Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

They Do It Different in Canada, Eh? The Wild World of Northern Real Estate with AJ Hazzi

• Rowena Patton

Share episode

Send us a text

What if your next home purchase could be as stress-free as buying a certified pre-owned car? Join us as AJ Hazzi from Canada brings his expertise to the table, explaining how Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) homes are revolutionizing the real estate market. With meticulous inspections and appraisals, these homes not only provide peace of mind but also command a premium price, making them a wise investment for both buyers and sellers. AJ and I will share our personal experiences with CPO programs, shedding light on how they can significantly reduce transaction failures and ease the anxiety often associated with home buying and selling.

Ever wondered how a funny skit could capture the quirks of real estate? We brainstorm hilarious scenarios featuring characters like the know-it-all uncle and the overly confident handyman, and even dream of collaborating with SNL actors for a show called "Tales from the Trenches." While we have some fun along the way, we also tackle serious issues currently affecting the market, such as fluctuating interest rates and regulatory changes. Reflecting on the industry's evolution from printed MLS books to digital listings, we highlight the necessity for buyers and sellers to adapt to the new landscape.

Selling your home shouldn't feel like an uphill battle. Learn how pre-inspections for home sellers can save thousands and avoid costly renegotiations. We'll also discuss innovative cash offer programs that allow flexible move-out dates and eliminate the stress of traditional home showings. Imagine enhancing your home's value without any upfront costs — sounds too good to be true, right? Tune in to discover how a modest investment can yield significant returns, allowing you to move on smoothly while maximizing your sale profits. Join us for an episode packed with practical advice and light-hearted moments, all designed to help you navigate the real estate market with confidence.

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 show. We've got a great one for you today. I've got to brush up on my Canadian accent, which is probably a little closer than most of you Yankees out there would be my guess. What do you think, randy? Can you do your best American accent? Can you do a Canadian?

Speaker 3:

I can do a Southern American. That's it. That's it, that's me, southern American gentleman.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. That's the way I advertise my voiceover work. Southern gentleman. Oh, I love it. I love it Okay. So the cool thing is we have a big announcement today. We are launching in Canada and I believe we have AJ Hasse on the phone with us this morning to talk about what he's doing up there. Good morning, aj. How are you?

Speaker 4:

Good morning, I'm doing fantastic.

Speaker 2:

And I just want to say thank you.

Speaker 4:

Nice and early for us here on the West Coast.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I was just going to say thank you so much for getting up so early for us today. Tell us where you're calling in from.

Speaker 4:

We are in beautiful Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada.

Speaker 2:

And for the people that don't know the areas of Canada, kind of point out in layman's terms where that is. Do it in girl terms, point to a dot on the map.

Speaker 4:

Mansplain it, mansplain it.

Speaker 2:

Mansplain it exactly.

Speaker 4:

Yeah Well, everybody knows, I think, where Vancouver is. It's the West Coast. We're just three hours inland from that.

Speaker 2:

Oh wow, you're that close. I didn't realize that. Thank you for mansplaining it for me. That was awesome and I know you I know you.

Speaker 4:

That's my wife.

Speaker 2:

It for me that was awesome and I know you wanted to come on today to talk about the cash offer. You do lots of different programs up in Canada and we got chatting about six months ago and we were talking about certified pre-owned and how important that is when you're selling your house, whether you're not use our cash offers, whether you're in now, whether you're in North America or Canada, how exciting is that you can use all of our programs and our cash offers. However, certified pre-owned I want to start with that AJ is so important. If you've got your home listed right now or you're thinking about listing your home, don't do it without certified pre-owning it. How does it work with CPO cars up there, aj? Can I just keep saying up there, is that all right? Sure, yeah.

Speaker 4:

That's how most people point. They just point up and they assume that that's the direction. So I agree with you 100%. For the small investment in the CPO, it's a no-brainer, just like you wouldn't buy a pre-owned car, likely without one For us.

Speaker 4:

I think what really clicked for me when I met with you in New York was that, because we've always had all these other cash offer programs, but everything really should start from the CPO. And the CPO is the gateway or the access to all of these other programs Because, quite frankly, each of those programs requires an appraisal and inspection, and so we're now adding in the warranty. It's a no-brainer, no matter which direction a homeowner goes, whether they take it to market and sell it the traditional route or whether they take us up on one of these offers. It makes more sense to start with a CPO. So that was what I was really excited with to implement here, and nobody's really doing it.

Speaker 2:

I love that you're saying no-brainer because, honestly, all these years doing this, I started CPO Experts back in 2007. When I got into real estate earlier on and you know me, I'm not a crier I cried every third day. I'm like what is?

Speaker 2:

this business. It's horrible, people are horrible and things are falling out all the time and inspections, and then everybody gets upset and argues about $5,000 or I don't know the piece of furniture that's at the end of the bed, you know, because it hasn't been moved out yet and it's just the craziest business ever. And CPO can take a lot of that stress and anxiety and money worries and 33% of the deals falling out. Ours fall out 7% of the time. Aj and I are working on our magic wand. We're not quite there yet. However, it's so, so important. But for people who don't know what it is, let's explain what a CPO car is. Aj, do you want to do that or do you want me to have a shot at it?

Speaker 4:

Well, I mean a certified pre-owned car has gone through a very vigorous inspection usually some 52 or 112 point inspection to determine that it's roadworthy and that a customer can have peace of mind that when they buy it that it's not going to fall apart on them within a year of them owning it.

Speaker 4:

And, given that there's, if there were two cars that were the exact same price and one had a certified pre-owned and one wasn't, which one would you buy? The selectability of the one that did, of course, yeah, and then, of course, you might even pay a premium for it, right? Yeah, you might even be willing to pay a slight premium for that, it's 3% to 6%.

Speaker 2:

They pay more and it's pretty much the same with a CPO home, and buyers agents love them too. And why would you love them as a buyer's agent? Because it's in the best interest of your client. If you're running around with your client and they're looking at three different houses and one is certified pre-owned, of course you're going to say let's look at this one because everything's taken care of, because you know that 67% of the time the one that isn't CPO is going to close right.

Speaker 2:

So 93% of the time, the one that is certified pre-owned, the one that we've busted our tush and done the work on to help you certify pre-owned. That's what we do. That's what we do as agents. We actually work and CPO definitely takes work on the agent's behalf more than anything. Just look at those figures here.

Speaker 2:

93% of the time, by the way, if you list your house right now, based on average figures, how long it's taking to sell, you're going to get your cash in Thanksgiving Let that sink in for a second when you're eating your turkey, you are going to get your cash right, unless you go the cash CPO route and we get you your cash in 14 days. That's up to you, of course. But when you get that cash in Thanksgiving 93% of the time when you're certified pre-owned, that's not getting the cash or anything else, it's just certified pre-owned or you get the appraisal and the inspection. 93% of the time you're going to get your cash at Thanksgiving. If you go the traditional route, that drops to 67% of the time. I don't think that's very good odds. That's nuts to me, aj. What do you think? I think it's crazy.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and that number of the amount of our deals that we write that actually make it to the finish line. We've been obsessed with that number for the last five years and we managed to by putting every system in place you could possibly do to get ours up from, like you say, in the high sixties. We now close just shy of 80% of our deals, but up to 93 would be so much better for everybody involved. It's it's so much heartbreak for the homeowners. It's actually so much heartbreak for the real estate agents who've been to war over it. And then you get the property back and it's potentially stigmatized now because everyone's wondering why did the deal fall out? And it often sells for less the second time around. So you really want to get that first offer to close and there's no better way I can see than getting it certified pre-owned.

Speaker 2:

It's so funny, AJ, because you sound like me. So many agents don't understand this, and what I've realized is that as I go out and I speak to people about listing the home, they don't understand it either. It's like what do you mean? Our deal's going to fall out. Why can't?

Speaker 1:

you do better.

Speaker 2:

We can't control what the buyers and the buyer's agent are doing. And the other thing is people get very upset at the inspection. That's the biggest one I'd say. What do you think?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, I think that the inspection can throw a lot of curveballs at people late in the game and a lot of times realtors don't have the expectations set correctly with their clients. And for very silly little items that could be very much dealt with. Often, deals will fall out, so it's better to get ahead of it all. Right, let's find out what we're dealing with and let's make sure that we put the home in the right shape and we don't lose the deal over the inspection, or the appraisal, for that matter.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's a big one too. So I'd say it's inspection, appraisal and then home warranty. But I want to talk about the stress bucket for a minute, Right now, how's the economy doing in Canada?

Speaker 4:

It's definitely sluggy. Most people are reporting that they have less cash to play with.

Speaker 2:

How's politics?

Speaker 4:

up there. Don't even get me started on that. Okay, just a little bit. I think the one thing that's uniting all Canadians is our disdain for our current leadership.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's so funny, isn't it? I think there's one thing that is uniting most citizens of most countries is disdain for leadership. I think that's a very common one. Whether they're all too old or they're swinging super left or super right, that's a great way to do it. The one thing that unites the citizens and quite frankly, I don't know if you feel like this, AJ, but we talk about it every week 95% of us violently agree about 95% of the issues. Whether they're left or right, it doesn't matter. Like 95% of us violently agree about 95% of the issues, Would you say that's the case.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, but that doesn't sell newspapers and doesn't create clickbait, right? I mean, we all, at the end of the day, just want what's best for our families and we just want to be left alone and to lead a good life and to have enough money to enjoy the things that we want to do. And all of the other super extreme issues are like you say, they're at the polar ends. We're all really centrist at the end of the day, we're moderate, we just want to just go about our business and we agree on a lot more than we disagree on, but of course, that keeping us divided seems to be the playbook.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that the truth? So it's sluggy there too, okay, and usually True. So it's sluggy there too, okay. So, and usually the economic cycle in Canada and North America pretty much aligns, would you say.

Speaker 4:

Very much so.

Speaker 2:

Yep, Okay. So stress bucket is we've both got sluggy economies, which we've both. We've got high interest rates. That means that people are nervous about purchasing a house because we've got high interest rates. We've got prices that have gone through the roof. What else is in that stress bucket, AJ?

Speaker 4:

Well, our government here which I don't think you guys have has added a whole bunch of different rules and regulations to make it much harder to finance a property, and they're really doing everything they can to try to make properties more accessible, which ultimately means trying to get the prices to come down. Wow.

Speaker 4:

So there's a lot of people who have a lot of fear about you know, with more and more government intervention, that the appreciation we've all come to expect over the years is going to be harder to attain. Now I don't actually agree with that, because it seems to me every time the government does something to stifle the market, all they do is shrink supply. And with less supply, of course there's the opposite effect. Yes, but that doesn't change. We jokingly call it the sales prevention team. Everybody's got a know-it-all uncle that will talk them out of the deal mid-go.

Speaker 2:

So there's a lot of that.

Speaker 4:

Wait. Sales prevention team. Yeah, it usually happens within a week of closing, or a week if the subject's coming off, the sales prevention team enters the game and gets involved with an opinion that isn't necessarily based in fact, but is enough to create an already nervous buyers, you know, to get them to waffle at the end of the day.

Speaker 2:

You just gave me a great idea. I think it's a great idea. I think you and me and a number of the other people in the rate group should do stand-up and we should do skits on this, because that is so funny. That is so funny, that is great. Wouldn't that be awesome?

Speaker 4:

There's so many good ones that could pop up the know-it-all uncle, the dad that shows up to the inspection. So many good ones.

Speaker 2:

Oh, the dad that shows up to the inspection. I love that one. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. What about the one that's got a realtor friend in name? Any other state that's not yours, Any other province that's not yours?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, and this realtor is so busy and effective at his job that he's giving advice out of state.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and they did two deals last year, or maybe none, maybe two deals in the last five years, but they know everything about real estate. That's almost the most dangerous one, right? You know? I actually know I'll take. Oh, we've got so many skits here. This is so funny. We are seriously going to have to do this.

Speaker 2:

So think about the person who's. Oh yeah, I'm a handyman, I don't need an inspector. I'm going to look around the house myself and inspect it myself. I don't need an inspector. How many times, actually? I just had one a couple of weeks ago with a guy that bought a house with us about five years ago and he called and he said the wall's failing next door and I don't know whether it's on my property or not, and I said, well, let's look up the survey. I said, well, let's look up the survey. Oh, you chose not to have one and he's a handyman, so he checked it all out himself. So not a problem at all, but we've got some quotes. It's going to be okay. It's only about $20,000. So stop laughing, randy. Oh boy.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So we're definitely going to do some skits on this, I think they could be very funny.

Speaker 4:

We need some SNL actors or something. I think the name of the show is Tales from the Trenches.

Speaker 2:

Tales from the Trenches. I'm loving this. Maybe we'll do it when I come up to Canada, because we're going to do some TV advertising for you, launching the cash offer up there. It's going to be so much fun. Let's come back to the stress bucket. We've Launching the cash offer up there is going to be so much fun. Let's come back to the stress bucket. So we've got Sluggy Economy. For those of you who have just joined in, we've got Hay J Hazzy from up there in Canada who's taking cash CPO Canada-wide. He does a number of different programs all over Canada, has his amazing own real estate team.

Speaker 2:

I'll then talk about that a bit more in a minute. We're talking about the stress bucket that's going on right now in North America and Canada all around buying and selling your house. So we've got a sluggy economy. We've got lots of rules and regulations coming into place in Canada not necessarily here. We've got a few more here than we had before, but not necessarily here.

Speaker 2:

We've definitely both got politics going on. That goes without saying. We've got higher interest rates and we all know we've been bumping along the top of the market for a while and in a lot of areas we're seeing I look at zip codes all the time and I've got 30 data points on every zip code and every postal code in Canada and in many, many areas I'm seeing four months straight of price drops. That's not necessarily showing up in price reductions right now, but come Thanksgiving, when all of that rolls through, that's when you're going to see it. And we've got this little thing here called an election coming up which slows down everything. I'm sure it does there as well. How often do you have elections, aj?

Speaker 4:

Every four years, but we're a year behind you guys.

Speaker 2:

Oh, so yours is next year. Okay, you're teaching me things about Canada.

Speaker 2:

I love this and you're so smart and you're funny, like this is the perfect Saturday morning, so we've got this big stress bucket going on and then we add to that an old-fashioned real estate transaction. So what happens is and you know, people who haven't bought and sold a house. This is the bit I realize. Just don't think of the fundamentals, or haven't experienced it in so long. Things are different. They may have bought a house last time when the MLS used to be a book that realtors looked through. I don't actually remember that personally. Do you have any bit in real estate for?

Speaker 4:

I do, you do, I was there. You're that old AJ. I showed up right after the transition. Yeah, I know I started at 19,. So when I got there, the old dogs were still using the book and some of the younger ones were switching over to a new system. This crazy internet. What Crazy internet.

Speaker 2:

Do you remember what year that was?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, it was 2001. Which, and?

Speaker 2:

that was 2001. Which is no time ago. Okay, for you young'uns out there that seems like you know. Oh, I wasn't even born then, because you could be 23 at this point, right At 2001. For those of us who are big old grown-ups with our big girl panties and big boy panties, that isn't very long ago. It's 23 years ago.

Speaker 2:

And suddenly we changed from a big fat book with houses in it. Now imagine that Houses come for sale and houses are sold every day. Same with real estate. Do you remember real estate magazines, the real estate home books? So you know, you'd pay all this money to have all your listings put in the real estate magazine and sellers would expect it. Now it's almost a waste of time. They're like three pages big. Because you know it changes all the time and everybody looks on the Internet. We're used to it, the big World Webby thing. So yeah, things have changed so much.

Speaker 2:

So most people now are looking on the Internet. They find something wherever they're at and wherever they're moving to. They find the house and then they sometimes they don't even have an agent, especially if they're moving somewhere else, and they contact the agent and say, hey, I'd like to see this house. Sometimes it's the listing agent. Sometimes they want somebody that's more representative to them. Here's a dirty secret agent. I'm sure you'll agree with me. Most successful listing agents don't show houses. It's a different personality type. Would you agree with that? Sure, yep, definitely, and even if you know there's different rules in every province, every state on how you actually represent the seller. But the fact is, if you've got that, you know legally, in some states you have to represent both, like in Florida, for example. It's a transactional agreement where you're working for the transaction, not the people, basically. But you have to be honest and fair with everybody. There's a lot of states that operate like that. How is it in Canada? Do you have different rules in different provinces?

Speaker 4:

We do. Yeah, it's all done at the provincial level. So in British Columbia, where we are as of 2018, they actually did away with the dual agency, where one agent can represent both sides, so now we work under an agency model where each party has to have their own designated agent.

Speaker 2:

Which makes sense, right, because think about it like this. So for any of our listeners out there, if you got divorced, would you both use the same divorce attorney? Of course you might. At first, when you sit down, you're like that let's make this nice, how many times does that happen.

Speaker 2:

Stuff comes up and the whole point of having representation is not just for the good representation, it's for the difficult things. So when that wall fails or when the listing agent we've got one right now where the listing agent we have an appraisal that says the house is two bedroom, the listing agent says it's four bedroom, it's on the MLS as four bedroom and we've got a buyer purchasing it. The appraisal comes in, verifies everything we think, because you know there aren't the right doors and egress, and all of that good stuff. Now you've got an agent to represent you. What would you do if you were working with a listing agent? Because they're you know CYA, they're making sure that. Do because they're you know CYA, they're making sure that. Do you think they're going to tell you they think it is a four-bedroom? Do you think they're going to tell you? Of course not. So get your own representation. Most of the time it's not going to cost you any more money, even though we have all these changes going on and everything else, the changes aren't so great. We've always had buyer agents here. We've always had listing agents here. We've always had listing agents here.

Speaker 2:

So step one the buyer agent is going to look around, you say I'd like to see this house. You say, well, what are you actually looking for? Well, I've got a dog and I want a little patch outside for my dog to go out. I really want one level. I bet yours is the same as this, aj. I want one level. I want a three, two, um, I would love whatever is in the area, like views or ocean view or whatever it is, regardless of their price point, you know. So, like a three-bedroom, two-bath, two-car garage on the main level, and you know. If there's other bedrooms upstairs or downstairs, that's fine, but we want everything on the main level, would you? You say that's about 80 percent of people.

Speaker 4:

I don't know what the stat, but very high percentage, yeah, it's.

Speaker 2:

It's amazing, isn't it? It's so funny, that's what we want. You would think that 80% of our new builds would be that, and I'd say they're probably 5% of our new builds. Because it's cheaper to go up, it's so interesting, and boomers. And of course we do assisted living. So we know the assisted living CPO, so we know all about boomers and going into assisted living and all the numbers. That number's growing and growing and growing. So, and obviously you know we all always get older. That's never changing.

Speaker 2:

When you get past really late 30s, you start to think I don't know if I want to keep going up and down those stairs. You avoid stairs a little bit more. You may not be thinking at that point. You know, late 30s, like hey, I think I just you know I'm not going to go upstairs right now to clean the bathroom upstairs or whatever. In your 40s you're like, oh, my knees are hurting a little bit. What's that about? In your 50s, some people are having a knee replacement. In the 60s, a lot of people are having a knee replacement, you know. So just for knees and all parts of the rest of your body, people really don't want to go up and down stairs. So you think we'd have got around to that, but we haven't. Back to the stress bucket.

Speaker 4:

Maybe the stairs are needed, though Maybe we need the stairs. Well, there you go Needed.

Speaker 2:

I like that. You've got the knee in there. That could be a little skit, all in itself, right. So here we are with this stress bucket. You've asked for this unicorn. We're trying to find you that three, two with beautiful views and you know, I'm in the mountains and people still want ocean views and four hours from the ocean. So we better get a very high point at that point to get the ocean in. It's probably possible, randy, is it possible? Is it possible we can be in the mountains very, very high up and see the ocean? No, oh, come on, I'm sure it is from what never say never, just say how right, we'll build something very, very tall that gets that view for you.

Speaker 2:

So you're asking us for this beautiful unicorn. We're going to find it for you because we're super smart agents. And then you, you visit, or you maybe you live locally, you take time off work, or you fly in to visit and, and gosh, we crunch through the right homes for two days and then, finally, we've already got your funding in place, which takes some time. Finally, you fall in love with this home. It goes under contract, right? So, okay, you've got the home under contract. Yay, how cool. And then we order the inspection. How long does it take for inspections there? Aj.

Speaker 4:

Got to usually turn them around in three to five days.

Speaker 2:

Wow, that's fast. We're doing that on cash GPO actually, but normally it's going to take seven days, we quote and the appraisal the banks here do the appraisals like a week before it closes, which is, oh, you know, we could be five or six weeks in at that point. So let's talk about so we've done the inspection, so in Canada you've done them in a week and then we're going to sit down with the buyers on zoom or sit down, you know, maybe they're flown back to wherever they're at and we're going to talk about the items in the inspection. Here it's 50 plus items. It's very common common to see A new house is going to have 30 plus items. What about in Canada? Oh, yeah, at least yeah, so it's not unusual anywhere.

Speaker 2:

So you see, you're hearing AJ say it's the same in Canada, it's the same everywhere. So you're sitting at home with your home right now thinking about listing it and you're saying my home's perfect, there's nothing wrong with it at all. All that may be the case, because you may just have had an inspection and put everything right. The truth is people, most people, buy a house. They get money off for the things that are wrong and then they don't fix them, so most houses have something wrong with them and then, even if you fix them all two or three years later, there's going to be more things, so that that is just normal. It's just the way it is and you can say inspectors have to earn their money, or you know, whatever it is, and maybe that's the case, but this is just how it is. We can't change that anytime soon, unless you're one of those people who go I don't need an inspection, please don't do that. So you've, you've got the inspection as the buyer and unfortunately the listing agent didn't know about certified pre-owned, so they didn't suggest to the listing agent, to the seller, that they have a pre-inspection, pay $500, $600 to have the inspection, depending on whether they've got a well and other things. You know, if this, then that, but about $500. Which means that now we're all back into negotiations again. You may as well here not be under contract because that buyer is going to go.

Speaker 2:

Well, wait, this thing is scary. We're moving into a buyer's market, guys, and this is going to be the case for three and a half to five and a half years. That is the cycle. It's seven to 11 years to the top again. That's when you're going to see the big dollars on your house, which means the bottom is three and a half to five and a half years away. Technically, I mean, it might sway a little bit either way there. So now we're moving into this buyer's market. The buyer's going to be like, well wait, I want this fixed and I want this fixed and I want this fixed. Or very often here they'll say I would like $20,000, please. And I'll put it right. What happens in Canada? Aj, how's that split between please fix it or please spend the money?

Speaker 4:

Well, like you say, it really comes down to whether we're in a buyer's market or a seller's market, because who has the negotiating power Exactly? We are definitely already in a buyer's market. We've been kind of plotting along the bottom already for over a year.

Speaker 4:

Wow so what we're seeing now is that the buyers, because they have the balance of power, they tend to overvalue the mistakes or the corrective items in the inspection and then you end up having to spend a lot more in terms of taking money off the price in order to satisfy that buyer than you would have spent if you just dealt with it on the front end. Yes, because when someone sees, oh there's, you know, there's this issue. They're negotiating where they say, well, this is what I would need off. They're taking the actual cost plus, like I don't know, almost like a peace of mind tax or something they're adding to it you know, and it's like it's not really connected to reality.

Speaker 4:

It's more about a feeling at that point, and if that just didn't come up at all because it was taken care of or there was a warranty, you wouldn't be having that renegotiation I'm definitely stealing peace of mind tax.

Speaker 2:

That's perfect because that's exactly what it is and that's exactly what it is and that's exactly what certified pre-owned does for you. So, as a seller, even if you don't fix the items on that list, maybe you don't have the money to do it. You're thinking I don't have the money to spend. I could spend the 500 on the inspection, but then there's going to be all these things that maybe I don't want to know about. It's almost like the people who don't want to do the gene testing because they don't want to know if they're positioned to maybe get some terrible disease that runs in their genealogy. The problem is, if you know about it, you can take some action right and maybe live a little differently or take supplements or something. The peace of mind tax you're sitting at home going yeah, I can afford the 500, but I really don't want to know. Well, the problem is, you're going to know when it's under contract.

Speaker 2:

I had a very big agent in charlotte. It's about two hours from here. Um, charlotte's a big market. It's one of the biggest financial services markets actually in the usa, in northern america, and um, he stood up amazing guy. He's a really good friend and he's become a big proponent of this now and he actually teaches it. So he stood up.

Speaker 2:

I had a lot of people come in from different real estate offices when I was teaching that day. He stood up and he said I've got 30 listings. I can't do CPO because I'd have 30 listings with issues. And the entire room went quiet because we've got 30 listings with issues. So that's the peace of mind factor.

Speaker 2:

I love that, the peace of mind tax. You don't want to pay that tax and you don't have to pay to fix all the items. It's great if you do right, because you can use a handyman, you can use your brother-in-law, you can use Bobby down the street, you can use Aunt Jemima, who's really handy at that point, and get everything done. If you don't have those people, or you're not handy or you don't have the money to do it, the odd thing is that when you have that inspection in place, when the buyer, then you know again you've been looking around, you've found your dream home.

Speaker 2:

When that offer comes in, I come to you and say wait, before we go into contract, wait, there's more, we have an inspection. Let's share that with you so you can see what we looked at when we priced the home because we priced it with these issues in mind. It's like a car we know this piece and that piece isn't working. We know the brakes need fixing, so we reduce the price because we want to get it sold. That's what we're doing with the house if you haven't fixed things and I'm at 3,500 transactions over that now and in all those transactions I've never had a buyer when we've presented that and you present it in the right way to the buyer's agent that then gives it to the buyer. I've never had one back out because everyone goes in in eyes wide open and it's that peace of mind and that's exactly what I say.

Speaker 4:

And you just said peace of mind tax, so I love that well, I don't know if you experienced this row, but there's like a psychology to the buyer when they're in, that that first moment where they're falling in love they can see themselves living somewhere. If you're up front with them at that point say oh look over here, there's this little issue over here. The nine times out of 10, it's usually the husband who goes. I can fix that, that's easy and it's almost dismissive to the issue. But if that issue shows up after they've negotiated, the psychology of the buyer is very different. They're almost in that buyer's remorse phase and suddenly they can get triggered by something that had it been brought up before they made the offer, they would have dismissed it and said this is of no consequence to me, let's just carry on. I love this house. But as soon as the negotiation is over, you get a very different buyer on your hands with respect to those issues.

Speaker 2:

I mean this is so funny. I feel like we've been hanging out together for 10 years and discussing these issues because you sound, randy, does he sound? I mean Randy's like, oh my gosh, this is ridiculous. Like, are these kids from the same mother? It's very, very strange, honestly. So AJ just nailed it. And this isn't, you know, one in 10 buyers, this is nine out of 10 buyers. So it is a psychology piece. It's so exciting.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes you've been looking for years in this market. Sometimes you've been flying in and out, because you know we're in the south, we're in the mountains, which means that although it's darn hot outside, now we're in the south so it stays warmer in the winter. We don't have those, you know, hard winters and we don't tend to have those very hard summers, although I'm wondering to take it so hot outside. So a lot of people come here because of the elevation and because it's beautiful, and yet we're still in the south. You know we're central to a lot of places, so you've been flying in for years and you finally got moved, or you finally found this house that you're all excited about, and all these years or it might be a month, all this month of excitement finally lands in the house and then we go to bed that night and we start to freak out. Do you think this is what happens when you get married, aj?

Speaker 4:

I wouldn't know, I was all in.

Speaker 2:

Oh yeah, that was almost too fast when you replied to that, don't you think, randy? What do you think, randy? Do you think it might happen on the next more? Maybe it just happens seven weeks later, I don't know, seven years later, apparently there's a lot of truth in those things. Right? So you were not necessarily in the management, sorry, anyway. So you now you've, you've put this contract in it's signed. When you call them and say your contract has been signed, everybody is so excited. You know, sometimes you're almost in tears because like, finally I found this amazing house that I've been looking for for so long and we can do this to it, we can do this to it and we can do that to it, and then it starts tricking down. What if that happens? What if the septic is weird? Oh, I've started reading about that area. I heard there was a shooting nine years ago. What if, what if? What if this part of our caveman brains kicks in? I think the safety piece? You wanted to say something there, andy.

Speaker 3:

Well, really, I mean, and mushrooms it grows. I mean, oh God, what if I lose my job?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, what if I lose my job? Exactly yeah. What if she gets pregnant? Usually?

Speaker 4:

yeah, the sales prevention team usually shows up around this time too. Exactly. You did what. What does the sales the?

Speaker 2:

sales prevention team usually shows up around this time too. Exactly you did what?

Speaker 4:

What does the sales prevention team say? They pop in and say are you? Sure you want to buy in this market. Don't you hear about what's going on in the economy?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you did. What. Have you heard about interest rates? Oh, this is so funny. This is so going to be a. So the sales prevention team have now showed up in absolute earnest and they're all marching all around you whispering in your ear. Have you heard about interest rates? Do you know? There's an election in November. We don't know who's going to win. If X wins, it's going to be terrible. If Y wins, it's going to be terrible. Like we could go on and on and on, and Like we could go on and on and on. All these little voices in your head. Your grandma that died 20 years ago is whispering in your head you don't want to do that.

Speaker 2:

I rented all my life. It was no problem at all. Right? So the sales prevention team are all there going. Oh my gosh, oh my gosh. The kids are like I'm going to miss all my friends at school. We're moving too soon. Let's just leave it a year. You've got a whole army and then your own voice kicks in. What if there are things wrong with it? What if I can't fix it? Is my wife gonna think I'm not very manly? What? What do the guys think, aj, I'll, I'll be the wife and you can be the husband, and then we'll get in trouble and I don't care, because we've been doing that for years. What does the guy think?

Speaker 4:

well, I can confirm when I, whenever I bring a handyman around the house to finish up the honey-do list, I've been neglecting. She'll often say to me you know, it's really nice to have a man around the house from time to time. Exactly, it's just a real emasculating experience for me as a guy who sells things for a living.

Speaker 2:

Well, that's very true. But the thing is I always say there's no problem if you can't fix things, but you've got to have the money to pay other people to fix things right.

Speaker 4:

And that's both of you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, as long as you've got the money to get things fixed and do things that you can't do, because we're all not that smart that we can do everything you know we've got to be.

Speaker 4:

There's very little I can't fix. There's very little I can't fix with my phone and my wallet.

Speaker 2:

Randy, I'm telling you this is stand up all the way Phone in my wallet. I love it when I'm talking about CPO. When I go out to a listing, I actually say what is your honeydew list, especially the cash CPO, because almost 99% of people that live in a house, when they're selling a house, know what's wrong with it or what they would like to do to improve it. I want new countertops. I wish I could have painted the cabinets. It needs a fresh coat of paint. The floors are all banged up, isn't this true, aj? You move in and you go. I'm going to switch out all the floors. How often does it get done? Yeah?

Speaker 4:

almost never. But the discount, they want the big discount for those floors they're never going to do, but the discount, they want the big discount for those floors they're never going to do.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that the truth? So you know, back to an old-fashioned real estate transaction. Now they're looking at the floor. So you know, we've got the whole sales prevention team. The army has come to play and the sellers are like, oh, this is great, we finally sold. So meanwhile in our sellers' heads the seller's like okay, we're going to book the schools in a different area, or we're going to move to be by the grandkids, because we've been saying we'll do this for three years and now the grandkids are 32. We wanted to be there when they were toddlers so we could be within their lives. And they've gone on and on and on and finally they're under contract. They're so excited and then a week or two it gets to that inspection point and that you don't sleep the night before. It's terrifying. I've been there. It is not fun. You're a guy, aj, would you say it's terrifying? Can you say that in a manly way.

Speaker 4:

You know I'm not going to admit anything is terrifying, but there's some concerns as a man, as you approach this deadline.

Speaker 2:

I love it. So there's some concerns that might give you an extra bourbon at night right before you go to sleep, which is going to, you know, ultimately keep you up. But that's a whole other story. So now you go, everyone's going to bed, the buyers, the buyer's agent, the listing agent, the sellers, everyone's going to bed before the inspection, getting chills. Sometimes you just have a little concern, like, hey, jane, you drink a little bit too much maybe, but you know, everybody's going in with some concern. And then it happens and there's 55 things on the report and it looks really scary because it's 50 pages long. It's terrifying.

Speaker 2:

So what we're doing with Certified Pre-Owned is we're taking all of that terrifyingness out. We're taking out the ability when the sales prevention team come in and say you did what? Oh my gosh, you know, I mean you don't even know people there to fit. We're taking all that off the plate because it's already taken care of. If you don't fix things, that's OK. So if you're the buyer, aj and I come to you and I say listen, I priced it with this in mind. It's a million dollars. But we knew all these things on the inspection report. Let me show them to you. And, by the way, I got some quotes on them so we know how much it's going to cost, and we've taken that into account. We took $100,000 off, in fact, so now you can even rebuild the patio outside, so we priced it in consideration Would you feel like you trusted me more at that point, aj, absolutely, it's back to that peace of mind.

Speaker 4:

When you go to a restaurant and the waiter is kind enough to steer you away from a bad appetizer, you suddenly trust him much more because you didn't have to order the appetizer and experience how bad it was in order to. It's like the trust is created by that transparency.

Speaker 2:

Can you come on the show every week Like peace of mind, peace of mind tax? You said Right, so there's peace of mind, there's a peace of mind tax and the analogy of a restaurant where the waiter says to you you know not many people, I've had that one sent back a couple of times, or I just don't think the Brussels sprouts are that crispy tonight. Whatever it is, you feel like you will trust everything they say and you're going to order the darn steak, even if you're a vegetarian at that point.

Speaker 2:

So it gains that trust right, it gains that peace of mind. I actually met a client the other day. I was on the phone with her and I discovered she was just down the street. I said let's go for an appetizer. We went and I went to the Admiral Love, the Admiral Best restaurant in town. Unfortunately, it's almost all meat. And then I discovered she was a vegetarian, but that's a whole other story. So now we've done that inspection vegetarian, but that's a whole other story.

Speaker 2:

So now we've done that inspection, we maybe have fixed or not fixed everything and you're perfectly happy with the fact that everybody's going in eyes wide open. It's like, well, you know, you, you sit down with your honey or you sit down with your your um, what are they called the sales prevention team? You're like we know that this is going on, we know that is going on and you know we still think it's a good deal and they've even had an appraisal. It's amazing. So everybody goes in eyes wide open and it's a totally different transaction. If you're an agent and you're listening to the Real Estate News Radio show today, if you've got friends that you want to listen, or if you're listening to this on the podcast, you can go to realestatenewsradiocom, listen to the podcast and you can actually get a link to listen live anywhere Canada, mars, the Moon, anywhere. You've got a link to listen live. This is all syndicated out there and, of course, it will be podcast as well. So you know, you've got the sales prevention team coming in and now they're feeling more comfortable and the transaction smooths through. If you're an agent listening to this, once you've done a listing, certified, pre-owned, you will never go back.

Speaker 2:

I believe California now is not only recommending but requiring the pre-inspection be put in place, or it's coming in place. I'll find out about that one for you. It's just how it should be done. It's a better way to do real estate. You know we started this in 2007. We started teaching agents around the country to use this process where to say to sellers hey, you know, you can do this. Yes, it costs a little bit of money, might cost you 900 upfront, but it's probably going to save you 25, $35,000. Your house will sell faster.

Speaker 2:

Everyone goes in eyes wide open. You're going to get that in Thanksgiving. At this point. You're going to get that check 93% of the time, 67% of the time with a traditional sale. So now you understand the process and the difference between certified pre-owned and an old-fashioned real estate transaction. And if you're listed, you can still change it. Talk to your agent about getting that inspection. Of course, if you happen to be here, you can give us a call at 828-333-4483 and get on my calendar and I'll come out and list your house. So now you've got those two, let's talk about cash CPO.

Speaker 2:

Let's talk about our cash offer where our funding partner whomever that funding partner is, in Canada or here or wherever. We're doing it around the world because these programs are around the world now. So we buy your house. It's very simple. We buy your house. It's very simple. We buy your house.

Speaker 2:

You get a choice of when you want to move out. That could be 14 days, could be 90 days. Generally, you've got a fairly broad spectrum. If you need to stay longer, we can figure that out too. That's why we're doing it for assisted living. You get that call. You've got to move into your assisted living. You want your money out fast. You don't want to fix anything. Most people, if I said to you do you want to sell your house without people traipsing through your house, where you don't take the kids, the babies, the husband, the wife, you know, get them out of the house every single time and keep your house show ready. Who? Who would say yes, please, I want that instead of no? No one, right? What do you think, aj? I mean who? Can you argue for me why anybody would want people traipsing through the house?

Speaker 4:

well, all you need to do as an agent is, once every 10 years, sell your own home and go through the sheer agony of having people come through and no show and, you know, stay longer or show up late and you're constantly cleaning up. Especially if you have kids, it is a nightmare and you think to yourself why would anybody pay me to do this to them? The reality is, we move because of life events and if there was an easy button where you could avoid all of that, you would take it, and I think historically that easy button has come at a pretty sizable cost People can't afford. But with this program that's not the case.

Speaker 2:

And I think, aj, I think what you mean by that is most cash offers are the ugly ones are 50%. If you're really lucky you might get 80%. Would you say that's fair? It's normally around 70% with investors. When you negotiate with the investor really hard, you'll get 70%, would you say that's fair?

Speaker 4:

Yeah, 70, 75,. Yeah, that's normal.

Speaker 2:

So hours is and this has proven true since 2017,. Hours is between 90 and 120% of what you'd get with an old-fashioned listing. That means two-thirds of you will even get more. How crazy is that? So how it works is that you get the majority of your equity between 14 and 90 days and, by the way, if you're listed, we can do this for you too. Just ask your agent to put it in. Or you can go to cashcpocom cashcpo for certified pre-ownedcom and click on the get cash offer. Put your details in takes about three minutes and we'll get the cash offer to you and you can share it with your agent, or your agent can do it for you. If you're an agent listening, you can put it in. It takes about three minutes and we'll get the cash offer to you and you can share it with your agent, or your agent can do it for you. If you're an agent listening, you can put it in. Why not get an offer? It's going to be the same as your price. It's going to be the same as your expired price. It's going to be the same as your FISBO price or thereabouts. We are not coming in trying to buy it at 70%. It's a different process. So now you've got 70% of your money 14 to 90 days, your choice, right? We can push it longer if you need to. So you get that cash and you're able to move out. You move out 14 days, 90 days, whenever you want.

Speaker 2:

And then we use the funding partner's money. We borrow their money to do some HGTV magic on your home. It might be a deep. You might be like, oh, my home doesn't need anything, guess what. When they pay up front for the inspection and the appraisal, we're probably going to need stuff and they take a percentage of the sales so they're not trying to get an appraiser to go in and appraise it low. We're all aligned right. The funding partner makes more money, you make more money. Right, the funding partner makes more money. You make more money, you make more money. The funding partner makes more money. So they want to get an appraiser that's going to give a really fair market value and the inspector goes in. We want a really strong inspector that's going to find everything. We can choose to fix it all or not. We're borrowing their money to do it and, yes, that money eventually comes off the profit profit.

Speaker 2:

But if you were a buyer looking at a house that's freshly paid, okay. So if you're a seller and you go, my house doesn't need anything, trust me. It needs a deep clean. It needs you and the dogs and the kids out of it and all your furniture that you bought from a different market and it's heavy and dark and maybe it's not very modern.

Speaker 2:

Come on, you're sitting out there. It's like, oh, I wish I'd bought some new furniture for the last 10 years. Or you've got your harvest gold fridge or your chipped countertops or whatever. Or your dated granite. At this point, even you know, some granite from 10 years ago looks dated. You all know what I'm talking about. So it could be just a deep clean and you and the dogs and kids out. Honestly, it could be painting on the walls.

Speaker 2:

You know I like to go in and you show in Williams, pure white. There's a little tip if you only some remodeling, just paint it white everywhere. It's like an art gallery and it smells fresh, it looks warm, it's not that cold white. And sometimes we paint the cabinets, sometimes we put hardware on the cabinets, sometimes we make all the floors the same. Maybe you can't. Maybe you've got a little dog that's been peeing on your carpets, maybe you're older and you can't afford or don't have the time to do all of this.

Speaker 2:

We go in and we do some. We've all watched those shows, the HGTV shows, where they go in and you know the owners come home and they're crying. They love it or list it. They almost always keep it and they come back crying with the big reveal. That's what we do to your house and then we resell it and most often you make a considerable amount of more money because your house competes with new homes. It competes with all the other homes out there that are similar. You know the three bed, two bath, master on the main we can't say that anymore the garage on the main level, and you know all the things that the 80 percent of people want. Your house is going to compete better because all the other houses haven't done this.

Speaker 2:

And what does it cost you? Actually, you're in the negative because you don't have to have showings. You don't have to go through that agony. I did it myself last year. Aj, you are absolutely right, it is miserable. Are we going to tell you that as an agent? We, aj and I well, most agents won't tell you that. It's not fun, it's miserable. Don't do it, so you don't. You haven't got to sign outside. Your neighbors aren't going. Where are you going? Like it's all private?

Speaker 2:

If you've got a short-term rental, you don't want to sign outside because it's costing you business. You know your short-term rental is all about getting the same guests over and over again. They're going. What's happening? Oh my gosh, can I even go back there next year? You're losing value in your short-term rental.

Speaker 2:

If you're getting a divorce, you don't want to say, oh, they're finally getting divorced and selling that. You know. You don't want neighbours tittle-tattling. You don't want people coming into your house with all that misery in it because you're going through a divorce. This is your easy button that you can press and move on, but it's not costing you money. Most of the time, two thirds of you are even making more and not having all that stress, and you can move into your assisted living. You can move into your apartment or your new house if you're getting a divorce, if you're having a wonderful life and you're about to have a baby and you need a bigger house, you can move. You can make an offer now on your next house. That's not contingent, because you've got your money. What else would you say, aj?

Speaker 4:

why else is it? Wonderful well I think one thing we haven't talked enough about is the certainty that it creates. The problem with the traditional way is that you really don't know, and the buyers typically in this market will dictate the timeline and maybe that timeline doesn't get you where you want to go before that baby arrives, or maybe it doesn't get you into your assisted living in time to get the room you've been on the waiting list for you know or maybe it doesn't get you, you know, to the out of state or out of province in time for the grandchild that's arriving.

Speaker 4:

The certainty that you get with a cash offer is of massive value.

Speaker 2:

That I think needs to be stated. You're so correct and those timelines. So we've got assisted living, cpo. If you want to know more about that, if you've got parents or you are thinking about assisted living, or if you're on the list for assisted living, maybe you've got grandparents who are on the list or thinking about assisted living. Maybe you've got grandparents who are on the list or thinking about assisted living, or maybe it's your parents who are just being stubborn and you have to keep flying across the country every time something goes wrong to take care of them and you know as siblings, you're getting together and saying it's really time we need to start looking at facilities. Or, if you're on the list, you're going to be often on the list for years. We've got one here that's an eight year waiting list. Make sure you have our cash offer in your back pocket. Don't listen to the sales prevention team who are going oh, they're just trying to take your money. It's something skeezy. I never.

Speaker 2:

I've been in real estate for 17 years. All of the uh people around me, the, the top agents across the country. I'm in a group called Radio and TV Experts AJ's as well. So all of these people a lot of them have been doing cash offers. I've already always veered away from it because I don't know. I've always just. There's nothing wrong with that model. There's plenty of people that will take 70% because they just want out and take the money and they're done. I understand that. I've never wanted to be involved in that. The money and they're done. I understand that. I've never wanted to be involved in that. But now I'm involved in this.

Speaker 2:

You get 90 to 120% and it takes out all of that stress and you've got a certified, pre-owned home with the inspection and the appraisal in place. You know when that money is going to come through, and that's what AJ is talking about the certainty of the timing. But it doesn't matter. Gosh, can you believe we've done a whole hour. We've got our last two minutes. It doesn't matter if you don't need that money for six months.

Speaker 2:

Get us out there. Get the offer in your back pocket. We may have to tweak it in six months because we know where you know the prices are starting to go down. But get that offer in your pocket now. Let's get the work done now. Maybe you'll decide to do an old-fashioned listing. We'll help you with that too. We're more than happy to help you with that, or a certified pre-owned where you do it yourself. That's fine too. We'll help you both. So, aj, thank you so much for getting up so early. It's not even 8 o'clock there right now. Talk about just finish us off with a minute of your amazing expertise and funniness, and again, we love you.

Speaker 4:

Thank you so much for today. Oh, it's been my pleasure and no pressure on the expertise and hilarity at the end here. Okay.

Speaker 4:

Well, I would probably just say the one thing that I think needs to be explained a little bit is that, with the right advice that 120% I think a lot of people maybe are like how would I get that and how would I possibly get over what my property is worth? I think it's important for people to realize that more than likely there's some low-hanging fruit where an investment of $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 could easily increase the value of your home by 10% to 15%, and most people that's cost prohibitive. They don't have, especially in this economy. They don't have that money just sitting around.

Speaker 2:

And so you can't take advantage of that opportunity.

Speaker 4:

At the time, they don't have the expertise, yeah, and there's no tradespeople they trust around. So having an expert with this tool in their tool belt whether it's a realtor listening or whether it's you and I when we can show up and say don't worry, we've got the construction team, don't worry, you can settle at closing, for the expenses, we'll take care of it. We have our own in-house designer that's going to make sure that things are brought up to what today's buyer standards are and we can go and really maximize the sale, and we do it without you having to go in the hole or manage any of this process. You get to move on to your next place in advance and then take the second stage of your sale. It's a beautiful thing.

Speaker 4:

And it really can yield you far more than what you would have gotten.

Speaker 2:

AJ, you're amazing. I love you to death. Thank you so much today. Thank you everyone for listening. Catch us at realestatenewsradiocom for the podcast. See you on the radio next week.

Speaker 1:

This has been the Plain English Real Estate Show with Rowena Patton. Visit Rowena and post your questions at radioashvillecom or call her at 828-210-1648.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Rowena Patton, NC, FL, DC, CA

Host