Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Navigating the Real Estate Market: Trends, Tips, and Innovative Strategies

• Rowena Patton

Share episode

Send us a text

What's the secret to navigating today's fluctuating real estate market? Find out as we break down the latest trends and strategies in our latest episode of the Real Estate News Radio Show. With interest rates on the decline, buyers are re-entering the market, but sellers face unique timing challenges. We'll explore how assumable mortgages and quick equity access can facilitate smoother transitions, making it easier to sync home sales with new purchases.

Ever wondered how seller financing works, particularly in states like North Carolina? We'll dive into the intricacies, such as the benefits of charging interest and securing substantial down payments. Plus, don't miss our practical home improvement tip: transforming your closet into a multi-functional space with charging outlets for your wireless devices. It's perfect for staying ahead of the latest technology trends.

Lastly, we shine a spotlight on senior living real estate and the advantages of Certified Pre-Owned (CPO) programs. Hear firsthand from chief coaches like Deanna Allen and Christian Tharp about the innovative approaches that are transforming the market. From pre-listing inspections to the earning potential for agents, this episode is packed with actionable insights and personal anecdotes that will keep you informed and entertained. Tune in to learn more!

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. This is Rowena Patton and welcome to the Real Estate News Radio Show. If you've got friends that you want to listen realestatenewsradioshowcom, click on the listen live button. You can listen anywhere, even from Mars. I'm always fibbing about that. Where can you listen from Randy? Anywhere in the world, and how far up can you go, do you think?

Speaker 3:

Well, I've always said it's the AM wave band, you know, bounces into the stratosphere and I've always joked that my voice is rattling around in the stratosphere. It has been for years.

Speaker 2:

There's that too, right? Okay, we're going to start off with our interest rate segments and we're going to try it the old-fashioned way. Randy, oh my goodness Okay. Are you ready for this? You might have to bleep me out.

Speaker 3:

Let's go.

Speaker 2:

Look at that. I'm even doing the fade out, aren't you impressed? Okay, it wasn't perfect, but wasn't bad, right for our interest rate jingle. So, wow, good news on interest rates, right, and that's good news for everybody around the country. So I thought I'd mention that one, as uh. Broadcast covers everybody in the US and Canada. Actually, even though you can listen in from anywhere, it's getting way too confusing. Oh my gosh, you can probably go up a thousand feet, don't you think you probably even do it in the air?

Speaker 4:

oh, yeah, oh yeah, how far up the planes.

Speaker 2:

How far up the planes fly? 40, 50 thousand feet you know that I thought I was putting you on the spot there.

Speaker 3:

No, the crew's about 40,000, 50,000.

Speaker 2:

I didn't know that. So that's a lot Okay. So if you're 50,000 up and you've got, I guess you'd need to have the Wi-Fi up there in the plane, the old Wi-Fi up there in the plane. You can listen live from up there in the air too. There in the plane you can listen live from from up there in the air too. Yeah, we need to have a. I see a visual now of the earth, you know, in a big radius around it everywhere. You can listen to the real estate news radio show that's the logo too funny.

Speaker 2:

Well, obviously, interest rates dropped and, um, you know it takes a little while to to feed through to some lenders, of course, so you know that might take a minute, so we'll see. However, a lot of lenders have already dropped in preparation, so it just depends on who your lender is. That has given a little boost. Just because we're right before the election, everybody gets worried in the season of an election. Well, everybody gets worried about everything these days of of an election. Well, everybody gets worried about everything these days. Anyway, right, we all do. Oh my gosh, it's never ending. So, um, yeah, it's, it's things as I don't know what to say about the market. It's, it's such a big mishmash, honestly. It's. It's improved a little bit because of interest rates, no doubt, but a lot of things are very flat.

Speaker 2:

We do have pen to Pinterest. Because pen to Pinterest, are buyers sitting back going. Hmm, I don't know. I really want to buy something. Well, over time that turns into. I really do want to buy something, and I've been waiting for a year Over time that turns into. I've been waiting for two years Over time that turns into. I've been waiting for a year Over time that turns into. I've been waiting for two years. Over time that turns into I've been waiting for three years. And then we need the straw that breaks the camel's back. Probably a terrible analogy for that, but never mind. That then has someone say you know what? The interest rates have dropped half a percent. Now I've got a reason. Sometimes we just need a reason to take that next step. You know, we just need a reason to take that next step, you know.

Speaker 2:

So that has brought a few more buyers into the market. There's not a lot out there. So then you've got how. You've got home sellers who have a great interest rate that haven't found anything yet. They don't know how to dovetail the next purchase with selling the home. Hint, hint, cash, cpo, calm, you can get the majority of your equity in 14 days. 14 to 90 days.

Speaker 2:

You can move out and move on to your next house and then we sell it for you and you get another check and two-thirds of our sellers get more than with a conventional listing. It's a no-brainer right. So, um, you, you know interest rates have some of those home sellers have a great interest rate sitting there waiting it out. And now a lot of people are talking about oh, buyers, get your assumable mortgage, because all the so it's very true. All the government backed mortgages and the VAs obviously that's government backed as well are assumables what is known as an assumable mortgage. If you've got a few gray hairs, you'll remember that back in the day, up until around the 80s, actually there were lots of assumable mortgages. It was just normal to assume it was an assumable. That was good, wasn't it, randy?

Speaker 3:

I know where I plucked that from I follow you.

Speaker 2:

We need a jingle now on assumables. We're making way too many jingles. So it was perfectly normal to say is your mortgage assumable? So you can imagine now that would be very attractive. Just be a little bit careful, because not everybody knows and a lot of agents are pushing this. They're being trained to say oh, you can assume the mortgage of the seller, and the seller's got this 3% mortgage. So isn't it great? You can assume the mortgage of the seller and the seller's got this three percent mortgage. So isn't it great? You can assume it is, it is true, and about eight percent of mortgages are assumable. Any of the government-backed ones are. Here's the issue. It does. There's usually a cost of transfer plus the fact. Very often, in fact most of the time, if not all of the time the seller so the seller who's letting the buyer assume the mortgage, is still responsible if the buyer defaults. Oh yeah, that's a bit of an issue, isn't it? Yes, it is.

Speaker 2:

So, you know, just be careful with that one and look into it and check with your mortgage company and all those good things. It's well, well worth doing. It's always worth trying, you know. The other thing to think about if you're selling is think about offering some seller financing. Now, you can't do this unless you've got some equity in your home. It's probably obvious, right? If you've got a mortgage, you've got to be able to pay it off. However, the surprising thing to most people is that a lot of buyers have a bunch of cash sitting in the bank but their credit, you know, maybe their credit's in the 500s or low 600s. Their credit won't allow or even lower, won't allow them to get a mortgage. But they might have $200,000, they might have a million dollars in the bank. Just because you've got money in the bank doesn't mean to say your credit is bad or good or indifferent. So by offering even a portion of your home with seller financing, especially if it's an unusual property. So we're looking at one right now that has two properties. We have a buyer coming in from Florida that wants to invest in a property with two properties Most properties with two properties. You know this one happens to be two double wides, but he's also looking at another one with two stick belts on it. Most properties with two properties on regardless of the condition of them or what type of homes they are, you can't get a government-backed loan on them, or even a conventional mortgage. It's not can't, but it always makes it much, much, much more difficult. There's always one unicorn bank that will do a loan on anything, but they're much, much more difficult to get. So the average buyer looking at properties goes oh yes, I want that. We've got one going on right now. They looked at two properties on our website. Our search website is mountainhomehuntcom. Mountainhomehuntcom Goes all the way out to Charlotte, asheville, out to Hickory, all over the place. All those homes are covered. You can get your home value on there as well. I can definitely find your home searches for everywhere else in the country if you're looking somewhere else in the country. So they were looking on there and they found two homes and they wanted to go and do a video tour.

Speaker 2:

You have to sign documents for that these days, by the way. Just know that as a buyer, the law changed on this and you have to sign something that says what your buyer agency is going to be before we take you in a home. That's everywhere in the country. You'll find most of the things I mentioned cover everywhere in the country because obviously we're speaking to everyone in the country as we're syndicated out on Fox. So, you know, don't be surprised when you're asked to sign a document. That is normal.

Speaker 2:

You can sign it just for that one property if you want. We won't go into how that has all changed, because it will probably change again in the next couple of months, as everybody's trying to work their way through this, but you do. Legally, you have to sign a document now before we take you into a house. It can just be for that one property, though, and why wouldn't you say, yes, I will pay the agent for this one property. It's kind of a no-brainer anyway. So he found this one property and he said OK, I'm trying to get financing on it now, and I know down well that he most likely won't be able to get financing because it's hard to finance a piece of land with two properties on it. A piece of land with two properties on it Now you can get all kinds of hard money loans and investment loans, and you can borrow from your 401k. There's all kinds of ways around it. It's just it's not for your average buyer and any time you cut down on your pool of buyers, your home is harder to sell. Therefore, you want to think about owner financing, seller financing.

Speaker 2:

The way I always do it, I've handled so many of these. I'm at 3,600 transactions at this point, so in this market. So the way I usually do it is I ask for the buyers to pay for the mortgage note to be drawn up. It's a few hundred dollars, it's not terrible. So the seller doesn't have to pay for that, because at the end of the day, the seller is giving a benefit to the buyers. So it just seems fair that that should be on the buyers. And it's usually drawn up as what we call a three-year balloon, which means at that point the buyers have probably invested some money in the home. They may have surveyed it, they may have chopped up the two properties into two different land tracts and got separate pin numbers, in which case they can be mortgaged. There's all kinds of things they can do in that period of time. Maybe they had a foreclosure or a short sale. Maybe they had a bankruptcy that hurt their credit. Maybe their credit's going to be way better in three years.

Speaker 2:

So, and normally we have at least 10% put down. I had somebody ask me just yesterday a builder asked me just yesterday what percent would you put down if you're going to do owner financing? I ask for at least 10%. And people say but you know, this is a million dollar house. People have a hundred thousand dollars laying around to put down, absolutely that. Also, if you have it listed, that allows you to pay your agents plus have some money left over for yourself as the home seller or the builder. So at least 10%, obviously. If it's a $500,000 house, we're asking for $50,000 down. You want some skin in the game. If you're the home seller that's thinking about that, you want some skin in the game. Now, the other way of doing it is you could have a 500 000 property and you could own a finance 200 of it. So I want you to talk to your cpa about this before you do anything, because there are capital gains issues here.

Speaker 2:

So if you sell your home and it's now an investment property, I it's not your primary. Well, let's go back to a primary. If it's your primary as a single person, you can take out $250,000 tax-free. If you're a married couple, that's $500,000. Of course, if we have a change of administration, they are talking about changing that and pulling down the amount. They're also talking about increasing the amount on capital gains. So we'll see what happens after November, or I guess it will be after January.

Speaker 2:

With that one, however, right now as a single person, you can take 250. This is for your primary home. That's very important Primary home. You have to have been living in it for two out of the previous five years, or three out of the previous five years, I think it's two. Check on that one with your CPApa.

Speaker 2:

I'm not a financial advisor. I'm not licensed as a financial advisor. Disclaimer, disclaimer, disclaimer. Oh, we have to do a speeded up jingle for disclaimer and it'll be hilarious. So you know we're talking about interest rates. For anybody that just joined in real estate news radio showcom, this is rowena. You're welcome to give us a call if you have any questions 800-570-9962. 800-570-9962. Also, if you want to give a shout out to somebody, maybe it's their birthday, wherever you're at, it's all fine, as long as you can speak some form of English. I can do a little French, so that would be okay as well.

Speaker 2:

So back to interest rates and how you finance your home. So you could offer that seller financing. Make sure you check with your CPA and we're an attorney state. In North Carolina there's only about four or five states left that are an attorney state. The rest are what we call title states. You go and close at a title office. That means that you have to have an attorney working for you anyway. They're very used to drawing out what we call the note, the bank note. It's like you're the seller owning the mortgage.

Speaker 2:

Basically, the good thing there, the good and bad thing is you can charge an interest rate so you can take a chunk of money out. You know they're going to put it. You can ask them to put a chunk of money down. You can pay your little mortgage off. If you've got a little mortgage or hopefully you haven't got a mortgage at all, but you can pay your little mortgage off You've got to make sure, if you're doing this, you've got enough that they're going to put down to pay your mortgage off. And then, if you're listed, you want to make sure you've got enough to pay your agents. And then obviously you want some money out for yourself. So make sure you ask for enough money.

Speaker 2:

I always say how can we Not? Oh well, you can't do that because it's too difficult. How can we? And I guess that's how I keep joy in my world is that that's fun. You know, figuring out ways to figure things out, that's fun. Oh gosh, we'd we'd all be really old and decrepit at 30 if we didn't grow right. So it keeps your brain growing.

Speaker 2:

So, definitely, using owner financing can be a way to attract a lot more people that maybe they just think they can't get a loan too. That's the other thing. They may just think that they can't get a loan rather than knowing that they can't get a loan Right. So that could be it as well. So good news for people who are buying a home Interest rates are dropping. Good news for people who are selling a home Interest rates are dropping. Not so good news for those of you who are saving Right.

Speaker 2:

So and that's why they do it it's very simple, simple. They're encouraging you to take your money out and spend it so that we can get some more money flowing in the economy, and so many people are struggling right now that, um, you know, maybe we can use that money to pay our credit cards down, because we're record credit card debt, which is very scary. But you all know I've been telling you for a couple of years that this is coming, so no surprise there. How about, randy, we go on to our honey-do section? That would be fun, wouldn't it? I think we should go to the honey-do section and look at hmm, what should we put out there on our honey-do?

Speaker 4:

What's on your list today? What needs to get done? Home improvement, home maintenance let's have some fun. Check it off, check it twice, don't delay. It's the honeydew list. Getting things done your way there you go.

Speaker 2:

That was awesome, thank you. Oh was awesome, thank you. Oh my gosh, the craziness here. But that's your honey-do list. So, hmm, you know what? I don't have this one prepped this week, but I can tell you what it is. So a honey-do list is what things have you thought of that you wished that you had when you built your house, or what are you sitting there at home thinking about? Of course you can call in with yours 800-570-9962. So here's one that I came up with yesterday. Actually I built so.

Speaker 2:

In my home I have a very modest little cottage that, um, I completely remodeled. I had the washer and dryer downstairs in my dirt basement, which is very common here. So I built basically a box upstairs that made a little mudroom, and in the box on the left side of the box when it's a bit prettier than a box it's got doors on it. But imagine a box with doors on it, basically with piano hinges down to fold them out. So you've got a walkway to come through where you're not being hit by a door. So I've got a stackable washer, dryer in one and then another box to the right of it.

Speaker 2:

That box could be a hall closet, that box could be a space, basically any kind of space, a linen cupboard that you're not really using anymore. So maybe you've put a big walk-in closet where you don't need the linen cupboard because you've got the bedding in your primary bedroom or something like that. So that closet or box should be somewhere near the door and should have at least eight outlets in it. What am I talking about? Eight outlets. All of us these days have wireless things. We have Roombas, youas, those robot vacuums. We have vacuum cleaners that are wireless. In fact, who's the big vacuum cleaner? People.

Speaker 3:

The one I have the swivel thing. Which one you got? It's cordless and it's the I can't think of the name.

Speaker 2:

I'm laughing because I'm putting Randy on the spot.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, but it's the ball. You know the swivel thing.

Speaker 2:

The expensive one, right.

Speaker 3:

Tyson or something like that oh gosh, what's happening to us?

Speaker 2:

They give us this sparkling ice water at the radio show. It's got zero sugar, but it's got vitamins and antioxidants in it and I'm a little scared that that's what's making our. Whatever the expensive vacuum company is, it is Tyson.

Speaker 4:

I think it's not Tyson but it's something like that, Something like that oh my gosh, maybe you'll get a big prize if you call in.

Speaker 2:

Apparently, no one else knows either. Randy 240-1962. So the big vacuum companies, the various vacuum companies, are no longer investing in development in plugged-in vacuum cleaners, because the battery ones have become so much better.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, I can see that Dyson D-Y Dyson, it's just like. Tyson it's Tyson with a D.

Speaker 2:

Dyson D-Y. It's just like Tyson. It's Tyson with a D. You know, I've got a good friend called Dara and she introduced herself to me about 15 years ago and she said Hi, I'm Dara, that's Sarah with a D. I'll never forget it. It was awesome. She's just sweet. Shout out to you D, dara, if you're listening out there. Um, what were we talking about honeydews?

Speaker 3:

the the closet, with eight outlets in it quite honestly, you probably need 10 in it.

Speaker 2:

So when you're building a house, I want you to think about this. Or when you're remodeling a house, I want you to think about this. So you know you, with each one of these things comes a charger.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So your Dyson Dyson with a D comes with. It's like a little battery thing that you put screws in and it's got holes in the back of the little square. I'm having some trouble like explaining this visually. It's your battery box, basically. So it's got little holes in the back and you can just put two little screws in the wall and hang it up. You know it's it's got the big hole and then you slot it up and it keeps it tight on there and then you can put your dyson on there and obviously you want it to hang about half an inch from the floor or something, and so you just open the door and you put it back on on the, the battery charger yeah.

Speaker 2:

Now here's the other thing. So I've also got a battery. I love it. It was less than $200. A battery lawnmower it's incredible.

Speaker 3:

Right right.

Speaker 2:

And it's only 20 volt, not the 40. The 40 volt ones are expensive, but anyway it's really cool. I think it was $180. Incredible. So I love this thing. I was using a push mower before. I decided it was time to move over, but I take those two batteries inside. Now, of course you could you know if you've got a garage and a big power strip out in the garage. But then you know, garages get hot and cold and hot and cold. A lot of us don't have garages.

Speaker 3:

No, they're not the common.

Speaker 2:

Right, especially in this area there's probably 80% of houses don't have a garage. So and not only that, you want your vacuum cleaner inside. Well, most of us do, so I've got one for that. I've got. What else have I got in there? Oh, my drill, my DeWalt.

Speaker 2:

So my DeWalt's in there too, hung up on the wall, so I can just put the battery on it and then and then my blower. So you end up, yes, okay. So wouldn't it be great if we had one battery charger for all the different things? But you need lots of batteries charged because everything's on this darn big battery now. So, um, yeah, I've got my dewalted there as well, so they're all lined up. It's also where you can put your vacuum cleaner, where you can put, you know, if you've got one of those plug-in I don't know cleaner things that also mop the floor, any of that stuff you're swiffer type thing all of those can go in that cupboard with the battery operated things at the top, and then on top of that, you can, you know, you can use it for paper towel or or washing pods or whatever it. It's just a great space, and you've probably all got a coat closet, remember cloak closets, randy, oh yes, they don't even put them in houses anymore.

Speaker 2:

Why do we do?

Speaker 3:

with our coats these days. Yeah, really you know this room you're talking about and really I mean it needs to be a tech room. You've got security alarm systems, you've got phone systems, you've got other things that could be put into that room.

Speaker 2:

You know mine's three foot wide, by the way. I want to be clear about this. It's only like three, or maybe it's two and a half feet wide. It's narrow because I couldn't fit it in. That was the most space.

Speaker 2:

I could get Really, because I walk in a door and then there's a little bench and then I needed to stack my washer dryer because you know you're going to. I ran out of room basically. So it's only like two and a half feet wide. That's the great thing about it. Yeah, you can build this thing in a very small space because so a lot of us have our vacuum cleaners and all those things you never use Carpet cleaners.

Speaker 2:

You know that you get out twice a year. You get out at Thanksgiving because Grandma's coming and she'll be all nasty about your carpet. You know it's actually not there. Well, actually, grandma, it was you last Thanksgiving when you dropped your glass of wine. You know so where you keep your carpet cleaner, all those things that you really don't use. Very often you probably use your whatever the Swiffer thing is called that has the removable mop on the bottom, and I've got a whole list of these. I'm going to get a domain that I just point you to because I've got them. It's actually at cashcpocom. You can click on blog and look for all the goodies. I've got all kinds of goodies in there, but it's like a Swiffer thing. But you don't have to keep buying the Swiffers. It's got like a microfiber clingy thing that you put on the bottom.

Speaker 3:

And then it's got a Hairnet, like a hairnet, sort of like a hairnet, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Except now, most of them are just flat pads and they Velcro to the bottom and they've got a. The best thing is the bottle, so you can buy concentrate, anything you like. You know I know I like those natural verbena, lime scented ones I guess I shouldn't give the brand out on there or and you just put a little bit of the concentrate in in the bottle with water. So don't buy those expense or vinegar or whatever you like to use. Don't buy all that expensive stuff. You don't need a three or four dollar bottle to put and you know what these companies do. It's all on subscription base, basically. So you buy the, the, the main broom handle thing, um, and and then they want you to buy the, the paper pads to put on on the bottom.

Speaker 2:

It's not just swiffer, there's all kinds of them. You have to buy a box of them so they might last you a few months. And now you got to buy another box and there's a special bottle and of course they make it so it only fits their special bottle and you can't undo the cap on the bottle so you can put your own solution in there. So this way and you can buy these things for like they're not even 20 bucks, guys, and if you haven't got one, get, get one. They're super light. It's a big wide base, it's probably two foot wide. They're so light and you just swiff them around. They're so good I couldn't live without mine. You would never go back to a mop.

Speaker 3:

Amen, and there's a new model out I think that's got headlights on it and everything Headlights on it everything Headlights on it. I'm just being crazy.

Speaker 2:

I like that. I want one with headlights on it. Randy's got it down. Oh my gosh Wi-Fi. So where have we got to? We've done the interest rates. We've done the. I can't read your writing, randy, sorry, we've done the. That definitely says honey. We definitely did honey. Do we just did honey? Do we did interest rates? And then there's something else. I think it's the chief coach corner, maybe.

Speaker 3:

Let's just find out.

Speaker 4:

In the CPO, chief Coaches', corner leaders, stand tall, guiding with vision, inspiring us all, coaching with heart, driving success. Together we're building the very best.

Speaker 3:

Here's the 10 seconds where you talk and then you know that is just awesome.

Speaker 2:

Hello it's me, it's Ro. This is called a donut.

Speaker 4:

It's me, it's Ro. This is called a donut.

Speaker 2:

That's OK. So for those of you who don't know that aren't in the radio world or the entertainment world, that's called a donut. So it's a little piece of music. Randy taught me this. I'm so proud because I know, because Randy taught me A little bit of music. And then there's a little bit of music in the middle. That's the hole in the donut, basically, and then it starts going again. Is that the best way to describe?

Speaker 3:

it. Yeah, you can put 10 seconds or whatever in the donut of audio. This is Roe.

Speaker 2:

Come see us, oh so radio ads are done that way, with a donut, exactly, oh. And then you've got like a professional music thing, and then you've got somebody talking in the middle and you can change it depending on what the offer's going to.

Speaker 2:

Now, at Thanksgiving, we've got a special sale, okay, so what was that segment? I'm just kidding Chief coaches. So a big shout out to Christian Tharp, who isn't listening to this because he's in Aruba right now with his wife of some ridiculous amount of years, decades and decades, and they go on a special anniversary trip every year. How cool is that? Oh yeah, and she loves Aruba, so they've gone to aruba aruba's my favorite of all the islands.

Speaker 3:

Really, yes, yeah that's so cool.

Speaker 2:

So I have some friends actually I was in their wedding last october it's about to be their first wedding anniversary and they went to aruba and they weren't impressed at all. They said there wasn't much to do and it was kind of dry and felt desert like maybe it was the part of Aruba they were in or something. But I keep hearing people say that Aruba's amazing it is. I wonder if it's just the spot they were in or something.

Speaker 3:

It's all I can think. Yeah, you know it can happen. Aruba's out of the hurricane path. They don't get hit by hurricanes.

Speaker 2:

Oh really, yeah Interesting. Where is it exactly?

Speaker 3:

In the Eastern Caribbean. I think I may be wrong about it, but it's in the Caribbean.

Speaker 2:

See, I put you on the spot again, didn't I? So you've been there, Andy.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

Oh, yes, yeah, it'd be kind of odd you saying how beautiful it is. It's really beautiful. I know because someone told me, I've seen pictures.

Speaker 2:

I've seen pictures, so I want to give a shout out to Becky Ivins, who's an amazing agent in Oklahoma. This morning I'll give some shout outs to chief coaches and also people in the real estate world who have meant a lot to me. She's going through some really big health challenges right now, so I really want to give a shout out to her and she needs your prayers and love and hugs right now and also our other coaches who are just rocking and rolling. It's amazing. I'm very proud of them, very proud of the 1100 plus agents around the country who are focused right now. So it's it's all based on cash, cpo, where we can get the money within 14 to 90 days, and then you get a second check afterwards. Basically, we flip it on your behalf and two-thirds of our sellers get excuse me more without you know having to do anything, fix anything up, no showings, nothing at all. And right now we're really focusing on senior living. So it's really wonderful. We've been into over a hundred facilities right now. The response has been really incredible. So we've got seniors who we get in four months faster because that's how who would want to be in their eighties and going through all of that. You know, listing your house, putting a sign outside, and they can get their money as quickly as 14 days. They don't have to move out in 14 days, so they've got up to 90 days to stay if they want to. What it really does is it releases the money so they can get a better spot at assisted living. They can go into a better assisted living or an upgraded facility if you like, plus the fact they can go onto a plan where, when you put a bunch of money down, usually you just get a much better monthly payment, for obvious reasons. The main thing is it gives choice, right. So it gives choice of those different plans, which is really wonderful. So, yeah, it's just it's really nice to be part of something like that and it's really nice to now have have I got five.

Speaker 2:

We have Deanna Allen in Utah, who's our chief coach for Utah. She actually ran a facility for 14 years, so she's coaching all of us on what it means to be on the other side. She's helping seniors now out in Utah. We've got Christian Tharp in Ohio, who's our chief coach for Ohio. He's the one that is on his wedding anniversary trip. Um, for all you ladies and gentlemen listening out there. I highly recommend that you go on an anniversary trip. So, ladies, turn to your hubby and go. So, honey, where we going this year? Great thing to do there. We've got Ashley Davis, who is in New Jersey. We've got Charity, who's in North Carolina. I finally have a North Carolina coach. How cool is that? She's already got 10 teams around and about.

Speaker 2:

And I'm sorry I'm not saying her last name, it's just because I haven't learned how to pronounce it yet, but I will very soon. I promise last name. It's just because I haven't learned how to pronounce it yet, but I will very soon, I promise. I think that's it. Oh, and we've got misty cohen. Sorry, misty, we've got misty cohen, who is our oklahoma gal. She just took over oklahoma and she's already put. She's already got four referrals from the program. She's been with us for maybe a week it's insane and she's already put them in to see whether we can get them approved for an offer. And I know she's got at least two approved already so that those seniors can close in in 14 days, which is really cool.

Speaker 2:

So if you know anybody that is in the senior living world, or if you know anybody that's an agent that likes to work with seniors, especially locally here. I'm embarrassed to say I don't have anybody doing it locally here and it's really because I've been so focused on building this nationally for the last six months that I haven't focused locally, and I will say I'm embarrassed by that. But you know there's only only so much I can do, so we need some agents locally and I only need two or three. I I need someone in the Weaverville I think I've already found somebody in the Weaverville area, somebody in the Black Mountain area, somebody in the Waynesville area and somebody where am I missing Hendersonville? You know Waynesville would cover Maggie Valley. There's enough communities there and the communities you know we've been into over 100. The communities think it's the best thing since sliced bread. That's the response we're getting. They can't believe somebody hasn't done this before and focused on it.

Speaker 2:

We've got our care team advantage as well, where we've put our care teams together and we have an attorney that specializes in senior care and what that looks like. We've got people that look at your finances and how to do that. We've got people that help you make the transition. We've got people that help you pack up. We've got people that help you move. That whole package is put together to make it a lot more seamless, because it's a nightmare when you're suddenly faced with that. Maybe mom or dad has had another fall and you all know it's a nightmare when you're suddenly faced with that. Maybe mom or dad has had another fall and you know. You all know it's time.

Speaker 2:

Also, if you go to seniorlivingcpocom and click on blog my latest blog post in there just click on blog you'll see it and it says age in place or senior living, ie, you know, is it time to go in a facility? There's a free, downloadable checklist there and it's not trying to steer you towards going into a facility or anything else, but it's a checklist that you can all use as a family as a discussion point and there's about 16 questions on there and the point is, if you've got lots of the boxes checked, then you know that that would be time to at least start having the discussion about it and we can give you all the lists. We're we're going to build the biggest list. I always sound like trump when I said that it's going to be the biggest. It's going to be the biggest list, the biggest list out there of communities in the country. So most people who have lists of communities. Those are called lead aggregators and they're selling referrals. Basically, back to the facilities. Most of those referral companies charge, and you've all heard of them, they're big names. They charge two, three, four thousand dollars per seat. So you go on the site, you look for a facility and only so many of the facilities are registered with them because it costs money and then they get charged a referral fee. Ours is free and it always will be free, because the passion is to help seniors, right? So there's no point in us building a list that that costs the facilities anything.

Speaker 2:

I'm not knocking that business model. It's just a business model. We are a capitalist country, after all, and you get to do anything you want. Well, I get to offer a list that's free, which is awesome. We do have we definitely need an agent segment. We do have a lot of agents that listen to the show. So, um, yeah, let's do. Uh, we have a what's new segment, randy, I think we're going to use that one. How about that? But that's what's new in, I think. But that's all right, let's do a what's new because that's cool, because we definitely have some new things that I was about to talk about.

Speaker 1:

In real estate today. Trends are shifting. Don't delay. The real estate news radio shows your way to stay ahead and win the day.

Speaker 2:

So Randy was actually nodding away to that one. You liked that one, didn't you, Randy?

Speaker 1:

What's new, what's hot in real estate today?

Speaker 4:

Trends are shifting, didn't you, Randy?

Speaker 2:

That was awesome, very cool. Oh my gosh, I saw you nodding your way to that one, randy. You liked that one, didn't you? That's a good tune. I like it too. It's so funny when you know you have these jingles made and then they start sticking in your head.

Speaker 2:

So what's new? We have a lot of agents listening about working with seniors. Then think about taking a look at SeniorLivingCPOcom. Seniorlivingcpocom it also encompasses 55 plus communities. I'm about to build a list for that on there as well. But it's really awesome. You get such a great reception from the communities that we're going into. That's the really cool part about it, because they haven't seen anything like this before.

Speaker 2:

So we're looking for agents all over the country. We've got over 1,100 already all over the country. We have way too few in Western North Carolina. So if you know somebody who's a real estate agent or maybe you're a real estate agent listening just find out about it. We run a discovery call every day. You can send anyone. If you know someone who's an agent or you're an agent, sixfigureagentscom that's the number six. The number six figureagentscom, and most agents would want to earn six figures. Unfortunately, the average. Everybody thinks that real estate agents earn a lot of money I think the average income is 26,000 something like that which you know isn't going to bring home the bacon for many families, that's for sure. So if you want to really have a sustainable income as an agent and at the same time, help seniors and help them not go through all that showing nonsense, because that's what it is, sorry, it's awful.

Speaker 2:

I've sold my own house and they we. So last year I've sold lots of my own houses, but last year we listed our house and we had three dogs that we had to get out in the truck. We had to be out of the house. The house had to be show ready. That you'll know when you've got dogs or kids or an untidy spouse or whatever it is, then sometimes your house isn't show ready. It's just not fun. Um, I remember one night we were out in the truck late and, um, you know it's like oh, finally, this is going to be a sale and it was six o'clock at night and we were still outside at seven o'clock at night and they were with their kids running around the back. It was dark. It was, you know, later in the year and it was dark, it was chilly out there. We had three dogs in the truck. It's like, okay, it's time already. And then it's like, oh yeah, we're going to get an offer. And then we didn't. And that's what it's like showing your house. It's not fun. Um, in fact, ashley davis, who is our new jersey um chief coach he looks after all the agents in new jersey was working out the other day next to an nfl player. You know he's close to new york, I guess. So he was working out next to an nfl player and he said, oh my gosh, I wish I'd known about this a month ago.

Speaker 2:

So if you've got a business, or if you're a celebrity, or if you just want privacy, you know you don't want people poking around your home. Maybe you're a hoarder, maybe it's all kinds of things where you don't. Who wants anyone in the house really walking around. You don't know who they're coming in with. Or I mean you know we always talk about this as agents.

Speaker 2:

When you're showing someone a house particularly difficult in open houses, because you know you can't have your eyes on everybody all the time you hear some terrible stories, but as an agent, if it's one person, you generally work walking around with them. But a lot of people say to you, can you just let us walk around and use our own eyes. You know, we just want to sort of feel the space. But if you know they might have a family with them and they're all going in different directions, it's very difficult to control that, honestly, being real, but a lot of you just don't want those showings. This takes all of that away, which is great, you know you do have to wait for your second check.

Speaker 2:

But the difference is, if you put your house on the market tomorrow, right now, let's be real here. So if you put your house on the market tomorrow, I am going to bring you, without any kind of CPO CPO is certified pre-owned, not necessarily a cash offer. So if you put your house on the market tomorrow, I'm going to with a regular conventional listing, I'm going to bring you an offer. What percentage of the time do you think? 67 of the time I'm going to bring you an offer at christmas. Why so low? You say. Can you do? Why so low, randy? Why so low? Oh, that was a do. Why so low, randy? Why so low? Oh, that was a happy. Why so low? Can you do an angry? Why so low? Oh, an angry. Why so low? Yeah, that was awesome. We need to record that one. There's our jungle, or whatever you call that sound effect.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

So, yeah, why so low? Because we can't control what the buyers do. Maybe they can't get their loan, maybe the inspection is done and we find Remember, on average it's going to be 40 plus items. Often it's 50 items. It doesn't matter how well maintained the house is, chances are you're going to have 40 plus items on that inspection list. Yes, a lot of them are cosmetic, but sometimes that scares the buyers off, believe it or not, or they'll use it as a negotiating tool. Yes, the offers are as is. We know that the listing is as is.

Speaker 2:

It doesn't mean to say that most buyers don't ask for money In fact, most of them. So again, this comes back to have an agent who's got experience listing your home right, because so I've done over 3,500 transactions. This is not my first rodeo. Most buyers. It depends on the market, but now the market's flattened a little bit. Most buyers are going to ask for 3% to 5% of your list price. Isn't that shocking? It's like paying commission all over again, if you think of it that way. So if you have a $500,000 house, this is across the country, by the way, it's not just here. Well, if you're in a hot market where there's multiple offers which, by the way, is happening hardly anywhere apart from the Northeast and the multiple offers have gone from six offers to two offers now. So it's slowing down there too. It's just coming later to them. But everywhere else in the country, $ them. But everywhere else in the country, $500,000 house. They're going to ask you for $10,000 or $15,000 off the price. It's like another commission. So go in knowing that. That's why I'm only going to bring you a check. The contract has gone through, everything's been ratified and I'm bringing you a check 67% of the time.

Speaker 2:

Now let's switch that to CPO, whereby you are paying for an inspection. Maybe the appraisal maybe not Depends on the kind of money you've got. Both are great to get. Maybe you're offering a home warranty. That comes out at closing. The other two come out at front. I'm going to bring you a check. So remember, the last one was 67% of the time. I'm going to bring you a check at Christmas. If we list right now and honestly that's pretty much everywhere in the country other than the hot markets in the northeast there's still a few of those left.

Speaker 2:

So now go CPO, forget cash CPO, conventional CPO listing. I'm going to bring you a check 93% of the time We've gone from you a check 93% of the time. We've gone from 67 to 93% of the time. Honestly, just by having the inspection alone it's going to change it that much. Why? Because everybody goes in eyes wide open. You pay for you know. Sellers say, oh well, the, but I thought the buyers pay for that. You pay for it. You look at the inspection report, you say I'll fix this, I won't fix this or I'm not going to fix anything, but all all of the above is fine. There are different ways we handle it based on that. But even if you don't fix anything, when you share that inspection report before you go under contract, I've never had a buyer drop out in all these years because everybody goes in eyes wide open. The other important thing is your house doesn't go under contract. Why is that important? Here's why Because if your house goes under contract and then drops out, you've got what is called a stigmatized listing. Everybody says what's wrong with it, why didn't they want it? It may not be your fault at all. It may be the buyers I don't know leased a car and didn't realize they weren't supposed to while they were applying for a mortgage or something like that. Most people. When they're applying for a mortgage right now it's very tight. You know the affordability has really gone down because houses have gone through the roof and everything in our lives has gone up. The interest rates have gone up when you're buying a house. But not only that you've got less money in your pocket. You know most people are feeling thousands of dollars worse off in the year. So that means you've got less money in your pocket. You're feeling tighter. You know what money do we have to do it at? What money have we got to fix things? So you're negotiating harder. So we've gone from a conventional listing. We should do a whole show on this next week the difference between a conventional listing, a conventional CPO and a cash CPO. So we move to a conventional CPO. So conventional CPO. I'm going to bring you a check. 93% of the time at Christmas right now, if you list your house and that's pretty much everywhere in the country I'm allowing a little time to get the pictures up get it on the MLS. You know it's going to take a few weeks to sell, get it under contract and then in most places in the know it's going to take a few weeks to sell, get it under contract and then in most places in the country it's four to six weeks unless you've got a cash offer, which is not that usual right now, especially as prices have gone up. Who's got 500 grand laying around to pay in cash for a house? You know it's not that common, so most commonly it's going to be Christmas. I know that's hard to hear sometimes, but you know, 93% of the time is pretty good odds. I'm not a betting girl. Most of the time I think Not really. However, 67% is not good odds. I don't think it's the whole reason.

Speaker 2:

I created this program back in 2007 and started teaching agents around the country. 67%, that's just not good enough. It is not good enough. None of us should be happy with that. And all you got to do is get your inspection and you know we notate the inspection. Should you want to use it and give it out to people, we notate it, we fix this, we fix this and most often we can get a handy person to do it. I called a bunch of my handy person and contractor friends yesterday and three of them had called my client within five minutes. If you need anybody to help you, we've got all the lists locally and all the agents in this program around the country have the same list because we help you when we're doing the cash CPO offer. Why is that? Well, you know, here's the deal, guys. We're supposed to do that as listing agents. It's so funny Some of the newer agents that are thinking about being in the program they say wait what we have to help the sellers fix the home up in order for them to sell it.

Speaker 2:

I'm like, well, no, we're giving them 70% of their equity up front and then they're able to make a non-contingent offer on another home somewhere else, or they're able to move into a facility, or maybe they're getting divorced and they can split up their money and move on with their lives, or whatever reason it is for selling the house. They don't have to have any showings, they don't have to fix anything. They can take a big chunk of cash. Now it's usually for a non-contingent offer on something else. You're not sitting around waiting. Will I find something? Will I find something? Will I sell my house now you've got your money and then we can frankly, get you out, get you and your furniture and your dogs and your spouse and your kids and all that stuff that makes it so um, frustrating and aggravating for you when you're selling your house. You don't have to go through that anymore and you can move on to your lovely new home, which is very cool.

Speaker 2:

So that's the, the cash cpo piece, the conventional cpo. You've done the inspection. Everything goes a lot smoother. You get a check 93 of the time at christmas cash cpo, you get a check 93 of the time because it's also cpo. You've had the inspection, you've had the appraisal done for you and all the money is up fronted. Yes, it comes out of the profit at the end. Um, the inspection's been done.

Speaker 2:

We've put most everything right. Uh, maybe we've done a paint job. Maybe we've done a big deep clean. Maybe we've put new counters on a new roof, whatever it is. So that's the difference between the three and I think I will do a whole show for you. We've done a big deep clean. Maybe we've put new counters on a new roof, whatever it is. So that's the difference between the three and I think I will do a whole show for you on the difference between the three.

Speaker 2:

Of course, you can always call me, I'll send you the full presentation on it. You can go on our blog. Actually, the whole full listing presentation is there where you can see the difference between the three. You'll find that at cashcpocom cashcpocom. Look at the top menu. It's called blog. Or you can give us a call at 828-333-4483 828-333-4483. We've got people standing by the phones 24 7 so you can call at two o'clock in the morning. Yes, people actually do that. Sometimes it's amazing, um, but more than happy to share the presentation, I give that presentation to all of the agents in the program so that they can show people the three offers. I'll get, um, I'll get a domain pointed to it so that next week we can actually go through the three in detail and what it looks like.

Speaker 2:

And I was going to say all of you know what a conventional sale looks like, but you really don't, because you may not have sold a house for a long time. If you're an agent and you do lots of them, obviously you know. But why would you know? You probably haven't sold a house in five years. So much has changed. How we pay the buyers agents has changed. By way, all of our cash cpo offers, the uh, the funding partner has agreed to pay the agent on the buyer side. So you don't have to worry about all of that there is no. Are you paying the buyers agents to bring somebody in and represent somebody? Yes, yes and yes, all of the cpo listings are guaranteed paying the buyers agents. So you know, we've got buyers agents out there for a reason. You're representing the buyers. You're helping the buyers in a number of different ways and I see people go oh, agents don't do anything. You're correct, some of them don't. But guess what A lot of us do.

Speaker 2:

I'm on my. I've got a management system where all people are asking questions all day long. People I've never met that have been on my database, mountainhomehuntcom. If you go on there and search for properties, you can sign up. You can set up a search, any kind of properties you want. I've got 1,100 of these around the country so I can give you any of the domains. All you got to do is call 828-333-4483. It's not a big box where you're searching. You're not searching on Zillow or something like that.

Speaker 2:

Whereby do you know what they exist for? Sell leads to real estate agents. Agents are nothing wrong with the model. I'm not knocking the model. No-transcript the background and made sure that he was actually able to finance those. Um, there was another one where that you know they might ask uh oh, is a piece of land this week. What, what's the minimum square footage we can build? Because a lot of people just want to build a small home and a lot of associations have a minimum build requirement which is changing over time. But a lot of that is legacy where they had that. So find an agent you want to work with. It really is worthwhile, guys. Thank you so much for listening today and I always enjoy having you here, enjoy the fact and very blessed that you spend some time with me and I'll 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