Fred Glick, a Broker, Real Estate Realist, and Founder of Arrivva, holds a stellar track record with over $2 billion in residential transactions while grounded in a lifelong passion for real estate. Listen closely as Fred Glick gives you real estate hacks and tips in Arrivva’s We Fixed Real Estate podcast where he shares his expertise and insights.
Arrivva is a comprehensive real estate and mortgage brokerage, catering to qualified motivated buyers, sellers, and mortgagees with a commitment to brokering with love, integrity, knowledge, a well-defined plan, and a transparent flat fee structure. As featured in the Wall Street Journal, Arrivva leads the way in transforming the future of real estate, one happy client at a time.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Discover the nuances buyers need to know, from handling listing agents to the role of a buyer broker
- Learn about proving funds, contacting agents effectively, and avoiding common pitfalls to streamline your home buying experience
- Gain insights into safeguarding your interests, navigating dual agency, and staying objective amidst the allure of potential homes
- Understand the idea of long-term livability and aging in place
- Learn the benefits of useful home modifications like interior lifts that add value to your property
In this episode with Fred Glick
Join Fred Glick of Arrivva as he delves into the essential nuances of touring open houses. From understanding the varying approaches of listing agents to the importance of having a buyer broker, Fred covers it all. Discover why some agents require proof of funds, the best practices for contacting listing agents, and how to avoid common pitfalls that could impact your offer.
Plus, we explore the crucial aspect of aging in place, ensuring your home remains suitable and adaptable for years to come. Whether you’re a first-time homebuyer or a seasoned open house attendee, these tips for savvy buyers will empower you to navigate the complexities of home buying with ease.
Resources mentioned in this episode
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] Drew Thomas Hendricks: We are almost rocking it. We are talking about the nuances, the nuances of the buyer needs to know when they’re touring a house. And if you’re listening, you’re and you’re wondering where you are, you’re on the latest episode of We Fixed Real Estate.
[00:00:13] Fred Glick: Nice recovery there. Very smooth. Yes. Yeah, so let’s do it as quickly as we can just kind of give you an idea.
People come to us for our buyer broker services. And they come at different times in their looking, they could have never looked at anything, or they could be looking for the last 10 years at open houses. And you got to understand one big thing that you’re not thinking about and that’s the listing agent, they’re not all the same.
So here’s what I mean. There are brokers who have occupied property. It’s usually with occupied property. Sometimes it’s with empty properties, but they really want to know who’s going into the house if they’re doing a private showing and they’re not going to be there.
So, for example, we send out licensed agents all the time. That’s who would accompany you. Because there’s kind of an unwritten rule, “Hey, they have to have an agent.” Why? Cause they don’t trust people. There’s been scammers. There’s all kinds of crazy stuff going on. I’m sure you can
[00:01:31] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Shoplifters. I mean…
[00:01:33] Fred Glick: Whatever. And, you know, people trying to rob people in one way, shape, or form and house means you got a lot of money.
There’s people coming who have money. How can we get to them? So, you know, you have to protect the house. So sometimes even they will ask for a pre-approval or proof of funds before they show you the house, which I don’t have a problem with. I would thank you very much. You know, you really protect your homeowner and then, you know, try to meet people there.
It’s really the best way of doing it. So just know that the other thing is contacting them. You can say to them, and here’s the safest way to do it, is say: either you have or you will be hiring a buyer broker, and “I just wanted to get some information about the property. Can you help me with that?”
And, you know, most of them will say, “Sure, what would you like to know?” You know, and they can tell you just about things about the property, but don’t negotiate with them. Also, we always tell our clients, don’t sound like you’re interested.
You’re there to get data. That’s it. Because we don’t want them to remember you as the excitable people on the phone with them. “Oh, I love this house. I love the location. I love the fact that it’s, you know, one block from my mother-in-law.” Do people actually say that? Anyway, this will segue us into the next thing we’re going to talk about, which is Drew’s mother-in-law. Well, that’s a different story, but anyway, just respect their time and space.
We, as a buyer broker, I know we, I can only speak for us. We want to hear what property you want to go to and what questions you have because we’re going to find that out from the agent. We’re also going to need to register for certain services that they have that alert us to updates about offer dates or additional documents that have been presented.
So we need to be involved or get your buyer broker involved in the process ASAP. But don’t keep bothering the listing agent. They’ll either remember you to add dollars to your offer or they’ll ignore you because you were a pain to them. So just think about it. And they’re all going to be different.
Some of them are going to, you know, let you know everything and be great. Some of them will barely tell you anything. It’s amazing, the difference. Each seller is different. Each agent is different. So that’s, that’s all I got.
Well, so now let’s segue to your mother-in-law’s house.
[00:04:10] Drew Thomas Hendricks: No, I got a question on this.
You mentioned you’re talking about a buyer coming in, trying to tour a property without a buyer’s agent.
[00:04:19] Fred Glick: Yeah, you go to an open house.
[00:04:21] Drew Thomas Hendricks: You’re just going to an open house and…
[00:04:23] Fred Glick: Yeah, go to an open house.
[00:04:24] Drew Thomas Hendricks: And then I guess the big tip there is don’t be too quick to sign a contract or a buyer.
[00:04:29] Fred Glick: Oh, well, that’s the thing.
Nobody knows exactly what’s going to happen with this buyer broker stuff with going to open houses. It’s also stupid. It’s probably, you know, you put your name down and say, “I have a buyer broker,” even if you don’t. Because then the listing agent would be thrilled to come after you. I mean, it’s just a recruitment facility if people have to sign in.
It’ll be disgusting. And you know what? I won’t do it. What is somebody going to do? Sue me? I don’t want you as a buyer. I have the listing. Okay. If you want to pursue talking to me about buyer broker services, fabulous. I’m not there to solicit you. So you’re there to see the house. I’m there to work for the seller, period.
[00:05:18] Drew Thomas Hendricks: A lot of open houses are being shown by agents that aren’t even the listing agent. They just,
[00:05:23] Fred Glick: That’s pretty normal. That’s a normal thing. The issue is the listing agent should be explaining things to this person who’s going to be doing the showings. We get calls all the time from agents. “Hey, can I host your open house?”
No, you don’t represent me. You don’t represent the seller. You’re just looking for buyers. This is something they teach you to do at the big companies, you know, to promote business. Well, we’re not stupid enough to allow you to do that. We take care of everybody ourselves. So if you don’t work for us, you’re not going to sit in open house. It’s just not going to happen.
[00:06:02] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s good. And when you do visit an open house, unless you want to be considered fresh meat, just pretend, don’t just tell them you’re already working with a buyer agent.
[00:06:10] Fred Glick: Or you’re looking for a buyer broker and you don’t want to do dual agency under any circumstances.
That’s another thing to add because dual agency means one person represents both you and someone else. It’s like having one lawyer who’s going to prosecute and defend you. It makes no sense.
[00:06:35] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sure. Now, what are some of the other nuances of, like, touring a house that, like, the first-time buyer would want to pay attention to?
[00:06:43] Fred Glick: Here’s the hardest thing to do: don’t go in there with any emotion. Be cold as ice, looking at everything. But imagine yourself living there. Imagine, you know, getting up in the morning, what’s going to happen and the flow, coming home at the end of the day, hanging out on a Saturday afternoon, you know, if you party a lot, is the yard going to be big enough for your tables and chairs and kids stuff or whatever?
Just will the housework for you? You know, usually you can feel it. But sometimes you just got to take your time and, you know, walk through once and then walk through again.
[00:07:27] Drew Thomas Hendricks: And this still ties into the next segment, though. You got to imagine how long are you going to be there. You may think you’re only going to be there for a year, but if you’re going to be there for 10 years, 15 years, will the house still be suitable for you in 10 years?
We’re getting into this topic of aging in place, which is very close to my mind and heart right now. Since my mother in law, she’s getting out of the assisted living facility tomorrow, and we’re having to try to navigate her back up her 2nd story. Her garage is on the bottom, her house living areas on the 2nd floor, but the only way to get to the 2nd floor is to go up an exterior flight of stairs.
[00:08:07] Fred Glick: You need to get a couple of guys from Home Depot that can, you know, just lift her in a wheelchair.
[00:08:13] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Carry her up? Make it off the stairs. But the idea is to think about the future and think about who, what family members might be coming over to that house. I mean, maybe you don’t want any family members coming over. I’ll see you buy a three-story walk-up.
[00:08:28] Fred Glick: In Silver Lake. Yeah, or in San Francisco, yeah.
[00:08:33] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Sorry can’t come over here. But if it is important to you that mobility is or the lack of it in your future, you need to think about that. Or think about what adjustments you might be able to make when the time comes. In my mother-in-law’s instance, the house was set up perfectly to have a lift built in, just with the way that the flat was.
So we’re, we’re now orchestrating this nice interior lift, which is going to add value to the property. It’s going to actually really just enhance her living, even if in two to three weeks she gets back to normal mobility.
[00:09:05] Fred Glick: So this is between a first and second-story elevator?
[00:09:09] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s between a first-story and a second-story elevator, but it’s called the lift because you got to have the button pushed the whole time.
[00:09:17] Fred Glick: Oh, I see. Interesting.
[00:09:18] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Stiltz Lifts.
[00:09:20] Fred Glick: I’m going to put it up on the screen. Yeah, These elevators have gotten so much cheaper, and if you looked at it ten years, thought the price was nuts, now it’s nothing.
[00:09:30] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah, so if you’re looking at the screen, this is the one we decided on, and basically it goes up, it goes up from one floor to the other. The curious thing about
[00:09:39] Fred Glick: Don’t look very ambulatory. Ah, there’s mom who sort of kind of needs some help. Okay.
[00:09:45] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah, she’s going for the Trio Alta. And kind of the way of this house is that you send it back down and then you only just see those two bars.
[00:09:56] Fred Glick: Right.
[00:09:56] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah, so this is something that could be considered.
[00:09:58] Fred Glick: It’s what you can do with used telephone booths.
[00:10:02] Drew Thomas Hendricks: That’s what it looks like. Yeah.
[00:10:04] Fred Glick: It does.
[00:10:05] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Except in this instance, in our instance, we’re able to, the way her house was situated, we’re able to get the lift in an enclosed room down in the garage.
So you’re down there. She’s gaining space. And then it goes up and we’re building a closet around it right by her front door. So we’re not going to have any foot traffic. So in the future, or when people start looking at it. If we were to sell, we aren’t selling it or she’s not selling it. So if you’re listening to this, we’re not selling her house.
But it’s going to make it more livable for her. Cause she gets wall space and it can, it doesn’t look like she’s got these two bars coming up. That all leads into aging in place, which is one of the other things as a home buyer, I think is important. More important for me now than it was maybe a year ago is think about it. You may be living in that house a lot longer than you want to.
[00:10:59] Fred Glick: Like I was saying the elevators got so much cheaper. You know, there’s things we haven’t even thought of that are going to be invented for people. Going to be amazing down the road.
[00:11:11] Drew Thomas Hendricks: And she didn’t want to just I mean, she didn’t want to just put that little seat on the back, on the side of a staircase, and go up her exterior staircase.
That would be the low-budget option, but you’d be ripping that out. If you were to sell that house. This is something that could actually add value to the house or as Vrbo. And we’ve talked about that on this.
[00:11:30] Fred Glick: Yeah. We have a listing in Redwood City, about two or three years ago where it was a very nice property, but the one thing it had going against is you had these straight-up the mountain stairs to get way up to this landing area.
[00:11:49] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Oh, I remember that.
[00:11:50] Fred Glick: Which is beautiful. Remember that?
[00:11:51] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Uhhuh.
[00:11:52] Fred Glick: But I went and got a quote for an outdoor elevator.
[00:11:57] Drew Thomas Hendricks: It’s like an inclinator.
[00:11:58] Fred Glick: An inclinator. Yeah. And it was like 150 grand. And I’m wondering how much cheaper they are now. You know?
[00:12:09] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah, that, I remember that was a big lot, and the amount of space you would gain, especially if you kind of terrace. Remember that property is terrace each one of those, you may think 150 grand is a big price, but in Peninsula, Bay area real estate, that’s going to add a ton of value to the house.
[00:12:29] Fred Glick: Easily, I would, without even thinking about it, it would go up by half a million easily.
[00:12:35] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. This lift we’re doing is about 40 grand. It’s not, I mean, for what you’re getting and for installing everything, it’s not, we’re definitely going to increase the property value from that.
[00:12:45] Fred Glick: Yeah. Yeah. That makes sense. Cool. All right. I got no more words of wisdom for this. No more.
[00:12:54] Drew Thomas Hendricks: No more words of wisdom. This is the first, this is the first. Then I guess that’s it guys.
[00:13:01] Fred Glick: And René is still at a walkthrough. If you don’t know what a walkthrough is, right before closing, you get a chance to, you know, walk through and make sure that everything’s the same as you saw it before and nothing’s damaged. The staging company didn’t rip out a wall. So that’s where he’s at. So he’s on there pretty long.
There must be something going on. And then we deal with it. And then there’s a hundred million ways of dealing with it, depending on.
[00:13:28] Drew Thomas Hendricks: So it should be quick, but he goes in and figures out the refrigerator is supposed to convey and it didn’t, it’s gone.
[00:13:36] Fred Glick: And that’s one thing that can happen. Yep. Like, whoops, we got a contract, dude. So you credit.
[00:13:44] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Yeah. Yes. Maybe next episode we’ll do some tips on what to do with the final walkthrough.
[00:13:51] Fred Glick: Ooh, that’s a good one. We’ll tease you with that.
[00:13:53] Drew Thomas Hendricks: We had the home buying, the open house nuances. Next episode, we’ll do the final walkthrough nuances.
[00:14:00] Fred Glick: Cool.
[00:14:01] Drew Thomas Hendricks: Another awkward close. This has been another episode of, well, that wasn’t even awkward, but now it is. Another episode of We Fixed Real Estate.
[00:14:07] Fred Glick: Blah, blah, blah, blah.
[00:14:11] Drew Thomas Hendricks: There we go.
[00:14:12] Fred Glick: Mess it up.