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MOVE Worthy Podcast
All things Real Estate...What's happening today in the real estate industry. Educating, entertaining, untold stories and more!
MOVE Worthy Podcast
Move Worthy Q & A: Insights, Strategies, and Professional Guidance
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This episode focuses on answering common questions about the home buying process while underscoring the importance of hiring a realtor. We explore topics such as the role of realtors, communication in the agent-client relationship, and the ins and outs of financing options.
• Importance of realtor assistance when buying a home
• Discussion on need for hiring agents versus DIY transactions
• Communication strategies for working with realtors
• Can you fire a realtor after signing a contract?
• The pros and cons of obtaining a real estate license
• Explanation of FHA processes including appraisals and underwriting
• Benefits of professional representation in emotional transactions
• Future Q&A sessions promised for listeners to engage further
MOVE Worthy Podcast with Lauren Jones & Jenny Lendle. Together we have the experience to MOVE you forward!
Realtor Questions and Answers
Speaker 1all right , we are back with the move worthy podcast , episode 11 with jenny and lauren and today we're gonna go through questions , so Q&A day at the Move Worthy podcast . We're gonna go through a list of questions that we have and try to give our best answers facts and opinions , I'm sure but you know a little bit of both . Yes , educated guesses , that's what we do here .
Speaker 2That's right .
Speaker 1But hopefully you know these answers . You might have these questions and these answers might help you in your home buying , home selling , investing process . So let's get started .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1All right process , so get started . Yeah , all right . If I wanted to buy a house in cash , would it ? Still be smart to use a realtor , or can they even help me ? Wow , I was going to say , lauren , I'm gonna let you take this .
Speaker 2So I'm coming to y'all live with my sexy voice . Um , this winter storm in Southeast Louisiana , um , my body doesn't know how to react , so I'm a little under the weather . But regardless of whether you're financing a house or paying cash for a house , that really has no relevance on whether you need to hire a realtor . Realtors are there because they are educated beings in the real estate world .
Speaker 2Professionals , we're professionals . This is what we do every day . Yes , this is what we do . It has no nothing to do with the financing side of a real estate transaction . That's where a lender comes in Right , not a realtor . A realtor is going to guide you through the process , make sure you're tackling everything legally , ethically . That's our job is to hold your hand through the process , tell you what's next , tell you what to expect , meet your deadlines , do what you need to do in the best interest of your purchase or your sale right essentially drive you through the process .
Speaker 1Right , whether cash or financing your inspections creating , I mean even writing the contract the negotiations , the terms what do you want , what do they want ? I mean , there's so much .
Speaker 2I mean , do most buyers know that you should be putting a due diligence period on a contract , and do most buyers know without an agent's advice ? Do they know what that really means ? You know ? So , yeah , I definitely think , regardless of what type of financing you're doing and I think I think this question probably comes into play because of the buyer agency- because of the changes because of the changes that are coming in .
Speaker 2So , you know , they think because they're paying cash , it's going to be more cash out of their pocket because they hire an agent , but that's not always a thing . I think that's another question that we you know we might touch on here . That we saw is that you know , just because you're hiring an agent as a buyer , it doesn't mean that you're coming out of pocket more money . Correct , there's ways . That's what the agents there for they're gonna know negotiate that for you . They're gonna work it in to where it works best for your situation . So , no , you definitely should get an agent .
Speaker 1I agree , and did you know little off ? Note that in some other states I don't know how many do this you have to pay the seller to pull the house off the market to do inspections . I know for sure it's like that in Texas . Really so when you make an offer you have your earnest money , which I don't believe , it's that it is an inspection fee . So you offer and I guess like an earnest money or like your deposit .
Speaker 1An additional deposit . It's a percentage of the sale price . Probably that is a rule of thumb , but yes , yes . So my niece is in Austin , she's a realtor and she said you have to pay to be able to do your inspections . Plus , you have to pay for your inspections . Wow so imagine being a first-time homebuyer , because that's where these questions are coming from mm-hmm and you have this question do you need a realtor and you're in another state that has something like that ? You have no clue . I mean your offer's not getting accepted .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1You know , unless you offer something to the seller . So you can do your own inspections .
Speaker 2Wow . Yes , isn't that interesting and we don't have that here in Louisiana , not yet .
Speaker 1I do know for sure it's in Texas . I don't know where else , but yeah , that's a thing yeah , that's crazy so yes , I mean we're a lot of these questions . There's a few in here that say you know , do I need a realtor ? I mean guys like , yes , hire someone to do this job with you . I mean I wouldn't say for you , because it's a collaboration . So always consult with a realtor and if you find out it doesn't work for you , then it's fine .
Speaker 1But , definitely take advantage of all of your opportunities and options to make sure you can get through the process safely .
Speaker 2And that comes to another question that we see often Can I fire my realtor ?
Speaker 1Oh , that's coming up . You want to just skip to that one ?
Speaker 2Yep , let's skip to that one .
Speaker 1Okay , we'll skip to that question . Yep , let's get to that one . Okay , we'll skip to that question . It is in the list . I fired a client once . That was kind of fun okay can I fire my realtor after I've signed a contract with them ? Long story short , the process isn't going how I hoped , how I hoped it would , and I found someone else I'd rather work with . All right , so already it makes me feel like there's quite unanswered questions first yeah , for sure so are you already in a contract ?
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1Yeah , that's one thing . Are you just looking at houses and decided you're not happy anymore ? But simple answer is yes , yes .
Speaker 2Yes , you can fire a realtor realtor . However , I will say this if you are working with a realtor and you really don't feel like it's going like it should , I think it is super important to be transparent , absolutely you know , just up and deciding that you want to go with another realtor because you think that it's going to work better for you doesn't always happen .
Speaker 2The grass is not always greener . Have you sat down with your realtor and said , hey , this is what I thought , this is how I thought it would go . Why is it not going like this ? This is what I thought would be happening . Why is this not happening ? Why is this not happening ? Why is this happening ? Instead , be super transparent , because there may be things that are happening , that are gonna happen with the next realtor and you just don't know that . That's not the process , or is the process it ? Could be a miscommunication is key .
Speaker 1So absolutely . So . You know , while I think any buyer or Well communication is huge , it's like a relationship . It's a relationship .
Speaker 2Absolutely . So . You know , while I think any buyer or seller has a right to fire a realtor and of course it has to be done correctly , regardless of the contract as long as the process is in writing and there's a clear understanding that this is the end of our relationship , yes , it can absolutely be done but give that realtor the benefit of the doubt , first and foremost because I'm sure , at whatever point you are in the game , they do have a lot of skin in it . They've done work , they've done research , they've they've spent time , yes , they've . They've , you know , earned money at the end of the day to some degree . So , you know , make sure that you're you're being super transparent with your agent as to what your expectations are and feel comfortable about what their response is . And if their response is still not what you're looking for , then , yes , maybe it is time for you to part ways , because , look , there's good agents out there and there's really bad agents . I mean , it happens , look , it absolutely happens . But that's kind of just what my advice would be .
Speaker 1Yeah , communication is huge . I mean think of your personal relationships . If you are thinking something . Something's not going your way . Are you just going to hold it in and then just walk away ?
Speaker 2Or are you going ?
Speaker 1to open up those lines of communication and just say , hey , this isn't working or , like you said , this isn't how I expected it to be . Can we talk about this ? Can we make it better ? Give the agent an opportunity to fix their mistakes , because they may not know or they might be busy . I mean , it happens , life happens .
Speaker 2So I've been in a situation I've been fired before . You know I had . I had a listing on a market for for a while . There was an expectation from the seller as to what the price point was . And you know as , even though I thought that the price point needed to be a lot lower and he was , I was very clear about that there was pushback . So we went the route that he wanted to go and nothing was happening and I did my best to explain why it wasn't happening . At the end of the day , he felt like I wasn't doing my job . I was fired . He hired another agent , listed the house for the price that I suggested .
Speaker 1That always seems to happen .
Speaker 2And it sold , of course . And do you know ? I got apology letter after apology letter after apology letter , did you ? I did After that and you know , I think just at the end of the day , there has to be an understanding as to what's going on and of course the client does need to feel comfortable with their decision in their agents .
Speaker 1But it's trust , though it is trust me . This is my job . This is my job .
Speaker 2This is what I do every day . I look at these numbers and and don't ask me why he trusted me and not the other person . I don't know what they said to convince him otherwise . Um , but I mean , I did exactly , I wanted to do exactly what the other agent did , and at the end of the day , I went through a lot like two years of work because this house had to be gutted and remodeled , and I went through a long process that I just never made it to the end with . So it sucked . It sucked big time . So . But I think that transparency is key . Expectations need to be very clear , and you know , yes , I agree , and that happens a lot .
Speaker 1I've seen that happen so many times . I think it happened to me . Listing expired during the listing . I was trying to get them to lower the price to a certain number . Sure enough , the next agent picked it up , listed it where I was or where I wanted to be and then that even expired .
Speaker 1Then I tried to pick her back up in that expiration period and she continued on with that agent . I think it eventually sold for maybe 10 or so less than that number was eventually sold for maybe 10 or so less than that number was . But it was so frustrating to say hey because , like hey , I said that .
Speaker 2Right .
Speaker 1I'm still doing a great job . Right , I just need you to be willing , yeah , to work with me . Yeah , I mean , I mean that's what we're here for . We're not , we don't want . I mean , we'd love to sell your house for a million dollars , but at the end of the day , if it's only worth 500,000 , we're going to be honest with you and , yeah , that's the best we can get that's right yeah , all right .
Speaker 1Next question I'm going to keep going through this list . Let's see , um , do you want me to keep going straight through ? Because how about this one ? Has anyone got their real estate license before buying their first home ? Is that a recommendation ?
Speaker 2oh gosh , while everybody probably should have some education in real selling a house yes , no , no . That's why you hire an agent . You hire an agent to do that . Unless you want a career in real estate , there is absolutely no reason for you to go out and get your real estate license just to buy a property .
Speaker 1Yeah , the amount of time it's gonna take you to take the test not only that , the money , money that you see you're schooling , your board fees , your licensing everything your insurance , your I mean , I mean , the list goes on . I mean , why would you spend all that money ?
Speaker 2you're gonna spend more getting your license than you would if you would have just paid a buyer's agent .
Speaker 1Correct . I mean it depends on price point .
Speaker 2but even still , oh yeah .
Speaker 1Hire someone , I mean whenever you need to go to the dentist . Do you think to yourself ?
Speaker 2Do I need to become a dentist ? Do I need to ?
Speaker 1become a dentist to clean my own teeth ? No , to clean my own teeth . No , you're going to go and you're going to hire , you're going to go pay someone to do that . Yeah , it's a service industry . We serve , yes , so let us help you Reach out . If it's about money , let's have a conversation . Let's see what we can do for you . Let's see what we can negotiate in these offers . I think this is a great question , but definitely not necessary , like , unless you want to become a realtor Yep , unless you want this to be your full-time job .
Speaker 1Yeah , because , again , I mean I know there's a lot of people out there that do real estate part-time , but I mean I think about this 24 hours a day , seven days a week . My clients it's like like your children almost you have you have to constantly be thinking of them , working for them , responsible for what they want to do at all times . So unless that's what you want to do , I would not suggest it .
Speaker 2No , definitely not .
Speaker 1And not saying that I don't love my job because I do . I find it very fulfilling , but it is a lot of work . It takes a lot of patience and a lot of education . Um , constantly , because everything is constantly evolving in this industry yep let's see I'm gonna go to this fha question .
Speaker 1In the case of fha , is the appraisal ordered before the underwriting process , or does it happen in parallel ? Or is it or is this lender specific ? Now we're not lenders , we are Realtors , but we definitely know the process once you get and not just FHA in any loan process what that looks like from start to finish mm-hmm so .
Speaker 2I think there are there . I think it can be very lender specific actually , because there are some lenders that will fully underwrite a buyer before they even give an approval . So while a traditional process is that the appraisal comes before underwriting , there are some situations where they will underwrite pending appraisal . So you're not completely out of underwriting but underwriting has gone through every other step except for appraisal ,
Why You Need a Realtor
Speaker 2except for appraisal . But a traditional process yes , appraisal comes before the underwriting process . They go through your offer , they get you approved , they check all your income and your assets and your credit and job , employment and all of that first . Then you go through your inspections , then the lender orders appraisal and then it goes to underwriting .
Speaker 2But , like I said , some buyers that may be a little more trickier or some buyers that even just request it . Like I want to know right now I'm 100% good to go . I don't want to get to the underwriting process and there be something that I need and I don't have and then I can't get through that and then I've spent all this money on inspections and you know I haven't an appraisal and I can't get approved . So you know there are situations that it can happen that way , but it is not your traditional process right and and .
Speaker 1While those things can happen in the underwriting process , a lot of the lenders that we work with do a really good job of getting as much information up front when they're doing their approval . I mean , you have someone you work with that gives a full can do a full approval upfront . Yep , so that way , when they write their offer , they are they've already been looked at .
Speaker 1Mm-hmm , more than just a qualification mm-hmm and they know that they're good to go with that contract . And definitely , um , when it comes to order the appraisal , we usually do inspections before appraisal , but I have had when the market was changing I had a listing appraisal up front appraisal . First we had the listing . They wanted the house , but they man . This price seems a little bit higher than what we're used to seeing because things were .
Speaker 1Things were changing . So we did . We did the appraisal first and if it didn't appraise and if the seller didn't meet that appraisal price , they were going to refund the buyer . That was all written into the contract .
Speaker 2Yeah .
Speaker 1Another reason why you need a realtor . Yep , I mean , you would not think of that unless you had been through a situation like that and had that experience . But yes , we wrote it in just like that Appraisal first , if you don't meet the appraisal price , if it doesn't appraise , you pay for it and everybody walks away . The seller agreed , buyer agreed , it ended up appraising and we sold it . We went through inspections after that . It was a fairly new home in that subdivision off of River Road and St Rose . We didn't think anything major would come back and nothing did , but it worked out perfect .
Speaker 2Yep .
Speaker 1So there's situational things all the time .
Speaker 2All the time .
Speaker 1So having that knowledge and that experience to get through some tricky situations like that is why you called us Yep Yep .
Speaker 1So let's see . Here's another realtor question , and I like this one because it's written a little bit different . My husband's work colleague is selling his home . It is not listed with a realtor . He's asking $135,000 . Do I still need to contact a realtor myself to buy ? How do I go about buying this house without costing us a significant amount of extra money neither parties want to spend ? I've never bought a house and this is my first time , even going down this rabbit hole . I would appreciate any and all advice yes call a realtor there is nothing .
Speaker 2There's nothing worse than a transaction between a buyer and seller where there is no educated representation . Yes , I mean , there are just so many things that buyers and sellers don't realize are even part of the equation until they're on it and it's too late until they're in the middle of it .
Speaker 1They're in the middle of it and it's too late . 100 regretting their decision .
Speaker 2Yes , yes and and you know what , truthfully at the , at the end of the day , the your , your buyer's agent is going to help you negotiate those costs , whether it means make it up in the price of the house or split it with the seller or have the seller do it all . There are ways to to work around those expenses for both the buyer and the seller , but you need somebody that knows how to do that . I mean there's just too many things , too many legal things . I don't think that buyers and sellers realize oh wait , what I need to sign a waiver of retribution , like I don't even know what that is .
Speaker 2An inspection period . An inspection period . An inspection period wait , I could have , I could have . I could have had 12 , 20 days to to do all of this stuff and and not be . And now , yeah , and now I'm past that and or didn't put that in my contract . Yeah , hire an agent yes , just hire an agent , they , they will make it worth your while , I promise .
Speaker 1It's almost like inspections they're worth their weight in gold . Even if you get through the inspection , you've spent $500-ish and you decide you don't want to buy the house . You might have saved yourself $12,000 by backing out of that contract because they were Finding something major . Yes , Same thing with a realtor . Think about I mean , I never thought about that until now Think about us in that light . We are there to help you not lose thousands and get a great deal and get through your inspection period and get through appraisal and get to the closing table legally .
Speaker 1Everybody's happy not coming out of pocket tons and tons of money because , let's face it , while everyone thinks that we're , it costs so much money to hire a realtor , it's really not like sit down with someone and have that conversation . Talk about your price point , talk about what the fees are for a realtor . In the grand scheme of things , it's really not that much when you look at the problems you could run into and would you not want a voice between you , your husband and his co-worker , correct ? You know what I ?
Speaker 2mean , do you really want to be the one to say , no , mr co-worker , I'm not doing that or we disagree . Now we have to go to work and look at each other's faces all day long , whereas if you had a realtor in the middle of it , it's the realtor speaking , it's the realtor giving the advice , it's the realtor handling that conversation , that confrontation , that conversation , any of it . They are the ones that are dealing with it . Right , and you don't become . You know these . You know and I'm not saying all transactions are nasty , I'm not saying that but there are things that have to be addressed in a real estate transaction , and if you're not the one that has to address it , all the better , right .
Navigating Emotions in Real Estate
Speaker 1And it's a very it can be a very emotionally fueled process yes that's where things start to get a little crazy and heated , uncomfortable for everyone . So when we're involved , you don't have to be that on that front line we're on that front line . Yes , so I think it's very , very important . While they might be your colleague or your family or your friend , people still have a tendency to maybe change a little bit in a process like that when it comes to just get emotional just emotional yeah .
Speaker 1React on emotions leave things out not fully understand . I mean , there's so many things but , I guess the emotional part of it is what we see the most .
Speaker 2Yeah , for sure .
Speaker 1I've seen some pretty rough ones .
Speaker 2Yeah , jenny , and I have talked about this several times . You know we get to a closing table and it's like you kind of rethink all of the things that you went through to get to that process , that process , and you also think about some of the things that you didn't tell your client happened or to the to the degree that it happened to , because at the end of the day you're not . You're not going back to your client saying the buyer or the seller was dirty and acted like this and acted like that , as long as your client is benefiting from the process still and you still have their interest in mind , saving those little knickknack things are a huge part of keeping the emotions removed from the transaction yes , for sure , absolutely , they're definitely 100% .
Speaker 1So many things that happen in that process . And then at the closing table I've been to one that was just awful and I felt so bad for the buyers because it was just such a stressful process for everyone . And then I've been to the ones where everybody's friends and they're exchanging phone numbers . Yeah , and that's how we want it to be . So it's almost like you said check your emotion as best you can . But then that's our job too , yeah , is to diffuse , diffuse unnecessary .
Speaker 1Yes crap , exactly , absolutely . Well , that is all we have for today . We still have a good handful of questions to get through , so we'll probably hit this on another episode . Um , but this was fun . You know these questions popped up and I said , you know , let's go through A good handful of questions to get through , so we'll probably hit this on another episode . But this was fun . You know these questions popped up and I said , you know , let's go through this list . This is interesting , so check back with us every Monday at 10 am . This was episode 11 Q&A . This is the Move Worthy podcast , with myself , jenny Lindley .
Speaker 2And Lauren .
Speaker 1Jones , and together we have the experience to move you forward .
