0:00

One of the things I really want to do with this podcast

0:03

is share more of your stories

0:05

of things that have happened to you as

0:07

homeowners . I think by sharing

0:09

these experiences , we can help each other

0:11

avoid making the same mistakes

0:14

or having the same things happen

0:16

. There are so many challenges with

0:18

building or buying a house , and these challenges extend

0:21

to renting a house or an apartment

0:23

, so I posted online asking

0:25

for stories and got a response from my guest

0:27

today . Bob Thompson had

0:29

some pretty significant things happen when

0:31

he bought his house . He probably

0:34

could have avoided many of them . So

0:36

sit back and listen to Bob's story . He's

0:38

going to share some things that you should pay

0:40

close attention to so

0:43

you can avoid having them happen to you . I'm

0:46

George Siegal , and this is Homeowners

0:48

Be Aware the podcast that teaches

0:50

you everything you need to know

0:52

about being a homeowner . Bob

0:54

, thank you so much for joining me today .

0:56

Thanks for having me . I appreciate it .

1:02

Now I found you doing a shout-out , where I'm looking for people that are homeowners

1:04

, that have had experiences to come on and share them . I think we can learn so much

1:06

from hearing what other people go through . I know that

1:09

the experiences I've had when I tell people they

1:11

go , wow . I've got to be aware

1:13

of that . So it sounds like you've had some interesting

1:15

experiences . What did you learn

1:17

becoming a homeowner or as a homeowner

1:19

that you want to share with other people ?

1:23

Okay , so I bought

1:25

my . We bought our first house in 2002

1:28

. At

1:30

the time I worked at the chemical plant . We were

1:32

approved for 90,000 and we paid 84

1:34

for the house . This is in essentially , portsmouth

1:36

, virginia . This house had been on the

1:38

market for a year . We

1:41

didn't get a home inspection . Our agent told

1:43

us that we were getting a home warranty and that would

1:45

cover everything , which was a complete

1:47

and total disaster . The

1:50

house was from 1940 , the

1:52

electricity had not been updated , so

1:55

we had to deal with that . Floors

1:57

were uneven , leaky windows

1:59

. I think what , honestly

2:01

, was worse than anything was

2:04

not realizing who

2:06

we had as neighbors . And

2:08

this is no joke . The guy behind

2:11

me was a 300-pound

2:13

white power guy . We're talking

2:15

Confederate flag in the front yard

2:17

and that first

2:19

Saturday I woke up to essentially

2:22

white power music playing . Saturday

2:27

I woke up to essentially white power music playing and the people that

2:29

owned my house before me were black , which kind of makes me think that might be

2:31

part of the reason that they moved . And

2:34

we had a and there was any head roosters

2:36

in the backyard . So we literally woke up

2:38

, you know , saturday morning at 6am

2:41

to the rooster and then , like an hour later

2:43

, he's got this some sort of

2:45

country white power music going on . It was a

2:47

complete fiasco

2:49

from beginning to end and , quite

2:51

honestly , when we finally moved on from that

2:54

house , that house had never been completed properly

2:56

. It just never got fixed all the way .

2:58

Now there's so many questions I have to ask you just

3:00

based on what you've told me , and none

3:02

of it is meant to be critical , because I've certainly made my

3:04

share of mistakes .

3:05

Oh , you're fine .

3:06

You know , when it comes to choosing neighbors , that's

3:08

something I don't think people give enough value to

3:10

and you read about it . If you're on

3:13

Next Door or if you're on Facebook groups

3:15

, you hear about people that have horrible neighbors

3:17

, where they either have barking dogs

3:19

, they have people partying . I know when I got one of

3:21

my first apartments in Clovis California

3:23

, a biker gang moved in next

3:26

to me and they always drove up their motorcycles

3:28

late at night and had doing

3:30

repair work and revving engines all the time

3:32

. But that was an apartment . It's a lot easier to

3:34

separate from a crummy apartment

3:36

choice than it is from a crummy home buying

3:38

choice . How difficult is that on

3:40

a day to day basis ? Was that for you to deal

3:42

with ?

3:44

Honest to God , it was a teetotal nightmare because

3:46

we had a neighbor on one side . She

3:48

was a raving alcoholic Like she

3:50

would literally . I've

3:52

got old Facebook posts Like the night Obama

3:55

got elected . I was like you know , presidents

3:57

come and go , but

4:02

if you haven't had a neighbor that's screaming at the moon at midnight , you haven't lived . I mean

4:04

, she would just to the point of you couldn't understand words that were coming

4:06

out of her mouth , but she'd be out front just

4:08

going off . The neighbor

4:11

on the left was originally

4:14

a meth addict and she eventually died

4:16

about a year after we moved in and of course the

4:18

house got bought , rehabbed

4:20

and good , proper neighbors moved in

4:23

, but I dealt with two of the three of

4:25

those neighbors for almost

4:27

the entire time we lived there . The white power

4:29

guy eventually put the house up for rent

4:32

and moved on , but the crazy drunk

4:34

neighbor was there until the day

4:36

that I moved out .

4:37

And how many years did you live there ?

4:40

We bought the house in 2002 . I

4:43

personally moved out in 2015

4:46

, when I when I filed for divorce .

4:48

quite honestly , yeah , that's a good gift

4:50

to give the ex-wife to say here , take the house .

4:53

And all it was .

4:54

You know . Now you know

4:56

, I'm thankful every day that we happen

4:58

to . In the area that we live in , our little niche

5:01

area , we have great neighbors , we have

5:03

respectful neighbors . We have great neighbors , we have respectful neighbors , we

5:05

have quiet neighbors . But a few blocks over you hear stories

5:07

from people that have

5:10

problems , so that's really something people

5:12

need to investigate . You gave a great tip before

5:14

we went on that you tell people

5:16

now that you

5:18

don't just buy a house , you have to know more

5:20

about it . What is your drive-by tip ? I thought that

5:23

was great .

5:24

Well , because I eventually

5:26

got my real estate license and

5:29

I have been a full-time real estate agent since

5:31

2007, . That

5:33

was the greatest experience I possibly could

5:35

have , because it was so monumentally

5:37

bad that I

5:39

instantly knew what I didn't want

5:41

to do , and I really wanted to do a good

5:43

job . It wasn't about just getting paid , but

5:46

what I do is I tell all of my

5:48

clients to do what I call the Friday night drive

5:50

by . Every house looks pretty

5:52

at Tuesday at two o'clock in the afternoon

5:54

, because it's Tuesday at two o'clock in the

5:56

afternoon , but you've got to ride by

5:59

the house at night to figure out what's going

6:01

on . Do you have is ? Is

6:03

the house next door , you know ? Are

6:05

they fighting and trying to kill each other all the time

6:07

? Do they got 15 kids that they can't control

6:10

? Do is it a biker gang ? Is

6:12

it a ? Are they the party neighbors

6:14

? Are

6:16

they people you know

6:19

that are just not of high caliber

6:21

and can you know that are shady ? To where you got to

6:23

make sure you lock your car up at night

6:25

because somebody is going to break in ? These

6:27

are the type of things that you absolutely have to

6:29

look at , and that's even in the nicest of neighborhoods

6:31

. It could be just as simple as little

6:33

Joey is allowed to , you know , have

6:35

his band practice in the garage , but

6:38

yet they're still practicing at 11 o'clock at

6:40

night and you've got little kids and

6:42

they got to go to sleep . So it doesn't have to be anything

6:44

major , but you should be

6:47

aware of what's going on always .

6:49

Yeah , and now you know , the kids could be running around with airsoft

6:51

guns , they could have dogs that are very

6:53

vicious . You know , I've heard I had

6:55

a friend who had a couple of donkeys

6:57

and the donkeys were eaten by some pit

7:00

bulls in the neighborhood that were allowed

7:02

to roam free , and

7:05

so you just really never know where it's going to come from . You also want to go by on a

7:07

bad weather day . I think you want to pick

7:09

a day when it's raining or

7:11

after it's rained for a couple of days . The

7:13

problem is some people

7:15

are limited by time . So you go

7:17

, look , you fly into town , you look at a house

7:19

for a couple of days , you put an offer

7:22

down , you get it . You really

7:24

can't do those rushed transactions

7:26

, can you ?

7:28

Well , here's the thing You're not really supposed

7:30

to and that's what you're . If you've got a real estate

7:32

agent , that's their job and if

7:34

they're not smart enough to figure out that on

7:36

themselves , then it's your responsibility to say

7:38

hey , I know that . Like , for instance

7:41

, I live in Hampton Roads , which is Chesapeake

7:43

, virginia , norfolk , virginia . For

7:58

instance , I live in Hampton Roads , which is Chesapeake , virginia , norfolk , virginia , virginia Beach

8:00

. We were built on a swamp that used to all be swampland , so we do have pockets to where , if the weather

8:02

gets bad , the roads are going to back up a little bit . You're going day . Yeah , you should be

8:04

able to ask whoever is getting let's be honest

8:06

is getting paid to do their job

8:08

. There's no excuse for them not to be able

8:11

to . A check on that and B they

8:13

should already know if they live in the area . I

8:15

know for a fact that the worst parts

8:17

of Chesapeake , norfolk and

8:19

Portsmouth and Virginia Beach that are probably

8:21

going to turn into swamp and it's my

8:23

job to check on that , you know it

8:26

just is .

8:27

Yeah , I also tell people to check your local floodplain

8:29

manager , research

8:35

the history of the house because , yeah , you're right , a realtor in a perfect world would tell you all

8:38

these things . You know , our realtor who I thought was decent never

8:40

told us they were tearing up the entire street and cutting

8:42

down all the trees to put in a new sewer line

8:45

. Now you could make the argument

8:47

that well , they improved the drainage in the neighborhood

8:49

, so now you're not going to flood , but we didn't

8:51

know that . We bought the house because of the tree-lined

8:53

street and people just can't

8:56

rely on other people . You really , if you're

8:59

your own best advocate , it probably works out a lot better

9:01

for you .

9:03

A lot of ways and

9:05

you should be able to do that . And if your agent gets mad at you

9:07

, then that's on them . You have a

9:09

right to ask those questions and do

9:11

the due diligence , and sometimes people will just

9:14

point blank lie to you . I've got a buddy

9:16

of mine that I helped him find a house

9:18

in 2008

9:20

. And we were told and there was a mobile

9:24

home park right across the street and

9:26

we were told that that mobile home park

9:28

was coming down . This is by the , the

9:31

lead agent on the site that we were buying

9:33

at . He point blank to my face

9:35

and my client who , by the way , it's still one

9:37

of my closest friends , you know

9:39

was hey , well , they're tearing down the

9:41

mobile home park . So no worries about

9:43

that , because that was a legitimate concern , because

9:45

these were nice condos that were going in Well

9:48

. Here it is in 2024 . That

9:50

mobile home park is still alive and well

9:52

. My buddy , irv still lives in

9:54

the condo complex and we still laugh about

9:57

it . You know , if I go to pick him up or we go have

9:59

lunch or whatever , we still talk

10:01

about what a ball face lie that that

10:03

was . And that proves

10:05

another point that remember , with

10:07

condo complexes and HOAs . They

10:10

don't have to follow their own rules or

10:12

stick to their plan until

10:14

they get typically 50 to 75%

10:17

of those units in . So in Irv's

10:19

case they originally they were going

10:21

to build a pool and they were going to do a pool house

10:24

and all of that type of stuff Never

10:26

got done because when the economy changed

10:28

they shut all that down . So

10:30

just because they're offering you all of these

10:32

beautiful amenities , if the

10:34

complex hasn't gotten to that point

10:37

yet , they're not required to give you squat

10:39

. They're just not .

10:41

Yeah , and I think people don't realize that if

10:43

there is a board or a management

10:46

team , the homeowners are the minority

10:48

in that , until a certain point the builder

10:50

actually has the most , or the developer

10:52

has the most seats at the table , so they

10:54

can operate at their own pace .

10:57

Yeah , I mean . Look when the economy shifted

10:59

last time you saw a lot of what

11:01

used to be single family homes get

11:04

turned into mixed use communities because

11:06

basically the money ran out . Nobody

11:08

could afford to buy $400,000 properties

11:11

, so they switched them over to townhouses

11:13

and condos and started going that direction

11:15

. And that affects value , whether anybody

11:18

likes it or not .

11:19

It does . Now , the thing that the big red

11:21

flag that hoisted when you first started talking

11:23

was no home inspection , and

11:26

I got to say what was your thought process there

11:28

?

11:30

I'm an idiot and I believed her .

11:33

That's not why I asked you that .

11:35

And even my father , because she point

11:37

blank told me that

11:39

we were getting a home warranty and

11:41

at the time home warranties had really just started

11:44

taking off and maybe

11:46

she truly believed that . I don't think she was deliberately

11:48

lying , I just think she didn't , as I

11:50

found out later , know her ass from a hole in the

11:52

ground quite honestly , and

11:54

she was like well , you don't need a home inspection , you're

11:57

getting a home warranty That'll cover your electrical and

11:59

all your other stuff . And come to find out

12:01

it didn't cover squat and it was

12:03

just a nightmare .

12:09

No , those things are not everything that they're crafted or cut out or they're sold to us as

12:11

and usually when I talk to people in the service industries that are repair people , plumbers , electricians

12:13

there's a reason that there are certain people

12:15

that are available to work for those companies . They pay

12:18

the lowest amount , so it's a company that

12:20

needs the business and isn't necessarily

12:22

the cream of the crop at that particular

12:25

task . They may be good . I've had

12:27

some good people come out when I've had those , but

12:29

I've also had a lot of bad people .

12:32

No , I agree , and I honest to God , I don't

12:34

even recommend them . Now , if I'm working

12:36

with a buyer and a seller wants to throw

12:38

one in , hey , that's fine , throw it in there , it

12:40

might end up being worth your while . But

12:48

fine , throw it in there , it might end up being worth your while . But nine out of 10 times it's been my experience that they fight . You know fixing much

12:50

of anything and they will nickel and dime and nickel and dime . You know

12:52

to fix something and do everything in their power to have to replace

12:55

it . That's just how I feel about it . I've always been

12:57

honest about it .

12:58

Yeah , and I think the lesson that you learned and

13:00

unfortunately there are a lot of people that were doing that during

13:03

COVID and houses in a hot market

13:05

would say if somebody came along

13:07

and was willing to take no inspection , they were going to win

13:09

over anybody else in that bidding

13:12

war or process . But the

13:14

reality is the home inspection is really your

13:16

last chance and best chance

13:18

to get as much information about

13:20

that house . That means finding a good inspector too

13:22

, but a lot of people want the cheapest inspection

13:24

. They feel like if somebody just comes through and says

13:27

, yeah , that plug socket's not working or

13:29

that light is a little dim in the dining room

13:31

, that they're getting an inspection . They need

13:33

to have somebody look at the roof If there's a chimney

13:36

, look at the foundation , look for termites

13:38

, look for carpenter ants . I mean there's so many things

13:41

that if it gets passed on to you you're

13:43

really screwed as a home buyer .

13:45

Yeah , and I think a lot of times what happens

13:47

is you get in certain organizations

13:49

to where they're all mixed together

13:52

. So in other words , the agent you

13:54

know uses the company home inspector or

13:56

the company termite guy , the company this . I

13:58

think as homeowners you

14:01

have to ask those questions and make sure that

14:03

that home inspector didn't

14:05

just take a class online and

14:07

a few months later is a home

14:09

inspector . I want somebody , whether

14:11

we like it or not . I want somebody that's got a background

14:13

in construction . Give me the old , grizzled

14:16

guy that has been in that industry

14:18

for 30 years , right , wrong or otherwise . I

14:20

want somebody that can show me

14:22

some serious qualifications and experience

14:25

and unfortunately you're going to pay

14:27

more for that and it's worth it always .

14:29

Oh , absolutely , and you know , as

14:32

we talk about , in a documentary film

14:34

I have coming out soon , called Built to Last

14:36

, buyer Beware , we have a guy whose

14:38

house was damaged by Hurricane Sandy

14:40

in 2012

14:42

, and it took him seven years to get back in his house

14:44

and he talks about

14:47

all the things that can go wrong in

14:49

the process , and one of the main points he makes

14:51

is it's a lot more expensive to be

14:54

proactive and fix things before

14:56

they're bad than to try to

14:58

repair them after the problem occurs

15:00

. That if you can get ahead of things as a homeowner

15:02

, you're going to be much better off .

15:04

No , I agree , that's the beauty of the home inspection , because

15:06

it's basically giving you a built-in list

15:08

of , most of the time , little

15:10

nickel and dime things that you need to do . And

15:12

the best thing you can do is start on

15:14

that list right away , especially

15:17

if it's stuff that you yourself can do , run

15:19

to Lowe's and change out an outlet

15:21

here or there , and obviously , if you can't , then

15:23

you can find people to do that Because

15:26

, again , it's going to be smaller items and you can

15:28

just kind of work your way through the list . Not

15:30

all of us are blessed to be able to turn a wrench

15:32

, but we can hopefully find somebody

15:34

else that can do it for us at a reasonable price

15:36

.

15:37

Yeah , I can hand you a wrench . I

15:39

think I can do that pretty well .

15:41

Trust me , I'm the same way I'm actually

15:43

, believe it or not a former class A contractor

15:46

, which means I know how to open a book , but don't

15:48

ask me to fix it . I can tell you what's wrong with it

15:50

, but I can't fix it and I'm not going to pretend

15:52

that I can .

15:53

Yeah , and I don't think anybody should mess around with electrical unless

15:56

they really know what they're doing . No , no

15:58

, a lot of .

16:00

We had major problems with . Electrical Flooring

16:02

was off , Windows wouldn't open

16:04

, Windows wouldn't close . It

16:13

was , I mean , it was by the time I moved out we still had repair work to do and we had probably

16:15

spent 40 or 50 grand by that point , easily over

16:17

the different over the years , being able to do

16:19

different things .

16:21

Now another thing I think people don't realize okay , you

16:23

got in that situation where you were

16:25

. If you're playing hot potato

16:27

and the potato landed on you and you got all the bad

16:29

stuff with this house , how much of that

16:31

do you have to tell the person who buys it ? I mean

16:33

, if , obviously , if there's a record

16:35

of people that have come out and worked on it and there's permits

16:38

and all these things , how difficult is it

16:40

to then sell a house like that ?

16:42

Realistically . I know in the state of Virginia you've

16:45

only got to point out material defects

16:47

and that does not count . Things like plumbing

16:49

and electrical . Typically it's going to be structural

16:51

issues and things of that nature . So the

16:54

fact that somewhere along the way I had to have the

16:56

electrical updated doesn't need

16:58

to be mentioned . I can simply , if anything

17:00

, I'm going to use it as a plus and say , hey , look , the electricity has been updated . But and

17:02

simply , if anything , I'm going to use it as a plus and say , hey , look , the electricity has been

17:04

updated , but nine out of 10 times . I don't have to disclose

17:06

that and whether we like it or not , it

17:09

is always buyer . Beware it . Just , unfortunately

17:11

it is . It's always going to be that way . I think too

17:13

.

17:14

Yeah , which makes it even more important that a buyer be

17:17

armed with as much information as

17:19

possible so they make a good

17:21

decision . And another thing I think buyers

17:23

don't always think about if you

17:25

like something but you're really not planning on being

17:28

in the house very long , it's

17:30

a bridge house for you . Possibly you're

17:32

almost safer going with things not just what

17:34

you like , but what a lot of people like

17:36

. We tried flipping

17:38

a house once and it didn't have a garage , and

17:41

we found out afterwards you weren't even allowed to put a carport

17:44

in . Well , what did that do ? That eliminated

17:46

anybody that had a nice car from wanting to buy

17:48

that house because of hail

17:50

, potential damage and being out

17:53

in the elements . So you want to make more

17:55

money selling the house , but the people who have the nice

17:57

cars that might buy that house don't

17:59

want it because it doesn't have the carport or

18:02

the garage . So you really have to think

18:04

ahead , don't you ? In a lot of different ways

18:06

.

18:07

I think so , and I think you also have to remember

18:09

is that you know

18:11

a lot of agents like

18:13

to say that there's always a good time to buy a house . That's

18:15

not necessarily the case . Sometimes

18:18

it's just not the right time . You have to be in a

18:20

right emotional space for it . You

18:22

have to know that . You

18:25

know I'm going to stay in this house . This is a

18:27

major purchase and you're only really going to make

18:29

three or four of them entire your entire life

18:31

. And

18:41

I'll give you an example . Prior to buying that house , my wife and I were living in a townhouse and

18:43

we had custody of our younger half brothers , and they were 14 . So they were in high school

18:45

. Well , realistically , we only had a couple . By the time we bought that house , the boys were only going

18:47

to be in school for another year and a half . If

18:49

we had been smart , we could have stayed

18:51

in that townhouse as a rental for

18:53

another year and a half and we wouldn't have needed

18:56

the four bedroom , two bath , and we

18:58

would have been able to think about what do we

19:00

want to do ? I mean , I wasn't

19:02

in a position where I wanted to cut

19:04

grass every weekend and deal with all of this stuff

19:06

. So maybe if we'd have been smart

19:08

and waited , then we could have said

19:11

, okay , well , let's just go buy a townhouse or a

19:13

condo where all of that maintenance is done

19:15

and we don't have to deal with it . I don't have an

19:17

answer for that , but as I look back

19:19

on it , we should have . We should have

19:21

. Just we should have waited , because then there

19:23

was , we could have bought something a little bit smaller

19:25

or maybe something in a nicer neighborhood and

19:28

not had to worry about being in that exact

19:30

school system for the kids . Our whole

19:32

trajectory would have changed .

19:35

Yeah , generally to the by the um

19:37

, the boils that you see in a house anytime

19:40

for me , like if there hasn't been enough closet space

19:42

or the driveway was too

19:45

steep or you couldn't

19:47

do certain things when people would come look

19:49

at that house when we were selling it . That was the first thing they

19:51

noticed in the report when they would tell the agent as feedback

19:53

Now there wasn't enough closet space or

19:56

that driveway is too steep for me to get my portion

19:58

, or whatever . If you can think about

20:00

it as being a problem , it's not going to be a secret

20:03

to most people . They're going to know about it .

20:05

No , and

20:08

like oh , here's a big one I'm dealing with a lot because I sell a lot in older neighborhoods

20:10

, no primary bathroom . So it's

20:12

basically you're going to . You have your

20:15

, your quote unquote three bedroom or four

20:17

bedroom and two full baths , but

20:19

it's not attached . And

20:24

for a lot of people that doesn't work and I don't blame them and

20:26

I'm always like why are you going to spend $400,000 where you got

20:28

to put a robe on , to go out to your own bathroom to

20:31

get a shower and all of that ? I'm sorry . There's something

20:33

about being a grownup that I like to be able to , to

20:36

walk right into my bathroom from my bedroom

20:38

and not have to worry about if the kids

20:40

are coming around or , you

20:42

know , if I've got family staying

20:44

over or whatever the case , that makes a big

20:46

difference , and in older homes they didn't

20:48

exist , so it's a problem .

20:51

So what do you think it is about

20:53

us people in general that makes us make

20:55

such horrible decisions on a regular basis

20:57

?

20:59

I think , because the people that are helping us make

21:01

those decisions and I'm going to include

21:03

my own industry a lot of times

21:06

don't actually know what they're talking

21:08

about , got into the business for the

21:10

wrong reasons and , let's be honest , we

21:12

don't do enough research . As a home

21:14

buyer , I mean , I literally

21:16

pointed my finger

21:19

in the yellow pages which tells you how long ago

21:21

this was and called the first

21:23

agent that I saw and talked

21:25

to her . What I should have done

21:27

was reached out to my friends and family

21:29

and interviewed several agents and

21:31

folks that get up . That's

21:34

why , for me , I value personal

21:36

referral over anything . By all

21:38

means , those are the people that I want to call

21:40

me because I have a track record . That's

21:42

what I should have done . I literally , just on

21:44

a whim , was like hey , I'm going to call

21:46

this person . The other thing is we

21:48

only looked at one other house because we

21:50

needed four bedroom , two bath . I was impatient

21:53

and I walked

21:55

in the house , looked around and said , yeah , it'll do

21:57

. And that was the extent of the conversation

21:59

, and that agent probably should have smacked me upside

22:01

the head and said dude , what are you doing ? You

22:04

know , let's not think about the short-term income

22:06

. Think about the fact that if

22:08

she had done her job properly , then

22:11

she would have had a fan and would have had

22:13

a client for life . Now , granted , I eventually got

22:15

my own license and moved on , but

22:17

if I hadn't I would

22:20

. She would have been my guy till

22:22

doomsday , and I think

22:24

a lot of agents drop the ball on that . They do the short-term

22:26

thinking and it doesn't work .

22:28

I wonder how many people said yellow pages .

22:32

Yeah , I know Almost 52 . I get it , trust

22:34

me .

22:35

Yeah , I mean , that's not really a great way to find

22:37

. If you think about it , the best way is

22:39

to know . A lot of times it's

22:41

annoying when you get all those flyers from realtors

22:43

in your neighborhood , but at least you know who's around

22:45

there selling houses and it's a good place to

22:47

start just to ask questions

22:49

. But even on them , I would you know . I

22:52

did that one time where we hired what we call the

22:54

big heavyweight realtor and our

22:56

house wasn't significant enough to garner

22:58

enough of her attention . So sometimes

23:01

that person isn't the right person either . You really

23:03

have to see who they're selling houses

23:05

for and then ask those people how happy they

23:07

are .

23:12

Yeah , and you've got to interview and you've got to be willing to . Again , they should be willing to give

23:14

you a list of people that they've worked with To this day . If I walk into a listing

23:17

appointment and they don't know who I am , then

23:19

I'm going to hand them my phone and go okay , call

23:21

, Pick anybody you want , call them at random

23:24

and we're going to tell you what's up

23:26

. And

23:33

you , with the big power teams , you do have to be careful because a

23:35

lot of times you're not actually going to get the guy that runs the team

23:37

. I know when I was on a power team years ago , you weren't going to get him

23:39

to leave his office . It wasn't going to happen

23:41

. He

23:45

was going to send me or one of the other lackeys to go actually do the listing appointment and talk

23:47

about all the great things we can do . You have to interview and you have to make sure that you're

23:49

comfortable with that person . It's not about

23:51

the buzz or the marketing

23:53

or all the rest of it . It's about the human being

23:55

sitting across from you . Quite honestly , if you feel

23:57

icky , walk away . There's probably

24:00

a reason you feel that way .

24:01

Yeah , and definitely ask and say

24:03

who's going to be taking care of me , who's

24:05

the person that will be working on my house ? I know it's

24:08

like that with those billboard lawyers , the

24:10

accident lawyers , the ones that are on TV . That's

24:14

not usually the one you're going to get , unless you're in a major accident and it's a high

24:16

profile case .

24:18

No , you're going to get the other lawyers and everything else . And

24:20

we , I think we have a tendency

24:22

we want to be nice , so we

24:24

don't ask the hard questions . And

24:26

I think you absolutely have to

24:28

ask the hard questions and if your

24:30

agent can't answer them , then

24:32

kindly escort them to the door

24:34

and find somebody else . And to

24:37

me , I personally I have no problems with

24:39

that Ask me the hard questions . I mean , there's

24:42

absolutely nothing wrong with that , it's important .

24:44

Yeah , I want you to see how big a pain in the ass I'm going

24:46

to be before we start working together .

24:48

And that works both ways , because sometimes

24:50

, as an agent , you don't want to work with

24:52

certain people because , even

24:54

if they're not necessarily a pain , maybe they're

24:56

just not everybody's a fit . It's

24:59

like anything else in this world . If you're , if

25:01

they're going to constantly second guess what you're

25:03

trying to do , or they got

25:05

their own drama in their own life , it may

25:07

be like you know what , mr Seller , why

25:10

don't you go ahead and hire somebody else ? Because this

25:12

isn't going to work , and there's nothing wrong with that . Sometimes

25:14

people just don't work .

25:16

Absolutely . That's great advice . Now , in addition

25:19

to being a real estate agent , you're also a motivational speaker

25:21

. Yes , sir , what's

25:23

the speech about ?

25:25

Well , quite honestly , that started after

25:27

the two heart attacks and the bypass in 2018

25:30

. As I was moving my

25:32

way back up into real estate , I kind of wanted

25:34

to give back to the real estate world and

25:37

mentor and teach some younger agents on how

25:39

to do things as far as I'm concerned

25:41

, the right way and it kind of snowballed

25:43

from there . Basically , what I talk

25:46

about a lot of is persistent

25:48

progress and self-checks , and

25:50

, with the young people , I talk about

25:52

working in the dark because there's so much negativity

25:54

. You don't have to tell everybody your business

25:56

. Just keep it to yourself

25:59

, do what you're trying to do and

26:01

then , when it's ready to come out full bore

26:03

, come out with it . I can remember

26:05

even working as a chemist

26:07

. When I went full time from chemist to real estate

26:10

in 2007 , everybody told

26:12

me I was insane . I had so many

26:14

people that are like well , you've got a steady job

26:16

, you make good money . This is a terrible idea

26:18

. You're never going to make any money in real estate . Why

26:20

are you doing this ? There's a recession , I

26:23

mean , there's so much negativity . Hell

26:25

. When I left the grocery business to

26:27

go work in the chemistry industry , I

26:29

literally had people doing the same thing in

26:32

99 . They were

26:34

just like , well , we were going to make you a grocery manager

26:36

. And I'm like , ooh , you know what would he do

26:38

? You know you're never going to get any better than

26:40

working produce at the Harris Teeter . People

26:43

are always trying to tear you down and tell

26:45

you that you're not going to do any better . So

26:48

for me , I found the best way

26:50

to combat that is I don't tell anybody

26:52

squat other than my little circle , and

26:55

I'm going to make my little moves and then , when I'm ready

26:57

to bust out , I'm going to bust out because I

27:00

just I don't want to hear the negativity , because I'm smart

27:03

enough to know that it will affect me , and the best way

27:05

to keep it away is to just not tell anybody

27:07

.

27:09

Yeah , no , that's . That sounds

27:11

like great advice . Now , how do you feel about the the

27:13

commission rules changing for realtors ?

27:16

It means absolutely nothing . All of that

27:18

means is the paperwork's a little different

27:20

, but it's always the same , whether

27:23

anybody likes it or not . The whole point of

27:25

the buyer's agents when they came

27:27

in in the 1990s

27:30

was to incentivize the buyer's

27:32

agents to bring me the deal . So we've

27:34

always quote , unquote , call it

27:36

what you want . You can't say split the commission , but

27:38

the fact of the matter is if I'm getting a 5%

27:41

commission , I'm going to give half

27:43

of that to the buyer's agent . That's

27:45

not really changing . It's not affecting

27:48

price points in any way , shape or form . It's

27:50

simply moving the number to the other

27:52

side of the paragraph . That's all

27:55

it's doing . I know that it

27:57

makes for great clickbait . I know I

27:59

have already responded to this a

28:01

few times on several organizations

28:04

and news media and again

28:06

, it means absolutely nothing . At the

28:08

end of the day , 99 out

28:10

of 100 times I think it's a great idea

28:12

to have a real estate agent , one

28:14

that you can trust and rely on , the exception

28:17

to that rule being sometimes

28:19

it is better to do it yourself

28:21

. If you're in a situation where

28:23

it's an investment property or grandma

28:26

and grandpa die and you don't want to clean the house

28:29

out , sometimes the best

28:31

deal isn't the highest price deal . It all comes

28:33

down to emotional capital and what

28:35

your needs are , and I think agents

28:37

get mad about that and my attitude is

28:40

always the same . You know what ? I can go to State Farm

28:42

to get my insurance , or I can call

28:44

the general . I'm not going to get that level of service

28:47

, but it's going to be cheaper and sometimes

28:49

that's all you need and there's absolutely nothing

28:51

wrong with that . There are many ways to do that

28:53

and I've never begrudged

28:55

anybody that doesn't necessarily

28:57

get a real estate agent . We all have

28:59

to do what's best for us .

29:01

What is my Wu rant

29:03

? Real estate rant .

29:06

That is my Wu Tang real estate

29:08

rant I do on every Friday , which

29:10

is basically my minute and a half to

29:12

two minutes complaints and or

29:14

bitches about other real estate

29:17

agents and some of the stupidity

29:19

and stuff that goes on in the

29:22

market . And it could be either , you

29:24

know , if your agent's telling you this , they're

29:26

wrong , this is what you need to do , or it could

29:29

be about I had a recent one

29:31

, you know , dealing with oil tanks where we had a

29:33

oil tank that was not properly

29:35

taken care of and they

29:37

just , you know , on the home inspection , you

29:40

know , the home inspector discovered that the oil

29:42

tank wasn't secure , there was a bunch

29:44

of oil that had ran out and , of course , that had contaminated

29:46

the ground and had to be taken care

29:48

of . So it's a lot of stuff like

29:51

that . It's just basically my again . It's

29:53

just Bob being Bob and ranting and raving

29:55

, which I've been known to do over the years . I

29:57

get myself in trouble all the time with the

29:59

Facebook real estate groups and stuff because

30:01

unfortunately I don't . You

30:03

know I'm not going to do the tried and true and

30:06

I'm going to do what I'm going to do , whether you like it or you don't .

30:08

Good for you . So what would be your final piece of advice

30:11

for anybody that's going out there

30:13

thinking about buying a house ? What's

30:15

the main thought process they should have with this

30:17

?

30:18

Get referrals , get referrals , get referrals

30:20

and ask a thousand questions and don't be

30:22

afraid to . This is one of whether we like

30:24

it or not . You're only going to do this three or four times

30:27

in your lifetime . So make sure

30:29

it is the right move and make

30:31

sure that you are comfortable with your agent and

30:33

you trust that they know what they're talking

30:35

about . And there are multiple ways to check that

30:37

. How many deals have they done ? Are

30:40

they being honest with you ? Let's be honest

30:42

If they're coming across like a salesman , you

30:44

need to fire them immediately . If they

30:46

have no interest in a long-term relationship

30:49

with you , you should go

30:51

into every I always go in with

30:53

. I want to be that person's guy for

30:55

my life . I want them . Hey , you need a real estate

30:57

guy Call Bob . That's

31:00

the type of attitude they should always have

31:02

, and you should be able to go through their

31:04

list of buyers and sellers and , at random

31:06

, call that individual and say

31:08

, hey , you worked with Bob three years ago . He

31:10

did this and this . What do you think ? And

31:13

that'll tell you everything you need to know , whether

31:15

we like it or not . That is the best

31:17

advice I can possibly give . Word

31:19

of mouth is everything .

31:22

Well listen , bob . Your contact information links

31:24

will all be in the show notes . Thanks

31:26

for coming on and sharing your story today . I really appreciate

31:28

it .

31:29

Not a problem , If anybody needs anything . I'm old

31:32

so I still answer the phone . Send me an email

31:34

, send me a text . I'll answer the phone , Even

31:37

if it's just to give a minute and a half worth of real

31:39

estate advice or whatever . I still

31:41

have friends of mine that will send their cousins

31:43

, uncles , brother , to me in another state just

31:45

to ask a quick question or even

31:48

review the contract . Obviously , I

31:50

can't review a California contract and give you

31:52

every detail , but I can still read it enough to know

31:54

. Okay , well , that's a little funky , and

31:56

this is why . So , by all means

31:59

, they should always be able to ask these questions .

32:01

All right , thanks , bob .

32:03

Thanks .

32:04

I know a lot of you have stories that have happened

32:06

to you and I'd love for you to share them here

32:08

. There's a contact form in the show

32:10

notes . Send it my way and

32:12

I'll have you on an upcoming episode . Thanks

32:15

for taking the time to listen today . I'll

32:18

see you next time .