Client Journeys

Christian: [0:00] Hello, hello, and welcome to another edition of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. This is Christian Awesome, the host of Awesome in Seattle. We are a real estate agent group here based in Seattle with the Awesome Nossum Group at Wilson Realty Exchange, Inc. And today's episode is a little bit unique. We are going to share some stories of clients who have reached- recently purchased and sold homes with us to kind of show you how this really is possible, and it's not nearly as intimidating as you might think. Um, we'll give you the inside scoop on some of the negotiations, how they went about, uh, how they actually found the house, how we met them, all sorts of fun client experiences. So it's a little, little different. We haven't done this kind of thing before, but I think it's gonna be helpful for all of you listening and watching on our YouTube channel. But before we get into it, let me introduce my awesome co-hosts, the awesome agents of the Awesome Nossum Group. Lots of awesome. All right, directly next to me is Nicholas Tolle. Welcome. Next to him, we have the one, the only, Miss Reed Watson. Try to mispronounce that one. Yeah. And next to her, we have Melanie Ghadami.

Melanie: [1:08] Hello.

Christian: [1:09] Mel G. All right, so first off, I'm gonna kinda share a story of clients that I will reference as J and S, 'cause I don't wanna share their names. We're also not gonna go over, like, their address or anything too specific, but we'll give you the general idea of what's going on. So, um, I actually met them, I'll just say that from now on, I met them probably almost 15 years ago. I was on the board of Social Media Club Seattle, which was at the infancy of Twitter, Facebook, before Instagram was even a thing, um, and it was a lot of fun. Um, we were on the board together, uh, and we kinda met each other at that point. And, and we really kinda hit it off and just always were kinda friends. I don't know, maybe two or three years after I initially met them, I helped them buy their first house, and that was, at this point, 10 years ago, I think, 11 years ago. Just, uh, I don't know, six months ago or so, they reached out. They're like, "Hey, it's about time for us to, you know, buy that next house." So, um, I helped them kinda get that whole process going. They actually came to one of our home buyer classes again just to get a refresher on how the market's going, the latest, um, stats, uh, kinda refresh their mind of how to actually buy a house again, uh, since it had been some time. And, um, soon after, they went through all the steps that we always recommend. First one is, again, go to the class, home buyer class, beersandhomebuying.com (opens in a new tab). After that, have a strategy session with us where we kinda go one-on-one with you, answer your questions, help you set your budget. Once you have your budget set, then we do something that we call a sold search. The sold search is where we really show you what you can buy, where you can buy it, and help you understand kinda what the lay of the land is for your specific market based on your criteria. So it's, it's pretty fun to help people understand and see, hey, based on what's going on right now, here is most likely what you're going to be able to buy. Does this make sense for you or not? So after we did all those steps, we started looking at homes, and it was, it was pretty fun. It's always fun looking at homes with people. We looked at not a ton actually. We looked at a few houses. We found one that just absolutely made so much sense for them. It was nicer than they ever thought, in a better location than they thought, and, and we ended up making an offer. The house had been on the market for I think 40-ish days or so. They had just done a price drop, um, and we came in with an even lower price. And at the end of the day, we got it for about $150,000 under the asking price, which was awesome, and we closed in I think about 25 days or so. And now they're moved in. What we did with their current house is I'm actually helping them. I hooked them up with a contractor. They are fixing up their old original house, and they are remodeling the whole thing, putting in a new kitchen, new flooring, new bathrooms, and just rehabbing it because when we looked at the pros and cons of, you know, maybe putting in 100,000, maybe $150,000 worth of work, it would double their money at least, uh, when they go to sell. So it just made financial sense for them. They had the financial ability to do this. Um, so I'm actually helping them pick out all the finishes. They don't wanna have anything to do with the remodel, so I'm really helping them a lot with that. So just yesterday, I went down to the design showroom and picked out their quartz countertops, their cabinets for the kitchen, every- So that's kinda where they're at. They are in the process of getting that remodel done. Once it's done, um, we'll be putting that on the market and selling it. So that's kinda their, their story. So initially, again, just a quick recap, came to the class, did the strategy session. We did a sold search for them. They understood what it was they could actually afford and where they could hope to afford it, and then we actually helped them find it. So they followed all of our steps that we have kinda as our blueprint f- to help every buyer, and they will soon be a seller as well.

Melanie: [5:18] So I worked with R and J. I met R and J at one of our home buyer classes, and after that, they went ahead and scheduled a strategy s- session with us. We discussed kinda what they were looking for in a home, and after that, I created their sold search, which Christian just mentioned is kind of like the roadmap to determining what you want in a home, what you like, what you don't like. So they were gracious. They went through the, the homes I sent them and then gave me back their list of homes that they would potentially buy if they were to come across them So that was great. We had a full picture of what they were looking for. They were open to both a single family and a town home, um, at that time. And I would say about a week later we started to tour properties. R and J were very flexible and realistic with what they were looking for. As I mentioned, they were open to both a single family or a town home. The thing that they wanted was to… Or I guess I would say was on the top of their priority list, was being within a 45-minute commute to R's work. Um, she definitely wanted to find something in the Linwood area, but at that time the market wasn't, I wouldn't say hot, but it was still competitive enough that they knew that potentially might not be the case for them. Um, so they were open to other areas as well. So we went out and we started looking at properties. We first looked at a single family home, um, or a couple of them, and It didn't quite work for what they were looking for. They didn't care so much about outdoor space. They were focused on the inside and making sure it was spacious enough to host both their friends and their family. So R and J decided that they were going to scratch out single family homes and focus on townhomes.

Christian: [7:17] Hmm. Yeah. So why, why switch to townhomes? What was it that was different about a townhouse that a single family house didn't offer?

Melanie: [7:25] Yeah. Within their budget, the townhomes had more of the updates, upgrades, and design style that they were looking for.

Christian: [7:34] Got

Melanie: [7:34] it. The single family would need a lot more work- Got it which is something they didn't wanna do.

Christian: [7:37] Yeah, 'cause townhomes generally are a little bit newer. Right. They often have more of an open floor plan.

Melanie: [7:43] Mm-hmm.

Christian: [7:44] And sometimes you can get a little bit nicer of a, of a house. Yeah. It's just you don't have all the yard- Right … that you would with a single family home. You also don't have all the yard work that goes along with- Yeah … owning a single family home. Yeah. So there's some pros and cons there.

Melanie: [7:58] R and J found the perfect townhome for them in the Lynnwood area, which was, actually, it was the neighborhood that they were scouting, so it, ironically, it just happened to work out-

Christian: [8:09] Wow

Melanie: [8:09] perfectly.

Christian: [8:10] Awesome.

Melanie: [8:10] Yeah. It was within distance to their family, so that's what they were looking for. And the layout was great. It was big enough to have family and friends over, and it was on the market for one day, and so they wanted to make sure they put forward a competitive enough offer that the seller would likely accept. So they came in 10K over asking, and they also made a, a super sweet video for the sellers, and ultimately, they got their offer accepted.

Christian: [8:41] Yeah. And obviously, this was when the market was still competitive.

Melanie: [8:44] It was, yes. It was still competitive, correct. Yeah. Yeah. So slightly different from now. Yeah. Perfect. The home was pre-inspected, so they were able to review the rep- report prior to making an offer, and they were comfortable, comfortable with everything they read, and so essentially, yeah, they moved forward with, uh, the offer on the house.

Christian: [9:03] That's awesome. Yeah, that was a great story, and they are, again, they're someone that followed our exact blueprint- Yeah to a T, and it was successful for them. I'm sure if you ask them, they would probably say it was the least amount of stress they could possibly have hoped for, going through this very stressful home-buying process. Yeah. 'Cause we hear that so much. Mm-hmm. Um, most clients say, like, "I just assumed that it was super stressful, 'cause everyone says it is, and it's really hard to do this." Mm-hmm. And we hear w- time and time again, like, as we're giving them the keys often, like, "Wait, this is it?" There's not more? Are we done for real? Like Mm … I heard this was really hard and stressful, and this was not that bad." So yeah, we hear that a lot.

Reed: [9:44] So getting ready for this podcast definitely made me realize just how many clients I have with the initials R and J. And it's not just me. Clearly Melanie has a few as well. So I thought that was kind of funny. But the people I really wanted to talk about today, their initials are R and J, and they came to a home buyer class about a year ago, and we really connected over our love of dogs, and particularly rescue dogs. They did some fostering of rescue dogs, and one thing that they were excited about in buying a house was being able to do a little bit more of that, and be able to foster slightly larger dogs once they had a yard. So we had a strategy session, and kind of started talking about a timeline that was gonna work for them, and we decided they'd start looking about four months before their lease was up. So between the strategy session and actually looking, there was quite a bit of time. We did a sold search at the time of the strategy session, just to show them what was out there, given what their current budget would be, and they actually really liked everything that they saw out there. But they informed me and the lender that they were both gonna be getting raises, and they didn't really want to have to buy themselves out of their lease if they didn't have to. So we waited for a little while, and then we did an updated sold search once they were a little bit more ready to buy, and when they had that updated budget, a little bit higher. And so they saw a lot of stuff that they liked, and it really came down to narrowing down neighborhoods, because they're very open to a lot of different areas. So along the way, we had some great chats with the lender, just sort of about what goes into the financing of purchasing a home, and it was a slightly more competitive time in the market, so we talked a little bit about the possibility of increasing a down payment in case the appraisal on their purchase came in low, and the lender was really helpful for that We started looking at houses, and at first we did, you know, a lot of home tours just in different neighborhoods to kind of narrow down what areas they were really serious about, and those went really well. So they ch- kind of crossed off areas like Magnolia, North Seattle. They were more interested in being kind of on the south end of Seattle. And at that point, I also encouraged them just to pop in to an open house if they happened to see one while they were driving by, because I knew that they were kind of on the lookout for a unique home, something that really spoke to them, and I just felt that them seeing kind of as much as they could raised the, uh, likelihood of them finding the perfect place. So once they had narrowed down their neighborhoods a little bit with me, they did happen to just stumble in to an open house on Beacon Hill. A very unique property, a beautiful home that the seller had updated very specifically for her, and it just so happened to work really well for my clients as well. It was a slightly less competitive situation than the market as a whole was at that time because the house was so unique. But we did know we were gonna be going up against a few other offers at least, and the home was pre-inspected, so we looked at that and everything looked great. She had done a ton of updates on electrical, roof, um, those sorts of things. But she had not done a sewer scope. So we did our due diligence. We did a sewer scope before we put an offer in on the home, and we found a major break in the line.

Christian: [13:05] Wow.

Reed: [13:06] Yeah. The seller had thought that she had already fixed the sewer and that it was fine, which is why she chose not to get a sewer scope, but she didn't totally understand how sewers work. And what she was thinking of is that she had already updated all of the plumbing, which is great, but it still has to get out of the house at some point, and that she had never looked into. So, you know, they were a little bit embarrassed that they hadn't found this issue. And so they offered us a credit, uh, and just said, you know, "We'll, we'll give you a credit for the sewer. Uh, we're gonna offer that to every buyer." And I'm really glad that we found that so my clients didn't get hit with that problem after purchasing the home. But we went back and looked at it a few times, really spent a lot of time in the house just kind of measuring things and making sure that this would indeed work for my clients. The big selling point was the backyard was totally decked out, uh, for a couple of dogs. It was all fenced in and even had those little holes in the fence- Yeah … you know, where they can, like- Stick their heads out … stick their heads out and watch the cars.

Nicholas: [14:09] That's fun.

Reed: [14:09] So my clients just loved that. And then it came time to make an offer. We were really strong on price because, again, my clients love this home and they just really felt it was for them. We weren't as strong on terms, because there were a few concerns, and they really did want to protect themselves with this purchase. And so despite the fact that we weren't as competitive on terms as some of the other offers, we had really demonstrated my clients' interest in the home and just how serious they were about the purchase, how much they liked the home, just with our, our visits and my communication with the listing agent. And so we did end up winning out at the end of the day. And so we closed in about 30 days. They actually just closed about a week and a half before their lease was up, so it was kind of the perfect amount of time. They were really excited to get into the house, really excited to kind of have all of these uni- seller had added without necessarily having to do some of that work themselves, and now they're able to foster more than just one small dog at a time, and they're actually thinking about finding their dog as well so that they have, you know, one dog of their own as they continue to foster more dogs and get them ready for their forever home, so that really made me feel good.

Christian: [15:24] That's awesome.

Nicholas: [15:24] Uh, so one of the clients that I helped recently was R and E. They were a, a referral from a past client, and they decided it was time for an upgrade, and they wanted to list their current home with Christian and purchase their next one with me. Their old house is in North Seattle. It was beautiful, it was well located, but the family was growing, and they needed more space. Uh, and they wanted a fenced-in backyard, which they couldn't really do with the property that they had. They decided, yeah, it was time for an upgrade. So they, they went and they stayed with some family when they, while they went through this process so that they could, you know, just streamline everything and not have to be living in the house that they were selling while they had a toddler and a baby on the way. So Christian worked really hard, um, on the marketing of that house. Um, I actually did a lot of that too. I did numerous open houses there. Uh, in the end, we found a really well-qualified buyer to buy their old home, and closing went really well. Their lender was the amazing Dan Keller from New American Funding. He was able to promise us a same-day close on their purchase, so as soon as their sale closed, they would immediately be able to close on their purchase, which is… That's pretty much unheard of. Like, that's, that's pretty amazing. If we found them a place before their old one closed, they'd be able to move in immediately. R and E were really into new construction in the beginning. There, there were a lot of things that might not work for their specific situation about some of the places that were being built in the areas they were looking at, so we ended up focusing on newer but not brand new, and yet, and also clearly well-built homes in the Greater Bothell and Greater Newcastle, Kennydale, Renton areas. The first home that they saw in Bothell was incredible, and they were really excited about it. They almost made an offer, but I could tell that they were a little bit hesitant about making an offer on the first home they saw. And this is a thing that we do up here on this team. We talk people out of buying things that we know that they're not 100% comfortable with. And yes, I, I told them I didn't want them to do anything that they, that they weren't 100% comfortable with. So they ended up not making an offer on the Bothell house, which in the end I think they're, they were really happy about. We toured a few more homes up there, including one that wa- was literally sinking into the ground, and the foundation was crumbling. It was, you know, I recommended that they don't buy that one obviously.

Reed: [17:58] We call that a hard no.

Nicholas: [18:00] Yeah. The seller had, like, hidden the entrance to the crawl space, but I found it, and I went in there, and there was a floor joist that was just split down the whole thing. Oh,

Christian: [18:10] geez.

Nicholas: [18:11] Um, so yeah, they didn't buy that one.

Christian: [18:13] And they had a door that didn't close.

Nicholas: [18:14] It… Yeah, the back door.

Christian: [18:16] A sliding glass door that, like, didn't

Nicholas: [18:16] close or something. Oh, it was a, it was like a swinging door. Oh, geez. It didn't even close. The… Yeah, it was open when we found it. Red flags. Yeah. Oh, yeah. They did not buy that one, and I'm glad they didn't. Um, ultimately though, um, we ended up doing some, some home shopping over the next few days in Lower Kennydale, May Creek, New Castle area, and we found an absolutely incredible home in Lower Kennydale that honestly I could not be happier for the one that they found. They decided they wanted to make an offer on it, and we knew the market was starting to shift in favor of buyers, so we knew our offer, you know, if we made a strong offer, we'd be pretty competitive. And with our closing date being super soon, because of Dan Keller, like I mentioned, we felt we could offer a bit below the asking price, and we expected a, a counter. They actually countered with lower than we thought they would, uh, and it was pretty great. In addition to settling on a sale price that was pretty, pretty significantly below the list price, uh, we also negotiated a seller-paid 2-1 buydown.

Reed: [19:23] Ooh, and if you want to learn more about that, you can check out episode 83 of this podcast, called 2-1 Buydowns: How Buyers Are Hacking Their Interest Rates, with Dan Keller from New American Funding.

Nicholas: [19:36] Clients are so thrilled with their new home. Like I said, I could not be more thrilled for them. They are anxiously awaiting the birth of their second child, and it is such a beautiful and perfect home. It's … I think they're, they're going to be so happy there.

Christian: [19:53] All right. Yeah, so they did a great job, and I feel like we really helped them out very, very well. I'm gonna toot our own horn. It's not always easy to both help someone sell and immediately buy a house, and have that timing work out perfectly. But in this situation, we really did. Um, they closed on the sale of their old home, and the next day was able to move into their, their new home. And it was, it was a lot of planning and a lot of prep work that went into it, but again, as long as you have a great plan and you follow the blueprint that a good real estate agent can help you with, you can make this whole process not be as stressful as most people say it is. That's it for today's episode. I hope that you enjoyed hearing from the trenches, uh, some of the kinda ins and outs of, of how this works, and how people really are successfully buying in today's market, whether it was, you know, a few months back where it was super competitive. Uh, we had a great system for that in place. We helped so many buyers win when there were multiple offers, 20, 30, 40 offers sometimes. Um, and now that the market's changing, we're helping negotiate a lot of money off the asking price, and often help people get something called, like we spoke about, the 2-1 buydown. Listen to episode 83 to learn more about that. But that's a great way to help buyers really afford more home, really reduce their monthly payment for the first two years. It's really fun. I actually love that the market has shifted. It's way more fun for us as agents to actually negotiate, and, uh, and it's not nearly as stressful for all those buyers out there. It might not be as fun for sellers, but that's just the way it is. Sellers had it great for a lot of years, so, um, had to balance back out a little- If you are ready to start your home buying or home selling journey, or both, please don't hesitate to reach out. We love helping buyers and sellers in the Seattle area, Greater Seattle area. We are not, are not clearly, based on all the different areas, Lynnwood to Renton to Seattle to, um, where, Beacon Hill, is that where you were, Reed? Yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're all over the place. So we also do the east side. It's… We are able to help anywhere in the Greater Seattle area. So if you are ready to start your journey and wanna have a free consultation with us, there is never going to be any pressure. We are very laid back. Our home buyer class is called beersandhomebuying.com (opens in a new tab). There's no way that could ever be perceived as being, uh, filled with pressure. We're literally drinking beer and hanging out.

Reed: [22:22] Well, for the carbonation, there has to be a little pressure- … and that's okay, 'cause or else it's- It's a good point, Reed we don't, we don't serve flat beer.

Christian: [22:30] Well said. Very true. We also have sometimes, not every month, but sometimes we have brunch classes where we have mimosas, also under pressure.

Reed: [22:39] Exactly.

Christian: [22:39] But that's the only pressure you will encounter at these classes. They're very laid back, um, and they're free. They're only an hour long, mm, and it's, it's just a ton of information that you can actually utilize to help you make that decision if buying even makes sense for you. And if it does, we will help you come up with that roadmap that is personalized to you. Um, some of these people that we helped purchased very quickly. Some of them, it took years for them to go from initially meeting with us until actually doing something. So i- we're not gonna push you to do something that doesn't make sense for you, um, but we will help you get the answers to the questions that you have so that you can make an informed decision, and that's really the goal of everything that we do here at the Awesome Nossum group. So if you are interested in chatting with us, you can either come to one of our classes, which again, are totally free, beersandhomebuying.com (opens in a new tab), or you can go right to our website, AwesomeNossumGroup.com. Go to the Talk To Us button or Schedule A Time With Us button, or just go to AwesomeNossumGroup.com/schedule and you can just plan a 30-minute Zoom call with us. Again, super laid back. We're not even gonna be in person. It'll just be very, very laid back. Um, so that's it for this episode of the Awesome in Seattle podcast. We will see you in two weeks time. Thank you. Bye.

Nicholas: [23:55] Bye. Bye.