[Music]
Hello everyone and Welcome to the final
episode of the year for Selling
Greenville your favorite real estate
podcast here in Greenville South
Carolina I am Stan McCune your longtime
host here and we are ready to end the
year right I mean 2020 has put us
through a lot if you guys listened to
the last episode
you know that it's put me through a lot
personally and you know even though it's
kind of an artificial thing right we're
just
tracking you know the Earth moving
around the sun right you know and that's
what determines when we have gone
through a year it just this year just
feels different that we are just turning
a page and I am ready for that page to
be turned but at the same time
reflecting back on 2020 there's a lot
that I'm grateful for we talked about
that a little bit last episode today
we're going to do part two of 2020 in
review and I'm just going to share with
you just a few stories from Real
Estate this year what I went through
What just what my year of real estate
was like just a few quick stories I
think you guys will find interesting
gives you a little bit of a peak behind
the curtain as to what my job looks like
and and that's how we'll conclude the
year and then we can go in popping
corks having fun hopefully having some
socially distan fun time you know
whatever happens on on New Year's Eve I
I don't know I don't know what's going
to happen this year but hopefully
we'll be able to turn a page and have
2021 be even better and and see us make
some progress in
some of these lifestyle changes that
we didn't none of us wanted but we had
to make because of Co all right enough
of that quick little
housekeeping as always my contact
information is in the show notes reach
me at any time for any of your real
estate needs and please subscribe to the
show whoops just pounded my computer
subscribe to the show give us a
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on down here and are educated about the
real estate market the better it is for
all of us here in the
end okay so 2020 in review I've got a
few stories for you guys all right and
each of these will give you a little bit
of insight into what my job is I know a
lot of people think that Realtors don't
do anything I don't know what
Realtors they're dealing with and
admittedly there are some transactions
where I do more than others but by and
large I am doing a lot of work I I
don't I don't typically have
transactions that are really simple and
this year particularly it felt like
every single transaction was just
really difficult to get to the Finish
Line and just every one of them
involved a ton of work so here's a
few examples let's kick it off with I
had a listing at the beginning of this
year that was under contract and the
inspector that was obviously inspecting
the house went into the attic everything
up there was great right I mean it was a
house that was 20 years old so not an
old house newer roof the roof was in
great shape tons of insulation up
there I mean everything was great and
somehow this inspector which kudos to
him but he found a crack in a truss
that was holding up the roof now the
roof wasn't sagging there or anything
and overwhelming odds are that there
wasn't any indication that this crack in
the truss had resulted from you know
something recent the the crack was kind
of along the the the grain of the
of the of the 2x4 whatever the truss
was so probably that crack had been
there for basically the entire time that
the home had been there but guess what
when you have people buying a house
they want everything to be fixed I had
listed this home at the top of the
market more than my clients even thought
they could get for it and the people
buying the house they deserved to have
piece of find that their roof wasn't
going to cave in on them and so what
they asked for was they asked for the
trust to be fixed and signed off that it
was structurally Sound by a structural
engineer well guess what Structural
Engineers listen we we've got several
professions that overlap with real
estate where the people are just
overwhelmed right now appraisers are
overwhelmed right now a lot of
inspectors are overwhelmed right now
contractors are overwhelmed right now
now and guess what well surveyors are
another one guess what Structural
Engineers are also overwhelmed I called
probably 10 Structural Engineers my
clients obviously they didn't know any
any Structural Engineers so this is an
example of where I am the one doing the
work for my clients and that's part of
my job I called probably 10 different
Structural Engineers the vast majority
of them didn't answer my calls didn't
return my calls a couple did and were
just like H sorry man I got bigger fish
to fry and just wouldn't even take
the job and I finally got through to one
good old old-fashioned Greenville guy
been you know he's Pro he's near
retirement age has lived here his whole
life and he was like you know what you
sound like you're kind of desperate here
I I'll help you out I'll do this one for
you
and and so he was willing to do it
but under one condition and that
condition was that I had to go up into
the attic and take several pictures of
the trust for him in order for him to
see what the issue was so that he could
then basically draw what needed to be
done in order to Sister the trust and to
fix it in a way that he could sign off
on and then we had to have the
contractor do that take pictures and
then send it back to him and then he
would go over once he was very sure that
it had been done properly then he would
go over and look at it himself and then
provide a letter that it was
structurally
sound well listen I I don't have any
problem getting up in addicts I've been
in plenty of addicts before like I'm not
claustrophobic or anything like that but
in case you don't
know it's addicts can be tricky to
maneuver in they have you know
there's all kinds of 2x4s everywhere
that you have to duck under and whatnot
and then there is the constant risk
you've got insulation all underneath you
and between you and the insulation or
let me say it this way once you get past
the
insulation in most of the attic in
almost any attic the next thing is just
the ceiling that's below the drywall
that is a part of the ceiling in the
house below and so if you trip or you
misstep and it's easy to misstep because
again a lot of the the 2x8s and
whatnot that are the joists that are
running across the attic they're more
or less covered by insulation and so
it's easy to misstep easy to to to trip
or or whatever the case may be and if
you do your foot is going through the
ceiling in one of the the rooms that is
directly underneath that attic and so
I was absolutely terrified I didn't know
where this truss was and so I get up
there in the Attic there's like very
poor lighting I'm walking all around I
could not find this thing anywhere
finally after about 20 or 25 minutes of
walking around and absolutely being
terrified I finally found the truss
and took as many pictures as
possible and the long story short is
that we were able to get it fixed we
were able to get the structural engineer
to sign off on it just in time we were
able to get to closing on time everyone
was happy and yeah everything worked
out but let me tell you that is about as
nervous as I get in real estate I don't
really ever get nervous I'm pretty
pretty levelheaded when it comes to real
estate stuff but when there's something
like that where I could damage my
client's property just with a simple
slip that really scares me I'm just
grateful that didn't happen it all
worked out all right that's Story number
one here's Story number two story number
two involves a client who was moving out
of state to be closer to family had a
job over in
California and this client had a very
large house that he was living in by
himself and the house needed needed a
lot of work to it let's just put it that
way and when you've got a big house
that needs a lot of work then you're
you're really set back because I mean
even a small house that needs a lot of
work can be timec consuming and
expensive but this is a big house that
every space needed a lot of work and so
he contacted me early on in the
process he was interviewing multiple
Realtors I've told this story before
in the podcast so so I'm not going to
go into all the details and apologies if
you've already heard it he interviewed a
couple of different
realtors with me being one of them the
one realtor I do not think wanted to
list the house I think she saw how much
work it needed did not believe it could
be done correctly knew for it to be done
correctly how much work she'd have to do
and so she told him 180,000 is what you
could get for this house I came in
and I said you know I feel like you
should be able to get between like 235
and 250 like I'd be willing to list this
pretty close to
250 and I feel pretty confident that
we could get close to that well
needless to say between those two
options he went with me but I was
very clear and and he already knew this
that a lot needed to be done so we put
together a game plan I I we came up with
a list of here are all the things that
need to be done it was it was a long
list and this had me going all over
the place doing all kinds of different
things I at the end of the day he
needed help because he was you know by
himself trying to do a bunch of things
and then at some point he actually
moved out of state prior to all of
these things getting done so then I
kind of found myself kind of managing
the project for him which I was happy
happy to do again as a realtor you have
to be a jack of all trades you have to
be flexible and so there was one
point where I was in like a a shady area
of of Greenville trying to locate a
granite warehouse in order to find
some granite or quartz that he could use
and I had I had found a guy you know he
had a we had a very tight budget to work
with I'd found a guy through some of
my connections who said that he had
scrap pieces of granite and quartz that
he could give us pretty cheaply and
so I I found the place and then I called
my client couldn't reach him was
looking at the different options finally
reached my client facetimed him showed
him the
granite and the quartz and whatnot we
were able to pick that out then you know
had to arrange for
installation of that and and then
Plumbing that was involved I mean there
there were all sorts of things and then
we had it a situation where for
some reason his automatic payment on
his
utilities did not get paid and what
we learned is that the utility
company that he was with wasn't very
helpful they they didn't give a warning
or anything they just shut off all his
utilities and at this point we were
under contract and literally the
utilities got shut off on the day of the
inspection and let's just say I got a
very angry phone call from a buyer agent
who was already really on edge from the
get-go with the transaction I had a bad
feeling about this person from the
get-go in the transaction that was the
straw that broke the camels back that
deal fell through in large part because
well I I don't think that they ever
really wanted the home in hindsight but
the straw that broke the camels back was
was not being able to do the inspection
fully the first time because the
utilities got shut off then we had to
to kind of take that one off the market
for a little bit their inspection
revealed some things that needed to be
done I arranged to get all those
things done with a handyman contractor
that I know we were able to to knock
things out get it ReRe to list and so we
do we we get it back on the market again
in and immediately go back under
contract this time even better this time
for full price all right before we
weren't even under contract for full
price so so this time we get under
contract full full for full price and
it's inspection time and again we've had
no issues since the last inspection
which by the way was months ago at this
point we we had a month a several month
layover for a variety of reasons between
when it fell out of being under contract
and when it came back when we put it
back on the
market I get a call from the buyer agent
on the day of inspection saying s the
utilities are off what what's going on
here and I was like you got to be
kidding me it happened again a second
time his payment got declined and they
shut off the utilities again on the day
of inspection I mean the utility company
doesn't even know that the inspection's
happening this day it's almost like they
had boots on the ground that they and
they knew okay this is going to be the
time where we really stick it to him
where we can just shut it off right when
when he needs it on and I I just I
couldn't believe that I thought here we
go the time is a flat circle history is
repeating itself we're going to go
through all this again but gratefully
he was able to I I was able to reach my
client who at various times was not easy
to reach different time zone and all
that I was able to reach him he couldn't
believe that it happened again he called
the utility company it was related to he
had a the card that they had on file
he had had to cancel it and get a new
card forgot to update it with them
and remarkably the utility company was
able to get out their same day and was
able to get everything turned on we were
able to get the inspection done that day
it ended up just being a blip in the
radar the transaction ended up being
easy after that point all in all
the amount of time that I spent
communicating with him and helping him
get his house ready it was a 10-month
process from from the time that the
process started until the time that we
closed on the house and so I
definitely I definitely earned my
commission on that one nobody can
nobody can say that that I've never
worked on a real estate transaction I
had to I had to do some work on that one
not to mention it was 45 minutes away
from my house and I frequently had to go
over there to check on things to you
know when you when you're not living
in a house you don't realize I mean bugs
and dust just accumulate every
everywhere I had to constantly go in
there to to sweep up and you know
every time it was a 2-hour round trip I
had someone call me about the house they
wanted to look at it I went there
waited for them they never showed up
it it was crazy I probably spent you
know 30 to 40 hours just in commute
back and forth from the house or to
places that I was going to in relation
to that house so yeah I I earned
my commission on that one and I'm
just grateful that we were able to get a
full price contract on on his house
and he was so super excited it really
made a a massive difference for him
as as he was completely you know moving
out of state and and had a lot of lot
of different expenses and whatnot that
were associated with that
that's my second story these other
ones will be a little bit quicker those
are those are the two longest ones
the third story involves
me I'm I'm trying to help a client who
is a kind of starting to get involved
in flipping houses and again if you've
heard this story I apologize but
we're having a you know just a normal
hard time it's hard to to find houses to
flip right now in this market so we're
having a hard time doing that and as I'm
looking at houses on the market I I just
happen to stumble on there's a house
that I see that's under contract that
kind of fits what my client is looking
for but like I said it's under
contract but it's been under contract
for a while so I pull up the listing and
and start digging into it starting I
start looking at some of the details
here and it turns out that it was
already supposed to have closed I you
can see in the in the listing the date
that it was supposed to close and and
there were some other dates in there
that I was like hm this one might be
problematic might be an opportunity
here that this might be falling out of
contract and so I called the agent the
agent said you know it's it's really
interesting that you called Stan cuz
I have been on and off the phone phone
with my client all day and and we this
one actually may fall through we've had
to extend multiple times this contract
for this buyer and it's getting to
the point where we're just not sure that
he's going to be able to to close on it
and we're just trying to figure out
what our next move is and I was like
okay that's great i' I'd love for us to
be able to put a backup offer on this
and if if you want more details on this
I actually recorded an episode on backup
offers and backup contracts so you guys
can listen to that I go into more
details specifically on on this
deal but the long story short was
that they ended up extending again
with this buyer and that that they
had it under contract for which is
really disappointing we thought we had a
good shot at it but they said we're
extending it but we if you guys want to
submit a backup offer we will entertain
a backup offer offer and so we did we
sent them a backup offer they got under
contract as a backup contract my
client did that is and guess what a few
days later I called the agent and and
was like hey you know what's what's
going on here what's what's the latest
and it was still kind of more of the
same we we didn't know what was
happening and having the backup contract
in hand he I I pushed the listing agent
hey man you need to just go to these
other clients and just tell them not
other clients but the other buyers the
the ones that had the primary contract
you need to tell them that you've got a
backup contract in hand that they need
to stop playing games either get to
closing or just terminate the contract
and let us have it and the long story
short is he listened to me he did that
and they the buyers that were trying
to buy it they caved they they couldn't
bring the money to closing they had
basically shown that they had proof of
funds prior to going under contract
and then they took that money and spent
it on something else and so then they
didn't have the money and they were
trying to come up with it and that was
what had had kept the deal getting
extended and so my client got it and
it turned out to be a great house I
listed it a few months later he did a
great job flipping it made a nice
little chunk of change on his first true
flip and it ended up really being
a a great sit situation all around
and so yeah I I had an opportunity there
which I've done multiple times in my
career to use backup offers and
backup contracts and in this case in a
market where it's incredibly hard to
find good houses to flip we were able to
get the perfect house to flip under
contract and and it ended up being
really an ideal situation that we were
able to to turn a profit for my client
in a really quick turnaround
time all right my fourth
story and and I'm only doing two more
of these my fourth one is I had a client
that was under contract for a house
out in the
Duncan is area and for those of
you that live in the area know there
were a ton of hail storms that came
through that area this year and guess
what when they got under
contract no sooner did they get under
contract that a hail storm rolled
through so we're like Great Is there
going to be hail damage well it turns
out those of you that know me well know
this I used to be an insurance
adjuster and I know how to read a roof I
can get up there and I can find hail
damage probably better than your average
home inspector
so I actually went over there got
a ladder out got up on the roof and sure
enough it was minor but there was hail
damage enough hail damage that that roof
needed to be replaced and so we had to
go back to to the seller was very
difficult to work with and that's a
whole another story in and of itself
but we were able to negotiate for them
to replace the roof
but then they this is where
everything in 2020 was difficult you
know most people can replace a roof
in a few days well they hired a Onan
crew and this is a large roof let me
tell you they hired a oneman crew who
doesn't even use a nail gun he he
hammers the nails
in and we it it becomes very apparent
very early on that this roof is not
going to be done prior to closing and
so then we had a whole another disaster
of well do we close do we drag this out
you know it was the kind of thing
where the seller was being difficult and
you know if we played games with the
seller and you know tried to get them
to extend the contract they might say no
and they might say hey with this new
roof on here this house might be worth
more money than than we have under
contract for we might you know take a
Gamble with putting it back on the
market we didn't know they were very
unpredictable and so we were able to
to get them closed but we had to have
some contingencies in there related to
the roof being completed and whatnot and
it took weeks for that roof to be
completed but everything worked out
it all worked out in the end and and the
best part is that they had hail damage
on the roof they don't now they have a a
brand new roof and that's important
not just because you don't want hail
damage on your roof but insurance could
this was why I was it was a big deal to
me that they didn't just take the roof
with hail hail damage because their
insurance could decline a claim for
the hail damage if they had a claim
in the future their insurance could say
well look this this roof yeah you had
some wind damage from the roof but you
also have some old hail damage on here
as well and there hasn't been a hail
storm since you've had this insured
so we're not going to give you the
full settlement we're not going to
whatever the case may be we're going to
deny your claim altogether there's a lot
of things that your homeowners
insurance can do in order to try to get
out of paying you money and trust me
you buy a property that has old damage
your insurance is going to try to get
out of that and so the good news is
that
with a lot of work including after
closing I had to continue to to work
for that one again contacting seller
being like where's the roofer the
roofer's not here just one thing
after another but it worked out in in
the end everyone ended up going home
happy my last but certainly not least
story is is one that just happened
recently I had a a client that is
looking to move looking to move out
of a condo into a house but they have
kind of a tight budget and this is a
difficult time to be looking to buy if
you have a tight budget and there are
some other factors involved there but
we found a house for them that they
really loved and going into the process
we didn't really know what what they
wanted if they wanted a newer house if
they wanted an old house well they found
a house they that they really loved and
it it became very clear I mean I know I
know the market well and I knew that the
the features that they liked about this
house are unique to that price point
like coford ceilings and different
things like that and I knew if they
didn't get the house it was going to be
very difficult for us to be able to find
a comparable house for them and so I
encourage them to to put their best foot
forward I thought the house was
underpriced by probably close to
$15,000 just based on comps that I
ran and so I told them listen I wouldn't
be paying attention to the list price
you put an offer in that is the offer
that you feel comfortable with that the
offer that you feel like the house is
worth well that it ended up that that
the list price was what they felt
comfortable with and so they put a full
price offer in a clean offer not a lot
of
contingencies and not surprisingly
they got outbid there were multiple
offers on the house I don't know what
offer ended up getting accepted but they
got out bid well a few weeks later I get
contacted by the listing
agent and it lo and behold it turns out
that the contract was that they had on
the house was about to fall through that
the buyer's
financing had was falling through
and she wanted to know hey are you guys
willing to submit an another offer your
client's still interested I and I talked
to my clients they said yeah we're still
interested we'll submit the exact same
offer and so that's what we did well
unsurprisingly as I'm getting ready to
submit the offer the agent says just so
you know we've had multiple showings
already I have another offer on the
table make sure that your client's offer
is their highest and best offer it was
my client's highest and best offer they
did not want to go above the list price
again and so we submitted the offer a
second
time and the second time they were out
bid
again and that's that's discouraging but
you know again this is part of the job
this is happening a lot right now in
this market so I wasn't surprised
it's just the way it is it's just it's
just what
happens so in the meantime between
then and now we looked at you know a
few other houses online not not even
showing them and there were a few that
actually could have worked for them
but again they they were just going
under contract immediately just as soon
as they come on the market going under
contract
and right now you just have to if you're
buying a property you have to expect a
bidding war and they you know it it's
it's just kind of exhausting when when
you go through that process multiple
times as a buyer to have multiple
bidding wars and to keep losing it just
gets exhausting and and they were
already kind of at that point I could I
could tell even though you know it
had only been two
times and every house that looks like it
could fit what they're looking for it
would just go under contract right away
multiple
offers and so last week I'm doing
my my usual looking at everything that
comes on the market every day my routine
is I look at all the homes that have
come on the
market and lo and behold that house
that they had put offers in on twice was
back on the market the realtor hadn't
told me she probably she's probably
ashamed that about how it went down
the last time it's back on the
market so before I even called my
clients I call her and I said
her being the listing agent and I said
listen well I we talked about that i'
had fallen out of contract again due to
to buyer financing falling through I was
like listen my client is pre-approved
they are not firsttime home buyers
they've been through this process before
they they want the house but I don't
feel like it's fair if if you guys are
going to string us out again I don't
even feel like that they will even want
to go through that I don't want to go
through
that if you can give me a
commitment that your clients will just
accept the full price offer I'm pretty
sure that my my clients will do that we
we'll submit another full price offer
and we'll get the scene to
closing I've never had in my career a
deal fall through due to buyer financing
that's a track record that I'm proud of
that's because I bet my clients and make
sure that they that they are
pre-approved D and and that all that
financing is in place and she really
appreciated that and she said I'm I'm
pretty sure my clients will be will be
good with that they just want to get
this thing to closing and so I said
okay well let's do it this
way as a token of good faith that your
clients aren't going to string us out
into another multiple offer situation
I'll send you the contract but not with
my client signatures you need to have
your client sign it first and then and
we'll put the deadline for us to respond
by tonight and then after you guys have
signed it first and have committed to it
then I'll have my client sign it and she
said you know what that's totally fair
I'll talk to my clients about that but
let's go ahead and move forward with
that plan and I was like great I call my
clients I tell them they talk they're
very excited they they think they they
can't believe it in their mind that
house was dead to them and it got
resurrected back to life and guess
what the plan worked to a te I was able
to get the sellers to sign first that it
was just a formality having my client
sign and we now have them under contract
and we're a few weeks away from closing
and and there's a lot more to that
story that I could tell as well it it's
it's a really good Feelgood story you
know what we're ending 2020 on such a a
high note here with this Feelgood story
but I'm really excited about that one
it's not I I told them listen it's
not every day that this happens that a I
mean for them to put an offer on a house
three times I've never had that happen
in my career something like this but
it's it's the perfect way for me to
end the year it it really it it was
really exciting for me
they expressed how excited they were
as well the sellers are excited it's one
of those rare situations where everyone
is just excited that this happened that
this worked out and it's almost like
you know like a family reunion you
didn't expect to happen and then
everyone's together and it's like you
know I'm just so excited that we were
able to all get together this all worked
out that's kind of what it feels like
you know and so that is kind of
the cap on my
2020 and there you go five stories to
summarize for you what 2020 was like for
me as a realtor this is what I do it is
all over the map this job involves a ton
of different skills it involves a you
using your time a ton of different ways
but I love it it's a it's a great job
for the right people to do it I don't
recommend it for everyone in fact I
discourage people from Bec Realtors we
have more realtors in Greenville than we
have homes for sale so that that's a
really bad thing in terms of you
know the odds are against you if if you
have one listing you have more listings
than the average for a realtor here
in Greenville and so that's not good
but the job itself for me is great I
love it 2020 for all of his challenges
was a great year with a lot of good
stories and and I hope that you guys can
be a part of that story next year again
as I always say my contact information
is in the show notes make sure that
you're subscribed that you're reviewing
that you're rating this show I hope you
guys have a wonderful New Year we enter
2021 we're turning a page and I hope as
you turn that page that you see my name
on there somewhere because I want to
work with you I want to help you guys
buy and sell real estate in the New Year
reach out to me with anything you need
with any questions you have but until
then enjoy the holiday enjoy the New
Year have some fun party a little bit
don't get too crazy we are going to have
a great 2021 and I am looking forward to it
[Music]