Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Maximizing Your Home's Value with Preparation and the Cash CPO Program: Navigating the Spring Real Estate Market

• Rowena Patton

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Spring into action with your home sale this season as I, your host, guide you through the essentials of market preparation. This episode isn't just about tidying up the garden; it's an in-depth look at decluttering, interior enhancements, and handling unexpected challenges like Richard's experience with his discolored hardwood floors. We wrestle with the home inspection process and reveal how our innovative Cash CPO program not only tackles these hurdles but can also significantly increase your home's value. If you're mulling over the idea of selling, this week's insights will arm you with the wisdom to make informed decisions.

Ready for a real estate revolution? The Cash Certified Pre-Owned home selling program is turning heads, and I'm here to tell you why. Not only does it offer the potential for a swifter sale, but it could also bump up your asking price. Join the conversation with Richard who shares his firsthand benefits from the program, helping him navigate the market like a pro. From the vast array of property types hitting the market — think sprawling farms to one-of-a-kind homes — to an upcoming mastermind event you won't want to miss, we're unpacking the transformative power of preparation and certification in real estate.

As the market ebbs and flows, staying ahead of the curve is key, and that's exactly where we're focused in the final segment. With my seasoned perspective, I explore the shifting sands of the real estate landscape and what it means for your sale strategy. Whether you're weighing up home improvement investments or contemplating a cash offer for a streamlined selling experience, our discussion is a treasure trove of anecdotes and expert advice. Let's navigate this together and position your property to shine in a market that's ready for a change.

Speaker 1:

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. It is me on this beautiful sunny Saturday, Isn't it lovely, Randy, after the weather all week this week.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, it's breezy, but the blossoms of spring are everywhere. It's just a great time of the year, my favorite time of the year yeah, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

It's my favorite time of the year too, and what I love is the bright green coming out. You know that really bright lime green popping everywhere, yeah, and the early tree flowers. Of course you can hear it in my voice because this is also the time of the year that I get horrible allergies. I just put a we listed a beautiful mini farm this week and I just put the video together this morning, which you know takes some time and gosh, you can just you can hear my voice on it. It's like oh, that sounds terrible.

Speaker 2:

But it was okay.

Speaker 2:

It's still the video with all the views and everything else, so definitely want to take a look at that one. You can go to the Real Estate News Radio YouTube channel. All the details aren't on there yet for the farm, but they will be later today and you can watch the video with 180 degree views. It is just lovely. So today we're going to be talking about getting your home ready for listing, because it's the spring and you're all busy working on the yard, which is fine. Just do a little bit. Don't spend too much money and do some more work on the inside.

Speaker 2:

The energy that you put into decluttering and looking like you're actually going to move is very, very, very important. And we had somebody call in Richard actually, that I want to play for you because it was just so cool when he looked at those hurdles His house actually he had listed for some time and when it was under inspection. You have to understand these things happen. It's kind of scary because you just wouldn't think it would and it was a $900,000 house and he had it listed for over a year and then it didn't sell because at the inspection, when they lifted the rugs, they noticed that the light had hit the floors. Now, all of this is is solvable. You can resolve everything. It's so important to do it because if you're going to be listed for a year and people are traipsing through your house, you don't want it to fall out at the last minute. It's just a horrible thing to happen. You're all planned going somewhere else. Maybe you've got children or grandchildren and they're planned on going in the different schools somewhere else. The moving trucks are planned and then suddenly, literally the rug is pulled.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that wasn't good good, was it? So let's take a listen to richard for a second. We have richard on the line. Good morning, richard. How are you this morning?

Speaker 5:

I'm great. How are you guys?

Speaker 2:

fantastic and you have a question for us today. I hope you are I'm great I do.

Speaker 5:

We put our house on the market several years ago and had an interesting thing happen. We decided to go ahead and do a pre-inspection and take care of everything. Well, one of the things that the inspector noticed we had resilient cherry hardwood floors throughout the house, anywhere that we had an area rug. He lifted up the area rug and, because Brazilian cherry darkens with light, it showed light spaces and he took pictures of all of that and put it in the inspection. What would a seller be expected to do about a situation like that?

Speaker 2:

I love that question and it's so funny because brazilian cherry, uh, darkens, whereas most floors and good job putting those down, by the way, most floors actually lighten. And well, no, I guess they lighten around the rug, so that makes sense. It would be darker under the rug, whatever kind of wood you've got. So cash CPO would take that off the table because we'd come in, you'd get the majority of your equity within two weeks and we would refinish those floors right. We would get them to a situation where you wouldn't see any of those spots and also we would have inspected your home and our funding partner takes care of all of that. You wouldn't have spent any money to do it and they'd have put the other 20 or 30 things right on the inspection report and then we would have relisted it and two-thirds of the time you'd have gotten more than you would have gotten with that traditional listing.

Speaker 2:

So when you say what's the seller expected to do in an old-fashioned listing where we haven't gone in and put all that right from the get-go, absolutely the seller well you know the seller doesn't have to do anything, is the point. However, the buyer can say it depends on the market, right? So if they've got maybe a couple of other houses that they've been to see. They've probably. Let's be honest, are you in this market, richard? Are you in the Western North Carolina market or was this somewhere else? Yes, it's Buncombe County, buncombe County. Okay, so in Buncombe, and you said a couple of years ago. So the market was pretty hot.

Speaker 5:

Well it was, and then it died off. We ended up not selling, but I suspect within the next three years or so we will be selling to downsize.

Speaker 2:

Got it OK? Well, the first thing, first off, if you go the cash CPO route, you can stay in your home for up to 90 days, which is more than most buyers will give you. So think about that, get us in early so we can talk about what needs doing and then just, you know, get ready to get ready. The only thing I would, you know, raise a flag on there is that we did crest in this market about a year and a half ago, which means that for the next three and a half to five and a half years, the market's likely to decline and then it goes back up again. It's a seven to ten year cycle. So if you're thinking about selling in three years, you may want to put it off for seven to ten years. Now, if you want to sell, you know if that's too long a cycle for you. Think about we've got July 4th coming up. Do you have family coming in? We do for you. Think about we've got july 4th coming up. Do you have family coming in? We do, okay, so you've got family coming in for july 4th. Think about your home in three and a half years time. Does that same home work for you when you've got the family coming in. Think about thanksgiving in 10 years time. Does that same home work for you when you've got a family coming in, in other words, if it doesn't think about selling it now?

Speaker 2:

I'm not one of those agents. You know that. You've probably listened to me before that is pushing you to sell your house and get out. At this point I am because we've already crested right. So last time we went down 30%. Maybe this time what's your gut feel on the rough value of your house? About $900,000. $900,000. Okay, so if we go down just 10%, we're talking about $90,000. If we go down 20%, we're talking about $180,000. That's a lot of money and that's in three years' time when you're thinking of selling. So you know you may want to sit down with your significant others and you know your family and go. Do we actually think about this now? And right size now? So that would be my advice to you Don't worry about those flaws and everything else you know.

Speaker 2:

Give us a call 828. You know where to get me, rowena Patton, just Google me. I'm all over the flipping place. Give me a call. Let's come in and take a look and we're not going to push you at all. We'll just show you the economic cycle and where you're likely to be at when you're thinking about selling. So sorry, you called in, richard, about the light and dark spaces under your rugs and I gave you a whole other story, but that's where it's important, because you're thinking about selling your home.

Speaker 2:

Those buyers probably backed out using the excuse that you know what do we do with these brazilian cherry uh floors. It sounds fantastic, by the way. I'd love to see them and take a look at those floor. We've done so many remodels mike here, who's my business partner, also has done a gazillion way more than me remodels and we'll be able to tell you, you know, what we can do with those flaws realistically, so the next buyers don't back out, because let's not have you have that stigmatized listing again. That would not be good, right? So give us a Well thank you, of course. Of course you have a fantastic day. Are you doing anything fun for the rest of the day?

Speaker 5:

Oh, we're just traveling around in Western North Carolina. I do have one funny story to tell you. Sure, I appreciate all that information and it goes to show how important it is to get a great realtor. The last time we listed, our house did not sell. I don't know if you've ever heard of this, but our realtor suggested we get a little statue of St Joseph and bury it upside down on the property somewhere and I just thought that was the most ridiculous thing I'd ever heard of.

Speaker 2:

I've heard it many times from realtors. Actually, and you know, whatever you have faith in works is all I can say. The power of the mind is is, uh, very powerful. All I would say to that is all of the uh, all of the things that you feel are very powerful. Get a great agent behind you and not, quite honestly, do some preparation. Whether you go with us, we're the only ones that we launched, cast hcpo across the country. In fact, the book's on amazon. Now just go search rowena pattern on amazon. Um, it starts delivering in a week. It's on there already. It's been on there for 90 days. We've got one week left. It's all about cash cpo. Um, you can search me on amazon and find that it shows the program. We launched it nationwide. We've got 1200 agents doing it.

Speaker 2:

Whether you use us or not for that program, richard, I want you to think about getting the inspection Now. If you do it yourself, obviously you'll have to pay for all this yourself. Get the inspection, get the appraisal, get the preparation done first. That's why CPO cars sell, because the preparation's been done and we're all happy to pay a little bit more because we're getting something that's not a lemon. I want your buyers to trust you, richard. I want you to have that inspection out there where they look at Richard and they trust Richard because those items have been done. So I really want you to think about that. It's not magic. We don't have to bury anything upside down. We just prepare properly from the get-go. Does that sound like it makes sense?

Speaker 5:

It does. I'm so glad I called. I got so much great information. I didn't even know about what you're talking about, with changes in the market over time, so I think next time we decide to sell, we're probably going to contact your team. Fantastic, I think that would make a lot more sense. I really appreciate all the information and learned a lot from listening to you guys.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's great, richard, and quite honestly, give me a call now. I don't mind that you're selling in three years. I've got people I've been working with for 17 years. Give me a call now. I will come in and take a look and we can put it out three years. I have no problem with that at all. But we can sit and do it one on one and look at your house and, you know, see what it really needs. You have a fantastic day, my dear, and I hope to see you soon and take a look at those floors and the rest of your beautiful house.

Speaker 5:

Wonderful. Thank you so much.

Speaker 2:

Of course you have a great one, wasn't Richard great?

Speaker 1:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

I just I wanted to listen to him talk about that again and it's definitely one of those things where lift up your rugs, you know. So if you lift up the corner of your rug and you've got those issues going on, either disclose them and now you're going, oh my gosh, disclose them, like people aren't going to want my floors with marks on them or do something about it. And if you need some people that can help you with that, give us a call. We've got people standing by 24-7,. 828-333-4483. We'll find someone to help you with your floors or anything else you need doing. 828-333-4483. Of course, we do have the cash CPO program whereby should we buy your home at full market value? This is not where you get 70% or 80% or 50%. This is full market value. Then we'll do all of that for you, we'll put everything right and the money comes off the sale price at the end, so you don't have to find it up front. But you know, as we were just talking about with Richard, you don't want that stigmatized listing. That is not fun when something falls out, when it's under contract. I promise you. I've been doing this a long time, but 3,500 plus transactions, everybody calls and says what's wrong with the listing?

Speaker 2:

I want to just return to a second for the video that I uploaded this morning for the farm, because we've had a couple of calls on it already. Where's the video? Uh, four, it is 5810 us highway 23, uh, mars hill, 28754. So 5810 us highway 23, mars hill, 287, 54. It's almost 20 acres. It has spectacular views. It has two homes on it. You really want to take a look at that one. The pasture land is already all fenced off. They used to have cattle, horses there. There's another pasture across the street that does go with the land. The video shows very well everything marked out and the two homes on there as well. It would make a great family estate and you can find that video by going to YouTube and looking at Real Estate News Radio and just type in 5810 and it will pop up for you. You'll have all the rest of the details on there today.

Speaker 2:

If you've got any questions about getting your home listed or inspections or why we do it, or if you've got any funny stories, like Richard, whereby we're looking at you know what happened when you had your home listed before, or something like that, we would love, love to hear your stories and you can call in at 828-240-9962. If you're calling in from Mars, 800-570-9962. And it's also been the week of having conversations with Sean Hannity. How cool is that? In fact, I was going to meet him in a couple of weeks at the Mastermind in New York, although it looks like he's got some scheduling conflicts in there. Boo, sean, we wanted to meet you again. However, we'll see whether we can.

Speaker 4:

Hey, sean Hannity here talking with the only real estate agent in your market. I recommend Rowena Patton with All Star Powerhouse. So now that the market is normalizing again, how's that going to impact home selling right now?

Speaker 2:

You know, sean, that's a great question and people all around the country are asking it. I'd really like them to know about the cash CPO offer. It's certified. Pre-owned homes are inspected often they're appraised and cash CPO offers sell for 11% more and twice as fast, and there's no hassle of the showings.

Speaker 4:

So is now the time to sell.

Speaker 2:

You know, Sean, it's really all about do you want to sell now or not? Are you just dipping your toe in the water? If you want to get top value, sell it now.

Speaker 4:

You've got a small window before we expect to see that real flatting out the market before we expect to see that real flatting out the market, call Rowena Patton right now at 828-333-4483 or online at mountainhomehuntcom.

Speaker 2:

You know, and what we're talking about there is when I'm saying sell it now if you want to get top dollar, is because we shifted in this market and many markets around the country. We crested at the top. You know, what goes up must come down. This has been going on since 1860. Good old Clermont-Juglar set up the economic cycle and nothing has really changed. Sometimes the cycles go a bit longer, sometimes they go shorter. So we did crest over a year ago and it is therefore, if you want to get top dollar, either wait it out for that seven to ten years or get it out there now. So what do you think to that, randy?

Speaker 3:

I agree, it's uh, like you said. Sometimes these cycles last a little longer or a little shorter, but this one is pretty predictable, right.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, absolutely. And well, it's predictable by a lot of what a lot of other economists are saying as well. Yeah, the very few economists say, oh, the economy is so strong it's going through the roof, prices are going to keep going up, and, guys, it's just common sense. I mean, there are some people, you know really doom and gloom, saying all kinds of disasters are going to happen. I don't believe that. However, there's no reason why we wouldn't go down 10 or 20 or even 30 percent, like we did last time, which is perfectly normal.

Speaker 2:

If you look at over time how house prices have gone up and down, that makes sense. So if you think about when I got into real estate here in 2007, the average price point was about $180,000, about $178,000. It's so funny now, which of course, means that you know many people can actually afford that. I can remember even then, a lot of people that still couldn't afford that. However, a lot more people can get into the housing market. So if you look now, we've gone from 180, 178,000 to 450,000. That is over double. And the problem is people's salaries haven't doubled, nowhere near.

Speaker 2:

And you know, if you listen to any of the economists, they say spend no more than 15% on your household, whereas most people, to even afford a mortgage, are spending more like 60% or 70%. It's crazy, which leaves very little money left over. However, at some point it's like starting your pension early. You know you start it early in that many compounds. Getting onto the housing ladder is the same thing. So if you get on that housing ladder now, in 10 years time, in 20 years time, look at what's happened to the values. And again, that's nothing new.

Speaker 2:

You know, when I look at the houses, just since I've been in the States alone. In fact I don't even follow my houses in the UK, but I moved here in 1996. And the first house I bought was in Washington DC, right next to the zoo. And my partner at the time was saying your budget is 220 000. It's just funny. Now it is 1996, it's not that long ago, so my budget was 220 000.

Speaker 2:

We went in this little row house with bars on the window and this is down. This is dc proper, not. People go on from washington dc. They're usually from, you know, alexandria or somewhere else close to DC. This is downtown DC. So we go in. All these other people are looking at the house and he's like, oh, this is kind of cool. No, no, no, no, no, no say, oh gosh, there's bars on the windows and anyway. So I I learned very quick. I didn't have a real estate license then, not for many more years, in fact 17,. About another 20 years before I get my real estate license at this point. So I put in the bid at $220,500. So I thought, if I go just a little bit over, sure enough we've got the house. So when I tell you now that that house is close to two million dollars.

Speaker 3:

Whoa yeah, two million dollars.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, then he had kept it, and it sold for 550 just a few years later and you were very happy, very happy, yeah very happy and, um, I'm trying to think of some other crazy stories like that, the one in miami.

Speaker 2:

So leaving the one, in miami, in 2000 a hurricane hit. It was under contract where we would have made a to split a million dollars. Crazy, the house was eight hundred thousand dollars, which sounds like a lot, but in miami that's not a lot. It's going to buy you a little house, you know, and, um, it was under contract for a million dollars more than that, so it would have been a nice profit. But the hurricane hit, took the roof off and prices came tumbling down where.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, we didn't make any money at all on that one, or just a little bit, you know, washed our faces. Yeah, there's a lot of properties that you can make a lot of money on and you look back at them. So again, that house in Miami at $800, I think that's $2.6 million now. I mean.

Speaker 3:

That's just mind-boggling, isn't it?

Speaker 2:

It's a place called Prairie Avenue, for any of you that know Miami Beach, and it's on the side of the public golf course, so it was always going to go up in value. But many of us look back. I'd love to hear your stories if you've got any 800-240-9962, if you've got any 800-240-9962, of crazy uplifts on houses that you know, price increases that you used to have.

Speaker 3:

I've got several houses around South Asheville that I can remember buying and selling and I don't go look at what they're valued at today. I just don't want to see that.

Speaker 2:

Well, we couldn't keep them.

Speaker 3:

None of us could keep them. No, that's right.

Speaker 2:

Otherwise we would have and we're like, oh, we wish we'd rented that out, but most often we need that money to go on and buy our next house or do whatever, you know launch our business, get out of debt, maybe avoid bankruptcy or keep our companies going you know, whatever it is at the time or pay for your kids college or pay medical bills or all that stuff that that equity does for you and it's you know, it's a really important piece of your financial portfolio. Obviously, Real estate really is one of those where it's pretty much protected over the long term. Now you want short-term gains or you want to be able to liquidate the money. Real estate's not where you go. If you've got that money to put away for 10 years, I would say it's definitely where you go. I mean, obviously I'm in the business. I would say that wouldn't I. However, trust me, if I could invest in anything else that gave me more money back, I'd do it rather than real estate. And there's always people. People are telling me right now, investors are telling me right now well, I'm just going to wait because prices come down. People who are renting are definitely saying that to me, especially the people who moved here from somewhere else and they're waiting to see which area in the mountains they love.

Speaker 2:

Is it Weaverville? Is it Weaverville's fast becoming Asheville? You know it's all blending together. You go off on New Stock Road and it's all blending together. Now Is it Black Mountain? Is it cute little Black Mountain out to the east and takes you 20 minutes from Black Mountain to get back into Asheville. Only takes you 10, 15 minutes from Weaverville to get back in, or 20 minutes from Mars Hill, just a little bit further north, or 30 minutes from Waynesville to get back in, or 15 minutes from Canton, or 30 minutes from Hendersonville, or 15 minutes, 10 minutes from Arden. You know there's lots of areas all the way around and areas with a very different feel. So Black Mountain is that small town, french porch of America, weaverville's a bit. It used to be just a bit bigger. Now it's a lot bigger and has Walmart and Lowe's and all those other stores in Weaverville and it's growing very, very fast. Going out to Leicester is growing very fast as well. Yeah, what else are you seeing in the areas around Randy this?

Speaker 3:

Wow changing. Milt River in North Henderson County Fletcher area growing by leaps and bounds. And of course Henderson County has its own economy and it's always thriving with the retirement community, the agricultural community and the tourism. You're right, it's a spread. It's a spread outward from the city of Asheville.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And you're seeing that spread out in the rural areas.

Speaker 2:

Mills River used to be quiet and easy to get in and out of. I actually just moved from Mills River.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And Mills River is adding hundreds and hundreds of homes, especially along Rugby Road. That's just getting busier and busier and busier.

Speaker 3:

The airport is growing by leaps and bounds, and it's not just the passenger count is up, but freight and these distribution centers that are popping up in the Mills River area, closer to the airport.

Speaker 2:

Yes.

Speaker 3:

Amazon, etc. Yes, lots of jobs, lots of homes, lots of people, lots of growth.

Speaker 2:

And most of Mills River. You're only 10-15 minutes or five minutes away from the airport. So, obviously a lot of people like that as well, especially those who are having this as a second home or travel. You know, so many people work from home now and get on a plane once a month or once a week even to get out.

Speaker 2:

So, as the airport grows and those pathways are much easier, then that gets interesting. I actually just bought a tiny little place in fort lauderdale. And coming back to the airport, and the great thing about the airport here is allegiant. So the pathway between fort lauderdale and here is almost every day now so you can shoot. You know, with allegiant you normally you have to go on thursday and come back on a Tuesday or wherever you're going. They're adding flights all over the country, direct flights, allegiantaircom. It means German giant, for any of you that are interested. Alley giant is German, so German giant.

Speaker 2:

Oh okay, that's what it's about. And you know Fort La Giant oh, okay, that's what it's about. And you know Fort Lauderdale, between here and Fort Lauderdale, of course, if you live in Miami or anywhere around Fort Lauderdale, you can easily hop on the plane and be here. So it makes sense. Now, you know people. Our closest beach is Charleston, for example, so Folly Beach would be the closest beach. Four-hour drive Well, it's a little bit more now. So four and a half five hours, to be more realistic. You know, if you're in traffic or anything else, let's say you do it really fast and you do it in four hours. Here's the thing I can be. You know, because, again, because it's a smaller airport, you can get in and out very easily. You can Uber there very easily if you live close by and it doesn't cost very much. You hop on that plane. I'm there in an hour and 40.

Speaker 3:

Wow.

Speaker 2:

You know, and it's 20 minutes on the other end, so I can hop on a plane and get there faster than driving it To Charleston.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And those flights, if you book them in advance, can be 60 or 80 bucks. Now I can hear everybody at home going yeah, but they add all that stuff on. You're dead right. It's really annoying. Oh yeah, you can't take a bag on unless you pay more. Who doesn't take a bag on, for goodness sake? So they do charge you all those extras, but for a couple of hundred bucks. And how much is it going to cost you in gas?

Speaker 3:

Oh, easily To drive to.

Speaker 1:

Folly and back.

Speaker 2:

Now you've got a car when you're there, which is nice, but that's the point. You can get somewhere down there which is guaranteed sunshine. So all winter you've got that. Three, four, five months and you can still get condos for $150,000.

Speaker 3:

That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, witherpool the Skatedated, and yada yada.

Speaker 3:

That's amazing.

Speaker 2:

So you know those are available. If you need any help with that, if you need any help with your second home, if you live in this area and you need any help with your second home around the country, give us a call 828-333-4483. I want to give you the opportunity to hear Sean with me. This week. I've got four conversations with him. Here's the second one.

Speaker 4:

Hey, sean Hannity here talking with the only real estate agent in your market. I recommend Rowena Patton with All Star Powerhouse. Now more than ever, buyers and sellers need an expert to navigate this ever-changing market. And what do you do to stand out?

Speaker 2:

You know I got into real estate in 2007. I've had a lot of experience all of the way down and I sold more homes than anybody else. And I did that through experience, marketing, negotiation and in today's market you need that experience more than ever. Agents for the last two or three years really haven't learned a whole lot about anything that's difficult about a market, because you could just stick a sign outside the door and put a lockbox on the door and boom, it's gone tomorrow with three multiple offers. That is not the market we're in anymore.

Speaker 4:

Call Rowena Patton right now at 828-333-4483 or online at mountainhomehuntcom or 83, or online at mountainhomehuntcom.

Speaker 2:

Gotta love Sean and I wasn't being mean to agents there about not having learned a whole lot in the last couple of years. You know we run a nationwide program through-.

Speaker 4:

Hey Sean Hannity here talking Cash CPO.

Speaker 2:

So well, sean again. Sorry, I interrupted Sean. Sorry, Sean, I'm sure he's listening on this Saturday morning from his lovely home in Florida. He did actually move out of New York into Florida. Like everybody else is leaving and going somewhere else. I wonder why he didn't come to.

Speaker 3:

North Carolina.

Speaker 2:

Maybe that'll be his next home. So you know, because we run a nationwide program, I hear this from the team leaders of those teams all the time. Most of the team leaders have been in real estate at least 10 years, so they went through the last cycle. These cycles come and go, just like any economic cycle. So if you, you know, got your real estate, a lot of people got their real estate license they go oh, this is really easy, and we just stick a sign out there and then get multiple offers, literally.

Speaker 2:

I had a team leader about a month ago say to me you know, I just had one of my listing agents come to me and the buyer's agent was wanting to negotiate on one of her listings and she came to me and said I don't know what to do. And I said what do you mean? And he said well, she's only been in real estate a couple of years, so nothing was negotiated. She just stuck the sign out, the offer came in, she presented the offer to the sellers and it was done. But the going back and forward in the negotiation she had no experience of at all. It's just so interesting. Or and forward in the negotiation she had no experience of at all. It's just so interesting. You know, or you get multiple offers and you just take the one that looks the most favorable, the most money, the best terms, ie, is it cash? Do they have proof of funds? Can they close quickly? Are they maybe even waiving the inspections which, by the way, if you're buying a house, I never recommend, but you know some people choose to do it because they really want the house. We're not in that market anymore. So those agents without that experience are having to literally relearn real estate and how to do it.

Speaker 2:

So if you're thinking about listing your home, make sure you go. It's so important, guys. Make sure you go with somebody with experience, whether it's me or somebody else that's had, you know, thousands of transactions in this market. Make sure you go with somebody with experience, because this market demands experience. This is not something where you're just going to put your sign out. It's not not, like you know, last year or the year before, early last year. I mean, it's been a long time since we've seen, you know, those multiple offers flying, but sometimes we remember the market as being that way. It isn't. Unless you've got something that's absolutely stellar and incredibly well-priced, you're probably not going to get multiple offers, quite frankly. So you know, let's just be real about it and make sure that you're prepared properly.

Speaker 2:

You know, I always recommend, at the very least, an inspection. You don't have to fix anything. You don't have to do anything. In fact, those of you that do have some cash laying around and you're busy putting the mulch out and doing the yards and, I don't know, maybe fixing up the bathroom a little bit, fixing up the kitchen a little bit, I would recommend that you stop that right now. Get your agent in, get me in. I'll come see you and I'll talk to you about what it's worth doing and what it's not worth doing. So you know you can disclose all of that stuff. You might get $10,000 less for the house, but you're probably going to spend ten thousand dollars upgrading the kitchen or upgrading the bathroom. The issue with that is but that costs you time, energy and money, but most importantly, it costs you time.

Speaker 2:

Very few houses are on the market right now. There's more and more coming on every day. We're literally adding so many every day. We're getting a lot of price reductions I'm seeing every single day. They call them price improvements now. So that means people haven't been able to sell the house and they're ready. When you get those price reductions, that affects your comparable price, in other words, when other homes are selling around you for a bit less money. That's what starts to drive prices down. As prices drive down, you may not have to sell, which is fine. You may not have to sell, however other people do. And whether other people sell around you and they sell for less, the problem there is that that drives prices down for your comparables. So somebody trying to get a loan on your home, you know, is now getting a loan on something that's valued slightly less. Time is not on your side at this point.

Speaker 2:

We're over a year of cresting. Once it starts to go down, it generally goes down pretty quickly, right. So it's like a roller coaster, it's like. So it's like a roller coaster. It's like da-dum, da-dum, da-dum coming up to the top and then it's like da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum as it crests along the top and when it starts going down it picks up speed. Da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, picks up speed, which means prices drop faster. Well, it doesn't matter. I just won't sell it this year, I'll sell it next year. The cycle is seven to 11 years, half of seven is what.

Speaker 2:

Randy, three and a half, three and a half. I put him in the hot seat there. I wondered if he were listening. I know you can. Half seven, though. So three and a half, what's half of 11? Five and a half so the bottom. Technically. Now, does it always fall exactly in the middle of the cycle? No, but technically, three and a half to five and a half years will be at the bottom right Somewhere in that timeframe, and then the next three and a half to five and a half years we'll be back at the top again.

Speaker 2:

So this is not something where you go oh, I'll just sell it next year or I'll just sell it the year after. If you want to get it sold Now, if your home works for you for the next 10 years, hold on to it. No problem at all. Hold on to it. That's great. If it doesn't get out ahead of the curve, no one's's going to push you. At least I won't. I'll come out and see you. I am not going to push you to sell your house, I promise. If I really think that work needs doing, then I'll advise you to do it. I'll also most likely be able to bring you a full market value cash offer, which means that we can come in and the funding partner, we can use their money to fix up the things to maximize the value of your house. So what does that mean? For example, in the neighborhood where one we did recently had a basement that was unfinished. We finished the basement in three weeks and we did some cosmetic updates upstairs. We spent about $70,000 and we got about $200,000 more for the house and that profit was shared back with the owners. Two thirds of our sellers with this program make more money and you get 70% within 12 days and you stay in the house for three months if you want to. So it's kind of a no brainer, which is why we started this around the country. Or maybe you want a traditional listing? That's fine too, no problem.

Speaker 2:

We've got an estate sale going on right now where we're helping. It's um a sister and two brothers and their their parents passed um, their mother just passed, and now they're selling the home and they're getting 60. And now they're selling the home and they're getting 60 percent. Um, they don't live there, they're getting 60 percent right away. And then you know when, when somebody's older, they don't tend, or especially when one of the people have passed, then the house generally isn't going to be as well maintained.

Speaker 2:

So we can go in. We can, you know, freshen it up with some paint. We're putting new floors down as well. We're going to spend about 25 000, but because of that we can put the home on the market for about a hundred thousand dollars more. So, again, that family's going to make more money, but they're also getting access to that money. Now, instead of marketing a house that needs a little bit of work, you know that's going to take longer to sell, unless we priced it really low. So it just gets sold, and I don't like doing that. I think for all of my sellers I want to maximize the money that they're getting and make it fair for everybody. So let's hear the penultimate conversation with Sean.

Speaker 4:

Hey, sean Hannity here talking with the only real estate agent in your market. I recommend Rowena Patton with All Star Powerhouse. You know it's more important than ever that you have your house in top condition when you sell it. Can you give some suggestions on how to do that?

Speaker 2:

You know, it's always important to get your home in top condition. You've probably heard of a certified pre-owned car, a CPO car. They've been around for 30 years. We all pay three to 5% more for a CPO car, so why are we throwing a house on the market where we don't know what is wrong with it? We're not fixing anything, which is fine. We can just disclose those things. By the way, it's always always important to make sure that it's prepared properly. That's why I started cpoexpertscom back in 2007. It's more valuable today than ever.

Speaker 4:

Great update. Thank you for keeping us informed. Call Rowena Patton right now at 828-333-4483 or online at mountainhomehuntcom online at mountainhomehuntcom.

Speaker 2:

Well, thank you, sean. Mountainhomehuntcom. So that is run by a company called Boomtown, which is the number one CRM. We pay thousands of dollars for it every month. It's an amazing system and they have been hit by some technological problems. Oh my gosh, We've been down for two days. This has never happened. I've been with them for over a decade and um, so, mountainhomehuntcom, if you go there, you're not going to get anywhere right now. So just give us a call, 828-333-4483, and we're likely to be back up by the end of the day, which is wonderful. But 828-333-4483, we have people standing by to take your message. If you're even thinking about selling, then talk to me about our full listing package. Whether you do that in the traditional way or you want me to bring a full market value cash offer at the same time, why wouldn't you want me to?

Speaker 2:

The cash offer literally is the value of your home. So the people that uh, we have another great system actually that people go on to and get ask for the value of their home. If you ask for the value of your home, I'm going to send and you can actually go to mountainhomehuntcom now and click on sell my home, and that will take you to that site. When people ask for the value of their home, I send them a full market value cash offer because that is the value. When people ask for a CMA or a comparable market analysis, I send you a full market value because that is a CMA. Like, I've looked at all the comparables and that's what I think it's worth. And then, of course, you know many of you just say, hey, I want a cash offer. I'm like, okay, here's your cash offer. So that's what the cash offers are about. It gives you that value.

Speaker 2:

Why wouldn't you want one? If you're thinking of selling your house, there's no obligation. Just get one and see what you think. Why not cut out those showings? Cut out the, the, the, the, the. You know the fact that you have to do anything at all, fix anything up. We're realtors, we come in, we, we. We have that vision where we can see past everything. Don't worry about that. We can use somebody else's money to do any of the upgrades that we need and we just did on one that we just got under contract, that we're just getting ready to close on in Fairview. We did a new roof, we did a new septic, we did full paint.

Speaker 2:

If you have a home that doesn't need anything, that's fine too. Our funding partner, since 2017, has been buying homes that are flipped ie people that investors buy the home, they completely remodel it and then they're selling it. They buy those as well. So even houses in perfect condition, you know you can get that money out quickly, which means you can make a non-contingent offer. Now, if you've got lots and lots of money in the bank, who cares? Because having that money out quickly is not an issue.

Speaker 2:

However, if you want to buy something else, or maybe you want to move to another state, if you've got a house in good condition where we're just spending a little bit of the funding partner's money, you're going to get 70% of your equity out. The mortgage is paid off. You're not paying for the mortgage anymore, but you don't just get that 70. We clean it up. You move to Florida or wherever you're moving to, back to New York, you know, maybe down the street, wherever you're moving to with a non-contingent offer. In other words, you don't have to put an offer in where you say, okay, so you know we're going to buy this house in New York or buy this house in Florida when our home sells because the market is still reasonably competitive.

Speaker 2:

Why would any seller take that offer? Would you? If you, if you're selling your house right now, someone says, hey, I've got to sell my house in florida. This happens all the time. I've got to sell my house in florida, but when that sells, you know we're under contract. When that sells, I'll buy yours. We're working with a buyer right now that, frankly, has gotten very ticked off because his home was under contract in Florida. He and his agent were absolutely positive it was going to close and I called him a couple of days ago and it fell out. Well, since then he's wanted to make contingent offers here. In other words, we take, we make an offer for him on a home and say we'll close on your home in the western North Carolina when his house closes in Florida. But look, it's under contract, isn't this great? Here's the issue. A third of them fall out. So if a third of them fall out, do you really want to take that as a seller? Unless you really, I can't think of any reason why you'd take it. Quite frankly, most sellers I'd be saying don't take it. You're taking such a big chance and you're locking your home up where other offers aren't coming in and because we've crested in this market and prices are likely to, you're starting to see some price improvements, ie reductions. It's costing you time, and time is not your friend right now. So I'd advise you not to take those contingent offers Very tough, I know, because what are you supposed to do?

Speaker 2:

You know you've got your house under contract. You want to buy something else because you want to make it seamless. What are you going to do? Rent for a month, yeah, I mean, if that's what you need to do, or get a thing called seller possession after closing, that's really the best way to do it and it's actually what we offer through the cash CPO program too. So, in other words, you sell your home in Florida, you ask the buyers to give you a month after, or three weeks or whatever you need to get the next home under contract. In other words, if you've got cash, whatever you need to get the next home under contract. In other words, if you've got cash, you can buy a home very quickly Technically seven days but you really want a couple of weeks. So now you'd be living in your home somewhere else for a couple of weeks and then you'd be using cash to move into your new one. If you need a loan, then you need a month, at least five or six weeks, to be safe and then you get to stay in the home. However, you've got to hope that the buyers of your home somewhere else are okay with that, but there's nothing wrong in asking for that.

Speaker 2:

I always tell my senior clients you know, sometimes you might have, you know, a bit of a problem moving around you. You, um, you might be in a wheelchair. You, you just might want to take your time packing all that stuff up. If you are thinking of selling, please start clearing out your stuff. I just moved. I've still got probably 30 of my clear tubs um 30 of my clear tubs all in a spare bedroom. I'm going through them day by day. I'm pulling a couple of out and, quite honestly, even though I've gone through all my stuff already, I'm still throwing as much as I can away. It feels so much better. It makes it so much easier to move. I want you to start doing that. If you're thinking about selling, just do a room at a time, or a cupboard at a time or a drawer at a time. Heck, if it's that drawer in your bedroom or the kitchen that's got all the stuff in it. That might be an evening in itself could easily turn into an evening.

Speaker 2:

Yes, one drawer yeah, and you look at that little picture of your child and you go go on, throw that away. You know, just gather all those things in. I definitely recommend the clear tubs. I've got them all over the place. Shoot me a message, 828-333-4483. Shoot me a message. Go on Facebook Rowena Patton, I'm real easy to find. I even have a store actually on Amazon, so if you go Rowena Patton pattern store you'll find me on there as well, and it's actually got these clear tubs in them. I highly recommend them.

Speaker 2:

You can get about 10 for 250 bucks, which sounds outrageous. However, once you've got them, you've got two sets of 500 bucks for your packing materials. Guess what you pay for boxes. The boxes get thrown away or recycled. Your clear tubs you can use for the rest of your life, literally. I've been hauling these things around for so long now and they're easy to stack in the moving truck. But the best thing is you can see through them. You don't need to label them or anything. You label them if you want to, obviously, but then when you stack them in your garage, they've got clip on the tops too. You can buy the cheaper ones, but they crack more easily and they've got clip on top so you move them into your garage, you can see the tubs that you need. It just makes it so much easier. And then, of course, once you unpack, you've got all those storage tubs to put stuff in. And here's the big secret most of the time, some of those tubs will never get unpacked they go the next time they're already packed.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah yeah, which is kind of sad, like just get rid of that stuff, because energy is very important and, um, you know it. Really, I've seen this so many times before when, especially back in the day when houses weren't selling, I mean, sometimes you'd have a listing for a year. It's like what is happening I'm going back 10 years in the downside of the cycle, which is, by the way, where we are now just at the beginning of that, and people say, well, what's the problem? Like you're not ready to sell your house, and the minute you start packing up those boxes and looking like you're really ready to let go, it sells. You can call it what you will, but I've seen it so many times. I'm over 3,500 transactions. I can tell you it really works.

Speaker 4:

Let's do our last chat with Sean hey, Sean Hannity here talking with the only real estate agent in your market. I recommend Rowena Patton with All Star Powerhouse. What kind of programs do you offer?

Speaker 2:

You know, sean. Thank you for that question. Have you heard of the cash CPO offer? Lots of people just don't want to go through that hassle of preparing their home or anything else. This brings you a cash offer full market cash offer right away and you don't have to go through those showings. Of course, if you want any of us to do a traditional old-fashioned listing, we're more than happy to do. That. Certainly is worth your while checking out this offer up front and then you take away all the hassle.

Speaker 4:

Great update. Thank you for keeping us informed. Call Rowena Patton right now at 828-333-4483 or online at mountainhomehuntcom. That's mountainhomehuntcom and you can start packing.

Speaker 2:

I wonder how Sean actually is broadcasting now, because obviously he broadcasts on a regular basis. Do you think they have a studio in Florida they do it from, I guess, so Maybe he flies back in. Who knows?

Speaker 3:

You can broadcast from anywhere in the world now, and it sounds like you're right next door. It's amazing, isn't it? It is.

Speaker 2:

And obviously he loves New York but just couldn't take it anymore. I mean, he's very frank about that. So many people are leaving new york. It's so sad and you go back into the big cities now and you look around and the last time I went to san francisco it was so beautiful and I was talking about going back because I have so many teams that I'm helping through the cash cpo program in California and I'm not looking forward to going back and seeing it honestly, because so many people have said it's just spoiled. I actually work with one team out there. In fact, we did a radio show with him and he said that he took his daughter in to see a concert. That was Ron in. Uh, was it san jose? San jose, close to san francisco?

Speaker 2:

I'm not sure. Well, now we'll get all these callers telling us that we don't know where to go.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, telling us where to go, yeah really, but anyway it's is.

Speaker 2:

he is in the market that's. That's fairly close by there and he went in and he was horrified and he said he would never take his daughter in there again, which is very sad. However, I hope you've enjoyed today and talking about. You know what to do when you're getting prepped and really I'm telling you, don't prep at all for your listing. Call me and I'll come in and let's have a discussion about what it's worth doing honestly and what it's not worth doing, because an awful lot of what you're spending money on and spending time on may not be the thing that you should be prioritizing when you're selling your house.

Speaker 2:

And, like I said, time isn't your friend right now. It is if you get out there quickly, but it takes a minute. You know we listed the property the 20 acres on Thursday. I just got the video up this morning because I was stitching together eight different. This is a very big property but stitching together eight different videos it takes time. It takes time to get the marketing together and we're really fast. It's only Saturday. You know the listing was up that night. That's not normally the case. You've got professional photographers coming out and I used to run a photography company, so it's a little easier for me. You've videographers maybe, maybe not, you know. Get on it now. Give us a call at 828-333-4483. Get me out there and I'll talk to you. See you on the radio next week.

Speaker 1:

This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. See you on the radio next week.

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Rowena Patton, NC, FL, DC, CA

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