What’s The Market Doing Now?

This open discussions covers everything from whether it is a buyers market, a sellers market or something in between to mortgage rates and how taxes and insurances increases are impating home ownership.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
You are listening to the Remax real Estate Insights Show,
where you get real talk by real agents. Walk to
you by Remas of Southeastern Michigan. Welcome to the Remax
real Estate Insights Podcast and thanks for joining us today.
We're here to share what's really happening in the real
estate market so you can make smart decisions when it
comes to buying, selling, or simply being in the know

(00:22):
on what's happening. I'm Janet Schneider. I'm your host, and
today we're going to have a very open discussion about
the housing market and whether it's this's a buyer's market,
a seller's market, something in between. I'm pretty sure we're
going to cover interest rates, agents in the market, and
a lot more. Mortgage rates are certainly a timely topic,
and as we're recording this, the FED is poised to

(00:44):
make some type of a decision later this week, so
we can talk about that as well. Joining me is
a repeat guest, Rob Scalici. He is the associate broker
with Remax First. Rob. Welcome back to.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
The show, Thanks Janette, thanks for having me back. Always
a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (00:59):
Yeah yeah, and I think it's your first time in
these new iHeart studios down here in downtown Detroit.

Speaker 2 (01:04):
It is very nice.

Speaker 1 (01:05):
Yeah, it's a nice little upgrade, Isn't it.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
A little difficult to find the first time? But now
that I'm here, it's a very very nice facility.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Well, yeah, you came through the door on time, so
we're all good with that. So I guess to get
the conversation rolling today, let's start with something A question
that I'm hearing a lot. I don't know if you are,
but a question that I'm hearing a lot is what
type of market do we have? Are we in a
buyer's market? Are we in this kind of neutral market?
I mean, that is a question I've been getting a lot,

(01:33):
So what say you?

Speaker 2 (01:34):
Well, based on your introduction, I think you touched on
all of it. It does still seem like a seller's
market to a certain degree. It also feels like it's
transitioning into a buyer's market to a certain degree, and
that I think all depends on the price range in
the area that you're shopping. Things that I have really
noticed on my listings, I have not had multiple offers in.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
Forever, Okay, definitely a change from past years.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
I have not had appraisal guarantees on any of the
offers that have come in on my listings.

Speaker 1 (02:07):
So buyers have decided they're not doing that anymore.

Speaker 2 (02:09):
In time on market, everything seems to be poisoned at
about forty five fifty five days before you see offers, which.

Speaker 1 (02:19):
In the big Again, if we're taking kind of a
step back, because you and I have been doing this
a number of years, right, if we take a step
back forty to fifty five days isn't bad. But when
you were used to, I mean when we got used
to over the last several years, put it on a
market as a coming soon, you know, it goes live Friday,
you have multiple offers by Saturday morning, calling for highest

(02:41):
and best by Sunday. At five forty days seems like
a long time to.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
People, absolutely, and you are right, that is a very
good market time. Thirty to forty five days on the
market before you have a decent offer. Traditionally that was
that's fast, very fast, right almost two that you feel like, Okay,
I've earned my money, I've put some work in into
this right the days. I think egotistically, though, I think
sellers are having a tough time digesting that they they want,

(03:09):
like Hey, where's my offers out of the gate on
the street. Where where's the ten offers? How come none
of these are over? I want multiple offers. And you know,
when you get into explaining the you know, you only
can have one offer that you need to close on.
And as long as we get one good offer, what
difference doesn't make? But I think there's something about it. Well,
my neighborhood ten offers and I want that too. It's changing, well.

Speaker 1 (03:32):
I mean, and to some degree, sellers, if we're taking
a look at the you know, the pool of people,
whether you're talking agents to the transaction buyers and the
transaction or sellers, I think sellers are the ones that,
like you said, are having the hardest time coming to
terms with the current market conditions. I think agents have adjusted,
buyers are certainly adjusting, but sellers are like, yeah, they're
kind of they want the good days from a couple

(03:53):
of years ago.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
Right, you know, And again which side of the table
you're on, buyer or seller? You know, it's uh, your
view is going to be certainly different, right right from
the buy side. I haven't had to compete with other offers.
I haven't had to write appraisal guarantees and we haven't
paid full price on anything.

Speaker 1 (04:13):
So you know, and I've said, you know because I
do look at data, you know, every month on this,
and I want to you know, because your boots on
the ground with this. Are you seeing an increase in inventory,
because nationally that has been the narrative for many, many months,
And definitely I think we've seen it an increase. But
I don't get the sense looking at hard numbers that
Metro Detroit is exactly following the rest of the country

(04:35):
on this.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
It may be very slight. You know. When I set
up the prospect file file for my buyer's clients where
they get you know, constant notifications, I'm CCT on all
of those, so I do see a lot more listings
coming through for those buyers. However, I would make note
that on a lot of them when I glance at

(04:57):
I can't glance at every single one, but a lot
of them price decrease, price decrease, So either the same
listings getting repeated, or maybe certain listings that were outside
the top end of their search criteria now falling into it.
Either way, I would say, if there's more inventory inventory,
it is.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
Very slight, Okay, because that has been very interesting to me,
and it's been posed to me, you know, by some
in the media. It's like, oh, you know, oh it's
a solid buyer's market because there's all this inventory. And
I'm like, I definitely the market has shifted, and I think,
you know, it's definitely made things a little easier for buyers.
But the numbers I'm seeing don't suggest that we've got
this just pluthora of inventory. O.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
No, you're you're right on that.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
I like hearing that. Yeah, you're right that I'm right.
So you mentioned, you know, some of this has to
do I mean, the market always has something to do
with price points. What's you know, what maybe moves a
little faster than others in the market state you serve,
is there a particular price point that is still popping
a little faster than others or what are you seeing

(06:03):
on that end of things?

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Absolutely, And for the listeners, I'm primarily in Macomb County,
but I do service you know, Oakland County, Saint Clair County,
parts of Wayne County I'm in, but you know, my
primary market is going to be Macomb County. The houses,
if they're nice and if they're really polished up right,
you know with the updates that two fifty to three

(06:26):
point fifty price range, which is a lot of money, right.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Right, I mean, yeah, it's not that's not nothing.

Speaker 2 (06:32):
Yeah, it's that's still moving very briskly. And the thing
is that market in that price range kind of lends
itself to my marketplace. You're looking at houses in Saint
Clair Shores, parts of Sterling Heights, North warn you know,
to creep into the Macomb Townships or Clinton, it's tough

(06:53):
to do at that price point.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
So is that price point when it comes to Macomb
County the market that you primarily work is that two
fifty to three not kind of that I would say
entry level. I mean, is that kind of where the
entry level at very.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Entry level homes. It's you're talking the three bedroom brick
ranch basement to car garage somewhere between nine hundred square
feet and twelve thirteen hundred square feet.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Now, you mentioned Sterling Heights is one of the communities,
and recently Sterling Heights was listed in you know, there's
all these different lists that come out, but it was
like one of the most sought after. It was the
most sought after community by buyers. What do you think
makes I mean Sterling Heights is kind of in the
backyard or where you work. What makes that so attractive?

Speaker 2 (07:30):
Well, And recently I've had a lot of listings in
Sterling Heights and those listings are as I described, smaller
ranches sold very quickly. I think one of them might
have had multiple offers. But it's a price point a
in a good community, good city services, good school district perceived.

(07:51):
Right have you get a school district, and I think
all of those combined. Shopping wise, of course, you're on
the corridor of M fifty nine where it's just the
mecha of shopping and restaurants and easy access. You're still
you know, conveniently located to say I six ninety six
and ninety four from Sterling Heights. So put that all together,
you know, it makes it desirable.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
So we talked a little bit about that two fifty
to three fifty range in the communities that tend to
fall into it and the type of homes that fall
into it. And I always say those homes have kind
of that good bones, right because a lot of those
homes were built post World War two, you know, and
they were constructed very well, I mean they should stand
the test of time. When you get above the three
fifty price range, you know, kind of what communities are

(08:32):
you in, what activity are you seeing there?

Speaker 2 (08:35):
Well, and there are parts of Sterling Heights that are
going to be in excess of three fifty. I have
a listing there at five point fifty and it's sitting there,
just sitting there. You know, we started off at a
much higher price because the data supported the higher price.
So you know, how can you be a seller saying,
show me the data at the higher number, But yeah,
I'll list it for less. That's what really lends me

(08:56):
to think that we're in a transitioning market. Data supports
the higher number, but the market's not reacting to that.
So Sterling Heights has those price, Shelby Township is out
that way in excess of that price, Macomb Township, parts
of Clinton Township.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
You know, now, when we were saying two fifty to
three fifty, you could just rattle off very quickly what
type of house that was going to get your brick
three bedroom. Do you mean when you start to get
above the three fifty does it really start to change?
Is there the cookie cutter of what you get for
that or does it really start to change.

Speaker 2 (09:25):
You notice that change in those houses once you get
past four hundred okay, and it's going to give yourself
the larger colonials, larger ranches, the split colonials where you
have a first floor master bedroom, and that seemed to
be a high demand style of house. And I also
mentioned in Macomb County you got Washington Township, okay, which

(09:47):
again those prices tend to be four and a quarter
on up to even million dollars. And of course once
we get into that threshold, I mean, those are.

Speaker 1 (09:56):
The whole different dynamics.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
They just seem to really be sitting there.

Speaker 1 (10:00):
So are you seeing this is something else? And I
saw a recent report that came out that there are
more deals that are not making it to the closing table.
You know, an offer, you know, and an offer gets
put on, but then something happens and it's not quite
making it to the closing table. Are you seeing an
increase in that at all?

Speaker 2 (10:16):
I haven't seen anything with regard to like, hey, financing
fell through, But what I am starting to notice is
like the lack of seriousness by the buyers.

Speaker 1 (10:28):
That's what I've heard is that they just throw an
offer and just in case they want to get it,
and then either they just back away or I find
something better in the in the meantime.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
Yeah, go through the inspection process and then this is true.
I had one recently on that house and strugging rights,
and they made an offer. We finally came to terms.
And by the way, from the time they looked at
it until getting that offer was about a three week.

Speaker 1 (10:51):
Window, which is really unusual.

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Yeah, you know, agent, hey, they're very interested, probably putting
together an offer, and then you know, radio silence. So
they finally get it, they do the inspection and they
come back, I, oh, the house is going to need
a new roof, and I'm like new roof. Seller said,
they put it on in two thousand and six with
a thirty year warranty. So send over the inspection report.
I'd like to see that, and the inspectors now indicating

(11:15):
that it's got another eleven to sixteen years. And then
they said, well, we're backing out.

Speaker 1 (11:20):
So they were just looking something to hang them. No,
they went, they got through the inspection and then they
at that point usually that opens the door to.

Speaker 2 (11:25):
Try to renegotiate or whatever. And my seller wasn't having it,
so they walked away.

Speaker 1 (11:31):
Interesting because I mean it is something that I have
picked up on a little bit that they're starting to
be a little bit more of that. So let's let's
transition into mortgage rates, right, because that has been a
big conversation topic for a while.

Speaker 2 (11:44):
Right.

Speaker 1 (11:44):
I mean, interest rates right now are about six point
two yeah, five, yeah, yeah, somewhere somewhere in there. So,
I mean they've come down a little bit over the
last several weeks. They've been kind of doing this kind
of slow march, you know, down a little bit from
where they were earlier this year. Do you you get
the sense that there are buyers with all of the
media coverage about the FED potentially doing a rate cut,

(12:07):
do you think there's buyers holding back thinking that rates
are going to drop and they're going to wait until
that happens.

Speaker 2 (12:12):
I do, And obviously everybody is rate sensitive, And I've
been doing this long enough to remember that when I
got into the business, interest rates were at eleven percent,
and so I was new in the business. I really
didn't know what that even meant or a help. It
was a number, right, But shortly thereafter they fell and

(12:33):
just stands out in my mind, was, you know, ten
and three quarters, ten and a half, nine and three quarters,
nine and a half, you know, and it just kept
going down. And I do remember when they got into
those sevens, whether it was seven and a quarter or
a half or three quarters, it was like you were
giving away free.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
Money in my get alone and you get a load.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
My career took off. And so when we talk about
high interest rates at six and a half, again, it's
what you get used to. They are not hot interest rates. Historically,
they're very, very low. Yes, does it affect your buying
power and your payment, of course it does, but it's
not as significant as people think it is. They just

(13:17):
hear the you know, the broad brush struggle. Interest rates
are high, and they buy into it. So I've said
forever when they were low, they were kept too low
for too long.

Speaker 1 (13:28):
And when we say the low, we're talking like, but
back when they were in the threes.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
Right and a half, four percent, yes, even two ninety nine, right, right,
people became complacent, like there's no sense of urgency. We
got great rates. I'm going to keep looking, keep looking, right.
I always felt like if they kind of landed somewhere,
below six, the mid fives would be perfect. It would
be the.

Speaker 1 (13:49):
Perfect She just took it, just took my next question
because that's what I was going to say. Is I mean,
I think psychologically, you know, we've we've definitely seen them
starting to creep down, you know, reading some of the
mortgage reports. You know, they're saying there seeing an increase
in applications as they know as they come down. My
suspicion is when that number starts with five, it's going
to start to really unlock some pent up demand.

Speaker 2 (14:09):
I really hope. So, I really do hope so.

Speaker 1 (14:12):
Because I do think so, and you kind of started
to allude to this, so you have, you know, some
folks that I get it to. Anybody who's bought a home,
interest rate does matter because the higher the rate, the
more that's going to increase your monthly mortgage payment. We
all we get that. But for folks that may be
sitting there thinking, well, I'm going to wait because it
seems like the Feds getting ready to start making some moves.
So you know, in theory, I'm going to sit on

(14:32):
that sideline and I'm going to wait till they hypothetically
come down into the fives. Maybe that's the number I'm
more comfortable with. But what I see is home prices
aren't necessarily going to stay where they're at. They continue
this kind of slow march upwards. So while I'm sitting
on the fence waiting for their interest rate to come down,
in the meantime, the same house I want to buy
has gone up in price. Is that a fair assessment?

Speaker 2 (14:54):
That's a great assessment. In addition to that, realize too,
you got all these buyers that are potent actually sitting
on the sidelines right waiting for rates to come down.
So now all of these buyers get off the bench
because rates came down. What's that going to do to demand.

Speaker 1 (15:10):
Again, It's going to throw it right back up.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
What to supply and demand do makes the price go up,
makes the price go back up. So you know, people say,
I'm going to wait for this, and I'm going to
wait for that, And I've said, could I borrow your
real estate crystal ball because I don't have one, I
don't know where to get one. And all I can
tell them is that you need to look at your scenario.
If you can afford the house, you can afford the payment,

(15:35):
and you need a house, want a house, make your
decision based on what you know for sure, right and
that's what's going on today. You can speculate, I can speculate,
but nobody really knows until it happens and then you're
into it.

Speaker 1 (15:48):
No, And I think that's great advice is because it's
probably like what having a kid and other things in life.
If you wait for the conditions to be perfect, you
can always find a reason to not do it. And
I certainly don't want to, you know, push somebody into
doing something of financially it's not the right move for them.
But if you save the money and you can afford
the down payment, you've been approven, you can afford and
it works into your overall budget and you need a

(16:09):
roof over your head. If you if you're ready to
bite off home ownership, you know, do it. And I
wouldn't wait for rates to necessarily come down to some
magical number.

Speaker 2 (16:19):
No, tom right now would be a great time, you know,
with again the little bit of lack of inventory, it
it takes a bit to find the right property. But
forget about the rate because again historically they are still low.
So whether it's six and a half or and ends
up being five and a half. I think at the
five and a half, prices are going to start creeping

(16:39):
up again, so grab the house. If rates come down,
you can refinance well.

Speaker 1 (16:45):
And it's funny because we bought what has it been
about a year and a half ago, and we got
a really good rate. When we bought, it was like
six point two, and course rates have kind of ticked
up since then. Now they're kind of back to where
I started a year and a half ago. So I mean,
I keep thinking, I'll watch and if the rates get
to the point it makes sense. Obviously I'd love to refinance.
I've done it before, but I could live with the

(17:06):
six point two. I mean again, kind of what we
what we talked about there, So assuming that we're right,
and at some point in time, there's going to be
an influx of buyers coming in, whether they just get
tired of waiting and jump in, or rates do continue
to kind of move down a little bit this year
next year, and we get additional buyers that come into
the market and there's increased competition Again, do you anticipate

(17:28):
that now there's the potential for increased multiple offers and
now all of a sudden praisalt guarantees, and the stuff
that we just kind of put away kind of comes
back out again.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
It could, And I'll tell you what that whole topic,
the multiple offers, the highest and best, you know, a
month after the house went on the market and all
of that that stuff, boy, I just I didn't like
any of it. And I didn't like it. I mean,
I guess if you're a seller representing a seller, it's
kind of fun you're in the convert seat, yeah, that

(18:00):
that side of the table. But when you're on the
buy side, how do you legitimately tell a buyer client, yeah,
go ahead and throw more money at it than we
really think it's well it's worth just because somebody else
is doing it. And that's a condition you might need
to step up to to get the house. I personally

(18:23):
have a tough time telling buyers to do that. You know,
if you really really and this is the house of
your dreams. I just my forecasting down the road sees
these people, you know, if values go the other way
downwards in other words, you know, I wonder if they'll
remember the conversations of you know, I don't think this

(18:44):
is a good ideas you know, now you're upside down
in value versus what you owe, and it's just you know,
it's just not a good thing.

Speaker 1 (18:53):
No, it's it's not. I mean I can understand, especially
when inventories low and maybe you've got a buyer that's
been beat out a number of times and all of
a sudden, here's the house they really like. And you
can almost understand the conversation in their head of am
I willing to do this to get it? Because if not,
I have to go back to the drawing bard and
I have to keep looking. But I'm with you. I

(19:14):
don't like it. I don't like people not doing inspections either,
and waving inspections. You have every right to know what
you're buying. This is a huge investment. You have every
right to know what's going on in that house for sure.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
And you know, again, as long as I've been doing this,
I can show a house and identify a lot of
potential issues. At the end of the day, I still
didn't walk the roof or going to the attic, or
fire up a furnace with a carbon monoxide detector and
all of the things that you actually get done in
an inspection. So that last set of eyes on. It

(19:48):
could uncover some you know, deficiencies or not, but it's
certainly worth the investment to do that. But that became
a negotiating point where people were waving inspections and again,
I don't I don't like that if that's what you
have to do to compete as a buyer, man, just

(20:08):
I don't know, keep looking in my.

Speaker 1 (20:10):
Opinion, Yeah, because I mean well, and again I mean
if we haven't done it yet. In Pam that works
with me at our marketing director will off every now
and then we'll do a podcast together. And we were
joking the other day that we need to do and
all the things that have come up in the house
that we bought, even though we had an inspection, there
has been things that either weren't caught or came to

(20:30):
fruition a lot quicker than we thought. We have been
through so much in the last just this year with
this house, and something as simple as putting in a
new furnace an air conditioner, which you know, we kind
of knew it was original equipment. You know, he said, Okay,
we're going to be proactive because the furnace was still working.
But it's like, okay, maybe time to deal with this,
which led to multiple gas leaves, consumer coming out a

(20:51):
couple of times, and all of this. So it's like
you want even with an inspection, you know, we had issues.
I would never want somebody to walk in blind, you know.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
And there's Murphy's law, right, I mean it really legitimately
could be working perfect for that current owner. In the
second you close, it just stops. I mean it's it's
no different than buying a used car, right, you know,
it's working, working, working, and then the transmission fails. I
just Murphy's law.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
Yeah, And it's it's it's almost been comical the amount
of things. If it wasn't my if it wasn't money
that keeps seeping out of my account, it would almost
be funny all the things that have happened. So the
market that we have right now, we've kind of talked
about it's it's not hot like it was as far
as multiple offers and things of that, sellers maybe having

(21:38):
to come to terms a little bit with where pricing
you know, really needs to be to get buyers. What
do you and I know neither of us have a
crystal ball, and if we did, it's probably murkier than
it's ever been with the markets that we I said,
mind's more like I say, it's more like a magic
eight ball. You know, nowadays, what do you had to
anticipate for the rest of this year? Kind of just
a quiet close to the year. What do you think

(22:00):
right now?

Speaker 2 (22:00):
Based on it? It does seem like it's going to
be a very quiet close to the year. And again
for me personally, been doing it a long time. I
had a solid year. I mean just it was pretty
much business as usual for me. The last few weeks
have been somewhat quiet until yesterday, And I don't know
what yesterday was about or if this is setting up

(22:22):
the stage from now to the end of the year.
Certainly I'll welcome that. But I got busy again, and
all of a sudden, the phone's raking, and people that ringing,
and the people that didn't or haven't looked at houses
in months are wanting to look at houses. So I
don't know, it's a long long I've been doing that.
I just don't know.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
No, And I laugh, and I'll say my magic eight ball,
which has become the crystal ball, is ask again later,
you know, I mean, that's kind of me. I don't know.
I mean logically, you read and you're listening to all
sorts of people in the industry and what they're saying
and what the mortgage folks are saying, and it would
suggest kind of a this hasn't been a blockbuster year
for home sales. It's been, like you said, for a
lot of veteran agents. I think it's been a very

(23:02):
solid year. Agents who know what they're doing. They're having
really good good years from a business perspective. But if
I look at the overall numbers, home sales overall have
been down, and so it's like I don't necessarily see
that changing the rest of the year, but you.

Speaker 2 (23:15):
Know, who knows, it could be the last last quarter push,
in the.

Speaker 1 (23:19):
Last last rod. There a little bit something I don't
think you and I've had a chance to talk about.
Yeah yet, like off air is and it kind of
it hit quick and it seems to have gone away.
But over Labor Day weekend, somebody in Trump's administration, I
think it was Besent, was, you know, talking about Trump
considering declaring a national housing emergency, which got a lot

(23:41):
of attention very quickly. You know, what does that mean that? Well,
that's the first question uh, you know, and and you know,
are they going to do this? And then, you know,
kind of I felt there was a little bit of
back pedaling in the days that followed, with well, we're
just looking at it, and we're gonna, you know, we'll
take a look this fall. Well, technically, by the calendar,
fall hasn't started yet, so they've got some time. Do

(24:04):
you think, even if they're serious, if they're one hundred
percent serious on doing something, is there really anything any
presidential administration can do that would help the housing market?

Speaker 2 (24:13):
You know, I just heard sound bites and I probably
can't even remember, but what was it? Wasn't it something
to do with the mortgage process and making that or
making that easier?

Speaker 1 (24:26):
Well, there was a couple there was a few different
things that they were referencing. Yes, on that end of things,
they were talking, and this thing that I heard them
reference specifically was trying to reduce closing costs. I wasn't
quite sure how that was going to work out, but
I mean that was definitely one of the things. And
I think then they tried to pivot a little bit
more excise, said, you know, the way I looked at it,

(24:47):
and again, not knowing what's going through their minds. I'm like, well,
I kind of see two roads you can go down,
or two sides of the coin on this. You've got
the inventory issue, right which nationally there is a shortage.
We all know there's millions of home short for the
buyers that are out there. So does that mean that
they're going to sell federal land, you know, to have

(25:07):
that be developed. Are they going to make regulations? And
that was another thing. They're going to help on their
regulation side at the state and local levels to make
things streamlines so that developers don't get caught up in
that reduce some costs for that. Obviously, there's some things
that they can do on the tariff side to make
lumber and other construction materials not have that bumping price
that can help the cost of homes. But then there

(25:29):
is on you know, on the other side, like to
you're alluding to, is what can we do to you know,
make the process smoother or reduce closing costs? And that's
where I'm like, I'm not really sure how that part's going.

Speaker 2 (25:39):
To work, Yeah, because I really think that closing costs,
you know, everybody's got to get paid of course, and
with reputable lenders. I don't see closing costs as being
this big, big obstacle, the big issue, because again you
and I know, there's we the consumer labels, and I
do to you know, closing costs, but there really are

(25:59):
your prepaids, you know, and then there's your bank closing costs.
And the prepaids of course are really the property taxes
and your homeowner's insurance, and those are things that you
have to do, but we lump them into that statement
closing costs. So again, you can lessen closing costs if
you have twenty percent down by not having or you
realizing an escrow account. Right, So closing costs by themselves

(26:25):
don't seem out of control to me. One of the
things I think that would have an impact is the
capping of these property taxes. That is probably the scariest
thing for any buyer right now. Right As an example,
I've been in my house for twenty six years, and

(26:48):
my taxable value for somebody buying my house, you know,
my taxes would go from say forty two or three
hundred dollars a year to ten or twelve thousand dollars
for the next buyer, And to me, That's a scary
thought because at the onset, you know, they're getting qualified
based on what they are, not what they're going to be. Yeah,

(27:09):
and again one of those we're going to talk about this,
we're going to talk about where your taxes are going
to go, but when that actually happens, that's a huge
hit to that person's pocketbook. And again I want that house.
Will they remember the conversation about beware of prepared what
these property taxes are going to do? The other thing

(27:31):
on that topic that I've thought of is, right, we
pay the property taxes and municipalities getting all this big money.
And yes, home values have gone up, so being that
the millage rate is multiplied times of value, right, are
we getting more services? What's the municipality doing with all

(27:53):
this extra money?

Speaker 1 (27:54):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Well.

Speaker 1 (27:55):
To me, that's the one of the big mysteries, kind
of like we brought in all the casinos for the
tax revenue to help schools, yet schools don't have enough money.
I'm like, well, where'd all that money go? Because at
one point in time, that was an influx of new
money that seems to just been gobbled up And nobody
can really tell me where it goes because everybody still
says that the system's broken and needs more. And I'm
living through exactly what you just said on property taxes

(28:16):
in the house that we bought. Now, ironically, the one
that we bought had just sold like eighteen months prior.
They basically had done a ten to thirty one exchange,
so if somebody had owned it that didn't live in
it was using it for the rental income, you know,
a quick thing. So I'm looking at the taxes going
to oll This was a non homestead property that just
you know, as they were using it, and so they're

(28:37):
paying a different tax right than if you live in
the home. And it just sold a little bit of
ghosts and we actually bought it for less than you know,
what they had bought from. And so I'm like, I
thought I had a really good handle on what the
taxes were going to be, and I still had some
sticker shock when they came through and they you know,
upgraded it, and I went into the panel and fought it.
I mean, they did bring it down, not as much

(28:59):
as I would have liked, but it was like, where
are you getting this number from? Because I'm like, seriously,
if you think my house is worth this, I'll sell
it right now, right. And my husband would love he
was don't say that, because I think he thought I
was serious. I'm like, seriously, if they think that I
can get this for it, right, But there is even
with people in the industry, there can be a bit
of some sticker shock on that. And you're right, that

(29:19):
is a huge for somebody who's and we were the
same way. We had been in our house for almost
twenty years. We had been the benefactor of it, you know,
capping while I lived there. But yeah, once you open
it up and somebody new comes in, and I agree
with you, the exorbitant amount of money that is being collected,
I don't necessarily see evidence that it's coming back in

(29:40):
services or support or whatever it could be.

Speaker 2 (29:43):
You know, back to the when we were talking about
the affordable markets at that less than three point fifty,
you know, recently I sold out a very nicely upgraded
house and Warren, you know, and that's the neighborhood I
grew up in, right, So these little ranches and taxes
were you know, I knew them as you know, two
thousand dollars a year and this house at what it's

(30:03):
sold for we're going to be close to the nine
thousand dollars mark. And it's just it's so hard to
wrap your head around that. And for call it a
first time buyer going into this house. Where do these
how are these people supposed to afford housing? And not
not the principal interest at the six percent interest rate?
But yeah, and you throw those property taxes on top

(30:26):
of it, and it's gotten out of control.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
And I believe that, yes, it has become a deterrent
of sorts, because you're right, Okay, they sit down, I
can afford this for a payment, you know, And they said,
you know, and we've all been I mean most of
us have been there as first time buyers. You save
your money, you're getting excited to do this. Yes, I
can afford this payment. Oh but wait, there's more, you know,
and then you have to add in the property taxes.
Oh but wait, homeowners insurance insurance, homeowners insurance. And you

(30:53):
knew where you were saying it as I was saying it.
Homeowner's insurance is another thing that seems to be skyrocketing, right,
and I don't I mean, typically things don't come down.
I mean once they go up in price, there's usually
not a reprieve where they come back. That's becoming a
bigger issue. And I mean, do you do you see
this on the minds of your buyers. I mean, at

(31:13):
what point in the buying process to do do these
kind of flags start to go off for them? Well?

Speaker 2 (31:18):
And bringing the tax one, you know, I've got the
knowledge of that because everybody it's happening, right, So you
take the millage rates, here's the sales price. Let's do
a little calculation a lot like you did, and usually
you're on the market.

Speaker 1 (31:33):
Right.

Speaker 2 (31:34):
The homeowner's insurance has been the big surprise. And I
did recently have a closing. And I used to say,
estimate for homeowners insurance one hundred bucks a month and
that was high, yeah, you know, twelve hundred dollars a year.
Then it seemed to have crept to that fourteen to
fifteen hundred dollars mark. I just had a closing this
young couple twenty two hundred dollars a year in a
rural setting too, And I'm thinking that's crazy. And I

(31:57):
know that the rates are based on lowke right, number
of cartheps or crime or break and whatever they put
into that method. To determine the rates. But I was
shocked because this was like Saint Clair County rural twenty
two hundred dollars a year.

Speaker 1 (32:15):
No, I mean it, and I always I guess you know,
I'm blessed that I haven't had to make insurance claims,
but you know, in my mind, at some point you
start to go, how much money have I paid over
the years. I've never filed anything. Again, very grateful that
I haven't had to, but the rates that are starting
to become a little jaw jaw dropping when it comes

(32:36):
to that, and and and then, and I've had somebody
in here on the from the insurance industry. Probably do
to have somebody back in to talk about it, because
where I got the sense that that industry is going
is they're going to start clamping down I think a
lot more on what they cover. I mean, roof was
going to be the first thing, right, I mean there
Unfortunately there had been a lot of I think abuse.
You know, storm comes through everybody. Now, Oh I have

(32:58):
roof damage and you need to replace the rod. And
I get the insurance company saying, you know you're not
I'm not your piggybank for this. I get that they
have to protect themselves. But I know they were starting
to elude that old furnaces may become an issue for
them wanting to ensure a property. If you're buying a
house and the furnaces original or twenty years old, that
they're going to start to say, no, I'm not sure

(33:18):
we wherey to you know, ensure that property. So I
think there's more to come when it comes with insurance companies.

Speaker 2 (33:24):
Yeah, for sure. And God forbid you make a claim,
you know, they try to talk you out of it too,
for fear that your rates are going to go up.
And my daughter and her husband recently had to make
a claim. They had a dishwasher that had been leaking
for some time and of course didn't know until the
floors started buckling, right, and you know, and they went
through a fiasco getting just getting it taken care of.

(33:44):
It's it's really been I think close to three months
now and it's still not completely done.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
Well, you're the second person I've heard of that that's happened.
I mean somebody that you say happened to somebody else
I know. And so then in my mind, I'm like, Okay,
the appliances in the house that we bought our original
kind of probably getting to the point, you know, it
should be on our radar. And in my perfect world,
I was like, well, let's maybe let's start with the dishwasher,
because that's the one that can can sneak up, you know,
and will cause some sneaky damage. And if you got

(34:09):
hardwood floor is that becomes a big issue, you know,
blah blah blah blah. But then we've had a roof
and windows and gas leaks and other stuff that we've
had to deal with.

Speaker 2 (34:17):
I would love to have you have an insurance expert
on here because this I'll make this brief, but they're
down to the point of putting like the dishwasher back
in place. And there was a part on the dishwasher,
brand new, by the way, that was defective, and so
before they install it, they kept checking we need to
get the new part. And the insurance adjuster tried telling

(34:38):
my daughter that, well, we don't take care of that,
that's something you have to do. And I said, wait,
I'm confused. So you just remodeled the kitchen, but the
thing that caused the issue for you to have to remodel.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
The kitchen, you don't is the one thing you're not
going to take care of.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
I said, So, let me understand this. If there's a
hole in my roof and my house gets flooded because
it rained and it ruins my kitchen, you're going to
fix the kitchen, but not the roof. You know. Ultimately
they got it covered, but it was like they tried
to say, we don't do that.

Speaker 1 (35:14):
And and this is where I think people get frustrated, right,
I mean, because it's like, if you're going to charge
me an exorbitant amount of money to have coverage, then
the one time I might need to make the claim,
it's like you're you're now Nickel and Diamond me, you know,
I mean, and now and and I kind of just
went through this with the Well, it's an ongoing it's
an ongoing challenge that I'm working with right now because

(35:34):
they had to come back out like six times because
they're they're kept being gas leaks. After they put the
new furnace in and they said there was a part
that was an issue, they put a new part on
charged us for it, and I'm like, well, at the beginning,
I'm like, wait a minute, you put in the new furnace,
anything that you put in that was what you brought

(35:55):
to the job. Well, no, we need to go fix it.
So they did that, had it came out literally two
days later because there's now a couple of gas leaks.
So they basically like a coupler or something like that,
and then wanted to charge again. I'm like, Okay, no,
I'm not paying for this twice. You're not putting it
in correctly. And it's just been Yeah, kind of an
interesting dynamic.

Speaker 2 (36:14):
Welcome to home ownership.

Speaker 1 (36:16):
I ever talking to people a lot of it at
this point. I mean that happens. I mean in every case.
I mean my other house, I never had any of
these problems. It's just kind of the luck of the
luck of the draw, I guess if you will. Last year,
there were some changes made to our industry, some settlements made.
Yeah yet the National Association of Realtor's level and stuff

(36:38):
like that. A lot of that's in the rearview mirror,
but just very curious it did. It did probably usher
in a new day and age when it came to
talking to buyers about who's representing them and stuff like that.
Has the dust settled? Do you hear anything about this?
Has it changed? Dramatically the way business is done. From
your perspective, not much.

Speaker 2 (36:58):
And it's funny that you say from a buyer perspective,
because my buyer come in today is a past client
and bought a house from me, and they were like, Hey,
we're thinking about doing this and can you set this
up and show it to us. You know, I said, well,
before we do that, I've got this whole new set
of rules I got to follow, so I need you
to come in and explain it to you. Things have
changed since you have done that, And they're like, huh,

(37:21):
so I'm going to address all of that with them today.
From a getting paid standpoint, as a buyer's agent, nothing
has really changed. You know. There's the additional document that's
become part of the offer when negotiating the fee, et cetera.
You know, and I've seen maybe as prices on homes

(37:42):
have gone up because now we don't know what, if anything,
that seller is offering this compensation or the listing agent.
You're putting a request in for what you want to
be paid, and some of those numbers have been down
by a half a point or a point, you know,
which now parlays back to the buyer and what they
sign up front of, how do you get compensated? And

(38:04):
you know, do you hold that buyer accountable for that
shortage if any And you know, I've never done.

Speaker 1 (38:11):
That and incubibly won't.

Speaker 2 (38:13):
But it is a conversation and I do find that
most people, whether you are on the cell side or
the buy side, as I explain the dynamics, you know,
to a seller of oh, here's a listing agreement, and
we can talk about are you paying a buyer's agent
or not? It doesn't matter because they're not going to
see it anyway. So whether I sign you up at

(38:34):
this way or not, I try to prep them it's
going to be part of the offer, So prepare yourself
for that. Yeah, you know. And then when you tell
a buyer, hey, by the way, you're responsible for paying me,
but here's what we're going to do. Yeah, and they
kind of get confused and you know, like what I
got to come up with this? Actually? You know, so
those things have changed, I think it really from a

(38:55):
consumer buyer or seller, it's just made it more confusing
for them how we're getting paid.

Speaker 1 (39:02):
Nothing's really changed, but the conversations at the front end. Yeah,
especially for people who have bought and sold before, you
know that are expecting it to be the same thing
as the last time. You're like, well, like, I think
you said it right. Yeah, hey, wait a second. There's
a lot of things I mean, I have to disclose,
I have to talk to you about on the front end.
And yeah, if I'm a buyer and all of a sudden,
I'm saying that I'm responsible to pay you X even

(39:24):
though you're telling them we're going to put this into
our an offer. You know, in any home that we're
looking to buy, that the seller pays that. Technically somebody's
on the hook for this. That could give somebody pause
if they don't fully understand what's going on.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
And I'll tell you it is kind of I mean
certain I guess advantages and true life story here. I
think it was either the tail end of last year,
so the market was still pretty hot, and it was
in a royal oak, so you know what that market
it's like, right, everybody's fighting in this house. It was stunning.
And I had a gal that wanted it so bad,
and she was a cash buyer, and she started off

(40:00):
at asking price and they were receiving their multiple offers
and putting off presentation, et cetera, et cetera. So it
it finally came to okay, we're presenting today, and she
ended up going like sixty eight thousand dollars over the
asking price. Wow, full blown cash. Right, So of course
I've got my compensation agreement within the offer, which is

(40:22):
part of the offer. And the agent calls me back, Yeah,
they're going to go with that offer, but the seller
only wants to pay X. And I said, so, what
you're telling me is you're countering this offer for a
half a percent difference, right, I said, so go ahead.
She goes, well, what do you mean? And I don't
think she fully in the changes. Right, this is now

(40:46):
part of the offer, so you make that change. You've
countered the offer, so go ahead and do that if
you want, you know. And at the end of the day,
I got what was in the offer because but I
had to really educate that agent. Is you realize the
dynamics have changed?

Speaker 1 (41:05):
Yes, you know.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
I don't know how many brokers really understand it or
if they're you know, explaining it to their agents the
way they should. But you and I both know that
all agents are not created equal. All brokerages are not
created equal, and god the lack of knowledge on I'll
label it as the new generation of agents out there.

(41:27):
It's just not there.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
So one of the things that was anticipated is, you
know a lot of people kind of got licensed in.
I mean, there's always an influx of new licensees in
any cycle or any year, but coming you know, kind
of at that COVID time frame when like the business
was on fire, right, you know, and then all you
had to do is breathe and with a real estate
license and you could do something. It brought people out

(41:50):
of that would work as good markets often do. Are
you seeing a retreat of agents? You know that I
thought this was going to be easy. Are you seeing
kind of a decline?

Speaker 2 (41:58):
Yeah, a lot of those people that got in and
thought it was easy money are certainly starting to fall
by the wayside. Another common thing I hear from the
seasoned ones, you know, the people that have been around
like me, that you know, when I run into them,
everybody says the exact same thing, and that is I'm
glad I'm at the tail end of this because it's

(42:20):
you know, as you know, of course, I used to
own the office for twenty seven years and that's over
with now and now I'm working for the person that
acquired our company, and it's a feeling of relief for me.
And I feel like somewhat retired because of that. And
so when I am just dealing with buyers and sellers,

(42:43):
it's just it's made my life so much easier, except
for it's usually the agent on the other side of
the transaction that gives me grief. That's the only part
of this of this that is difficult for me.

Speaker 1 (43:00):
And it's interesting because again from where I sit, you know,
looking at you know, Remax in southeastern Michigan and the
stats that come through from you know, our agents monthly,
that's something that we track, you know, and it's very
interesting to me that the agents over the last couple
of years that have been the most productive, you know,
whether we're talking you know, the volume of business that

(43:20):
they've done or the number of transactions that they've done.
It's it's the people that have been around a while.
You don't see a lot of like newbies just popping
into this like they're just setting the world on fire,
you know, and then they're in our top ten or
our top twenties. It's the people that have been around
a while, that have that database of people, they know
how to do business and get deals done. They're the

(43:40):
ones that we're consistently seeing up there.

Speaker 2 (43:43):
Yeah, and I for years I've said people most agents
are what I call transaction oriented. You know, they're just
worried about the little transaction and that's set and then
they're on to the next one and the next one.
Whereas if you treat people like this is a long
term and vaw, what did it take for me to
get this client? I want to treat this client right,

(44:04):
make sure that their needs are met, nurture them so
that down the road I am that repeat referral right
person they're looking to for professional advice. And you know
my point, at my age in my career, all of
my business is past clients, past clients. Children.

Speaker 1 (44:23):
Yeah, dating yourself a little bit, yes.

Speaker 2 (44:25):
And unfortunately the parents that are passing on, you know,
and that's it's really strange. And it's usually the extreme too.
It's either the kids or their parents. Yeah, you know so,
but that's a good thing. That's what I worked for.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
No, I mean, and I think again, most from my perspective,
within our brand, you know, within the REMAX. That happens
to a lot of agents that have been doing this
any length of time because they did treat their business
as of this is a relationship business. This isn't just
the transaction. Thank you very much. I'm on to the
next it's I'm building a rapport. I'm going to stay
in touch with you and I want to be the
person you reach out to you and you have a

(44:58):
real estate related question or someone asks you. Because I've
often said business is won and lost, and you're not
even in the room right because somebody's going to ask
somebody who did you use? Who was that agent that
you used when you bought and sold? And you know
your name's getting referred or not depending on how you
took care of people.

Speaker 2 (45:15):
Right.

Speaker 1 (45:16):
So it's kind of starting to wrap up here and
we're talking with Rob SCALESI from REMAX. First is what
advice right now? If you're a potential buyer that's listening
and you're considering, you know, you think I saved the money,
what advice do you have for buyers as a whole?

Speaker 2 (45:34):
Always first and foremost to sit down with a reputable lender.
And again, you know I have several lenders that I
deal with, and I always say the advice of your
agent is going to be paramount in finding somebody that's
going to take care of you that way, to make
sure that the closing costs aren't exaggerated, to make sure

(45:55):
you are getting a competitive rate for your credit score,
and you know your income, et cetera. And that's just
it should be a no pressure thing. It's really a
fact finding mission, like what can I afford in a house?
And then of course that relates to a payment, and
that payment may or may not be something that they're

(46:15):
comfortable with. And if it's obviously if something you're not
comfortable with, back it down and we can reverse engineer that,
saying okay, based on where you're comfortable, this is the
loan amount, which means this for a purchase price, where
are you thinking about living and what do you want
in housing? And sitting down and looking at that, so
I really say, I don't care if you're six months out.

(46:37):
Disappointment is just it's so valuable, right, we'll know your numbers.
Let's show you what that buys you, and maybe even
take it a step further and go out there and
view a couple of these properties and see what your
money buys. You may be like, oh, this is great
or wow, are you kidding me? Right? And it really
just kind of sets the stage to educating yourself about

(46:58):
the process again, touching on the forms and how we
get paid and what representation means, et cetera. All of
that can be done when I do it. It really
is a no pressure situation and when you're ready. If
it's now, that's great, and if it's a year from now,
that's great too, But just get yourself some sort of

(47:19):
benchmark and go from there.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
No, and I think it's really important, and like you said,
especially especially well, I guess it would matter if you're
moving up. It could be the same thing getting out
there and seeing once you land on the number that
you're comfortable with, you know, because I've often found lenders
are willing to give me more money than I'm comfortable
having my monthly payment actually be because I want to
have a life beyond my house. But once once you

(47:42):
land on that number and you're working with somebody like
like you know, Rob, here is to go out and
take a look at a couple of homes. And I
remember specific well it's happened to all of them, but
specifically the first time when we were first time buyers
and we had the dream of, you know, we're going
to get the three bedroom house that has the garage,
that have you know this, that in a basement, in
all of this, and we quickly realized that was not

(48:04):
what we could afford. Something was going to have to
give in that equation, and we kind of landed on,
we're probably going to get a house on a slab
because that's what we could afford. I wanted a garage
more than I wanted the basement. I didn't want to
have to scrape the car in the winter, so the
garage was more important to me. And so but that
was a learning curve that I had to go through,
and it would have been hard to do if I
didn't go out and start looking at homes.

Speaker 2 (48:26):
Yeah, it's funny because there's oftentimes not always, but when
somebody says, yeah, you know what, I'm thinking about spending
two fifty and I want to live in Shelby Township
and I'm looking for twenty three hundred square feet, you
know instantly I know that that's never going to happen.

Speaker 1 (48:39):
Right, How do I slip the air out of that
balloon ever so slightly.

Speaker 2 (48:44):
The best way is to bring them in, do what
you normally do, and then log into that computer and go,
oh look it nothing came up, you know, and back
them down, just so that they can have that reality check,
because if you don't do it that way, they might
think you're just trying to don't sell them on something.

Speaker 1 (49:01):
Yeah. No, I mean, if you're working with the right person,
like you said immediately, you know this is what you're asking.
This price point just it can't happen. There isn't anything
there to support it. Now. There are homes that I
can get you that meet your criteria, but they might
be in a different zip code or a different city
or something like that, or you know, is it really
important to have all the features that you listed? Okay,
So at flip side, somebody who's considering selling, I've been

(49:24):
maybe sitting there waiting and waiting, and I finally decided
I'm tired of waiting. I'm going to throw my house
on the market. What advice do you have for you?

Speaker 2 (49:30):
Now? This is a tough one because the same house
I referred to earlier in Sterling Heights, we have brought
the price down from where we originally started, and the data,
believe it or not, if I was to run an analysis,
still almost supports that original number. And the seller said
to me, Rob, if we were to do this today

(49:51):
and just list it fresh out of the gate today,
what number would you have suggested? And I said, I
don't think my response would have been any different. I said,
because I'm working off data. I don't have the crystal ball.
And again, we're going to go off of these numbers.
And I can't come in and say, hey, I've on
numbers that support this number, but I want you to
do it for less. I said, you would have kicked

(50:12):
me out of your house. I said, in the only
way to prove or disprove whether you did the right
thing or not is make a decision and put it
out there. Because let's just say, when we look at
my advice saying the market's slowing a little bit, even
though I have numbers up here, I'm going to suggest
ten three percent whatever less than that, and you put
it out there and it sells immediately, what's your response

(50:34):
going to be?

Speaker 1 (50:35):
I should have gone with the higher amount.

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Should have went with a higher number. And if I
put it at the higher number and it lingers and
now it becomes the old milk at the grocery store.
Nobody wants to look at It must be something wrong, right,
you know, So you have to make a decision, and
I always leave that up to the cellar. I'm good
either way. Here's potentially what's going to happen on either side.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
Right, and it's trying to thread a needle right now.
I mean, because there was a point in time where
you kind of knew if this is what data says,
it's an upward trajectory, we can go with this.

Speaker 2 (51:03):
Yeah, we can go here and you're probably going to
get more. Right now, that just doesn't seem to be
the case unless you're in that well, that pocket market
of three point fifty to do fifty. You know that
can still happen there.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
So on the seller side, one of the thing, because
pricing is always paramount, because I mean that's what that's
where it starts. I mean, every buyer does a search
criteria that usually includes a financial component, right, and so
you're trying me, so that's pricing is always going to
be key. So that aside, because that's the first thing.
Is there anything specific that sellers need to do to

(51:39):
have their home present itself, I mean in the best
possible light.

Speaker 2 (51:43):
These days, well, and that's a thing within budget, right
People say what should I do or what can I do?
And you know, I always say, you want to present
it in its best light. I mean I use professional
photographers and we all know they make houses look better
and bigger than they might be when you, you know,
show up in person. But you never really want to
mask what you're presenting, even if they look great in photos.

(52:05):
When the people get there, they're going to see what
they get to see. So yes, cleanliness, curb appeal, you know,
lawn this time of the year. As we head into
the dormance this season, you know, obviously that's a different
set of circumstances. But yeah, you just have to make
the house decluttered and as clean as you possibly can.
And paint and carpet or flooring are always fairly inexpensive

(52:28):
cures to deficiencies. You know, A a professional painter, to me
is is huge. Just yeah, you know, light fixtures being
cleaned and maybe even slightly modernized. But if people don't
have the money for it, then you can compensate with pricing,
you know, So it just depends on where you're at.

Speaker 1 (52:48):
And I always say, you know, clean, you can't clean
as free, I mean, because I mean even if you
can't afford a professional clean I mean, ay, but most
people can elbow grease it, you know, I mean, and
really make it shine from top to bottom.

Speaker 2 (53:00):
The other thing, that's been an interesting thought, and I
haven't had any takers on that. And you know, you
have these prices, and maybe the houses is lingering a bit,
and you know, and let's just say that it's a
six hundred thousand dollars house. So you start to make
it significant to have an impact on new buyers coming
through or falling into their price categories. Right, you know,

(53:22):
ten thousand dollars, even though it's a lot of money,
is not a lot of money to reduce it. Right,
So you start throwing these price reductions at and I've
seen where people have done, you know, fifty thousand dollars
worth of price reductions. You know what if you took
that same money in today's higher interest rate, proposed buying

(53:43):
down somebody's some buyer's interest rate to get them into
a you know, smoking low interest rate, it's the same
net effect to you as the seller. And you know,
that might be a thought process.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
It is interesting because there there are typically more than
one way to get the solution right, I mean the
multiple options. Some tend to be the immediate consideration, ie
price reduction, but that's not the only tool that can
be used.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
And I love math, I mean debits and credits. I
mean we get to the same number. What difference does it.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Make how we we got there? Yeah, you see, I
did not excel at math class in high school. I
got better in college, but it wasn't my It wasn't
that my strong suit back in the back in the day.
But to your point, there's multiple ways to get to
get there, and if you get creative, and yeah, a
credit to bride down and more interest rate could be
very because it has it has the life of the

(54:32):
loan effect on a buyer versus a cosmetic or something
like that, where it's like they may not even like
what you did anyway in two years are going to
change it.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
So absolutely, And it's also you know, the way when
you're trying to market a property to get that point
that statement across to where people including the agent representing
a buyer, to understand what you're talking about. That would
be the challenge.

Speaker 1 (54:57):
Yeah and say, yea work with me on this is
this may not be something that's you've personally done, but yeah,
there's there's something here. So is there any final comments
anything we didn't discuss today that you want to get
across to folks that might be listening about our market.
And as we kind of you know, head into Q four.

Speaker 2 (55:12):
You know, my my consistent statement on any of this,
if you're buying or selling a house, consult a professional
and make sure that the you know, experience matters. All
agents are not quite created equal and you got to
do a lot of digging, And I do I feel
bad for the consumer because you know, somebody's got a

(55:33):
real estate license and they work for a company that
name recognition or even not, but you think, oh, they
must know what they're doing, and it's it's just not
the case. So I think referrals are a great source
for you to find that right person, but interview people,
and I think if you come across the right agent,
there's going to be a very noticeable difference.

Speaker 1 (55:52):
And I agree, I mean, this is a this is
a big we you know, we've used this phrase many times.
For most people, it's the single, single largest and that
they're going to have. It's okay to talk to a
few people and find the one that you feel there's
a chemistry with, because depending you might be in this
process for a number of weeks or months. If you're
a buyer, potentially you know with this agent and you

(56:13):
want somebody that you can trust, that you feel, you
know understands what you're looking for and he has your
back and like you said, you're ready to you're ready
to do something now. Great. If you're not ready yet
and we're just having a dialogue for six months or
twelve months down the road, great, you know, kind of
no pressure. You want to find the right chemistry fit
for you.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
Absolutely, absolutely, Well, Rob, it.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Has been a pleasure. Haven't you here again?

Speaker 2 (56:35):
That was great to be here. I just love the
unscripted just where we just conversation.

Speaker 1 (56:41):
We just go, we just go. Well, you know, you
know somebody this long you can you can pull that off.
And it's always a pleasure. If there's someone listening that
may say, hey, this guy might be somebody I need
to talk to. I have some buying or selling needs
in my future. Where can they reach you?

Speaker 2 (56:55):
That's Rob Scalicia is the name and Scalsias sc Aici.
I work for Remax First. My cell number is five
eight six two zero six two nine. My email address
is our Scalesi so R s c Lici at Remax

(57:17):
dot net.

Speaker 1 (57:18):
Well again, thanks Rob so much for being here. It
was a pleasure and for our listeners, of course, we're
always happy to have you along. Our next episode is
going to focus on fall home maintenance tips. It's that
time of the year if you own a home, to
get out there and take care of it so it's
ready for the winner. So that is what our next
episode is going to focus on. Until then, have a
great week and we look forward with chatting with you soon.

(57:41):
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