December 5, 2025 • 29 mins
Welcome back to Real(ty) Talk! Today, Paul and Suzanne unpack why the end of the year is one of the most strategic times to buy, sell, or invest—even though most of the industry slows down. From holiday motivation to inventory psychology, we explain how agents can finish strong and set up a powerful start to 2026.
This episode covers:
Why buyers have a huge edge during the holiday slowdown
How agents can stay consistent, time-block, and build next year’s pipeline
What the Fed’s final meeting under Powell means for rates
Insights from a recent economic forum on inflation, AI, home values & affordability
The 5 biggest red flags for buyers—pricing traps, urgency pressure, inspection disasters, sketchy disclosures, and title nightmares
A hilarious (and terrifying?) Homes Gone Wild story featuring a sweaty stranger and a massive steel wine opener
Tap follow, share with a colleague, and join us next week for more stories, strategy, and insider real-estate insight.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:10):
Welcome back to your favorite podcast on the planet, Realty
Talk. We're excited.
Today we have a big slate of items to talk through.
Yeah, to my left we have the queen of the closing table.
The backdrop is not quite as clean.
Last week we were visiting beautiful San Diego and had a
pink backdrop. Yeah, I know.
I'm feeling like we need to do that more often out in the
(00:32):
field. I liked it.
Yeah, that was fun. We did have some unique.
You know, bystanders. Bystanders walking by, looking
at what we were doing. And I am Paul Hanson.
Paul, fix it all. Thank you.
I feel like we should just drop right in.
Yeah. Market updates.
Yeah, yeah. It's happening.
(00:53):
It's late November about to go into.
I think what I at least I look at is one of the most
opportunistic windows of time during the year.
And and that's me half, you know, glass half full.
You know, I think a lot of investors specifically take time
(01:14):
off. You know, we've got
Thanksgiving, you've got the holidays, New Year's.
And I know a lot of agents or real estate agents think that,
you know, it's a really slow time.
I guess my opinion is that, you know, we that's kind of a social
thought process that isn't very logical.
I mean, if you're an investor and you know that half of your
(01:38):
competition is, you know. Pressing Pause.
And travelling, it's an incredible time.
If somebody's listing their property over the next six
weeks, they probably have to sell.
Yeah, they're motivated. Yeah.
Or if somebody's going to an open house to look at a, you
know, a property that is listed,they probably have to buy.
Yeah, yeah. And so I think it's an
(01:58):
incredible time of year. You know, this next 6 to 8
weeks, you know, we'll see what happens.
I mean, we've got another Fed meeting, you know, with rates
and whatnot, but. Yeah.
And I mean, I think we we've been talking all year long like
we had kind of a slow summer dueto the fact that rates weren't
(02:19):
really moving and just inventoryin general, things were not
going as they usually would in the summertime.
They were not moving super, super fast.
We've seen that pick up over thepast few months.
So I actually feel that this is this is the time for agents to
work a little harder and also and investors, but maybe, you
(02:43):
know, we won't say that because we like that the competition's
leaving. But specifically for agents, I
feel, you know, to take advantage of this opportunity
with buyers right now #1 and #2 this is you're building your
pipeline for next year. So what we see every single year
is all these people kind of slowing down.
I mean, it's, it's almost Thanksgiving.
(03:04):
And so you already hear people being like, well, the years
over, you know, And so I think that's actually the exact
opposite of what you should be doing if you want to have a
successful 2026 because everything you're doing now is,
is likely going to close next year.
So, you know, that's easier saidthan done when you do have a
(03:28):
family and other things going on.
But I think it's really important.
We talk about time blocking all the time.
Yes, there are going to be days for you to spend with your
family, but don't make it 10 days, you know, and forget about
your job so. Yeah.
I mean, I I was having this reflection or moment of
reflection a week ago. I was looking at what I have to
(03:50):
accomplish between now and the end of the year and it was like,
holy smokes. I mean, there are multiple
transactions in escrow to sell. There are man.
We have 7 or 8 homes to buy, youknow, by the end of the year on
top of a few more coming in and then a bunch of other crazy
great updates in business. Yeah, we have brokerage
(04:13):
expansion happening, events for that.
It's like, yeah, multiple. It feels like multiple Christmas
parties, but for the events. But it's not.
It's just, you know, multiple events ahead and yeah, it's,
it's like we, we can't stop. But I think, again, that's why,
you know, we're going to be coming in a next year super
(04:34):
strong because yeah, we have to.Yeah, I think I have in between
now and the end of the year. I think I have 6 trips, six
flights. Oh, wow.
One for, like, fun. Yeah, yeah, You know, 5 for
business stuff. And then, you know, all these
other. I mean, we'll probably end up
transacting 10 times in between now and the end of the year
between what we're closing and buying and, yeah, a lot of stuff
(04:54):
and then four or five holiday parties.
Yeah, yeah. It's a lot.
Yeah, but but I mean, I think it's all doable.
And again, I think you know, we definitely have the advantage
and agents, you have the advantage if you are continuing
to work during this during the holidays, even though the
holidays technically are only, there are only a few.
(05:18):
There are three days in between now and the end of the year
where everyone else is having a holiday.
Exactly. Exactly.
I mean, I think, you know, it's probably a good time to talk
about how business also connectsto just the way the rest of the
world works. I mean, we're talking about the
rest of the year being an opportunity because maybe
everyone else isn't doing it. Yeah, it's the same like if you,
if you're trying to get physically fit, you know, you
(05:40):
could sit down and watch a show at the end of the night, or you
could do a workout, or you couldget up early and get your
workout in or you could sleep in.
And so it's, it's really usuallylife is kind of the same.
It's it's if you choose to take the decisions that the rest of
the people on the planet aren't taking, you're going to see some
improvement. I mean that that it would be a
(06:00):
great challenge for our listeners.
If you're a real estate agent and I, you know, frankly, I'm an
investor. I love competition, so if you're
an investor and you take this time off, don't like go out and,
and, and be active, it's an incredible time.
I bought my personal home. We went into escrow December 1st
and close December like 27th, you know, three years ago and I
(06:21):
thought we got a screaming deal because nobody else was out
shopping. Yeah, yeah, that's how it works.
OK, well on the the note of the feds, just to touch on that real
quick. So I think the the topic is that
they're they're meeting again, but then that is the end for
(06:42):
yes, exactly. Not sure if he has one more
meeting after that or not, but yeah, it's it's right at the
end. Yeah.
So likely we will see rates reduced next year.
I I think as soon as the next chairman comes in, yeah.
So, you know, this is probably the end of that, that scenario
(07:04):
where, you know, rates are, I mean, rates aren't bad right
now. Rates are they're, they're
doable, but if they drop below 6, I think we are going to have
a pretty big flood of buyers come back into the market.
And now we're looking at home values going up higher.
So I think buyers have an opportunity right now,
(07:25):
especially at the end of the year when, when if there is a
listing on the market, it needs to sell.
So I actually think they have a a really huge opportunity right
now. Yeah.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens in rates.
You know, we went to that Economic Forum, which, you know,
when you hear Economic Forum, you're like, oh, man, that's
gonna be sleepy. Yeah, but it, it was good.
(07:47):
It was great. You know a lot of early
information. I actually semi felt like I was
at a Trump rally, but but yeah, I, I took some, some good notes
from that. I think the most interesting
fact that I learned from that was or one of the most
interesting facts was that what was it?
(08:07):
40% of home buyers across, or 40% of Americans across the
country can qualify for a $300,000 mortgage.
Yeah. I mean, it, it, it essentially
is directly in line with home ownership, right?
So, yeah, it's, it's really unique.
I think the, the event itself isfunny.
(08:27):
We, our bankers, you know, they run this Economic Forum and
shockingly, most bankers are very conservative, you know, so,
so yes, it does feel a little one sided when you're in that
room. But yeah, I, you know, I, I
think we, we've touched on a little bit in the podcast too,
but I think a few interesting data points came from that which
(08:49):
they outlined, which is, you know, possibly an AI bubble, you
know, primarily because, and there I don't think we talked
about it last week, but Michael Berry, the guy that predicted
the, the housing crisis in 2008,2009.
So he is a quantitative analysiskind of genius and he's built a
fund. He predicted that in 2008, 2009
(09:12):
mortgages were underwater and heshorted it, you know, and made
billions of dollars. He last week or I guess two
weeks ago placed huge shorts on Palantir and NVIDIA, which are
essentially, you know, both interacting in that AI space.
And the, you know, the, the thesis behind it is, is kind of
(09:36):
two fold #1 he believes that there's like 5 or 6 companies,
you know, the Microsofts, the Nvidia's, the Chat GPTS are open
AI and they're all kind of ordering from each other.
So Microsoft will give a loan toChatGPT or make an investment
and ChatGPT will go and make an order for a trillion dollars
worth of computing power from NVIDIA.
(09:58):
And then NVIDIA will make an investment back into ChatGPT.
And it kind of washes itself out.
And it's, it's like this weird economic situation where, you
know, I give you $10 in a loan and you pay me the $10 back.
It's really a wash. But that equates to $20.00 of
GDP. And so their, their argument is
(10:19):
that the earnings and the value of these companies are inflated
incredibly and that the general populace of America, A can't
afford to own a home and B, can't afford to then also
subsidized all of the data centers that will have to get
billed to, to, you know, basically sustain the compute in
the, in the AI space. And so at this Economic Forum,
(10:42):
they talked a fair bit about how, you know, we may see really
flat real estate pricing, but the stock market take a huge dip
because of these inflated technology, you know, equities,
which I thought was kind of interesting.
Yeah, there are a few other really unique data points that,
you know, correlated back. We touched on it last week.
But typically home values appreciate by 100 basis points
(11:05):
or 1% higher than in the the inflation rate.
And they specifically, I'm not saying this is our opinion, but
they specifically think that, you know, that is going to be
closer to 0, you know, so, you know, home values right at the
inflation rate for the next 5 or10 years, which, you know, could
be the case, maybe not. We'll see.
Time will tell. We saw some, we heard some
(11:27):
predictions, so we'll see how that works out for next year.
He also predicted that the Rams were gonna win the Super Bowl.
Well, we'll see, yeah. Yeah.
All right. Okay, so yeah, we're going to
jump into the five biggest red flags that every agent should
(11:49):
watch for when representing a buyer.
That can really save the clientsmoney.
Stress, drama, all of the above.So.
So do you want to give us the first one?
Let's do it. Jump in.
So #1 the price is way below market.
So when a property is listed toolow, there's always a reason,
(12:12):
right? So this is actually where I
live. I.
Mean, I, I love looking at this.Yeah.
Generally that means that there's going to be some sort of
a condition issue. I mean, when you look at
inventory that's priced way below market, that's likely
going to mean that there's a structural defect or a heavy
cosmetic defect. So we're talking, you know,
leaky roof, hoarder house, Cat Pete house?
(12:35):
Yeah, smoker houses. I mean, the only thing I'll say
I because we do online leads, right?
So we're constantly getting buyers reaching out to us about
properties and most of the properties that they're reaching
out on every single time, it's like super low and they're like,
(12:55):
I want to see this house right away.
So for me, a lot of times they can't see it from the photos.
The very first thing that I lookat is the location because nine
times out of 10 for me, when a buyer's reaching out and
everything looks good in the photos, there's a freeway, like
literally in their backyard or power lines or something with
(13:18):
the location that comes up almost every time.
And I always have to like, of course, we will definitely show
that property. And I think it's a great
learning lesson when we do show the property to be like,
absolutely, let's go take a look.
Here's why this is priced here. But yeah.
There's a lot of other things that I think could be, you know,
(13:40):
maybe hidden and not easy to understand.
I mean tax assessments, yeah, there could be future
assessments from a homeowners association or like a Mellaroos.
I mean there could be like really complicated mechanics
liens from the previous contractor.
Obviously the and we'll get to this piece later.
That stuff has to be disclosed technically, you know, but, but
(14:03):
those things could be hidden so you could see photos that look
really awesome. That could be in a great area.
Yeah, but then. There's always a reason, yeah.
You have to know that there is areason why it's priced below
market and you have to find thatreason you know.
Yeah, maybe one in a million is just a really desperate seller.
Yeah. And if you find that situation,
great, yeah, go by the. House.
(14:23):
Yeah, exactly. Maybe it's December and you know
they really need to move OK the seller is creating urgency so
hearing things like you have to sign this today.
There are five other offers, youknow, rushing the deal can
potentially you can miss some things for your clients.
(14:47):
So a lot of times it's a situation where you need to slow
the buyers down, get all of the facts and remind them that, you
know, if this isn't the right home, you should not move
forward on that. But I do feel like I, I there,
there are plenty of homes out there, you know, and if, if they
(15:10):
are pushing, I, I feel that I can often judge whether that is
accurate or not. And sometimes it's used as a
sales tactic. It really shouldn't be because
that's not the right thing to doas a real estate agent.
I think there are ways to still create urgency to have people
sign that are not just flat out lies.
(15:32):
But yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I guess we double clicking on that one a little
bit. I mean, when would urgency as a
seller really benefit you other than when you just need the
money? Yeah, exactly.
You just want to lock someone inor.
But yeah, it it doesn't really make sense I guess.
I guess if there are, if they'resaying that there, there are
(15:54):
multiple offers to potentially get a higher price, but really.
But a seller, I mean, if you already have multiple, right?
Unless somebody's just madly in love with it.
I guess that's the, the whole point of of, you know, selling
or I guess the theory behind it is the more eyeballs you get on
the property, the better the chance you're going to get a
(16:15):
better number. Or better term, yeah.
So yeah, I know I hate I really all the deadlines I think are
just kind of silly in general. I feel like it's just we make
all of these deadlines and thereare always things that, you
know, that can potentially change it or come up.
But I think it's more just beingaware.
(16:36):
If you know someone's being a little too pushy, you know,
maybe something's going on there.
Yeah, OK. Number three, major inspection
issues. So this one, you know, slow down
for a second. Number one, you got to get an
inspection before you close on something.
But I think you know it's a common mistake, right.
If, if you are an agent that hasn't transacted a lot over the
(16:59):
last couple of years because themarket is slow and your buyers
really emotionally attached to this house and you get some
really negative items on the inspection report, you have to
be transparent about what those major inspection issues are.
Yeah. That doesn't mean that it's
going to kill the deal. Yeah, I mean, it, it, it could.
But it's your fiduciary responsibility to be very
(17:22):
methodical and very clear about what those problems are.
Right. And often times, because we're,
we're a buyer and we, we buy a ton and we inspect a lot of
stuff as well. I find that often times when we
find a major inspection problem,the inspector has identified the
issue, but they aren't necessarily the specialist that
understands how to correct it, right?
And so a lot of times when we have negative inspection
(17:44):
results, that's going to requirea follow up inspection by a
professional in that specific trade, right?
So I would just say, you know, slowing down and it's things
like mold or cracks in the foundation or electrical issues
or I mean, it could be a myriad of other things like if the
properties hillside soils, yeah.Things like that.
Well, and I think the other piece of that that you touched
(18:05):
on is really don't panic becausewhile yes, there are some red
flags that potentially pop up, afew that you just named, a lot
of times, as you mentioned, the inspector is not the expert in
that specific area and they are saying, OK, there's something
(18:27):
more to look at here. So I think it goes both ways.
Like you take everything seriously.
And also as you said, I always like to tell my clients like my
job is to protect you. So we're here for this
inspection, not to, you know, like my, it's not for me to sell
you on why you should still buy this house.
(18:47):
My job is to protect you throughout the process.
So this is part of that protection.
And you can't really be emotional about it.
It has to be, you know, is this a big deal?
No. OK, cool, let's move on.
Could this be a, a big deal? Yes, let's inspect it further.
And you know that's it's, it is just business and a transaction.
Yeah, last thing we we should talk about on this one is that,
(19:10):
and, and we had a, a great inspector on the podcast, I
don't know, six or nine months ago, he brought up a really
unique point that there are certain, I mean, in, in the
state of California, you don't necessarily have to have a
license to be an inspector. So, so you may get a report that
looks really nasty and there's really scary stuff on it.
But I would, you know, as an agent, I would go very slow and
(19:31):
methodical, read every one of those line items and then
understand who it was that performed the inspection.
I mean obviously your your responsibility is to guide the
consumer into selecting an inspector that is top rated and
but you know, not every inspector is the same I guess is
the way I would say it. Yeah.
OK. So incomplete or suspicious
(19:55):
disclosures, so missing permits,recent remodels without any
documentation, vague seller doesn't know boxes checked as an
agent. I mean, it kind of goes back to
what we were just saying, like your job is to protect your
client. So I always say like, I mean,
(20:17):
when I review disclosures, I youcan't really coach as an agent,
you can't coach your seller how to fill out those disclosures
when I'm representing the. Buyer, I'm saying I need more
information on these items. A lot of times like there are
check boxes that get missed. I mean, it is literally like you
(20:38):
really have to dig into disclosures and if the answers
aren't there, it's OK for the buyer to ask more questions, you
know, and find out what the situation is and then make that
that educated decision. Because just because there
aren't permits or documentation like that doesn't mean that you
shouldn't buy the house. But you should have all of the
(20:59):
answers to your questions. Yeah, a couple of examples here
too that I've gone through over the last two or three years,
like good and bad examples. You know, I was a buyer of a
property and the property was owned by a woman for 50 years.
Kids were living back East, no other family and, and I think
(21:20):
they were living back east for like 20-30 years and, and you
know, no relationship woman passes away.
So the, the agent that was selling the property was pretty
clear with us, like look, we don't like these disclosures are
kind of just here it is. So there's an attorney
representing the, I think it wasthrough probate or something.
(21:42):
And so there are scenarios or very unique scenarios where your
disclosures are going to be somewhat incomplete because
there there isn't no knowledge of what what's happened, which
is a really weird Gray area as abuyer, as a seller, you know,
I've experienced where our person most knowledgeable, which
is our project manager may not fill out those disclosures
correctly. And that actually brings a
(22:04):
tremendous amount of liability. So I've actually, you know, I've
actually had to settle, you know, disputes with a buyer
over, hey, was this beam properly permitted and was it
disclosed correctly? Yeah.
You know, and that's, you know, at the end of the day, we take a
lot of risk running a business in California and and, you know,
your people have to be fantastic.
(22:24):
Yeah. But I think that one goes, you
know, disclosures go a lot of different directions depending
on whether you're a buyer, seller or an investor, Right.
OK #5 title or ownership concerns?
So before escrow ever opens, verify the title is clean.
How do you do that? Well, yeah, you pull a prelim
(22:48):
before you even start, so you want to make sure, and even as
an agent like you, you also wantto make sure you're not wasting
time. So we work really closely with
our title reps to make sure thatwe're getting that initially,
getting that information. Because, I mean, we've had
situations where we sat with sellers and they're not even on
(23:12):
title, like they're, we're like,I still want to know who you
are. Yeah.
Like I nobody knows so, but theydefinitely couldn't sell the
house. So, but really you just want to
know what you're getting into when you're representing the
seller and and then of course disclosing that information to
the buyer. Yeah.
I think sometimes this would be a good opportunity for us to
(23:35):
slow down and just talk about what title is because, you know,
I've, I've actually interacted with agents that don't
necessarily understand title andtitle insurance.
So title is, is really just a legal document that states you
have the right to the property, right.
And then, and then there are certain mechanisms like property
(23:55):
taxes, for example, they are secured through, you know, the
property itself. And so if somebody didn't make
their property taxes, that's going to stay with the title of
the property regardless who ownsit, right?
So when it transacts, finally the new buyer or the seller is
going to have to pay for that problem.
Mechanic's liens, you know, so if a, if a of a seller of a real
(24:19):
estate asset didn't pay a contractor 15 years ago and that
contract put a mechanic's lien on the property, when that home
transacts, they're going to get paid.
And when you, when you purchase title insurance, their, their
responsibility, quote UN quote, is to verify that they're giving
you a clean title or that they're disclosing issues that
(24:41):
have to get paid through the transaction.
And that's supposed to protect you in the event that somebody
comes back later. So if you purchase the house and
the title was clean and then a contractor comes into the
picture from 10 years ago and says, hey, I put new floors in
and it was never paid and I owed$25,000, that's where title
insurance should kick in and, and clean up that mess.
(25:02):
But it's incredibly important tounderstand that, you know, well
before you know, you open escrow, you know, because to to
your point, you know, there could be title sitting in a
trust, a legal trust, and there might be 4 beneficiaries where
three of them are excited and ready to go and then they're
just not talking to the 4th one.Yeah.
So I have that exact scenario right now on a.
(25:24):
Property. We've been in escrow for I think
90 days. Oh.
Wow. Yeah.
And one of the four beneficiaries is the listing
agent. Oh gosh.
It has to go to probate court approval.
Two of the beneficiaries are ready to rock'n'roll and
excited. And the day before the court
approval, the 4th beneficiary said, hey, my brothers and
(25:46):
sisters never told me we were selling this house.
We don't want to sell this house.
And so and and and That's not easy to understand if you don't
dig into like the title. The dynamics of the title, yeah.
So. OK, well, I think we did that.
But yes. We're we're not done because we
(26:06):
have a story. Oh so.
OK. Moving on.
We in this segment, this week's segment of Homes Gone Wild, OK,
my assistant was supposed to show a house in West Palm Beach
across from Mar a Lago. I like that we're getting
(26:28):
specific here, like, yeah. Our Lago So this is like the
I've never been there, but I hear great things.
I don't know that I would want to go there.
I decided to go. I decided to go instead.
There was a knock at the door but no car in the driveway.
I opened the door to find a sketchy guy with all of his
clothes soaked through with sweat.
(26:50):
Why is he sketchy if he's sweaty?
I said can I help you? And he said, where's Cecilia?
I stepped outside and said I'm Cecilia and where's your car?
He replied down the street and Ichecked him out to see if I
could spot a gun or a knife. I told him to go inside and
check out the house. I always stayed behind him and
(27:11):
had my phone on video mode. What is video mode like?
You're taking a video. Video.
He went to the kitchen three times and stood in the same
place, staring into the side of the cabinet.
I finally figured out why there was a block of knives in front
of him on the counter. When he turned to look at me, my
hand was on a three foot tall steel wine opener. 3 foot tall
(27:35):
steel wine opener. Like one of those like.
Oh, OK. I said it's time for you to
leave and he took off. When I showed my assistant the
video, she quit. I am so confused.
Very confusing. So there's a sweaty guy and then
(27:57):
she was already had a knife or gun.
He went to the kitchen, there's knives there.
She grabs a three foot tall likecantilevered wine opener.
And then he ran away. And then, and then her assistant
quit. OK, all right, well, you know, I
mean, I'm not going to pretend like real estate isn't dangerous
at times. There have been some crazy
stories and we had we had a guest on the podcast that held
(28:23):
that holds kind of, you know, courses for for agents for
really just safety in general. So I mean, it's definitely a
thing. I I'm confused about why she
felt so threatened but. Cecilia, it's called I took a
video, not video mode. And just because he was sweaty
(28:46):
doesn't mean that he was a murderer.
I I guess he did run away. But you are in West Palm Beach.
It's very humid and hot and he may have just had a workout.
You actually may have sketched him.
Out. Yeah.
You threatened him with this wine opener and he's like, I'm
out of here. Cecilia, we appreciate you
listening, but I don't know about this story.
OK. Well with that, I think, I think
(29:10):
that wraps it. That was kind of the perfect
ending too. Yes, that's.
Great. We are excited.
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(29:32):
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Welcome back to your favorite podcast on the planet, Realty
Talk. We're excited.
Today we have a big slate of items to talk through.
Yeah, to my left we have the queen of the closing table.
The backdrop is not quite as clean.
Last week we were visiting beautiful San Diego and had a
pink backdrop. Yeah, I know.
I'm feeling like we need to do that more often out in the
(00:32):
field. I liked it.
Yeah, that was fun. We did have some unique.
You know, bystanders. Bystanders walking by, looking
at what we were doing. And I am Paul Hanson.
Paul, fix it all. Thank you.
I feel like we should just drop right in.
Yeah. Market updates.
Yeah, yeah. It's happening.
(00:53):
It's late November about to go into.
I think what I at least I look at is one of the most
opportunistic windows of time during the year.
And and that's me half, you know, glass half full.
You know, I think a lot of investors specifically take time
(01:14):
off. You know, we've got
Thanksgiving, you've got the holidays, New Year's.
And I know a lot of agents or real estate agents think that,
you know, it's a really slow time.
I guess my opinion is that, you know, we that's kind of a social
thought process that isn't very logical.
I mean, if you're an investor and you know that half of your
(01:38):
competition is, you know. Pressing Pause.
And travelling, it's an incredible time.
If somebody's listing their property over the next six
weeks, they probably have to sell.
Yeah, they're motivated. Yeah.
Or if somebody's going to an open house to look at a, you
know, a property that is listed,they probably have to buy.
Yeah, yeah. And so I think it's an
(01:58):
incredible time of year. You know, this next 6 to 8
weeks, you know, we'll see what happens.
I mean, we've got another Fed meeting, you know, with rates
and whatnot, but. Yeah.
And I mean, I think we we've been talking all year long like
we had kind of a slow summer dueto the fact that rates weren't
(02:19):
really moving and just inventoryin general, things were not
going as they usually would in the summertime.
They were not moving super, super fast.
We've seen that pick up over thepast few months.
So I actually feel that this is this is the time for agents to
work a little harder and also and investors, but maybe, you
(02:43):
know, we won't say that because we like that the competition's
leaving. But specifically for agents, I
feel, you know, to take advantage of this opportunity
with buyers right now #1 and #2 this is you're building your
pipeline for next year. So what we see every single year
is all these people kind of slowing down.
I mean, it's, it's almost Thanksgiving.
(03:04):
And so you already hear people being like, well, the years
over, you know, And so I think that's actually the exact
opposite of what you should be doing if you want to have a
successful 2026 because everything you're doing now is,
is likely going to close next year.
So, you know, that's easier saidthan done when you do have a
(03:28):
family and other things going on.
But I think it's really important.
We talk about time blocking all the time.
Yes, there are going to be days for you to spend with your
family, but don't make it 10 days, you know, and forget about
your job so. Yeah.
I mean, I I was having this reflection or moment of
reflection a week ago. I was looking at what I have to
(03:50):
accomplish between now and the end of the year and it was like,
holy smokes. I mean, there are multiple
transactions in escrow to sell. There are man.
We have 7 or 8 homes to buy, youknow, by the end of the year on
top of a few more coming in and then a bunch of other crazy
great updates in business. Yeah, we have brokerage
(04:13):
expansion happening, events for that.
It's like, yeah, multiple. It feels like multiple Christmas
parties, but for the events. But it's not.
It's just, you know, multiple events ahead and yeah, it's,
it's like we, we can't stop. But I think, again, that's why,
you know, we're going to be coming in a next year super
(04:34):
strong because yeah, we have to.Yeah, I think I have in between
now and the end of the year. I think I have 6 trips, six
flights. Oh, wow.
One for, like, fun. Yeah, yeah, You know, 5 for
business stuff. And then, you know, all these
other. I mean, we'll probably end up
transacting 10 times in between now and the end of the year
between what we're closing and buying and, yeah, a lot of stuff
(04:54):
and then four or five holiday parties.
Yeah, yeah. It's a lot.
Yeah, but but I mean, I think it's all doable.
And again, I think you know, we definitely have the advantage
and agents, you have the advantage if you are continuing
to work during this during the holidays, even though the
holidays technically are only, there are only a few.
(05:18):
There are three days in between now and the end of the year
where everyone else is having a holiday.
Exactly. Exactly.
I mean, I think, you know, it's probably a good time to talk
about how business also connectsto just the way the rest of the
world works. I mean, we're talking about the
rest of the year being an opportunity because maybe
everyone else isn't doing it. Yeah, it's the same like if you,
if you're trying to get physically fit, you know, you
(05:40):
could sit down and watch a show at the end of the night, or you
could do a workout, or you couldget up early and get your
workout in or you could sleep in.
And so it's, it's really usuallylife is kind of the same.
It's it's if you choose to take the decisions that the rest of
the people on the planet aren't taking, you're going to see some
improvement. I mean that that it would be a
(06:00):
great challenge for our listeners.
If you're a real estate agent and I, you know, frankly, I'm an
investor. I love competition, so if you're
an investor and you take this time off, don't like go out and,
and, and be active, it's an incredible time.
I bought my personal home. We went into escrow December 1st
and close December like 27th, you know, three years ago and I
(06:21):
thought we got a screaming deal because nobody else was out
shopping. Yeah, yeah, that's how it works.
OK, well on the the note of the feds, just to touch on that real
quick. So I think the the topic is that
they're they're meeting again, but then that is the end for
(06:42):
yes, exactly. Not sure if he has one more
meeting after that or not, but yeah, it's it's right at the
end. Yeah.
So likely we will see rates reduced next year.
I I think as soon as the next chairman comes in, yeah.
So, you know, this is probably the end of that, that scenario
(07:04):
where, you know, rates are, I mean, rates aren't bad right
now. Rates are they're, they're
doable, but if they drop below 6, I think we are going to have
a pretty big flood of buyers come back into the market.
And now we're looking at home values going up higher.
So I think buyers have an opportunity right now,
(07:25):
especially at the end of the year when, when if there is a
listing on the market, it needs to sell.
So I actually think they have a a really huge opportunity right
now. Yeah.
It's going to be interesting to see what happens in rates.
You know, we went to that Economic Forum, which, you know,
when you hear Economic Forum, you're like, oh, man, that's
gonna be sleepy. Yeah, but it, it was good.
(07:47):
It was great. You know a lot of early
information. I actually semi felt like I was
at a Trump rally, but but yeah, I, I took some, some good notes
from that. I think the most interesting
fact that I learned from that was or one of the most
interesting facts was that what was it?
(08:07):
40% of home buyers across, or 40% of Americans across the
country can qualify for a $300,000 mortgage.
Yeah. I mean, it, it, it essentially
is directly in line with home ownership, right?
So, yeah, it's, it's really unique.
I think the, the event itself isfunny.
(08:27):
We, our bankers, you know, they run this Economic Forum and
shockingly, most bankers are very conservative, you know, so,
so yes, it does feel a little one sided when you're in that
room. But yeah, I, you know, I, I
think we, we've touched on a little bit in the podcast too,
but I think a few interesting data points came from that which
(08:49):
they outlined, which is, you know, possibly an AI bubble, you
know, primarily because, and there I don't think we talked
about it last week, but Michael Berry, the guy that predicted
the, the housing crisis in 2008,2009.
So he is a quantitative analysiskind of genius and he's built a
fund. He predicted that in 2008, 2009
(09:12):
mortgages were underwater and heshorted it, you know, and made
billions of dollars. He last week or I guess two
weeks ago placed huge shorts on Palantir and NVIDIA, which are
essentially, you know, both interacting in that AI space.
And the, you know, the, the thesis behind it is, is kind of
(09:36):
two fold #1 he believes that there's like 5 or 6 companies,
you know, the Microsofts, the Nvidia's, the Chat GPTS are open
AI and they're all kind of ordering from each other.
So Microsoft will give a loan toChatGPT or make an investment
and ChatGPT will go and make an order for a trillion dollars
worth of computing power from NVIDIA.
(09:58):
And then NVIDIA will make an investment back into ChatGPT.
And it kind of washes itself out.
And it's, it's like this weird economic situation where, you
know, I give you $10 in a loan and you pay me the $10 back.
It's really a wash. But that equates to $20.00 of
GDP. And so their, their argument is
(10:19):
that the earnings and the value of these companies are inflated
incredibly and that the general populace of America, A can't
afford to own a home and B, can't afford to then also
subsidized all of the data centers that will have to get
billed to, to, you know, basically sustain the compute in
the, in the AI space. And so at this Economic Forum,
(10:42):
they talked a fair bit about how, you know, we may see really
flat real estate pricing, but the stock market take a huge dip
because of these inflated technology, you know, equities,
which I thought was kind of interesting.
Yeah, there are a few other really unique data points that,
you know, correlated back. We touched on it last week.
But typically home values appreciate by 100 basis points
(11:05):
or 1% higher than in the the inflation rate.
And they specifically, I'm not saying this is our opinion, but
they specifically think that, you know, that is going to be
closer to 0, you know, so, you know, home values right at the
inflation rate for the next 5 or10 years, which, you know, could
be the case, maybe not. We'll see.
Time will tell. We saw some, we heard some
(11:27):
predictions, so we'll see how that works out for next year.
He also predicted that the Rams were gonna win the Super Bowl.
Well, we'll see, yeah. Yeah.
All right. Okay, so yeah, we're going to
jump into the five biggest red flags that every agent should
(11:49):
watch for when representing a buyer.
That can really save the clientsmoney.
Stress, drama, all of the above.So.
So do you want to give us the first one?
Let's do it. Jump in.
So #1 the price is way below market.
So when a property is listed toolow, there's always a reason,
(12:12):
right? So this is actually where I
live. I.
Mean, I, I love looking at this.Yeah.
Generally that means that there's going to be some sort of
a condition issue. I mean, when you look at
inventory that's priced way below market, that's likely
going to mean that there's a structural defect or a heavy
cosmetic defect. So we're talking, you know,
leaky roof, hoarder house, Cat Pete house?
(12:35):
Yeah, smoker houses. I mean, the only thing I'll say
I because we do online leads, right?
So we're constantly getting buyers reaching out to us about
properties and most of the properties that they're reaching
out on every single time, it's like super low and they're like,
(12:55):
I want to see this house right away.
So for me, a lot of times they can't see it from the photos.
The very first thing that I lookat is the location because nine
times out of 10 for me, when a buyer's reaching out and
everything looks good in the photos, there's a freeway, like
literally in their backyard or power lines or something with
(13:18):
the location that comes up almost every time.
And I always have to like, of course, we will definitely show
that property. And I think it's a great
learning lesson when we do show the property to be like,
absolutely, let's go take a look.
Here's why this is priced here. But yeah.
There's a lot of other things that I think could be, you know,
(13:40):
maybe hidden and not easy to understand.
I mean tax assessments, yeah, there could be future
assessments from a homeowners association or like a Mellaroos.
I mean there could be like really complicated mechanics
liens from the previous contractor.
Obviously the and we'll get to this piece later.
That stuff has to be disclosed technically, you know, but, but
(14:03):
those things could be hidden so you could see photos that look
really awesome. That could be in a great area.
Yeah, but then. There's always a reason, yeah.
You have to know that there is areason why it's priced below
market and you have to find thatreason you know.
Yeah, maybe one in a million is just a really desperate seller.
Yeah. And if you find that situation,
great, yeah, go by the. House.
(14:23):
Yeah, exactly. Maybe it's December and you know
they really need to move OK the seller is creating urgency so
hearing things like you have to sign this today.
There are five other offers, youknow, rushing the deal can
potentially you can miss some things for your clients.
(14:47):
So a lot of times it's a situation where you need to slow
the buyers down, get all of the facts and remind them that, you
know, if this isn't the right home, you should not move
forward on that. But I do feel like I, I there,
there are plenty of homes out there, you know, and if, if they
(15:10):
are pushing, I, I feel that I can often judge whether that is
accurate or not. And sometimes it's used as a
sales tactic. It really shouldn't be because
that's not the right thing to doas a real estate agent.
I think there are ways to still create urgency to have people
sign that are not just flat out lies.
(15:32):
But yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I guess we double clicking on that one a little
bit. I mean, when would urgency as a
seller really benefit you other than when you just need the
money? Yeah, exactly.
You just want to lock someone inor.
But yeah, it it doesn't really make sense I guess.
I guess if there are, if they'resaying that there, there are
(15:54):
multiple offers to potentially get a higher price, but really.
But a seller, I mean, if you already have multiple, right?
Unless somebody's just madly in love with it.
I guess that's the, the whole point of of, you know, selling
or I guess the theory behind it is the more eyeballs you get on
the property, the better the chance you're going to get a
(16:15):
better number. Or better term, yeah.
So yeah, I know I hate I really all the deadlines I think are
just kind of silly in general. I feel like it's just we make
all of these deadlines and thereare always things that, you
know, that can potentially change it or come up.
But I think it's more just beingaware.
(16:36):
If you know someone's being a little too pushy, you know,
maybe something's going on there.
Yeah, OK. Number three, major inspection
issues. So this one, you know, slow down
for a second. Number one, you got to get an
inspection before you close on something.
But I think you know it's a common mistake, right.
If, if you are an agent that hasn't transacted a lot over the
(16:59):
last couple of years because themarket is slow and your buyers
really emotionally attached to this house and you get some
really negative items on the inspection report, you have to
be transparent about what those major inspection issues are.
Yeah. That doesn't mean that it's
going to kill the deal. Yeah, I mean, it, it, it could.
But it's your fiduciary responsibility to be very
(17:22):
methodical and very clear about what those problems are.
Right. And often times, because we're,
we're a buyer and we, we buy a ton and we inspect a lot of
stuff as well. I find that often times when we
find a major inspection problem,the inspector has identified the
issue, but they aren't necessarily the specialist that
understands how to correct it, right?
And so a lot of times when we have negative inspection
(17:44):
results, that's going to requirea follow up inspection by a
professional in that specific trade, right?
So I would just say, you know, slowing down and it's things
like mold or cracks in the foundation or electrical issues
or I mean, it could be a myriad of other things like if the
properties hillside soils, yeah.Things like that.
Well, and I think the other piece of that that you touched
(18:05):
on is really don't panic becausewhile yes, there are some red
flags that potentially pop up, afew that you just named, a lot
of times, as you mentioned, the inspector is not the expert in
that specific area and they are saying, OK, there's something
(18:27):
more to look at here. So I think it goes both ways.
Like you take everything seriously.
And also as you said, I always like to tell my clients like my
job is to protect you. So we're here for this
inspection, not to, you know, like my, it's not for me to sell
you on why you should still buy this house.
(18:47):
My job is to protect you throughout the process.
So this is part of that protection.
And you can't really be emotional about it.
It has to be, you know, is this a big deal?
No. OK, cool, let's move on.
Could this be a, a big deal? Yes, let's inspect it further.
And you know that's it's, it is just business and a transaction.
Yeah, last thing we we should talk about on this one is that,
(19:10):
and, and we had a, a great inspector on the podcast, I
don't know, six or nine months ago, he brought up a really
unique point that there are certain, I mean, in, in the
state of California, you don't necessarily have to have a
license to be an inspector. So, so you may get a report that
looks really nasty and there's really scary stuff on it.
But I would, you know, as an agent, I would go very slow and
(19:31):
methodical, read every one of those line items and then
understand who it was that performed the inspection.
I mean obviously your your responsibility is to guide the
consumer into selecting an inspector that is top rated and
but you know, not every inspector is the same I guess is
the way I would say it. Yeah.
OK. So incomplete or suspicious
(19:55):
disclosures, so missing permits,recent remodels without any
documentation, vague seller doesn't know boxes checked as an
agent. I mean, it kind of goes back to
what we were just saying, like your job is to protect your
client. So I always say like, I mean,
(20:17):
when I review disclosures, I youcan't really coach as an agent,
you can't coach your seller how to fill out those disclosures
when I'm representing the. Buyer, I'm saying I need more
information on these items. A lot of times like there are
check boxes that get missed. I mean, it is literally like you
(20:38):
really have to dig into disclosures and if the answers
aren't there, it's OK for the buyer to ask more questions, you
know, and find out what the situation is and then make that
that educated decision. Because just because there
aren't permits or documentation like that doesn't mean that you
shouldn't buy the house. But you should have all of the
(20:59):
answers to your questions. Yeah, a couple of examples here
too that I've gone through over the last two or three years,
like good and bad examples. You know, I was a buyer of a
property and the property was owned by a woman for 50 years.
Kids were living back East, no other family and, and I think
(21:20):
they were living back east for like 20-30 years and, and you
know, no relationship woman passes away.
So the, the agent that was selling the property was pretty
clear with us, like look, we don't like these disclosures are
kind of just here it is. So there's an attorney
representing the, I think it wasthrough probate or something.
(21:42):
And so there are scenarios or very unique scenarios where your
disclosures are going to be somewhat incomplete because
there there isn't no knowledge of what what's happened, which
is a really weird Gray area as abuyer, as a seller, you know,
I've experienced where our person most knowledgeable, which
is our project manager may not fill out those disclosures
correctly. And that actually brings a
(22:04):
tremendous amount of liability. So I've actually, you know, I've
actually had to settle, you know, disputes with a buyer
over, hey, was this beam properly permitted and was it
disclosed correctly? Yeah.
You know, and that's, you know, at the end of the day, we take a
lot of risk running a business in California and and, you know,
your people have to be fantastic.
(22:24):
Yeah. But I think that one goes, you
know, disclosures go a lot of different directions depending
on whether you're a buyer, seller or an investor, Right.
OK #5 title or ownership concerns?
So before escrow ever opens, verify the title is clean.
How do you do that? Well, yeah, you pull a prelim
(22:48):
before you even start, so you want to make sure, and even as
an agent like you, you also wantto make sure you're not wasting
time. So we work really closely with
our title reps to make sure thatwe're getting that initially,
getting that information. Because, I mean, we've had
situations where we sat with sellers and they're not even on
(23:12):
title, like they're, we're like,I still want to know who you
are. Yeah.
Like I nobody knows so, but theydefinitely couldn't sell the
house. So, but really you just want to
know what you're getting into when you're representing the
seller and and then of course disclosing that information to
the buyer. Yeah.
I think sometimes this would be a good opportunity for us to
(23:35):
slow down and just talk about what title is because, you know,
I've, I've actually interacted with agents that don't
necessarily understand title andtitle insurance.
So title is, is really just a legal document that states you
have the right to the property, right.
And then, and then there are certain mechanisms like property
(23:55):
taxes, for example, they are secured through, you know, the
property itself. And so if somebody didn't make
their property taxes, that's going to stay with the title of
the property regardless who ownsit, right?
So when it transacts, finally the new buyer or the seller is
going to have to pay for that problem.
Mechanic's liens, you know, so if a, if a of a seller of a real
(24:19):
estate asset didn't pay a contractor 15 years ago and that
contract put a mechanic's lien on the property, when that home
transacts, they're going to get paid.
And when you, when you purchase title insurance, their, their
responsibility, quote UN quote, is to verify that they're giving
you a clean title or that they're disclosing issues that
(24:41):
have to get paid through the transaction.
And that's supposed to protect you in the event that somebody
comes back later. So if you purchase the house and
the title was clean and then a contractor comes into the
picture from 10 years ago and says, hey, I put new floors in
and it was never paid and I owed$25,000, that's where title
insurance should kick in and, and clean up that mess.
(25:02):
But it's incredibly important tounderstand that, you know, well
before you know, you open escrow, you know, because to to
your point, you know, there could be title sitting in a
trust, a legal trust, and there might be 4 beneficiaries where
three of them are excited and ready to go and then they're
just not talking to the 4th one.Yeah.
So I have that exact scenario right now on a.
(25:24):
Property. We've been in escrow for I think
90 days. Oh.
Wow. Yeah.
And one of the four beneficiaries is the listing
agent. Oh gosh.
It has to go to probate court approval.
Two of the beneficiaries are ready to rock'n'roll and
excited. And the day before the court
approval, the 4th beneficiary said, hey, my brothers and
(25:46):
sisters never told me we were selling this house.
We don't want to sell this house.
And so and and and That's not easy to understand if you don't
dig into like the title. The dynamics of the title, yeah.
So. OK, well, I think we did that.
But yes. We're we're not done because we
(26:06):
have a story. Oh so.
OK. Moving on.
We in this segment, this week's segment of Homes Gone Wild, OK,
my assistant was supposed to show a house in West Palm Beach
across from Mar a Lago. I like that we're getting
(26:28):
specific here, like, yeah. Our Lago So this is like the
I've never been there, but I hear great things.
I don't know that I would want to go there.
I decided to go. I decided to go instead.
There was a knock at the door but no car in the driveway.
I opened the door to find a sketchy guy with all of his
clothes soaked through with sweat.
(26:50):
Why is he sketchy if he's sweaty?
I said can I help you? And he said, where's Cecilia?
I stepped outside and said I'm Cecilia and where's your car?
He replied down the street and Ichecked him out to see if I
could spot a gun or a knife. I told him to go inside and
check out the house. I always stayed behind him and
(27:11):
had my phone on video mode. What is video mode like?
You're taking a video. Video.
He went to the kitchen three times and stood in the same
place, staring into the side of the cabinet.
I finally figured out why there was a block of knives in front
of him on the counter. When he turned to look at me, my
hand was on a three foot tall steel wine opener. 3 foot tall
(27:35):
steel wine opener. Like one of those like.
Oh, OK. I said it's time for you to
leave and he took off. When I showed my assistant the
video, she quit. I am so confused.
Very confusing. So there's a sweaty guy and then
(27:57):
she was already had a knife or gun.
He went to the kitchen, there's knives there.
She grabs a three foot tall likecantilevered wine opener.
And then he ran away. And then, and then her assistant
quit. OK, all right, well, you know, I
mean, I'm not going to pretend like real estate isn't dangerous
at times. There have been some crazy
stories and we had we had a guest on the podcast that held
(28:23):
that holds kind of, you know, courses for for agents for
really just safety in general. So I mean, it's definitely a
thing. I I'm confused about why she
felt so threatened but. Cecilia, it's called I took a
video, not video mode. And just because he was sweaty
(28:46):
doesn't mean that he was a murderer.
I I guess he did run away. But you are in West Palm Beach.
It's very humid and hot and he may have just had a workout.
You actually may have sketched him.
Out. Yeah.
You threatened him with this wine opener and he's like, I'm
out of here. Cecilia, we appreciate you
listening, but I don't know about this story.
OK. Well with that, I think, I think
(29:10):
that wraps it. That was kind of the perfect
ending too. Yes, that's.
Great. We are excited.
If you have not hit the subscribe button, please do so.
It helps out a lot. We have a lot of really exciting
guests and information coming up.
So please share our podcast withall your friends, families and
anybody you know that's in the industry or just would like to
(29:32):
have fun with us reading great stories.
But we will see you next time. Thank you.
Bye.
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If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!