September 12, 2025 • 30 mins
Episode Summary
In this episode of the Paper Trail Podcast, we sit down with Nicole Merriman, a top real estate agent with eXp Luxury in Las Vegas, to explore the critical role agents play in the note investing world. Nicole shares her journey from hospitality to real estate, how she navigated unique challenges during COVID, and why she’s committed to helping investors and homeowners achieve success with integrity and creativity.
Through real-life stories, including complex foreclosure transactions and unconventional properties, Nicole reveals the importance of responsiveness, common sense, and compassion when managing high-stakes deals. Her hands-on approach, problem-solving skills, and dedication to going above and beyond make her a standout professional in the industry.
Whether you’re an investor, lender, or real estate professional, this episode offers actionable insights into navigating tricky properties, working with buyers and sellers, and the value of having a reliable, knowledgeable agent on your team.
Resources & Contact:
- Nicole Merriman – eXp Luxury: Call/Text: 734-512-9324 - Connect with Nicole for expert guidance on Las Vegas luxury and investment properties
- Paper Trail Conference: Join us September 18–20 in Chandler, AZ for more education, networking, and actionable strategies for note investors Register Here
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:41):
Welcome back, everybody, toanother episode of the Paper Trail
podcast.
Today I'm with my rock starreal estate agent who helped us out
of.
I'll call it a little bit of ajam several months ago.
Nicole Merriman with Exp Luxury.
Nicole, how are you today?
Hi.
I'm doing great, Chris, howare you?
Good.
So I'll add a little backstoryto this and then we'll roll into
(01:06):
Nicole and.
And her experience as anagent, how she got into it.
But I just want to start with.
For anybody who is in the noteinvestment space, an agent, if you
take a property back, is asimportant or more important than
your servicer during theservicing or your attorney during
that whole process.
(01:27):
They actually are moreimportant because they set the price,
they set the potential, havepotential buyers.
They.
They are so critical and Ithink it's often overlooked.
So I wanted to share thatgoing into this recording because
we're going to talk abouteverything Nicole did for us and
what we appreciated comparedto some of the things that we've
seen in the past.
So with that being said, I'vetalked you up already a lot.
(01:49):
Nicole, why don't you tellpeople a little bit about how you
got into being an agent,because I found this story pretty
interesting.
In regards to what.
Why you got into this space.
Well, thank you.
So I am in the Las Vegas areaand Las Vegas is huge for hospitality.
So I envisioned that was whatthe rest of my life was going to
(02:13):
be like.
Hospitality industry.
During COVID that slowed to a stop.
We were the last people to goback to work.
I was saving up to purchase myown house and Las Vegas.
In the Las Vegas industry, wehave an agreement with the IRS based
(02:34):
on the tips coming in duringCOVID that slowed to about, I'd say,
five to ten dollars an hour.
So I didn't have any proof ofincome yet.
I had cash.
The place that I was rentingwas sold from underneath me.
Just, you know, I was on monthto month, 30 day notice and the place
was gone.
The place that I had beenrenting for two to three years, and
(02:57):
that was pretty common back in2020, 2021.
So as a single woman withshowing no income for the last two
years in a stack of cash, Iwent to apply for rentals.
I applied to maybe five, sixdifferent places and property managers
were increasing application fees.
(03:20):
Multiple applications onproperties we were getting denied.
Uh, I asked my dad if he couldcoach sign for me because he had
the income, and he said, nope,you're on your own.
Figure it out.
Um, so the last place that Iwent to, I had a stack of cash.
I put it on the counter.
I said, please, you're my last hope.
Let me rent this place.
Please.
Um, and that's how I ended upstaying in Vegas.
(03:40):
And I promised that I wouldget into the industry and try to
make a change so agents wouldstop taking advantage of people during
crisis.
Crisis.
So a.
That is an awesome story, andit kind of, I think, reflects in
regards to your personalityand style.
(04:01):
And how we got connected waswe had a foreclosure property in
Henderson, and it was a largerproperty, a seven figure property.
And it was a property whereinstead of using a third party company
that finds a local agent, Iwent online and just started messaging
people who had listings inthat area.
(04:24):
And I probably messaged sevenor eight agents.
And Nicole, you want to guesshow many actually replied to me?
Oh, man, Chris, I thought Iwas the first person you messaged.
How many?
Go ahead.
You.
I think you were second personI messaged.
You were one of two to reply.
(04:46):
And I remember theconversation we had of you're like,
oh, I'll go stop by the property.
I'll go do this.
I'll go look at that.
And, you know, it's prettymuch occupied.
And I was like, wow, thisperson's like, you know, wants this
listing.
You know, sometimes there'sagents who are like, oh, okay, another
(05:07):
listing.
Then you wanted it.
And one of my kind ofbackgrounds that I think I mentioned
this to you in the past islike, no, we joke how we do due diligence
on everybody.
And, you know, so I started looking.
I'm like, okay, who is thisNicole Merriman person?
And you know what?
I remember one of the firstthings I mentioned to Larissa was,
you know, I'm like, oh, we gotto hire this agent.
(05:29):
You want to know what it was?
The reason I wanted to.
I'm going to take a guess.
Was it my motorcycle?
Yes.
I saw that.
I saw Nicole races motorcycles.
And for, you know, people, youknow, I'll call it the ones where,
like, you're going around acorner, like 100 plus miles an hour,
where your knee is like a halfinch above the ground.
That's what Nicole does.
(05:50):
So we're just like, damn, she does.
You know, then I know youworked hospitality and everything
else, but, you know, I thinkone of the things that we appreciate.
And I'll let you talk a littlebit more about, you know, kind of,
you know, what are some of thefirst things when somebody sends
a listing to you or wants toget interested in listing.
(06:13):
What are some of the thingsthat you would consider common sense?
Because I think common senseis not so common in regards to.
Now, if somebody sent you,hey, I'm considering listing my property
at, you know, 123 Main Street.
You know, what are some of thefirst things you do as an agent?
First thing I do is pick upthe phone and call.
(06:34):
And I think that's what I did.
I called you back, and thenyou said you would contact me later,
text me back right away, andso that you'd contact me later.
And then I looked up theproperty to see where it was.
Then I looked you up, and I. Ijust, you know, do do a little rundown
to make sure this isn't awaste of time or a fake lead that's
(06:54):
coming in.
And I saw the property and Iwas like, wow, this is beautiful.
This has a lot of potential.
It looked beautiful.
So that's the interestingthing is a picked up the phone and
called, which again, trying toget an agent to respond.
(07:15):
I don't know if it's just meand people don't like me, which I
know people don't, but justgetting a response from people sometimes
is so challenging.
And you were a very responsive.
You also were very upfront inregards to, hey, I don't know what
this property.
Without knowing the interiorcondition, I can't tell you what
(07:36):
it's worth.
So you weren't giving us anumber to, say, 2.5 million without
seeing it, which some agentsdo to get a listing and then come
back and say, oh, I thought itwas in this condition.
So that was another componentthat was really interesting about
this.
And so let's tell a little bitmore about the story, because this
(07:58):
one was craziness throughoutfrom the moment we foreclosed on
it, which we almost had itsold prior to foreclosure, but then
we foreclosed on it.
And do you remember the timeyou called me because we filed an
eviction and you were meetingthe borrower over or somebody over
(08:19):
at the property?
Do you remember this?
I do remember that, yes.
So why don't you tell a littlebit about this story?
Because this was just mind blowing.
As a lender, like, oh, man,what do you do?
Well, Larisa reached out to meand said.
And asked me to get in contactwith someone named Evelyn.
Evelyn was not the.
(08:40):
Maybe we should cut that outbecause she's a minor.
Her name.
Yeah, we'll cut that out.
So, okay.
Yep.
So Larisa had contacted me andshe had given me a name of somebody
to get in contact with at theproperty and see if I can get any
information.
The name of the person shegave me was not the bower.
The borrower.
The name of the person shegave me was not the borrower.
(09:01):
Oh, my gosh.
I can't say it.
Okay, let's try it again.
Try it again.
Go ahead.
Okay, so Larisa had gotten incontact with me, and she'd given
me the name of someone to tryto talk to or try to get in contact
with to get some more information.
The name of the person shegave me was not the borrower.
The name.
And.
(09:22):
Okay, so Lisa had contacted meto try to get some more information.
She gave me the name and thephone number of somebody to try to
get in contact with about the.
About the property.
The name of this person wasnot the person on.
On my gosh.
(09:47):
Borrower stuff today.
Yes, the borrower.
The borrow.
Okay, say.
Was not the owner.
Was not the owner.
Okay.
The.
So Larisa.
Larisa got in contact with me,and she gave me a name of a person
to try to reach out to.
I had called.
This person was not their own,the owner of the house.
(10:10):
So I asked her for a littlebit of information.
I asked her if I could maybestop by and see the house.
And first of all, I wanted tobe really, really sensitive because,
you know, the family isgetting foreclosed on, so there might
be some negative or, you know,there might be some animosity.
(10:30):
Yeah, okay, deep breath.
There might be some animosity.
So I wanted to be reallycareful about how I approached this
situation.
So I met.
I met this person at the property.
She said that she was runninga little late from school and she
would be there shortly.
I figured she went to maybeUNLV or csn, one of the universities
(10:51):
out here.
When she got home, she told methat she was coming from her high
school.
So this person was actually aminor, a junior in high school living
on the property.
Her.
Her dad was currently incarcerated.
Yeah, he was currently incarcerated.
(11:13):
She was very polite.
She showed me around the house.
I reached out to you andLarisa, and I believe you stopped
the foreclosure process.
We had foreclosed.
It was the eviction.
So we were evicting her.
Yeah, we were evicting her asa tenant because we had already foreclosed.
And it was, I think, rightaround, like, Labor Day, where we
basically said, okay, evictionwas going to happen on, like, September
(11:36):
1st or roughly around it.
And then you Reached out and was.
Told me this, and we're like,okay, I'm not evicting this person.
And I think I'll let you tella little bit more about the property
and the condition.
Actually, I think she waskeeping it a little better kept than
her family was.
(11:57):
Yes.
So another thing, in Nevada,if you don't have a tenant agreement
in place, then you canbasically just call the police and,
you know, get rid of peoplewho are squatting on the property.
So you guys were in everyright to foreclose and evict whoever
was on the property.
Yet I think compassion was abig player in all of this.
(12:19):
So when I went to theproperty, she was very thankful that
we were working with her.
We were being kind to her.
We were letting her stay whileher mother found a place.
She.
When.
When I came in, she had aspecial needs brother and she was
taking care of him.
She had the entire houseclean, was wiping things down, offered
(12:42):
me, you know, a cold water.
She.
She was very.
Just so appreciative of thekindness that everyone extended to
her.
And wasn't there a prior whenthe house was listed that somebody
had gone through and was like,oh, this is the same house?
Because they had chickens anddogs and other animals on the property
(13:03):
as well?
Yes.
So once we didn't find thisout until we got into escrow, but
there was.
Well, we knew there was someanimals from talks of the neighbors
around the property.
You know, it was a horse property.
It was zoned for.
It is zoned for horses.
We didn't know that they werekeeping chickens in the crawl space,
the crawl spaces in the basement.
(13:24):
So once we got into escrow andhow much can I disclose about this?
As much as you like.
Okay.
I don't know what the.
I don't know what the rulesare, but there was.
We had an inspection done andnothing was found in the crawl spaces.
Everything checked out.
I mean, there was.
There was a long list ofeverything else on the inspection
(13:45):
report, but crawl spacesseemed fine there.
I think there was a little bitof, like, leakage from the irrigation
system that we had corrected.
We got into escrow pretty quick.
I think from list to accepted offer.
It was 11 days or eight daysor something like that.
It was pretty quick for.
For full asking price.
After the renovations, thebuyer asked to meet at the property
(14:08):
so he could show his children the.
The property that they weregoing to be moving into.
When I showed up and I met thebuyer's agent because it was pretty
unconventional for them to askto see the Property again, while
we were in escrow during this.
This due diligence period.
You know, they had been to theproperty a few times already.
They walked around the crawlspaces, and he was taking pictures
(14:32):
of things and like, all right,come on, we gotta go.
You know, he had his owninspection report done.
Well, he had messaged hisinspector and sent the pictures that
he had taken with his cell phone.
And there.
There was a picture of some eggs.
And he said that he had seenthe property before.
He knew that there waschickens in the crawl space.
Here's some eggs.
(14:53):
Here's evidence.
Had them included in thisinspection report, which is very
unethical.
And then threatens to get anenvironmental inspection if we didn't
comply with his asks and.
And threatened to pull out ofthe deal.
So we would have to just.
He's basically playing realestate agents.
So he threatened to pull outof the deal and threatened that we
(15:17):
would have to disclose it onthe SRPD Once he pulled out, I called
his bluff and I said, listen,this is really unethical what you
did.
We can throw this entireinspection report away.
So that's that, and then weclose the deal.
So we, you know, did close thedeal, which I think it broke the
sales record for that area.
(15:39):
Now, between.
So the story with, call it,the tenant was.
We gave her additional timebecause she was moving in with a
friend.
And then she cleaned out, goteverything out but the property itself.
I remember when you went andwalked through, it was.
Oh, boy, it was dated.
(16:00):
It had, like, bright yellowand orange walls.
The bathrooms were 1980s fixtures.
And Nicole was basicallytelling us, look, you can sell it
as is, but you're going to getmaybe like a little over a million
dollars for it becausenobody's going to want to come in
and do all this work.
(16:22):
So we end up finding acontractor, which, lo and behold,
I found the contractor.
I don't know if you know the story.
I actually put a job ad on,like, LinkedIn or indeed looking
for a construction manager.
And as part of that process,Christina reached out and says, hey,
(16:44):
I used to work for xyz.
I can manage this.
And then I reached out and shewent and walked it with angel and
then came back and was like,hey, look, I can do the entire job
if you want, with my husbandfor this price.
And we had gotten some otherquotes, and.
And the other quotes weresignificantly higher than their quote
came in.
And those.
(17:04):
A lot of other quotes.
I think, again, look at theproperty and they just see dollar
signs.
And so we end up reaching anAgreement with another party.
But what was great about thisrelationship and one of the things
that I give Nicole kudos forwas now being some eyes and ears
for us, which most agentsdon't do to go check in on the property.
(17:28):
How's it look?
What's the.
What's it look like?
For example, getting itcompleted near the finish line, making
sure it's cleaned.
And I don't know how manytimes you probably had to clean it
for us as well because it gotdusty again.
Nicole also is very handy onelectrical, so she fixed our garage
(17:48):
gates on the property orassisted as an agent.
You helped us with the garagedoors and finding a vendor.
You found a pool vendor for us.
So I mean, everything you didwas well above and beyond what a
typical agent would do, whichis very appreciative.
And if you can find an agentlike that, it's.
(18:10):
You hold on to them and makesure that a.
Anyone ever asked forsomebody, it's like this is who you
use because they basicallyyour mindset in my mind was this
property is mine as well, andI want to see it through and get
it to the finish line.
(18:31):
Which you did.
And at times also I was like,screw the buyer.
Let's just walk.
Because he was trying to holdus hostage.
Remember the other buyer who.
How many times did that guy goout to the property?
Oh, yeah, some guy got on a plane.
He called me when he was on aplane and said while we were still
in coming soon.
Hey, I'm coming to see theproperty right now.
(18:52):
I'm on a plane from la.
And I was like, who are you?
What's up?
What's going on?
Do you have an agent?
He says, yeah, yeah, but she'sout of town.
I'll be right there.
And I was like, well, that's,that's not.
You know, we need to talk toyour agent.
And I had talked to his agentand she's like, yeah, we're.
We're trying to work onboundaries right now.
I apologize.
And that's the one who visitedlike four different times then thought
(19:15):
the property was going to fall down.
And yeah.
So came with a level.
And I said, you're more thanwelcome to get a structural inspection.
Yep.
So, yeah, we've had.
It was an interesting journey,say the least.
And I mean, even through, likeyou said, the closing and just kind
(19:36):
of.
That managing that wholeprocess because nothing was.
This was not a cookie cutterlisting or sale from.
We had to get it renovated.
You know, we were trying toschedule timing to get it renovated.
Then at the end, basically,you know, we waited till the end
on the H vac and then decidedto fix it.
(19:59):
And then it's like thecontract is like, oh, yeah, it's
done.
When it's wink, wink, it's not done.
He was still wasn't there.
I don't know if you like, youknow, went and hid in a corner and
cried some days or went anddrank a bottle some other days for
some of the stresses that wenton through this one, but it was a
very unique experience.
(20:19):
The buyer's agent and I.
There was one phone call, itwas probably about an hour and a
half, and both of us wereabout to cry together trying to keep
this deal together.
Yeah.
And it's, you know, it was atthe end of the day.
Oh, then we had the appraisal.
Because the appraisal.
So the appraisal did not comein at the offer price originally.
(20:44):
So what I again appreciatewhere you went well, above and beyond
was the simple fact that, youknow, you went and you started pulling
comps and basically firingaway at the appraiser.
Basically, like, this is not acorrect comp.
This, use that, Use this.
And end up getting us, youknow, basically, you know, if there
was, you know, a differentialof X, you got us back to, like, 60%
(21:09):
of where we needed to be.
So.
Which it was a lot.
The Tidewater, it was a VA loan.
The Tidewater came in at 1903.
And I'm not sure if they'reeven supposed to disclose that, but
that's what he told me he wasin at.
When we were done with it, itwas 1953, so we got an increase of
$50,000.
And that was due to a compthat they took into consideration
(21:31):
that was 6.8 miles away.
And the reason that I includedthat is because, I mean, that land
out there is.
Is huge.
They're on, you know, massiveacre lots.
But there was a.
A house that was 6.8 acresaway that had almost exactly the
same structure.
It had the two wings, the twoprimaries, the front porch, everything
and aerial view lookedidentical to the property that we
(21:54):
were selling.
And that property had sold at2.2 million.
Was this property like thecraziest or hardest sale that you
had?
It was not the hardest sale,but it was probably the craziest
sale sale.
The hardest sales are usuallysellers that have nowhere to go with
pricing.
(22:14):
They.
They can't.
You know, they're overpriced.
They know they're overpriced, and.
And they can't come down on pricing.
It's.
It's frustrating for thembecause they're just.
Just hoping and praying thatit's going to sell.
Meanwhile, they're.
They're paying, you know,property taxes still and.
And keeping the power on andjust digging themselves a hole.
I think that's.
(22:35):
That's the most difficulttransaction, personally.
Y.
Okay, looking back, is thereanything you would say either we,
Larisa and I, or my team oryou would have done differently?
(22:56):
Maybe.
Maybe a backyard barbecue.
I really wanted that, but I'mkind of glad we didn't, because I
think everything went perfect.
Yep.
Yeah.
I'm sitting here thinkingabout it, and, I mean, we basically
got to the price we wanted.
We probably fought, probablyadded a little bit too much stress
back and forth a little bitwith the seller in regards to some
(23:18):
of the things of trying tocome to an answer on.
But for us, I think the, like,you mentioned that whole inspection
issue and trying to use thatand hold us hostage kind of just
put us in a very defensivemindset of everything they do.
We just got very gun shy aboutin regards to trying to agree with
(23:42):
them to anything, because theyliterally were trying to pull a fast
one over on us and try and,you know, get additional monies off
the property or whatever thecase may be.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well.
And that transaction, I'mdefinitely glad I was representing
you and not the buyer.
Their agent seemed like shewas about to fall apart, and we actually
(24:03):
bonded over that.
And, you know, I made a friend.
Yeah.
What's one thing, you know, ifthere's a takeaway, if anything,
from that whole experience, itcould be never work with Chris again.
What's one experience that youwould take from this?
(24:24):
I think I hold everybody toyour standards now, honestly.
Yeah.
Compare everything to thisdeal and just.
Yeah, I think that's it.
You're my ideal client, andI'm so happy to have worked with
you, and you set a really highstandard, so.
Thank you for that.
And one thing I'll mentionthat, you know, outside of this property,
(24:48):
because I will share thisstory as well.
We've had Nicole provide ussome other properties that we've
looked at in the area, andunfortunately, none of them came
to fruition.
I think we kind of got hosedon that one in the golf course area,
I won't name the street, butthat the agent basically sold, got
(25:10):
under agreement in house withdual agent or whatever it is, then
fell back out, then got itback under agreement again, which.
That was a really weird property.
I remember the green carpet,but the one that just always sticks
in my mind.
And we chuckle, but I actuallyfeel bad was there was a property
(25:31):
that Cole went to look at howmany cats lost count?
Honestly, I mean, it had to40, maybe 40 cats on the property
altogether.
Yeah.
And the listing photos onlineliterally had, like, interior pictures
with, like, stacks of, like,kitty litter.
Like, just the five gallonbuckets of, like, kitty litter.
(25:54):
And then there was, like,photos of everything.
And one of the things Iremember is, like, the hoses.
And it's like, oh, that'swhere it's like CPAP machine.
Because my husband has troublebreathing, I'm like, oh, well, 40
cats.
I wonder what the problemcould be.
But basically, it took you howlong to wash the smell off of your
clothes after that experience,I was.
(26:17):
I don't know if it was like aghost smell, but I think the next
two days I was smelling cats.
You know, as soon as I camehome, I threw some of the clothes
in the trash, I threw some ofit in the wash, and I showered and
cleaned myself and stayed homethe rest of the night because it
was pretty traumatizing, to be honest.
The next two days, I wassmelling cat.
(26:38):
You did put an offering for uson that.
I wrote the offer.
She did write the offer.
Said like, she's like, I'mnever going in that property again.
Like, oh, we'll get Christinato go.
She'll go in there.
So.
And then there was that otherproperty you walked out was half
under construction, which youwalked with Christina and Angel.
And I actually felt, you know,you guys had such a good time walking
(27:03):
that property and all theknickknacks and everything.
I'm like, sends me a video of it.
I'm watching it, and I'm like,wow, I wish I was there hanging out
with them, going through theseconstruction walkthroughs.
Because that was a uniqueproperty as well.
Correct?
I think there was two of them.
There was a construction onethat was.
I mean, the place was half built.
I had been looking at this formonths, and, you know, we finally
(27:23):
pulled the trigger on it.
And I went over there.
It was.
It was a mess.
And then there was the otherone with the basement where angel
was just having the time ofhis life, going through everything,
saying, I think this guy was aRussian spy.
There's all this, you know,video equipment, and this basement
was bigger than they had itlisted on the mls.
There was this board up, andwe kind of pried it open, and there
(27:45):
was a whole massive room backthere full of antique video equipment.
And Radio stuff.
Oh, and had the vinyl albums that.
Oh, yes, I have that for you.
I'm bringing that to the conference.
Okay.
That one ever sell?
I think it did.
I think it did.
I'll have to check.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was actually a greatproperty, that.
(28:06):
And we had that one designed where.
Oh, we got a pool at the poolhouse because it had all that extra
side yard.
But the pricing at that time,you know, kind of didn't make sense.
So if it was an owneroccupant, it was real quirky layout
because it, like, stepped upto one area, then like step down
into a kitchen and step down again.
So it was really weird.
(28:27):
I remember that one.
But, yeah, I forgot about that one.
So, yeah, that wasn't updatedsince the 70s.
I think it was built, and ithasn't been renovated since.
It's like stepping into a time capsule.
Capsule.
Well, as we wrap up thisepisode A, I do want to thank you
for coming on.
Two questions.
How is the Las Vegas marketright now, overall?
(28:51):
Are you seeing an increase in listings?
Is more a buyer's market,seller's market, where you see things
headed, and if people need anagent in the area, what's the best
way for them to contact you?
So I think it's more of abalanced market right now.
We see home prices.
We see a lot of price reductions.
I think a couple weeks ago, Ilooked at how many price reductions
(29:13):
there had been, and there wasabout a thousand of them for homes
that had been on the market.
And this is.
This is needed in every market.
You know, we need to see this.
It is balanced.
There is still.
There is still sales going on.
Things are pretty steady.
There's more room for negotiation.
I think at this point, thebest way to reach me would probably
(29:35):
be by phone.
You can call or text.
My phone number is 734-512-9324.
And we'll have that in theshow notes so people can reach out.
So, Nicole, thanks for comingon today and look forward to seeing
you in the very near futurebecause for people listening, we
actually physically have nevermet, so that'll be awesome as well.
(29:59):
Yep.
What a week and a half now, right?
Yep, Exactly.
Looking forward to it.
So if you're in.
If you're in the Chandler area.
Yep.
We will be seeing youSeptember 18th to 20th in Chandler,
Arizona, at the Paper Trail Conference.
So thanks for coming on,Nicole, and for everybody listening,
make sure to catch us on thenext episode.
(30:22):
Thank you and take care.
Welcome back, everybody, toanother episode of the Paper Trail
podcast.
Today I'm with my rock starreal estate agent who helped us out
of.
I'll call it a little bit of ajam several months ago.
Nicole Merriman with Exp Luxury.
Nicole, how are you today?
Hi.
I'm doing great, Chris, howare you?
Good.
So I'll add a little backstoryto this and then we'll roll into
(01:06):
Nicole and.
And her experience as anagent, how she got into it.
But I just want to start with.
For anybody who is in the noteinvestment space, an agent, if you
take a property back, is asimportant or more important than
your servicer during theservicing or your attorney during
that whole process.
(01:27):
They actually are moreimportant because they set the price,
they set the potential, havepotential buyers.
They.
They are so critical and Ithink it's often overlooked.
So I wanted to share thatgoing into this recording because
we're going to talk abouteverything Nicole did for us and
what we appreciated comparedto some of the things that we've
seen in the past.
So with that being said, I'vetalked you up already a lot.
(01:49):
Nicole, why don't you tellpeople a little bit about how you
got into being an agent,because I found this story pretty
interesting.
In regards to what.
Why you got into this space.
Well, thank you.
So I am in the Las Vegas areaand Las Vegas is huge for hospitality.
So I envisioned that was whatthe rest of my life was going to
(02:13):
be like.
Hospitality industry.
During COVID that slowed to a stop.
We were the last people to goback to work.
I was saving up to purchase myown house and Las Vegas.
In the Las Vegas industry, wehave an agreement with the IRS based
(02:34):
on the tips coming in duringCOVID that slowed to about, I'd say,
five to ten dollars an hour.
So I didn't have any proof ofincome yet.
I had cash.
The place that I was rentingwas sold from underneath me.
Just, you know, I was on monthto month, 30 day notice and the place
was gone.
The place that I had beenrenting for two to three years, and
(02:57):
that was pretty common back in2020, 2021.
So as a single woman withshowing no income for the last two
years in a stack of cash, Iwent to apply for rentals.
I applied to maybe five, sixdifferent places and property managers
were increasing application fees.
(03:20):
Multiple applications onproperties we were getting denied.
Uh, I asked my dad if he couldcoach sign for me because he had
the income, and he said, nope,you're on your own.
Figure it out.
Um, so the last place that Iwent to, I had a stack of cash.
I put it on the counter.
I said, please, you're my last hope.
Let me rent this place.
Please.
Um, and that's how I ended upstaying in Vegas.
(03:40):
And I promised that I wouldget into the industry and try to
make a change so agents wouldstop taking advantage of people during
crisis.
Crisis.
So a.
That is an awesome story, andit kind of, I think, reflects in
regards to your personalityand style.
(04:01):
And how we got connected waswe had a foreclosure property in
Henderson, and it was a largerproperty, a seven figure property.
And it was a property whereinstead of using a third party company
that finds a local agent, Iwent online and just started messaging
people who had listings inthat area.
(04:24):
And I probably messaged sevenor eight agents.
And Nicole, you want to guesshow many actually replied to me?
Oh, man, Chris, I thought Iwas the first person you messaged.
How many?
Go ahead.
You.
I think you were second personI messaged.
You were one of two to reply.
(04:46):
And I remember theconversation we had of you're like,
oh, I'll go stop by the property.
I'll go do this.
I'll go look at that.
And, you know, it's prettymuch occupied.
And I was like, wow, thisperson's like, you know, wants this
listing.
You know, sometimes there'sagents who are like, oh, okay, another
(05:07):
listing.
Then you wanted it.
And one of my kind ofbackgrounds that I think I mentioned
this to you in the past islike, no, we joke how we do due diligence
on everybody.
And, you know, so I started looking.
I'm like, okay, who is thisNicole Merriman person?
And you know what?
I remember one of the firstthings I mentioned to Larissa was,
you know, I'm like, oh, we gotto hire this agent.
(05:29):
You want to know what it was?
The reason I wanted to.
I'm going to take a guess.
Was it my motorcycle?
Yes.
I saw that.
I saw Nicole races motorcycles.
And for, you know, people, youknow, I'll call it the ones where,
like, you're going around acorner, like 100 plus miles an hour,
where your knee is like a halfinch above the ground.
That's what Nicole does.
(05:50):
So we're just like, damn, she does.
You know, then I know youworked hospitality and everything
else, but, you know, I thinkone of the things that we appreciate.
And I'll let you talk a littlebit more about, you know, kind of,
you know, what are some of thefirst things when somebody sends
a listing to you or wants toget interested in listing.
(06:13):
What are some of the thingsthat you would consider common sense?
Because I think common senseis not so common in regards to.
Now, if somebody sent you,hey, I'm considering listing my property
at, you know, 123 Main Street.
You know, what are some of thefirst things you do as an agent?
First thing I do is pick upthe phone and call.
(06:34):
And I think that's what I did.
I called you back, and thenyou said you would contact me later,
text me back right away, andso that you'd contact me later.
And then I looked up theproperty to see where it was.
Then I looked you up, and I. Ijust, you know, do do a little rundown
to make sure this isn't awaste of time or a fake lead that's
(06:54):
coming in.
And I saw the property and Iwas like, wow, this is beautiful.
This has a lot of potential.
It looked beautiful.
So that's the interestingthing is a picked up the phone and
called, which again, trying toget an agent to respond.
(07:15):
I don't know if it's just meand people don't like me, which I
know people don't, but justgetting a response from people sometimes
is so challenging.
And you were a very responsive.
You also were very upfront inregards to, hey, I don't know what
this property.
Without knowing the interiorcondition, I can't tell you what
(07:36):
it's worth.
So you weren't giving us anumber to, say, 2.5 million without
seeing it, which some agentsdo to get a listing and then come
back and say, oh, I thought itwas in this condition.
So that was another componentthat was really interesting about
this.
And so let's tell a little bitmore about the story, because this
(07:58):
one was craziness throughoutfrom the moment we foreclosed on
it, which we almost had itsold prior to foreclosure, but then
we foreclosed on it.
And do you remember the timeyou called me because we filed an
eviction and you were meetingthe borrower over or somebody over
(08:19):
at the property?
Do you remember this?
I do remember that, yes.
So why don't you tell a littlebit about this story?
Because this was just mind blowing.
As a lender, like, oh, man,what do you do?
Well, Larisa reached out to meand said.
And asked me to get in contactwith someone named Evelyn.
Evelyn was not the.
(08:40):
Maybe we should cut that outbecause she's a minor.
Her name.
Yeah, we'll cut that out.
So, okay.
Yep.
So Larisa had contacted me andshe had given me a name of somebody
to get in contact with at theproperty and see if I can get any
information.
The name of the person shegave me was not the bower.
The borrower.
The name of the person shegave me was not the borrower.
(09:01):
Oh, my gosh.
I can't say it.
Okay, let's try it again.
Try it again.
Go ahead.
Okay, so Larisa had gotten incontact with me, and she'd given
me the name of someone to tryto talk to or try to get in contact
with to get some more information.
The name of the person shegave me was not the borrower.
The name.
And.
(09:22):
Okay, so Lisa had contacted meto try to get some more information.
She gave me the name and thephone number of somebody to try to
get in contact with about the.
About the property.
The name of this person wasnot the person on.
On my gosh.
(09:47):
Borrower stuff today.
Yes, the borrower.
The borrow.
Okay, say.
Was not the owner.
Was not the owner.
Okay.
The.
So Larisa.
Larisa got in contact with me,and she gave me a name of a person
to try to reach out to.
I had called.
This person was not their own,the owner of the house.
(10:10):
So I asked her for a littlebit of information.
I asked her if I could maybestop by and see the house.
And first of all, I wanted tobe really, really sensitive because,
you know, the family isgetting foreclosed on, so there might
be some negative or, you know,there might be some animosity.
(10:30):
Yeah, okay, deep breath.
There might be some animosity.
So I wanted to be reallycareful about how I approached this
situation.
So I met.
I met this person at the property.
She said that she was runninga little late from school and she
would be there shortly.
I figured she went to maybeUNLV or csn, one of the universities
(10:51):
out here.
When she got home, she told methat she was coming from her high
school.
So this person was actually aminor, a junior in high school living
on the property.
Her.
Her dad was currently incarcerated.
Yeah, he was currently incarcerated.
(11:13):
She was very polite.
She showed me around the house.
I reached out to you andLarisa, and I believe you stopped
the foreclosure process.
We had foreclosed.
It was the eviction.
So we were evicting her.
Yeah, we were evicting her asa tenant because we had already foreclosed.
And it was, I think, rightaround, like, Labor Day, where we
basically said, okay, evictionwas going to happen on, like, September
(11:36):
1st or roughly around it.
And then you Reached out and was.
Told me this, and we're like,okay, I'm not evicting this person.
And I think I'll let you tella little bit more about the property
and the condition.
Actually, I think she waskeeping it a little better kept than
her family was.
(11:57):
Yes.
So another thing, in Nevada,if you don't have a tenant agreement
in place, then you canbasically just call the police and,
you know, get rid of peoplewho are squatting on the property.
So you guys were in everyright to foreclose and evict whoever
was on the property.
Yet I think compassion was abig player in all of this.
(12:19):
So when I went to theproperty, she was very thankful that
we were working with her.
We were being kind to her.
We were letting her stay whileher mother found a place.
She.
When.
When I came in, she had aspecial needs brother and she was
taking care of him.
She had the entire houseclean, was wiping things down, offered
(12:42):
me, you know, a cold water.
She.
She was very.
Just so appreciative of thekindness that everyone extended to
her.
And wasn't there a prior whenthe house was listed that somebody
had gone through and was like,oh, this is the same house?
Because they had chickens anddogs and other animals on the property
(13:03):
as well?
Yes.
So once we didn't find thisout until we got into escrow, but
there was.
Well, we knew there was someanimals from talks of the neighbors
around the property.
You know, it was a horse property.
It was zoned for.
It is zoned for horses.
We didn't know that they werekeeping chickens in the crawl space,
the crawl spaces in the basement.
(13:24):
So once we got into escrow andhow much can I disclose about this?
As much as you like.
Okay.
I don't know what the.
I don't know what the rulesare, but there was.
We had an inspection done andnothing was found in the crawl spaces.
Everything checked out.
I mean, there was.
There was a long list ofeverything else on the inspection
(13:45):
report, but crawl spacesseemed fine there.
I think there was a little bitof, like, leakage from the irrigation
system that we had corrected.
We got into escrow pretty quick.
I think from list to accepted offer.
It was 11 days or eight daysor something like that.
It was pretty quick for.
For full asking price.
After the renovations, thebuyer asked to meet at the property
(14:08):
so he could show his children the.
The property that they weregoing to be moving into.
When I showed up and I met thebuyer's agent because it was pretty
unconventional for them to askto see the Property again, while
we were in escrow during this.
This due diligence period.
You know, they had been to theproperty a few times already.
They walked around the crawlspaces, and he was taking pictures
(14:32):
of things and like, all right,come on, we gotta go.
You know, he had his owninspection report done.
Well, he had messaged hisinspector and sent the pictures that
he had taken with his cell phone.
And there.
There was a picture of some eggs.
And he said that he had seenthe property before.
He knew that there waschickens in the crawl space.
Here's some eggs.
(14:53):
Here's evidence.
Had them included in thisinspection report, which is very
unethical.
And then threatens to get anenvironmental inspection if we didn't
comply with his asks and.
And threatened to pull out ofthe deal.
So we would have to just.
He's basically playing realestate agents.
So he threatened to pull outof the deal and threatened that we
(15:17):
would have to disclose it onthe SRPD Once he pulled out, I called
his bluff and I said, listen,this is really unethical what you
did.
We can throw this entireinspection report away.
So that's that, and then weclose the deal.
So we, you know, did close thedeal, which I think it broke the
sales record for that area.
(15:39):
Now, between.
So the story with, call it,the tenant was.
We gave her additional timebecause she was moving in with a
friend.
And then she cleaned out, goteverything out but the property itself.
I remember when you went andwalked through, it was.
Oh, boy, it was dated.
(16:00):
It had, like, bright yellowand orange walls.
The bathrooms were 1980s fixtures.
And Nicole was basicallytelling us, look, you can sell it
as is, but you're going to getmaybe like a little over a million
dollars for it becausenobody's going to want to come in
and do all this work.
(16:22):
So we end up finding acontractor, which, lo and behold,
I found the contractor.
I don't know if you know the story.
I actually put a job ad on,like, LinkedIn or indeed looking
for a construction manager.
And as part of that process,Christina reached out and says, hey,
(16:44):
I used to work for xyz.
I can manage this.
And then I reached out and shewent and walked it with angel and
then came back and was like,hey, look, I can do the entire job
if you want, with my husbandfor this price.
And we had gotten some otherquotes, and.
And the other quotes weresignificantly higher than their quote
came in.
And those.
(17:04):
A lot of other quotes.
I think, again, look at theproperty and they just see dollar
signs.
And so we end up reaching anAgreement with another party.
But what was great about thisrelationship and one of the things
that I give Nicole kudos forwas now being some eyes and ears
for us, which most agentsdon't do to go check in on the property.
(17:28):
How's it look?
What's the.
What's it look like?
For example, getting itcompleted near the finish line, making
sure it's cleaned.
And I don't know how manytimes you probably had to clean it
for us as well because it gotdusty again.
Nicole also is very handy onelectrical, so she fixed our garage
(17:48):
gates on the property orassisted as an agent.
You helped us with the garagedoors and finding a vendor.
You found a pool vendor for us.
So I mean, everything you didwas well above and beyond what a
typical agent would do, whichis very appreciative.
And if you can find an agentlike that, it's.
(18:10):
You hold on to them and makesure that a.
Anyone ever asked forsomebody, it's like this is who you
use because they basicallyyour mindset in my mind was this
property is mine as well, andI want to see it through and get
it to the finish line.
(18:31):
Which you did.
And at times also I was like,screw the buyer.
Let's just walk.
Because he was trying to holdus hostage.
Remember the other buyer who.
How many times did that guy goout to the property?
Oh, yeah, some guy got on a plane.
He called me when he was on aplane and said while we were still
in coming soon.
Hey, I'm coming to see theproperty right now.
(18:52):
I'm on a plane from la.
And I was like, who are you?
What's up?
What's going on?
Do you have an agent?
He says, yeah, yeah, but she'sout of town.
I'll be right there.
And I was like, well, that's,that's not.
You know, we need to talk toyour agent.
And I had talked to his agentand she's like, yeah, we're.
We're trying to work onboundaries right now.
I apologize.
And that's the one who visitedlike four different times then thought
(19:15):
the property was going to fall down.
And yeah.
So came with a level.
And I said, you're more thanwelcome to get a structural inspection.
Yep.
So, yeah, we've had.
It was an interesting journey,say the least.
And I mean, even through, likeyou said, the closing and just kind
(19:36):
of.
That managing that wholeprocess because nothing was.
This was not a cookie cutterlisting or sale from.
We had to get it renovated.
You know, we were trying toschedule timing to get it renovated.
Then at the end, basically,you know, we waited till the end
on the H vac and then decidedto fix it.
(19:59):
And then it's like thecontract is like, oh, yeah, it's
done.
When it's wink, wink, it's not done.
He was still wasn't there.
I don't know if you like, youknow, went and hid in a corner and
cried some days or went anddrank a bottle some other days for
some of the stresses that wenton through this one, but it was a
very unique experience.
(20:19):
The buyer's agent and I.
There was one phone call, itwas probably about an hour and a
half, and both of us wereabout to cry together trying to keep
this deal together.
Yeah.
And it's, you know, it was atthe end of the day.
Oh, then we had the appraisal.
Because the appraisal.
So the appraisal did not comein at the offer price originally.
(20:44):
So what I again appreciatewhere you went well, above and beyond
was the simple fact that, youknow, you went and you started pulling
comps and basically firingaway at the appraiser.
Basically, like, this is not acorrect comp.
This, use that, Use this.
And end up getting us, youknow, basically, you know, if there
was, you know, a differentialof X, you got us back to, like, 60%
(21:09):
of where we needed to be.
So.
Which it was a lot.
The Tidewater, it was a VA loan.
The Tidewater came in at 1903.
And I'm not sure if they'reeven supposed to disclose that, but
that's what he told me he wasin at.
When we were done with it, itwas 1953, so we got an increase of
$50,000.
And that was due to a compthat they took into consideration
(21:31):
that was 6.8 miles away.
And the reason that I includedthat is because, I mean, that land
out there is.
Is huge.
They're on, you know, massiveacre lots.
But there was a.
A house that was 6.8 acresaway that had almost exactly the
same structure.
It had the two wings, the twoprimaries, the front porch, everything
and aerial view lookedidentical to the property that we
(21:54):
were selling.
And that property had sold at2.2 million.
Was this property like thecraziest or hardest sale that you
had?
It was not the hardest sale,but it was probably the craziest
sale sale.
The hardest sales are usuallysellers that have nowhere to go with
pricing.
(22:14):
They.
They can't.
You know, they're overpriced.
They know they're overpriced, and.
And they can't come down on pricing.
It's.
It's frustrating for thembecause they're just.
Just hoping and praying thatit's going to sell.
Meanwhile, they're.
They're paying, you know,property taxes still and.
And keeping the power on andjust digging themselves a hole.
I think that's.
(22:35):
That's the most difficulttransaction, personally.
Y.
Okay, looking back, is thereanything you would say either we,
Larisa and I, or my team oryou would have done differently?
(22:56):
Maybe.
Maybe a backyard barbecue.
I really wanted that, but I'mkind of glad we didn't, because I
think everything went perfect.
Yep.
Yeah.
I'm sitting here thinkingabout it, and, I mean, we basically
got to the price we wanted.
We probably fought, probablyadded a little bit too much stress
back and forth a little bitwith the seller in regards to some
(23:18):
of the things of trying tocome to an answer on.
But for us, I think the, like,you mentioned that whole inspection
issue and trying to use thatand hold us hostage kind of just
put us in a very defensivemindset of everything they do.
We just got very gun shy aboutin regards to trying to agree with
(23:42):
them to anything, because theyliterally were trying to pull a fast
one over on us and try and,you know, get additional monies off
the property or whatever thecase may be.
So.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well.
And that transaction, I'mdefinitely glad I was representing
you and not the buyer.
Their agent seemed like shewas about to fall apart, and we actually
(24:03):
bonded over that.
And, you know, I made a friend.
Yeah.
What's one thing, you know, ifthere's a takeaway, if anything,
from that whole experience, itcould be never work with Chris again.
What's one experience that youwould take from this?
(24:24):
I think I hold everybody toyour standards now, honestly.
Yeah.
Compare everything to thisdeal and just.
Yeah, I think that's it.
You're my ideal client, andI'm so happy to have worked with
you, and you set a really highstandard, so.
Thank you for that.
And one thing I'll mentionthat, you know, outside of this property,
(24:48):
because I will share thisstory as well.
We've had Nicole provide ussome other properties that we've
looked at in the area, andunfortunately, none of them came
to fruition.
I think we kind of got hosedon that one in the golf course area,
I won't name the street, butthat the agent basically sold, got
(25:10):
under agreement in house withdual agent or whatever it is, then
fell back out, then got itback under agreement again, which.
That was a really weird property.
I remember the green carpet,but the one that just always sticks
in my mind.
And we chuckle, but I actuallyfeel bad was there was a property
(25:31):
that Cole went to look at howmany cats lost count?
Honestly, I mean, it had to40, maybe 40 cats on the property
altogether.
Yeah.
And the listing photos onlineliterally had, like, interior pictures
with, like, stacks of, like,kitty litter.
Like, just the five gallonbuckets of, like, kitty litter.
(25:54):
And then there was, like,photos of everything.
And one of the things Iremember is, like, the hoses.
And it's like, oh, that'swhere it's like CPAP machine.
Because my husband has troublebreathing, I'm like, oh, well, 40
cats.
I wonder what the problemcould be.
But basically, it took you howlong to wash the smell off of your
clothes after that experience,I was.
(26:17):
I don't know if it was like aghost smell, but I think the next
two days I was smelling cats.
You know, as soon as I camehome, I threw some of the clothes
in the trash, I threw some ofit in the wash, and I showered and
cleaned myself and stayed homethe rest of the night because it
was pretty traumatizing, to be honest.
The next two days, I wassmelling cat.
(26:38):
You did put an offering for uson that.
I wrote the offer.
She did write the offer.
Said like, she's like, I'mnever going in that property again.
Like, oh, we'll get Christinato go.
She'll go in there.
So.
And then there was that otherproperty you walked out was half
under construction, which youwalked with Christina and Angel.
And I actually felt, you know,you guys had such a good time walking
(27:03):
that property and all theknickknacks and everything.
I'm like, sends me a video of it.
I'm watching it, and I'm like,wow, I wish I was there hanging out
with them, going through theseconstruction walkthroughs.
Because that was a uniqueproperty as well.
Correct?
I think there was two of them.
There was a construction onethat was.
I mean, the place was half built.
I had been looking at this formonths, and, you know, we finally
(27:23):
pulled the trigger on it.
And I went over there.
It was.
It was a mess.
And then there was the otherone with the basement where angel
was just having the time ofhis life, going through everything,
saying, I think this guy was aRussian spy.
There's all this, you know,video equipment, and this basement
was bigger than they had itlisted on the mls.
There was this board up, andwe kind of pried it open, and there
(27:45):
was a whole massive room backthere full of antique video equipment.
And Radio stuff.
Oh, and had the vinyl albums that.
Oh, yes, I have that for you.
I'm bringing that to the conference.
Okay.
That one ever sell?
I think it did.
I think it did.
I'll have to check.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That was actually a greatproperty, that.
(28:06):
And we had that one designed where.
Oh, we got a pool at the poolhouse because it had all that extra
side yard.
But the pricing at that time,you know, kind of didn't make sense.
So if it was an owneroccupant, it was real quirky layout
because it, like, stepped upto one area, then like step down
into a kitchen and step down again.
So it was really weird.
(28:27):
I remember that one.
But, yeah, I forgot about that one.
So, yeah, that wasn't updatedsince the 70s.
I think it was built, and ithasn't been renovated since.
It's like stepping into a time capsule.
Capsule.
Well, as we wrap up thisepisode A, I do want to thank you
for coming on.
Two questions.
How is the Las Vegas marketright now, overall?
(28:51):
Are you seeing an increase in listings?
Is more a buyer's market,seller's market, where you see things
headed, and if people need anagent in the area, what's the best
way for them to contact you?
So I think it's more of abalanced market right now.
We see home prices.
We see a lot of price reductions.
I think a couple weeks ago, Ilooked at how many price reductions
(29:13):
there had been, and there wasabout a thousand of them for homes
that had been on the market.
And this is.
This is needed in every market.
You know, we need to see this.
It is balanced.
There is still.
There is still sales going on.
Things are pretty steady.
There's more room for negotiation.
I think at this point, thebest way to reach me would probably
(29:35):
be by phone.
You can call or text.
My phone number is 734-512-9324.
And we'll have that in theshow notes so people can reach out.
So, Nicole, thanks for comingon today and look forward to seeing
you in the very near futurebecause for people listening, we
actually physically have nevermet, so that'll be awesome as well.
(29:59):
Yep.
What a week and a half now, right?
Yep, Exactly.
Looking forward to it.
So if you're in.
If you're in the Chandler area.
Yep.
We will be seeing youSeptember 18th to 20th in Chandler,
Arizona, at the Paper Trail Conference.
So thanks for coming on,Nicole, and for everybody listening,
make sure to catch us on thenext episode.
(30:22):
Thank you and take care.
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