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Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #08-04: Kathy Popovich Transaction Coordinator Bryan Vogt Team: The stress of not knowing what is coming

July 15, 2017


Brian Vogt: Hey, welcome back. Thanks so much again for joining us. Kind of recapping what we talked about, the problems of not having a home inspection as a seller and there are numerous ones. We talked about how a buyer can literally walk away, but also we can, on the water, or structural, or environmental, or even termite, those are things that can actually happen. Doesn’t mean that they will, it just means it gives them the opportunity to, and that’s something that most sellers don’t want to have happen to them.
But Kathy, during the break, me and Kathy were talking about, I’m joined here by Kathy Popovich, she’s our transaction coordinator, fantastic at what she does, and she’s seen so many different situations like that but as we were talking about, one of the things that many sellers aren’t as aware of, and that’s kind of the stress point of how fast, or maybe sometimes they don’t realize how slow these inspection processes can go.
Kathy Popovich: I’ve had several occasions where a buyer will do an inspection and then the seller expects to have the results of that inspection within hours you know, and it just doesn’t happen that way. Again, it’s another stress point during the whole sales process. Sometimes it can take as long as, we have a total of 10 days, according to our contract, to get the inspection done and get the results to the seller and sometimes it takes that 10 days. In the meantime, the seller’s sitting there for that 10 days wondering, “Oh my god, what’s going on? Is it a big problem, is that’s why it’s taking so long?” Just their stress level goes up and up. This can become a big issue.
Brian Vogt: Yeah, and that’s a point too that again, sellers don’t know and that’s why having that pre-inspection, we call it a buyer assurance program where you can get all the inspections done, again, this is less than $500 in most cases, to relieve that type of situation. You know that you have a great house, so it’s not a big cost factor and I think the other thing too, you mentioned 10 days, but good or bad, the buyer also has up to 20 days to have these inspections done.
During that time, as I mentioned before, this is the same thing as offer and acceptance. If you don’t come to an agreement, and the inspection is 19 days in and things fall apart, you’ve been off the market now for three weeks and that can have a serious cost factor of getting you back onto the market. More and more sellers, and I wish more sellers did do about it, I think many sellers don’t even know about it, but by sellers getting more proactive, we’re seeing that having much, much greater results and not having the buyers come after them, they’re ahead of the game.
With that being-
Kathy Popovich: That way there are no surprises either then, you know-
Brian Vogt: Right.
Kathy Popovich: … you’re not sitting there on pins and needles waiting for these results when you already know, if there were any problems, that you’ve already taken care of them and it’s done.
Brian Vogt: Yeah, and I think that’s an excellent point. Again, Kathy has done hundreds and been involved will all kinds of transactions like that and so it just happens so, so, so, I should say often, as just far as the stress. I was talking to a home inspector that did a pre-inspection for one of our seller’s and the seller comment was, “It was the best $500 piece of mind I’ve ever done. For $500 got everything done.” Look, most of the times, it’s nothing serious. That’s the good news. But, if it is, you can be proactive and get it taken care of.
Kathy Popovich: Right, right.
Brian Vogt: With our time that we have here, I want to also hit on, and the third one I saved for last, and that is the occupancy permit. That’s the occupancy inspection. It’s rare now in the Metro East where there isn’t some form of either the city or the county inspection. This kind of goes back onto that, I said the doctor before, maybe going to the dentist. You’re really nervous 90 percent of the time, what you’re worried about doesn’t really happen, maybe it’s something minor, maybe it’s nothing at all, maybe you just get your teeth cleaned.
The reason why I bring that up is occupancy permits. Occupancy permits, just so you know, if you’re a seller and you don’t have that done, that can kill a deal. That will not let you sell your house and the process is so simple. I mean, Kathy, it’s a phone call, right?
Kathy Popovich: Right, right, and many times agents forget to advise their seller’s to get this occupancy inspection done and the buyer’s need to have that pass the occupancy inspection in order for them to get their utilities hooked up when they buy the house. It’s a really important inspection. They need to make sure that this is be proactive and get this done right at the beginning of the listing or even before.
Brian Vogt: The thing is the inspection, look, if you’re thinking about selling your home, most inspections, you bring them in, they last a year, okay?
Kathy Popovich: Right, right.
Brian Vogt: Usually, usually they go well. There’s nothing usually major wrong, okay? That’s the other thing, is that think about worrying about the dentist or the doctor. There may be a few things that get done but you’ve had experience in that, very seldom do we have something major come up, correct?
Kathy Popovich: Right. That’s correct, and it also gives the buyer that little bit of extra confidence that this is a good house. If it’s already passed the occupancy inspection they figure there can’t be too much wrong with this house that I would have to worry about.
Brian Vogt: Right and some areas are a little bit tougher, I’m not going to lie about that, they are tougher on their inspections, but the good thing about that is with that toughness, it also makes it a good marketing piece. Certain areas, as I said, are a little bit more tougher and if you can, if you as a seller can say, “Hey, I passed this. This house is ready to move in,” look, word gets around and buyers are much more likely to write an offer on your house versus some other house that they don’t know if they can even move in.
Kathy Popovich: Right, right, and we’ve had occasions where that’s happened, that someone has forgotten to get their occupancy inspection done and we’re well on our way to closing and suddenly it has to get done and they find out there was a few things there that have to be completed and so it can delay a closing, you know, just because someone forgot.
Brian Vogt: Which costs time and puts everything in jeopardy and just not place that most people want to go.
Kathy Popovich: Exactly.
Brian Vogt: It’s just not worth it when it simply takes a phone call. It’s a, I think at the most it’s like a hundred bucks or something like that so it’s not even that expensive.
Kathy Popovich: Right.
Brian Vogt: With that being said, the last thing that I’ll say on that, sometimes it is a more of a major thing and that’s even worse because now you’re three days before closing and all of a sudden the inspection comes in and now one that comes up, especially in older homes, is having a firewall. Having drywall from the connected garage to the living space. That can create serious problems. It’s also an expense that you as a seller weren’t expecting to have to put out. In order to get the house sold, guess what, that’s what you’re going to need to do.
All in all, it’s just a no-brainer not to have a home inspection done, not to have that outright, right up front. Remember, it takes, they last a year so even if you’re just thinking about putting your house on the market, contact your local city, the county, whoever, Google it, just call them, make a quick phone call, talk to your realtor if you’re talking to a realtor, then get it taken care of.
With that, we’re running out of time, Kathy, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate, you do a great job for our team. I can’t thank you enough for that. What we’re going to be doing is doing a wrap up of what we talked about today. A lot of good stuff. You’re listening to Ready, Set, Sell, with Brian Vogt.

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