Bryan: Welcome back to “Ready, Set, Sold”. Thanks so much for joining us this Saturday morning. With me today, I have Dave Hohe of New American Funding, along with Deb Rust. Thank you so much for being here.
Deb: Thank you for having us.
Dave: Thanks again.
Bryan: Hey, we kind of left off the last segment and we were talking about the importance of having a running track record and experience, and not having an experienced agent, i.e., for real estate, or on the lending side, too, and they can get to some really serious troubles, because you mentioned that you’ve seen it all, and that’s a great point.
The second part of it is, and you brought it in, looking for the paycheck type of situation. And you can be, and I hate to say this, but it’s the truth, you can be a top agent, you can have some good success record, but you don’t come in with the attitude of service, but you go in the attitude of, “This is how it’s going to be.”
Sometimes we’ve heard sellers going into it, and they feel much worse than what they left, and that’s not really, hopefully, the attitude that they should be having. And what I mean by that … We talk about a question that comes back as this, you ask yourself, maybe this is something you ask yourself, but you ask, “Is this something, is this a person looking at my best interest, or is this person just a taskmaster?”
And one of the things that I always find ironic is, sometimes, and that’s why you need to get the book, but sometimes people feel less adequate about their house. And what they have or they don’t have. And too many times, a realtor that comes in with that type of attitude that, I heard one seller say, you know, kiss-my-ring type of saying, that thank goodness I’m here to save the day, even though you’ve, as a seller, been living there for ten or fifteen years, been doing okay without him, but now they’re going to be there to kind of be the savior, shall we say.
But what happens is, is they turn around and start telling you everything you don’t have. You realize you don’t have a basement. You realize you don’t have as many bedrooms, you don’t have enough bathrooms. You don’t, you know, your yard isn’t that big. You don’t have a garage. You don’t have this. Your master bedroom isn’t that big. All the things that, quite frankly … I heard a seller say one time that she got so tired of the agent talking about not having a basement, she says, “Oh, thank goodness you’re here, because the last ten years we’ve been looking for that thing!”
Deb: (laughs) I didn’t know that.
Bryan: I didn’t know I didn’t have a basement, thanks so much for doing it. And many times what that is, unfortunately, is they’re telling you what you don’t have, and they give you the impression that usually comes with a lower price. They want to actually work you down to a price where they can get a quick sale. Get your house moving, moving you on. Top dollar isn’t relevant. It’s just getting your house sold.
And that creates a serious problem if you’re not aware of it. Because sometimes people think, “Well, oh, this is how it has to be.” It’s just not true. It just really isn’t true at all.
Then you have to ask yourself is, “Is there going to be hitting your house and telling you how bad it is?” Well, how are they going to turn around and all of a sudden market it and say “This is the greatest house since … ”
Deb: Convince a buyer, right.
Bryan: Yeah. Convincibility, so. So, I mean just that alone becomes an issue. And Dave, I’m just curious, I’m sure with your years of experience of having situations, or you’ve known a situation where somebody, a lender was just going for the paycheck and, I mean, and I know you guys don’t, but maybe you can give some stories or some relevance to that.
Dave: Yeah, that’s a great point, Bryan. So, we get a lot of business from agents that we work with where the buyers are being led down the wrong path. And the agent recognizes that pretty quickly and gives them a general nudge in our direction. What sets us apart, I guess, part of it is, is just the service level and getting the client from the beginning part when the contract is first introduced to closing as quickly as possible.
So to give you an example, our average turn time on any transaction is around 22 or 23 days, where most banks, to give you a point of reference, around 45 days, or even longer. So our goal is to get that client from Point A to Point B the most efficient way possible while providing the most incredible service that they’ve ever received. And that’s really kind of what sets us apart as far as service level goes.
But going back to the other lender thing, and it’s very common, especially if they’re not as busy as they’d like to be. They’re there for the commission, like you’d mentioned earlier, Deb had mentioned earlier. And that’s just not a good combination. And that turns that buyer off to the point where the agent gets brought in. So it’s just good to have a great lender up front, and then you don’t have to worry about that, so …
Bryan: Sure, sure.
Deb: And I didn’t want to interrupt Dave, but one of the cool things, and of course, I love where I work, but New American is not for that transaction. We’re trying to cultivate a customer for life. So we don’t want to just get [inaudible 00:05:14] on and then have them, you know, I was done, but never want to come back to us or never call us again or feel good about what they have. We want them to trust us for sure, send their kids to us, send their families to us, you know, whatever. So we cultivate and really listen to them up front, just like you’re talking with your seller.
Bryan: No, I love that, I love that attitude. And I think, we talked about that side as far as a place of service, but then there’s other sides that if you are looking to hire a realtor, the exact opposite, and that is nothing. They give you no direction. They give you no idea. And that can come into a situation of almost picking a number and, well, this number seems right, and, well, what do I need to do to make improvements? Well, it all seemed to look good, you could maybe do something, or don’t do this or don’t do that. And it becomes a very, very frustration thing for sellers. They’re actually looking for direction.
And all sellers are very knowledgeable, they do have some information, and most sellers want to make the improvements. They get it. They want to do the updating if they haven’t already. The painting, the flooring, the kitchens and bathrooms. All those things they want to, but they get little or no direction. And yes, believe it or not, this comes from agents that have been doing this for years and also have a good track record. Because, simply is, one of the things that they don’t put into consideration, where the other person is, “Now, now, now, now, now,” they have the attitude is, “Well, when it sells, it sells.” Yeah. What, that’s two months or that’s four months, that’s five months.
And again, there has to be a middle ground, and that’s what you’re really looking for, and I think it’s what people are looking for, is that middle ground of understanding that our role is, yes, there’s the marketing aspect, there’s negotiating, but it’s also as a role of a consultant. It’s similar to where we’re talking about with lenders. Of giving them information, giving them advice, helping them through the process, saying, “Hey,” … Suggestions, “Hey, this could work really well here. What are your thoughts?”
I found that you go in with sellers, I think that you guys would both agree when you talk with your clients, but I found with sellers that you just listen to them talk. You truly listen to what they’re saying, and many times, they are right down on what they need to do. And all you need to do is just say, “Hey, yeah, I think that’s a great idea, let’s move forward.”
So working together on the real estate side is definitely a team event. I mean, it’s something that you want to be both hand-in-hand together. Deb, you talked about, too, I think on the lending side where there is a disconnect and becomes just a numbers game with some lenders. And that just doesn’t work.
Deb: It doesn’t. No, it doesn’t. Every buyer’s different. Every buyer’s circumstances are different. You really got to talk to them. “Is this your house for life? Is this your house for three years? You know, what are you doing?” And there’s programs that just don’t fit. And they need a lender that’s honest with them and says, “You know, this isn’t right for you. This is the direction we should head and … ”
Dave: Yeah, Deb makes a great point with that. If I didn’t …
Bryan: If I could just interrupt, we’re going to break, and that’s okay. We’ll follow up. We’ll pick up on that the next segment, though. It’s a good point. Hey, just so you know, we talked about this, there’s seven things that you need to know, critical questions to ask. Go get my book, readysetsold.org, not dot com, readysetsold.org, not dot com. Go there, pick up the book. It doesn’t matter if you use me, maybe you’ve already signed the paperwork and you’re getting your house on the market next week, no problem. It’s just, go ahead and get the book. You’re listening to “Ready, Set, Sold” and I’m your host, Bryan Vogt.
Ready Set Sold with Bryan Vogt #02-02: Dave Hohe & Deb Rust New American Funding: How Realtors and lenders work together
June 3, 2017