Matthew Maschler:
Welcome to the Real Estate Finder podcast. I’m Matthew Maschler, real Estate broker with Signature Real Estate Finder, and with me as always, the co-host Stacy
Staci Garcia:
Garcia.
Matthew Maschler:
Hi, Stacy. How are ya? I’m great. I wanna wish you a very, very happy New Year.
Staci Garcia:
Ha. Thank you. Happy New Year to
Matthew Maschler:
You too. I know it’s only September, but if you’re, uh, listening to this live or if you’re just looking at the dates, uh, on of the podcast and confused why I would say Happy New Year, is that we just celebrated, uh, the Jewish New Year, uh, the Jewish calendar, the Hebrew calendar. Um, it is now year 57 83, and, uh, we had a, a very happy, uh, Rashana and, uh, looking forward to, uh, Yom Kippur next week. And so all of my, uh, listeners out there, I wanna wish you a very happy New Year, uh, lash Tova, happy New Year. And, uh, another milestone of, uh, of this Happy Jewish New Year is, this is our 51st episode. So we ended the year, uh, the, the Jewish New Year. We ended the year last week with episode 50, and I forgot to mention it was episode 50. Amazing. Congratulations.
Staci Garcia:
That’s awesome. I don’t know how many times I’ve done it something 50 times.
Matthew Maschler:
50 times. So if you’re listening out, if you’re listening out there next time you see me, feel free to wish me, uh, congratulations on 50 episodes. And we are now in episode 51, uh, and it’s the first episode of the new Jewish New Year. So, uh, we have, uh, HAA, <laugh>, HAA. We have a, a few things to talk about. Um, one thing I wanna talk about, um, is, uh, inspections. Um, I talked way, way back in episode 12 when we first started the podcast. I was trying to answer people’s questions. Um, episode 12, it was, uh, uh, in November, right around my birthday, 2021, uh, we talked about the as is contract and, uh, what it was, why it’s used, um, and, uh, and what the alternatives were. Um, and, uh, I had a question, uh, recently from, uh, one of my agents, um, who, uh, had had the inspection, uh, done.
Uh, they represented the buyer and, uh, they had the inspection done. And now the buyer is holding the inspection report and saying, uh, well, what next? What should I do? And my answer to the agent was, uh, does your buyer want to buy the property? And really, that’s the question, right? Um, I, I talked in episode 12, um, that, you know, when you see a property, you, you do a showing the, the property looks great. You look, you look around, maybe you come in for a second or even a third time, uh, and then you write your offer and you go to contract. But there’s things that, about the property that you don’t know. Um, you, you don’t go to the attic and see that there’s a big hole in the attic or, uh, a rat’s nest in the attic. Uh, certainly you didn’t, uh, anticipate buying a house, uh, in, in, in that condition.
Um, you know, certainly, no, nobody told you about it. You didn’t. No, I, I said in, in that episode, uh, you know, I’ve never done a showing where the potential buyer, uh, says, uh, open up the attic. I wanna go up, up there and take a look around <laugh>. So, so it’s an as is contract. The buyer is buying the con the house as is. Um, but it’s subject to inspection, um, the inspection to reveal, uh, defects and other things that may not have been apparent at the first showing, or the second showing. Um, and now here it is. We, we’ve had the inspection. We’ve, we have a contract, the buyer and seller, they’ve agreed upon a price. Uh, now the buyer discover takes the inspection. They have an inspection report. My first question to the buyer is, based on this inspection report, do you still wanna buy the property?
Uh, because the buyer’s only recourse is to cancel the contract. They have a choice. They can go forward with the contract, or they can cancel the contract. The inspection contingency gives the buyer the right to cancel for really any reason. They don’t have to point to something in the inspection report. Doesn’t have to be a licensed inspector. The inspector could be, your know-it-all. Father-in-law who comes in and says, I don’t like this house. And you can cancel the contract, get your deposit back. Um, unless, you know, there’s other terms in the contract that somebody, uh, wrote in, uh, to the contrary. So I said to the, you know, especially in this strong seller’s market, you know, the buyer got their inspection report and wants to know what to do. And I said, well, buyers don’t wanna buy the house. Um, we joke in the industry that it’s a as is with the right to not to, you know, it, it’s as is with the right to inspect.
We joke in the industry, it’s as is with the right to renegotiate. Haggle, yeah, haggle. So, um, and this is where, um, I mean, look, if something’s seriously wrong, you open up a negotiation with the sell, with the seller. Um, if nothing’s wrong, you still can, you can take your shot, right? Hey, Mr. Seller, we did our inspection. Um, I, I’m, you know, here’s the inspection report. I’d like to request a $5,000 credit to address these issues. You didn’t really say anything. You didn’t really say what was wrong. You just handed them the inspection report and said, I want a $5,000 credit. The seller can’t cancel the contract. The seller can’t throw you outta there. All the seller can do is say yes, say no, or renegotiate. Right? I’m not gonna give you 5,000 house, $5 house, $50 to $500, $3,500, whatever it is. Uh, so the seller can say yes, say no, or renegotiate.
And then based on that response, if the seller says, absolutely not, go f yourself, uh, the buyer can proceed with the contract or cancel the contract. Um, so I think there’s a different, it’s always a different situation, right? Is there a real problem? Right? A significant problem, right? Something that, listen, we didn’t really know that there was a sinkhole. There was pvc, pvc. Um, there’s a polybutylene pipes, right, that are deficient. They break down over time. And if you’re buying a house with polybutylene pipes, you’re gonna want to, um, replace the piping in the house. And that can be very expensive. Um, if it’s not disclosed in the mls, or even if, you know, if it’s disclosed in the mls and the buyer doesn’t really, um, pay attention, and now it’s serious time, it’s, you know, put up or shut up town, and they realize that there’s a major, major expense looming in the future, they may wanna renegotiate.
The seller may be very upset if they disclosed it, Hey, you knew the whole time there was polybutylene pipes. But if it was, if it was not disclosed and unknown, um, and, uh, and it’s a, it’s a real concern for the buyer, you can start that, uh, that re renegotiation. So there, you know, there tends, there, there, in practice, there’s no difference between whether there’s a real problem, no problem, or lots of little things. Um, which really you should, in, in, in which case, if you like the house, you should just buy the house and deal with it. You know, you’re not, you’re, you’re not buying a brand new home. Um, and you know, if it’s a 20 year, year old home, it’s got 20 year old locks and 20 year old faucets, and 20 year old plumbing, and that’s what you’re buying. Um, so if it’s, sometimes it’s just a lot of little things. Um, and it just becomes a question of who wants it more. So whether there’s a real problem, no problem, or lots of little problems, it’s addressed the same way the buyer asks the seller to make the repairs, or better for a credit. Uh, some inspectors put a, uh, a price on, uh, on the inspection report. That’s very dangerous. Um, because, but sometimes
Staci Garcia:
There’s an approximation of what it would cost to repair.
Matthew Maschler:
Yeah. But if it’s, you know, in, in this market, right? That we’re in now with all these supply chain issues and inflation, how is the inspector, does the inspector even know? Right. You know, is the inspector giving us last year’s prices? The prices could have tripled? Or is the inspector giving us dad prices? Right. Prices that may have been true 10 years ago, but that are just not true, uh, anymore. The, we call that, uh, dad pricing <laugh>, how much dad thinks things should cost. So it could be very dangerous for an inspector. You know, we, you know, you can, you know, a new roof can be 20, could be 50 depending on which roof company and, and the materials of, of the roofs. Uh, Stacy was working on a flip recently, um, that needed, uh, new windows and doors, and we got one quote for 18,001 quote for 35,000 mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
And, uh, when I lifted the quote, I said, you know, you know, we could be looking at a car, right? Hey, you wanna buy a car? How much is a car? A car’s $20,000, right? A car’s $80,000. How much is a car? I don’t, it depends on the car. If, if I say, okay, there’s two cars, one’s 20, which one one’s 80? Which one do you want? And you didn’t see ’em, and you don’t even know the models. You’re like, whoa. Oh, I’ll take the $20,000 car. But it’s a $20,000 car is a used Kia, and the $80,000 car is a brand new Mercedes. So you can’t just say, oh, there’s two cars, one’s 20, one’s 80. Um, staying in the car analogy, all right, let’s say it’s the same car. Let’s say they’re both Ford Mustangs, but one’s a Mustang GT with leather seats and all the options.
And the other is a base model. Ford Mustang, you can’t say, okay, uh, 18,002, two Mustangs one’s 18,000, one’s, 35,000. Obviously I’m gonna take the $18,000, uh, Mustang, why would I pay $35,000 for a Mustang? Well, it’s a gt with leather seats and, and all the bells and whistles. So, um, when you, so for that reason, it could be very, very dangerous, uh, for an inspector to put in a price or, and for a buyer to rely on that price. Um, because a toilet could be 200, a toilet could be 600, right? Toilet, I mean, could be 2000, right? But, uh, similar toilets could be 200 or 600 depending on, on the brand. And, and, and, and what it looks like. And then, you know, I, I’ve done enough lifts. I never thought about toilets before. And then when I started doing flips in 2010 and 11, and when I’m 40 years old, when I’m shopping for toilets for the first time in my life, I, I, I realized I always want the elongated bowl.
Staci Garcia:
I know, right?
Matthew Maschler:
And the, and the comfort height.
Staci Garcia:
<laugh>. Yeah. I was gonna say, you sent me a picture one time of, uh, of the bathroom. And I, I wasn’t sure what bathroom, but the toilet was really small. And people don’t think about this in the house that I had last, all the toilets were really small. I don’t know why they make them so small in the houses that I’m flipping, or the houses that I’m, that I, anything I get to choose a toilet. I want like, the regular size height.
Matthew Maschler:
Well, the comfort height, the regular size, height is small.
Staci Garcia:
Really Well, then I want the height. You want the
Matthew Maschler:
Comfort
Staci Garcia:
Height. Yeah. And I want the elongated bull, and I want the soft clothes.
Matthew Maschler:
Right? I don’t even, soft clothes is like,
Staci Garcia:
Soft clothes is standard for me.
Matthew Maschler:
Is it standard for you? Yeah. It’s elong
Staci Garcia:
For me. Buy if I have to hear a slam of a toilet, like, cuz my kids were used to a soft clothes. Soft clothes used to be something that you could buy, which is, it is still and put on a regular toilet. Uhhuh <affirmative>. Now you can buy elongated toilet at a comfort height with soft clothes.
Matthew Maschler:
And, and I don’t think I have to explain it, but comfort height is a little bit taller. Taller. So you’re not squatting down. And elongated bowl is a larger Yeah. Long Bowl. But, uh, I was at a, there’s a, a store near the, uh, the podcast studio. I wanna use the restroom there. It’s a, I’m like, is this a child’s toilet?
Staci Garcia:
<laugh> also, one more thing is I don’t want to flush the toilet with a button, um, that everybody else puts their hands in Uhhuh, <affirmative>, you know, in the middle right of the top of the, of the tank. I wanna flush it like where I could flush it technically with my foot if I wanted
Matthew Maschler:
To. Even at home.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And also when you’re, I was in Mexico once and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. You there, you can flush the toilet with your foot. Uhhuh <affirmative>, you just, it’s like a pedal of a car or that’s cool. Or a bike, you just press down on the pedal.
Matthew Maschler:
But that’s very like gas station. That doesn’t seem like house.
Staci Garcia:
I would love it in my house to just touch it with my foot and not have to touch it with my hand. Just
Matthew Maschler:
Say it when I was in, when I was flipping a lot more houses in 2010 to 15 and I was in Home Depot and sometimes they would advertise like, um, with using golf balls, right? As the material Oh yeah. As the material to flush down the toilet. Cuz you know, you wanna make the ad and you want it to look nice. And, you know, golf balls is much more, uh, visually pleasing. Um, <laugh> and <laugh> Brown, it would show 15, no, no show a, you know, dozen, you know, doesn’t got, you know, fasa dozen golf balls. So, so then I was, uh, um, talking to my plumber, Bernard, Maggie, I haven’t used him in a while, but great plumber, you know, real old time gruff plumber, Bernard, Maggie. I mean, he just sounds like a old time gruff father. He was, he was one of the best plumbers I’ve ever had. And, uh, but I haven’t called him in a while. Um, and uh, so he recommended something to me and I asked him how many golf balls, um, you could flush. And he looks at me, he goes, why would you want to flush golf
Staci Garcia:
Balls? <laugh>, <laugh>, here’s my card cuz you’re gonna be calling me again.
Matthew Maschler:
So, um, all, all that being said, um, you, uh, ask the seller, um, I think that’s what I think, well, you
Staci Garcia:
Compare when you’re comparing things, when
Matthew Maschler:
You’re, when you’re comparing things, it, it, you know, you the bar. If, if it’s, again, if it’s a real problem, get real quotes mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and if it’s not not a real problem, you’re just renegotiating, it’s just a money grab. Uh, what’s the difference how much all that stuff on the, on the report costs, you’re probably not gonna do it anyway. Right? And, and if it’s a, and if it’s a me, you know, a medium problem problem, um, you can either get quotes or, or, or make it as,
Staci Garcia:
It really depends on the market. I had a buyer just recently asked for a $5,000 credit mm-hmm. <affirmative>, and we felt like it was more of a money grab than, um, cuz they’re paying price
Matthew Maschler:
As, what, what was the asking price?
Staci Garcia:
9 79.
Matthew Maschler:
See, so you have a 9 79 house mm-hmm. <affirmative> making a $5,000 mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, request. Right? I’m selling a $135,000 house. Gonna make a $5,000 request.
Staci Garcia:
Yes. Then it’s more important
Matthew Maschler:
You would, on the 9 79, the 5,000 is much more tolerable. Right. But, but it’s still 5,000. I mean, nobody wants to spend $5,000 on nothing. Right? Yeah. The seller’s not, doesn’t wanna give away $5,000 for nothing.
Staci Garcia:
And you know what I, I’ll tell you something cuz I love my client, even though my client said no to the $5,000 credit, they ended up working on the things that were on the inspection and doing them anyway. Ah, so we haven’t even gone through the walkthrough, but I already know mm-hmm. <affirmative> that the things that we’re, that they’re gonna be looking for are already fixed.
Matthew Maschler:
Oh, here’s another question someone ask me recently. Uh, they have a long closing mm-hmm. <affirmative>, right? It’s gonna be December closing. So they’d like to keep the inspection open. Yeah. And, uh, so I had to sit this agent down, um, and say, no, no, you don’t keep the inspection open because remember, you can cancel for any reason. And if it’s, if it’s au this was August. If it’s August and you’re not closing until December, and the buyer has the right to cancel in like November mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the seller’s making plans, the seller’s hiring movers gets a replacement place to live. If the buyer could just walk away from the contract and cancel for any reason, it would make the, make it very difficult for the seller. So, no, you don’t keep the inspection open, but what you have is a walkthrough. Uh, the seller has the obligation to keep the property and maintain the property in the same condition that goes for the landscaping in the pool.
So if you go to the, so you should always do a walkthrough, uh, before the closing, uh, the day before the morning of, uh, you should do it yourself. You shouldn’t rely on your agent. Um, and if you’re an agent doing it for a customer, I suggest, uh, hiring, having them sign a release in advance that you know, Hey, I I’m your real estate agent. Uh, it is not in my job description to do the walkthrough for you. I will attend the walkthrough as a courtesy and FaceTime with you, but I cannot be held liable for any, uh, any, anything that I missed. Because realtors are not inspectors. And, and when the buyer comes down and if they see something else and the realtor missed, you really don’t wanna be dealing with that because you did a favor to your, uh, buyer. So make sure buyers, you always attend your inspections, um, your walkthrough inspections.
And I like to say at the walkthrough, you know, the first thing you should look at is, are there people living there? Right? Did the sellers move or the tenants move? Or did anybody move in? Are there squatters? Did the house burn down? Right. I mean, there could have been a fire between when you went to con went to con when you saw it last and, and the closing. Uh, so in that long extended closing, um, you, you can still look around, make sure that it’s in the same condition. If the pool is green, there’s a problem. You’re gonna ask the seller to usually to do a credit, um, or, or, um, you know, delay the closing until the seller can repair the pool, um, or maintain the pool properly. The seller can’t let the pool go. Let the landscaping go. Let the house go.
During your inspection, during your walkthrough, you want to check all the toilets, flush every toilet, turn on every faucet, turn on every shower. Um, if you wanna check the water temperature, check the water temperature, um, and, and, and, you know, turn on the air conditioner, see if it turns on. Uh, even if you’re not an inspector, even if you’re just a regular old homeowner, you can do all of those things. Uh, check all the garage door openers, make sure that they work. The garage door goes open and, uh, open and shut. Um, so while you’re, you don’t have an inspection period, you do have the walkthrough to make sure that the house is God bless you, to make sure that the house is in the, uh, condition, uh, that it was in, at the, uh, time of the original office.
Staci Garcia:
Can I tell you a story real quick? Sure. That’s what we’re here for. Okay. Here’s an inspection story that, that I, um, I learned from, I learned my own lesson. Uh, my house that I was selling, uh, was supposed to close on Friday of two weeks ago. And it ended up not closing until the Monday, which was last week. And over the weekend, I didn’t think about it. I just knew that it, it was supposed to close on Friday. Wasn’t closing until Monday, but just didn’t think about it. And then Monday was the walkthrough, and all of a sudden my brain kicked in. And I, the funny thing was I lost the key, but it was really in my purse, but I panicked and I couldn’t find it, but I had it. Okay. And then when I got to the house, they had turned off the power and the water on Friday, the day that it was originally set to close.
So there was no power and there was no water. And when I walked in, I didn’t even know it. I walked in and then obviously it was warm in there, the lights were out, nothing worked. And I, I texted the owner who was no longer there, and he said, yeah, I thought we were closing Friday. I had everything turned off Friday. And I was like, oh my gosh. Now the agent wasn’t there yet, the buyer’s agent. So I was like, thinking, what could I do? But that wasn’t even the worst of it. I walked in and I saw that there was, um, kitty litter all over the floor with poop. Like they had just thrown kitty litter in one room and had their cats pooping in there. And then there was a vacuum cleaner right next to it, but there was no power, so I couldn’t vacuum anything.
So I’m on my hands and knees cleaning up for the owner. Oh my gosh. Because I didn’t want there to be a problem at the walkthrough, which is about to take place in a minute. And the late, the um, buyer’s agent walks in and sees me on the floor sweating and there’s no power. And she said, what are you doing? I’m like, my cellar left it a mess and I’m sorry, I I’m cleaning it. There were dishes in the dishwasher, which is always something people forget to check the dishwasher. There were dishes in the dishwasher. And, and I, so I ended up cleaning and I was all sweaty and I was super pissed off. And I told, um, my cellar, you know, I wasn’t the happiest person at the moment cuz, you know, but then they were saying, well, we were supposed close Friday, but even on Friday there would’ve been kitty litter on the floor with Right.
You know, with poop and so forth. So one thing is walkthrough. Before your walkthrough, I didn’t think to walk through before my walkthrough, I would’ve known there was no power. And I definitely would’ve known there was cat litter and poop on the floor. So do the walkthrough before the walkthrough. So this week I’m closing on Thursday, on Wednesday, I’m gonna go do my own walkthrough. And, um, since I know I want there to be power, I want there to be water, I want there to be not like bugs walking across the floor or whatever. And I also wanna set the air condition at a reasonable level so that when I get there, the next day it will be cold and they’ll know the AC works and it won’t be us standing there waiting for the AC to get to 72.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. So it’s always important when you’re working the listing agent, the buyer, the buyer’s agent, uh, communicate about the walkthrough and, uh, and, and determine what day the seller’s gonna shut off utilities. Uh, if you coordinate it, the seller turn off utilities and the buyer turn on utilities on the same day. But you do want the utilities on at the walkthrough. Um, so it’s always important to, um, to coordinate that, uh, you know, what day, you know, when’s the walkthrough, when’s the seller, uh, shutting off utilities. Um, what we should do is calendar about a week or more, definitely not less mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, before the closing date, uh, to go over a, uh, a pre-closing checklist. Right. Uh, I’d like to do that more with, with my agents. Um, and the reason why it has to be at least a week, um, not less, is a lot of times the, uh, one of the parties will go to the title closer’s office and, uh, sign documents in advance mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
So even if the closing is on Thursday, if the seller decides to go to the title agent’s office on Monday, uh, to sign their documents, and then they leave and move out on Tuesday, right. Uh, maybe they will already have shut off the, uh, the utilities. And now you come in on, on Wednesday or Thursday to do the walkthrough and, and you realize you’re, it’s a little bit too late. So there, there’s all all those little things that we have to do. Uh, before the closing. We should talk about a, a week before, uh, the closing. So if we could start calendaring that, that would be Yep, that would be great. Um, so yeah. Um, that is, so that’s, we talked about, um, inspections and we talked about, uh, the walkthrough. Um,
Staci Garcia:
And as far as credits go mm-hmm. <affirmative>, my, my seller didn’t offer any credit. It kind of was, uh, calling someone’s bluff, kind of mm-hmm. <affirmative> situation. But they ended up fixing some of the obvious easy things, um, just as a courtesy when they knew that they, the buyer was clear to close Uhhuh <affirmative> because they, she’s not a mean person. She, she wants to help out. She realizes a couple things. They’re minor things. They’re not $5,000 worth of
Matthew Maschler:
Things. Right. You mentioned you knew it was a money grabber. Yeah.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. So, um, it doesn’t mean that these are $5,000 worth of things wrong. Mostly it’s just like something’s missing, missing a handle, something’s missing a downspout, something really small that could be easily fixed. In that case, as a courtesy, as a seller, it’s nice to just do it, you know? Yeah.
Matthew Maschler:
Because you have especially a seller, like, especially if the handyman’s gonna be there anyway, right?
Staci Garcia:
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So, um, you know, in that respect, when, when people try to use the inspection as a tool to haggle mm-hmm. <affirmative>, the best part for me is that they gave you the inspection. Mm. So basically they gave you $500. Well, because if they choose not to buy, you have the inspection now.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. A as a seller, I don’t want the inspection,
Staci Garcia:
You know?
Matthew Maschler:
No, I don’t care.
Staci Garcia:
<laugh> I kind of like it. I like knowing what the next people could potentially come to me with because they’re gonna inspect it again. And in one case, we had a person didn’t inspect again, they just took our inspection that we just had the week before and they said, oh, okay. This is cool. It’s a great inspection. All the things we can fix. Okay, no problem. We’ll buy it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you know what I mean? So we, it was, it was like if we were giving them something worth $500.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. Right. I, yeah. As a seller, I don’t want it. Um, cause you know, a seller has to disclose, um, you know, known material defects that it, that Right. Um, that negatively affect the price of the house. And, uh, yeah. As a seller, I’m not interested in your buyer’s inspection. Um, obviously if you’re asking for the world, I wanna see the inspection and see if it matches up, uh, what the inspector said versus, uh, what you’re asking for. But I, but if I’m not inclined to even say yes. Anyway, um, then, uh,
Staci Garcia:
Last time, last week we were talking, and I don’t know if it was on the podcast, but remember, uh, we were talking about contacting the agent about an offer before actually submitting the offer mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And you said, um, I would hold back on certain things because I wanna use them as a negotiation tool. Right. And I didn’t think of that. That wasn’t actually a thought I’ve ever had. And I was showing my card saying, um, you know what, here’s everything I want. If I show you everything I want and it matches everything you have, maybe you’ll choose me. Right. And you were saying, well, I wouldn’t do it that way. I would, I would hold back on everything, what they want, so that they can tell you, well, we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that. We’re gonna meet you. So a lot, since you said that last week, I, I don’t know if you said it on the podcast or outside, I’ve changed my, my,
Matthew Maschler:
I think you said it on the podcast. I, yeah. I’ve changed my opinion. Opinion Now we, we were talking about, do you call the seller in events? Yeah. And then that led to, well, what, how do you know when the seller wants to close? And, and I probably a little bit on the, at the showing mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but you know, if there’s terms other than price that you, and you and the seller, the buyer and seller are far away apart, uh, giving in on some terms, uh, helps negotiate on the, uh,
Staci Garcia:
More important. Even, even I’ve listened, I’ve listened to, I haven’t listened to that one again, Uhhuh <affirmative>. But I listened to it when you’re saying it. Right. And now I’m incorporating that into my, um, future offers. I’m not gonna give them everything they want because I wanna use it as a negotiation tool. You know what I mean? Or right in reverse as a seller.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. If, if, if, if you’re far away on price, right. You know, hey, I’m willing to, I’m willing to shorten the inspections. I’m willing to raise the deposit, I’m willing to change the closing date. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I’m willing to pay for title. I’m willing to do all these things, but as far as the price, the most I’m willing to do is X. Right. And, uh, and it shows that you’re reasonable. It shows that you’re negotiating. It’s, it’s also why I don’t like when you submit an offer and then the seller, uh, comes back to you at a different price and you negotiate price and you write it up and go to execute it. And then the seller starts for the first time looking at the other issues as far as the closing date and, and, and who and, and the deposit and, and the, uh, and the, you know, the inspection period. And it’s like, we’ve been negotiating for days. We’ve had multiple back and forths. We’ve come to an agreement and now you’re what you’re changing. And it really doesn’t sit well. So really always to my agents out there that are listening, uh, when you are, uh, negotiating, make sure you’re negotiating all the terms at once. You’re not doing it, um, in, uh, in pieces. So, so that you come to an agreement here and then you, um, you, uh, you don’t there. So
Staci Garcia:
Should I ask you a question or should we just leave it on the inspection for this?
Matthew Maschler:
No, no answer.
Staci Garcia:
No. No. Okay. So I do have a question. Yeah, go ahead. So I had, um, a situation where I had, uh, a buyer come into an open house of mine that had just gone under contract, but it was at the, in the process of it. And I still had the open house, and it was a cash buyer that I said, well, I can take you as a backup, or, um, I can help you find something else if, or, you know, if you have an agent, you know, whatever they said, they have no agent, they would love for me to help them. I said, okay, great. So let’s talk about, you know, what you want. And then that same day I took them to see a property, um, very close by, and they loved it. Uhhuh, <affirmative>, it all happened extremely fast. Within an hour, I did my o I did my, I was at the house. I took ’em to, I didn’t even go home. I took ’em straight to the, um, listing. They loved it. They said, write an offer that they can’t refuse. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And the, um, this property in particular, it was a Thursday and this property was scheduled for an open house on a Saturday. So they wanted me to write an offer that the sellers agent would cancel the open house on Saturday, four and a app and, and accept their offer.
Matthew Maschler:
It’s your listing? No,
Staci Garcia:
I was at my listing and I got a buyer.
Matthew Maschler:
Okay. So you, you brought the buyer to an open house? No,
Staci Garcia:
No. The buyer came to the open house, um, for the one I was at with my listing, but it was going under contract mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And then they asked me, help, help us find another property like this.
Matthew Maschler:
Okay. So you, you got a buyer lead Yes. At your open house? I did.
Staci Garcia:
Which, which by the way, also, you should always get, you know, if buyer walks in up unrepresented <affirmative>, you got a new client right there. Right,
Matthew Maschler:
Right. So you got a buyer, you had an open house, you gotta, you had a buyer, you gotta buy your lead. Yeah. And then you brought the buyer, uh, you found a, a new listing for the buyer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, he said, listen, I don’t like this house, or the house was, or, uh, can you find me something similar? You said, sure, there’s a house that’s coming soon. Um,
Staci Garcia:
It was, and it was, no, it was active with an open house schedule for Saturday and it was Thursday,
Matthew Maschler:
But by Byer loved it. Yep. And said, Hey, can we make an offer That’s so good. Uh, the, the seller accepts our offer and cancels the open house. Right.
Staci Garcia:
Okay. Exactly. So that was the scenario. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I said, well, an offer’s so good that they’ll cancel their open house. That means no one’s really seen it. I mean, we’re going into one day before it’s day one on the market and the guy gives me the code to go show them. I go show them. There’s one other guy checking out the house. It’s a great house. And, um, but the market’s a little slower. So I, it wasn’t like it was a zoo originally. I was, I was saying if you have a lockbox and you just give away the code, anyone could be there. It could be 25 people there. But here, there’s one other guy walking around in us. They say they love it. And we, we really did walk the whole property, check out the whole house. They said, make an offer cash, um, with a deadline of tomorrow, which is the day before their open house, and that they’ll accept and cancel the open house for make an offer that they can’t refuse.
And I’m like, okay. Okay. Well, the offer that I, let’s say, I’m trying to remember the numbers now cuz they’re not as as clear, but let’s say the house was, um, 4 75. Our offer was pretty much like four 60 cash. Um, as is, as is no inspection period. No inspection period, no contingencies at all. I said they really, it’s very hard to turn down that offer. It’s not a brand new house. It’s not in perfect condition and needs some work done. And I’m sure that an inspection would find some things wrong with it. But they really wanted the house and they wanted it as is. And they wanted it without that. Anyone else competing against them for price. So I, I did contact the agent. I told them I’m submitting a cash offer. I did write the offer before I even, I didn’t negotiate, you know what I mean?
Right away, I said, let’s just tell the agent a cash offers coming in. The one thing that we’re looking for is for them to accept it before the open house. That’s what, that’s what my client wanted. Right. So, um, I had this client, and this is the part I wanted to talk to you about. Okay. I had this client who I didn’t know, they walked into a place that I was selling mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they became my client. And in the same day I’m writing an offer for them. And within our offer there’s a buyer broker. So they signed that mm-hmm. <affirmative> and now I’m representing them for any purchase. Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And, um, we, we did see two properties, but this was the second one. And the seller’s agent accepts my offer that night. And the next morning, I mean, it was very exciting. It was very, I met a guy.
Yep. I put in an offer. I wrote, I met a guy, I wrote an offer, I submitted it, a cash offer, which is awesome. Uhhuh <affirmative>. And it got accepted. So that night I was like, oh my gosh, where’s my wine celebration? You know, I didn’t even do anything except I was at my listing. Wow. And I got another buyer. Um, but then the next morning the buyer texted me that he went to the house on his own and he was inspecting it himself, you know, just walking around or whatever. And he looked on Papa and he realized that on Papa, uh, said, uh, no, he looked at the property records. He did. Okay. So, excuse me. He looked at the property records, the records that are public, and he saw that it said it was a two bedroom, two bathroom, and the house that we were in was a three bedroom, two bathroom. And so then he said, well, one of those bedrooms is not legal, you know, and it permitted. So I said, well, is that a problem for you? Because you clearly can see we were in a three two. Right. And he said, um, yeah. And it’s, I wanted, I wanna buy this on a two, two price. I’m like, we already accepted, we already wrote an offer and they accepted it and now you wanna change your offer.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. He had, he has a binding contract <laugh>. So, and he wants to change the terms.
Staci Garcia:
He got a offer accepted and now he changed
Matthew Maschler:
His mind. He has a binding contract, he’s passed inspections. Um, and now he wants to change his terms. Yeah. He’s, he’s s sol.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. So I, that day I went from my very high, high of mm-hmm. <affirmative> that Thursday. Sure. To my very low, low. Um, when he said Friday morning, we don’t want this at house. We do want it, but we don’t want it at the price that we offered. We wanted a lower price because now it’s only a two, two,
Matthew Maschler:
I I do that all the time. Right. I, I wish, I wish I bought my house for less money,
Staci Garcia:
<laugh>. So I said, well, um, your offer got accepted there. They put it under contract, it’s pending. Right. And now
Matthew Maschler:
The term, the offer that you wrote with the terms that you chose was accepted by the seller. Yeah. You are now under contract. Congratulations.
Staci Garcia:
And so they said, well, we’re, we didn’t put any money down yet because they’re, their, um, deposit was due on Friday.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. Right. So you, a lot of times the first deposit’s not due until, you know, three days after the offer. This was
Staci Garcia:
One day and it was due the next day, which was that day mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And I said, well, I’m supposed to meet the person to collect the money to put it in escrow. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. And they said, we’re not giving you the money, we don’t want the house unless we can get it at a 22 price. So I did speak with the other agent and I told them they kind of wanna back out of the contract. And he was like, I’ve never heard of anything like this. I said, I, I hadn’t either. And I was really stressed out about it. Cuz I feel like my reputation is on the line for someone that I met one day ago. Right. You know what I mean? I was really pissed and I mean, I learned my lesson for sure. I mean, I like to work with people I know for this reason.
Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So I met someone, I thought it was amazing, it was too good to be true and it was too good to be true. And so Friday when they said they didn’t wanna buy this property, unless it was, you know, considerably less money, Uhhuh, <affirmative>, I said, well, that’s crazy. You’re already in a contract. And the next day was supposed to be their open house, which they canceled and they probably could get less ask price or higher. Right. Because no one else knows what, you know, you know, unless they go look it up. And in immuno they did, most people don’t really care about stuff like that. So, um, they, they, they ghosted me and
Matthew Maschler:
The buyer.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and my own cu my own customer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, didn’t answer the phone all weekend.
Matthew Maschler:
You know, that’s one of the reasons, um, in a real estate agent, say client and customer. Right. It’s one of the region reasons I really like using the word customer. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and not the word client. Client. Yeah. Why you don’t know ’em.
Staci Garcia:
That’s true.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. And if you think about what the, the
Staci Garcia:
Client, you really
Matthew Maschler:
Know them. So you know a client, you know, there’s, there’s, you know, agency relationships with Right. You know, so if, you know, if you’re, if you’re working just in a store and someone comes in and buys something mm-hmm. <affirmative>, they’re a customer. So, um, you know, technically, legally we don’t represent the buyer or seller as a single agent in Florida, we’re transaction agents, which is why the word customer has been, uh, preferred for the last 10 years. Right. Um, but just like you said, you didn’t know this person. He wanted you to write the offer. Yep. And I did. He wrote the offer. And you’re worried about your represen your reputation. Absolutely. Right. If it’s, if the person’s a customer of yours, it’s a lesser relationship than a client of yours. Right. And, uh, and, and I think it helps, uh, better define the relationship.
Staci Garcia:
Yeah. So now I know, but I mean, that was brutal two days cuz I’m not a person who likes, uh, highs and lows. So I’m wondering if there’s any way to avoid that happening to me again or anyone.
Matthew Maschler:
Well,
Staci Garcia:
Or I’ll, I’ll just fall forward. That was only two weeks ago and I haven’t heard anything since.
Matthew Maschler:
I’ll tell you, the only thing you could possibly have done different is, you know, when you deviate from the norms, right. Because you’re excited Right. You wanna make this offer that mm-hmm. <affirmative> that the seller’s gonna accept. Um, and, and, and you do something like, uh, make a, you know, make no, uh, inspection contingency. Yeah. You really, really, really want to make sure that the cu that the customer knows what it means. Because if the customer really is used to making offers and canceling mm-hmm. <affirmative> and you set ’em up that with no, with no. When they, when they, um, you know, when they say, okay, well I changed my mind because they’ve done it 20 other times. Right? Right. So you really wanna make sure when you, when you deviate from the standards mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you really, really wanna make sure it’s the customer’s decision, not your decision.
Right. And really, you wanna make sure what the, that you know, what it meant means. And you’d like to say, okay, if you sign this, it’s now a binding contract. Um, that’s actually, there’s actually something I’ve been wanting to say for, uh, for a while now to a lot of agents out there mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, offers versus contracts, uh, because people mix up the words. It’s true. And they mix up the words, uh, for two reasons. Uh, one, because, uh, the top of the page says contract, so it’s easy to call it a contract. Right. And, uh, and they mix up the words because it’s the same document, uh, that at some point is an or is is an offer and later is a contract. So someone says, I wrote a contract and it says blah, blah, blah. And, and someone asked me the question, and then I don’t know if it’s a contract or an offer.
Right. Um, and if, and if, and if they don’t know if it’s a contract or an offer, how am I gonna know? And so many times there’s so much back and forth trying to figure out the, the person asking the question, the the person answering it is trying to figure out if there’s a contract or not. Right? So let’s talk about offers. Okay. Um, oh, so let me define a contract first. A contract is a legally binding promise. Okay? Not, not a contract for real estate, just any contract. A contract, the definition of contract is a legally binding promise. So if I tell a girl, uh, that I will marry her, uh, if she does certain things for me, <laugh>, um, that, and, and then, uh, she does those things and I don’t marry her, uh, she can’t sue me to enforce a contract. It, it was just an empty promise.
It wasn’t legally binding. Um, and most promises that people make, right? If you make your bed, uh, we’ll take you to Disney World, right? Um, daddy, if you buy me a a pad, I promise to walk ’em. Uh, most promises that we make, uh, are not legally binding. Right? Um, but with certain requirements, uh, they can become legally binding and therefore the per, if you break your promise, the other person can sue you and enforce the, uh, promise. Uh, so a real estate contract is a promise. One person’s promising to buy a house, one person’s promising to sell the house. And, uh, for, for a, um, a promise to be legally binding, you need an offer, you need an acceptance of the offer, and you need, uh, consideration of the offer. Um, so, and, and it has to be in writing. Um, for, for a real estate, um, contract has to be in writing.
So who goes first in any of these situations? Um, in making the offer, it’s the buyer. The buyer makes the first offer. Now, some people would question and wonder, isn’t it the seller? Right? The seller is offering their property for sale. They’re, they hire you to list their property. You put the property in the multiple listing service, it’s now for sale. Isn’t the buyer accepting the seller’s offer of sale? No. Right? The seller is not offering the property for sale as, as a legally binding contract offer. And the problem, and for, for multiple reasons. One is what if five people, uh, accept that offer? Right now, the seller has a contract with five different people, right. Who sell the house, right? They, they obviously can’t do it. So, uh, the sellers listing the house is not an offer legally. It’s not an offer. It is an invitation to bid.
It’s an invitation to make an offer. Uh, whereas if Macy’s, uh, puts out an ad that says, uh, Levi’s jeans $29 99 cents. That is an offer by a customer can come in and expect to find those Levi jeans for, for that price of the customer comes in and the price is higher. That is called bait and switch. They can get into big trouble with the government for bait and switch. Um, if they advertise 20% off, it has to be 20% off. If you could say, you know, if if it says, you know, 50% off, you know, up to 50% off, that’s how they can get away with. As long as one is 50% off, right? Up to 50% off. But, but when Macy’s makes those, um, advertisements, when a car dealer says, uh, you can have this, have a Mazda, this Mazda for, uh, 1 99, uh, in the fine print of the advertisement, that they’ll show the vin number of that particular Mazda.
So even if, so it’s that one Mazda. It’s that one car that they’re selling for every other car is more. So, um, the, they’re, the, the advertisers and business are very careful in their advertisements, um, either not to make an offer or if they’re gonna make an offer that they are going to be bound by that offer. Limit three. Um, so the seller is, uh, placing the house for sale. They’re inviting people to make bids. The buyer moves first. The buyer makes the first bid. We call that an offer, but we write the Florida as is contract, right? We talked in episode 12 about the standard contract, right? There’s other contracts you could write. Uh, na Naples has their own contract. Jacksonville has their own contract, but statewide, uh, there’s two, uh, uh, standard offers. There’s, you know, a lawyer could write up a different offer.
Uh, the realtors at Signature, we use the Florida, uh, as his contract. Um, I have used the standard contract, um, in some situations, maybe three times mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but for most part, for most purposes, the offer is Florida as his contract. And then obviously it’s confusing. We call it an offer because, um, it says contract on it, buyer makes the offer. Uh, the seller can either accept the offer by signing and then showing everything. Send it back to the listing agent. Byron made the offer, seller accepted the offer. Now there’s a binding contract. Um, the otherwise the seller is either rejecting the offer or countering. So the counter can be written, he can, the seller can cross out and re rewrite, uh, the, the terms that they want, send ’em back to the buyer. Um, or it can be verbal. The, um, the, the seller’s agent can call me and call the buyer’s agent and say, Hey, listen, you know, um, thank you so much for your interest.
Uh, you know, you offered, uh, you know, $300,000 on an $800,000 house. Uh, obviously we’re not accepting that. Uh, but you know, we will, I’ll go down to seven 50 and here are the other terms, right? We want this closing agent, we want this, this date for the closing, et cetera, et cetera. Here is your counter offer. It’s either verbal or written. I like, as a seller, to make it written. I like to cross everything out, write everything in, sign everything. That way if the buyer wants to accept it, they merely have to sign and accept it. They don’t have to do more work. The, I I want the buyer to be able to sign. I want, I want the person I’m making the offer to, to be able to accept the offer. And by doing, uh, verbals, then the, then, then the customer can’t accept it.
Um, and then, so regardless of when it’s accepted and who, who, who makes the last deal, a lot of times, you know, now the buyer, the buyer wants to win, right? So they made their first offer the seller countered, and they just need one little thing. They need to win. I heard, I heard of an agent recently. Uh oh. It was a million dollar listing. So who knows if it’s, um, the guy had, uh, the guy had a Sirhan. Um, he had a, uh, he had a 2.8 million, uh, listing. And, um, the, he, he had a buyer and the listing was 2.8 million. No, it was his listing, definitely his listing. It was 2.8 million. He had a buyer for it. Uh, the buyer did not wanna pay full price. He agreed that 2.8 was a, was a fair price, but he did not wanna pay full price.
So he, uh, uh, Ryan Sirhan, uh, in, in the episode of Million Dollar Listing, I watched, uh, when did the analyst and raised the price, he really, he raised the price from 2.8 to 3.1 million. He made a, he made a, a new piece of paper, new flyers listed 3.1 million. He went back to the buyer and say, uh, listen, uh, bad news, uh, the, the price of this, of this condo is now 3.1 million. And the buyer agreed, 2.8 2 2, 2 0.8. Interesting. He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t pay 2.8 when it, when the house was listed for 2.8. Right. So he was happy to pay 2.8 when that, when the house was listed for 3.1. So that way he got a deal. Anyway. So some people need that last word. Um, and, uh, and remember when I said, you know, you can, there’s different terms you can negotiate mm-hmm. <affirmative>
Not needing the last word, <laugh>. It’s one of them. It is one of them. Right. Because you never know what, what the other person’s gonna do, and they may not be expecting you to accept it. So then when you accept it, the per, the person who needs the last word never thinks you’re gonna accept it. Right? Right. So when they accept it, they, they’ve, they’re, they’re, they’re surprised. Right? Sometimes you just have to accept it. Are they disappointed? Sometimes. Sometimes it’s, it’s strange, but some giving up the need for the last word is a very powerful strength. And I will sometimes use that to my advantage. I, I would know that, um, this is a person who needs to get the last word in. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Uh, so what I’ll do is I won’t make my best. Right. I’ll make my little bit less, and then they’ll, then they’ll meet me and they’ll probably meet me where I would’ve been.
Yeah. And then I accept it. Gotcha. Because I know they need the last word. I know that no matter what I say, they’re not gonna agree to it. Interesting. So I hold a little bit back because I know that they, this person needs, this is a good strategy. Yeah. Sometimes you have to know, you have to prepare, prepare the document for acceptance. Yeah. But you have to also know that this person will not accept. Right. They’d like to do something to that. So, um, so once everything is signed, every page, every addendum, everything signed, lettered, initialed, boom, that offer now becomes a contract. And the contract is binding. So you have an offer, the same document is an offer until it’s accepted. Once it’s fully accepted and signed by all the parties. Now it’s a contract. So same document, but where you are in the timeline, sometimes it’s an offer, sometimes it’s a contract.
So when you’re, you know, asking your broker me for advice, or when you’re asking, uh, Ben at Signature, or Marshall at Premier or, or, or some of our other broker friends, David [inaudible] out there, and I know he has a lot of agents, when you’re asking questions and you say, I, you know, I wrote a contract, um, I wrote an offer, right? Not until accepted is the contract. So the, so now I had a legally binded contract, legally binded contract. Now, a lot of people think that the punishment that the buyer’s punishment, if they fail to perform, if they walk away is the deposit. Right? And that’s not true. Uh, the seller has an option of, um, going after the deposit or going after actual damages. Now, a lot of times, if, especially if this deposit is significant, if the buyer defaults and doesn’t fight, um, the seller will just, and, and see the title company, the escrow agent.
The escrow agent is the person that’s holding the deposit. And it’s either a lawyer or a title agency. They’re holding the, uh, deposit does not have to be the closing agent. Um, the escrow agent is defined in the contract. The closing agent is not. Um, the contract will say who chooses and pays for the escrow agent, but it doesn’t name the escrow agent. Uh, the, who chooses and pays for the title agent, the closing agent. But it doesn’t name the, the closing agent. It names the escrow agent, and then the buyer is the one that wrote the contract. Golden rules. Um, he who has the pen, he writes the contract, he chooses his escrow agent. Um, so, and sometimes the seller will ask the, the, the buyer to change the escrow agent. So there’s money, hol money in escrow, and the escrow agent will not release it unless both sides agree.
So if the buyer agrees, right, they only put a thousand dollars down, they, they know they’re in default. They agree to let it go. The seller takes the, uh, takes the deposit, and uh, and everybody’s done. But if the buyer doesn’t agree to release the escrow, then the seller has to sue. And if the seller’s suing, the seller has to choose between the deposit amount or actual damages. And then you have to sit and think about what are the actual damages. Um, I sold a property in New Jersey when I moved to Florida. Um, the, it was a 90 day close. Cause that’s, that was pretty much standard in, in New Jersey. And the buyer defaulted at the last minute, and it was a $600,000 property with a $15,000, uh, deposit. Um, and I might’ve accepted the $15,000 deposit, but he wouldn’t release it. He was trying to get it the money back.
Uh, so I’d assume, anyway, so I assumed him for actual damages. So in the time that, uh, the, in August that we, uh, went to contract and three months later, uh, the market had went down. So my actual damages was the difference between the contract price and what I eventually sold the property for, um, which could have been $50,000. Wow. Wow. Plus the, uh, holding all the expenses from the original closing date to the new closing date. So, um, the, the mor the, the taxes and insurance, um, the, the mortgage interest, uh, the utilities, all of the expenses, uh, that ran with the house from, uh, the original closing date to the new closing date. Uh, so I put together a hundred hundred $50,000 worth of damages, uh, that I, uh, sued the buyer for. And, uh, and he eventually settled. Really? Yeah. And, uh, and I would say to him, and listen, man, it’s not the principle, it’s the money. You owe me this money. Right. And I will not let you out of it.
Staci Garcia:
Hmm.
Matthew Maschler:
So my favorite saying, it’s not the principal, it’s the money.
Staci Garcia:
Isn’t the principal the
Matthew Maschler:
Money? No, no. People say, Hey, it’s not the money, it’s the principal. I have to do this. Yeah. Right. No, it’s not the principal man. This is about money <laugh>. I am suing you for money. Right. <laugh>. So, um, so in your situation, uh, you’re buyer’s situation, just because they didn’t make a deposit doesn’t mean they’re not liable for actual damages. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Now, if the seller sells it has the open house the next day, they didn’t,
Staci Garcia:
They
Matthew Maschler:
Decided
Staci Garcia:
To
Matthew Maschler:
Keep it. Right. If the seller finds it, has the open house the next day finds a buyer at the same price or more basically the same terms, basically the same closing agent seller has no actual damages. Right. If the seller doesn’t have actual damages, well then they’re gonna wanna sue for the deposit. Right. Uh, arguably I don’t, I don’t know. I don’t know. If the deposit wasn’t made,
Staci Garcia:
Wasn’t made,
Matthew Maschler:
Can they sue? Right. I know the deposit wasn’t made. The first and the second neither deposit was made. Right. Can they sue for if there’s no actual damages and they’re suing for the deposit and there’s no deposit, do they get nothing? Do they get the amount of what the first deposit would have been? Or do they get the amount of the total amount of deposits? What can they sue for? And that’s, you, you have have to talk to a lawyer about what they can sue for, because if there are no actual damages they can sue for, uh, it’s, it’s called liquidated damages. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when a contract says, uh, how much the, how much the damages would be, so if, if the seller sued for the deposit, but the deposit wasn’t made mm-hmm. <affirmative>, uh, I don’t, I don’t know if they can sue for the deposit.
Staci Garcia:
So that was a, that was, oh, you know, obviously that was a stressful Friday. Yeah. Saturday. They never,
Matthew Maschler:
And it just, and what stinks about it is it just feels yucky. And then your relationship with the listing agent, cuz Yeah. You strung him along, it’s just, it’s, it’s, it’s tarnished based on someone you didn’t even know. Right. And it really, really sucks. You know, it did suck. I, you know, I I think it’s, uh, in the, in the catering business, if sometimes if I go to a, a party at a restaurant with a set menu or I go to a wedding and, and I don’t like the food and there’s not enough food, like I can’t say that there’s not enough. I, I don’t like it. Right? Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, you know, I don’t always hold it against the restaurant or the banquet hall. Right. I hold it against the bride and groom for making bad decisions. Right. Right. The restaurant might, might be fantastic, but the bride and groom were, you know, they were, you know, frugal or made choices and, uh, you know, and it’s not what the restaurant’s capable of.
Right. I know when I have a party, I, I pay extra to have extra servers. Right. Most people wouldn’t do that. But, you know, if the restaurant, you know, if, if, if they were on the, on the cusp of, uh, you know, if 50 people would’ve been four servers and 45 people would’ve been three servers when they’re at 47 or 48 people mm-hmm. <affirmative> does the restaurant do three or four servers. If they do three, they’re understaffed. Um, and I, I always make, I as a host, always make sure to ask the restaurant this question and make sure that they’re a little bit overstaffed. So if the restaurant’s understaffed or the, or the food is, uh, not somebody liking or the, or the amount of the food is, is, is, I don’t believe it’s sufficient. I don’t hold it across against the caterer and say, uh, they were bad.
Right. I don’t even a DJ if I don’t like the dj mm-hmm. <affirmative>, um, I don’t always think to myself, okay, don’t use this DJ because what if the host gave them weird specific instructions? I know, right? Um, I, I got, you go to a party and they play a lot of eighties music and because the host likes eighties music, but none of the kids dance. Right. At a, at a, at a, at a Bar mitzvah, um, man, that DJ sucks. He only plays 80 music and the kids don’t dance. We’re never using him. Right. Right. And, and that’s, that’s, that’s bad for, uh, bad for business. So, um, so I, you know, again, your, your customer, you know, made you look bad. Um, did you use the customer again? Are you using them for something else?
Staci Garcia:
No, I’m, they ghosted me. They ghosted you. It, I, I thought it was best because, you know what, it just threw me mm-hmm. <affirmative>, I was way off my game for a while. Yeah. And, and I thought I didn’t. Things that are too good to be true. Right. Usually are. Yeah. So that, um, and, and also, I didn’t mention this, but also that customer had dangled in front of me a listing that once we find the right place, we’re gonna give you this listing. And the listing they were gonna give me was amazing. So a lot of the things that I normally would say, oh, I don’t do that. No, we’re not gonna do that. Oh, I’m too busy. Oh, let me see if I can fit you in. I didn’t, I dropped everything in. Yeah. You know, because I saw the listing in the future. Um, so now I know
Matthew Maschler:
One, one of my internal rules, I say to, uh, to Jill and to my agents, it’s, it’s called, uh, there’s always a guy. Right. And, uh, and it’s what happened is when we first got into this business and, you know, the, maybe my employee that was doing the rehabs, he’d either slow down or do something weird. And, and the reason, and when I found out why, it’s like, because some other person told him to do something. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Right. There’s always a reason or an excuse that you didn’t do the thing that you were supposed to do. So I say, there’s always a guy, right. There’s always a reason. So you weren’t doing what you, what you knew you should have done because they were dangling this other listing in front of you. Right. Right. You have to forget all that external noise and focus and, and be true to yourself and be true to these rules and, and listen to all my podcasts <laugh> and, and follow my rules. Um, because when, when you deviate, you, there’s always a reason to deviate. Yeah. And just smack you in the face.
Staci Garcia:
It’s funny too, because I, I had a, my gut instinct was if it was a customer that I really knew a client mm-hmm. <affirmative> that I’ve worked with before, I probably would’ve just done it and not thought anything about it. Right. I second guess myself along the line. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but then I, they kept saying, no, no, we love it. We must get it. And I was like, okay, um, I’m gonna do this and here we go. I’m gonna like, cuz you can’t, I’m pulling the trigger, you can’t come back. And then they came back the next day. Right. And I was like, oh my God, I can’t believe this is like my, my worst nightmare’s coming. You
Matthew Maschler:
Can’t want it more than them. That’s the issue.
Staci Garcia:
Yes. And I you
Matthew Maschler:
Can’t want it more than them and they pumped you up. They did pump it. Right. They wanted you to get that. You
Staci Garcia:
Said to, this
Matthew Maschler:
Is what you told me to get that right. Cancel that open house. I got that open house canceled for you.
Staci Garcia:
Right. One thing I I, I was really upset and Matthew said to me, it’s not your problem. It’s
Matthew Maschler:
Not your deal,
Staci Garcia:
It’s your problem. It’s not your deal. Right. And I took it like it was my personal issue.
Matthew Maschler:
They’re gonna get sued. You’re not you. Right. And if they, and if you get sued, we’ll, we’ll, we’ll have some
Staci Garcia:
Problem with that. But also I felt like my reputation and I would never wanna do that to someone. And I’m doing to someone that I don’t want something done to me. And so, you know, I felt really guilty about it. Right, right. And pretty bad. The even the other agent was actually cool, but he said, it’s not me, it’s the owners. They want the money, you know? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Get it.
Matthew Maschler:
So, all right. So thanks for joining us on the Real Estate Finder podcast. I hope you had a very, very happy New Year. Lasha Tova. We have Young Kippur and SKO and all these other holidays coming. So, uh, feel free if you have any questions, if you’re a real estate agent or a buyer of real estate or an owner of real estate. If you have any questions, please send it into Matt at Real Estate Finder, Stacey at Real Estate Finder, uh, sales at Real Estate Finder. We will, uh, love to answer your questions on the air. Um, you know, we can keep you anonymous if you want. If you want your name shouted out, that is fine too. Uh, but, and if you’d like to be on the real estate, uh, podcast, feel free to reach out to us. We would love to have, uh, some of our friends and fans in here as our guests. Uh, Lasha Tova, happy New Year. Happy and healthy. And, uh, thanks for joining us on episode 51 Yeah. Of the Real Estate Finder podcast.
Speaker 3:
The future looks bright in the storms. Pass by the sky’s dark blue when it’s almost that time. Light shows cameras flash when I pass. Living in the moment. Forget about the past. They saved the best for last Matthew Mania. We about to make a splash. Life is a marathon full of sharp turns, gotta keep pace while the hands on the clock turns hot. Sticks. Five star. I run a show. You can tell the boss Center place electricity, energy, vibrate. I’m always on time. Even if I’m late, I make dreams come true. Living my life. You clear? I’ll give you,
Speaker 4:
You know what, you know what, you know what it is. You know what sound You know what, you know what sound is. You know what? You know what? You know what it is. You know what sound, you know what You know what it is.
Speaker 3:
You know what time it’s, you know whose time it’s, you know what time? It’s Matthew Mania. The time it says, you know what time its, you know whose time its, you know what time. Its Matthew Mania Time. It says, yeah. Scared. Can’t look. We’re not afraid of a big bad wolf. First comes.
