Kevin’s Experience With Selling His House

This is episode number 185 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hacken. Here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We're so glad that you could join us for another live episode of The Homeowner Show here in The Homeowner Show studios. How you doing, Kev?

Man, we're gonna talk about how I am. But before we get there—

I am dripping with anticipation because we didn't, we didn't let ourselves talk about this in pre-show, which usually the pre-show might actually be a better podcast. It probably—

there's no doubt it would be a better pod if we would just start talking from the moment we walk into the studio on camera. Everybody would learn so much more.

Yeah, yeah, for sure. But So I don't know that they'd learn anymore, but they would be much more entertained.

Yeah, there's no doubt about that. But so rather than asking me how I'm doing, how are you doing?

I'm doing good.

Yeah.

Yes. Projects abound.

Of course. Always.

Yeah. So we— or we— I finished another wall in what is essentially the green room of the studio.

Yeah.

So we got the pool cue wall.

Looks good.

Pretty much up. I got another wall. Halfway up. So, but we— tomorrow's a big day. We're adding to the family tomorrow.

Oh, yeah, I heard.

Harvey is coming.

Uh-huh.

So he'll be here tomorrow morning. So we're getting ready for that. Harvey is a horse, right? For those of you that don't know.

Clearly.

Yeah. So, but I— so Eric G actually messaged me earlier this week and asked me how my war was going.

Oh.

About the switch in the bathroom.

Oh, yeah.

So it is ongoing.

Okay.

Things have improved, but I have not yet won.

Okay. But I will win. Winning is the only option for you at this point. You've been waging war long enough that now the only option is to win.

The only option. I'm going to wait them out and they're just going to die or surrender due to fatigue.

Sure.

So, but I will say this, um, I, I bought 2 Kasa switches.

Okay.

And the one that I installed in our bedroom, it seems to be working great. Like, the, the voice recognition works great, the Wi-Fi seems to be working. The, um, I did learn something about, um, dimmer switches.

Okay.

I did not realize that LEDs have a much higher threshold on the downside where they could dim than incandescents.

Why is that?

I don't know.

So they'll, they'll just dim lower?

No, incandescents can lower— can go lower than LEDs.

Oh.

Yeah, LEDs are brighter at the low end than incandescents are, if that makes sense.

Well, it makes sense. So how dare they?

Well, the reason I know that is because when you're setting the switch up, it actually asks you, do you have incandescents or LEDs? Because that will determine how far we let this thing dim.

them.

Really? Yeah.

That's, that's a new one to me. I've—

I hadn't heard that before either.

I hadn't either. And one of the things, I, I've not seen an app that has asked me that question before. So.

Me either.

Yeah. It's possible.

So I bought 2 switches. One was a dimmer switch and one was just an on/off switch. The on/off switch is a dud.

Really?

Yeah. And I tried to send it back, but I was— I, I, I had it for so long and just hadn't installed it that it was beyond the return. And so I've just got like this, like, all I can do is I can hook it up and it just leaves the lights on. It's basically, there's no switch at all.

Right.

And I thought, I thought maybe I'd hooked it up wrong. I was like, well, you really screwed up the last one. Maybe it's just you. So I tried it on another one and it was like, nope, this is doing the exact same thing. So I don't know. It's weird.

That is weird.

So I did, but I did hear a good joke.

Okay, bring it.

From the, uh, events of last night.

Last night?

Yeah, because, you know, after, after the Oscars, Chris Rock went home.

Oh.

And he, he woke up with something on his face this morning.

Really? What, what was on his face?

Fresh Prince.

That's not worth laughing that hard at just now. Nobody else is laughing but me.

You hadn't heard that?

I thought it was pretty good. I've heard plenty of Fresh Prince references. Like, we knew this was going to happen. He was going to wind up moving to Philly after this. These types of things. Because his mama told him. Yep. Oh, my goodness. That was a weird deal.

So here I want to know, what's your opinion? Staged or not? Did you watch it?

I, I did. I did see— I did not watch the Oscars.

I didn't watch the Oscars.

I mean, nobody knew the Oscars even was happening last night until that thing came out. Um, I don't think it was staged.

You don't think it was staged? Okay.

I, I do not believe it was staged. That said, I'm shocked that he slapped him and didn't just punch him, right? That to me, that is— it's a weird—

The slap is what made me think it was staged.

Yeah, that, that's the only thing in my mind that gives me any pause at all is the slap.

Yeah.

But I, I don't, I don't know, man. I— here's the other, here's the other reason I don't think it was staged. But here, here's the other reason that I do have some pause. And that's only because he didn't get removed.

Like, immediately?

Immediately. Like, I— and a lot of people are like giving them crap about it. Like, you know, how dare they? They, they then let him keep going. You know, he didn't get removed from, from the premises, right? That— which again gives me this idea that maybe it wasn't staged. Mm-hmm. Um, or maybe it was. I mean, maybe it was. Yeah, because they didn't remove it.

Because it's assault.

It's assault. Absolutely it is.

Yeah. I mean, even if you slap someone like a girl, it's still assault.

Correct. Um, I— do you think it was staged?

I— so for— I go back and forth. For Will Smith's sake, I hope it was staged.

Sure.

Because I would like to think that if I hit another dude for my wife's honor, that he would crumple like a paper bag. It—

because you've, you've— at this point, laid him out.

I've gone out in front of everyone.

Yes.

You know, potentially 2,000 viewers, and—

A third of which were in the audience.

Yeah. Yeah. And, and made a spectacle of hitting a dude.

Yeah.

Because of something that he said about my wife.

Right.

So, which, I mean, you can, you can say it's right or wrong. I don't really care. But like, if I'm going to do that, it should actually make an impact.

And, and there should be— And he should not get— He should have to pick himself up off the floor.

Yeah, he shouldn't be able to like then crack a joke, right, about how, well, that was the most interesting thing on television this year.

Yeah.

Like, he didn't even like waffle.

No.

I mean, he just kind of turned his head. came back to his monologue.

Yeah.

And I was like, I mean, this, this is not the same Will Smith that said, welcome to Earth.

That's— you do make a good point. I, I don't know.

I feel like it was a complicated situation because a lot of people are like, well, everyone needs to be sensitive to Jada Pinkett because of her condition. And I'm like, well, he probably didn't know about her condition. He was probably just making a joke about her haircut.

Yeah, but the thing is, like, I, I've seen plenty of information about it because of Facebook, um, but I've seen plenty of information about it, and my understanding is most people who knew her at all would know.

Yeah.

Like, because this is not the first time that it's—

I don't know that they're friends.

—been discussed. I have no idea.

Yeah, I mean, who knows?

No idea.

I mean, I, I try and give everyone the benefit of the doubt. I try— like, he's probably ignorant.

Yeah.

Will's probably ignorant to the fact that he may not know. I don't know. I mean, who knows?

Maybe he knew exactly what he was doing. Sure.

I mean, but like everyone that's like, well, you don't understand what he was joking about and how much it hurt her. Well, he was laughing at the joke before he saw his wife's face.

Sure.

And then got up and did something about it. And I'm like, well, now you're just trying to save face. Yeah. Who knows? You know, and like, but like, even if, even if you think that what he did did was completely inappropriate. And you're like, yeah, go Will Smith. Like, you are supporting a man hitting somebody else for their words.

Right. Yeah. Not okay.

Not okay. Ever.

No, it's not okay. Now, I— and you can, you can come at me and say, what would you do in this situation?

No, I'd probably hit him.

Absolutely.

Yeah. And I'd be completely wrong.

And would it be— yeah. Would it be okay? No, it wouldn't be okay. But, but I'm— I like all these people who are like, how dare he? Why would— how dare he get away with, you know, hitting someone? Okay, well, let's take away the getting away with it part just for a minute.

Yeah.

If someone says something derogatory, like legitimately, about my wife.

Yeah.

You're— you are asking to get punched in the face. Yeah. And, and should I get arrested for that? Absolutely. Sure.

I should, I should get— I'll go to jail for the night for that.

Yeah. And I'm— and I would, I would get out the next day and go, I'd do it again.

Whistling Dixie.

Exactly. Like, that was— I, I— that's just me. And, and, and the thing is, like, I'm a— here's— I've seen a lot of, a lot of things about this recently, you know, even down to the, well, you know, learned behaviors are learned behaviors, and it eventually comes out. I, I'm not a violent person. Sure. I'm just not. But if you start—

Look, if we learned anything about Will Smith, he, he doesn't have a lot of history with violence because he slaps.

Well, yes, but it's not the first time, like, he's assaulted someone. He assaulted his own wife. Uh-huh. And everybody knows that. Like, he's been Abusive to Jada before. Uh huh. Um, but he's obviously not good at it.

Like he didn't like hit her with a newspaper or something?

Yeah. Is that what it was? Yes. He beat her with a newspaper and basically were like, look, you're not you're not gonna disrespect me in public, which is what he perceived that she did, and she probably did. But nevertheless, anyway, I don't know. I the whole thing was weird. I woke up this morning and went, what? Yeah, I think everyone did. Yeah, everyone in the world was like, what? And then you know why?

You know why everybody went, what? Why? Because no one was watching. No one.

No one knew. Did you even know the Oscars were happening? No. Let me tell you why. Well, no one watches commercials.

I don't have TV. Exactly.

Who does? I mean, legitimately, how many people do you know They have cable.

I legitimately spend more time listening to podcasts and audiobooks than I do watching anything.

Yeah. I think a lot of people do. But even then, people are watching Netflix and Hulu and whatever, Disney Plus, whatever. They're not watching commercials. And people, I mean, honestly, the people that I know that have cable and watch it, are over the age of 65.

Beyond that, most people are streaming and probably dug in like a tick on their preferred news network.

It's— and it's— yeah. And it's why they're spending $250 a month on their cable.

That's the only reason I know anybody that has cable is, I like watching CNN. I like watching Fox. And I'm like, yeah, waste your time.

Yeah. To that point, I went home at Christmas and was watching something with my parents, and, and of course they were watching the news, and I was like, wait, he's still an anchor? Look, that guy's still alive. That guy? Yeah, legit. Yeah, that guy was old whenever I was like a teenager, and he was— I think he was an anchor then.

The same comments we're making about our president.

Oh my gosh, wait, which part? That he's still alive part? Yeah, yeah, like He's still, he's still doing it.

Everyone claps when he makes like a complete sentence.

Oh my goodness. It is a little weird.

So, but anyway, so you just moved out of your house.

Yeah.

And had a, had a dream of a buyer.

Uh, it was, it was dreamlike. It was more of a nightmare.

You can't pick them, let me tell you that. What, did your wife pick them?

No.

Let me know. Was it? No, don't say it was both of us. No, it wasn't.

Well, it was a mutual decision. Well, we threw under the bus. We probably, like, in hindsight, we're definitely going like, we should have known what we were getting ourselves into. We should have known from the get-go. But look, whenever we're in a weird market, right?

Sure.

And when you're in a weird market like we're in, you're just— you got to go for the most amount of money you can possibly get.

Yeah.

And, and that's kind of what we were doing.

Did you guys ultimately do that? I thought there were some offers that were bigger.

No, we had a— we had an offer that was more, substantially more, almost double what— like, the amount— not, not double the amount, but double, double offer.

I was like, hang on.

Double, double The overage.

A double. Okay. Okay. The double over asking.

The double over asking. But here, here's what people have to do these days. Like, if you are gonna go out, let's say you're gonna go out and you're gonna make an offer on a house that's $20,000 over asking, and that offer is accepted.

Uh-huh.

Most likely, the only way That offer is going to actually get accepted is if you're willing as a buyer to sign an appraisal addendum. So do you know what appraisal addendums are?

I don't.

Okay, so an appraisal addendum is something—

Oh, okay, so where it's like even if the house doesn't appraise for the amount that you offered, you're still obligated to pay?

Yeah, exactly.

So I picked it up from context.

Yeah, there you go. So you have to basically sign this that says you're going to continue with the deal even if the house doesn't appraise. Which means if, like, let's say that that house only appraises for what the asking price was, you're gonna have to come up with $20,000 worth of cash to bring to the table at closing.

Yeah. Well, that's, that's according to the bank. Like, they're not just gonna lend money on a house that doesn't appraise for that.

Exactly. Yeah. And, and my understanding, we actually got a contact for an appraiser. My understanding, and then we, we've not had one on, on the show before, we need to. The banks want to appraise houses for what they are sold for. But there's some stupid things happening.

Sure.

Like, there's some neighborhoods around here that houses are going for $80,000 or $100,000 over asking. Well, that's insane. Like, even on million-dollar homes, that's insane. Right?

Well, it is. But I mean, like, that's the price.

It is the price.

I I, I, like, I don't, I don't understand. I don't understand the whole appraisal lending thing. Like, if someone's willing to pay that much and they can afford that much, why wouldn't you? I'm like, even if it was like a 2-bedroom shack.

Yeah.

It's like some crack house, but it's like, well, that's where I grew up when I was a kid.

Just lend them the money. Okay. So here's, here's what's interesting to me about that. How many times have you said in your life, well, things are only as worth as much as someone will pay for them?

Have you ever said?

Oh yeah, like I've got more baseball cards than someone should own. Uh huh.

And because it's more than two.

No, but it's still more than people should own.

I own more than two. All right. Okay. I have baseball cards. Do you?

I do. Okay. I've I've got a plethora.

I don't flout it, but I have some. Okay. It's more than two. I have I have I have too many.

I'll tell you this, my son. My son asked me one day, he's like, Daddy, can I have your baseball cards? I said, yes, when I die. And he goes— a couple days later, he comes up to me, and you know my son.

Yeah.

He comes up to me and he goes, hey, Daddy, I'm not saying that I want you to die, but I am looking forward to the baseball cards. And I was like, okay, you're cool and all. Yeah. Right.

But— But that over there?

Dead. I want that.

Looking pretty good. Exactly. You want another piece of pie?

Yeah. That's, that's pretty much my son in a, in a nutshell anyway. But where was I? I was completely— oh, the—

The addendums.

The appraisal addendum.

Yeah.

So we had one that was really high. Right. And, and we were like, look, we're willing to accept your offer. And it was, it was a good offer.

It was, you know, your counteroffer was an addendum.

Yeah, but we have to have the addendum. And they were like, no, we're not signing it. Yeah, like, that's, that's a poor job on your agent's side. Like, you, you should have been well aware that if you're gonna offer that much over, there should have been some advice given, some counsel that said they're probably going to make you sign a appraisal addendum if you're going to offer that much. Yeah, right. But whatever happened happened. So we went with our next best option. Now let's back up for a minute. Okay. We were getting ready to put our house on the market.

Right.

And we let a few people know, but it's not like we're— I mean, who are we gonna tell?

Right.

Who cares, right? But a few people found out, and one person found out and, um, was like, hey, I may know someone that might be interested. Would you be interested in an off-market deal? And I was like, no, not in this market. No. Like, we're— it's a seller's market. It's not a buyer's market. No, I'm not gonna just, you know, willy-nilly let anybody buy this thing without some healthy competition. Right? Yeah. And so I basically said no. We'll, we'll go to market, and whoever wants to bid on it can do so.

But, okay. Before we move further in the story, I think we do need to say your house closed today.

Yes. Thank goodness.

Yeah. So we can, we can, like, we've, we've, you and I have been talking about many of these things.

Oh, yeah.

Over the last month.

Yeah.

That we just haven't been able to talk about them because the deal hadn't closed. And because we have a podcast, like, we can't We just can't say a lot of the stuff that's been going on behind the scenes.

Yeah, because I need this thing to close.

That's right. As much hell as these people put you through, this thing better close.

Exactly. I need this to end.

So we've been keeping our mouths shut, and so now we're ready to spill the beans. Yes. Carry on.

Okay, so here we are.

I've been like mad on your behalf on some of this stuff. I'm like, are you kidding me? Right.

Yeah. So, um, first of all, let me just say that some people are a lot. They're just a lot. And, and the word that I love these days is—

Like they've had a few Oreos?

No, no, no, no, no, no, no. They're, they're extra. That's the word I like these days.

I mean the same thing.

Extra. They're just, they're, they're more than they should be.

Okay.

They're, they're not fat. Uh-huh. They're just overzealous.

Personalities could go on to die.

Do you remember— okay, what about— yes, no. Okay, you— do you remember the movie Hitch?

Yes.

I love this movie.

It's another Will Smith.

Speaking of Will Smith, do you remember—

All white guys, how they should be dancing.

That's right. That's, that's very true. Yeah. So one of my, one of my classic trailer moments that doesn't end up in a movie happens in Hitch.

Okay.

So in the trailer, you have this moment where Kevin James is at the door, you know, and Will Smith is explaining to him, like, how to go in for the kiss, right? Kevin James winds up kissing Will Smith, right?

Right.

And he says, you overzealous son of a— and He doesn't say that in the movie, right? But that overzealous term is exactly what my buyer was. There was something, something there.

They kissed you and then they slipped you a little tongue.

No, no.

Um, I was there. They did.

Yes. So it all began early. I wasn't, I wasn't prepared for the earliness. We get— it began with a note on our door before we ever listed our house saying, I would love to buy your house. Would you be willing to do an off-market deal? And so I showed the note to my wife, and I said, let's take a picture of this, show it to our realtor, and just throw it away. Well, it was followed up with a text message to my wife. Hey, I left you a note on your, on your door. To which we did reply, hey, thank you. We're going to market.

You cheapskate. Yeah.

Yeah, and, um, someone might say, well, how'd they get your number? That's a great valid question.

Yep.

First of all, things you learn: don't, as a buyer, text the seller. It's way out of bounds. It's way out of bounds, right? There's agents in place for a reason.

Mhmm.

Okay. It's to keep some of this stuff separate.

Yeah. I don't want to talk to you.

No. And, and it's not, it's not healthy for me to talk to you.

Right.

Like, that's not the way this needs to happen. And so we wind up going to market. They put in an offer, and it just so happens it's the second best offer.

Yeah.

And, and we actually discussed it at length. Do we go with this person? Yeah, it's the second best offer. I mean, yeah, seems a little extra to begin with, but I mean, once they win, you know, they get what they want, we're good, right?

Mhm.

But they're still gonna have to sign an appraisal addendum. Yeah, sign it, no problem. Okay, great, accept their offer. Moving forward, um, we have what I call 10 days of hell. which was the option period.

Mm-hmm.

The option period felt like it was about 3 months. Because, first of all, in the option period, you have all of the ability to spend as much time as you need to fully vet the house.

Right.

That's what it's for. But there's kind of a code of ethics, sort of, that you're supposed to follow. Right? So for example, let's say you want to have a plumber, an electrician, and a foundation specialist, and a roofer, all of these different trades out. It would be very convenient and wise of you to schedule all of that in one day to— so that you're not inconveniencing the seller.

Yeah.

Right? Because like, for example, I'm We, we work from home, all right? My wife works from home too. And like, we just can't be out of our house all day.

Right.

Every day for 10 days. But that's the type of thing that was happening.

Yeah.

Like, regularly it was like, hey, can we come back over for this? Hey, can we come back over for this? And it was like, can we come over in an hour? Um, and, and she was like, there were times whenever this buyer was contacting my realtor saying, hey, I can't get a hold of my realtor to take care of this. Can you take care of it for me? No. No. What? And, you know, thankfully, our agent was kind of like, look, you have— I don't represent you. Yeah. And I can't represent you.

Can we shout out your realtor?

Absolutely. Brandy. Brandy Burke.

Yeah. She's fantastic.

She's amazing.

She has to be because I know what she's been dealing with on this deal.

Yeah. Gosh. If you're, if you're looking for a very, very good agent who knows how to deal with crazy situations and just regular situations, yeah, Brandy's fantastic. Brandy Burke. I, I would highly recommend you use her.

Well, and let me, let me speak to something that you just said about, you know, having different professionals come in and look at your house at different times. This is, this is a good buyer tip because this actually happens to me because I'm involved in in, in a lot of real estate transactions.

Yeah.

Just as, like, a consultant or an inspector or whatever.

Sure.

Just in my field. But it's actually really helpful if you can schedule all of them to be there at the same time.

Yes.

And the reason, the reason you want to do that is because many, many times, there are things when you have more eyes on the property at the same time, they're able to ask questions to one another because good professionals know how to ask questions about things they don't know about.

Right.

Like, when a lot of times Ricky, if she's doing a house inspection on the other side of town, even if I'm not there, she'll send me pictures.

Yeah.

Of something and say, hey, what do you think about this?

Mhmm.

You know, and, and good inspectors have those resources at their fingertips, but having a person there at the same time that they can both— I'm, I'm sorry. No matter how good of a picture you take, eyeballs are always better.

Yeah.

You know? So, like, if you can have eyeballs on it right then and there where they can put their collective thoughts together and go, what do you think?

And what do you think?

And what do you see? And what do I see? Man, you can get so much more accomplished and get a better idea as to what you're about to buy.

Right.

Than you would if you're like, well, hey, plumber, you come on Tuesday, and hey, inspector, you come on Thursday, and electrician, get here on Wednesday. That's just dumb.

It is. No, it's, it's not. And it's not— you're not buying any goodwill doing that either.

And, you know, to your rule, if you're gonna be dumb, don't be stupid. There you go.

I mean, this is a classic rule of mine. And you should communicate well. So, like, the next day after we accepted the offer, Mhmm. they asked, can we do— we're ready to do the inspection. Great. And it— we were told, well, we can't do it at this time, but we could do it at this time. Okay. No problem. So it was actually 2 days after. And so the buyer said, well, I'm not gonna be able to be there on that date. I could do it the other day, but I won't be able to be there on that date. Okay. That's fine. I don't— first of all, I don't care if you're there or not. And so I asked my agent how long— like, my wife's— she works from home.

How long do we need to be out of the house? And she said typically 3 to 4 hours.

Mhmm. Right?

Our buyer and the inspector were there for 6 and a half hours. And I, and I told my agent, I live in my house.

Mm-hmm.

There's, there's not enough to look at in 6 and a half hours, right? I mean, there's just not that much there to do. But when I say communicate, here's what's interesting. I wound up having a conversation with someone who was there that day later.

I'm not going to spill the beans, but I was there for this conversation and I was like, this is not supposed to be happening.

No, it wasn't supposed to be happening.

You did not engage or offer. We're not going to say who this person was.

No. And but I, I was, I was in a location with Craig.

Yes.

And someone said, hey, I recognize you from— I was just at your house. Yes. Yes, you were. He's like, that's a crazy situation. And I was like, what is crazy about it? And he was like, them. Yeah. I was like, well, I was there for 6 and a half hours. And I was like, I know. And he was like, The buyer was just in my ear the whole time. What about this? What about that? What about this? What about that? And he said, and oh, by the way, at some weird random time, like, I just finished looking at the AC units and all of a sudden there was an AC guy there.

Yeah.

I was like, what? And he was like, yeah, an AC guy, like another contractor showed up and was like, check, like double checking me. I was like, what do you mean? And he was like, well, that was just before the handyman guy showed up. And I was like, what? What do you mean a handyman guy? And he was like, you didn't know they were there? And I was like, no, I didn't know they were there. I thought you were there. And he was like, well, yeah, but there were other people there too. And I was like, never was I told that that was gonna happen.

And they're supposed to tell you.

They're supposed to disclose that. Like, not that— not in a way like you need to be aware, just more of a, hey, these are, these are people we need to get to your house, right? You know, those sorts of things. And all of that is supposed to go through the agents, right? Like, I'm not supposed to be involved with that at all. Um, but, um, So they were there for 6 and a half hours.

Right.

Half an hour later, we get a text from the buyer. Hey, I wanna bring my handyman out. Could I, can I come back out in an hour? No. No, you can't. Like, we've been out of our house for 6 and a half hours. My kids are coming home from school. We gotta do dinner. No. You can't. You can, you can schedule that sometime, but no. And this continued to happen over and over and over. Hey. Oh, by the way, in an hour, we wanna bring so-and-so out. It's like, no. We, we live in our house.

Yeah.

Like, and, and, and look, I know it's your option period. I get that. And you have the right to, to come and check things out, but you need to be respectful of the people that still live there. Okay? So if you're— just word of advice for you out there. If you're gonna be a buyer, Don't be this type of buyer, right? Be the type of buyer that breeds goodwill and schedules things through your agent and not through the seller's agent. Like, the whole thing was just very, very wonky. So one of the things that happened was just before we put the house on the market, we've got a new roof.

Mhm.

We have a weird part of our house. We have a, you know, not weird like yours. We don't have a second and a half floor, okay? But But we have a courtyard.

The screened-in interior.

Screened-in middle of the house is a courtyard. And it rains in there because it's screened in from the roof, all that. Right?

Yeah.

Well, apparently, the buyer did not like that and wanted something different done. And so she contacts my roofer and says, hey, can you come, like, check this out? He's like, sure. I mean, I'll come back out and look at it. And like proceeded to have him do work at the house on my roof.

Before she bought it?

Before— no, we weren't even out of the option period. Yeah. And, and he was— he, you know, and, and this guy's a friend of mine, so he called me and was like, hey man, um, by the way, you know, she wants us to come over and take care of this. Do you mind if I come over and do it? And I said, yes, I absolutely do, because this is my house. I own it. And as a buyer, you need to understand that you're liable for that house until someone else buys it.

Yeah.

Until you've signed the paperwork at the title company relinquishing your rights to that home, you're responsible for it. This is going to come into play later too. But like, let's say that he does something to that area and it winds up flooding my house because the rain comes and some weird water is diverted a different way. Guess who's responsible for that?

You. Me. Yep.

So no, you don't get to come out and request something new to be done to my house before you've bought the house.

Right, right.

So this stuff continued. to happen, just continued to happen. When we were done with the, with the 10-day option period, I like breathed this huge sigh of relief, right?

Mm-hmm.

Um, and there were, there were requests made, which is gonna happen, you know, hey, fix this, change this, whatever, which we complied with some of them and some of them we counter-offered and we came to, to an agreement or whatever, but Um, here's the other thing. When you are in the process of buying a house, just let the people that own the house have their privacy. I mean, regularly, daily, uh-huh, at least twice a day, they walk by our house. At least twice a day.

Now, when you say walk by the house, uh-huh, you're not like talking in the street?

Well, they're walking their dogs, uh-huh, and they're walking down the street typically. Um, but there were moments where it was like, let's stop in front of the house and ponder what we might do to this house once we buy it. Um, those types of things were happening, right? And sometimes whenever we were even outside— and we're outside a lot, actually— and, you know, with my kids playing and other things, it was just— it got weird eventually. Um, and so let's, let's just kind of fast forward for a minute. Um, so let's fast forward to yesterday.

Okay.

Yesterday we were completely moved out of our house. You helped us move. We're gonna talk about some of those things in a minute. Um, we, we were moved out of our house completely. There were just a few odds and ends, and we needed to go in and clean the house. We were there for probably 3 hours.

Mm-hmm.

I saw them 6 times.

6 times? Just hanging out in the yard?

Hang— what? Yeah.

Because that's what they were doing when I was there.

Yeah, you, you were there, right?

Yeah.

And, and like, one time they were in the backyard talking to my neighbors.

Yeah.

About, oh, we'll be here and we're gonna do this and all this kind of stuff. And, um, and then they would just kind of like show up and stand there.

Well, here's, here's what's— I mean, people, people need to understand why this is weird, because the neighborhood that you lived in is a gated community.

And not just a gated community. It's a guarded gated—

Yeah. You have to go through the, through the security guard in order to get in the neighborhood.

Right.

You gotta give your name. You gotta tell them where you're going. You gotta, you know, and you have to be on the list.

Yep.

So what these people had done is rented a house in that community.

Right.

So that they could have access to the house.

Right.

Whenever they wanted.

Yeah. Now, I, I'm, I'm not going to necessarily, maybe I wouldn't necessarily go that far. I mean, they own— they rented—

I absolutely would.

They rented that house.

They rented that house because they knew they wanted to buy it.

Yeah, well, they— that's definitely the case. They wanted to buy in that neighborhood, but what it did, it gave them unprecedented access.

Yeah.

To, to my house.

And so, like, since your house is on the golf course, well, let's take a stroll on the golf course, honey, and just walk in the backyard.

Yep.

And they would— like, that's exactly what they did when I was there.

Yep. That's— yeah, no, that absolutely happened.

And then they came off the golf course and came through the yard.

Yep.

While we're there packing the house up.

Yeah, we're literally— we have trailers.

Like, like, watching us to make sure, like, we don't bang into anything. I'm like, what are you doing? Who are you?

Yeah. It was, it was, it was very awkward. Very weird. By the way, the roofer called another time a few days ago and it's like, hey, they're still asking for a couple of things. We need to get a couple of measurements. Do you mind if we come over and get a couple of measurements? I was like, yes, I mind. I absolutely mind.

Yeah.

It's just not okay. This is still my house.

Yeah.

Right? And, and we're out of the option period. Like, this, this is still my house. No, it's inconvenient for me.

Right?

And so 6 times she walks— they walk by.

Yeah.

With the dogs. 2— well, 2 times on golf carts. And so someone just asked, could you have threatened to move to another offer? I I mean, at this point, I don't think so.

I mean, it's like one of those, you're so far down the road with someone, like, even though, like, they're so terrible, it's like, yeah, I could go, I could move on to another offer, but, like, the possibility of it being just like this one, it's—

I mean, it's there. And, and honestly, they were one of the better offers. So I would only have the option to go down in, in what I was gonna be, you know, making off the deal. And we'd already been through the option period.

Like, take less money for walking through hell already.

Exactly. Yeah. We'd already been there and, So maybe, but maybe—

but why?

I don't think it would have been— I don't think it would have been worth our while to do so. Yeah. Um, but in, in 3 hours they were by the house yesterday. Mm-hmm. Whenever I was cleaning, trying to get out 6 times, and it was just— it was overwhelming. Like, it was just like, look, I'm— why am I even cleaning this house? for you, right? Like, why, why would I do that? Like, and I'm not, I'm not a vindictive person, but at this point I'm just kind of like, look, you want it this badly, just take it.

Yeah.

You know? Well, this all culminated today. Closing day. Today's closing day. It all culminated today. And you would think Well, we're done, right? We're done. Everything's gonna be fine. I've changed the, the code on the doors to make it generic. I've done all the things clean. They've done their final walkthrough as of last night.

Yeah.

Didn't hear anything about it. Everything was fine. Um, and, uh, my agent Brandy goes to get her lockbox and her sign from the house. She sends me a text message with a picture that says, "Hey, is this your stuff?" Uh, no, that's not my stuff. And she said, "Huh, this isn't your stuff?" And I think, "No, it's not my stuff." Now, what had happened?

See, what happened was—

What happened was they already started moving in and we hadn't closed on the house.

Yeah.

We're not done. Not only that, I mean, when I say moving in, this stuff was in the courtyard. Okay, again, someone could walk in there without—

Which is technically the interior of the house.

It is. Yeah, you don't have to have a key to get in there, but I mean, you have to walk through a door. to get there, right? I mean, it's inside my— it feels like you're inside the house, right?

You are.

You are inside the house. Okay, Craig, I sent you the photo.

You did.

What was in the photo? Do you remember?

It was like a lawnmower, a weed eater. Was there a leaf blower? Some gas cans.

And like a rug doctor.

Yeah, that's right, a rug cleaner. That's right. Yeah, which I saw that on the left.

Yeah. Um, okay, Craig. Not only did they start moving in, uh-huh, they did it with explosives.

What's the most combustible things that we have that we can put on this property right now?

Right. Like, I, I literally was so mad at this moment. I was like, why in the world would you think it's okay to do this? Yes. First of all, why? You've— we're not done. Yeah, with the process yet. But now you've put explosives on my property. Yeah, that I'm still liable for. Yeah, don't be this type of person, right? And so like, we made him move it off. Like, we made him come get it.

Even, even if it's not like something combustible, like, no, don't do it.

And I said, look, it's There's— okay, couple of— let's back up first.

It could have been— I'm getting heated. Flowers.

That's right.

It doesn't matter.

It doesn't matter. It could have been— it could have been flowers, a chair. It could be a potted plant, whatever, right? Like, it's not yours. It's not yours. You don't have the— it's not— it's not ethical. Yeah, yet. I mean, it's coming. It's a couple of hours.

We want it to be yours.

Right. We've done everything in our power to allow it to be yours. Right? And— but— okay. Up to this point, let's say it was a potted plant.

Mmhmm.

Up to this point...

I like potted plants.

Had you not— yeah. Had you not been deceptive in the early moments with the inspection stuff, and had you not tried to contact us over and over, and had you not tried to, like, get our— another contractor to, like, do work on our house, and had you not, like, walked by every moment of every day, it feels like, up to this point, and you bring a potted plant to my house, I would be like, that's kind of cool. Like, they're excited about this. Yeah. But if you do all of that, and you bring a potted plant, no. Yeah, I'm mad. But now you bring something that could potentially like burn the house down, burn the house down. Yeah. Which

they don't want that to happen either. But it could happen. That's the point.

They wouldn't be responsible for any of it.

Not a, not a single lick of it. I would be.

Although I guess you could get them arrested for trespassing.

Oh, absolutely. I mean, there's definitely— I definitely think there are actions we could take.

Yeah.

But that being said, like, I'm still like, what are you trying to accomplish at that point?

Like, you can't wait 5 hours.

It's not— it wasn't even 5 hours. It was like, it was like 3, maybe 2.

But like, it's been 14 days. Like, you really have to move this in now? Like now, right? Right now. It has to happen right now. Right? Like, what? Why? You're literally gonna like sign the paperwork and then run home and mow the lawn?

Right.

Babe, I can't wait to get in there and mow that grass.

Right.

It's calling my name. What is wrong with you? I don't know. It can wait till Saturday.

Right. Absolutely. There's nothing at this point that is so urgent.

No.

That you can't wait till tomorrow, or at least The afternoon.

And, like, let me— this is what bugs me about most people in general is, like, things have to happen right now.

Yeah. Oh, definitely.

Right now. And, like, even, even, like, in, in my business, man, like, I, I, I had— I came across this today where, like, somebody was like— I told them, I was like, look, I can, I can fit this into my schedule, like, Thursday or Friday.

Right.

Like, no problem.

Right.

And, like, that's pretty good.

Sure.

Considering you're calling me Today. Today. And saying, I have a problem, and I need you to solve it. And I'm like, look, I can get to it this week.

Pretty good.

This, like, my, my wife's uncle who runs a similar business from ours, he was telling me the other day, like, he's booked out the next 2 months.

Wow. Wow. And, and that, that business, we've had him on the show before.

Yeah. Jim. I mean, who's like one of— he's one of our first guests.

Yeah. JC's Leak Detection.

JC's Leak Detection. Yeah. And here's the thing.

If you got a leak, you kinda need someone. Yeah, like pretty quick. You're booked out 2 months?

2 months.

Wow.

Yeah, well, he's, he's a very specialized leak— I mean, like, you know, it's like swimming pools and like underground and stuff. Um, so, you know, and like most, most of the things that he's dealing with aren't like big massive leaks, they're like little tiny leaks that are just making the ground soggy. Like, you need to get that problem solved. Sure. Um, but like me telling a client that I can get out there this week, it's pretty good. And they're like, no, I was like looking for you today or tomorrow.

Wow.

And I'm like, okay, like, look, I can get out there tomorrow night.

Right.

But like what you have just told me means I want to pay extra.

Yeah. I'm now in a point where I'm— I need you so badly that I'll pay whatever it costs.

Yeah.

Right?

Which is fine.

Yeah. Well, that actually makes it worth my while to do that at that point. Like, I might be willing to. Right? But I just— I think that— I think that we, we found ourselves in this situation. Oh, I don't think I even told you this. I found out also today. I'll just put it that way. I found out also today that— so, so they closed early or earlier than we did in the morning.

Mhmm.

We were closing in the afternoon. I was told that there was a request by them— not a request. There was a comment made. They need to get in here earlier today. No. There was a schedule. And we're staying on schedule. Again—

In general, what is it that makes it has to happen right now? I don't know. If you— if it's something— if it's something where you're like, you're up against it, communicate that.

Right. Talk to me like, hey guys, you've got—

In advance, not like today. Like, they need to be in here earlier. Like, why? I mean, we scheduled it between these hours.

Yeah. So let's say something weird's happening. Like, you got a funeral today.

Sure.

Just tell us. Hey, I got something I got to do tonight. It's really like super special. It came up.

Yeah.

We didn't know that it was gonna happen.

And I need to know that this deal went through by such and such time.

Right. You know what? We might make concessions. But again, like, you've been horrible to work with.

Yeah.

You've been invasive. You've been frustrating. You've been demanding. Yeah.

And frankly, I can't wait to get out of this neighborhood so I don't have to be your neighbor anymore.

Exactly. No. You're exactly right.

Yeah.

No, not to mention the fact that the amount they came overbid, they asked for that much in repairs.

Oh, how convenient.

Yeah, how convenient. Like, again, I, I know that— okay, you're—

I hope you told them to like go pound sand.

We did to an extent, partly because we knew some of the issues that were there. Yeah, that we've been kind of going I don't really want to do that if I don't have to.

Yeah.

And one of them was an AC.

Yeah.

And Jehu has been telling me, Kevin, you're gonna have to get this fixed. It's bad. It's gonna go anytime. It's gonna go. And I'm like, okay, well, let's wait this sucker out, right? Like, I mean, it's gonna be a lot of money.

Sure.

And, and they wanted to replace the whole thing and ask for some other things, and it was gonna be the amount that they came over in repairs. And like, you Okay, you wanted this house so badly.

Mm-hmm.

That you were willing to ask for an off-market deal, and then you went as far over as you did, and now you're asking for that much. It just— the whole thing doesn't breed goodwill, right? The whole thing. And I was frustrated, right? And so anyway, I guess some things that I learned along this process is— and this is not the first house that we've bought, not the first house that we've sold. Um, but one of— this is the worst one that we've ever had by far. I mean, it, it doesn't have to be this way.

Yeah.

Like, just— and, and let me say this, I don't think she'll ever hear this or he will ever hear this, but if they do, I will say this: we met them on a couple of occasions because they kept showing up to our house.

You couldn't help but meet them.

Um, very nice person. Like, face to face, super personable, really nice, kind, you know, smiley, all the things. But come on, man. Like, why do you have to be extra?

Yeah.

That much? Like, let's just look. You're an agent.

I have, I have an idea as to why.

Okay. Bring it.

So there is, there is an old adage that the squeaky wheel gets the grease.

That's true.

And I guarantee you that this person has learned that I don't get what I want unless I become bothersome. I guarantee you. People, people learn exactly how they behave in order to get what they want.

Yeah. I get, I get also another impression from this person as well. I get the impression that they have made multiple purchases of homes without the help of an agent.

Mm.

Which is why they wanted to do an off— like, the whole purpose of the note to begin with was, let's make this an off-market deal so that the only person you're having to pay is your agent. You're not having to pay another agent, which is going to save you so much money.

Yeah, because I'm gonna be a freaking nightmare.

Right, exactly. And so she's done this before. We're gonna go in and we're gonna say, hey, all you have to do is do this off-market deal, and then they are responsible— the buyer is now responsible for scheduling all the stuff themselves, right? Because there's no agent representing them. I think that's what was happening here, is they were still trying to represent themselves, right? Even though our agent was like, no, that's not how we're gonna do this deal. Like, I can't represent you and them.

Them.

And so, um, I just learned, like, look, you hire an agent for a reason. Like, let them help you understand. Now, and I will tell you that their agent this afternoon was like, look, I'm very sorry. I would never allow a buyer to take possession of a home before it has been funded. They should have known. I will make sure this stuff gets moved, all this kind of stuff. Yeah. Like, I'm sure their, their agent was like, how did I get into this? Yeah. You know, I mean, legitimately, he had—

he and/or she, I don't know who it was. He, he, he had to be like, what the hell did I agree to?

Yeah. How? Like, I— whatever it is, not getting paid enough. Yep. Not getting paid enough, you know. But, um, yeah, so that was— oh, it was so much, man. It was so much. But at this point, it's, uh, it's over. It's a done deal. Yeah, the money, the money's in our account, you know.

Learn from Kevin, y'all. Yeah, so here's, here's the deal. Like, we, we had planned on talking about move out. Yeah, but we're creeping up on an hour here.

We should— maybe I still want to talk about move out.

We should, we should. I think it should just be another episode. I agree. Okay.

Yeah. And, and there, there's actually a lot that I learned from the move-out process.

That should, that should tell you guys something. Like, this buyer was an entire episode.

Oh my goodness. Look, I, again, I want to be clear. She's probably a very nice person. Yeah. But don't— why do you, why do you have to go around?

People said the same thing about Will Smith.

Yeah, especially whenever he's a real nice person.

Yeah, slapped the ever-living Jesus out of that guy.

West Philly didn't do good things for him, you know. Even— I mean, that was where he was born and raised. Um, I mean, he played on playground for the most of his days. And anyway, it just didn't—

I'm not joining in. Yeah, no, no, I know the words. I'm just not doing it.

Yeah, I mean, just one little fight, dude. One little fight and everything went off the rails anyway. So I— here, here's the thing. The moral of the story is this: you hire an agent for a reason. Let them do their job, and, and whenever you need something, go through them.

Yeah.

That's what they're there for. You're— you, you shouldn't—

You are paying them to do that.

Yeah, you shouldn't do it for them. Like, literally, like, hey, I want to get a plumber out. Okay. Call the agent. Say, I wanna get a plumber out. I want this plumber. Let them take care of that for you.

Yeah.

It's not that big of a deal. You know? And, and at the end of the day, I mean, I'll, I'll also say this. This is how bad it was. I, I asked Brandy, do we have to sign with them in the same room because I don't want to. And I've never actually had that happen. You know what, I hadn't either until the— this house, when I purchased it, we were in the same room as the, the buyers— I mean, the sellers. Yeah, sellers. We were the buyers. Um, we were in the same room. This is the first time I'd ever met them. Um, because that's the way it should happen. Yeah. And we were all in the same room. They were great people. It was actually kind of great. I was like, hey, what was that? What's that weird light

switch over there? You know, stuff like that.

Yeah. Stuff like that. Well, like, I will say this, like, that actually how I bought this place.

Okay.

But this was an off-market deal. Yeah. Like, I met them, I met them on 2 occasions, and really it was because they were in town from Ohio because they didn't even live here. Really? Yeah. Like, the people I met when I was here, like, were renters. Oh, and, and so interesting, like, when they, like, when they came into town, like, it was the delight. Like, they were super— like, he's like, hey, I'm so glad you guys are getting this place. We had so many great plans, but yeah, like, we, you know, things happen, plans change. We got transferred to Ohio.

Yeah.

Um, but hey, like, I know there's, there's a few things here on the property. We, you know, you didn't, you didn't make us do them, but I'm gonna go ahead and take care of them for you before, before you buy the property, as long as that's okay with you.

Nice. I was like, yeah, sweet. Do your thing, man. And it was, it was a good process, right? And, and it was fine. But I, I was like, do we have to? I'm, I'm done. I see him every day, multiple times. I don't, I don't need to see—

Are their dogs gonna be there?

Yeah, exactly. And, and I'm, I'm— again, I, I want to reiterate, I think they're probably nice people, but there was so much, I was just done. Yeah, it was done. The cool thing was this little thing called COVID, and, uh, they actually don't let you—

Oh, really? Same room?

Nope. At least not at the title company that we, that we wound up using.

Interesting.

And it was not, it was not allowed. We couldn't be in the same room.

Finally, something good came from that stupid disease.

Exactly, exactly. So anyway, so there you go. I'm so here. Okay, so we had, uh, HOA horror stories last Couple of weeks, right? We asked some people to give us some HOA horror stories, and we didn't get any.

That's a shame.

I'm a little disappointed. Yeah. But I'm curious, who has had some bizarre buying or selling experiences that we could put on the show? I would love to have this conversation.

Yeah, I would like to hear that too.

I mean, because surely I'm not the only one who's dealt with some of this kind of stuff, like some weird stuff. I know it's that. Oh. Brandy was telling us about one today, like some weird stuff that happened, um, where like an agent left like a key in the door, left the door open, and like bugs were all in the house and stuff because of it.

Who?

Like, like, because it was down by the lake, so like lake bugs in the house. It's like a million-dollar home.

Oh geez.

Some weird stuff. Like, I, I'm sure that there are worse stories than what we wound up dealing with, but In the end, we're done. There you go. So happy day. And speaking of being done, uh-huh, thank you for listening to this episode today of The Homeowner Show. If you haven't already, go ahead and click the like, subscribe button, do all the things, share with your friends, because we are here each and every Tuesday. Thank you for tuning in, and until next time, we'll see you later.

See ya!