How To Buy a Home

Announcer:

This is the Treu Real Estate 911 podcast with Lisa Treu. Lisa will share up-to-date real estate information with you that you need to know.

Brian Mudd:

Welcome to Treu Real Estate 911. It's Brian Mudd, along with your local real estate pro, Lisa Treu. When it comes to real estate, if you're not already at TreuRealEstate911.com, well go there because you're going to find the best local resource for real estate available. It's not just me saying it. Once you get there, it'll all make sense to you. From the information that the Treus provide, including the videos and real insightful information about the Palm Beaches and about south Florida real estate, down to the ability to search the MLS in real time like a real estate pro. I mean, it's right there for you at TreuRealEstate911.com. As always, if you're thinking of buying, if you're selling, if you have questions, Treu is always a resource for you, so call. (561) 972-8326. (561) 972-8326.

Lisa, here we are heading down already what will be the home stretch of summer, in the not so distant. Families that wanted to relocate during the summer, for the most part, have done that now. What is the current real estate market looking like in the Palm Beaches?

Lisa Treu:

We're starting to see more homes coming on the market. We're also seeing homes that have not sold starting to reduce their price. So, there's a little bit more options out there for buyers in the marketplace than maybe there were a couple of months ago. If you were frustrated that you couldn't find a home and you just said, "I'm going to quit looking," you might want to call us and reenter the market and see if maybe it's a little more favorable. I mean, it's still in many places a seller's market, and yet there's at least homes for sale and more options.

Brian Mudd:

We know that luxury real estate has been the most challenging part of the real estate market right along. That often affordable homes have performed pretty well over the past couple of years with the luxury market being sluggish. It looked a little bit better for luxury properties earlier this year. What are we seeing with those luxury properties right now?

Lisa Treu:

We are seeing that there is definitely two markets within the luxury. There are some communities that are super hot. When you talk about ocean access, when you talk about certain neighborhoods in Jupiter, those type of communities are still very popular. They're selling well. Then you have many areas where properties are just sitting for months and months and months at a time. So, you have to really be aware of not what you want, but what is the market doing and what will it allow you to get for the sale of the property and hitting that number right.

Brian Mudd:

Well, and the Treus, again here to help you if you have any questions about that process as well. Now, on today's show, we're going to be talking about the home buying process. There are so many pieces of preps, conventional wisdom that are wrong when it comes to buying a home. The first one, Lisa, that I have come across, I don't know how many times over the years, and lord knows that you have many more, is the notion that somehow or another the buying agent is less important than the selling agent. Let's talk about some of the issues that can come up during the buying process, some of the pitfalls that we definitely want to avoid.

Lisa Treu:

It's like anything, experience matters. Expertise is only needed when there's honestly a challenge. The challenge may be right up front, how do you get your offer accepted in multiple offers? Let's face it, for many buyers out there, that is a big challenge where they're frustrated because they're going up against cash offers. There is a strategy for overcoming that, by the way, so it's not hopeless, but if you don't have the experience, the knowledge, the tools available to you, then the buyer's the one that's suffering. They're thinking, "Well it's just the market." It is the market, and yet if you knew the strategy, we could help you overcome the reality of the market and help you win the house that you want.

Brian Mudd:

Now the problems with buying and not going about things the right way start right from the beginning, especially for folks that are looking to finance. Talk about the pitfalls that we've got to avoid when it comes to the lending process.

Lisa Treu:

This is the most important most misunderstood part of the process, is what do you need to have. Can't I just walk into my local bank or call an 800 number and get that you're a VIP buyer letter, and that's good enough? Well the answer is no because many times the tipping point on which offer is accepted in multiple offers has to do with who are you getting your financing from. If I have a property for sale, and I have even just one offer, but certainly multiple offers, the first thing I'm going to look at is their financing. Are they cash? Are they getting a mortgage, and if they are, who are they using? If I have a big bank that has an 800 number that did the pre, we won't even call it preapproval, prequalification, then I'm putting that at the bottom of the pile of the deal. I'm going to say to the seller, "This is the one I think has the greatest chance of closing." So, who you use matters.

Now, the one thing I hear all the time on properties I have is the buyer loves the house. Now they've got to go work the numbers. They should have done that first. They should have been pre-approved first because once you find the house you love, you need to jump on it. Can't do that if you're not pre-approved.

Brian Mudd:

How many times do they quote unquote work the numbers and then the numbers don't work out?

Lisa Treu:

Many times, so now a buyer has gone out there, fallen in love with something, and now they find out oops you can't afford that. You need to buy something less. It's really hard once you've fallen in love to readjust your expectations. Our lender works seven days a week. Think about that. Now I'm not talking about the loan officer picks up the phone seven days a week. His entire operation system runs seven days a week, 12 hours a day. Saturday, you decide you're going to buy a home. You wake up and decide, okay it's time. You can actually call them, make application, provide all the documentation, which they help you with that, by the way, and then they will have an underwriter look at it, so you could be out looking at homes on Sunday and actually buy a home right away. You don't have to wait for somebody to come in on Monday morning to look at your paperwork.

It's quite exciting to get that process right. The people we're working with today have streamlined it in such a way that they make it so easy on you and we get such great results with this company. Making sure you make the right decision on who you're going to use, and it's not going to be by going on a computer and going online and Googling. You need to know who the local agents are going to enjoy working with, respect, and trust. That's going to give you the greatest chance when you're in multiple offers.

Brian Mudd:

One of the other facets of the home buying process that can be the most frustrating, and certainly the most time consuming, going to property after property after property. This is something at the Treus, that your team really excels at. Talk about the difference it can make having that upfront consultation and understanding clearly what we're interested in.

Lisa Treu:

We do a consultation. Ideally it's done in person. We can do it in our office, at your office, at a coffee shop. It doesn't matter. The consultation really is to achieve three things. First of all is to do a needs assessment. We would rather ask you 50 questions and show you three to five homes than do the typical five questions that most agents ask, and honestly most buyers share, and then end up showing you 50 homes. We're all busy, let's face it. I mean, today life is crazy. If we can weed out the things that are not the right fit, then you can see the good stuff. That's what buyers want. They don't want to see all the things that don't fit. Driving around, house after house. They become frustrated.

The second thing we're going to do is we're going to discuss the market that you're in. It doesn't matter when we talk about the luxury market if you're in a $300000 price range. It doesn't matter what the $400000 price range is doing if you're talking about a million dollars. We're going to talk about what's going on in the market that you're in, in the area you're in, and what you can expect. Are we going to likely have multiple offers? How quickly are you going to need to make a buying decision? If you find your dream home in a seller's market where there's multiple offers, you better be ready to write an offer right then if it's the right house.

Then the third thing is we're going to explain what it means to work with us because 90% of the time, we work with our buyers as buyers agents, so we're on your side. Here's the kicker. It's like back in the short sale days. It's one of the few times where you can hire somebody and somebody else pays for them. How cool is that? Hiring an agent is very different than just calling somebody on the phone and having them show you a house. That person isn't representing you.

Brian Mudd:

Yeah, nobody would prefer two star service if they could have five star service for the same price, so to speak. In this case, not having a specific price you have to worry about, it just makes sense.

Lisa Treu:

It becomes then having somebody on your side that actually represents you versus representing the deal. We always talk about the example of having a mediator versus a litigator. The mediator's looking to get all parties to come together and work it out and be fair, where the litigator's looking for their client to have the best results. So, we do that with our buyers. We believe they deserve somebody on their side. We explain this process and then we answer any questions that you might have. Now the good news, it doesn't have to take a long time, and yet spending a few minutes upfront together will save us tons of time on the back end, and encourage the successful goal being achieved that you want.

Brian Mudd:

This is something else that you really are offering up a major advantage with as the Treu Group, gaining the whole team, all of the experts, with Ashley True leading the buying side of the Treu Group. You also have the entire team that has experience with so many of these listings. Whereas your average buying agent in the county as big as Palm Beach County has usually a very limited scope in terms of houses available for sale that they're familiar with. You, by and large, can cover most of the county and have a pretty solid idea on the very specific listings available.

Lisa Treu:

Yes. Between the agents, somebody's probably seen that house or knows the story behind it. The other thing is that they spend hours looking at inventory, both in person and online. So, when they see it, they know it. They have the picture in their head of what's a great property for our client, after doing the needs assessment. Literally when it comes up, they say, "Ah, that's it." It's important to know inventory, to know neighborhoods. We had a client come in about three years ago, and she was going to quit looking for a home. She was just frustrated. She wasn't working with us. She was working with somebody else that, in her words, wasn't listening to her. What she was told is what you want does not exist. I mean let's face it, many of us have been told that, right?

Brian Mudd:

Oh yeah.

Lisa Treu:

You can't have what you want. She literally said, "I'm just going to keep renting. I've been renting. I have a great landlord. Why even go through this anymore?" Before she quit, somebody said, "Just call Lisa. Just call her. It does no harm. Just call her. It's free." She called and I said, "Just come in and let's sit down. Let's sit with Ashley. Let's just have a conversation, kind of explore it." She gave us this story of what she wanted and why she wanted it. We sat and we listened and asked her lots of questions. All of a sudden, Ashley said, "Will you give me a little bit of latitude?" She said, "What do you mean?" She goes, "Well let's talk about some other options that achieve the same thing. I understand what you want, and more importantly why you want it. Have you considered," and she started naming off these neighborhoods and then describing why she thought they were a great fit.

They went out and looked at three homes. Now, three. This lady has been looking for over a year. Two out of the three, she's like, "I'll buy." I mean, two out of the three.

Brian Mudd:

It's incredible.

Lisa Treu:

One was not a good fit, but she would have been happy with either. Of course, had her first choice. We were able to get her her first choice home. She thanks us constantly and has become a friend of ours because she's like, "You listened, but you didn't just listen to what I wanted. You listened to why I wanted it, and then gave me options." We just did that for another client, where they walked in, they wanted a 55 and over property. The challenge is she's not 55.

Brian Mudd:

That is a challenge.

Lisa Treu:

Everybody had told her, "Well there's the 80% rule." That 80%-

Brian Mudd:

Why does that apply to 55 and older communities?

Lisa Treu:

Well, 80%-

Brian Mudd:

You're 80% of the way there, then do you smile?

Lisa Treu:

No. No, but 80% is held for people that are not 55. That is true in new construction.

Brian Mudd:

Oh, okay.

Lisa Treu:

However, they hold that for inheritance and heirs because your parent might be 55 and you're not and you inherit it. Now-

Brian Mudd:

Right. You've got to do something with it.

Lisa Treu:

They have to protect the active adult community. So, we were able to take the essence of what she wanted and offer her a solution and get her a great house and a great deal.

Brian Mudd:

That's great, and nobody died.

Lisa Treu:

And nobody died. And she didn't age prematurely. She's still not 55 yet. It is about listening and understanding what they want, but also why they want it, and then putting ... It's like putting together a puzzle really. Getting the right pieces in the right place. The Treus love puzzles for some reason. Games, puzzles. I think it's part of that figuring things out. That's really important with the needs assessment.

Brian Mudd:

When we're talking about the actual process, when we are making an offer, a negotiation, everything towards close, talk about the difference that it makes there.

Lisa Treu:

It starts with a conversation with the listing agent when you find a right property. First of all, if you're considering putting an offer in, we call the agent and say, "Hey, we've got somebody. We're working out some details." They don't ... even if you're just thinking over on it or sleeping on it. "We're working out some details. We're expecting to put in an offer. Would you please call me if another offer comes in." Number one. That does help. Then we start having conversations about how great the buyer is, and selling them on the buyer before there's even an offer.

Brian Mudd:

That helps.

Lisa Treu:

Talking about the lender, if there is a lender. Talking, kind of humanizing the buyer. Then we have a very specific process where we do humanize the buyer, especially in the case where we need to get the seller rooting for our client because there might be multiple offers. It is really, once again, a strategy. We have found things that have worked over the years. Even how we show a property if the seller's going to be there. What we do, how we do it, what our client, what we want them to do because sometimes it comes down to likeability. The agent is selling, that's representing you, selling the offer. I always tell our agents, and they're very good at this, is you're a part of the decision for that agent, the listing agent. Do they like you? Do they want to work with you? Do they believe you have the expertise to actually get the deal done?

It always makes me nervous when an agent doesn't have the ability to influence a client. Now that doesn't mean that they're manipulating a client. Just that they actually know why a client should do something, why it's in the client's best interest, and being able to keep the client moving on track. When agents talk to us that have listings, they know we actually know what we're doing and that we are going to be able to help our client overcome the bumps that come along-

Brian Mudd:

And help take the stress out of it to the extent you can, too. I speak from firsthand experience. You guys are masterful at that. There are a lot of little things that can come up, and you guys take care of everything. If there's something that needs to be discussed, then we discuss it, but every little thing that comes up doesn't necessarily become your buyer's problem.

Lisa Treu:

Yes. And we discuss it with a solution in mind. So, here's what's going on. If we were you, here's how we would handle it and address it. How do you feel about that? It isn't just, oops this happened. It's, okay here's the solution, and being very client-centric because it is the third biggest stressor in life, and sometimes more, when you add things like divorce or job transfers and all that together. So, we want to make this as easy on our clients as it can be. And ultimately, we want them to either get in the house or out of the house, depending on who we represent.

Brian Mudd:

All right. The less than ideal news might be that buying and who you choose to buy with matters more than you might have realized. The good news is that the Treus can make it as easy on you as possible and as good of an experience as exists. If you're not already at TreuRealEstate911.com, I invite you to go over to their website, again because you're going to find the best local resource, especially when you're wanting to look at the MLS and see everything that's available in real time. It's all there for you. And the Treus, of course, they're always ready to help you, seven days a week. (561) 972-8326. Not just lending. The Treus are ready to help. (561) 972-8326. Again, you can always visit TreuRealEstate911.com