overprice the property in order to get the listing, first of all because they're there to get the listing, and then there'll be price adjustments if it's too high. Well, we're coming in and evaluating here's what you've gotten, here's what it needs and this is what we can get.
Speaker 3:So you're getting all that up front, so we're not going in blindly and just saying let's just overprice it to get the listing. To get the listing yeah, we're saying this is where you're at. So if that doesn't work for you, we understand. And then if a broker comes in later and just overprices and it sits, then they're going to go. You know, we should have listened. There's always that in between there's a difference between somebody blindly listing versus a company coming in and looking at the real numbers.
Speaker 2:You're right.
Speaker 3:Because we're forecasting the next six months out as far as best we can, not just getting a sign in the yard right, and the great thing is it's a really good point and the great thing is we're so.
Speaker 2:There are people out there right now saying my house is perfectly maintained it. We already remodeled the kitchens and the baths. I promise you when we do that inspection, we're going to find 40 to 50 items. I should lay a bet on this, honestly, because I don't remember the last time. Do either of you remember, renee or Mike, the last time you saw an inspection report without 40 items on it? New construction, but it's still going to have 25, 30 items on it, but not 40.
Speaker 3:I'm just saying that's the cleanest I've seen.
Speaker 2:Yes, outside of new construction, do you?
Speaker 3:remember anything that's had less than 40 items? No, because it's every little window. Latch A loose screw. Yeah, it's ridiculous.
Speaker 2:It is, except when a buyer looks at that, you know. And as a seller, you go oh well, that's nothing, you know, it's easy to fix right. You can hear them saying it. Mike's laughing because he can hear them saying it. That's exactly what you say as sellers that's nothing, that's stupid and you know. Nothing.
Speaker 2:On there is cosmetic, it's all things that need fixing, and buyers don't want to come in and fix anything and you, as the seller, don't have to fix it. We can disclose it. However, with this program, we're going to come in and fix everything right, so that will all be fixed. And even if you've got a well-maintained you know, remodeled you think it's just swanky pants, best thing since sliced bread then we'll find things in there where we can put some money in and, quite frankly, get you out. Because when you've got a home, that's what we call a show and go. You're not in there. It's not all about your logistics. Are you home from work? Have you do? You need to take the dog out? You know, I love the sellers who say yeah, but my dog's really friendly, he'll just be really friendly. You've had that right. He'll just be really friendly, don't worry. And then you come in as the agent with your buyers and it's like, and this dog's barking at you the whole time and, quite frankly, even if they are friendly.
Speaker 3:The other problem is if someone's in a house and they want it to look good if they want to make their house look good to sell and they need new flooring. What are you going to do? You can't take everything out of the house and do the flooring and put it back in.
Speaker 1:It looks horrible.
Speaker 3:It's going to look horrible, it smells horrible, it's going to look horrible, it smells horrible and carpet is history. I swear nobody wants anyone else's carpet.
Speaker 2:Very true. Most people don't want their own carpet, never mind somebody else's.
Speaker 3:My parents had a house one time with a six-inch shag carpet. It came with a rake.
Speaker 2:Did it really? Yes, are you serious?
Speaker 3:They have a shag carpet rake.
Speaker 2:Is that a real thing?
Speaker 4:I've seen it on studio walls from the 60s in radio stations it had more smoke in it than a van.
Speaker 3:So some things you can't just correct with them. There it's just a whole different concept.
Speaker 2:So, even if you do have what you think is a perfect house, this still works for you. Our funding company has been doing this since 2017. They've never not sold a house and they buy flips all the time homes that have already been remodeled all the time. Just gets you that money out fast. We do it for short-term rentals as well. So if you're maybe a short-term rental owner, you've got a house. You don't want that sign outside because people are renting, and or you just got a rental house. You don't want the sign outside because you don't want your renters to know that you're selling it. We can buy it and you can then give your renters notice and now you're not paying the mortgage anymore. You know, with no sign or anything else. We just make it easy for you. It's just a much, much, much easier way to sell a house. You get your money out much faster and we can maximize what you get for that house. That's the key thing.
Speaker 2:So, like Mike was saying, many agents go in and they do what we call buy the listing, which is they'll price it high. Usually, the seller will go with the person that will price it the highest because they think they're going to make more money, whereas that's not really the case. It needs to be market value because you really want two or three offers coming in at the same time. So you've got some bargaining power and often it will actually bid up at that point If you put it on too high. Your first 14 to 30 days is so important when you, when you list your house especially now because it should be selling more quickly still you don't want to burn that time with your house priced too high, so just get us to do a cash offer. That's so you know. We we get requests for cash offers, or what what are called cmas overpricing.
Speaker 3:It also increases the fallout percentage. What's that mean? It means that folks will put it under contract immediately to tie it up and then feel they're paying too much for it when they do their homework, and then they'll back out. Because they're under due diligence period so they can walk unless there's a big due diligence fee. We're not seeing due diligence fees like we were during COVID, that's for sure.
Speaker 2:That's a very good point. So the fallout rate, you know. So, yes, because there isn't much inventory around, buyers feel like they need to lock up the house and you know they can put $500 down in due diligence or nothing. You can put zero down. Tie up the house, my last four sales.
Speaker 3:I told the sellers. I said it's not a matter of selling it, it's who we sell it to not a matter of selling it, it's who we sell it to, so it's getting the right buyer on the contract. So we're more shopping. We're shopping for buyers as much as we are just a buyer. We're shopping for the strongest buyer because if the house needs work you don't want a va buyer or fha because they're going to tear you up on the appraisal.
Speaker 2:So we want to get the right buyer with the most down that's qualified yeah, not that we can't help those va or fha buyers as well, of course no, absolutely. But the house has to be for this program yeah, we can buy it through the cpo program and get it to a place where we can do those va and fha loans.
Speaker 3:I hadn't even thought of it like that, you just brought in doing 100 financing right now, conventional, yes, I mean, I've never seen that and they will do it because now we've got this basically perfect home.
Speaker 2:I mean they're never perfect, right, but almost perfect home. The CPO homes have the cleanest. If they choose to have their own inspector, which you know we often recommend it's going to be the cleanest inspection anybody's ever seen. That's what the buyer and buyer agents love to show your CPO home. Why? Because a third to two thirds of the time that deal's going to fall apart. With a regular old home that hasn't been. You know it's like buying a car off Craigslist. That's a yeah, exactly. I wish I could show you what Mike's doing right now, but you really don't want to do that anymore. Most of us will pay the few percent extra to buy that certified pre-owned car because you don't want to buy a lemon Same with a CPO home.
Speaker 4:So most of your agents. Don't do that, oh Thought.
Speaker 3:I'd bring a little class, some world-class stuff there. What's that World-class stuff here?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, summertown, that's beautiful. I think that song's called Summertown.
Speaker 3:Oh stop.
Speaker 1:You're in trouble.
Speaker 4:You are so in trouble. That's so pretty. That's great music. Man, in your bio I read you are a fan of Nat King Cole and Frank Sinatra and I said I gotta play this guy's music. We speak the same language. I like all the classics, the Great American Songbook, yeah.
Speaker 2:I wish you could see my. So, doesn't he? He sounds like. I just realized he sounds like Sting as well. He sounds like a cross between Sting and Neil Diamond. Sounds really good Paybacks.
Speaker 4:I'll let you guys close out the show here.
Speaker 2:Renee, that was Mike on the piano. He's a very accomplished pianist. It's amazing.
Speaker 5:Ah, I was wondering what was going on.
Speaker 2:She's in trouble. Apparently, I'm in a lot of trouble, so close us out. Renee from um. What time is it over there now?
Speaker 5:you're not too bad at this point, thank goodness it's almost eight o'clock, but the one piece I want to close out to you that I don't think we mentioned is that, um, the parents, the, the kids out there who have parents that are seniors. I have several friends that are in this situation. This is an opportunity for you. This is a great program for convenience when you are trying to do things by coastal or you're working and you don't have the resources and you need to do something quickly for mom or dad or, you know, auntie, uncle, whoever else, grandparents.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can get them the most money. Thank you, darling.
Speaker 5:What's that, Rowena?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can get them. We can get the kids and the parents the most money. Thank you guys for listening today. Thank you so much, renee, over in California. Thank you, mike, I know I'm in a lot of trouble. Thank you, row, we'll see you on the radio next week. Assistedlivingcpocom for more info.
Speaker 1:This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at RadioAshevillecom or call her at 828-210-1648.