Hello everyone
and welcome to another episode of Selling Greenville
your favorite real estate podcast here in Greenville
South Carolina I'm your host as always
Stan McCune Realtor right here in Greenville
South Carolina and you can find all of my
wonderful contact information in the show notes
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in the next year right
we're right at
the end of the year I mean
I guess we still have a few more weeks to go for me
it feels like we're right at the end of the year
I mean we're
everything is starting to get wrapped up
real estate wise you know
kind of the
the year ends in real estate before Christmas right for
for the most part I mean
there's still stuff that that's gonna have to happen
still balls that need to be pushed forward
you know over the
the holiday season
but
this year just kind of the way things are looking I
I think we're gonna get a couple of slow weeks
during the Christmas season
which
I'm not gonna complain about right
it's been I've told you guys a few times
it's been some of the busiest
weeks of the year for me the past few weeks
and that's not a complaint
I'm very happy about that
and I
and if you're a listener who has been keeping me busy
looking at houses or whatever
thank you really appreciate that
from every one of you
I I never say that I'm too busy right
I if I'm too busy
that's my own fault right
that's nobody else's fault except for me
but here we are
with one of my favorite episodes of the year
the craziest stories of 2025
sometimes I do episodes that are pretty scripted
I haven't done that as much this year
previous years
I did a lot more just like fully scripted episodes
I haven't done that a whole lot this year
this episode's not scripted at all
now I have my points
I have the I
I've wrote down over the course of the year
the stories that I wanted to hit
but I'm just gonna kind of
kind of do these off the top of my head
and see how it turns out
and of course these are real estate stories right
so if you're
depending on how close you are to real estate
this is gonna be crazier than if you're
if you're from a distance and
and don't really know a whole lot about real estate
some of these might not sound crazy at all
but for real estate these are all pretty crazy stories
so
I hope you guys enjoy and
we'll just get right into it
and make sure you listen all the way to the end
I'm gonna try not to
not to let these stories go on too long
but people love stories so
at the same time I'm not gonna skimp on on the details
so crazy stories of 2025
the first and these are not in a specific order
I try to make them in an order that just kind of
made sense
these are not like worst to best or best to or whatever
it's just it just is what it is
first story was
I had a situation earlier this
year where I was representing a seller client okay
so I had a listing representing a seller client and we
we had actually the home had been listed for a while
and then suddenly
after it had been listed for a while
we had multiple offers now
now this phenomenon does happen sometimes right
because what
what can happen is inventory can shift and
you know homes can go under contract
and all of a sudden
a home that was maybe the second or
third place home for a few different people
suddenly becomes the first place home
for those people
right if you're
if you're the
the kind of person that's ever looked at homes
you know that you might have like a list right of
of five different homes you're interested in
and it's like here's my number one here's my number two
here's my number three right
that's what I'm talking about
the home that was two or three
for a few people
all of a sudden gets bumped up to number one
because of inventory shifting
things going under contract
and then suddenly you have a weird situation
where there's multiple offers
on a home that's been on the market already
for several weeks or several months
so I had that
that sort of thing happen and
and so we got a few different offers
that came in on this house
and one of the offers had
no due diligence
and so in case you don't know what that means
basically the agent was not giving
their client any inspection period
not giving them any inspection period
they put the end date for the due diligence period
which is what we call our inspection period
as the date of the offer
so I had a few you know
my responsibilities listing agent
I have to present every offer that comes through
even if it's a terrible offer
I have to present it
and there is a little bit of an art
a little bit of a science to
to presenting an offer
you can there there's a lot of ways that you can do it
and so in this specific instance I'm thinking about OK
obviously this is a big part of this offer right
it's very attractive and very rare
in this market to have an offer the as a seller where
hey this
this buyer is not even
giving themselves an inspection period
now I could have gone back to the agent and been like
hey did you mean to do this
and for a split second I thought about doing that
but that was just a split second of me being
also a buyer agent and being sympathetic to
it's easy to make a clerical mistake like that
but a split second later I
I went back into I'm not the buyer agent
I'm the listing agent
I do what's in the best interest of my clients
and what's in the best interest of my clients
is to tell them to accept this offer right
and to not ask any questions it's the buyer
agent's responsibility to write a correct offer
if I make a mistake like that
that's on me right
we have E&O insurance errors and omissions
if we make those sorts of mistakes
that's exactly why that insurance product exists
and so long story short
I went to my clients
I presented the offer and I told them I
I got to the due diligence section and I explained okay
we need to have a little conversation here
the agent put the due diligence end date
as the offer date
that's highly irregular
especially since she didn't flag it to me ahead of time
right that would normally be something like if
I have had clients waive their inspection period before
that's something that I let the agent
the listing agent know in advance like hey
in order to make this a sweet offer
here's what my clients
opted to do well
this agent didn't do that
and so this agent
I hadn't communicated anything
so I went back to my clients and
and explained it and was just like
this agent did not communicate exactly
you know
that they were going to put a zero day due diligence
period in here
so
there is a possibility that this was a clerical error
that this was a mistake
but I didn't ask the agent that
because I represent you guys
and I wanted to give you
guys the opportunity to accept this
before they realize their mistake
if it is a mistake again I don't know
but regardless
it's an official offer that was made doesn't matter
if there's a mistake on there that benefits my client
that's their problem not ours and so
long story short my clients accepted it and
but I did explain to them I was like hey
if this is a mistake
my recommendation would be to you when the time comes
there's if it's a mistake
they're still gonna have their inspections done
and they're going to realize it at some point
and they're probably still going to want some repairs
to be done and
my recommendation would be
that you don't play hardball
that if they make reasonable repair requests
that you move forward with
with doing repairs and
and I've got contractors that can assist with that
and all of that basically just preparing the way right
it a real estate transaction is
is there's a lot of highs and lows to it's very
it's a very emotional month
and if you're a buyer in that situation and and
and here's where you know me
you know I
I represent parties on both sides buyers
and sellers all the time
and so I know it from both perspectives
and I know if I had a buyer
client where I messed up like that
and then they have you know
they do their inspections
and repairs are needed to be done
and they don't like those
they don't want to move forward with the house
if those repairs aren't done
but they can't even ask for the repairs to be done
because their due diligence period is over
like that just can derail the entire transaction
that can cause the entire transaction to become
majorly problematic
and so I just explained all of that was just like hey
this puts the ball in your court
where you won't have to do any repairs
in this transaction however
I'm not going to recommend inherently that you do that
this just gives you some good negotiating ability right
alright so long story short
it did it did end up happening
that they did make repair requests
I did have a conversation with the agent
with the buyer's agent
where they realized and
and admitted that they had made this mistake
and we worked through it and I
and I said hey
I've already prepared my clients that if
if you guys make reasonable repair requests
that they will
that that they will move forward regardless right
they will they are okay with doing repairs as long as
they are reasonable
and so they sent over a repair list
we got a quote from a contractor
and they ended up moving forward and
and deciding to go ahead and
and do all the repairs that were on the list
cause they were reasonable for the most part
and so they did that well
the buyer had a reinspection done
which is completely within their right and
and I saw you know
when they requested the reinspection I saw that and and
and everything
and so I was paying very close attention to
of course you know
again as Realtors
we have to pay super close attention to the contract
every single time
there's a lot of different things in that contract
that can derail a transaction that can
that can change a transaction dramatically
and so on the repair addendum
there are very specific dates and it says that
all the
all the repairs have to be done by a certain date
and then if the seller has
or the buyer has a period of time to check that
those repairs have been done
and then they have to deliver notice
if any of the repairs haven't been done correctly
by a certain date
well that date came and went
the date by which the buyers had to deliver notice
that the that repairs hadn't been completed correctly
well guess what happened
the very next day
I get an email from the agent saying
hey a
they went out they had it re inspected
and then they went out there with a contractor
and the contractor saying
there's $8,000 worth of work left to be done
or something like that some astronomical number
which was insane I'm
I'm not gonna get into details on like
what that was about
but to me it sounded like a contractor trying to
pull the wool over people's eyes trying
trying to trying to
just get a quick buck and scam people out of it
it was it was simply insane what they were asking
and so basically this agent said
my clients were going to ask for a
a 5,000 dollar credit at closing and mind you
this is just a few days before closing
they were gonna ask for a 5,000 dollar credit
but I I got them to come down to a 25 dollar credit
I didn't even go back to my clients with that
because guess what they couldn't make that request
because they had waited a day too late
and so what I did all I did was
I emailed the agent back and just broke out
here's what contractually our obligations are
and then I said
this time we're going to follow the contract
because if you remember the first time
I said
even though you don't have a due diligence period
my clients have agreed that they'll make reasonable
repair requests that's outside of the contractual
their contractual obligations
no this time we're gonna follow the contract
I never got a response
we closed everything was good to go
that was that was the first time for me right
not only to make the mistake
and to this agent's credit
I don't think the agent wanted to ask
for that $25 credit
it did not
it seemed very much like that was a situation where
where they felt bad about making that request
but they were doing it on behalf of their client
so I've got no ill will towards the agent
or towards anyone in that transaction
I don't keep ill will
that's not a good way to do business
but to after the buyers were willing to do thing after
sorry after the sellers were willing to do things
that they contractually didn't have to do
to then try to
to get more money out of them right in the 11th hour
really underhanded and
and I did not appreciate that at the time at all
but again
all's well that ends well this one ended well
everyone walked away happy
my second story involves a situation where
it's actually a house that I was flipping
and I had so I purchased a property out in Moore
South Carolina Spartanburg County and the
the sellers needed to lease the property back
and so we came up with an agreement basically
whereby they would be able to remain in the property
for 30 days post closing
without paying anything and then after that I
there was money that we held back from their proceeds
at closing and basically after that 30th day
they would lose $100 a day
from their proceeds
and so
that's a pretty good incentive to get out of the house
right a hundred dollars a day
is a lot more than it cost to rent a house
in more South Carolina 3,000 a month
you can rent a mansion in more South Carolina
for 3,000 a month and this was no mansion
well these people
of course we get to the 30th day and every excuse
every excuse imaginable all sorts of
all sorts of things
and I don't even know what to believe
or what not to believe
I'm not gonna get into details on
on any of that
but they dragged it out as long as possible
they had this huge dumpster sorry
this this huge pod
and they were like running electricity to it
the HOA president has my personal number
the HOA president is like freaking out
she's like they're running electricity to this pod
we think there might be people living in this pod
which there weren't
I'm sorry that that wasn't happening
I had multiple people verify that wasn't happening
and
there was a water heater
just out in in the front yard
not connected to anything
she was freaked out she was like that water heater
what if it explodes I was just like
how's it gonna explode
when it's not connected to anything
and she was like losing her mind
I got I
I got so much correspondence from that HOA
over the situation
and then I finally got them out after
after really really painful situation
finally got people out of this house
got them I
I you know
I didn't even take the full hundred hours a day
you know I
I tried to be generous to them understanding
you know
they were going through a tough time on
on multiple levels so some health issues
what not that was
by the way
the third worst smelling house I've ever been in
yes I have done this long enough
that I have a catalog in my
in my brain of worst smelling homes
I don't know how it was possible to live in there
I don't know how they were living there
really sad
unfortunately in real estate we
we see some of these situations
but finally got them out
now
you know I'm having to deal with
with the rehab so we get a dumpster in the front yard
or in the driveway to and we got to trash this place out
I mean
tons of trash as you can imagine inside the house ripping out carpet
ripping out you know
a lot of a lot of things to
to rehab this home
I get contacted from the HOA saying
we're not allowed to have pods
in the driveway for more than 3 days
and it's like I'm sorry
a dumpster is not a pod okay
a pod is something you move things in
a dumpster is something you throw away things
and find me anyone that has ever flipped a house
that has had a dumpster in the driveway
and has gotten all the demo done
and everything that they needed done in 3 days
like that is the most outrage
so I just told him no
just like no
not doing that you're crazy
and that yeah
that HOA that was
they were very polite but they
they had higher
feelings about their neighbor
their neighborhood than I did
quite frankly
I guess that's normal for
for an HOA community
but I'm not done with the story
regardless of the HOA
I I did finally sell this house
and a few days before closing
I had another surprise which if you know me
you know I hate surprises
I don't even like good surprises
no surprises don't
I like everything to be predictable
transparent
yeah
let's just get from point a to point B and that's it no
no little you know
side tracks in there
I got contacted by the buyer's agent
a few days before closing
and they had looked up in the attic
which I had not done that
like I outsource everything
you know when I'm
when I'm flipping a house
I don't I don't go in there
I don't swing hammers and
and nail nails and screw screws
I don't do any
any of that myself too much liability
for one thing with me being a realtor and homeowner
but I I'm also just too busy for that right
I'm a realtor by trade I'm not a house flipper
and so I got contacted by the buyer's agent
and he sent me a video of the attic
and the attic had a ton of stuff in it
and it was just like I'd
I assumed that the demo crew had gone up there
and had taken care of it and I had assumed incorrectly
I hadn't been up there myself
and it was just one of those gut wrenching
things where it's just like
okay I can pay someone
probably a few thousand dollars to do this
or I can clear out an afternoon and do it myself
and so I chose to clear out the afternoon to do it myself
because quite frankly
this has not been my best year of real estate
from a financial perspective
you know the market's been weird
and if I can save a couple thousand dollars
a penny saved is a penny earned right
I'm gonna save myself that money
and I've done this sort of thing before
like this is obviously just manual labor
very simple to do I don't I don't mind manual labor
again there's no liability for me removing trash
so it makes sense
so I actually asked my wife to help me out because I
I could see
this is going to be difficult for one person to do
so we both went over
we spent the afternoon over at this place
and I removed I
I have got a full size pickup truck
I filled my pickup truck
bed and back bench twice with stuff from this house
I didn't even think to bring my trailer
should have brought my trailer
I didn't think I didn't think that there was any way
that I was going to have
that there was gonna be that much stuff in the attic
even though I saw it you know
when you see it up there
and then once you start consolidating
and start loading it up then you realize
it's a lot more than you originally thought
who's calling me spam call
have to turn the volume off
on my
computer for a second because it's
even though I've got this on mute
it's still ringing in my ear here
so anyway
that was this is what you deal with when you're
when you're flipping houses and that's just
that just goes to the territory HOA issues
HOA issues tenant issues attic
you know attic being full of stuff it there
it's always something
that was my craziest story No. 2
my craziest story No. 3 this one's gonna be short
but this one might be the craziest out of all of them
if we're gonna be completely honest
and this is related to the same house okay
the same house I just talked about
I got a letter in the mail from
the sewer district
that said that they had shut off the sewer to the home
and that there was a risk if we ran any water
flushed any toilets that it might back up
back into the home
this is after I had done the entire rehab
and I was like holy cow
like this is the first off
how do you shut off sewer to a house
like I didn't even know that that was possible
like do they plug the main line
like I don't know enough about the
the public sewer system to know like
what capabilities they have with that
but that just that was like a whole new thing for me
and obviously
the reason was that they hadn't paid their
their Bill for their for their sewer
but I immediately
I mean within seconds of opening that
I'm calling the sewer district and being like hey
what in the world are you guys doing here
first off I'm a different owner
I'm not the people that didn't pay you
but how do you even turn off sewer to a house
and so anyway
they looked up their records and they're just like
okay yes you're right that was
those were the previous owners disregard this
we're gonna remove all restrictions from your house
but that taught me something
I'm like you can
you can have your sewer turned off
I and I don't wanna ever have that happen
please don't ever turn off I'm in Greenville County Greenville
please don't ever turn off my sewer
I don't want that stuff coming
coming back into my house
that would be really bad
my next story I had a big refinance
that I did this year on some of my rental properties
and I realized in the middle of it
that the way they had been subdivided
prior to my ownership
the way the lot had been subdivided
made it to where lenders didn't want to touch it
it was subdivided in a weird way
like one of the buildings
was straddling two different parcels
and it just it just it
it was something that I always was aware of and
and you know
thought it was weird
but also didn't think it really mattered right
because you know
I own the both parcels
it kind of doesn't matter how they're split up
I didn't really consider
a lender is gonna have problems with this right
and there's a variety of reasons why
I didn't consider that originally
I thought I was gonna be getting a commercial loan
and then I realized that was not going to be the best
approach for me for this property commercial loan
I would have been able to do it
but the terms were a non negotiable for me I
I couldn't go about it that way
so then
I had to go through the whole process of having
these lots subdivided well
they're in Greenville City
so that means you have to involve both the city
and the county they
they both have
so the city is the one that does the subdividing
but then the county
they still have to create the tax map numbers
and figure out the taxes and
and all of that
so I start the process I've never done this before
I had never done any sort of subdividing before
and so I was just complete
it was a big learning experience for me
I just I completely start from ground zero to try to
get that over the finish line so
so I I started I I knew at least
at the very least I needed to start with a survey
so I start with having my surveyor go out there and
and he does his thing and makes basically
well I guess before I had done that
I had called the city and had been like
what do you guys need me to do here
and they explained what they wanted was
I have three buildings
basically that are on these two parcels
they wanted me to do the 3 buildings
each on their own parcel
and then for there to be a master parcel around them
that would be a common area
so then I contact my surveyor
and my server goes out there
he does it did an incredible job
was out there quick got me everything I needed
and so then excuse me
then
I have to send it over to the city
their engineering and all
all sorts of different departments
they all have to sign off on it
that took it was supposed to take 30 days
they said it would take a max of 30 days
what I didn't realize was that
they don't keep track of it
and so
after 30 days
went by and I hadn't heard anything
I was actually busy
so I let it go past
a few days past 30 days and
and then I still hadn't heard anything
I emailed my main point of contact
wasn't hearing back from him
was calling him he wasn't responding again
this was Greenville City
and so I was just like
I need to get this address
so I literally I went to the Greenville City
planning page
and just started calling every single person on staff
and leaving voice no
obviously none of them answered
I left voicemails with every single one
until I finally got a call back
like in the middle of leaving voicemails
I finally get a call back from
from the guy that that was my point of contact
and he profusely apologized
and actually everything was done
and he just hadn't told me
which was so annoying so annoying
so then so I went over
I I got what I needed from the city
then I had to go over to the county
get everything done with the county
and here's what I didn't realize
so the tax bills had already come out for the year
so the
the county basically wrote everything on my survey
like all the tax map numbers the addresses everything
in
I think red ink right to make it very very distinct
that ended up being my only proof functionally
that I had had this done
because the tax bills had already come out so
so the actual resub dividing even though it's recorded
it's not gonna reflect in the public records until 2026
well guess what
my lender didn't like they didn't like any of that
and so I literally in order to get this resolved to
in order to try to
to make this compliant with the lender
I couldn't get anywhere with anyone
I called up my county councilman over that now
not my county councilman here in where I live
but the one that is in that district
and I'll just say who it is Councilman Alan Mitchell
and I'm gonna just say right away that Alan Mitchell
is one of the best County Council people
in my opinion
from the standpoint of serving his constituents
you might have disagreements on
on some of his views whatever
but in terms of someone that that serves it and
and actually treats the job like a public servant
I have very very highly
high regard for Councilor Mitchell he shows up at
at events
he show he's he wants to learn he
he wants to be good at
at being a councilman and so
I was very happy
when I looked up who it was that served that area
and it was him I was very happy
I knew right away
the councilman
Mitchell is going to be able to help me out here
and so I got him on the phone and
and sure enough I mean
he went right to work to try to get clarification
for me for the lender on like
what could we do
in order to satisfy the lender's requirements on
you know what can the county do
in order to make the lender feel at
home that
that I had correctly subdivided these properties
there's nothing
nothing weird going on right
and so I had talked to him like late at night
the next morning he called me and he was at the
he was at the county offices and
and had people from
from planning right there
and we were all on the phone and I was like hey
can I get the lender on the phone
so I Three Way in the lender and we have a conversation
just between all of us right and
and Councilman Mitchell
what a what a super helpful individual and
and Greenville County was
was as helpful as they could be as well
unfortunately
through all of that I still had to change lenders
the lender simply
their underwriters simply could not get over the
the fact that the way these had to be subdivided
and at the end what they said
this is the most outrageous thing I've ever
I've ever heard
they
as I had already said I had 3 buildings
each on their own parcel
and then a master parcel as a common area around them
they said that they would only accept an appraisal
that also had the exact same thing
it would have to be three buildings
specifically duplexes
each on their own parcel with a master parcel
common area around them and it's just like
we don't even sell like in
in a good year of selling duplexes in Greenville
in Greenville County
we might sell 100 of them
we're talking about Greenville City
and not just Greenville City
this is downtown Greenville
there's almost no duplexes to sell in downtown
Greenville let alone this sort of setup
and so yeah
unfortunately I had
I had to change lenders and it was very annoying
very frustrating
but we got through it
but there's a second part of
of all of this
and that's this is my fifth craziest story of 2025
when I was working with that fifth with
with that first lender
we had went ahead and had appraisals done on
on my three duplexes
they came in with a valuation of 1 point
it was like 1.22 million okay
now remember these are fully renovated duplexes
in downtown Greenville
just outside the historic district
great area really great area walkable to everything
just yeah
so they came up with that appraiser came up with
with values that basically
each of them was worth about 400,000 in change
and I know and these are also 3 bedroom duplexes
by the way most duplexes in the upstate are 2 bedrooms
especially the older ones
some of the
these newer ones that they're putting up our
our 3 bedroom but the newer ones don't are
are not comparable right
and I'm not gonna get into all the details about that
long story short I looked at the appraisal
cause that was way below what I thought
it was gonna come in at
I looked at the appraisal
and the appraiser had pulled 6 comps
now they put the comps in order of the
of the ones that
that are influencing their valuations the most
there was one property
on there that was actually close to mine
and it was the last one
so it was the one that he gave the least weight to
the other properties that he pulled
one pulled from were from
and if you're from Greenville
you know what these areas are Judson
Overbrook
sandsuchi and areas around there
that's where he was pulling from
in order to compare to
a property in downtown Greenville
and he made no adjustments for location
so he did not so just so that you guys understand this
the way an appraisal is done
they will pull all the comps
and then I'll make adjustments
so this comp is in better condition than
than your property so
I am going to adjust the comp down
to account for the fact that it's in better condition
I need to pull the value of it down
because that will make it truly comparable right
or in the reverse if the comp is
and not as good of condition
as the subject property that is being appraised
then they will add value to the comp in order to
balance it out
and then they basically determine at the end
after they've done all of those adjustments
that informs to them
what the actual subject property is worth
I'm talking in
in generalities here but generally speaking
layman's way of explaining it
that's what happens
well
the same thing is supposed to happen for a location
if you have a property that's in a prime
prime location and this is a prime location
I mean there was
my duplex sit on nearly 2/3 of an acre and there was
1/3 of an acre just down the street that sold for over
with undeveloped
a third of an acre that sold just down the street for
I think it was like around 600,000
something like that it
I'd need to go back and look
but just complete
just a piece of land that was smaller sold for that
so I mean
this is this is prime
prime real estate for Greenville
and he made no adjustments comparing it to San Sushi
Judson Overbrook
that are just not comparable areas
and again if you're from Greenville
you understand that
and the fact that the appraiser didn't understand that
shocking I ran
this information by an appraiser friend of mine and
and this friend of mine had never heard of
of this appraiser before so maybe it's a new person
and they were just out of their depth
really unfortunate
but this happens had
as I already told you I had to switch lenders
and we had to have new appraisals done
which I was happy about but also
I mean every single appraisal is expensive
I had to have three different appraisals done
so it cost me several thousand dollars extra to
to do this
but the second appraisals came in at 1.6 million
and I was like
and that was actually more than I expected
um and so
be two different appraisals done
a few weeks from each other
had roughly a 400,000 dollar
spread between the two of them
and that just blew my mind
and yeah I Learned a lot from that
and in in the future
I will be taking more proactive steps with
with those sorts of appraisals
that's what I did for the second set of appraisals
I met the appraiser out there
I couldn't meet the
the first appraiser just didn't work with my schedule
but I met the second appraiser out there
and had loads of information for them
I did hours and hours of research to prepare them and
and to basically
you know just give them some helpful information
um and I obviously I made sure to explain that like hey
not all of this is gonna be helpful
but I think some of it will be
and just throw out what's not helpful
and keep what is helpful right
I don't want them to think that
I'm trying to do their job for them or
or insult them in in
in any way
but they were very responsive
obviously gave me a great
great appraisal second time so I'm happy about that
my 6th craziest story
and then I've got one more after that
my 6th craziest story is
I had a situation where I had a client that
that really wanted a house
but it was like just outside their
their budget just outside their price range and
and so but the
the well
I should say this
it wasn't really outside their price range
it was more that it just needed so much work
and the loan that they needed to get
just wasn't really compatible with that
with that sort of that sort of house
and so we were just trying to figure out
how we could make it work
because the listing agent didn't want to they
they were really holding out for a cash offer
they didn't really want to do a finance offer
because the home needed some work done on it
and so
long story short
my clients were just like
let's just make an offer right
and make them respond to it
and yeah that
that could be a strategy that
there's really not a whole lot of downside to it right
they have to
you know the
as I've already said
the listing agent has to present an offer
even if it's an offer that goes against what the seller
is saying that they're looking to
to receive
and so made an offer and
and the seller basically countered
verbally and we reached a verbal agreement
I wrote up a counter offer
sent it over to them didn't hear anything
hear back from the agent
they're concerned about this or that would they're
they're gonna make another counter
okay another verbal counter
I go back to my clients and I'm just like okay
they're changing the terms again here
what do you think about this
they're just like you know what
we're desperate they have all the all the cards
we'll agree to it
I write up a second counter or a third offer
depending on how you're looking at
I'll say that I wrote up the third offer
send it over
no response
third time the listing agent gets back with me and
you know
they're doing a bunch of work to the house now
and they're
they're just trying to they basically decided that they
they want to do a bunch of work to the house and
and get and get better offers and so that
that's what they have ended up doing
and now
we have an offer on the on the table
and we're accepting
highest and best offers by this deadline
which is which was several days out
it was just like really so now you know
and I believe there was another like
verbal agreement in there somewhere
I think that there was like
a third time that we reached a verbal agreement
and then they reneged on it
and then
and then of course started doing work to the house
we're still trying to get under contract
and in the process of that
they've received another offer
and so yeah
so now they're looking for a bidding war right
and so they say you know after the weekend
I believe it was a Tuesday
it was like
we're accepting highest and best offers until
until Tuesday
so my clients thought about it over the weekend
and Monday comes around and they're just like
you know what we still
we still wanna make an offer
and just make one final play
we'll make our highest and best offer and if
if it's not accepted then
then we'll move on from it
and I contacted the agent
and the house had already gone under contract
they had not even waited
until the deadline that they had set for
for receiving multiple offers
so my clients didn't even get a chance to
to purchase that house after the multiple offers
but it wasn't meant to be
they ended up getting a much better house
I mean so much better on so many different levels and
and I've said this before and
you guys know I'm a Christian
I'm a religious person but regardless of that
and I I feel like this is true for my clients
regardless of what their religion or non religion is
I feel like people end up in the house
that they're supposed to end up in
I truly do and I think that
that all these things do work together for good
in the end
and so they ended up getting a
a a a great house and really happy for them
and honestly
I think they would have had some really big problems
if they had gotten this other house under contract
quite frankly
and so what's meant to be does it
it what's meant to be always happens
that's my perspective and I'm gonna stick to that
alright final story
this one for me is the craziest
I had to navigate a situation I've never had before
so I had I
I was on my way to Spartanburg County for something
later in the day
and I received a call from a client and they say
hey Stan we're at a house with another agent
and this agent
says that they have knowledge that the seller
will do seller financing
and so we
we didn't think that we could buy this house
with our current financing
but with seller financing we probably could
and so we don't really know how to navigate this
but we need to get inside and look at the house
maybe you can just release us of
of your buyer agency agreement
and I was super confused right
super confused on multiple levels
but
long story short
I end up getting on the phone with the agent
because functionally this is trying to steal my client
right this is and
and that is very illegal
you can lose your real estate license
for doing that sort of thing
like we have classes
that talk about this in excruciating detail
if we ever get a call from someone
just a random person off the street
we have to ask them like three or four different ways
are you working with a Realtor
so that's one way of asking it then well
have you signed anything with any realtors
up to this point have you signed a broker's disclosure
have you signed any sort of
buyer agency agreement have you
have you had a realtor write a contract for you
or an offer up to this point right
because here's
here's what happens sometimes the public will
will try to tell you what they think you want to hear
and they don't
sometimes they don't even know what they've signed
or if they've signed something
or sometimes they're just like
yeah I'm just gonna tell a little white lie here
just because I
I want to get this property
and but those contracts
when you sign a buyer agency agreement with a Realtor
that is a contract
and you are committing to compensate them
for any home that you purchase
during that the period of that agreement
and so you can't just ignore that
and so we have all these questions that we have to ask
and I've been in some classes where they say
if they say that that
oh yes
I did see some homes with
with this realtor
but I didn't sign anything with them
we need to call that realtor right away and say hey
is this your client these people reached out to me
have they signed a buyer agency agreement with you
and so we have to go through an incredible
incredible painstaking detail in order to ensure
if we get that random phone call from someone
that they are not already working with someone
and the responsibility isn't on the customer to do that
the responsibility is on the realtor
to vet things out properly
to make sure that they aren't
putting themselves in a position
where they're stealing someone else's client illegally
so I talked to this
this agent on the phone this agent
told me that
that they had asked my clients
if they were working with a realtor
and my clients seemed confused and
and indicated that they weren't
I have I have questions about that
but whatever I don't
I don't know
in the end these people were neighbors
so my clients the realtor
they were neighbors so they
I guess they were kind of
they were kind of friends
there was some confusion
but this realtor had coached them
for what to do and what to say
and here's the part that doesn't add up right
if they had not
had indicated that they weren't working with me
why was it that when they arrived at the property
that was when they called
and suddenly knew
that they had to be released from a buyer
agency agreement right
something doesn't add up I wasn't being told the
the whole truth here
and I don't know I don't know exactly what this agent
thought that they were doing
I don't know if they were just really
really poorly trained
um that I
I don't know I
it's hard it's hard to reverse engineer I
I don't wanna assume
malice
in a situation where you can make other assumptions
where maybe it was just lack of understanding very well
that my clients could have done that thing where
that I just described where they
you know are just so desperate that they
just start saying things that
that aren't entirely true or
or their mind's not spinning
it might not have been 100% the
the agent's responsibility
but I already said
in terms of how this is approached
from a real estate standpoint
it is always 100% the agent's responsibility
customer that
the worst that the customer or the client can get in
in trouble in this situation
is if they owe another party a commission right
so if they
if they closed on a property
and used a different agent
that wasn't representing them
and that agent gets paid
but I am under contract to get paid
they would then have to pay me too
that's the that's the worst thing that can happen
but in terms of like this sort of situation
where we're trying to figure it out
no that it's the responsible
always the responsibility of the realtor
that's the way the code of ethics works
that's the way real estate works in general
you cannot ever
come close to stealing someone else's client
you can't have a conversation
with someone about real estate without even explaining
to them that they are unrepresented
and if they are represented
that conversation just needs to stop
I've had that situation happen before
I've had people call me
I had someone this was in my crazy stories of 2024
I had someone call me
that they had a a home that was listed with their agent
and they weren't happy with their agent
that their agent wasn't willing to do open houses
and so they contacted me
asking me if I would list their home for them and
and do open houses
and I said we can't have this conversation
you are working with another realtor
you need to talk to your realtor about that
not me
end of conversation that was it
they called me back again and I told them
I'm sorry
stop calling me
like until it at you are working with another realtor
call your realtor
I can't have this conversation with you
and when they when that happened
the next thing I did was
I called their realtor and told her what was happening
that is how you have to do it
I had another situation like that that happened to me
late last year as well where someone misinformed me
that they were unrepresented
and I had asked all the questions
and they just flat out lied to me
and then later on I hear from their agent
and I had to be extremely apologetic and
and explain my side of it
that man I'm
I'm really sorry they
here's what here's the questions I asked
here's what they responded
there must have been some kind of
a miscommunication between us
because I
I certainly was not trying to steal anyone's client
I got no apologies in this situation
no apologies in fact
the broker of this agent called me
didn't ask a whole lot of questions
was mostly just on offense trying to
trying to make me trying to put me in my place
and so
be careful out there I've said a few times
there's a lot of shenanigans going on in this market
there's a lot of shenanigans going on
there was an appraiser that
that there was a an agent in my office that had a pre
listing appraisal done recently
for a listing
and if you know much about if you're not a realtor
I'll I've got to explain this to you
we can't really have a listing agreement signed
until you're actually ready to list the house
like
I can't have you sign a listing agreement and then
but you're not gonna list the house
for another three months
that's the that's against MLS rules
and so and there's
and that's to protect the public
so that we don't have these agents
you know committing people to these listing agreements
and then they're not marketing the property
and then it's like well
what's going on
but we had an and this is a freebie right
this isn't one of my stories
but this is still a crazy story
this appraiser
apparently his wife is a realtor
and after he did the pre listing appraisal
which remember paperwork had not been signed
so that was nobody's client yet
because they could not sign the paperwork
but we have a little bit of an honor system
a little bit of a trust system right when
when someone reaches out to me
they want me to list their home
I have to front some money
getting professional photography
getting measurements all of these sorts of things
I have to front some money in order to
in in
in order to get the ball rolling
without them having any true commitment in writing
that they're gonna list the home with me
that's just the way it works
well
this appraiser
must have communicated to his realtor wife
about this whole situation
that he was doing this pre listing appraisal
at a really nice house guess who calls the seller at
right after the appraisal is done
the realtor who was married to the appraiser
tried to steal the listing
now technically it's not a stolen listing right
but that's that is really
really weird
I've never heard of something like that happening
so there and I might have gotten some of those
some of those details some of those details wrong
that was an agent in my office
but that was loosely speaking what happened
so there's a lot of shenanigans out there
a lot of crazy things happening out there
and that's gonna be a wrap for my crazy
stories of 2025 I hope you guys enjoyed it
don't steal any clients don't do that
bad idea
ask the right questions
don't wait until you're at the house to decide that oh
now is the time right before I show them this house
now I'm going to call them and
and try to put a fire under them to
to ask them to
you know to let me steal their client
don't do that bad idea
but thank you guys so much for listening
we're gonna have another crazy 2026
2025 was crazy
2026 probably gonna be crazier
I'm looking forward to it
we got a few more episodes to wrap up the year
that I'm excited about
so I hope you guys stay tuned for all of it
thank you so much for listening
my contact info is in the show notes like rate review
subscribe to the show
and we will talk to you guys next time!