Real Estate News Radio with Rowena Patton

Resilience and Real Estate: Recovery Stories and Innovation Post-Disaster

• Rowena Patton

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Ever wondered how a community can piece itself back together after a natural disaster's wrath? Join us as we uncover tales of resilience and recovery in Western North Carolina. Witness how businesses are bouncing back and how you can contribute through resources like yourhelpingheart.com. Experience the beauty of the region's fall foliage, offering a glimmer of hope amid the cleanup efforts. The heartwarming moments, like wildlife continuing their daily routines, remind us of nature's unwavering spirit.

Tapping into the emotional journey post-disaster, we share personal reflections on survivor guilt and the collective healing process that follows such upheaval. Discover how small joys become precious beacons in times of despair. Hear an inspiring real estate story of perseverance through adversity. And as we navigate through these emotional extremes, we also explore the firm roots of community resilience, drawing comparisons with Florida's experiences and celebrating the rich heritage of English, Irish, and Scottish mountain folk.

Connect with insights on aiding seniors in their transition to assisted living, featuring the groundbreaking CashCPO program. Listen to stories of families who have successfully maneuvered the real estate market to better support their elderly loved ones, with insights from our guests James, Kelly Denny, and Deanna Allen. Explore the dynamic real estate opportunities with the CashGPO initiative, ensuring home sellers receive maximum value. From Scottsdale to Los Angeles, our episode paints a picture of how real estate innovation is making waves across the country.

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. It's so nice to be back. It's interesting, you know, because I'm looking at little notes here of what to read when the continuing coverage of the rescue and recovery operations were going on. And it's your listening to continuing coverage of the rescue and recovery operations, as Mark Starling and Tank and everybody else did such an amazing job and he's going on.

Speaker 3:

Dr Phil, yes, did you see that I think you can watch it already. I'm not sure of the address, but yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:

There's a number of people that Dr Phil are bringing in locally. There's a friend of mine said his friends are being brought on as well and they rescued a lot of the seniors from the senior home in Hendersonville. It's amazing, it's just amazing.

Speaker 3:

It really, really is.

Speaker 2:

And for those of you that don't know I mean, I don't know how that can be, but if you're not here, you can't see how devastated everything still is. There are piles of trees everywhere. They've all been. In many places They've all been cut up. Now you can't see how devastated everything still is. There are piles of trees everywhere. They've all been, or in many places they've all been cut up now. But lots of bridges are still closed. But there's big piles of trees everywhere. It's hard to describe. It's amazing. It's just amazing.

Speaker 2:

So don't forget, you've still got yourhelpingheartcom. Yourhelpingheartcom Amazing resource list 27 counties. You can do it county by county if you want to. It's a live guide. It's always being updated. You can submit photos, videos, stories. You can submit additional resources. You can get general information. This is a great one If you've got friends coming in.

Speaker 2:

You see people on Facebook all the time or Instagram posting hey, I'm on the way, where do I go? What do I do? There's a big section called how to help and all of the numbers and the remote volunteering volunteering here, physical donations, financial donations If you want to help with coordination. Or it says join one of our remote teams. It's a really, really cool guide and that is yourhelpingheartcom. That's still live and it's being updated all of the time.

Speaker 2:

If any of you need to create anything like that ever, I hope it's never for a disaster like this, but it's a wonderful thing to do. In fact, I just did one for my HOA whereby you can put all the links and that ever I hope it's never for a disaster like this. Um, but it's a wonderful thing to do. In fact, I just did one for my hoa whereby you can put all the links and things onto a google doc. So it's google drive, which is free, and you can create a document and then hit file and publish or point a domain at it, like I did. With this one, you're helping heartcom instead of sharing this big old ugly. You know google dot link and it's live, so you can have everybody either just look at it or edit it with you anywhere in the country, which is pretty cool. You could use it for your family, for Christmas lists, for example, or maybe addresses and keeping all your family addresses up to date. You share it with all your family and they can use it live anywhere. So anyway, this is a really great guide, you'rehelpingheartcom, which is just an incredible resource.

Speaker 2:

I didn't put it together, I just pointed the domain. And we were in the time when nobody asks you just do so. I'm like, hey, I'm just going to buy a domain and point it at it and it's just. It's easier to give out a domain than it is. You know, I don't know how you'd find this otherwise unless you had the direct link. So pretty cool. I've had a number of questions from people saying you know, we still have a lot of people wanting to buy here and of course, traditionally a lot of people come in in the fall and that's great and all well and good. They're telling you not to come in in certain places. But you know, it's pretty cleared up right now and most of the hotels are open and lots of restaurants are open and man, do they need the business, randy?

Speaker 3:

Yes, you know there's still a lot to see here. The Biltmore House has reopened, and so you know we've got a lot of the fall foliage just now beginning.

Speaker 4:

It's beautiful.

Speaker 3:

You shouldn't miss out on the season here in the mountains. It is lovely, despite what we've been through.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's amazing and it's quite. You know I don't encourage you to go out sightseeing, but it's quite a sight to see how much it's changed, except all the beautiful buildings are still there, right? You know, a lot of people have lost their houses. A lot of trees are down, but they're not down over the road now, but it is. It is kind of a sight to see.

Speaker 3:

It is still quite shocking yeah, debris removal is in full swing all throughout western north carolina. The federal government is here and with their crews to get that stuff off the sides of the roads Because, yes, it's like a tunnel coming in here to Radio Ranch.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, oh my gosh.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

Unbelievable. I think about those guys stuck in here and now I see why, and I see why I couldn't get into the studio.

Speaker 3:

You or me both. I was out. I met him down at the end of the driveway that morning about nine o'clock, as usual. I was coming in and they had walked and crawled through that maze and come down to the end of the driveway to see if there was a world out there. I mean, they were trapped here. There was no internet, no phones, no nothing, and I happened to drive up at the same time they'd walk down to the driveway.

Speaker 2:

Didn't the generators kick in, so nothing was on air at that point.

Speaker 3:

No, they had a satellite feed on, but they started live programming I think at 10 o'clock that Saturday morning, amazing Our show time. But those guys were asking me to call our wives If you get cell service call our wives yes, I remember that, oh my gosh.

Speaker 2:

Call our wives and let them know. Remember that one, it's all of three weeks ago, yeah.

Speaker 3:

And I, you know, I'm.

Speaker 2:

Is it three weeks? No, it's a month yesterday. It's four weeks, yeah, four weeks yesterday. A month yesterday, yeah, or Thursday. I was just away for a couple of days and people were saying people really didn't know the level of devastation. They were like why didn't people evacuate? That's what people are thinking around the country, because nothing like that has happened. I mean it's a fair question, but we had no idea.

Speaker 3:

That's exactly right. We had no idea. The weather forecasters had no idea. That's exactly right. We had no idea. The weather forecasters had no idea. It was a cumulative thing. We had three days of rain Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday leading up to from another system, leading up to Helene and then Helene came along and dumped about the same amount of rain that we got in those three days doubled it. That's what happened. We just got 15.

Speaker 2:

Deluged.

Speaker 3:

Yes, deluged.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, yeah, I mean I've been through at least three hurricanes. I used to live in Miami years ago and I've been through three hurricanes. So that night laying in bed it sounded like a hurricane, that roaring, that comes and then it stops. That's what a hurricane sounds like, because we used to stay through the hurricane. We had big metal hurricane shutters and um, you know I've slept through them before, um, and it was very interesting listening to it.

Speaker 3:

It sounded like a hurricane yeah, and then we get then that rain, and then friday morning came the wind.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 3:

And it just wreaked havoc.

Speaker 2:

It's crazy.

Speaker 3:

It's so massively big. Every cove glade and holler between Bryson City and Boone has been flooded or affected or blown away or something.

Speaker 2:

Well, and of course it happened in Florida as well On the national team that we have with the cash CPpo program. Um, we have a lady there, uh, chris marion in bradenton my daughter's in tampa.

Speaker 2:

She evacuated to tallahassee for three or four days uh, they stayed and her, her daughter with a young child and her husband are now living with chris because the house was flattened. Um, and the thing in Florida generally is and I used to live down there Well, first of all, florida is set up for it, the buildings are set up for it, everything's set up, apart from the old ones, which are not necessarily. However, you know, there's different building codes down there, especially after Andrew came through, everything changed down there and the building codes are completely different. And the old condo buildings, anything over three levels, had to be, they had to have all these special inspections. That's why the insurance has gone up so much down there. That's why the HOA dues have gone up so much to cover for the insurance. You know, and, unlike here, a lot of people live in condos, you know, in high rises. So, yeah, it's completely different, whereas here, the nice thing here, if you're thinking about buying a house here, I get lots of those questions Can we still buy? There Is everything completely devastated.

Speaker 2:

You know what I always think this about my house. So I live in a little 1960s cottage overlooking the River Arts District, so I saw all of that firsthand floating by in front of me it was terrible, um, just terrible. So if my I always think, if my house is sat there because it sits on the side of a slope and everybody's like, oh, you're worried about it falling off, um, if it's sat there since 1960 and it just went through helene, it's a pretty good chance that house is really solid, right? So same thing with all the other houses that are standing. I get emails every day from realtors saying no damage from Helene, no storm damage, right? So if those houses have gone through it and there's even the houses that have gone through it, that have been repaired you know that's a lot of repair work going on, a lot of permits out there, so they've been cleaned up and it's ready to go but especially the ones with no damage. That tells you something. You know, if it, if it were now, could we get worse than helene. It's possible, but how likely? Not, not likely, not likely. And it's funny.

Speaker 2:

A storm is what first brought me here in 2005. So 2005, there was a big hurricane coming to miami, so we came up here to escape the hurricane. And then and it didn't hit here, but there was a big hurricane coming to miami, so we came up here to escape the hurricane. And then and it didn't hit here, but there was a lot, there were lots of floods, and we just used it as an excuse. And I was, uh, working mobile in those days. I was a management consultant, so I was flying in and out the airport. It really didn't matter, uh, where we were. And the same for my husband at the time, like he was working mobile as well. So, so we're like to heck with it, we're just going to stay in North Carolina. So we stayed here for 12 weeks over that summer. So we used it as an excuse really.

Speaker 2:

So the storm brought me here, really, and I learned here's the difference. I learned how wonderful the people were here. So that was back in 2005. And you know, remember, so I moved to DC, la 96, I moved to DC, then Los Angeles, then Miami Beach and then Black Mountain, north Carolina. And it was so interesting because I learned that, you know, I'd walk down the street, street and people go good morning like wait, what we're gonna be robbed, like what's going on, why people are speaking to us and and there's no. You know, people don't honk here, like if someone's honking Miami's very different Miami. They honk to tell you, the light's going to change, and I mean every time you're sitting at a light right, it's just. It's a different mentality, it's a different spirit. No judgment, it's just different.

Speaker 3:

And since you brought it up, los Angeles go Dodgers.

Speaker 4:

What a game last night. What a game last night.

Speaker 3:

And another point of validity to your observation about mountain folks is we're good people. Have you ever in your life witnessed so much love in the mountains?

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, it's unbelievable.

Speaker 3:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

And so it was very hard in the beginning, certainly for that first week when there was very little coming in, you know, the highways were closed.

Speaker 3:

It was a frightening time I don't care to relive. I see videos of it still of the actual flooding. You know there's a lot of videos out there of that, of people's homes washing away and it does give me a little PTSD type feeling.

Speaker 2:

I think we've all got that. I think we've all got that. Now, you know, after Katrina, which is almost 20 years ago, which blows me away, 2005, yes, Unbelievable 19 years ago 19, about this time, yeah.

Speaker 2:

And I think they coined after that survivor guilt, and I think that was actually coined for people who come back from wars. You know, a lot of veterans have that too. You know why wasn't it me? And most people can't understand that because it's a veteran's world. But imagine so I'll tell you a story. So I was calling verizon. I finally, um, evacuated after a week because I've got I'm running a national business, I have to keep this going, and I had no water. My water just came back on. So, um, I'm on the phone with verizon saying sorry, I've got a jet pack which gives me internet everywhere, as long as you've got some kind of service, which, of course, here we were obliterated for days no cell phones at all for days it was awful.

Speaker 2:

You remember it well. So I'm on the phone with, with verizon, and just all this stuff gets on top of you and a lot of people are feeling guilty or I don't know. Like you know, I'm not a crier. I've said this before about real estate, when I first started real estate. But I'm talking, talking to the lady at Verizon and I just break down, I'm just sobbing. It's like, oh my gosh, what's going on? I said, well, we just became the epicenter for the. They're saying it's overtaken, but one of the worst natural disasters in US history. And she's like oh, it's okay, honey, I went through Katrina. And she went through Katrina and she started talking about how awful it was after Katrina and how everybody, most people were walking around just morose. You know, there's this kind of weird depression that sits in.

Speaker 3:

I've had that crying thing on the air, oh really. Talking about this destruction. Don't you're going to start me off start me off. No, I hear you, let's go somewhere else.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, really go dodger so I think everybody gets very emotional, but it's. It's really interesting because it's everyone. It's not people aren't walking around going oh god cleared some trees out. You know, you just can't joke about it at first at all because of the loss of life and almost everybody in ashford knows somebody that's passed. I've never been part of that before, apart from 9-11. But you know, I've never been through anything like that before and it's this, this group, moroseness, yeah. And then you find joy in the little things when the birds are coming back to the feeder or absolutely. You know, you know it's all like, opens your mind to all the little beautiful things in life. But everybody's the height, the emotional well that it creates in everybody is really interesting. Watching this, I really feel like I should start journaling on it or something, because it's this collected, it's this collective. It's like, you know, in the 60s, the, the beatles and all the other guys were going off well, no, they were going off to india to

Speaker 2:

get their enlightenment and their awakening and all that stuff. You know, of course people still do that and I guess it's very actual actually. What am I talking about? So this is like an awakening, but for everyone, you know, because grandpa doesn't usually go off to get his. I'm sorry, grandpa, I say no judgment on grandpa's, but a lot of us don't go off like the Beatles to get our awakening, you know, or enlightenment, or, you know, learn how to be in the moment, or all that stuff. Most of us don't do that, it's just been forced upon us.

Speaker 3:

So everybody, now Right, it's like an awakening of emotions. We didn't even know we had absolutely never been there before, never been here before, and it uh, it's a uh fast moving thing.

Speaker 2:

Uh, in my mind it keeps changing, keeps changing, yeah, yeah and then you see something like I came in this morning and saw the turkeys. The turkeys don't't care. I'm sure all the turkeys are like what the heck is all this downwind? And they hunkered down somewhere and they're like oh okay, a few trees down, this is cool, I can forage and get some yummies out here.

Speaker 3:

Exactly, they don't know. The acorns are all over the place.

Speaker 2:

Exactly so. It will be interesting, I think, to see how it all rolls out. What do you do with all those logs? Are they going to make some beautiful live-edge tables out of them? Is it going to be lots of firewood? What's happening to it, grinding All those logs?

Speaker 3:

All of that debris, not the appliances. All of that wooden debris. There's a word for that trichophilic whatever. Oh, yeah, but the organic material mister the organic material. All of it will be ground and hauled away to some site in South Carolina what do they do with that? It decomposes, becomes back to the earth compost, bark, bark, mulch, etc yeah, oh, or maybe they use it for mulch or something.

Speaker 2:

Who knows mulch exactly?

Speaker 3:

yeah, they don't paint much real mulch, not painted mulch, and then you're looking at all the contractors.

Speaker 2:

You know all the, so I the the through the cash gpo program. We had susan and dennis I want to give you a shout out because I know you're listening. You now live in a car there in Florida and it was so amazing. So we had them under contract and it was about to close and then Helene hit. Okay, amazingly, our funding partner still closed with no water in the house and I said listen, chances are by the time we do some fixing up of this. So we're fixing it up now and they're going to get their second check. So it was so lovely.

Speaker 2:

So the the first closing after it probably took three weeks instead of two weeks because of Helene happening and some delays because of that, but they got the money in three weeks. We're able to make a non-contingent offer, ie no contingencies on the offer in a color, because normally it's like oh, I've got to sell the house. How are we going to dovetail selling our house here and moving to our next house? So this allowed the money to be released. Now we go in, we clean up everything we've got the inspection, the appraisal, everything else and we resell it, and then susan and dennis will get another check, but meanwhile they're in florida and and happy asarks.

Speaker 2:

I don't think they were very happy, you guys, when you were driving down with the cats in the car. I think they had three cats in the car. But just know, we're thinking about you getting all set up in your new place and working already on your other house to get that one sold and, of course, all the contractors out there. You can only imagine how busy they are right now you know of all categories paving companies, roofing companies yeah etc, etc.

Speaker 3:

Right on down the line and thank goodness, it's not too.

Speaker 2:

Actually it's beautiful outside. It's going to be in the 70s today, 76. It's only 62 tomorrow. I came back with all woolies on thinking it's going to be freezing because it's all my flip-flops on, because I'm a flip-flop girl pretty much all year. And no, I got out. What is going on? It's so warm.

Speaker 3:

We've had beautiful weather for recovery.

Speaker 2:

Yes, apparently it hasn't rained, which meant you know, yeah.

Speaker 2:

So I think when this next rain comes, it's going to wash so much of the silt and the mud, or it's just going to be muddy and nasty everywhere. No, it will be absolutely beautimous, it will be gorgeous. So just know, if you're coming, you know you can get around. I do think about the restaurants, because each restaurant, I believe, supports something like 50 people I think it's more than that 60, even small ones with all the staff that they have, and of course they have. It's like covid all over again it is and they haven't been able to work for weeks now. So you know, I think, uh, probably everybody's happy to be back at work. Most of the restaurants seem to be open, am I right?

Speaker 2:

I I agree, yes, yes even if it's some of them are just take out. I guess you know. Maybe there's some damage to the kitchens or water issues or something, I'm not sure.

Speaker 3:

Modified hours et cetera. But yes, just like when we opened, from COVID Gradually cranking back up.

Speaker 2:

Hasn't it made you think how did we get through COVID? Because this went on, for the restaurants were closed for a year, right?

Speaker 3:

Well, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Was it a year?

Speaker 3:

Yeah, some forever. I know it's just, it's all and we just went through two weeks of it.

Speaker 2:

We're like, oh, this is. I can't believe how devastating this is for businesses. My heart goes out to you. If you were in the River Arts District I'd look over the.

Speaker 4:

River.

Speaker 2:

Arts District. It was so dark last night. Normally on a Friday night I can hear it. I'm right at the top of the hill there so I'm looking down, anyway. So there's usually all this music playing and drums, but you know all this stuff down there which you'd think might be annoying, but it's just lovely. It's like you feel like you're part of it. It's like a graveyard down there and my heart goes out to you if you're one of those artists that relied on that and we still don't know if it's going to be rebuilt or not, or whether there'll be new codes. Everything's going to look different in a year. But that's a long time to wait.

Speaker 2:

When it's your business, of course, the real estate business has gone haywire, I'm sure. And then there's people who've been displaced, of course, that want houses. So I know you're listening around the country too, and we know it's not just here. It's happened in Florida a lot, you know we've had. We've had two, three pretty severe hits in Florida now. So you're in the same space, being displaced from your homes.

Speaker 2:

So people say, well, what happens to? Prices go down traditionally. So if you look at the research and of course you know I mean history is history. Prices go down about 6% in the early times and then it recovers, which you know. Oddly, people, you can say oddly, but we used to look at South Florida and go why do they rebuild again on the ocean? Or look at the Outer Banks, for example that's another good example where houses are slipping into the water. It's terrible, but we all rebuild and we just get on with it. And then maybe that's terrible, but we all rebuild and we just get on with it, and then maybe that's okay. You know, everything just survives for another 60 or 70 years before we get another big flood. But meanwhile we've had 60 or 70 years, I don't know. There's so many ways to think about this. That kind of hurts your brain, right? We don't know what it's going to look like and what I do know is the amazing spirit in the mountains. It's always such a joy to see. It's why I moved here. It is truthfully why I moved here.

Speaker 2:

You know driving after our 12 weeks stay in Black Mountain in 2005, I was driving out with a big pile of mail and I didn't even know where the post office was, because you know, we don't tend to go to the post office very often anymore and I go to the post office very often anymore and I go to take something back and the lady says to me what you doing with that mail? Not in the post office. I was in a bike shop taking something back. I said, uh, looking for the post office, she said give it to me, I'll drop it off for you. That's the kind of mentality I was also sitting behind somebody at the lights driving to that store. I I remember all this like it was yesterday. It was 19 years ago and now I'm wondering if it was the edge of the storm of Katrina. Was it Katrina that got us after it came up here?

Speaker 3:

It may have been.

Speaker 2:

It would have been yeah it dumped a lot of rain, yeah, it was Katrina, yeah, and that's why we used it as an excuse to stay here. The truth is so, when I'm sitting at the lights, going to that store to take something back, somebody's in front of me. Fortunately, at that point I'd lost my Miami attitude. You know where you've got to honk people. I never did that, but it's just. It's sort of like a New York attitude. I'm not getting on you, new Yorkers, it's just a different way of life. So I was sitting there and the person in front of me went through two red light cycles, doing a left turn. I'm like what the heck is going on. And then I realized it's the most beautiful turn off Highway 9 into Black Mountain. It's so beautiful. They're just sitting there looking at the mountains and the buzzards flying by, you know, over the sunset. And they sat there through two red light cycles and I thought, instead of getting mad, I just thought this is so lovely, you know, and that is the spirit here. That's exactly what goes on here and it's such a delight to see that. It's just such a delight to see that. So, yeah, we're gonna. We're gonna be just fine.

Speaker 2:

Um, you know, those of us who lost people are always going to remember those people. Our lives are never going to be the same because of that. At the end of the day, we pick up, we move on. Mountain strong, exactly, wnc strong, mountain strong. Um, a lot of you came from English, irish and Scottish stock because when they came over they all made it, made it up to the mountains, um, and it's a very independent spirit. I think that's where that independent spirit spirit came from.

Speaker 2:

Very hard for me to watch all of this. So, um, you know, my, my ancestry is Elizabeth Patton, who married Davy Crockett and she was a wealthy widow who funded his trails. I wish I could find some of that wealth and have it dribble down a little bit. That's a whole other story. But they got married in Swannanoa, under that silver tree, by Appalachian Nursery, right there by the tracks. And to watch Swannanoa, which is probably more devastated than anything else, just wiped out. Basically, people are saying they're wiped out, they're gone. Chimney Rock another one, you know, literally it's just flattened. Marshall, yeah.

Speaker 8:

Marshall yes.

Speaker 2:

Marshall, I mean, there's so many, we can't mention all the little towns that got flattened. You know, hot Springs, yeah, hot, all the little towns that got flattened. Hot Springs, yeah, hot Springs, yeah Gosh. And when you're so much further out, because I just want to know as close in, but when you're so much further out, it's crazy. So we're going to take a quick break and then we've got a number of people on today from around the country talking about what's happening in their markets as well as how they're getting on with senior living and all the other cash CPO programs out there around the country. And just know that if you're even thinking about selling or you've got your house listed right now, make sure you get a cash offer as well. It's a full market value cash offer. You don't have to fix anything up. You don't have to have anything up, you don't have to have showings, you don't have to have a sign out the side. If you're private, you know, maybe you've got a business, you don't want people or you don't want your nosy neighbors going. Where are you going? Why are you leaving? And you don't want to keep your house show ready or fix it up or anything else.

Speaker 2:

This is a full market value cash offer Anywhere in the country. We've got an army of agents around the country now that know how to do this. Just go to cashcpocom Cashcpocom. There's a get cash offer button in there. Why wouldn't you do that? It's free. There's no obligation. It's a full market value cash offer. Go ahead, get your listing in. If you're thinking about selling, make sure you get an offer. You might be very surprised at how much it is. It's full market and to that we'll go over and say hi to.

Speaker 8:

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

Speaker 2:

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

Speaker 8:

So is now the time to sell.

Speaker 2:

You know, Sean, it's really all about do you want to sell now or not? Are you just dipping your toe in the water? If you want to get top value, sell it now. You've got a small window before we expect to see that real flatting out the market.

Speaker 8:

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

Speaker 2:

Nice little full music going on there. So here we are, with experts around the country. Oh, this is so awesome. So we have James Wexler from Scottsdale, arizona. How are you, james? What's? Going on in Scottsdale.

Speaker 9:

Hey, it's always good to be on these calls. Definitely a good use of our time listening to not only what everybody's seeing in the market, excuse me, but overall real estate market. But you know success stories about this, how they're helping seniors and this.

Speaker 2:

So, and definitely training, educational for our team and information as well so how is it, james, when you and your team are going out to senior living facilities?

Speaker 9:

what kind of that? That change of just being a realtor to moving forward with cash CPO, how you're helping seniors and helping the people on site. But it's probably not a surprise. We could probably talk more about consistency and a lot less about cash CPO. Yeah, really, really, you know, and I mean, that's true about anything in life, whether it's working out or business or cash. Cpo.

Speaker 2:

Isn't that true? So what would you say, james, to seniors out there listening, or kids of seniors? And, of course, kids of seniors are probably more of our age group, right? So of course we're 32. I'm just kidding, but you know, it's people in their 50s, 60s and 70s sometimes who are the kids of the seniors, that are helping their seniors transition into senior living. Uh, you know children with with aging parents. Uh, exactly, exactly. So what would you say to those kids of parents who you know in their 60s and 70s?

Speaker 9:

sure I actually met with some uh yesterday morning. Specific to that they're moving their family to wisconsin. They have a house there. They've been in since the early 80s. It looks like the early 80s. The market conditions unfortunately don't support a quick sale right now, unless, of course, they just renovated a whole house, which isn't realistic financially, time-wise so and based on the condition know getting it ready for photos is difficult. So here's an opportunity to achieve a lot, or almost all of the market value. A lot less, you know, arduous, cumbersome way, because people see retail prices and they're still stuck on retail and they don't know what we know in the market.

Speaker 9:

So but I think if you're consistent with them, follow up. You share market data about sales. I think they lean towards this because it makes sense. They're maximizing their value and they're not dealing with the headaches, and that's the parents and the kids especially where they want to do the most for their parents, but they're limited with their time likely absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, james, and we always like to hit the deal with the elephant in the room. This is not another skeezy cash offer. I never, ever would have got involved with it had it been most cash offers. There's nothing wrong with them, it's a business model. So the ugly houses are usually 50, 60%. Most realtors top realtors at least have cash offer programs. That's normally up to 60%, maybe even 70%.

Speaker 2:

With us you get up to 70% on stage one. We go in, we do the HGTV magic. You don't have to have any showings, there's no sign outside, you don't have to keep your house show ready, and this works for anyone, not just seniors, obviously, but it's, you know, particularly useful for seniors. And then we sell the house. We can usually sell it for a little bit more, which is why two thirds of our clients make more money than with a conventional, old-fashioned listing. I want to scoot over to kelly denny in whose yellow post real estate in utah. Oh my gosh. Thank you for getting up early this morning, kelly. Or do you get up this time every saturday morning?

Speaker 5:

well, I'm a little bit more closely related to that senior age so so I may not get up every Saturday morning this time.

Speaker 2:

Love it. And how is it? Because so Kelly is part of the Senior Living CPO program. He's a Senior Living CPO expert out there in Utah, works very closely with Deanna allen as well, who's our transition director. How's it going out there in? Uh, in whereabouts? Are you in utah, kelly? I'm 20 minutes south of salt lake city itself oh, what's the weather like in salt lake lake city right now.

Speaker 5:

Today's actually going to be fantastic, but come Monday and Tuesday not so much.

Speaker 2:

Oh, is it starting to get chilly there?

Speaker 5:

We're getting into the change. The change is happening.

Speaker 2:

The change. Oh my goodness. So you're going out to the senior living communities there and working with seniors as as well. What kind of reception are you getting, kelly?

Speaker 5:

we're getting really good reception with the facilities as we talk to them. I actually had one last week. Deanna and I were both involved and I got a referral for a couple. I got a referral for a couple within an hour of that. Yes, it's unusual, but it's a benefit. It's a massive benefit because a lot of people don't have the money on hand to pay for their care and their house becomes that asset that transitions into their affordability of their care facility.

Speaker 2:

When you have a contract right now, so can you talk a little bit about that contract without of course giving names away or addresses or anything else?

Speaker 5:

Sure, it's a-.

Speaker 2:

Call in Bob or Samantha.

Speaker 5:

This is call me Bob. This is so. This is a referral from Deanna. We had two up there and this one we actually put a contract on, got it worked out with our buyers. I'm actually in the middle of working through the construction elements that will be going on, but this couple that we met with is the exact fit for what they're doing. They were referred to us. They had a place that they were already picking out to go to and need to sell their home they have. They do make enough money between them on you know their social security, whatever other things they may have, but they told us that it was just enough to cover their you know their expense, monthly expenses, but it wasn't anything over and above that.

Speaker 5:

And so they wouldn't have any normal you know, wouldn't have much of a life after that. I mean, yes, they're going to have everything they need in these facilities because it's provided for them, which is really awesome. These facilities are that I've met with are top-notch. I haven't been in them, hadn't had any reason to go into them until I joined the program and started pushing out to the senior living facilities, but they're fantastic. The people care and the people that are working at them. You know the marketing directors and the executive directors and stuff. I mean they make it a point to call everybody by name and say hi to them and how they do it everywhere they cross and it's just like well, they know every one of them. Some may have 100 rooms, some may have 162. I don't know One of them. The last one we went to was 162.

Speaker 5:

It's like they're saying hi to everybody and they're really good and the offerings we have, like you said, it's not an offering, you know, wholesale offer I deal with. I see wholesale properties all the time and this I'm hoping to turn this into the point where this becomes the norm out here in Utah to where you start seeing hey, get our cash CPO offer versus get a wholesale offer and get you have your equity taken from you.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, two thirds of our sellers make more money. It makes sense, right? So the couple that you sat down with, kelly just outside Salt Lake city in Utah if you're just tuning in this is Kelly Denny, just 20 minutes outside so beautiful Salt Lake City. It's the first place I skied in in the USA when I came over 29 years ago 28 years. I'm in my 29th year. So you sat down with them Kelly and Deanna was it. Did they say? What is this? We've never heard of. It sounds really weird. Like what did they say? Should we bring Deanna in for a second and just ask how that conversation went, because I think you were both involved in it, am I right?

Speaker 2:

absolutely bring Deanna in so Deanna was confused about it. Or you know when you, when you were telling them about it, what was their reaction to it their reaction.

Speaker 6:

Their first question was oh, I get postcards like this all the time in the mail and I just throw them in the garbage. Is this the same thing?

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, that's so funny. Yes, because most people when they see cash offer think skeezy. Hey, I've been in real estate for 17 years. I never got involved with a cash offer program because it's like a. It's like sometimes it's like a bait and switch, you know, and it's it's a small part of the market that it appeals to. This is a regular offer. It's just a different way to do real estate and you don't have to fix anything. This works for sale by owners. It works for expired, it works for on the market listings off the market listings.

Speaker 2:

If you are thinking about selling your house, go to cashcpocom. Cashcpocom, put your house in, see what comes back. You might get a very nice surprise. Imagine not having to have those showings. People traipsing through your house. The texts you get all the time. You get a text from the showing service. Most of us have showing service. Can you show at 10 o'clock? You've got to run around and get it all ready and then you'll get these lovely feedbacks like why are the walls green? There was a famous one when I started like yeah, I really don't want this house because the walls are green Like that's paint. We can easily fix that. So you get all this feedback. Some realtors are not so nice about the feedback. You don't have to go through any of that at all, so I'm so glad it was helpful for them. So what, deanna and Kelly? Did you have to talk them into it for half an hour, or when you explained it? Did it make sense? How did you explain it, deanna?

Speaker 6:

Absolutely. So we just went through a kind of a simplified process, just walking through the steps of the program, right, and honestly, it made sense. It clicked immediately with the couple that we spoke with and the wife got super excited and she was just like, basically, when can we do it? Where do we sign?

Speaker 2:

Oh well, I've got to ask you are they taking their money in 14 days, 30 days, 90 days? What did they choose? They chose 14 days. Wow, how exciting is that? Because they get to move in right away, I'm guessing. So you know, for those of you that don't know that are listening you go on a wait list for most communities and finally they call you. And you go on a wait list for most communities and finally they call you and, um, you know a lot, unfortunately, often you have to sell your house, or fortunately, because you've got all that equity in it, but most people can't sell the house and get money out in 14 days, which is usually the timeline that they give you, because at the end of the day, they're kind of a senior hotel, you know, and they want that vacancy filled. You'll lose that spot and they'll go on to the next person, which obviously we don't want. We've also got Sarah Green on from Scottsdale, arizona. Hey, sarah, so Scottsdale's obviously very popular today. How are you doing this morning?

Speaker 7:

Hi Ro.

Speaker 2:

I'm doing well. How are you Awesome, so thank you for being on today. So what's the weather like in Arizona right now? So many people move to Scottsdale, don't they? To retire?

Speaker 7:

Yes, it's still pretty warm, I think today's in the 90s.

Speaker 2:

Oh my gosh, what's the average temperature in the winter there? Just roughly.

Speaker 7:

I don't know, like 60s, 70s is the high, oh really.

Speaker 2:

So it does get quite cool. That sounds really nice, but it's very dry. I understand so particularly and I've been there actually how beautiful it is. You're very fortunate to live in such a beautiful place. So we are talking to Sarah Green in Scottsdale, arizona, and feel free to reach out. You can reach out through cash cpocom as well. There's a big link at the top find an agent. We have agents all over the country now helping seniors do this, or often helping the kids of seniors always love to say that because kids are, you know, 50, 60 and 70. Usually we can still be kids, right, it's all comparative. So, sarah, when you're going in and uh, visiting with the senior living communities, what kind of feedback are you are you getting? Do they think it's something that will help their seniors, or are they just seeing you as yet another real estate agent that that you know wants to help seniors?

Speaker 7:

yeah, no, um, I'm having a positive response. Um, you know people. Some of them are like, yeah, we have in-house realtors that can help with this too. They, but it's a bridge loan and they have to explain to him that then that that's not what the case is here, and then they get really excited. So so far, and not a lot of the facilities here have wait lists right now, which is interesting.

Speaker 2:

Well, I'm sure and, um, you know, I would also think that many of them have a vacancy or two and they're bringing people in, so that that's very interesting. Do you have a particular reason why you joined the program, sarah? What? What stood out about the program in terms of helping?

Speaker 7:

for you know, it's always really stressful to list your home traditionally and get the home cleaned up and have showings, and you know, I've seen that it's stressful for seniors.

Speaker 2:

So when I heard about this program I was excited to learn about it and find a solution that will help my my clients and get new clients so we can help I want to give you a big high five, sarah, because you just said what most listing agents won't tell you when they come out to list your home it's brutal selling a house. And is there any agent on the phone today? Um, you know, on our show that doesn't think it's brutal selling house. Of course, as agents we don't necessarily want to tell you that, except we've got very honest agents on the call and they will tell you that it is brutal selling house. Why is it brutal? Because you have to keep its show show ready, because you have to do showings all the time. You have to get your dogs out for an hour or more. You're not really sure. Sometimes the agents don't let you know when they're finished. They might be in for five minutes, they might even do a no-show. That's really I know.

Speaker 2:

When I was selling my house just a year ago, oh my gosh, we'd get the dogs out, we'd put them in the truck and I'd run around making the house all clean. We've got dogs. You know, if you've got dogs it's even harder. Or kids, I'm sure, toys everywhere, and you know dog hair. And I mean, let's face it, we don't keep our house show ready all the time. Most of us, 99% of us. It's such a pain. And then the feedback's so disheartening because I don't know. They just say mean things, I mean things, I don't know why. And then when you get under contract, they're going to ask that you're going to get do the inspection and on average it's 4550 items on that inspection. And if you're sitting at home and you're thinking of selling and go, my house is well maintained.

Speaker 2:

All our sellers say that, by the way. It's natural. I said that too and I really felt that way. And yet there's all these things that need fixing on a house. You don't have to do that anymore with this. So you know whether you're a senior thinking about senior living community or you're just thinking about selling your house anywhere in the country. Guys, we've got experts all over the country that can help you. Just go to cashcpocom, cash, c-p-o it's like certified pre-owned that's what it stands for Cashcpocom. And CPO it's like certified pre-owned that's what it stands for CashCPOcom and we'll get you together with your CashCPO expert. Oh gosh, we've got Joey, our CEO. How are you, joey? What's the weather?

Speaker 4:

like in Los Angeles this morning. Oh, fantastic. Well, thanks for having me, Ro. Well, it's about 70s outside. It's crazy because in the past two weeks, in the morning we're in the 50s and then, around 12-ish, it's going to be around 80. I mean, it's good, but it's super cold and I keep on forgetting bringing my jacket and I just have to grab something in my car. Yeah, I can't complain. It's pretty much constant all year round.

Speaker 2:

So what kind of feedback are you getting from the senior living CPO experts, Joey, with the program? Or please share anything you'd like to share. You are our CEO after all.

Speaker 4:

Yeah, absolutely so. It's funny you've mentioned about selling a house is not easy, it's very painful. There was a study conducted years ago that there is the most stressful situation that can happen in families, especially here in the United States, is number one is death in the family, number two is divorce and number three I think it makes between three, four and five is selling and buying a house.

Speaker 2:

Yeah. Divorcing the house you've got right.

Speaker 4:

Sorry, say it again.

Speaker 2:

Divorcing the house you have oh yes, absolutely Absolutely.

Speaker 4:

That's why, as an institutional buyer, as your funding partner, we strongly believe that agent has to be paid.

Speaker 4:

Well, because it's not easy, and we encountered that with a lot of sellers that we've dealt with, especially those who try to sell their homes on their own, like Fizbo's, and they get burned out after a few months and realize, hey, I can't do it, or maybe they just give up and, okay, I'll just sell it at a loss. So really, in regards to the feedback to the seller, most sellers, if they want to cash out in a matter of days, they have limited options. Number one they can sell it to a traditional investor or an iBuyer, and most iBuyers would eliminate the participation of an agent. Our business model was built by the help and by partnering with real estate agents nationwide. That's why we love working with agents, because otherwise we're just going to be like any other wholesaler or iBuyers who's just going to take advantage of the sellers. I'm not saying that everybody's taking advantage or all this institutional buyer are doing that, but we've seen a lot of horror and sad stories that are happening to sellers, especially distressed sellers and elderly, that they cannot make a decision soundfully.

Speaker 2:

So that they cannot make a decision soundfully. So, joey, thank you for that and I want to give you a huge shout out. So you know, joey is part of Joey's, part of our network, part of our funding partner and all I can say is oh my gosh, last week we closed on a home in in my hometown in Asheville, north Carolina, and I just got my water back. The house had no water last Tuesday and they still closed on it. I don't know. So all the contracts, almost all of the contracts in Asheville cancelled. The business just died overnight.

Speaker 2:

For anybody selling the house or buying a house, in fact, every single day now I get emails from agents saying not damaged by the storm. So for those that you don't know, uh, maybe you're around the country. Uh, asheville was the epicenter of, uh, the Helene hit. We don't get hurricanes in Asheville, so the um, the aftermath of that has been terrible. Hundreds of people have been killed and they're all in Buncombe County, which is where Asheville. So the, the aftermath of that has been terrible. Hundreds of people have been killed and they're all in Buncombe County, which is where Asheville is based. So somehow our funding partner closed on that house without water.

Speaker 2:

I don't know how you made that happen, joey. It's just amazing. And you've made Susan and Dennis if you're listening, I'm going to give you a shout out who now live in Ocla florida. They will. They were able to put a non-contingent offer in on their house and somehow I don't know how you did it, honestly, because all the other buyers I mean institutional buyers would be the first ones to run right. And so I'm just. We all have so much gratitude for that. Joey, thank you so much gratitude for that, joey.

Speaker 4:

Thank you so much, of course. Yeah, it's a thank you to our team. Our, our, our company is really focused on sellers. It's not all about the pocketbook and we're very seller centric organization.

Speaker 2:

I love it. And just another shout out to to Joey, to wrap up our calls today with senior living cpo and cash cpo experts who are running this program around the country. You can go to cash cpocom, click on, find an agent and you'll find agents all over the country that are running this amazing program. So, joey is we are launching builder cpo jan. January 1, maybe it might be January 2, just so we can all have a day off for New Year's Day, which is two days before my birthday, by the way, just so everybody knows. Just putting it out there.

Speaker 2:

So builder CPO helps people who are building a house. So when you're building a house and for builders out there listening, we have a lot of builders all over the country house. And for builders out there listening, we have a lot of builders all over the country listening. For builders out there listening, it's not your fault when you can't quite hit that deadline, but obviously it's very frustrating, right? It might be, maybe another port's gone on strike, who knows? Maybe there's been a hurricane, maybe your workforce went down with COVID. You know there are always reasons for delays. So the great thing is the builder CPO expert. You can look it up buildercpocom, buildercpocom. The experts in that program will help you by presenting an offer to the person that you're building a house for. Thank you so much for listening today, guys. I really appreciate you being there. It's wonderful having such a great audience and I will be delighted to see you next week on the radio. We'll be talking a little bit more about Builder CPO. We'll be having some builders on talking about the program, how it works.

Speaker 2:

It's just great, if you're thinking about building a home, to be able to dovetail everything and get the same amount of money or even more money. You know two thirds of our sellers with CashGPO get more money than with a traditional sale. Make sure you go to CashGPOcom, guys, if you've got your house listed or you're thinking about selling your house. Of course we do conventional listings as well and we do conventional CPO as well, where you pay for the inspection. You always want to do that. The average contract drops out over 30% of the time. It is not fun. You get a stigmatized listing. Nobody wants that. So make sure at the very least you get your inspection and go ahead and go over and take a look at cashcpocom. Click on the Get Cash Offer button at the top. Put your house in. What have you got to lose?

Speaker 1:

You've just got a few details and you'll get your offer at radioashvillecom or call her at 828-210-1648. From the Appletree Automotive Superstore Studios. This is Western North Carolina's election station. Use radio 570-WWNC Asheville and iHeart Radio Station.

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