Matthew Maschler:
Welcome to the Real Estate Finder podcast. I’m Matthew Maschler, real estate broker with the signature real estate companies here in the great state of Florida. Uh, but the things we talk about in the show can be applicable throughout the country. I don’t know about real estate throughout the world, so I’ll just say throughout the country. Uh, but mostly, uh, we’re here in the state of Florida and I’m here with my, uh, real estate partner of 17 years. Jill Glanzer. Hi, Jill.
Jill Glanzer:
Hi, I’m Jill Glanzer. I’m a realtor with Signature Real Estate Finder, and I’ve been a realtor since 2006 and have been working with Matt since 2011.
Matthew Maschler:
And we also have in the studio Preston Smith. Hi Preston. Hello.
Preston Smith:
Hello. Yes, I’m Preston Smith. I am also with Signature Real Estate Finder.
Matthew Maschler:
He joined the team about six months ago. <laugh>.
Preston Smith:
Yeah, that sounds about right. Sounds
Matthew Maschler:
About right. A lot longer.
Jill Glanzer:
<laugh>
Preston Smith:
<laugh>.
Matthew Maschler:
All right. All right. You know, um, we were just thinking about just, you know, the, the thing about being a real estate agent, there is certain jobs where, you know, you wake up in the morning, you go to your job, you do your job, you kind of have a good outline of what the day is gonna look for, specific reports that are due at certain times, submissions, and you have a good iter. And, you know, I say, um, you know, being a real estate agent, it’s not like being a bus driver where you have a specific route and have to be at a specific place at a specific time. And it’s dependable. It’s more like being a fireman where you go to work and you have an idea of what you’re gonna do, but then emergencies happen, alarms go off, and you end up running in a million directions no matter how, um, how much planning or how hard you try to follow a schedule.
Jill Glanzer:
And that’s why we love it, <laugh>.
Matthew Maschler:
And that’s why it’s exciting and that’s why it gets the heart pumping <laugh>. So, uh, so we’re talking about one-offs, right? Things that you haven’t seen before or heard of before or, or, or what just happened to you, Joe?
Jill Glanzer:
Right. So I ha I am representing a seller. Matthew and I are representing a seller for a house in Coconut Creek. And we have, um, a great buyer who everything’s been going smooth, got through the inspection, and they got their appraisal cuz they’re buying, they’re getting it with a loan. And we just got, I just got a call from the buyer’s agent that said, listen, I have good news and bad news. The appraisal came through the house appraised for the purchase price, no problem there, but the appraisal is subject to da da da da. Two things I’ve never heard of this. One thing was the appraiser wanted to make sure that there was no, because the roof was old and he saw previous leaks, possibly that there’s no mold in the house. And then also there was some exposed wires from, um, the smoke detectors that had been removed that needed to be covered. So those smoke detectors needed to be replaced and they needed a roofer to come out to make sure that the home, the roof is okay, that it’s free from leaks and that there’s no mold or water intrusion in the home. And then once they get that, someone
Matthew Maschler:
Okay, someone interrupt you. Yeah. So that seems strange to me. Right. You know, I try to stay in my role, my lane and let mortgage brokers and appraisers and inspectors stay in their lane to me. Right. The the appraiser. What’s the appraiser’s job? Find out how much the property is worth. Right? Right. Because the bank is considering making a loan. So how much is the property worth so that the bank is comfortable making the loan If the roof, if there’s a problem with the roof, right. You, you just say that the house is worth less. Right. So I’m curious why the appraiser here is stepping out of his lane of tell me the value of the house. And he’s moving into the lane of talking about the condition of the house. And maybe there’s some parameters that the, the bank of the lender says to the appraiser, if you see these following things, we’re not gonna lend. So be on the lookout for, and then, and then the appraiser’s, you know, giving you some advice and say, Hey listen, you know, the, the bank’s not gonna lend regardless of what the house is worth. The bank’s not gonna lend because of X, Y, and Z. So please fix, fix X, Y, and Z and then I’ll finish the appraiser. I’m assuming that that’s what happened here. Uh, but I don’t know. Is this, were, were you familiar with the appraiser at all? Did
Jill Glanzer:
You I was not familiar with the appraiser at all and never happened to me before. So here’s what the buyer’s agent said. He said, I think that the appraiser was there training another appraisal. Oh, appraiser. And that maybe he was using it as an example. He kind of suspected that, but I’ve just never heard of it.
Matthew Maschler:
Also, what type of loan was it?
Jill Glanzer:
It’s a regular conventional loan because I also thought it was fha because this is very common, like with an FHA or a VA approval. Right. You have to go through a special inspections and in that case they will say, we’re not going to lend on this home or give this FHA loan or this VA loan if the following things aren’t fixed. But that’s different because there’s different addendums, you know, starting out in the transaction. You’re very aware of that as a seller. Whereas in this case it was a regular conventional loan. Mm-hmm.
Matthew Maschler:
<affirmative>. And, um, what is, uh, what is an FHA loan?
Jill Glanzer:
FHA is Federal Housing Administration Loan. So it’s backed by fha. Yeah. I don’t know if I’m using the right terminology. Yeah,
Matthew Maschler:
It, it’s, but it’s three and a half percent down. So a lot of Correct. A lot
Jill Glanzer:
Of first time home buyers.
Matthew Maschler:
It’s a program for first time home buyers
Jill Glanzer:
And or home buyers that haven’t bought a home in a long time. Yeah. And wanna take advantage of that program. Gotcha.
Matthew Maschler:
Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. So, um, so yeah, so even though we’ve been doing this for a very long time, all of a sudden you have an appraiser that comes somehow starts acting as a home inspector and starts busting your chops and trying to make, uh, make a problem, uh, out of nothing <laugh> on a real estate deal. So what about you, Preston? Anything, uh, anything come across your desk
Preston Smith:
Recently that was just surprising or out of the ordinary or three for loop? Um, I wouldn’t say necessarily, well, recently, like in the last six months, I just remember a particular story that I experienced with someone. Um, I met this customer through a friend and they referred me, um, referred them to me. It was a rental. And what had happened was the landlord, if I recall correctly, was like getting a divorce. And so the investment property she needed to move back into, and she also had a child and so she needed that property. And so she let the tenant know like, Hey, I need to get, you know, I need to move back so you need to find, you know, a property, a different place to live. I’m not gonna renew the lease. She’s like, sure. And so her lease was, we, we thought was supposed to be over in like January, February.
And she had asked the landlord, you know, if I find something sooner. Cause we started looking around like October, November, you know, if I find something sooner, is it okay that I, I just leave? And you know, we call it that and the landlord’s like, yeah. So we found her a place. She also happened to have like, not great credit and she had a, uh, bankruptcy on her record. So it was a little bit of a challenge finding the right community cuz that’s just, you know, it’s hard for a landlord to uh, accept that. Um, and so we found a place that worked and accepted her and then she got the lease signed and then the landlord backed off on what she had said. So she wasn’t okay with her leaving early and was gonna take her deposit. And so she was like super, super stressed out.
And um, then I took, I was like, Hey, why don’t you send me, send me the lease just so that I’m, you know, curious to see what, to make sure the dates are right. And, um, come to find out that the lease was from the previous years and they never signed a new lease. So she was technically month to month mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So she had no obligation to um, stay stay to stay. Yeah. So it was like, it was, it was a breath of fresh air cuz he was like super stressed and not in a good, um, financial position. I mean she was decent, but it’s like she couldn’t afford to do that one month. So it was, you know, it was, it was a good learning lesson to make sure that, you know, if you’re a tenant, uh, you know, get, get a lease signed or um, if you know, if you need a place to stay for a long term
Jill Glanzer:
Or if you don’t get a lease signed, know that you didn’t get a lease signed. Yeah. So that you’re not stressed when you just want to get out because then you’re only on a month-to-month term. But what happens is people get into their lives, right? Yeah. Yeah. And they keep living their lives and they forget what they did. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> and they’re paying their bills and they think everything’s okay, but they don’t really know, they didn’t sign a lease cuz maybe the community didn’t require it. Maybe the landlord didn’t require it, but the landlord kind of like assumes, oh well they’re in, in it for another year lease, they forgot to even renew it. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>. So it’s, it’s pretty, uh, I guess you really have to stay informed <laugh>.
Preston Smith:
Yeah. Yeah. And it was really a luck of the draw too. Cause it would’ve been really difficult navigating that if she did have the, you know, did have the, because she
Jill Glanzer:
Didn’t get it in writing. Yeah. The person was nice. Agreed. You’d think, oh I know somebody. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I’m working with them. I’ve lived in their place property for a long time. Mm-hmm. <affirmative> you think to yourself, oh, you know, everything’s okay. I trust them and then they kind of change their mind on you. Yeah.
Preston Smith:
So it’s, you know, it’s a, it’s a, you know, multiple lessons in that to make sure that you get everything in writing. Right. You know, even, even with, even with family and friends, you know, get it in writing just so you have expectations that are set and no one can, you know, go against them and change their mind cuz it’s, handshakes don’t really work nowadays.
Jill Glanzer:
No, very true.
Matthew Maschler:
It’s sad that they don’t work nowadays. Uh, something that you said, um, just rang, rang, staying in my head about picking the right communities. Mm. Jill what do you think, um, about the importance of picking the right communities?
Jill Glanzer:
So I have, I’m actually working with a customer that lives in another state and she comes down periodically to look at properties because she’s getting ready. Sometimes the process takes a while and her big thing is she just wants something redone. Right? Beautiful white kitchen, beautiful glossy floors. So she’ll just go on Zillow and find all these properties and she sends ’em to me and they all look alike and they’re gorgeous, totally renovated and she wants to see ’em. But what she’s not looking at is communities, right. So then when she comes down and we start looking at the renovated properties that she’s so excited about, she realizes, wait a minute, I’m not crazy about this location. I’m not crazy about the regulations in this community, or I don’t like, you know, the amenities that are here. I’m not crazy about the type of people that might not be my kind of people.
So I think a lot of times people get take carried away by the, the appearance of a property rather than thinking about where it’s located, where the community is, and what it has to offer and the type of people that you may or may not jive with. So I think it is more of a, it takes a lot of research. You know, your first thought might be to find something that’s pretty, and a lot of times you don’t always wind up, you have to sacrifice something, right. So you have to, you may have to, you may decide I like a community and I may not get exactly the renovated property I imagined, but this community suits me well and I love it. And so I’m gonna buy a property that might need a little bit of work and over time I’ll do the work. But I’m happy with the community
Matthew Maschler:
When I would come down to Boca Raton, uh, with my dad in the eighties and nineties. Um, and then when I first started, you know, being a home buyer and watching his home process, you know, and I asked him, I go, dad, do you choose the club? There’s a lot of country clubs here. You use a club. Do you choose the club that you want? And then the house, or do you look for houses first and then the club you want? He goes, Matt, you have to choose the club first. Right. It’s very expensive and it’s your whole lifestyle. And I thought it was very, um, it stuck with me, right? It’s very important in this area of the world and, and I think in a lot of areas to figure out where you wanna live first and then what house. And obviously it was a problem, you know, in 2021 and 22 when there was just no inventory.
Um, but it’s a problem with, you know, people who think they can do it themselves. They don’t need a professional, they book their own airline tickets, et cetera. Now to put a lot of travel agents outta business, but just looking at houses online, uh, and not understanding the communities mm-hmm. <affirmative> could put you at a real disadvantage here in Boca Raton because on the one hand a lot of people see, oh, a four bedroom, three bathroom house in the center of town for a reasonable price. You know, let me go look at it. And then they find out it’s in one of these mandatory membership clubs and there’s no way they can afford it. And, and they don’t even want that product. The club product. Uh, I call that a unicorn, right? When you have these listings that you get tons and tons and tons of phone calls on tons of showing requests, but from people who can’t afford it and wouldn’t want to join the club.
And, and then conversely, you know, you have, you know, communities that um, may not be as desirable, um, and the comps from the desirable communities will show that the the appraiser will, will, will, will use the same, uh, same math to figure it out. But that’s what happened when our inventory got eaten up over the last few years. Um, someone saw a five bedroom house and in, in one of the lesser desirable communities, and, but they just saw it as a five bedroom house. And they looked at comps, they said, oh, houses in the oaks and houses in the bridges communities are going for five bedroom houses are going for 2 million. This house is 1 million. It’s the same five bedrooms. I’m getting a deal. But those houses that those were $600,000 houses that people all of a sudden were started buying for a million dollars.
So because they saw it online and then they, and they came in and they went to the listing agent directly, or, or they, or they thought they could do it themselves. They thought they could save some money. Um, and they, they didn’t need a professional. And, uh, you know, on, on the converse side, right? I advise someone not to buy that billion dollar house and then a bunch of houses sell and then that becomes the new price. Um, so, so you gotta be very careful with your conservatism sometimes. But, um, but it’s important to use an expert to, um, to identify and understand the differences from one community to another. Cuz cuz it could be substantial. Yeah. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>.
Jill Glanzer:
Yeah. I mean, a lot of times one community won’t allow any pets. And let’s say you have a cat mm-hmm. <affirmative>, but you love like five houses in there. And if you’re not using a realtor who can, you can bounce ideas off of who you send properties to. And then I always like when a customer is already set up, like I, I will, what I will do, and I don’t wanna call it a safe search because that doesn’t mean anything, but I like to send customers product that matches their criteria. And their criteria can be very specific. Like they have one cat, right? So they have to have a community that allows a cat, right? Yeah. But, and I’ll set them up, they’ll be getting properties automatically from me through my mls and then they don’t send me properties back that I sent them. They’ll send me stuff from Zillow and I always ask myself this question instead of just showing it to them or immediately, you know, helping them with that property.
I immediately asked myself, why was this not in my search? Because a lot of times they might like something but it wouldn’t work for them. Maybe it’s a 55 and up community and they’re not 55, so they wouldn’t even qualify. But they sent me a property from the 55 and up. Now I have to be smart enough to understand why they didn’t get that from me and why that’s not gonna be the right fit for them. So it’s really like educating them. You really can’t stop your customers from going on Zillow because that’s, uh, such a beautiful site, right? They want to go on Zillow, they wanna go on realtor.com and they wanna look for themselves because people have agency now and they’re able to pretty much do that with everything in their life, right? So they do wanna do it with real estate as well, but there’s always gonna be a reason why what they’re sending you might not be the right fit for them. And you have to be the one to educate them. And if they don’t have an agent working with them, they don’t have anybody to bounce ideas. And then they’re just calling listing agents going and seeing properties that isn’t even the right fit for them.
Matthew Maschler:
We talked about this a few weeks ago about, you know, the save search, um, and something in their criteria, um, comes on the market. My example was a li a listing we had in Seven Bridges that didn’t have a pool. So I thought that a lot of, um, safe searches that required a pool, uh, nobody would know that the, that my listing hit the market. And it might have, um, satisfied a lot of, a lot of, uh, people’s requirements. But if the, uh, if the safe search was set to require a pool, they wouldn’t, that person wouldn’t get, uh, on their safe searches maybe on, and then maybe they’d go to Zillow and put in, you know, five bedrooms in Bo Raton and then, and find the house and say to the agent, Hey, how come you didn’t show me this one? Well, it didn’t have a pool, but there’s a solution if you want a pool.
Right. You can order a pool. Yeah. They could be put in. It’s not, it’s not impossible. And we have good, uh, good people. In fact, uh, one of my flip houses, I’m, I’m putting in a pool I never thought I’d pull, put in a pool, but, uh, one of my flip houses and, and you know, I bought it before the market went haywire. And so there’s so much room for profit and I, I already, and I said, okay, I’ll use some of that money and, and put the pool in. Um, cuz I think when I go to salad, it’s really gonna, you know, show nicely and finish nicely and uh, show someone that Florida dream of, uh, of, of coming, you know, coming to Florida and uh, something I learned from Frank McKinney right. To, to make the house, to finish the house. My father taught me, you know, don’t finish the house, let the buyer do it.
But the buyers don’t have the imagination, right? So if the house is perfect and beautiful and I put it in the pool, it’s gonna be a real, uh, I really, the formula is right. How much can I get for the house mm-hmm. <affirmative> versus if I do this thing at a pool or Right. How much, how much would that, how much would that, how much would I then get for the house? Right? And that difference, what’s the cost of putting the pool in? So if the cost of the putting the pool in is 75,000, but I’d only get 50,000 more for the house, not worth it. But if I get 1 25 more for the house, then the question is, is the time, energy, and effort of putting in the pool worth that $50,000? It may or may not be. Uh, but I think here on, on this one, cuz maybe I’ll turn it into a rental or an Airbnb mm-hmm. <affirmative>. Um, but um, and in any of those cases it might need the pool or I’ll probably just sell it without the
Jill Glanzer:
Pool. Yeah. I think the one you’re talking about, definitely a pool will add to it. Yeah. And, and make it even greater value than what you spend.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. But if I spend 75,000 and it takes me four months,
Jill Glanzer:
Then you’re losing out on four months of income that you could have had.
Matthew Maschler:
Right. And then the question is, and and, and I’m getting a hundred thousand back then I, then I break even. So
Jill Glanzer:
Yeah. So that’s, but longer term it might be the best right choice still.
Matthew Maschler:
Right? Right. So, um, we’re, we’re gonna cut it here because as I said, uh, we have, um, emergencies as firemen in the real estate business and our phones are blowing up on a particular deal that we have to tend to. So we’re going to, uh, unless did you have one more story that you wanted?
Preston Smith:
Um, it, it wasn’t necessarily a story, but just some of the points that like mm-hmm. <affirmative>, when you talked about lifestyle, Jill was talking about, um, like intuitiveness as an agent. And then there was another point, um, I couldn’t remember what you said, but I was just gonna make the point that like a lot of people that I worked with over the years, and it was one of the first lessons I learned with the first deal is that, um, like some people don’t know how to articulate what they want at first. They know what their price is, they know a brief idea of their location, um, and they’re like, oh, I want something that’s pretty or that’s nice or whatever. But it’s, it’s hard for them to put into detail what they really want. So like, as an agent, it’s really important to, you know, pay very, very close attention to what people are liking and not liking and like digging, get more answers on, you know, what their experience is so far of what they’ve seen.
Because sometimes they may not even think to say, Hey, I, I I don’t like this or I do like this. And I even have like a buddy I’m working with now, like he’s, he’s a little stressed cuz he kind of doesn’t know what he wants cuz he’s, he’s, his budget is fine. Um, the, the issue is trying to find the right location for him because he works down in Miami, but he can take the, the bright line and is just trying to figure out like, you know, what’s most important to you. I, I, I tell people I like to start with like motivation and lifestyle. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, you start from there and you just, every place that you see, you just just compare it to what you know, what your wants are. And if it’s not quite there, then you adjust. Yeah. Depending what, you know, know your motivation is.
Jill Glanzer:
And I think sometimes people just don’t know what they don’t want or want mm-hmm. <affirmative> until they see it. Yeah. Yeah. Like this customer that I’m working with, she was sending me all these beautiful renovated places and we were looking at them and she liked the units, but then she realized, you know, I don’t think I want a condo. I think I want a villa or a single family home. But she didn’t know that at the, at first. Mm-hmm. <affirmative>, she thought I could be okay with this. But until you actually have your boots on the ground and walking around and looking and really getting a feel and having an emotional reaction to things, you don’t really understand what it is that you want or don’t want. And that’s why to me, I take my job very seriously cuz I feel like there’s like nuances that people don’t understand. It’s not just a widget. Yeah. It’s, it’s in a place, it has a feeling. So you really have to again, have really good intuition mm-hmm. <affirmative> and understanding of the person you’re working with.
Preston Smith:
Yeah. And, and it helps to have like an agent that’s, you know, not, uh, trying to put all that work on you as far as, I mean we’re, you know, you make the decision ultimately as the customer, but sometimes customers do need a little bit of guidance, ma making decisions and you put your input, um, where necessary to help them get to that point of finally pulling the trigger.
Jill Glanzer:
Like noticing like, you know, I’m getting the feeling cuz every time you walk in you don’t like walking up the stairs. You don’t like going in the elevator to go to the condo. Yeah. I kind of notice like, you don’t seem that excited about being in a condo. Yeah. I think sometimes saying that can help them because if they know that you’re wrong, for example, you could be right or wrong. Right? Yeah. You might be reading them wrong, but if you’re wrong, they’ll know. Yeah. Because they’ll say, no, you’re wrong. I’m just having a rough day and I really do want a godo. Or you know what, you’re right. I didn’t think of it that way. Yeah.
Preston Smith:
Yeah. So it’s, it’s amazing, fun, interesting journey. It
Jill Glanzer:
Is. It really is.
Matthew Maschler:
All right. All right. So thanks for joining us on the Real Estate Finder podcast. I’m Matthew ler. We’ll talk next week.
Speaker 4:
The future looks bright and the stones pass by the sky’s dog. Blue. When it’s almost that time, light shows cameras flash when I pass living in the moment, forget about the past. They save the best for last Matthew Mania. We about to make a splash. Life is a marathon full of sharp terms, gotta keep pace while the hands on the clock turns hot Sticks. Five star real estate. 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. The sing for you success in my sights got a real clear view. If you dunno the time, I’ll give you a clue.
Speaker 5:
You know, it’s, you know what, you know what, you know what you know, you know, you know, you know what, you know what time it is. You know what, you know what you know what time it,
Speaker 4:
You know what time. You know what time. It’s Matthew Mania. The time it says, you know what time it’s, you know whose time it’s, you know what time its mania. The time it says yeah. Got shook scared. Look, we’re not afraid of the big bad walk. First comes.
