Buying a home will likely be the largest purchase you make in your life and the process can be overwhelming. In this week’s episode we are talking to you, homebuyers, and we are ready to hold your hand through the full home buying process. You’ve got questions and, believe us, we have the answers. And this isn’t just basic boring process advice. We are going to tell you the rules of buying and why they matter to YOU! You will learn the order of events in purchasing a home and why the order is so crucial. After listening you will feel empowered to move forward on your home buying journey with excitement, not overwhelm! And to our normal audience of Realtor friends, we recorded this episode to be sharable with your buyers. Having everyone on the same page of how the process works will remove so much stress and confusion. Happy house hunting to all!

The following is a rough transcript provided by Otter.ai.

0:01
Can we please go see your house now? No. If you’re browsing online, don’t ever click here to schedule an appointment.

0:12
No. Yeah, and you as a buyer, maybe don’t want to deal with that. You just say I already have an agent.

0:19
Yeah, it’s Katie. Yeah, okay. I don’t like you. I don’t want you to buy my house.

0:28
Don’t make your very good agent go and buy $15,000 worth of online leads to tell your friends.

0:36
Hi, y’all. Welcome to hustle humbly. It’s Alyssa and Katie. And we are two top producing realtors in the Baton Rouge market.

0:42
We work for two different companies where we should be competitors. But we have chosen community over competition.

0:47
The goal of our podcasts is to encourage you to find your own way in business to stop comparing yourself and start embracing your strengths.

0:54
Hi, Alyssa. Hey, Katie. How are you doing today? It’s episode 181. How do you buy a

1:03
house? And this is going to be a really fun episode. Oh, because we’re not necessarily talking to the realtors out there.

1:10
So I did think what we should start with is our normal audience is realtors. Our hopes and dreams for this episode are that they will demystify some of the home buying process for consumers. Yeah, okay, and maybe help answer some common myths and give them the process. And so we’re hoping our real estate agent listeners are going to then share the podcast episode with their buyers, right? If you’re

1:35
a buyer, right, and you are listening to this episode, you have a very wise realtor yet already, because they’re already ahead of the game at one chatting you some resources to make sure you understand what is going on. What are we going to do? How does this even happen? Right?

1:53
So do you want to give just a really super quick bio on yourself for a consumer who maybe has never listened to the show? Like who are you and why should they listen to what you have to say about buying a home? Sure. I know I didn’t prepare you at all.

2:08
My name is Alyssa Jenkins. I am in the Baton Rouge Louisiana market. Okay. And I have been in real estate since 2011. Okay. And definitely this year 2022 is my first year that I had more sellers than buyers. So you said yes. You very buyer heavy for 10. You basically you sold to buyers? Hundreds of homes. Hundreds of hundreds of homes. Yes. Okay.

2:34
My name is Katie Caldwell. I have been in real estate in Baton Rouge, Louisiana since 2005. Wow. Also have sold hundreds of homes to buyers. Right. I feel like we have a solid footing to stand on here. Yeah. So. And I’ve seen all the markets. I’ve seen the crazy bust. You know, in 2000 789. I’ve seen the crazy highs. I’ve seen level markets there. It’s always either a buyer or seller’s market. And I don’t know that we’ll even get into that. But I’ve seen them. All right, so we have a good basis of our knowledge. Sure the process doesn’t change.

3:12
That’s what I was just about to say. It doesn’t really matter what market you’re in what you have to do as a buyer. And as a buyer’s agent stays the same,

3:22
right? Okay. Now, if you’re tuning in, and you’re a buyer, who’s also having to sell a home, the only previous episode we’ve ever recorded in the same vein, where we’re talking to the customer consumer, is Episode 65, how to buy and sell at the same time.

3:42
That’s a super helpful episode.

3:43
It’s very nuanced. So even if you obviously if you already own a home, you bought it. So you’ve done this before, I still think let’s listen to this one where we’re at reminders on how to buy and then go back and hit that episode 65 how to buy and sell at the same time because there’s so much nuance to that situation. Yes, it’s a little bit more complicated. Right, right. And then coming soon,

4:09
we’ll do a how to sell. Great.

4:11
So all our bases will be covered. That’ll be perfect. Just a delight. Okay, where do you want to start?

4:18
I feel like the times that buyers first reach out. They’re very excited to quickly start looking at homes. Right. That’s the fun part. Yeah, sometimes it starts off with them sending me links to houses or, you know, I didn’t even know they were looking and they have this list

4:38
already. Right? Because we know consumers. You’re already on a website. Yeah, it’s and that’s good. That’s fine. It’s perfect. It’s good

4:46
to start browsing online and learning what you can get in your price point. Yes, but until you actually know your price point we cannot really do anything.

4:57
So what do you call that when you meet with your New buyer and you go to the budget meetings this budget the budget meeting, so you need to know your budget budget

5:06
is truly step one. Before you get too deep, yeah, into the process for sure. I had a buyer recently that was sending me homes between like 275 and 325. Okay. And I thought and she had not been pre approved yet. But she was like, hey, Alyssa, I think I want to get started. These are some houses that caught my eye. Can we go see them? Yeah. I said, well, first, we have to really have a budget meeting. And the reason this is important, if you really think about it as the public, we are opening the doors to people’s houses, yes. Where they live. Yes. And we have the key, right, and the alarm code, so their private space, their private space, right? As realtors that they invested

5:48
a lot of money in, yes, and all of their belongings are there.

5:52
And as Realtors as professionals, it’s our job to make sure that every person that enters somebody else’s home has been vetted, right. That’s why this is important. We don’t try to get you to the budget meeting. To trick it’s not a trend on a tour. It’s not to pressure you. And the first lender that you talk to if you don’t jive with them that the budget meeting and getting pre approved does not commit you to anything. Oh, but we have to at least vet everybody so that we as buyer’s agents can tell the sellers, right, hey, this person who I am bringing into your home has been vetted. Right? So as a profession, it’s just important that we do our due diligence. Yeah. So back to my the girl who was sending me 275 to 325. When we went to the pre approval, she had good income, but she had some student loans that were more than she was really thinking would affect her. And her Max budget was 220. So it wasn’t anywhere where she was looking. No. And she was surprised and disappointed. I kind of had to regroup. Yeah, and we still were able to find something. But it was just she was surprised. Good thing, we didn’t jump into opening doors and looking right, because

7:12
you can’t just go to a mortgage calculator online and see what the payment is. And be like, I like this, there’s so much more to the process of being pre approved, they have to look at your income and your debt and your credit,

7:27
all of these type of job do you have? How do you get paid?

7:30
Are you self employed? Has it only been for six months? Well, that’s gonna be a pro like,

7:34
right? There’s different things.

7:36
Okay, you’re out. So the very first thing when I get a new buyer lead, or someone asking me about buying, I give them my steps, right. And the very first step on the list is call your realtor. Obviously at that point, they’ve already talked to me. But if this list were to get out to the random public Sure, step one, call your realtor. This is also not a trick. I’m not trying to just catch all the buyers. But it is important that your Realtor can help you find the right lender. Yes. And you can’t just go to XYZ mortgage online or your big national bank and get the same information and service that you would from a local lender that your realtor who you trust has referred you to correct or a group of I have more than one lender on my list. I’m not forcing all of my buyers to go to one. But they need to know there is a difference. Yes, that’s what the public is not aware of.

8:30
So the times that I have had, it’s usually either older adults, okay, who think you go to the bank? That’s where my money is. That’s what Yeah, I need to get money. So I’m going to the bank for a home loan. Or it’s like a younger buyer whose parents said, go to the bank. Yeah. And usually what I do at that point, especially if someone comes to me already pre approved, yeah, and I know and I know who the lender is, or maybe I don’t know who the lender is, the first thing I always do is say, Look, we need to get what’s called a fees worksheet. Okay? What the public doesn’t always realize is that it’s not always just about the interest rate, right? What one lender can offer you, any lender can offer you, right? The government dictates what the interest rate is, right? And then different lenders have different buyer credits or ways that they can adjust the interest rate, right. So there’s two things as a buyer, when you’re trying to figure out budget that you need to look at with your lender, not only the interest rate, that’s number one, but number two is the closing cost, right? So when you buy a house, you have to have two sums of money. Right? Your downpayment, yep. Unless you’re doing like a 0% finding, downpayment program, okay? And then your closing cost, right? And closing costs are a substantial amount of money, right? Do you

9:58
have like a standard Like, do you say, Okay plan for 3% or plan for two Brasilia two and a half to 3%? Just to be safe, right? But the lender can tell you almost to the penny, right? Even from the beginning, regard like, you know, oh, you buy a house for 325. This is what your closing costs are gonna be.

10:16
I can remember when my friend’s dad came to me with a pre approval letter from his bank, okay. And I was very intimidated to question him, because, you know, he used to feed me macaroni, right? You’re like, oh, now I’m trying to help him buy a house right all these years later, but I really did know that he needed to shop it. So I asked him for to get his lender to send him a copy of the fees worksheet, okay, I said, you may not understand how to read it, but I do, right. And I’ll just shop it for you. Okay, at which point, you can take the fees worksheet and send it to your local lender of choice or two of them, and say, Hey, I have a buyer pre approved. And you know, what I love about my local lender, I have had situations where she said, Hey, I just want to let you know, this is a really, I can’t do better than that this is a good deal, he must have a very special relationship at this bank or doing some type of private financing that I can’t match. Okay? So make sure that you’re sending it to someone that will give you an honest opinion. They’re not just going to make up numbers to get a contract, right? And all of this keep in mind, I am doing as the realtor, yeah, I’m helping you shop, I’m helping you figure out what the numbers is, where are you should go who you should talk to right? I do advise making a decision on which lender you’re going to use before you start house hunting,

11:42
right? Because that process starts to get kind of fast paced. Yes. And you need to be able to get a pre approval letter to that specific property and price range. Like quickly

11:51
as a listing agent, nothing makes me more nervous than when I get an offer with a pre approval letter from one lender. And then a few days later, they say, hey, just want to let you know, the buyer has decided to go with a different lender, right? Because red flags all over you know, it makes nobody feel safe. Right? So it’s always good to decide who you’re using and know your numbers before you step foot in the house, for sure.

12:15
My local lender is great. And that’s why I’ve stuck with her so strongly, for the most part, she requires the documents to do a pre approval, you have to have the list, you can go on to whatever Rocket Mortgage online or something of that effect and put in general information and it’ll shoot you out a pre approval, right? Well, that’s not like you have to get all the questions answered. And even that, you know, big online company is going to actually get to the nitty gritty of all your details at some point. But they’re just, you know, the baseline quick online application is not enough. And in case you’re

12:55
wondering why this is such a big deal. On our end as well, it kind of goes back to making sure everybody is vetted. On a pre approval letter on a good solid pre approval letter, it will say all documents and assets and debts have been reviewed, or have not as a listing agent, if I get a pre approval letter that does not say credit has been checked and documents have been reviewed. I advise my seller that we need to get some more information. Yeah, before we proceed with accepting or countering anything. Yeah. So as a buyer, if you love a house, you need to make sure that you have all your ducks in a row. And everything is done so that the lender can issue a solid pre approval letter with your offer, because it’s only going to help your buying power.

13:44
Right. When is it too early to get pre approved for your mortgage?

13:49
Depending on what your situation is. I don’t think the conversation with a lender could necessarily be too soon. And my answer to this question was never Yeah, never to sever too early. Let’s

14:02
just say you want to move in a year. I mean, most people maybe you’re not sometimes they’re that far out. Yeah. You unless you’re like really aggressively following your credit. There may be things on there you just don’t know about. There may be situations with things like a student loan or a medical collection or something that maybe your lender is gonna say don’t pay this or do pay this or hey, if you get your credit cards down to a 30% balance, your credit score is going to shoot up 50 points. They

14:34
know the tricks as to getting the credit score at the highest peak possible they

14:39
can tell you exactly what to do and what to pay to get a rescore at a different number.

14:44
So the the higher the credit score, the better interest rate they can give you Yeah,

14:49
or the it’s going to also depend on your loan program. Here’s the other thing. Don’t just check your credit score and say oh no, it’s x. That means I can’t buy that’s not True. No, you need the lender to tell you Okay, well, this loan program goes down to this credit score, this loan program goes down to this credit score. If you get up up to this number, then your interest rate is going to go down. It all of those things come into play. Yeah. Okay, so I don’t think there’s ever a too early, I think they’re gonna give you especially if you’re, you’re you’re a year out. And there are some small things you can do or things that take time to impact your credit do that. Now,

15:27
I had a buyer recently that told me she was graduating from nursing school six months. And she said, I know it’s too early. She said, she said, but I know that I’ll want my monthly note to be around 1500 a month. Okay. So I just shot my lender email saying, hey, if someone had 5% to put down and one of their monthly note, what if they wanted to just start browsing? Ballpark, and she just sent me a range, ya know, like, Hey, stay looking around here based on what you’ve told me. And I told her look, just this is where you because you don’t want to be looking at 300. If you’re to Hunter, no, no. So she just wanted to start browsing. And then as she gets closer to graduation, and is ready to start house hunting, we will check credit get document exact

16:10
Yeah, for sure window. The other thing I would advise you as you look online, and like Like your other buyer who picked their own price range. Yeah. Once you know your budget, once you have been given a pre approval amount, don’t be tempted to start looking at 10,000 More 25,000 More, I don’t care what price range my buyers approved, for. They always wish they could just be $50,000. They could be 800, that’s fine when they spend 850. Yeah, they could be literally $100,000. Well, if I could only get 150, they could be 300, that if I could only get to 350. Never,

16:50
never, never enough to be there’s nothing perfect out there.

16:54
That’s not going to help you. When you go to actually look at homes, you’re like, Well, I know, unless you’re gonna wait and save more money.

17:01
So whenever you get pre approved, there are many situations where they will actually lend you a lot more than you feel comfortable with your monthly payment. I had a buyer come to me recently and say, Hey, I’m pre approved for 400,000 with so and so bank and I thought okay, did you feel comfortable with that monthly note? Oh, why didn’t even ask what I don’t even know what the monthly note is. I said, Well, that’s important right now. So he went back to the lender and was like, Oh my gosh, like no way. No way. Would I ever feel comfortable at a 400 buckling. No, that’s a great said I love to travel. I

17:37
don’t want I just don’t want my mortgage. Yeah. I said, Well, when he

17:41
ran numbers for it, he said, Well, then I said, What do I need to make my monthly note this? He said, well, then you really don’t want to go over 310. Okay, so we know he said, but honestly, 275 would be my comfortable spot. If it was the best house that I just loved. I could do three, two, okay. So when you are looking at those monthly note numbers, you need to ask the lender to push it to your point of comfort and say stop. Yeah, this is our stopping point. We are not looking over right, this is it?

18:15
Yeah. Okay. The other thing I think your pre approval is going to tell you is what is your downpayment need to be? It’s not 20%? No, but that is a common misconception in the in the public is that you have to have 20% down. So let’s do a very quick, we’re not trying to make this whole episode about loans. But this is the most important part of the process that you have to do before you can do anything else yet. Unless you’re paying cash, which kudos to you, then you can skip this part

18:43
of the show. And if you are paying cash, you have to have a proof of funds letter to make an offer

18:47
and the money already in the bank. That’s settlement check coming soon. Yes. Okay. So here are your basic loan types. And again, I am not a lender and I’m not giving you financial advice. Okay, conventional, so this is your run of the mill regular loan, you could get a down payment as low as 3%. Okay, typically between three and 5% is the low end for conventional loan. How do you find those rates typically fall slightly above the FHA are a little higher. So then you have your governmental loans, which are FHA 96.5% as the loan percentage, so you’re putting down three and a half percent. So if the house

19:25
is $100,000, right, you’re putting down $3,500. Thank

19:29
you for that. Okay, then your next two loans are 100%. No downpayment required great VA. So if you’re a veteran, or rd, so if you’re looking in a rural area, which in our market, besides within the city limits of Baton Rouge, everything is considered Rural Development’s. So even some Baton Rouge addresses apply. So that’s a question again, for your lender and your agent like is this an option the local

19:55
lenders will know what your city has to offer? Because each It’s different depending on where why.

20:02
So here’s the other thing, you do not need the same credit score for each of these loans. They are different. Yeah, they’re all They’re different. So the down payments are different, the credit scores are different. The, like income limits are different the debt to income, which is basically saying, How much money do you make versus how much debt do you have? They’re all different. Okay. Is that good enough? Yeah, I don’t want to get deep into the weeds on that. But again, you’re choosing a realtor who can help you find a lender that will answer all these questions for you. And ultimately, your lender should be so good that they say, here’s the four types of loans that work for you. Here’s your difference. There should be options. You should never go to a lender that’s just automatically like, Oh, you’re this, here’s your number. That’s all there is like, what does that mean? That’s not true. Because even if you’re only eligible for FHA at X amount of down payment, they could also say, Well, if you want to save another $5,000, you’re eligible for conventional? Yeah, it was a different and that’s

21:00
why we’re I think it not being too soon is important. Yeah. Because they can tell you you, if you say this amount of money, then your monthly note will go down to this or you can just really set some savings goals. Yeah. And know what to pay off or not to pay off. And so it’s just about goal setting to make sure you’re right. I agree.

21:20
100%. Okay. Let’s, before we get back into the actual steps of the process, so we’ve gotten our pre approval, so we’re pre approved. Well, yeah, we all almost we’re going to back up one step. You selected a realtor? Yeah. Alyssa? How should you select your realtor to be your representative? What is the most important thing to consider? What is something you should consider when you select your realtor?

21:45
If I was looking for a realtor myself? Yes, it would be based off of reviews or referral. Okay, like I need someone to say this person helped me. And it went well. And it went well. And also making sure that they were full time. Yeah, I do not want somebody that has another job. Right? It would be very those would be my important things. That’s how I would find someone. Okay, what about you,

22:11
I made a note that the most important thing I would want to consider someone who had local market based knowledge. So it doesn’t matter if your realtor has been a realtor for six months or six years, if they are well versed in your market, if they have a good broker and a good support system. So let’s just say your sister just got her license, and you really want to throw her a bone and like give her your business but you’re a little nervous at the same time, all you need to verify is that they have a good broker and someone they can go to when they have questions. Because no one starts off knowing all the answers. Sure, but are they taking classes? Do they know about the local market? Do they help a more experienced agent do showings like how are they like,

22:55
how how’s the work ethic?

22:56
How much knowledge do they have about the market would be as a consumer what I wouldn’t want to know because as a consumer, I don’t know the right amount to offer. I don’t know what areas, you know, have multiple offers frequently, like I don’t know any of that. So I think market based knowledge is key. And that they have like a good kind of support system if they are newer. Yeah. So you don’t just write him off? No, but I think ideally, you want to make sure they’ve got the right you know, team in place. Yeah. Okay. We can move on now. We’ve we’ve we’ve hired a realtor and we’ve gotten pre approved. Wonderful. Congratulations.

23:31
house now. No.

23:35
First we’re gonna talk about the rules. Okay, ready for the rule line? Okay, you go you tell us some of the rules. Okay. All of them. Yes. Hey, Alisa. Hey, Katie, what do we mention almost

23:48
every episode, email template?

23:51
You’re right, we sure do. And after every time, we mentioned an email template, do you know what we get

23:56
emails asking if they can have copies of the email can blue send me a copy

24:01
of that template? I would like that, that sounds great. And you know what the good news is, you can get all of our email templates from our course, email templates, one on one, tell the people about it. Our course

24:13
has all of the email templates you would need to send to your buyers and your sellers and your clients that are buying and selling at the same time. Exactly. To get through every step of the transaction and giving them information that they need for where they are in the transaction. It’s great because you never forget to tell them something. Yeah. So we’ve already done all the work for you. Yeah, we wrote them and you can personalize them. Yes. And just feel organized, knowing that you have all the information where it needs to be. And

24:41
if you purchase email templates, 101. You do get lifetime access. So occasionally, we like to go in and make updates based on the market or if we find a new best practice. So we put that right into the template and you get that updated straightaway. It just

24:54
goes straight to your core. Yes.

24:58
It’s already there. It’s just already in there. Are you don’t have to worry about it. Email I

25:02
will say updated. That’s great. Where can they find these email templates? You

25:05
can find the email templates at email templates with an S one. Oh one.com email templates. One Oh, one.com. Yes. Head over for reviews and all of the specifics. Wonderful. Okay, enjoy.

25:21
So the biggest thing is anytime you see a house, no matter where you see it, if you see it online, if you see a sign in the yard, if you see it on the next store, Facebook group, right, whatever, whatever your HOA group, you call your realtor that you have selected always, you I’ve had, you see, I love giving my clients these rules. This is in our congrats on being pre approved by our rules email template, right? Since using this template, it has been so helpful. I have one particular buyer really a rule follower, she is always screenshotting me conversations from her like HOA group about houses and things like that, because she wants to stay in her neighborhood. Okay, but I love that she is sending me the information. So then as the professional, I can reach out and start the negotiations and gather information, right? What I have found is that if buyers reach out directly to the agent, they don’t know that, or the seller, or the builder or the builder, they will tell you things that may not always necessarily be the most accurate, like, oh, well, you could save money. If you don’t have an agent, or, you know, if you have an agent, it’s this price. Those things are not necessarily true. True, right? And it’s important, and you’ve also lost your negotiating power, right? They’re already telling you how this is going to go right. Whereas if I call to say hey, Mr. Seller, I have a pre approved buyer who meets the criteria for your home. Can I show your home, right? It’s a whole different ballgame really different. They know they’re dealing with someone who knows what’s going on is a professional. Yes. Right. So that is why it is so important. If you’re browsing online. Don’t ever click here to schedule an appointment.

27:21
No, no, because if you’ve done this, we’re gonna call it the right way. You already have an agent. Yeah, you don’t need to click the button. And please never feel bad about calling texting. emailing your agent to say I found a house online. Yeah, that’s okay. Sometimes Are you? Oh, I know you were on vacation or No, I didn’t want to bother you. No, that’s actually the part of our job that we’re supposed to be tell us. Yeah, the house is you like tell me we want to know we’re out of town. We have help. Yeah, can we can get you in the house. And we cannot help you if you click the button on on the our friend Zillow and they send you in that’s not the listing agent number one, right. So please don’t be confused. Those agents paid to be featured on that page. And they are in no way affiliated with the house that your clicking the button on. So

28:08
we as Realtors we get clients a few different ways. Katie and I prefer repeat and referral business. Yes. And we would like our reputation to speak for itself and to bring us business based on how we conduct ourselves. Other realtors, it’s it’s incredible. Realtors can spend anywhere from 500 to $15,000 a month, a month, and they write that check out to Zillow, or whatever website they’re using, right? So that when a buyer who does not know any better says I like this house, I see this button that says Click here for showing. I’m gonna click here. You get that realtor that has paid a bunch of money for clients. Yeah. Do with that what you will not the business that I would want. It’s not the realtor. It’s not that’s what I mean. It’s not the realtor that

28:58
I would as a consumer I, I would prefer someone I chose based on a review. Yeah, or based on a referral or based on something

29:06
so good. They’re not having to spend 1000s and 1000s to get new clients. Look,

29:11
ultimately, those most of those agents are very good at what we’re going to call turning an online lead. Okay, so they have scripts they have, I mean, they’re gonna drop, they’re gonna drop everything and run into the showing whether you’re pre approved or not. I mean, it’s just a different animal, and they will pressure you as a buyer.

29:30
I lost a buyer this year. I did not know she was looking. She was a good friend of mine. And she was just kind of browsing online. Yeah. Never. She had a home, never really sure what she was going to do. And she called me and she said, You are going to be upset with me. I said, just tell me tell me what happened. And she said, I was looking at this cute little house down the street for me and I clicked on the button that said would you like to see this home? And I thought yeah, you Oh, and you know, she said, Of course, I was going to call you when I was ready to buy. Well, when I got there, he told me that because he showed me the house that I had to use him for this house, which is not true, right? Not true, which is not true. So. So you know, not to bring you into like realtor drama world. But I just think it’s important that the consumer understands how we work, right, there is something called due diligence. And what’s the chain of? What is that word hearing? Or hearing call? Okay. So we have what’s called procuring cause in Louisiana in Louisiana, where you have to have a paper trail to show why they were your client, right? And if another agent shows you a house, it would be very hard for me to interfere and sell it helps you right? It could be possible, but it just really muddies the waters

30:56
and to be fair, your friend and said they felt awkward and telling you this person, they were like, Well, they did show me the house. Yeah. And I feel bad now saying I don’t want to work with you. So they just proceeded with a major life decision and purchase with a person who was basically a stranger to them.

31:11
And the sad thing is, they were asking me questions that made me so sad, like throughout the buying process. Now, here’s the twist a little bit, I am listing their current house and she was like, we’re not using this person. That’s not our our That’s not who we wanted our agent to be. Right? That’s not who I wanted. Right? So you’re gonna sell, I’m just gonna stick with him to buy. I’m very sorry. It’s just where I’m at. I

31:33
said, That’s okay. Things happen. But the questions that she was asking me throughout her buying process made me so sad, that agent should have been answering the questions, right. And they were things that should have been told up front. Listen, if you hire an agent, and you have to keep asking another agent, the questions, maybe you need to hire a different agent. Yeah, yeah. You unless you have signed a buyer agreement, like a representation agreement with one agent, which I still believe can be cancelled. Yeah, unless you’ve signed some type of agreement like that, you’re free to say I no longer want to work with you and move on to a different agent. Sure, that is acceptable and allowed.

32:13
And the whole reason we are covering this is because in the world of online, and look, there are a lot of apps out there, so many are going to fight for your business. And there’s so many ads. Yeah, and you may even accidentally click on some you may

32:30
accidentally end up standing in front of a Realtor you had no idea they were going to show up there, right. So that’s okay, that’s not your fault. That’s not there’s nothing wrong with that. We just you need to be aware of how it works. Yeah, we want to arm you with the knowledge so that you do have you have a say, Yeah, pick your agent, you make that choice. Don’t let it be made for you. And here’s the other common misconception of the public is that if you contact the listing agent of a property, you will save money on the purchase. Not true. That is not correct. In Louisiana, we’re allowed to do dual agency, which means that if someone called me on my listing and wanted to buy it, and they were an unrepresented buyer, I could represent both sides and make both sides of the commission. Sure. So the whole commission would go to me instead of half to a buyer’s agent. So there’s no reason not to bring your own representation. Look, somewhere down the line, there may come a time where you have to make a choice. If you’re going to pay your own buyer’s agent, I still think that is a valuable service that you should be paying for as a buyer. Absolutely. Whether or not it’s built into the commission of the listing or you need your own agent, you’re making the largest investment of your life. Likely you need someone who wants to protect your interest and isn’t just looking to make another you know, half the transaction payment. Sure, right.

33:51
Yeah. Okay, so that rule covered if you see signs or house online, never click or call those numbers always send the house of interest to your realtor. Yeah, this goes for for sale by owners. This also goes for if you’re looking to build an A new subdivision, don’t go to the model home alone, right. Always go with your agent, right? I tell my buyers feel free to go to open houses. Yeah. I think it’s great. If you have a Sunday you want to go look go look. The first thing you need to say when you walk through the door is Alyssa Jenkins is my agent. Right? So you need to say Sally Sue is my agents right? Whoever you’re in then I will tell you as a buyer, that agent will no longer be so aggressive with you right? They know you have someone they know that you’re gonna look at the hire of but if you say Oh, I don’t really have an agent they’re gonna they’re there not only to have the house open but to try to get new buyers for their business. Right? I did this my whole it’s the large.

34:50
An open house is a method for agents to find new clients. Yes. May it also sell the house correct. The number one reason an agent is in an open house is You get new buyer clients in front. Yes. Get their face in front of the public. Yeah. And you as a buyer, maybe don’t want to deal with that. You just say I already have an agent.

35:08
Yeah, it’s Katie. Yeah. Oh, great. Okay, but and I even tell them to look, I know a lot of the realtors in Baton Rouge because I sell home. Yeah, them these. Were making it sound like this is all like an aggressive game. And it can be right. But there are many times where I’ve had another agent call me and say, Alyssa, your buyers, they came through my open house. Oh, yeah. It’s exciting. We’d like to help each other and right, like, it’s fine. I even tell my buyers to tell the agent at the open house that I’m your agent? Because they may know me. Yeah. So it’s fine. Right?

35:43
Neither one of us is fighting anyone for a client know that we’re not out there being cutthroat wild and out like nope, no, but we’re telling you as the public what your rights are? Sure, as a consumer, you want someone who’s working for you. Then

35:57
once you find house, a lot of showings do require 24 hour notice. Yeah, if people have kids or pets or need to get the house ready. So it is it just depends on the listing. So we will have to just see where agent can find that out. Right. Your agent will find out when you can go see the house right? And your agent can tell you like what’s the status of your market?

36:21
Is it kind of seller’s market like how to get there quick? Is it a little bit quieter right now? Maybe you don’t have to rush out right away?

36:28
Has this house been on the market? 150 days? How long has it been a brand

36:32
new listing that’s hot, like you can tell? It’s gonna go fast your agent can usually tell.

36:36
Yeah, and before we go to a house, I like to pull the property disclose. Yeah. And you know, look, I guess,

36:41
out of rules, right. And in a level market, I often would tell my buyers do a drive by Do you even like the area? If you don’t know it? Take take a drive thru? Is it worth going inside of the house? Because it is basically asking someone to pack up their dog and their kid and their house and like leave so that you can spend an hour in their home, which is totally fine. They’re trying to sell their house. But if you’re not going to be serious about that location, let’s not let’s not call someone to leave their home for no reason. Right? Right.

37:12
And then the last thing on the buyer rules is when we are at showings in today’s day and age you always have to be mindful of what you say. Surveillance cameras, Nanny cams, I mean seller the doorbell key. Yeah,

37:27
even if you love it. This is my this is my favorite new game of poker. Like I got to look like I like it because I don’t want to insult you about your home but I can’t look like I love it because I might eager I need to negotiate. So you know, we gotta we gotta basically poker face through the showing. And remember, if it was your home, how would you want someone to behave? You don’t need to open someone’s dresser drawers? No, look at a house. No, no, no, like that’s not appropriate

37:53
or comment on their personal things. Decor toys just is what did they were here for the house? The decor will be gone. Right? It’s all going to be gone. Oh, that’s

38:01
a good tip to what we’re going to showings in a second. Okay. Okay, so good news. You got to realtor you’ve got your loan pre approval. Now you know the roles guess what you get to do now? Can I please go see how you can go see houses. Let’s go look at houses. So when you drive by a house when you see one online when you’re like, Okay, this might be it, you immediately do what text call email your agent. I would like to schedule the showing. Yay, we’re here. Okay, now we’re gonna schedule a showing. Okay. Okay. What do you want to say about showings, we talked about surveillance, obviously, behave as if you would, and have someone in your home behave. I think this is where you’re a good agent is worth their weight in gold, because they will have seen a lot of houses hopefully and can remind you or point out things that maybe you would not think to look at, like this is a sign of maybe a foundation problem, or this is a sign that this floor has been wet or, you know, these are some things we might want your inspector to check. If you love this home. I’m not in the house to tell you how great it is. Right? I’m just there to tell point out the facts. Just the facts, right. Like this is what I’ve noticed as we’re in this home, or this is what I know about this neighborhood or this community, right? Yes. What else?

39:14
I like to check property disclosures before we even go because I may say hey, I checked the property disclosure and I see that this one is in a flood zone that requires very high insurance. Okay, tell them what of property disclosure is. So when a seller lists a home, they are required to fill out a property disclosure. It asks certain questions. We’re in Louisiana, so ours asks, Age of roof, anything that you know, is wrong. Has the house ever flooded? Has it ever had insurance claims? So it kind of just gives you a little bit of a summary. Yeah, I like to look at them, but I also don’t give them too much weight because we’re gonna have a home inspection for sure.

39:54
And things can change and there are truly things that the seller may not know right that are going to come Up in the home and

40:00
how many people go inspect their roof themselves? Or they list their eyes? You know, you don’t know. No, but it’s good to know if there’s something major. I mean, I have certainly not shown a house because of things that were on the property disclosure, like, oh, wow, this house looks great. I can’t believe it’s in my budget. Let’s go see it. Okay, let me pull the property disclosure. Oh, wait, the foundation is cracked right now. And it the quote is 40 grand. So the big deal, this is a big deal. So okay, it’s not the house, right? So it’s good to check things before you run and show that because you want to make sure

40:32
don’t want to get your hopes up about a house that maybe isn’t going to meet your criteria, your budget, your whatever, like maybe you don’t have money to do a foundation repair. Right, right. Okay. To this point, we’ve spent no money, no money to be clear, no money. This is all just we’re thinking. We’ve talked to a lender, we’ve talked to an agent. Now we’re gonna look at some houses. We spent no money. Right, right. Okay. Now we found the right house. Yay. Hooray. I love it. What are we going to do now?

40:58
We got to call the lender. Okay. So once we have found the house, I find it very important to email the lender I use. So as the agent, I usually email the lender and copy the buyer, okay. And I say, hey, lender, I’m with Suzy and Suzy loves this house located on 1234 Main Street, right? The house is listed for 250. Okay, we think we’re gonna offer 245 based on comps, what is a cop? A cop is when once you have found a house, your agent will run the recent sales. Do like a mini appraisal Suzy is going to do a report. Yeah. And we’re going to say, based on the other ones that have sold, I think we should offer this number. We can also see did the other sellers pay closing costs, right? Should we ask for closing cost? Or is the price more important? Right

41:55
you so you and your buyer have already had this discussion just before you call the lender? Right? And then you’re like, that’s how you know you’re going to offer 245 on the 250. Right. Okay. You’re also as the agent of the buyer gonna probably contact the listing agent. Sure. Before you submit this offer. Yes. Hey, do you have any other offers? Tell me a little about your seller.

42:19
Are we under a timeline right now?

42:21
When do they have to be out? Do they need occupancy after the sale? What’s going on? Like they good to leave the refrigerator? Right? What’s happening here? All of these things are important in helping you write the strongest offer so that your offer will be accepted. Yes, because this is not a foregone conclusion. sellers have not accepted offers for all kinds of crazy reasons. So many reasons. Sometimes that you just aggravate them because you offer too low. Yeah, yes. For real. I said it, you can make an insulting offer. Oh, yeah. So you can never recover from I had a

42:53
client make an offer so low and ended up coming back at full price. And the seller said no, they still said I don’t like you. I don’t want you to buy my house. Repeat that

43:03
for the buyers. On our lovely episode. Today. I had a buyer

43:07
make an offer way too low, way too low against my advice, insulted the seller so bad that even when we went back with a full price offer, the seller said no. And they’re allowed to do that I can do that they’re

43:19
allowed to do that. So it does. It’s a very delicate dance. You don’t want to insult the seller, but you do want to pay the market value or maybe get a deal. But you better be careful. Yeah, you can’t just say on this $250,000. House, I will pay you 200. Right. That’s not realistic. So once I know we like the house, right?

43:40
Letting talking with the listing agent, looking at the comps to see what’s a fair market value advising, is it underpriced? Is it overpriced? I think this is a good deal. We might have to add quickly or I think we could maybe go to this number. But once we know what we want to offer, I asked the lender to send a pre approval letter for that amount, right specifically. So even if you’re pre approved for 300 Yeah, but we’re making an offer of 280. Yeah, that’s what the letter needs to say. And some lenders will even put 123 Main Street. Yeah, they’ll put the address on there. And then you can write your offer. And the lender at that time will recheck monthly notes for you. Have the interest rates changed since you first got pre approved right? If you’re a buyer that is looking over if you’re not in a rush and you’re looking over the course of several weeks or months yeah, checking in with your lender at the beginning of each month to say hey, I’m still looking Can you let me know if the interest rates have changed? And if these numbers are still accurate, right because they’re changing you’re all up and down at Yeah, all the time. Yeah, maybe you can afford more right? Who knows? We don’t so it’s good to check in Cody regularly. All right. And then once we have the pre approval letter, we can make the offer

44:59
Okay, and And obviously, then your very smart agent will help you make the right offer. Correct. Take their advice, yes,

45:06
there’s them. You hired them it, look, here’s

45:08
the deal. I don’t care if you buy a house for 202 50 or 300, or whatever, I’m still gonna give you the appropriate market value advice. Like it doesn’t change my paycheck that much. If you offer 245 or 250. Right? It’s, it’s really not a lot. So I’m never going to pressure my buyer to pay more. So I make more. I think sometimes consumers are concerned. Yeah. Oh, you think I need to pay out that way? I’ve never in all 17 years thought, Oh, if I could just get you to pay 5000 more. It’s not that big of a difference.

45:40
I know. I had a we had a bidding war situation on one of my listings. And the seller was like, Well, I bet you’re excited. Never thought about it. Never thought about it. No, it’s not that. No, it’s not that

45:52
good agent. A good agent is not. Obviously you have to get paid. We’re doing a job, right. But a good agent is not so concerned about the exact amount they’re getting paid right on on that particular house. Like it’s just not Yeah, how this works. I’m offering the same service to people who buy in $150,000, price range and 500,000. Like, it’s all the same, but the checks are different. Yeah, but a good agent is doing a good job all the time. Correct. Right. Okay. While we’re on agents, and you’ve now made your offer before we tell you if it’s accepted or not, okay, let’s talk about this. Because let’s just say you didn’t write it yet. Your realtor does not get paid a salary. No, by their broker, no nothing. They let’s just say you, you you employed a realtor, and you asked them 1000 questions, and you went on 100 showings, and then it’s time to write an offer and you said Oh, I forgot my Aunt Susie is a realtor and she’s gonna write it for me. And you’re like, no big deal. You’re still getting paid? That is not true. Not true. If your agent who spent that time helping you answering your questions taking you on showings hoping one day you bought a house so they would get paid did not make a cent

47:06
nothing. We only get paid if we make it to the closing table and you are handed the keys right if you don’t buy a house I don’t get paid never get paid. Not getting paid. We have a whole episode on two episodes right on ways your patients where we never got paid.

47:20
Yeah, never get paid happens. And look, I am not a service organization. I am a service business. Okay, right. So I have to get paid in order to continue doing this business so I can pay my bills and take care I fit and feed my children. It is a job. This is a job. Yes. This isn’t it. So just keep in mind your you may not have even realized that your realtor is not getting any money. No. At all. Until you get a house they don’t know. They don’t know. That’s when they’re doing this episode. That’s okay. So I don’t expect you to know but I’m just helping you. Be in the know. Sure. Okay. Now you made your offer. Did it get accepted? You tell me. I don’t know. Okay. Yeah, well, yeah, let’s just say you got accepted. Now, you could have got a counteroffer. Yeah, they may counter we may go back and forth. It’s just it’s a period of negotiation. Meaning

48:10
everything is in writing verbal is only I mean, you can’t stand on anything verbally. Not in Louisiana, right? I don’t Yeah, I don’t think Yeah. But you all this needs to be in writing and you need to be very mindful of deadlines given and meet the deadlines that you are given. So if they say we need a response by 3pm, get them a response by 3pm.

48:31
Here’s the good news. Most agents are now utilizing some kind of online signing. Yes. So you can log in from your phone or your computer or what’s on whatever side? Yes, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Right? Okay. So we’ve gone back and forth. The seller made a counter we accepted the counter now we’re under contract. What is going to happen now here’s the good news until this point, again, you as the buyer has spent no money Yep. Now we’re going to start spending some money a little bit of money. Okay, so what are our normal costs to pay during this process?

49:06
So typically, at this time, once you are under contract or in escrow or whatever your market calls Oh, right. Okay. You have to put down a deposit check. Yep, that holds the property for you right so that nobody else can buy it while you are in your inspection period, your due diligence timeframe. It takes the house off the market that’s true so that you know you it’s your it’s yours and we can figure out what we need to do to get to the closing table and

49:35
here’s the great news. The seller cannot take another offer even if it’s better and bump you know, okay, you have the house under contract. It is a legal dock.

49:44
I have had many buyers say well can the seller like cancel if they get mad? Nope, no, they can’t. Now keep in mind we are in Louisiana and every contract is different, right? We are not going to harp on the fine print of everything. But deposits are pretty Standard, and then we have to move forward with scheduling the home inspection, right? And you got to pay for that upfront. Do you have to pay for that upfront?

50:09
So in I honestly couldn’t say what an inspection cost in every market?

50:13
No, it will depend on the size of the home. Yep, what kind of foundation it sits on the age of the home? How many ACS does it have? So based on what you’re doing, right, and if you have any additional like, if the house has a pool, you may have to have a pool inspection. If you need to get a termite inspection, whatever, you might say, we

50:31
need a termite. Maybe you need a radon maybe like I don’t, there’s, your agent will know all the types of inspections that are in your area. Yeah. And then you schedule them, and you’re gonna have to pay for those upfront whether or not you find something that you say, Oh, no. Here’s the good news. If you find something and you say, oh, no, you can cancel, you can cancel, get your deposit back protection period, right? You still had to pay for the inspection, but you got your deposit back, and then you just move on.

50:58
And it’s better to spend a couple $100 didn’t have your home inspection before you spend a couple $100,000 to buy a house or buy a house. Right. So a great, okay. And we have a whole episode on writing repair requests. Yes. And getting through the inspection process, right. So we don’t want to spend too much time now is a long episode. It’s a lot to take. It’s a lot to take in getting there. So just know this is just another step in the process. Right? Okay.

51:26
So again, when your offer was accepted, you gave a deposit, you’re then gonna go to your lender, do your final loan application, any disclosures you need to do you’re going to start the process.

51:37
This is when I tell my buyers get ready because the first 10 days of being under contract the lender needs the most Yeah, I need deposit checks, right? We’re doing inspection. It’s a lot it’s a lot the first 10 days, and then it kind of cools down i

51:53
because then all the rest of the process is the loan process. Right? That the lender a lot of waiting, right? We want to wait Okay, perfect. Now you’ve hired your inspector, however many inspections you want to do. If you need to check anything though school district, a flood zone, your insurance amounts,

52:12
I highly recommend getting your insurance picked out and solidified during your inspection period. But it because if it comes back to high later, you no longer have an out you can only cancel during the inspection period is not just for you to check on things with the house, right? Do you

52:29
need to drive from the house to work and see how long that takes you you have to do all of this during the inspection period, anything that concerns you needs to be done during your inspection timeframe, you should basically be able to say if I was possible at the end of this, let’s say it’s 10 day period, I could I can buy the house today. I am comfortable and ready to buy the house. Right? Okay. All right. So now we’ve hired our inspection inspectors, we’ve negotiated our repairs with the seller, you’ve just told them they can listen to a whole episode on that the seller has agreed or given you money, whatever the case may be, during once that inspection period has ended. This is when your lender is going to order your appraisal, this is not something your agent orders. It’s not something you order we don’t get to pick who the appraiser is, the lender is going to use a third party company who selects the appraiser and the appraiser is going to go out and tell your lender what is the value the market value of this home?

53:28
Yes, and the reason we wait to order it until after inspections is because we want to make sure that you are moving forward on the house right? And that you feel comfortable before we proceed to paying for the appraisal right. So you will have to pay for inspections and you will have to pay for appraisal. Yes.

53:48
And then appraisal in our market. What? Five 500 700 Okay, and an inspection probably was somewhere in that ballpark as well. Maybe a little less. Okay, so you’re about $1,000 in after this correct ish

54:01
because typically the deposit check that you put down you get that back at the closing table right to go towards your down payment. That’s not money that you’re just paying. Yeah, you get that back for right Right, right,

54:14
right. Okay. Now while the appraisal is being done and right after your inspection, or maybe during the inspection period, you’re going to have to choose a title company to perform your title work. Your agent will be able to refer you to a good one or your lender they all typically have someone that they partner with and find to be good if you know a title company you’re allowed to pick your own here Sure. However, just because your uncle Bob is a lawyer does not mean that he is prepared to do a real estate close. I

54:45
have been through some very terrible closings when it was an attorney that did not do real estate transactions regular right

54:53
we need them to do these as a main further closing.

54:56
Yes, the closing done by the title company should own We take about 45. Right? If you’re there any longer two hours or longer, you picked the wrong title comm something has gone terribly has gone terribly wrong.

55:11
At that point, it’s too late, though it is nothing you can do about it. What the things we’re telling you in this episode are supposed to help you avoid the nightmares that we have been through on the other side. I don’t want you to learn the hard way. I want you to just follow these steps.

55:24
Yeah. Okay. We handle most of it. Right, right. Right.

55:28
All right. So we already did the homeowners insurance quotes. Okay, now we’re getting close to closing. Yeah. Let’s, before we get there, is there anything we need to tell them that comes from when you’re under contract, we’ve talked about your inspection period, you’re going to know you’re okay. Here’s a good tip, and maybe just back up in your mind to making the offer, you’re going to pick a closing date when you make your original offer. If there’s some reason why one if you’re going to be out of town, that’s not a good day. A typical closing period is between 30 and 45 days, your lender is going to need probably at least 30. Right, depending on the market and what’s going on. You pick the closing date, and then it’s in writing y’all that’s in blackout. You can’t just willy nilly change it later, boiler

56:14
scheduling movers shutting off utilities based on certain dates. So

56:18
if you’re coming from another house that you own, you can go listen to that episode about how to navigate occupancy, but maybe what if your seller the house you’re buying has asked you to let them stay three days after closing? Well, where are you going to live for those three days? Are you selling a hat? Like you need to be aware plan ahead? Okay, but the closing date is the closing date, the only way it can change is that all of the parties agree, right? Okay. Now, if something goes awry with your loan, or something, your lender is going to say, oh, I need an extra week, something has happened. And you all this happens a lot, especially with the lender you’re not really familiar with. Or your agent isn’t familiar with. When they ask, Oh, why do you another week your loan isn’t ready. The seller does not have to say yes, they don’t. They don’t have to let you have extra time. Thanks. We’re gonna move on to our backup offer. That was more money. That was more money because the only way you get to be in control as this situation is if you meet all the deadlines on that paper, right? Okay. It’s a legal binding contract. Yeah, okay. And I’m not a lawyer. I’m not giving you legal advice. But I’m telling you that the seller does not have to grant you an extension so that could be an out I’ve had buyers or especially when I was on the listing side, not my buyers never who were like, oh, I need to wait till next week when I get my next paycheck to have the down payment

57:42
of No, no, no, no. Okay,

57:45
so you need to think about this when you’re making your original offer. This is the only this is your only chance to get this right. And I

57:52
have had buyers ask at what point do I need to have my cash to close my my down payment and my closing costs? At what point right? The lender start putting you through under final underwriting 10 days before closing? Yeah.

58:05
So if you’re closing January 30, you don’t have until January 30 fine to find the money. The other thing is you can’t just dump a bunch of money in your account without telling your lender what’s happening or your mom’s giving your down payment. Well, that’s so sweet of her. But your lender has to know, right? There’s forums there. Can’t just have a bunch of money. show up in your money. It’s gonna throw off your loan. Yes. Okay. So I think that’s all of the things we Okay, so now we’re approaching closing. Yeah, okay, we got through our inspection, the appraisal came back good, great. If it didn’t, we’ll figure that out. If your appraisal did not come back, okay. They said the value was to 10. And your offer was to 20. Then it’s another point of negotiation and it opens back up to another moment when the seller has the right to say no, yep, they do not have to lower the price to a lower appraisal. We’re gonna ask, you can sometimes fight the appraisal like your your agent, your good agent that you hired could do an appraisal dispute, right? They should be able to handle that. And that’s the point of having an agent. Yes. Okay. That you chose, right? Yeah. Okay. So your appraisal is good or not, but we’ve gotten through it. And now it’s time for you to prepare for closing. Okay, you’ve already got your money in the account. Great. Okay, you right before closing you’re gonna go get a cashier’s check. Yes, because you can’t show up with your personal checkbook and write a $10,000 check cashier’s

59:28
check,

59:29
right that’s how it is the title company or real estate attorney or whoever’s performing your closing is going to tell you I mean, I hope three days before closing but maybe the day before they’re going to tell you what that number

59:43
is. final final title company and your lender i the ones that have the final no final

59:49
number. So you’re gonna go get that cashier’s check. You’re also going to want to call and schedule your utility transfer. Yes. Okay. I’m not going to get into this but we have some weird ones like when certain parishes so we don’t even know counties, my friends who are not in Louisiana parishes. In certain parishes, you have to have already done the closing in order to bring the cash sale to the friggin utility department to to change the utilities. Yep, that’s not the case in Baton Rouge, but it happens

1:00:21
to figure out who do you need to call? What is their process for opening an account? Right. But you totally want to do that a week out of closing. Okay, you can say, hey, it’s January 25. I’m closing January 30. So I need to make sure the power is on. Yeah, and the water right and the gas, all these whatever else you need yet

1:00:39
and things like maybe you want to get internet, the seller is not required to have internet on for your walkthrough or, you know, cable or whatever.

1:00:49
Let’s walk through.

1:00:50
We’re not there yet. Hold

1:00:51
on. Okay, hold, please.

1:00:53
But my point is, like here, sometimes it takes a couple of weeks to get cable. Yeah. So you might want to make that call

1:01:00
early, schedule your appointment for whatever you need set up security, alarms, whatever, you need

1:01:06
all of our things. So you got to make those calls. Okay. Hopefully your very good agent has sent you a reminder, but even if they didn’t, you need to do this. Okay. What else are we preparing? We got our check. We got our utilities. That’s pretty much it. Right? Oh, then you need to have a current ID though. A current ID to driver’s license or some sort of government ID that Scott, you’re like it’s current not expired, do

1:01:31
not let it be expired. Okay, now we can schedule our walkthrough. So before you go to your walkthrough, if there were any repairs that the seller agreed to make, you’re very good agent has collected receipts or documentation showing that the items that y’all agree to have been done, right. And then when you go do your final walkthrough, which is you I like to do them like the day before closing, not the day of unless you’re really late in the afternoon close. Because you want to make sure that before you signed papers, was the house damaged when they moved out? Is there anything new that has happened to the house? Is it in the same or better condition as when you first saw it? Right? Did they take the refrigerators, they take the trash, or I take right like this is just to make sure the repairs were done. Right? Right. Right. Everything that you agree to is how it’s supposed to be they leave it the way you saw it last? And here’s the thing, if you don’t do a final walkthrough, and you close, and then you’ve got the house and the refrigerators, not there, there’s nothing you matter. There’s nothing you can do

1:02:42
at that point. No. Now, I don’t know about every state. But most of our transactions in Louisiana are done with an as is clause signed at closing, which means yes, no matter how many repairs I asked for, no matter what the house looked like, at any point, when I signed that at closing whether I walked through or not. I’m taking the house as is as it sits now. So you better have checked it as close to closing as possible, and made sure that you’re okay saying I’m taking this house as is in six months when your water heater breaks. That is not the sellers problem. No, you would have to prove that they fraudulently told you it was working on top of the fact that you had an inspection, right? No house is going to stay perfect forever. Now, the cost of home ownership is that things will break. Yes, and you will fix them, you will still own a home. Hopefully it doesn’t burn down. But if that happens, you have insurance. Right? That’s what all of this is for. So you really have to you have to know when you got to sign that paper. If that’s it, you’re buying the house, this house is yours. This is your problem. Right this is your problem now, hopefully you’re very good agent has been very mindful and helps you make a sound investment right and that

1:03:59
right it’s not your problem now it’s your home now it’s your home to take care of and maintain. Okay, so we were going to clearly did our walkthrough now we’re going to closing what is happening at the closing, we just signed a lot of paper and all the paper only papers confirming that your monthly notice what you thought it would be. But here’s the thing, per government guidelines, you’re supposed to have already reviewed all this stuff within three days of closing. So there should not be any surprises and what you are signing at the closing table. Yeah, agree. Just sign away. I love it. Also the time to if you have any questions for the other side, gathering alarm code, how do I use the pool? How do I use the pool? Any tips for NSS LightSwitch do write whatever your questions are right? This is your time now a kind

1:04:50
seller may give you their contact info, but there are no and they’re not required to write and they’re not required to answer your questions and it is not their problem if there is a problem right after, right? Okay, most of them are nice and want to help you and they will be like, Hey, call me if you don’t know what the light switch does, right? But every house has this little quirky peccadilloes. Right. You just never know. You might need to ask the seller a random question. How do I get the microwave to turn on one? Yeah, I don’t know. Right. Okay. That’s it. We’re done. Yeah. When did you get your keys

1:05:23
at the closing table? That’s right. Usually not move things in before? No, no, no, no, you have to get your keys and it is yours before you can make changes or move in. I’ve had people ask, can we have it cleaned before closing? And I understand why that could be convenient. But the risk is if anything happened, right? You have just paid for somebody else’s house to be clean. But you don’t get to get in there and paint. No, no, it has to be yours. You can

1:05:51
orchestrate all of that for closing.

1:05:53
Oh, yeah, I’ve had mentors at the house and called them and said, you can enter. Now go. We’ve signed starts, especially with fences. Like if you have a dog, I have had my fence guy on the property. As soon as we find that nine, and I’m like, Okay, you can start it’s ours, because I need that fence up so I can bring my dog right. That’s fine. Yeah, I think that’s great. Get your keys and then right. And

1:06:17
look, you’ve got 30 or 45 days to plan all of this, right? It’s not, you know, you can make all of this happen pretty seamlessly. Sure. Okay. All right. So now you’re gonna move, hurray, you’ve got the keys you’re moving in. Don’t forget to change your address at the post office. Okay. And if you’re in Louisiana, and you’re an owner occupant, don’t forget to sign up for your homestead exemption that isn’t tax benefit we have here. I don’t know if other states have this. But you’re very good agent will let you know what y’all do have. And if you need to do anything right now, now, and throughout the entire process. Tell other people when they ask you, oh, you’re moving Wow. Where to what’s going on? Tell them about your very good agent,

1:07:01
yes. Who’s So hi, very good agent, don’t

1:07:04
buy, don’t make your very good agent. Go and buy $15,000 worth of online leads. Tell your friends to use your agent,

1:07:13
leave them a review, oh, leave places, leave us a Google review.

1:07:19
You leave the review or.com.

1:07:21
Just go leave review, copy and paste the same review every right.

1:07:25
And remember, during the course of the process, if you have questions, don’t ask your Aunt Sue. Don’t ask your dad. I mean, sure you could. But I mean, you hired this agent to give you advice and use their market based knowledge to help you Yeah, they do this every day as a job. Not a service organization. It’s a job. They have experience. And even if your you know Aunt Sue has bought a house, maybe it’s been 20 years, things might be a little different. Yeah. And I think that a lot of times we get so many people in our ear when we’re making a big life decision, like buying a house, that we’re just like, so overwhelmed with all of the advice, unsolicited usually, yeah, lots of noise while trying to buy all of the hotel them what you like to say to parents, so a lot of times Alyssa will have her. Maybe it’s a nice, useful first time buyer. And they pick a house after seeing all of the choices. And then their parents show up to the inspection.

1:08:28
And they say, Oh, this is the house that you’re gonna buy. I don’t mind I have to remind them you were not with us to see the other options, right? We have been on this journey together together. And figuring out budget figuring out location and price and based off of all the homes we saw. This was the best was the one and if you had been there with us on all the others, you may also appreciate this home, right but you’re just seeing the best one of the options. Right? So unless you’re here to write a check, so that Sally can have a bigger budget right that extra 50 grand This is what Sally can afford. Yeah, exactly. This meets Sally’s goal. This is what we’ve got. Yeah. And now we’re going to have an inspection to make sure it’s safe right? And everything’s gonna be fine and

1:09:17
be fine. It’s going to be fine. Okay, if you enjoyed this episode, please shoot us a message

1:09:24
I think I’m gonna to our realtor listeners I think I’m going to include a link to this in the email that’s like congrats or you know pre approval needed or congrats on being pre approved so you can learn about how that when I email my buyers they can just listen in yeah and understand the process.

1:09:41
I think there’s a lots of good nuggets in here. For a buyer I wish I would have had this one I know buying because sometimes you’re nervous and it is a lot of trust to put in and your your agent or whoever’s giving you advice and you don’t know what to expect, right? This is hopefully going to tell you what to expect. Yes, what to expect when your purchase Sing great. Okay, we’re gonna do our toast. We always love to do our toast this one. Oh gosh has a word I can’t say oh word Hold, please. Michelle Graham. Snohomish. Oh, she gave me a pronunciation key. So thank you. Thank you, Michelle. Michelle is toasting to Julie Krause. Okay, okay, they are in Mill Creek, Washington. Wow. Okay, here is what Michelle had to say. We work at different brokerages but one of my first buyers ever and I toured one of her listings and it set the bar for me as a new agent. Wow. When I had a listing I definitely emulated Julie without her even knowing fast forward a year and a different listing. She brought the buyers and complimented me on my listing Oh said I owed it all to her. Julie is incredibly helpful and supportive, encouraging and we just finished our first to get transaction together with her amazing buyers and my amazing clients and it was really an incredible smooth transaction.

1:11:07
This is amazing.

1:11:08
I know. I hope that we work on many more in the future and I’m just so happy I have met her.

1:11:14
She want to know what Julie’s process was what was so impressive. Michelle, email us and tell us what was so great.

1:11:21
What did Julie do to blow you guys? Realtors, we’re friends. We are friends. Not all we all have to work together. We do. So we want to be friends, but we want it to go smoothly for you and for us. And we’re here to help. It is a helping career. Yeah. And it’s so fun. It is fun. Owning a home is still the American dream. Yeah, so I hope that if you’re listening and you don’t yet own a home that you get to own a home. Can’t just remember your agent is a big part of that process.

1:11:50
Happy house hunting everyone.

1:11:52
Good luck to you. Good luck.

1:11:53
Good bad odds be ever in your face, right?

1:11:56
It’s gonna be fine. It’s all fine.

1:11:59
Perfect. Okay, goodbye. Thank you so much for tuning in to the hustle humbly podcast. Let us know who we should toast to for the next episode. Be sure to follow

1:12:07
us on Facebook and Instagram at hustle humbly podcast. If you have an episode topic or question please email us at hustle humbly podcast@gmail.com

1:12:16
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast and leave a review. See you next week. Bye. This is the good lie