Inside Real Seattle Deals: The Stories Behind the Wins

Christian: [0:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to another episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is your host, Christian Nossum of the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. And today, we are going to do something a little different. I think you're gonna like it, I hope. Uh, normally on this show, as you know, we talk about market trends, investment strategies, tips for buyers and sellers in the Seattle market, um, stuff like that. But today, wanted to dedicate an entire episode to something that we think is even more powerful, and that is real stories. So because in real estate, you can sometimes feel, like, a little bit abstract, um, like you're just talking about numbers, strategies, data, blah, blah, blah. It's all boring in my opinion. Uh, but behind every deal is an actual person or a family, uh, making a huge life decision.

Varun: [0:51] Yep.

Christian: [0:52] And over the years, we've all had the opportunity to help a ton of amazing clients throughout that process. Uh, today we thought it'd be fun to share a few of those real-life success stories from clients that we've worked with. And throughout that journey, we'll explain what that looked like, how they got started, how they found their deal, how the negotiation happened, and if there were any hurdles that they had to come over or overcome, uh, in order to make it work. And I think this will really help you as a buyer or a seller or an investor, um, understand just the real logistics of how all this comes together. So On the podcast joining me are my two amazing co-hosts. I have to my left

Joanna: [1:39] Joanna Beecher.

Christian: [1:41] Woo. And to my right

Varun: [1:44] Varun Jain.

Christian: [1:45] There you go. So each of them, or each of us, has a story to share. So Joanna, let's talk about you. Why don't you kick us off? Okay. What, who, who and what is your story about?

Joanna: [1:58] Well, uh, my-

Christian: [2:00] Oh, and we are going to change the names- Yes to protect the innocent.

Joanna: [2:03] Yes. By innocent, mean amazing- Exactly … clients we work with. Yeah. Um, so fake names coming in.

Christian: [2:10] Fake names.

Joanna: [2:11] Josh and Sarah- Oh, yeah … um, are the clients.

Christian: [2:13] Very typical, standard- They are … generalized name.

Joanna: [2:16] Um, but these are the clients that I am thinking about for my success story. Mm-hmm. And I have had, in my personal opinion, mostly success stories with all of my clients. Yeah. So I'm taking one that I think is the most recent huge standout, um, for a reason that you'll hear in one moment. Uh, so they came to a beers and home buying class a while ago. As most of

Christian: [2:43] our clients do.

Joanna: [2:43] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [2:44] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [2:44] Um, which was great, and they, they really paced themselves out with that, which was also great. Everybody has their own timeline, big thing to remember. Mm-hmm. And the next piece, they came back to me, um, and they were like, "We're ready to go." And so they were ready to go, meaning they wanted to start their pre-underwriting process. They started that. We started doing our, you know, furthering, going down their steps. We're doing a sold search. We're talking through that. We're getting ready. They said- They're

Christian: [3:15] learning about neighborhoods and-

Joanna: [3:16] They're learning about their neighborhoods- … all the things … through that.

Christian: [3:18] Yep.

Joanna: [3:19] Right? Um, so they were saying to me, "Okay, we wanna wait, knowing that we're, like, getting all of our pre-underwriting done. We've done the sold search. We were learning about our neighborhoods. We still wanna wait until probably, like, the end of December to start looking." Okay, this was about November timing. So I said, "Okay, I'll touch base with you closer to that time. Um, if there's anything, anything you need, send it to me. I'll answer questions." We get to their timeframe that they were looking at, and we started looking at houses. Um, some people speed that up, mind you. Yeah. Yeah. They think they wanna wait, but then they get really excited, and they don't. But- Mm-hmm … they actually stuck to their timeline, which was pretty impressive. Anyway. That is

Christian: [3:59] impressive.

Joanna: [4:00] But they had all of their ducks in a row. They were so good to go. We start touring. We go on our first tour. We hit a lot of duds. Just gonna put that out there. It was, like, one investor house after the next. Me- I'm saying that as a joke on our, one of our last podcasts. Um, they're just houses a lot of people wouldn't wanna touch, and they were sitting for quite some time there.

Christian: [4:20] Meaning, they wouldn't wanna move into in its current state. Yeah.

Joanna: [4:23] They would want to- It needed a lot of work … do a lot of work, and not- Yeah … everybody has the money to do that. So-

Christian: [4:28] Or the time, or the skill, or the knowledge.

Joanna: [4:30] Exactly. Yeah. So we were hitting a lot of those homes. Um, some of them are still on the market today.

Christian: [4:36] Wow.

Joanna: [4:36] Anyway, um, so- We are going through that. I actually did text Christian at one of these houses, and I said, "I just sent them in. I couldn't go in, it smelled so bad."

Christian: [4:47] I do remember that.

Joanna: [4:48] So I waited outside. Christian's like, "Well, that smells like money to me." I know.

Christian: [4:53] It smells like opportunity.

Joanna: [4:54] Either way, I didn't go in. It was gross. Um, and I said, "I really hate to end on this." While they were inside looking at this house I couldn't stand, um, to smell, I was looking at houses nearby with their criteria. Mm-hmm. And I was, like, desperate for it just to not end on a terrible note. Um, and I did in fact find two more. One was not great, uh, and then a last one was my real Hail Mary.

Christian: [5:23] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [5:24] And I was like, "Well, do you guys just wanna check this one out?" "Okay, sure." We did see this one, 'cause it had gone off-market, and then had come back on.

Christian: [5:32] Mm.

Joanna: [5:33] So I said, "I see opportunity here- Yeah. Mm-hmm … if this looks good when we get there." So we made a last-minute appointment. We got in, thankfully, because the person was still living there. Mm. Um, and it was just the one. Now, granted, they, they didn't tell me right at that moment. They did wait a couple days, but then they were ready to write an offer. Mm-hmm. Um, and this is where the strategy kicked in. Um, just because of what I knew of the market at that time, and because of how long it had been sitting post coming back on the market, we went forward in a specific way. Um, because also seeing it, even though it was in the dark, so I couldn't see the outside, which would have made me maybe Sorry. Maybe, maybe, uh, second-guess a couple of things. But I'm really glad we went forward the way we did, because it actually turned out really lovely. A lot of times you'll think automatically if something's been sitting on the market for a while, you wanna go in really low on the price point. A lot of buyers think this anyway. Yeah. I will tell you right now, that is not a great strategy. Yeah. That's a good way to turn people off, offend people- Mm-hmm … and automatically close down to your offer- Kill the opportunity- … and you get rejected … Speaker: before you even get a chance. Yes. Yeah. So, um- Stop. I'm gonna stop right there. Do I wanna talk about my strategy?

Christian: [7:03] Which

Joanna: [7:03] one? What- Like, in depth? Like how I said to go in at list, and then we'll wait to bounce other credits with the inspection?

Christian: [7:09] Oh, yeah. Yeah.

Joanna: [7:10] Okay. Yeah. I just want to… I don't know. I didn't know if I was supposed to give away all my secrets to other people- Just say- that aren't

Christian: [7:16] you guys … you know, the strategy that I thought would work well in this situation was doing this, and just say that

Varun: [7:21] Or opening the door to negotiations. Yeah. Say that. Like, "Hey, we wanted to open the door- Mm-hmm … not offend the seller." Okay. "So we started at list-

Christian: [7:27] Mm-hmm … Varun: knowing that there might be room for negotiations if we find something in our contingencies."

Joanna: [7:32] Okay. Okay. So, um, the way I thought best to approach it, um, and how I counseled, uh, Sarah and Josh, um- Had to

Christian: [7:43] remember their fake names-

Joanna: [7:44] Yep … Speaker: real quick. I did. Uh, the way I counseled them was, "Hey, let's go in at list price, and then we can leave it open for negotiations because we're also going to get all of the other contingencies through, including inspection, financing, title for funsies- Mm-hmm um- And appraisal … and appraisal. Right. So basically, that is all your safety nets right there.

Christian: [8:09] Yeah.

Joanna: [8:10] So if anything popped up that made my buyers uncomfortable, they would keep their earnest money in place and be able to back out.

Christian: [8:17] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [8:18] That's fine. So good news, we got all of those contingencies through. We got everything accepted, and in my mind, okay, this is where the fun starts for me, um, 'cause we had our inspection, and guaranteed, like I thought, a lot popped up. Yeah. A lot popped up. A

Christian: [8:37] lot of issues.

Joanna: [8:38] So yeah. I mean, all very much, you know, nothing totally insane. Yeah. Like-

Christian: [8:44] No, no giant red flags, but definitely some things that-

Joanna: [8:47] Yeah

Christian: [8:47] needed to

Joanna: [8:48] be dealt with. That need to be fixed. Um, and you could definitely see that when I went back in the daylight. Mm-hmm. Very different scenario. Um, and so glad that we got everything, you know, all of the contingencies through, because we had to not only get our inspection done, but we had to get more specialists out so we could get more specific ideas of how much would these fixes cost. This is very important part of the negotiation process- Mm-hmm … if you're actually wanting the listing agent and the seller to take you seriously when you ask for either- Yeah … a fix to be done, or you want a seller credit- Mm-hmm … from that seller for the fix. Anyway We ended up getting all of the seller credits that we ended up asking for. We got every single one of them. And I wanna say that this is, like, huge success story- It is huge … because of that. Yeah. Um, I was also working with a very, uh, helpful listing agent and a very, um, a great seller in the fact that they understood that their place was not in, like, the perfect condition. Mm-hmm. So anyway, we got all of that, uh, approved. We closed on time even. Everything went really well for my buyers. But I do wanna say this That credit, yes, we got that credit, but I wouldn't say that just because the same situation popped up maybe on a different house with a different listing agent with a different type of seller, you won't always get that played right into your hand. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Um, I think what happened with us was we had, um, they were working with an agent that had knowledge and could counsel them correctly.

Christian: [10:40] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [10:41] Yeah.

Christian: [10:41] And you had a realistic seller that knew they didn't have a perfect

Joanna: [10:44] house. Exactly. Yeah. I think everything played in together, and they were just prepared- Mm-hmm and ready to jump when the right house popped up. And I think that as long as you are prepared for that- Yeah … and you have, you know, someone that you're working with that you trust, that you can, that can counsel you through something like this, on both sides, listing and, you know, the seller agent, or, you know- Buyer agent the buyer's agent. Yep, yep. Um, I think that is where the success came in. Mm-hmm. And I'm really, really glad that Josh and Sarah, uh- Yeah … trusted me to lead that charge with them, so, or for them.

Christian: [11:20] Yeah. What would you say it was that made that property the one?

Joanna: [11:27] Um, I think it was- I mean,

Christian: [11:29] it's different for everybody, obviously.

Joanna: [11:31] It is different. But- I think in their case, like, it just was a standout. It, you know, definitely helped that that day we saw a bunch of duds, like I said. Um, but

Christian: [11:39] they- Well, they saw what's realistically- They- … in

Joanna: [11:42] their price range … in their price range. Yeah. And it was a beautiful, it is a beautiful home. Mm-hmm. You know, now that they're gonna be able to put a little bit of love into the places it needs it the most- Yeah … it's gonna be even better. It's

Christian: [11:52] gonna be a great

Joanna: [11:52] house, yeah. Um, I think for them, too, just, like, amazing, huge yard- Mm … was, like, that's one of the things that they really wanted. Mm-hmm. They have three kids. Two of them have fur. Um, so they like the yard, you know, and their little not fur baby will also enjoy the yard when they're bigger. Um, yeah, so-

Christian: [12:11] Can you explain what a credit is real quick, for those

Joanna: [12:13] that may

Christian: [12:13] not know? Yes.

Joanna: [12:14] Yeah. I was thinking if I should do that or not. Yeah. So, um, a seller credit is something that you can ask for in several different ways, but I'm just gonna explain it in the way that, with the inspection. With the inspector, yep. Um, so let's say you're getting an inspection done. The roof comes in as needing a lot of work, like, more than maybe the seller thought initially before they put it on the market. Mm-hmm. And it's just gonna be out of the buyer's price range. If they close, they're not gonna be able to do it, yada, yada. Um, let's say that credit, once you got the roofer out there, comes out to be, like, it'll, they'll need another $10,000. Um- But the seller doesn't wanna do the work.

Christian: [12:55] Yep.

Joanna: [12:55] So the buyer says- Well, ' Speaker: cause a lot of times you have, you know- Yeah. They're out the

Christian: [12:59] door. From the day you get your, your contract accepted, like, your offer accepted, to the da- the day that you close, it's anywhere from two weeks to four weeks long.

Joanna: [13:08] It's not a lot of time to do all that stuff.

Christian: [13:10] Yeah. Yeah. It can be tough to get a roofer out there, um-

Joanna: [13:13] For the big projects- Yeah … it's, it's a big undertaking. And you also have to think of it, the seller, they are kind of done with the property. Mm-hmm. And just thinking about it from the buyer's angle, like, would you rather have somebody, as you're going into the house and you're putting everything into it, and you're so excited, and you want everything to be done really well.

Varun: [13:32] Yep.

Joanna: [13:33] That, if you get a credit towards something like an inspection issue- Mm-hmm … now, no, it's not, you're not getting a big check at the end for the $10,000. Mm-hmm. Right? It's not like, "Here's a check for 10,000 to go towards that roofer." It goes towards your loan, and it all has to go through your lender and what type of loan you're getting. Not everybody could have gotten the $30,000 credit. Yeah. Because of the amount of the down payment and the loan, uh, that my clients were getting, they were able to take that $30,000 credit because the lender approved that. They could get up to 6% of a seller credit, and that goes towards things like your, um, down, like, your, sorry, your- Closing costs closing costs. Yeah. Um, or you can put it towards paying down your mortgage rate. Mm-hmm. Or it can get split between a few things, which is what- Yeah … they ended up having to do.

Christian: [14:26] Yep.

Joanna: [14:26] They even had enough left over, they got a home warranty.

Christian: [14:29] Yeah.

Joanna: [14:29] Um, because there was, like, 500-something left. Anyway.

Christian: [14:32] So the thing is, at the end of the day, you have to pay for your down payment- Mm-hmm and you have to pay for closing costs. So if you're, if you get a seller credit, you can then keep all the money- All that back … or part of the money that you were gonna use for closing costs. Yeah. You keep that in your pocket. Mm-hmm. So it's, it's like you're keeping that much cash in your pocket at the end of the day- Yes versus having to put it into the house.

Varun: [14:55] Right.

Joanna: [14:55] Yes.

Christian: [14:56] So then you can use those funds af- after you own the house to then repair whatever it is you need to repair. They're

Joanna: [15:01] very helpful, um, in so many ways. Uh- Mm-hmm … but yeah, I know some people get it in their heads it's a big check coming to you at the end. It's not that. It all goes through the lender.

Christian: [15:12] Yep. All right. Uh, thank you, Joanna. Yes. I know that they were super happy, super cute. They just had a baby, like-

Joanna: [15:19] Mm-hmm … Speaker: it was awesome to see that one come together. So exciting. Yeah. And just, yeah, that is a very unique and beautiful, like, old home-

Christian: [15:28] Mm-hmm … Joanna: that I know that they're gonna take great care of. Yeah. So it's very exciting. Varun. Yeah. Let's, let's talk about your story. So I know you have been doing, um, a lot more on the investment side- That's

Varun: [15:41] right … Speaker: both personally and with clients. Mm-hmm.

Christian: [15:44] Recently, you just completed a flip on Queen Anne.

Varun: [15:49] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [15:49] Um, how did that deal come together?

Varun: [15:52] Yeah, so this was very interesting. Um, so as a agent that works with, primarily with investors, um, one of the things I do every week is just scan through all the new properties that have come on the market. Uh, and this particular one caught my eye in Queen Anne. It was, uh, close to Queen Anne Avenue North, which is top of the hill. So if you are in Seattle, you know that's kind of a hotspot for coffee shops, um, restaurants, grocery stores. Schools are nearby at, uh, there. So this was a great location. Uh, everything was walkable. And the house itself needed a lot of work, uh, because this is, I think, first time on the market in, like, 40 or 50 plus years.

Christian: [16:38] Wow.

Varun: [16:38] Wow. So the family had owned it for a long time. All

Joanna: [16:40] original. No.

Varun: [16:42] A lot of it was original. Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Um, basement was partially unfinished. Part of the basement was being used as a, I think, a hobby room or a shop, because there was, like, I think, a bench in there.

Christian: [16:54] Hmm.

Varun: [16:55] Uh, so again, a l- a lot of things, um, in the house that, uh, needed to be replaced or redone, reconfigured. Um, so a- as I was sc- trying to scan the market, uh, this location caught my eye. Uh, it was priced just about right for numbers to work out. So for me, couple of things I did was they already had a pre-inspection and a Sewer Scope done. Mm-hmm. Looked through that. Uh, made sure, um, there are no major red flags.

Christian: [17:24] Yeah.

Varun: [17:24] Sewer Scope was clean. Mm. Inspection pointed out the things that we already knew, and since we are going to do pretty much a studs out remodel, we just wanted to make sure there's nothing behind the walls, like mold or anything that we need to be prepared for. We can handle it, we just need to budget for it. Um, and then the other caveat here was this was a house that was, um, that had a offer review date, and I had done all of this due diligence the night before.

Christian: [17:51] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [17:51] Next day was offer review date, but I needed to see it physically.

Christian: [17:54] Yep.

Varun: [17:54] Because one of the biggest things that we talk about in our Beers and Home Buying, pictures sometimes don't tell the full story.

Christian: [17:59] Very

Varun: [18:00] true. Pictures look like, yeah, it's an old house. The biggest part of this was does the basement have sufficient height to even finish it?

Christian: [18:07] Yep.

Varun: [18:07] So next morning, first thing I do, 9:00 AM, show up. I measure out the basement height, measure out walls that we wanna take out. I already had a plan in mind of the layout that we want to go with. And so did a lot of the kind of thinking through part early on and before I got there, so I knew exactly what I was looking for. And on the flip, I usually have a partner on the deal. Um, had a video call with him, walked him through all the different kind of locations. Usually, it is him walking the site and then putting a budget together and making a call on whether this would work as a flip or not. But because of the tight timeline, um, we had to do it on a video call, and I had already kind of sent him the inspection report, so we knew a little bit about the house. Basement height checked out. And so after all the due diligence was done and knowing what the house offered, uh, in that location, we thought it would definitely work as a flip. Mm-hmm. Um, I ended up writing the offer, uh, assuming it would be competitive. You never know in these kind of homes.

Christian: [19:13] Yep.

Varun: [19:13] Talked to the agent a couple of times. She indicated she might have one or two other offers coming in. Uh, and so I did have an escalation clause in there. Um, the, uh, the agent ended up getting one other offer.

Christian: [19:26] Mm-hmm.

Varun: [19:27] Um, so it was not as competitive, and the other offer didn't escalate too high, so I was able to get it at a decent price. Lower than what I had budgeted for- Yeah … which is always good.

Christian: [19:38] Yeah. Nice.

Varun: [19:39] Uh, and then, um, we also got lucky on the back end where we just went under contract. We went under contract over what our original estimate was for the home- Woo which always helps. Um- Yes … so again, it was a lot of due diligence upfront- Mm … and making sure you're crossing the Ts and dotting the Is before you buy the home. And the biggest part here was location, right? I was two blocks from a elementary school- Yep … six blocks from the middle school, five or six blocks from, uh, a Trader Joe's, a Safeway, and, like, 10 or 15 restaurants on that- Yeah Queen Anne Avenue, not like the main drag in Queen Anne. So i- it was a great spot for a family to be there a- and that's why this deal really worked well because I knew this- once we finish it with really good finishes and put out a good product and a good layout, we will be able to attract the right kind of buyers, and that's what ended up happening. We ended up with a competitive situation. We got two offers when we re-listed the house and were able to, uh, go pending a little above what we had originally thought our sale price would be.

Joanna: [20:50] Yeah. So what made you think that this house was gonna be something that would be a good opportunity for a flip?

Varun: [20:57] Uh, couple of different things. One, the house was kind of closed off, so the layout in its current state didn't work. Um- Mm. It had a closed-off kitchen. Uh, living room was kind of, um, not updated. There was old carpet. Uh, part of the basement was unfinished. They had done some plumbing work at some point for I, I'm guessing fixing a downspout. Mm. But they needed to connect the downspout to the sewer line, and what they ended up doing was, I think, uh, a- I don't know what to call it, but a solution where- … a pipe pretty much went right- A DIY solution? Not a DIY. It looked like a plumber did it. Oh. But I think they went the cheapest route, which was- go from a window on the east side of the house and take a pipe that runs right through the basement, and you can see it. It's at your, like- … face height, and it's going right through the basement and connecting to the sewer line on the other side. What? Right? So that, that is not what you would expect. But- No. that would also scare, that would also scare a end buyer. Yeah. Yeah. Because I did find out the other offer that the agent originally got was also an investor. End buyers did not offer on that house. Yeah, I was

Christian: [22:12] about to say, did-

Varun: [22:12] Yeah. It was two investors, me and one other person- Yeah … offering on that house. Yeah. Because I think we both saw the same thing, is-

Joanna: [22:18] Mm-hmm … Varun: this requires a ton of work. The siding wa- needed a full gut. Um, the roof on a carport was completely gone. Mm-hmm. It was leaking already. Um, there was no green patch, so we had to create green space on that lot by digging up some concrete and replacing that with sod. So there's a lot of things to do- Mm-hmm … but we had a vision in mind, uh, the moment we saw the house, and we could kind of at least imagine what this will be like. Yeah. And we had the space. That is what made it work, is this was a big enough house. It just needed reconfiguring and finishing up a lot of the unfinished space. That what made, made it work. Okay.

Varun: [22:57] Yeah.

Christian: [22:58] Nice. Yeah. Yeah, that was a, that was a fun one to watch, uh, kinda come together and, I mean, we all walked it. Um- Mm-hmm … and that was fun during, during the process, and we gave tips on what we thought- Yeah … based on what end buyers would wanna see. And, you know, it's

Varun: [23:12] fun. Very helpful. And tho- those tips were helpful. There was a lot of learnings for us. Um, did we put out a perfect product? Probably no, but that's the whole part of the process- Yeah … is you learn- Oh, learning … and you implement that in the next project.

Christian: [23:25] Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Okay, so my turn to finally share something. Let these guys talk so much. Yeah. God, can't get them to shut up. God.

Joanna: [23:33] Sleeping over there.

Christian: [23:34] So annoying. Geez.

Joanna: [23:37] All

Christian: [23:38] right, go, I guess. All right,

Joanna: [23:38] so

Christian: [23:38] my, my people. Uh, their fake names are Brie and Kyle.

Joanna: [23:44] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [23:45] I don't know why. Sounds great. But that's what Shannon wrote for me in the script- … that I'm working off of. Um, so their journey is interesting. So I helped them buy, seven or eight years ago, it was their starter home. Um, at the time they didn't have any kids. Uh, they had just gotten married. They had a dog. Um, in fact, as a closing gift, I gave them socks with their dog's face all over it.

Varun: [24:10] Oh. Oh, that's

Joanna: [24:10] cute. I love

Christian: [24:11] that. Yeah. That's great. Um, and they had a white picket fence, and it was perfect for the dog to run around, and yeah, it was a great dog. Um, they now have two kids, and that two bed/one bath house is too small. So they've been looking for a while. They don't have a huge budget, but they wanna stay in the same neighborhood. So, and it's a pretty competitive neighborhood. Um, so they're in kinda the Kenmore/Juanita, um, Bothell, kind of that area. Mm. North Kirkland, um, that area. So they wanted to stay around there. All the homes around there are, there's a lot of really nice homes that are very expensive. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and they just couldn't afford that, so they decided that they were going to take on a house that was more of a cosmetic fixer and not a perfect house, because he has some construction background. Her mom actually renovated houses when she was little to make them livable for them to, you know. Be able to live in a cool house. Yeah. A nice house. Um, and so they had some help from the family, um, here and there, and support as well, both financially, but also mentally. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Which it takes sometimes. Yeah. Um, and we found an awesome house in Bothell. It was a block away from a school, five minutes away from where, uh, Kyle grew up, where his family was from. Oh,

Joanna: [25:37] that's cool. There's a T-Rex in the garage.

Christian: [25:40] Yeah, there was. I- Yeah.

Joanna: [25:43] Like, yeah. Like a toy. Sorry. Yeah. It was, no, it was a big, uh, like a sculpture-

Varun: [25:46] Yeah Oh, wow

Joanna: [25:47] in the garage.

Christian: [25:48] Yeah.

Joanna: [25:48] Sorry, I got to go see it.

Christian: [25:49] Yeah, she got to go see it, too. Um, so their story was a little unique because it wasn't the standard, you know, buy the starter home, move up to the next home, which is a lot bigger, you know, and so forth. They, their house right now that they currently own might be worth 800, and what they bought was 890. So it's not like they went up a huge amount in cost, but they did, they are gonna have to put some money into it. So-

Joanna: [26:17] Mm … Speaker: the new house, it needs a new kitchen. Um, the inspection that we had done said that it might need some plumbing work. Turned out it didn't really need any plumbing work. That's great. That's great. Um, it was just the connections. They had galvanized steel, like, uh, elbows. That was it. That was it. I don't know why they ever did that. That's- But it was all copper everything else. Okay.

Christian: [26:37] Weird. Um-

Varun: [26:39] But for them.

Christian: [26:39] Yeah, great for them. Yeah. Uh, needed some demo work. Like, it had a really old hot tub that was just nasty.

Joanna: [26:46] Yeah.

Christian: [26:46] A shed that was full of rodents. Mm-hmm. Oh, gross.

Joanna: [26:49] So gross.

Christian: [26:51] A pond that was just completely overgrown. Uh,

Joanna: [26:54] the parrot room.

Christian: [26:55] Parrot room. It was funky. Um- But it was all totally doable. Mm-hmm. And it wasn't anything that was so overwhelming. It wasn't a cheap enough deal for an investor to buy. It was gonna be an end user that moved into it, um, that was willing to take on some work. Turns out there were 11 other end users that made offers on this- … in addition to us, so 12 total offers. Um, we escalated- Uh, they were asking 810, and we went up to 890. We were not the highest offer by $21,000.

Varun: [27:34] Wow.

Christian: [27:35] But because, uh, their offer was so strong, the buyers also went through the open house- Terms, right? Terms is really what it was. Yeah. Um, so their offer, they waived basically everything. They could do that because, with confidence, because they had already gotten fully pre-underwritten with their lender. This is all the things that we talk about in the Beers and Home Buying class. Yeah. beersandhomebuying.com (opens in a new tab). You should come. They're free. We do them one a month at least, other than December. Um, free home buyer class. You should come. Uh,

Joanna: [28:06] Yes. Do that.

Christian: [28:07] So they followed the exact steps that we always outline, and they had done it once before. I reminded them what those were, 'cause it'd been a few years. Um, they remembered, and they followed them to a T. And they

Joanna: [28:18] got

Christian: [28:18] their inspection done. And it was super inspect- yeah. Yeah. Super, super helpful. We did a pre-inspection- Mm-hmm … before offers were due. Nice. So, um-

Joanna: [28:25] Which I think some people are scared to do that, but in this case, it won them this property.

Christian: [28:30] Yeah.

Varun: [28:30] Yeah.

Joanna: [28:31] It's like, spend the money if you really love it.

Christian: [28:33] Mm-hmm.

Joanna: [28:34] Know what's going on so you feel super confident moving forward. Like, instead of trying to hang your hat on, "Well, I'm gonna try to still get that inspection through." Yeah. If you have time-

Christian: [28:44] Mm-hmm … Joanna: do your pre-inspection. Do it. Yeah. It is a slight financial cost. It's, you know, s- around 5, 600 bucks, give or take.

Joanna: [28:51] Like, they weren't guaranteed to get that house.

Christian: [28:52] No.

Joanna: [28:53] But-

Christian: [28:53] S- but that was the, the risk they were willing to take in order to get the house for $20,000. No, I think they got it for 880. Why do I keep thinking 890? They got it for 880. Um, the appraisal came in at 890.

Varun: [29:06] Oh,

Christian: [29:06] wow. Okay. Oh. The appraisal came in high. That's awesome. Dang it. So they were actually $31,000 low on the price. Um, and- They also, they came through the open house.

Joanna: [29:17] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [29:18] They met the listing agent. They brought their little tiny cute kids along. That really helped. They wrote a s- love letter, sappy love letter to the seller, who- Sometimes

Joanna: [29:29] that works

Christian: [29:29] it was kind of an estate sale. Um, he was the son of the m- stepdad that owned it, and kind of confusing, but still had some emotional ties to the house. Didn't really grow up there, but came there a lot or something. I don't totally understand. Um-

Joanna: [29:48] There's always an emotional-

Christian: [29:49] But there were definitely some emotions piece. Yeah.

Joanna: [29:50] Always. Yeah.

Christian: [29:52] Yeah. And they didn't wanna sell to an investor. They wanted a family to be the one that moved in. And s- meeting the neighbors, so on the day that we, that I gave them keys, um, we met the neighbors, or maybe it was when we were over there measuring stuff. Met the neighbors, they were super cool. They also had a lot of children in the neighborhood. Um, there's a little cul-de-sac literally across the street. Mm-hmm. Um, and all the kids play in that little tiny cul-de-sac. Oh, that's nice. There's a secret path down the road that goes to the elementary school, so you don't have to walk along- Yeah the busy road. That's

Joanna: [30:24] great.

Christian: [30:24] Um, it was just a cool, cool place. So again, they followed the steps to a T that we teach all of our clients. Uh, and it worked perfectly. And it had slight risk involved, but it was mitigated because they already knew that they could get the loan. They had the extra funds in cash available in case the appraisal came in low, um, which it actually ended up coming in high. So- Yeah,

Joanna: [30:53] we love that.

Christian: [30:54] Love it. Um, and they're walking into equity, which it's not like you can go to the grocery store and buy groceries with your equity, but still feels good to- Feels good Yeah … have someone say that it's worth- Yeah … more than, than you paid. So, um, so yeah, that was the, that was the story. Now the work begins of getting their house fixed up, their new house fixed up. Um, I've given them a lot of recommendations for contractors for everything that they're doing. Um, hooked them up with some of the discounts that I have as an investor, which is always fun to be able to pass along. That's nice, yeah. Um, and yeah, they're gonna be able to get a new kitchen, uh, some updated bathrooms, um, new flooring throughout, and, uh, they'll do a roof at some point. It's not a dire need, but at some point probably in the next five, six years they'll need a roof, so I have a roofer for them. So yeah, it's just, um, yeah. And then the demo work, I have a good junk hauler guy who also does some demo. Nice. So things are just rolling along. They got a good schedule. Once that's done, they're gonna move in, and then in probably a month and a half-ish, we'll work on getting their current house that they haven't, that they're gonna sell, getting that prepped and ready. So I'll give them advice on what little things they need to do to that, which is not much. General yard work, little touch-up things here and there. Um- I think on their house they had some backsplash where some tile was missing on one wall and was not on the other wall. So I was like, "You might as well just continue that around. It'll make it more cohesive." Yeah. Yeah. Like, little inexpensive things that they can do that do make a difference- Mm-hmm to the end user, to the buyer. Yeah. Um-

Joanna: [32:31] When the eye doesn't have a hiccup, it makes it a lot easier.

Christian: [32:33] That's a good point. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah. So, um, yeah, at the end of the day, they are super happy, um, and they're excited, um, to get into a, a bigger place. This house has four bedrooms-

Joanna: [32:46] Yeah.

Christian: [32:46] Wow … and two bathrooms, plus a rec room, a living room, a dining room, and a kitchen.

Varun: [32:51] Nice.

Joanna: [32:52] Yeah.

Christian: [32:52] Amazing, a kitchen. The yard is huge. Can you believe it? There's a kitchen? There was a kitchen at the house.

Joanna: [32:54] Oh, my God. Yeah. What are they gonna do with the parrot room?

Christian: [32:58] Uh, scoop out the old poop and- … I don't know what.

Joanna: [33:02] I told them to use it if their kids were bad. They would have to go in there and just be… Like, "You're in there for the next 10 minutes." You're in parrot jail. "That's time out." Right?

Varun: [33:10] Yeah,

Joanna: [33:11] parrot

Christian: [33:11] jail. I know. I love it. Cool. All right. So that, uh, is the success stories that we have. Mm-hmm. We have these all the time. If you're on our newsletter- Mm-hmm … email newsletter, we send out a s- client success story basically every single month. Mm-hmm. Um, you should definitely, if you're not on it, reach out to us. Maybe just send us a DM on Instagram, Awesome Nossum Group, um, and we'll get you on that list. Um, I think that's it for this month's or this week's call. Yeah. You guys got anything else?

Varun: [33:42] Nope.

Joanna: [33:42] No.

Christian: [33:42] No? That's it. Cool. All right. Well, uh, if you found this helpful, if you, um, want to come to our next Beers and Home Buying class, we do have them, like I said, every single month. They are free. It's an hour long, then we stick around, we do some Q&A for maybe 10, 15 minutes. Generally, they're at bars, really cool bars, that have delicious beer. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Or restaurants or something like that, breweries. Um, and they're super laid back. There's no pressure at these. This is where the majority of people find us is through this class. So even if all you want is a free beer, you should definitely come. You might actually learn something. Most people do learn a ton- Mm-hmm. Yeah … and they, at the end, they're like, "Honestly, I just came for the free beer, and then I realized I could actually buy a house."

Joanna: [34:32] And depending on where- Yeah … some- sometimes dogs and babies do come.

Christian: [34:35] Yeah, yeah.

Joanna: [34:36] Just a heads-up.

Christian: [34:37] Yeah. Yeah. So, and one of the reasons that we do these, um, client success stories, too, and share them is 'cause we want you to understand that there is, you know, a journey that is involved with the home-buying process. Yes. Yeah. It's not just, go look at a house, make an offer, and move in. Like, there's a lot more that goes into it, especially, or especially with people that enjoy the process.

Joanna: [35:01] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [35:01] There should be a process that happens- Yeah … uh, leading up to it. Sometimes that journey is very short. Mm-hmm. Sometimes it takes years. Um, and- Whatever their fake names. Brie and Kyle uh, I've literally talked with them for probably a year and a half to two years. This has been a long time coming. Wow. Yeah. Um, and it's been a slow process, and that's totally fine. I do not care. We weren't pressuring them to do something. It, we went out and looked at something when it made sense.

Joanna: [35:32] Yep. Yeah.

Christian: [35:33] Like, with their schedule, but also financially.

Joanna: [35:35] And we won't pressure. No. It's, we just try to help you see in the place that you're wanting to tour, the value that's there or maybe is not there. Mm-hmm. But we will talk you through all of the good and the bad, so. Yeah. Yeah. But it's always on your timeline.

Christian: [35:52] Yep. And we generally will talk you out of a house-

Joanna: [35:56] Yeah … Speaker: and never talk you- Before into … into a house. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, we don't want you to buy something that doesn't make sense for you. Um, and we work with really the full spectrum of people, from first-time home buyers to repeat buyers to home sellers to investors, developers-

Varun: [36:15] Yep

Christian: [36:15] flippers. Everyone. Everyone. We got specialties in all of those things. Mm-hmm. And that's the, that's the fun part. So.

Joanna: [36:23] We're waiting to write your success story. Yeah,

Christian: [36:25] you can be the next one. Ooh, look at that. Whoa. Jeez.

Joanna: [36:28] I know. Okay.

Varun: [36:28] You can be the next set of fake names on here.

Christian: [36:30] Yeah. Hey. You could also be a fake name- Yes and a podcast one day. The

Varun: [36:34] story's real, the names are fake.

Christian: [36:35] Yeah, the story's totally real, 100%. Yes. I, I don't think we're good enough storytellers to make those up.

Joanna: [36:39] I don't know, maybe.

Christian: [36:40] You might be, Jamie. I don't know. But I've seen the contract, so I know it's real.

Joanna: [36:44] Yes.

Christian: [36:45] I lived through the drama with you, so. Yes,

Joanna: [36:47] you sure did.

Christian: [36:48] Um, that's it for this episode. We hope you learned a lot. If you liked it, please like, share, and subscribe. Uh, it really does help. We have actually seen quite a big influx of new listeners. I started paying more attention to the stats. Um, uh, last month we had 500 downloads, which- Ah … sweet. Doesn't sound like a ton in some, for some people. We love that, yeah. But for us, we're like, "Oh, that's cool." That's great,

Varun: [37:11] yeah.

Christian: [37:11] We've only been doing this for, like, what, six years at the point? Maybe we should have more than that, I don't know. But-

Varun: [37:17] Hey … Speaker: at least it's 500 people that are listening and learning- Yeah and hopefully getting something out of it. So that's it. Thank you so much, and we'll see you next time.

Joanna: [37:25] Bye, thanks.

Christian: [37:25] Bye. See

Varun: [37:26] ya.