Contracts & Chaos

142: Red Flags - The Things People Don't Talk About

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0:00 | 45:19

Some red flags are obvious. Others show up wearing a beige trench coat pretending to be “totally fine.” 😅

In this episode, we’re talking about the red flags we see all the time in real estate — from buyers, sellers, houses, agents, and even transactions themselves. The little warning signs that can save you from major stress if you know what to look for early enough.

We’re diving into:
 🏡 Property red flags that make us pause during showings
 💬 Communication issues that can derail a transaction fast
 📉 Buyer and seller behaviors that usually signal bigger problems
 🚩 Contract and negotiation red flags agents should never ignore
 😵‍💫 The difference between a challenge you can work through… and a full-blown disaster waiting to happen

And because this is Contracts & Chaos, we’re also sharing a few stories where hindsight was VERY much 20/20 😂

Whether you’re an agent, buyer, or seller, this episode will help you spot the warning signs sooner, ask better questions, and avoid learning everything the hard way.

Because sometimes the red flags are subtle… and sometimes they’re screaming at you through a broken HVAC and a seller disclosure that says “unsure.” 😬

Like what you heard? Make sure to follow and review the podcast, and shoot us a message with your thoughts at 

contractsandchaos@gmail.com

@YourHomeGirl_CLT 

@Real.Life.Brenna

SPEAKER_00

Okay. All right. Tell us what we're talking about. We're dragging.

SPEAKER_02

We're not in this yet today.

SPEAKER_00

Even our debrief before we hit go was real.

SPEAKER_02

I know normal. I Mabel. If you guys are listening, that snort was Mabel.

SPEAKER_00

She's the cutest nowhere. Cutest baby doggy ever. But no, even our debrief was not animated. It was kind of No.

SPEAKER_02

We literally started with, like, normally we're like, hey, I haven't seen you in a week. We both started with, hey. You good?

SPEAKER_00

You awake yet? Great. Nope. Let's go.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, look, we wore the same color sweatshirts today. Cute. Are you alive? No. Um, but anyway, maybe that's a red flag is when your realtor can't wake up in the morning. Um, so today we're talking about real estate red flags. And this is just gonna be a rapid fire, things we've seen that we think are red flags, whether it's in a listing, whether it's with another agent's behavior. Um, I don't think we put any client-facing ones in here, but you never know, we might find one along the way. And this is all sprouted from things we've encountered lately. So, um, I think the the biggest one for me, Brenna, oh boy, is actually your experience. My experience. This is what tipped off, like literally, this is a conversation off um off recording a couple weeks ago where we were talking about, you know, things going on, and you were like, you're talking to me about this transaction and how what did the agent say to you about compensation in the MLS?

SPEAKER_00

I screenshotted this to you because I was like, there's I'm misunderstanding this. I have to be misunderstanding this because here's what happened. I had clients, relocation clients, coming into town. We had finalized the list of properties that they wanted to look at, right? So here I am doing my due diligence, printing out the disclosures, reaching out to the agents, introducing myself, asking them if and what their seller may or may not be offering for a buyer agent commission, right? Because it plays a part into this client's decision. And this agent was like acted like I was a spam caller when I called. So I texted and they responded, but I was it's like super fishy. Like they didn't believe that I was who I said I was, and it went on to basically me. Right. And the agent like was like, Well, you must not have access to our MLS. What MLS are you in? And I'm I told them, like, it's in the MLS. You should be able to pull this information directly from the MLS. And I said, Commission is no longer able to be advertised in the multiple listing service.

SPEAKER_02

It can be on a so for reference, we are recording this April. In 2026. And that rule went into effect, was it August of 24, 25? Like this is not Yeah. This is a year and a half old. And this conversation Brennan and I discussed two weeks ago. Last week? Yeah. Yeah. This is not an old thing we're digging up. Uh-uh. This is literally in March or April of 2026. Right. This agent had no idea.

SPEAKER_00

So I was like, uh, commission is no longer able to be advertised. It's not at the bottom of the page. And she was like, oh, really? Question mark? And I was like, yes, really. That's why I'm reaching out to you because it's not advertised. Unless you have your own, again, separate website that you choose to advertise on, that's fine. But where I'm looking, that information is not available. And I sent it to Alyssa and I was like, how does this happen? How does this happen?

SPEAKER_02

It's small firms with agents who do one or two deals a year.

SPEAKER_00

Well, listen, there's no hate each where you are and what you do.

SPEAKER_02

But I think it's more the like, they're tuned out. They're not the agents who are trying to do more than two a year who are in the continuing eds, doing the things, and like they they aren't there yet. This is the agent, in my opinion, who's checked out, not coming to trainings, not you know, staying abreast as to what's happening in the industry because they're at the point where they're doing one or two deals a year for friends or family or whatever happens to come their way.

SPEAKER_00

Well, and here's the problem that happens with, and there's a few different red flags in here like this, right? But the bigger problem is it's not just them not having the information, it's them sharing the wrong information with our clients, right? And I say ours because we are an industry, right? There are good realtors and there are not so good realtors and there are downright terrible realtors. That's just how it is. But we all are in the same industry. So when I say you're feeding our clients the wrong information, you are, because they could be all of our clients. So it's just like somebody telling, um, and this was closer to when the change happened. Uh, a buyer had said, Oh, so-and-so told me that that was fake news.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I hate that.

SPEAKER_00

It's fake news. It's fake news.

SPEAKER_02

Okay.

SPEAKER_00

That's wonderful. It's not, right? So the problem is, is you have people either not educated and sharing this information, or like Alyssa said, they they might not even know themselves because they aren't in the midst of it. They're not doing enough business to have it pushed in their face all of the time, or they're not super active in their brokerage, they're not super active in their they show up to CE, but not you know what I mean. Like the effort is not always there. But the problem is with most of these red flags is that it's a trickle-down effect to how they then interact with the rest of us as an industry.

SPEAKER_02

Right. And and I think it's it's and I don't want to put all the blame on agents because sometimes, like, I know of a firm. It's a very small firm. An attorney owns it, he's the big. He opened it for his friends who wanted to wanted to be agents, who didn't want to go to a big box firm, who, you know, they're not some of them are are producers, but not like I wouldn't say, no, maybe in their area they can live on that full, like full salary, but they're not they don't appear to be pushing to be top in their industry, which is fine. But that's where I put it on the big because are they not holding trainings? And one of their agents told me, they're like, no, he just you hang your license under him, and as long as you don't get a warning, he doesn't really look at anything.

SPEAKER_00

Well, I feel like that happens a lot, but there are it's like, gosh, when this big change took effect, it was all over our general update for continuing education. I swear that was all they talked about.

SPEAKER_02

It was all over the media. Like, I it my mom, hi mom. Yes, she's six degrees from real estate, the Kevin vers Kevin Bacon version of real estate, which if you're on TikTok today, you need to look up Kevin Bacon's TikTok today because it's really funny. Um but it's him standing like in Times Square somewhere somewhere in New York going, oh, when you realize you're the person everyone is six degrees from. Um, but even she was like, Oh, the Today Show just mentioned. So it's not like you could miss this unless you literally lived under a stone. So and I think that's what you're gonna find a lot of in here. Like that's to me, that's a dangerous red flag, too. That's a practiced red flag where you could get in big trouble or get your clients in a situation.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, yeah. A lot of these red flags are so speaking from the other agent's perspective, right? That's where most of these red flags come from. And in an effort to uh dampen the effect on my clients, right? So, like this talking about listing photos, right? If I can see your reflection in the bathroom mirror, um love that one. In this uh in this photo, that's great. If it is like an a very obvious, like selfie shot photo, like the vertical, because the MLS has different um pixels and like what size they're supposed to be. So if they're not, it shows up completely wonky. Uh, did I send you the one last week that the MLS photo was literally upside down? I don't think so. It was one of the photos, just one in the lineup was completely upside down. And I was like, oh no, right? But these kinds of things, these, and it seems trivial and it seems like a jerk thing, right? For us to be like pointing this out. But when I go through and I'm seeing like toilet seats up and blinds mismatched and things, either the photographer doesn't know what they're doing, right? The listing agent didn't show up to the photography appointment and the photographer doesn't know what they're doing.

SPEAKER_02

I don't want to, I'm not I'll be honest, that's not my photographer's job.

SPEAKER_00

It isn't.

SPEAKER_02

I don't put that on my photographer. Now, if I'm there and he sees me putting toothpaste in a drawer, putting toilet seats down, I would hope that if he notices I missed something, he would say something.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. But to me, that's but a lot of them will say that the house needs to be shoot ready. They don't want to go in and open blinds, they don't want to go in and check and make sure the toilet seats are down. Like my photographer is the same way. She, if she goes, I feel like she looks and is like, if there's anything glaringly obvious, she's gonna adjust it.

SPEAKER_02

Mine will obviously open the blinds. We I I've seen them turn ceiling fans off where like I turned the light on and didn't realize the fan turned on.

SPEAKER_00

Oh my god, that's another one. If your pictures have a ceiling fan that looks like it is about to take off for outer space, that's goodness.

SPEAKER_02

Or like I had to call an agent once. Now I'm we're not getting political, I'm okay with Second Amendment. It's a whole there's a whole spectrum of that, so we'll get into that another day. But I saw a listing photo with a giant firearm in it, and I was I called the agent and I was like, hey, uh, did you know? And she was like, Oh my god. Take it. But I also I've also been to a showing where, and this was recent, another red flag. We discussed this on a previous episode about what costs you money and what's actually an upgrade. Same house. Open the closet, and there is a full-on rifle. Not propped up in a corner, you know, behind closed, not in a gun safe, literally laying there across the owner's shoes. Thank God it was me and my clients who are, you know, also like they're hunters, they're comfortable with firearms, and not someone's freaking kid running through a house opening doors, or someone who's not okay with firearms. Like, come on now. But yeah, it was blatant in a listing photo. I was like, um, am I gonna tell you what to do with your listing? But were you aware? And she was just like, oh my god, thank you.

SPEAKER_00

Because it's a safety thing at that issue, too. But I mean, I had clients that there was um mounts on the walls, right? Like they were avid hunters, the sellers were, and my clients wouldn't even go look at the house.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. And that's like that's a thing where and we said we weren't deep diving on this today. It was just rapid fire, but it is a thing. Like, for some people, mounts on walls are the same, if not worse, than political flags and religious references. I have clients like, oh my god, I like they walk in the house, they're like, Oh, they're Christian too. Okay, cool. But there are other people who walk in and go, ooh, we're gonna have to sage this place. So just like a limiting.

SPEAKER_00

And I guess it's not really divisive. Right. It's not really a red flag per se, but just setting yourself up for and this is a completely different topic, really, setting yourself up for success.

SPEAKER_02

But seriously, it's the it's the little things in those details that are just like it if it looks like somebody died there, you should probably or if it's like you know, when you watch a documentary and not even a crime one, but just like they have the old photos, and it's like a little grainy and a little blurry. Like if this looks like your mom's right, your mom's front yard prom photo from the 70s, it's probably not what we should be using to list your house.

SPEAKER_00

It's funny. I had a, and this is, and again, we'll we'll tie this all together, I swear, because ultimately what happens is when we're the buffer for our clients. So in this example, we're talking about other listings. So if we're setting up showings, like I'm then able to kind of like coach my clients through, like, so listen, here's what we see in the photos, and sometimes they don't notice some of the things, right?

SPEAKER_02

But I'm like, this can go the other way, right? It can be a complete 180.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. So I'm able to kind of set expectations for them, right? And another red flag we'll get into in a second, like agents not answering the phone, like I'm trying to make a connection before we go show. You can't call me back or respond to a text message or an email with like five days heads up, right? I'll spread them out, but like you're not reaching out to me, you know. I can let my clients know, hey, I've reached out to them this many times. This communication might be like this throughout the transaction, and that's not to scare you away from the transaction, but it's also setting myself up for success. So when they're like, hey, are we scheduled to have the septic pumped, you know, in three weeks when we're under contract? They it's not that they think that I'm not doing my job, it's that we're still waiting for somebody else to do theirs.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

You know, yeah. So, um, but yeah, the pick I this one is a funny one. I had clients and God love them, in the most difficult pre-approval spot, right? We're talking low, low hundred thousand in their FHA.

SPEAKER_02

Right. That's right. To put in a reference, guys, like in our area, and we're 30 minutes apart, in the town I'm in, $100,000 is gonna be a teardown. Just being completely honest, it's probably a teardown. Where Brennan is, may not be quite of a teardown, but it's gonna be close to it, and there's no way you're getting FHA out of it.

SPEAKER_00

God, FHA is not happening right now.

SPEAKER_02

The condition won't support it.

SPEAKER_00

So they send me this listing, and I'd seen it, right? And I'd reached out to the agent because there's one exterior photo and it's a little sketch, right? But it's just one photo. So like this could be perfect, right? It's listed as cash, FHA, USDA, VA, and I'm I immediately know it's not gonna work, anyways, because it's not even in a USDA eligible area. So why is USDA listed on there? But my poor clients are like, it says FHA on it, and I'm like, Lord, but you can't fault them.

SPEAKER_02

You can't like they don't know. They don't know they don't always one of the things I always tell my clients is listings are always not always, but often listings are marked incorrectly. And so they just don't check it out. Sometimes I limit what they're doing. But it's also, yeah, it said I mean I've run across this, it's not financing, but it said there was a fireplace. There's no freaking fire. They took it out 15 years ago. Yep.

SPEAKER_00

So a thousand percent. So I said, yeah, I I saw this one and I've reached out to the agent for additional photos because really, like, I can't tell anything from this exterior photo that was taken from the main road of this house, right? I shit you not, the Google Drive that was sent to me made me want to take a shower. I scrolled through and I was like, yeah, I I wouldn't put these photos in my listing either, actually, now that you're mentioning it. But here we go. So I I send it to my clients. I said, Hey, here's this house that you love so much, right? And I have a text message, it's so funny. She's like, Is that poop on the toilet? And I'm like, I think so. I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_02

I'm quite- I remember back in the day when I was like a couple years out of college and thought I was gonna buy this house, and so I was looking at listings and I was visiting family, and my cousin's husband, who's a little older and he's an attorney, love him, love Pete. Um there was no interior photos, and it was the same thing. I was like, oh my god, look, it's so perfect. And he just goes, oof, no inside photos, it's a dump. And he was right. I was like, at the time, I was like, no, no, no, maybe they just haven't finished them yet. So naive. No, it was awful, awful, awful.

SPEAKER_00

It was dreadful. So there's things like that, but then also we get into the if there's no description in the MLS and it just says like call for more info.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Oh god. Or the one that the ones that come, I get that limited listings are a thing. I hate them, but I understand they're a thing. I think I I don't think they should be, but that's topic for another day. Yeah. But when there's not even again, no description, and it just says call owner.

unknown

Oh.

SPEAKER_02

Okay. Cool. Thanks. You couldn't even, for the $500 or $1,000 you're charging to put this in MLS, you couldn't even chat GPT, a bullshit description.

SPEAKER_00

Come on now. Well, I had one um for clients. Again, I've been working with a lot of relocation this year. A lot of relocation. Anyways, um, wanted to see this house. It is a $600,000 house. Beautiful brick house, three acres, right? Wonderful. The in the pictures aren't great, right? It looks like cell phone pictures, which turns out that they are, um, that the homeowner submitted himself to a power of attorney that is selling as like a brokerage kind of situation. Um, so this power of attorney signs all the documents, like makes all the agreements essentially, because the seller gave them permission to do that. But what the seller didn't give them permission to do was to show the house. So I'm talking to, and his name wasn't Tyler, but let's say Tyler. And Tyler's like, oh yeah, no, like this is a great house. Your clients are gonna love it. Uh, and it's been listed now for like 68 days. We haven't been able to coordinate with the seller anytime for somebody to show the house. But if you were to submit an offer, I'm sure we could we could uh allow access for a home inspection.

SPEAKER_02

What? So you want to do it. This isn't an investment property. You're paying to do your job, right?

SPEAKER_00

Investors will do that, right? Like sight on scene offers, like but they live three states away, anyways. But this is different. This is not a rental property. This is not even, it wouldn't be an investment property. This is a this is gonna be picked up by a family, right? But it's not because there's no access to it. Their pictures aren't, they only have pictures of two out of the three bedrooms and one major shot of like the kitchen and the living room. So you can't see what the house looks like. It could be a six hundred thousand dollar house, it could be a four hundred and twenty-five thousand dollar house, but we won't know because we can't see it.

SPEAKER_02

Right. That's the one that I was supposed to show later today, and then they changed it again. They were only doing um investors, and so it was. Well, you can see it after we have an acceptable offer, but no one was writing offers, so they opened it up to owner occupy today for a one-hour open house the tenant was allowing. But then he can't, it was supposed to be 2.30 to 3.30 today. Canceled it this morning because he doesn't want to leave his dog alone with strangers. Okay, I get it. I'm a dog mom, I get it. But now it's like, is and the owner has agreed, has stated he will buy the tenant out of the lease and the tenant is aware. But it's like if he's gonna do this, even my client, she's like, This is not gonna be easy to get showings or inspections. How do I know he's gonna leave? Like, and she's like, I don't know if I can do like I have kids, I'm selling my house. But I again, it's just like if you're gonna do an as is, my approach is then the seller should be paying for an inspection to say, here's everything, here's especially if you're like, even if you're not an investor, but like, okay, you've never lived in it, so you really don't know. And I guess that's a loophole in the way our disclosures and rules work. But I think if you truly want to move that property and it's as is, then do an inspection. Or at least have your contractor come over and look at things and be like, this is gonna have to be taken care of. Because you can say as is, but according to the contract, we still get to try to negotiate. So you still may lose that deal.

SPEAKER_00

Um, yeah, it's so funny. They're like, Oh, we had it listed as is. It literally, it's two words that mean basically nothing. If the agent is good at their job, they're gonna ask for whatever they need, regardless of what the the listing says. Um, also, stop writing buyers agents welcome in the description. Okay, please. You're going to get us all in trouble again.

unknown

Okay, great.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, communication. We kind of touched on this a little bit. You're not, they're not picking up the phone.

SPEAKER_02

Um I had an agent this week, Brennan, hang up on me three times. And then hit the ignore button. Because I started my call with, hey, we'll say Tyler. Hey, Tyler, this is a list with a real broker. Click.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I get a lot of spam, but even like I'm too polite to hang up on people's.

SPEAKER_02

But when you have a listing and an agent from another brokerage is calling you, so finally, at like he hit the ignore button. I sent a text. Same thing. Hey Tyler, this is Alyssa with Real Broker. I have a client interested in your listing. Give me a call when you have a chance because I have some questions. And listen, if there's a Tyler suddenly had signal somewhere and clear as day could call. Oh, and he he tried to pass off. Oh, I I uh I have a couple missed calls. It must have dropped. I was like, I called him on it. I said, No, I heard you answer. I heard I could hear you perfectly fine. Uh-oh, uh. Well, so what were your questions?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, that's terrible. Um, if there's a Tyler that listens to our show, we're not hating on you as a Tyler. It was just the easy name that came up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I feel like it, I mean, it might be a Tyler thing, but it's if you're a Tyler that runs around like Mountain Dew hats or a Kyle that runs around Mountain Dew Hats or like uh Monster, what is it? Monster, it's not the Mountain Dew hats. It's the Monster Hats. It might be, but um or like the other one is like the I had this yesterday. She has one listing. Now, granted, I don't know what the rest of her life is like. Right. But she has uh set up the Google screening.

unknown

Oh God.

SPEAKER_02

I hate it. Terrible. I don't even care if you are super busy. I can't stand it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. There's two things that drive me bonkers is the um, oh, oops, just seeing this, right? Whether it's an E listen, I I don't see things, right? Sometimes I don't know.

SPEAKER_02

Or like it'll pop up on my watch and I forget because it clears it on my phone.

SPEAKER_00

But the Apple needs to fix that, all right? It doesn't matter. Because I saw it on my watch, it doesn't preview, doesn't it? And it registered in my head. But even then, if I've like genuinely missed something, it's thank you for your patience. Here's the response you were looking for. And they're like, oh shoot, sorry. I don't know how, I don't know how I didn't hit send on this.

SPEAKER_02

Or the voicemail box is full.

SPEAKER_00

Please try your call again later.

SPEAKER_02

Or this this person does not have their voicemail set up. Set up? How as even not even just a professional, but as a human being, unless you are a seven-year-old who has a phone for some reason. Why is your voicemail not set up? My mine with the I didn't oh I just didn't I didn't see this, or um the it's the lack of response for like three or four days. Yeah is the one that really got me was the agent who at the beginning of a transaction scolded me for having a TC. But then there were four very blatant points in our transaction where she just disappeared for days and wasn't communicating. And it was, oh, I was in the hospital, oh I'm full of I'm full of showings and closings today. And it's like, oh, well, maybe if you had a TC to take care of this, you because it was literally just ask one of them was asking for signatures. Oh, well, my client works, you know, weird hours, 12-hour shifts. That's weird because he wasn't on title and he still showed up to closing, he didn't have to freaking be at. So I don't think this is your client.

SPEAKER_00

But like Well, and trying to look at it from a you know place of they are busy, right? Or that they did forget this that's an opportunity for you to like if I can feel like and I feel guilty, right? If something, if I genuinely miss something, I'm like, oh my god, lose sleep over it. Oh, it's terrible, right? So I assume that there's people out there like that as well, that they're like, oh wow, I and I think it stems back from being a waitress. I used to dream about the tables that I forgot to bring ranch to. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02

Yes, you look at home and like you wake up in a dream, oh my god, did I table 16 for the dream beans they never got?

SPEAKER_00

Table 16 didn't get ranch. It's terrible, right? Like I I have guilt. So I know that there's people out there in this industry that are also like, oh my god, I completely forgot to send that zip form today. You don't have to lie to me about it. Just tell them to my client, you know? Right. And it's for me, it's the ones like if if they forgot something, great. It happens to all of us. If it's it's the repetitive nature of it. Like if I'm trying to call you and you don't answer the phone, and this has happened throughout the whole transaction, that's when I'm I'm not mad if you forgot one thing, right? Right. This is a you might be run. I mean, I had a couple weeks ago, how many was it? 13 showings in one day. I was busy, right?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and if you don't have a driver, like you're not getting to things in between shows. Absolutely not.

SPEAKER_00

Nope. So it was one of those things, like I understand that that life happens for sure, but if it's like a and every time I ask you for something, or every time something needs to be addressed, it's like this, then I'm then I am annoyed.

SPEAKER_02

Or what double annoys me is when they try to flip the script and they're trying to catch you because they think you're slipping. So this agent then was like, um, are you gonna respond to our counteroffer on due diligence because it ends at five o'clock and it's 2.30, so we're down to the wire. And my response was just per the contract, due diligence ends tomorrow. Because she didn't know. And it was just like, Don't try to catch me. Please don't. When I'm the one that's been on top of things this entire time, but you think I wasn't because the first day I didn't respond to your text message within an hour because I was with people.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, I can be a petty betty sometimes, not gonna lie. So uh one recent transaction we had, and and our transaction coordinator can confirm this for you. We sent this document to the closing attorney no less than four times. No less than four times. I've never worked with this attorney, probably won't recommend. Yeah, right? But we sent no less than four times. So finally there's another one like, oh hey, just reminding you, we need this. And mind you, there's like three or four people CC'd on this email, right? Everybody's getting a copy of this. So all I did was like forward the original message again, which is it shows the date, the timestamp, like, oh yeah, here's this. Again, you're welcome.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, because I know if if because we share a TC, Emily, if Emily says, because I'll watch things go back and forth, and if I'm like, mm, why are we asking for this again? But I'm like, I let Emily do her thing. But if Emily is like, Alyssa, I'm like, all right, got it. Because then I and it's not that I'm ignoring things, she knows I'm not. She knows I see it, but I don't want to step on her toes either. But yeah, if I have to step in, that means that something is not working correctly. Um and that's like so that brings up another point that I encountered recently was they didn't read the contract, like the full thing. So I had an agent, we wrote a beautiful offer. They we they countered, we agreed, but and they countered and said everything else the same. So when we sent for signatures, all of a sudden I was why is Ernest money not being delivered until here? And I said, Because it doesn't go in like South Carolina's weird, technically, it doesn't go into effect ever, but it's a whole different topic for another day. But I was like, Because the due diligence covers us until then. Well, that puts nothing on the line for my client because what if you don't deliver the termination fee? I said, Well, then we wouldn't be terminated, we're technically still under contract. Right. So you could force performance. And I was like, you said all other terms the same. You agreed to this. This was in the original. Oh, well, uh um, my client's not okay with it now. What I want what I think he really meant was, oh, I didn't catch this, and now my client caught it and she's not okay with it. That's it. Because then I had to kind of like read the whole the whole contract. Because this happened with the agent who was ghosting too, and it came back to math. It was we were negotiating repairs and concessions. We had a concession already in our offer that they had agreed to. She came back with a number for the concessions for repairs, and thank God I had the mind to clarify and say this is in addition to, correct? Because if I hadn't, she had forgotten the other one, it would have reduced our total concessions. She not only missed the original one, so her clients had no idea they were paying part of our closing costs, then she miscalculated because of that, then miscalculated once she caught it, miscalculated again so that her clients were going to have to bring money to closing that they didn't have. I got the Ulta, you know how you're talking about an agent who was mad at you for two different you made more money as the buyer's agent? Oh, I bet she was pissed when she realized I got my full percentage, she made 0.75% on that transaction all because of her mistakes. Partially because she had to start low because the clients were selling in less than a year, and so she took it. I I don't get me wrong, we all make decisions in life, but she took it at a much lower compensation than I ever would have. And because there's there's costs to business, it's it's not about being greedy, there are costs to doing this job. They're not paying you just for a service, there's also things that they are like a compensation covers for a listing. And she ended up when I did the math 0.75%. I mean, that barely covers the photos of sticking the sign in the yard.

SPEAKER_00

And I have a friend that um ended up having to buy like a full appliance package because she that was one of the things that she didn't like note in the offer that they had asked for all of that to stay. So then her client took it all with them when they moved across the country, and then the buyers went for their final walkthrough and was like, it's in the contract. And sure enough, it was in the contract. So she ended up having to buy the same set of appliances and put it in the property, which that's that's I mean, that's a pricey, that's a pricey lesson. But with the same thing with the I think we had like a little baby delay there. Um, I had one the same thing though. We presented an offer, they changed like the offer price and countered, right? And they're like all terms ex all other terms acceptable, right? Well, then sure, we change it, send it back, and then all of a sudden, why is there um $4,500 in seller concessions in here?

SPEAKER_02

What's been there?

SPEAKER_00

It's been there, it was there in the original one. Oh, well, I'm gonna have to talk to my clients about this. That that's fine. You're supposed to do that, but you should have done that originally.

SPEAKER_02

And what kills me is like when I present my offers, I don't just send an email that says like see offer attached. It's written out in the email, in like bullet points. So it's clear as a day. My email is so annoying.

SPEAKER_00

People probably hate getting my email because I'm just like, hi, so excited. I'm working with this client. They're pre-approved with this lender. I've worked with this lender however many times. We have a this percentage rate of getting to closing on time. You have a, you know, response guarantee for me, like the whole nine. I love it.

SPEAKER_02

I want you to summary that as a draft so I can edit mine because that sounds I thought mine was good, but that sounds I love it.

SPEAKER_00

Well, here's a summary of terms as follows. Here's you. And then we look forward to hearing from you and your seller and open to any negotiation they may deem net necessary for this to be an easy decision for them. Right?

SPEAKER_02

Well, like, guys, this is a legally binding contract. This is terms that could land you in court. Not just your clients being sued, but you being sued. You can't, it's not a group project you can skim and like turn in a half-assed your portion of it. This is lawsuit worthy if you screw this up. So make sure you're reading it. The other one I love is like, sorry.

SPEAKER_00

No, that's okay. I was just gonna say this isn't a hate episode, you guys.

SPEAKER_02

This we've made this is a a warning. This is a hey, one, don't be these people. And two, like, if you see this, just beware.

SPEAKER_00

And beware. Do exactly like we said in the beginning, like n understand and know that maybe it's gonna be a rocky transition. Maybe you should read everything twice before you send it for your clients to sign. I can't the other thing, and this is just lazy, but when you're sending an offer, please put all of the agent's information in the last page. I'm sure that each state is different, but like if I have to put my own license number and address and all of the stuff in there, I'm just like, if we're gonna, this is how it's gonna be. You know what I mean?

SPEAKER_02

Like I know how I know that's become an issue because I've started seeing an agent's notes, and I I I love it, and I'm gonna ask Emily to start putting it in mine. One of my irritations is like the way our MLS is set up, you have to click like five different places to find all the information, especially with South Carolina. Um, or the other the other MLS I'm in. But I love when they put it in the notes how they want it. This is the name, this is the email, this is the phone number, this is like the license number, all of it there. Because it then I'm not clicking five like beautiful. I'm literally gonna type that out for Emily and be like, yo, put this in agent notes from now on to make it easy. Because yeah, I do, I do agree. My other red flag is when you see a listing first day on market, second day, when you know it's not in a crazy neighborhood, it's not a prime market, and you see highest and best by Sunday at 4 p.m. And then a week later it's still active and it still says highest and best.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm like, I've seen a couple of those lately, and I'm gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_02

Or this will move quickly here motivated sellers, and it's been on the market for two 200 days. And you're like, okay.

unknown

Yep.

SPEAKER_02

Like update the notes.

SPEAKER_00

That is that's such a that is such a ninja trick. We should we should do something like things that you don't think about, but that you should think about because like there's things like check your your description once a week. Well, even like because I've had clients that are, you know, um the HVAC is being installed, or something's happening, and this is happening on this date, right? But then that date has come and gone, but it still says like new photos and measurements to be added. Right.

SPEAKER_02

Or like we're fixing this, but we didn't update the disclosures, or we didn't include the invoices. Or the one that gets me um inspection available upon request. No, just freaking t freaking attach it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And if if if you need me to call you to discuss, then put inspection attached, call to discuss. But like, why do I have to call you to even look at it to then find out what's like I can't please stop doing that? Um or okay, so we're gonna talk about professionalism ones. Let's let's actually rapid fire these because we've been here for a while.

SPEAKER_00

I know.

SPEAKER_02

Just listed it on the MLS. There's no marketing, there's no strategy, it's in the MLS, there's a yard in or sign in the yard, and that's it. That's what I I'm picking up a list, an expired listing next week, because that's exactly what the agent did.

SPEAKER_00

Yep. And that there was no and listen, we've all had sellers that are difficult and are unwilling to do anything, but you can tell when that they've uh had some advice, had some cleaning done, had some painting done, so there was it was presented well, right? Because otherwise it's no staging, no paint, no decluttering, and then it's sitting, your seller's frustrated, everybody's frustrated. Yep.

SPEAKER_02

That kind of thing. Yep, and then it sits, and you know, everyone, everyone loses out in that situation.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, or m missing very, very basic info in the MLS. Like one house that didn't even have that, it had a garage checked, right? Which is just silly stuff. Or um it says like see other remarks or whatever when there's like HOA, but then there's no HOA listed in the disclosures, and then I'm having to look at other properties in the neighborhood to see if I can find a contact information, uh contact info, something like the the CCRs.

SPEAKER_02

I had an agent tell me, I had two agents, and they are in the same office, so I know she wasn't lying to me, but our firm doesn't like us to put the HOA documents in the listing because it could be a liability. So you'll have to ask your closing attorney to pull those. Wait, what? So I have to write an offer before I can even see what the rules are. What if there's like so now I'm putting due diligence on the line for my clients to, you know, because I have clients who are it's they need to add a garage in most places. So if they're not gonna let us have an additional outbuilding, it's a deal breaker.

SPEAKER_00

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And nope, they w our our our broker, our firm doesn't, and I've never heard it before, but I was like interesting. But yeah, I always know here's a I would rather give you everything I have, and I mean it is, it's buyer beware, so they need to verify because maybe what I have was provided is outdated. I do my best to find the newest, but like come.

SPEAKER_00

You can still give us somewhere to start, yes, right. Yes, um, and the other one, oh my god, when I go to a showing, it's been on the market for like a week and a half. This is how I know that nobody's looked at it. The combo code isn't in the showing time app, like they haven't put it in there. This has happened to me three times in the last month. There's no combo code in there, and so like, oh, oh yeah, it's blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I and I'm like, why isn't it in there?

SPEAKER_02

Or you get there, it says it's a supra, and you get there and it's a combo. And it's a combo. Or, yeah. Or um, it's not where it's supposed to be. Or like, I had one, they hid the lockbox on the spigot for the hose in the like I had to walk through their garden, their flower bed to get to it. And I not only was like, I'm trampling these flowers because there's no way around it, but also I was like, there's like the pine needles in here. How do I know there's not a snake buried in here? Come on. Right. Like, put it, it's I should not have to go on safari to find your lockbox. That's it's true. And that's a so here's another one, and this is maybe just me being petty and nitpicky. But if I put a supra on a house or even a regular lockbox, I hide a second lockbox somewhere. Because what if someone does take my key? What if my supra dies? I've had that happen. I don't want to have to say, oh, hold on, I'll be there in 30 minutes with a key. I want to say, go around to the back door, there's another lockbox, here's the excuse me, here's the code. Like that's a good idea. Oh, I do that. Because even like if I need to send vendors and they don't have Supra, here's here's the backup lockbox.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It works in many cases. Um, I love when you see MLS remarks that are all capitalized. Like, I'm like, why are you why are you yelling at me? I'm a very loud person at times, but like, why are you yelling at me about this isn't a great neighborhood? It's in walking distance. Oh, look, two fair housing violations at once. Good job.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's funny. All right. Are we about I think we're close to wrapping up, are we?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I think I think our point is like these red flags show patterns of lacks, lack of systems, lack of care, lack of accountability. And in the long run, there's two people that pay for this. It's your clients and your reputation, because your clients' houses aren't gonna get sold and your reputation is gonna be damaged.

SPEAKER_00

I'm gonna add a third one though, too, because it it damages the reputation of a lot of realtors if because people will just assume that they all operate the same.

SPEAKER_02

Right. Because yeah, those clients are gonna say something to their friends and family who are then gonna say this, and then next thing you know, it's the troll on TikTok, whatever 99 Miami 999 who says, Well, just buy a FISBO sign and you'll make 20 million dollars. And that's why we have trolls on TikTok. Like, all of this compounds are snowballs, and it just makes the job harder for everyone. So, like, I think my takeaway from this, my call to action is like do better. Like your clients deserve it. And if you if you heard yourself in this episode, then take some time in the next couple days, scrub your listings, fix your systems, double check some things. None of us are perfect. Yeah. None of us, especially me. At the same time, I do everything in my power to avoid those situations on my listings.

SPEAKER_00

Mm-hmm. Well, and say, and some well-placed, helpful advice can go a long way. There has been an instance, I mean, when I first got listed, when I first got listed, when I first got licensed, um, one of the properties that I listed, the basement square footage had been added had been listed as like additional square footage. It's not additional square footage, right? It was listed wrong. And the agent had said, Hey, don't know if you know this. This is in the wrong spot. And while I was mortified, right, I fixed it. They were very kind about it. Hey, don't know if you know this, but it's not natural gas at the house, right? There's a propane tank. That's a big difference. But we don't always have to be just like, you know. Hateful and spiteful and whatever. But we all have those agents that we know when we get to the closing table, we're just so glad to delete that number and never have to speak to them again.

SPEAKER_02

Or even when we see their listings, there is an agent that I see. If my client sends her one of their listings or sends me one of their listings, I'm like, oh God.

SPEAKER_00

Deep breath. We got this. But then you know, then you know what's coming. Right, right. So I think that's it. Yeah. I mean, yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I think I think our overall here is do better. 1% per day, one thing per day. Just try to be a little better. And that will raise the boats for everyone in this industry.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So and on that note, we'll see you next week. Yes.