Keep Your House Price A Secret & Sale Price Versus List Price Comparisons | The Golfi Real Estate Show

On this week's Niagara edition of The Golfi Real Estate Show, Rob Golfi and iHeart radio host Tim Dennis talk about why you should keep your house price a secret, stats on sale price versus list price comparisons, how dangerous it is to buy something sight unseen, if buyers purchase after only doing a virtual tour, and agents needing to describe exactly what's in a house instead of leaving it open for interpretation.

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Good morning, Niagara. This is Rob Golfi with the Golfi Team. Welcome to the Golfi real estate show Niagara edition with host Tim, Dennis. Yep. We're rolling. Looking at all things real estate and all things across the nae of a region. We're going to talk about, some advice for you. If you're looking at buying, if you're looking at stuff.

Selling, we've got some great stories coming up this week. We're going to give you a look at what's happening across the market. We're going to talk about how to keep your home prices, maybe a little bit of a secret until when well, we'll find that out. And a couple of success stories that have come out of, what we talked about last week.

So Rob, let's start off with talking about, sale prices because that's been a big news story. It's been a big real estate story and. You've got some stats on the sale price versus the list price ratio, explain to everybody what that means. So basically what it means is what the house sold for. Over asking or under asking.

So, so I've got the stats in about four different areas and I can explain, you know, what's happening. For instance, for an example, let's say, the house is listed at a hundred thousand and it's sold for 5% more than, the asking price. And then that means the sell price would have been 105,000.

So that's, that's basically. Basically yet. So we've got some stats here, so I wanted to bring up, some things because I find, I think we're coming up to the peak peak in this market and, and, it's so Niagara falls. Right now. And I know there's another day left in, in Niagara falls. I mean it started in your month, but I figured these stats are pretty, almost pretty accurate for one, one day.

Not missing, not being there. So in, in Niagara falls, the average house that's selling, it's selling for 105% of the list price. Okay. So if you've got like, so that's, that's, that's strong. That's awesome. Like it's but now if you're looking at it, A year, a year ago in March, it was at 98.1 and an April 97.

So it's hovering around between 98 and 99. And January was a hundred percent of, of the list price. But February so far, it is 105%. That means is that there are a ton of houses that are selling for over list price. There are a few selling for under list price, but the average it's going for about 105 of what they're asking.

It is. Yeah. So some houses, yeah, it's it's the average price is selling over list price. That's what's happening. That's what is happening in Niagara falls right now. And then, in St. Catherine's we're at a hundred, almost 108% of list price, nuts, crazy. That's it? And it's, it's just, it's funny. I thought we hit the peak, like, like January or, or even, in December.

But, Tim, I can't believe it a hundred. That's the average sell price in St. Catherine's 108% as you're talking about thinking about hitting the peak, does that mean that the prices will go down or they're going to level out right at about where they are. They're going to level out and now we're starting to see a shift.

In the market. And I'm going to explain that once I go through the next two, three areas, you're gonna, I'm telling you, I, it's not like I know what's happening because we sell a lot of houses and we have our pulse on the market. We have the heartbeat on the market and I'll, and I'll, and I'm gonna explain it like so St.

Catherine's 108% average sell price. Unheard of unheard of you don't see that. Yeah, I haven't that's that's they probably never seen that in 50 years. They, over, average prices, that high, well, and even better, 101, 111.8. So it's almost 112%. Average sell price now that's because Whelan was a, a sleeper Welland was a kind of like, nobody really looked at well and before, so it, so that's why it increased quite a bit.

Well, and willing to hit, at 112% of list of sell ratio, which is incredible. It's nuts. It's that's unbelievable. And then, so, and then I, I did it check a Niagara on the Lake now. Niagara and a Lake they're hovering at 99. 0.2%. So that's because it's already peaked. Like it's, it's like they, they just can't, the market just can't afford to go anymore.

So they're there, they're there. Nobody's going in there and saying, Hey, I'll give you 150 200 grand over asking. Cause they're already 150, 200,000 over, over priced as it is and what not over price. But what I'm saying is they're there already. In a, in a high price bracket, you're not going to see growth that much, especially in high-end neighborhoods.

So they're at 99.2% January. They're at 95% in December. They were at 97%. So it's actually for, for ne Niagara on the Lake. It's it's, it's at a pretty, it's pretty strong. It's the highest. In in the last 12 months, have a list of salary. Now look at Fort Erie. Fort Erie is at a hundred. Now, remember I always talked about four year and well, lenders are kind of like the sleepers for a long time.

So my opinion 40 years is hit the peak, just like a Welland has see 40 Erie. Nobody's willing to go over that. Now they know it's, it's, it's priced aggressively. Oh, it's, it's gone up quite a bit. And so now people aren't are jumping in and giving over, asking too much. Now w when, when you got a a hundred percent.

Average list to sell ratio in Fort Erie. That means there was a lot of homes that sold over asking, and a lot of homes that didn't a lot of people had to, you know, negotiate it. And they probably went in at 96%, 95%. So that averaged out to a hundred percent, but no, it wasn't like, well indoors, it's still the market's still, you know, thriving and, and, and, and very crazy there is, got anything to do with.

Then the number of homes that are available in any particular community because, is Ford, it does Fort Erie have more availability than Welland for instance, it, it, it, it 40 Erie. I don't think it does. I think it's just people, the public, the consumer know that it just hits a ceiling and we're feeling it right now, even though, so we've hit the peak of the peak.

This is like, I can't like. Tim, it just can't keep going forever. This market isn't going to last forever. So here's my, this is my personal advice. If you're thinking of selling your house next month, like thinking about April, forget it. Do it now, because this is going to end soon. And I'm not saying it's going to come down.

I'm just going to say it's going to stop and it's going to level you're right. It's going to level out is like we're we're way ahead. So if you're thinking of selling your house, And you're thinking in April or may sell it, put it up for, beginning of March, get along closing you'll end up buying you'll end up selling high and you'll end up buying a lot lower you'll you'll gain big time on this.

We already are starting to see buyer fatigue out there. We're starting to see a, and there's less showings happening per listing right now. So we're seeing the decline. In, people looking at homes. Remember I was telling you that we were getting a hundred people coming out to a house and they're coming out and, you know, you see a hundred business cards in the house and it's just, you're getting multiple, multiple offers all to pull offers again, 20, 30, 40 offers like that.

Guess what? Some houses now are not getting any offers. Agents are, are struggling. They w we got an email the other day. They were holding offers that morning. They send us an email and they're saying to everybody, Hey, we have no offers registered. You're not going to be in competition. Bring one in. See, that's what we're starting to see right now.

The market is shifting and we have, I don't know how many weeks left in that, in this market, but you've got, if you're going to do something, do it now, don't wait. Don't worry about the snow melting. Don't worry about the flowers, you know, the tulips and all that kind of stuff you will end up. There'll be a difference in your price point when you sell, if you wait another month or two, the.

We're finding that, the buyers now, they're sitting on the sidelines now because they lost out on so many deals and they're, and they're fed up. They're done. And so we're finding there's less, less buyers in the market. We just dropped. It's just dropping now. Houses are still selling in competition, but depending on the price point, like in, in, in Niagara, anything under 500 is moving.

Fast it's, it's just, there's a big population still looking, but once you get into the higher markets, depending on the house, depending on the condition, depending on the upgrades and, and location, they're, they're still going. High-end homes are selling, yes, not in competition there. These guys aren't going to throw their money like crazy, like two, $300,000 over asking, you know, if, if one person knows there's an offer coming in the other parties ad, they're going to see, sit and wait and see, but, but there is.

The competition is becoming less and less, and it's going to fizzle out soon where it's going to go into a balanced market. And when it's a balanced market, you know, the days on market are going to be, longer right now. We're, you know, I think we were mentioning last week. It was 22 days on the market in some cases.

So the days on market's going to start hitting the 30 days and you know, 45 days on the market. So, so. Yeah, like it's just changing and I'm bringing up these stats, like, I can't believe February where that high. So you're saying to, to people who have homes that they're thinking of selling, now's the time to do it, get it done.

While the market is right at its peak. Does that mean that if you're looking to buy a house. That you should hold off for a little while, until you might get a better deal. A couple of months down the road, is that, does that balance out? Get along closing, you will benefit. Trust me on that one. You will benefit.

Get along closing, sell your house. Now get 190 to 120 day closing, and I'm telling you that shift is going to happen within. I am my pain. It's going to happen within two to three, maybe even four weeks, it's going to happen in March that shift. So that, that means if you're thinking about it, I'm telling you, call me or call your agent and get your house on the market and get at least a piece of that pie that everybody has been enjoying of that high price point.

Like it, it, it just won't last. And, and I'm not, I'm not saying it's coming down, I'm just saying you gotta, you gotta get going now on it. Don't wait until the tulips are growing or, you know, just, just do it. It, it will make a big difference in your, in your pocket book. So you're saying that the, the.

The price range that's still really hot right now is 500. And under there's still flying. You're still seeing multiple offers. Those kinds of things. Are there particularly different types of homes that are selling hot right now, if you're looking at a, at a detached home, if you're looking at a townhouse, what's, what's the hot commodity right now.

It's it's anything under 500 townhouse or even detached the detached, obviously they're going like crazy. And, and you have to be careful when you list. Right now, a lot of people like your neighbor, might've gotten 700 for their house and they, and they listed at 500. You put your house up in two months from now.

And that house is probably that's $700, $700,000 house. The next guy's not going to get that. Now, the market's not coming down. It's just, it's going to go back to where the market value should be for that house. So, so they listed undervalued at 500, maybe it's worth. Five 50 to 600. Well guess what, you're going to end up getting that five 50 to 600, that guy that got 700 is laughing all the way to the bank and you know, and enjoying it when he goes, what about when he goes to sell his place down five years down the road?

Did he overpay for it? That guy who bought the $700,000 house? No, he, no, he won't overpay for it. Like that'll, he'll make that up in 18 months. It'll it'll catch up. Like, so don't feel if you buy something now you're going to overpay. But look what happened in 2017, within a year, year and a half, it was, you know, we, we caught up to that market and bank and now it just kept climbing.

But what I'm saying is, is that here's an opportunity for you that if you're selling your house and gonna buy. Put it up right away. Get a long closing and you're going to benefit from it. You will benefit. I've seen this before and we've done it for people before, but this is the time to act and do it because this market is going to last forever.

And we're actually putting our newsletter out next month. And we're going to say you better act now. And chances are our newsletter takes about 10 days. By the time we print. And get the information and get it to the, to the, people's mailboxes. It might even be over by the time that hits people's mailboxes.

We're going to take a quick break right now and come back with another segment of the Golfi real estate show. Niagara edition, right after this. It's the Golfi real estate show. It's the Niagara edition. And, Rob and I are, we've been talking about all things, Niagara. We've been talking about all things real estate let's get into some.

Interesting stories about myths and misconceptions in the real estate world. When you see the, the, the term sight unseen, if that comes up on a description, what does it mean to you as a real estate guy and how dangerous is it to buy something sight unseen? Very dangerous. It, you have to be careful as a realtor because what's happening, especially with COVID and especially with, you know, people living in, in long distance areas.

They can't get to the house in time because, there is multiple offers happening. So a lot of people are putting offers in without seeing it. And, it's and that's dangerous because. If an agent does that on behalf of their client and the client moves in, they say, Hey, I didn't know this. I didn't know this.

I didn't know that nobody wants to be the fall guy in, in making a decision for somebody to buy a house. And when they move and the day they move, they close the deal and move in. It's like, Whoa, I didn't know. This was like this. And that was like that. And I, you know, if I've known and that you've got to be very, very careful, especially.

During COVID and there has been a lot of properties that have sold, based on virtual, virtual and everything else. So the thing is you gotta be, be very careful for us. We won't accept an offer sight unseen, unless you've got a certified check or a bank draft with the offer. We will not do it. And you, and we want a big one too, just because we don't want them to buy it.

And then all of a sudden they go, Hey, I don't know, this is not the house. I thought it was going to be, it looked different online. And then all of a sudden our, our, our sellers are gonna be, you know, with their tail between the legs, say, Hey, listen, like we sold to these people now. They don't want it. Now we have to, we bought another house and now these guys aren't going to close.

What are we going to do? So I'm very, very careful with that. I've sold probably a couple of houses, maybe, actually probably more than a couple of houses, sight unseen. And I sold a house, before this market. Sight unseen, balanced market was, it was on the market for a, you know, a good time. And so we had a Florida couple, that were coming back, moving back to Niagara and, they were looking at this house and I said, listen, do you have any family members or anybody that can look at the house for you?

Because I don't want to be the decision maker. You know, we're, you know, you're walking around the house and this is, and when they bought the, this was before really. I think Facebook was up and running. So it's not like you could actually walk around and do your FaceTiming and stuff like that. And, so it was just basically on pictures.

We didn't have 3d tour, so it was based on pictures. So we got a family member to come and look at the house. And explained different things through the rooms and everything like that. And they bought it. We got a big deposit because, they didn't, purchase it with seeing it. And, but usually people buy those houses.

They move within two to three years. They move out quick because, it seems different online or in pictures then, then they do. So when somebody buys that. Now here's the, here's another aspect. So on a purchase and sale agreement, clause number, I think it's the clause number 13. I think it's clause number 13 and I left that clause.

Number 13 on my desk. It basically, it says that you ha have you inspected this property? Have you gone through it? And everything it says, like we cross that out. Because we don't want something to say, you know, if there's a lawsuit going on, he says, well, here it says they did inspect it on clause 13.

Meanwhile, they didn't, you know what I'm saying? They did, but they have been through it. So we crossed that out and because they didn't have a home inspection, they didn't have anything like that, especially if it's a multiple offers. So we recross out clause 13 on the agreement of purchase and sale. And we get a large deposit and, you know, we cross our fingers when I'm moving.

Are most of them, most of these sight-unseen situations, things like you just talked about people from out of town, people buying from the States or people buying from out West or out East, and they just don't have a chance to get here, to look. And that that's where most of this comes from. It, it is. So for instance, let's say it's a relocation and a house comes up in the neighborhood that they want, and they happened to fly back to their, to their home.

And then all of a sudden, as they land at the, at the airport, in their hometown, a house comes up for sale that, well, they're not going to fly back so there, so whatever realtor they have, they're going to have them walk through and say, Hey, listen, this is the right house for you. This is it. So you try to show them everything about it.

And then sometimes they buy a site on scene that way, and sometimes. It works out fantastic. And sometimes, you know what, they're moving in. They're settled. They're not, they'll move in. And they'll say, well, at least we got a place now. And you know, the kids got, got the neighborhood that they want. And, and, and everything's working.

So while they're living there at the house that they bought sight unseen, they're looking within a year, they're already looking and now they got the patients. To find something that fits their lifestyle, that they can see and touch, for themselves. When, and now that they're in, in there in the market that they're there.

Have you ever the house Rob, that was absolutely completely sight unseen? Has anybody ever said to you, I read about this house, you know, it's just out in the country, it's got a couple of acres. Put an offer in for me, if you ever sold one of those, I have, usually those are tear down houses. They know that they're not going to keep the house.

They're going to rip it down and build something. Usually we get those on those ones and we know that. And we actually put that in the offer saying that, purchasers buying this based as, land value, not, you know, we put something in there so that, everybody knows and everybody's on the same page when it comes to.

Buying this property, we don't want the guy to say, well, you should have showed it to me. I didn't know. You know, the staircase was painted. I, you know, like we know he's tearing it down. So, so we, we always, we always put something in there to protect the agent, so that if he's buying it to tear down, w w we put something in writing, say, Hey, you're purchasing this property sight unseen.

And your, and the reason why is because your, your, your intentions are to rip down the house and build a new house. So w do the virtual tours now. If people buy a house based on completely a virtual tour. Do you, do you look at that as being sight unseen, even though they've done a complete virtual tour, but they've never actually set foot in the place?

Yes, we do. The, and because of the virtual tours, I mean, it's like, it's like the, you know, Google maps, you know, you can navigate through the house. That's a lot better. Like the technology today is way better than it was 20 years ago or 15 years ago. And it makes a big difference again. You know, it feels like you can be walking through the house and you can actually let these virtual tours have measuring things on there so you can actually measure.

Okay. Well, how long is that wall there? That can I put my. My headboard along that side of the bedroom versus the other side, you know what I mean? Or can I put my, China cabinet in the dining room? Will it fit in that space? Because yeah. And it has a measuring thing that you can measure from, you know, how you have the door from the door to the, to the, one corner of the wall.

And so you can actually. Measure it that's what the that's. What's so great about the virtual tours. And we find that with virtual tours, it actually eliminates a lot of tire kickers. I mean, they'll go on there and view it and say, you know what? This is not, I'm not interested. I'm going on to the next one.

So you basically save somebody from looking at your house. That's not going to buy it. So you don't have all these people trampling through your house. And not that that aren't quality, that's not the right house for them. And some virtual tours are good and some are bad. It, it could hurt you. And obviously it can help you just depending on the condition and the house is in when you put it on virtual tour.

I was reading a story this week about some real estate agents talking about some of the stranger things they'd found, in homes. And they're basically acting for the buyers and they see a description of a home and they go in and look and they say, wow, that's not at all what they were describing. One, one real estate agent said, the description of the home set.

It had an indoor pool. And when they went in. In the basement, somebody had one of those big blow up pools that they had just inflated in the basement. And you ever run into that where people are going, Oh, I have this in my house. I have that in my house. And you get there and say, that's not at all.

What was in the description. I ever find some strange ones like that. Absolutely realtors. Don't get it. You have to put exactly what it is. So you attract the right buyer for that house. The one thing you have to understand there is a buyer for every single house that's out there. And so you got to describe it exactly the way it is.

You don't want to, you know, sometimes we walk into houses, you know, you know, beautiful foil with gorgeous floor, ceramic flooring and gleaming hardwood floors, and an updated kitchen. It's only painted the kitchen. It was hand brushed painted. It's not an, you know, and like we get so many things like that.

And then you walk through and you're like, what? And it looks good on pictures, but once you're there. LA live in person. It's not, it's not what the description is. And so basically that agent attracted the wrong buyer for there and basically wasted. Not only the agent's time, the buyer's time, but now the credibility of that agent is not going to be as good.

So next time he has a house for sale. And if I've been in, I had it, I took somebody through that house. I can say to him, Hey buddy, listen, I know like, does it really have this? Does it really have that? You're going to question it and you're going to, you know, then now like, cause you, cause you know, his descriptions.

Or not exactly what it is you like if you've got a, her upper put down, listen, this house, is, has got fantastic bones. You put in a nice new kitchen and new bathrooms and some new flooring. You've got yourself, a gorgeous place that could be worth a lot more money if you purchase it, that's a good way to do it.

Like you're telling everybody, this is what the house needs are, or if you can live with the flooring and the kitchen and the way it is years ago, we used to use the term fixer upper. Right. But for some reason, We don't use that anymore. What, what do you suggest they use needs? Love? What, what, what jumps right out at you when you see an ad for a house and you think, Oh boy, that obviously needs some work.

What, what phrases jump out at you? Yeah. You know, we have people that use, you know, bring your, you know, hammer and paintbrush and, make this, you know, tired house into a new, revive its life again. People use all different things. I, I would, we just mentioned that, that, the house, It has been lived in by the owners for, 50 years and, updates that have been done or the, you know, electrical and shingles and whatever.

But, that new owner will have to do some updates to get this, beauty back, up in, going again. And so when people are reading that they like the writing a bit about it and they know that they have to put some money into it. So. So do they have the time and money to do that? So sometimes people are buying houses.

They don't, they just saved up just enough money for the down payment, but they don't have money to fix it up. So they're not going to look at that house. They aren't going to go look at houses that are completely move in condition. So why have those people go there where they're never going to buy it?

The people that are going to look at the houses that need some work are the people that have a little bit more money. They're a little older or, or the contractor that wants to fix it and flip it. And, and, and they're, they're going to track those guys there. And then, and you'll, you'll do well on the sale price.

If it's, if it is. The remarks are the correct way. Honesty is still the best way to go. Right? Honesty is the best way to go. You can't fool anybody, you just waste people's times and you lose your credibility. Now you're going to get found out sooner or later, so, yeah. Oh, for sure. For sure. Okay.

When we come back, we're going to talk about, how to keep your home purchase price as secret. Because you can't keep anything secret these days. And we'll talk about a couple of big success stories that Rob's team has had in the last little while. That is when we continue on with this week's Golfi real estate show Niagara edition.

We'll take this break and come right back. The Golfi real estate show Niagara edition on the air. Rob. And I are talking about all things, Niagara real estate and just real estate things. In general, when we were, we were talking about virtual tours and what you have to disclose and strange things in homes.

And I forgot to ask this question because somebody asked me to ask you this week because they are in the midst of selling a home. And when they bought it, it, they knew that it was a former grow up. But they got into negotiations and the, the, the previous owners had admitted that it had had been a grow op and, you know, they can sometimes be problems.

They say, now that they're selling it, they fixed it up. They made sure there was no problems with the electrical than no mold or anything. But did they have to disclose now that they're selling it, that the previous owners had run a grow up out of this place? Is that something that they legally have to have to disclose?

Rob? Yeah, I think they do. They do. So they should have all the paperwork saying that we've done this, this and this. Yeah. So whoever's bringing the offer in the agent. The way I would do it is you get an offer from somebody. You send them reports that, everything has been done. So if you're going to buy a house that was a grow op and now you're selling it, even though it wasn't a grow up when you, when you.

We're ownership of it. But prior to you, you're better off disclosing it because everybody in the is going to come knock on your door and say, Hey, welcome to the neighborhood. But did you know two buyers ago, this was a grow up? You know, you don't want to, you don't want to hear about that. But what you want to do is you want to have, mold reports, w what you've done to, to rectify if there was any issues with it, as somebody submitting the offer, like, you know what I mean?

So, so let's say, Hey, Mr. And Mrs. Smith is looking at buying this house and, the agent's calling for details. That's when I would say, you know what, here's a report. This was a grow-up prior to these people that owned it, and they've got no issues with mold. They got no issues with anything. And, and then let them make the decision whether they want to go forward with it.

But, but it's always good. I'll tell you, Tim, it's always good to disclose, you know what? You don't want that where you have a letter coming from a lawyer saying, Hey, you knew about this. And you should have, you should have disclosed it every time we look at a house and we put a house up for sale. We always look at the history of the home.

So the prior time when they bought and everything, we ask questions. Now, if the homeowner bought it privately and we didn't know it was a grow op and he doesn't disclose it to us. Well, you know what, like, you know, and then, then, you know, and then what happens is sometimes a home that homeowner will say, well, I did disclose it and then no, not really.

And so that's why you always have to have everything on an email, trail. Like you got to have everything so that. There's no pointing the finger because we discussed it. So, but the best way to do it is always, just look at the history of the house from the previous listing. Sometimes in the remarks it'll have it there, but it should always be disclosed.

Always. I had a, there was a house that sold in our neighborhood and I was talking to a neighbor at the end of the driveway a little while ago. And, first thing they said is I can't believe how much they, they paid for that house. And obviously they, without any interest in buying it, they were just curious and they'd gone online and found out how much the house went for.

And I know some people would be uncomfortable with that. Is there any way that you can keep your home's purchase price a secret or is that just going to come out no matter what it does come out, but if you buy privately, that is the way I would, I would go. I would, I would, you know, I you, you pay, if you pay your land transfer tax a month before or three weeks before the closing date, you, you get, you get a deed endorsement and they give you a number and you on the, on the system it'll show, they're a $1 or $2, that there was a consideration.

It doesn't disclose what your, what you sold it for now. This is good for guys that are flipping houses, you know, so, you know, like, so the guy that buys it for 250,000, he sells it for 500 after he's renovated and everything. The pre the, the guy that's buying is not going to say, Hey, you are making this much money on selling it.

You can do that. But, but if it's on the MLS, it is disclosed on the MLS if you're listing with the realtor. But there's a lot of, I'll tell ya. I'll tell ya, Tim. There's a lot of houses out there that do end up selling, especially commercial properties. They don't make the MLS. And they, and a lot of, people that are buying these properties will, go to the, the ministry.

What do they call it? The, the ministry of finance office and it's Atlanta, land taxes department. It's in Oshawa. You basically got to send the paperwork there. You can't, you can't email it, you can't, fax it. You have to literally have it either current career there or show their show up there personally, to get your, what do they call it?

Report your deed endorsement and, and then you, and they'll hide what you sold the house for. It'll hide the price. And, I, I recommend if you're buying anything privately. I would, I would go that route. Nobody knows what you, what you bought for nobody can, you know, like, and then like sometimes we see that like when I, when we're going to someone's house, and I say, you bought this privately and, and, but not everybody knows.

That you can hide the, what price you pay. Yeah. But, but I mean, if it's on MLS, you can find it as a realtor confined it. But, but if it's not on an MLS thing and you, you, you bought it privately. Yeah, definitely. I would do it then if the price is hidden, it's a good, it's a good way to go. So I'm, I'm looking at buying a house, for instance, in, you know, St Catherine's Thorold, whatever Niagara falls.

And, I I've got the contract in front of me, but there are some rental items in the house, whether it's the water heater or something. W w how does that line up with what you have to disclose or what you have to tell people, or what's in the contract when the homeowners have some rental items in the home?

This, the data sheet, when it comes to rental items is one of the biggest problems there is when people are selling their houses. I'm going to give some, I'm going to give that tip to people out there, and, and realtors are listening. I'll just say, you're welcome. But here's the thing. This is the biggest problem.

A lot of times people forget that they rent their furnace. And a lot of people forget that they rent, you know, they're a soft water system, their filtration system and all that. So when I'm sitting down there with the client and saying, do you have any rental items? And I said, are you sure? A lot of times I have them initial right.

Where it says rental and I check off what they did say it is a rental and I'd say 90% of the people, have a home renter water heater. Yep. We check off water heater and they look at it and I make them initial right there so that they can't say to me after and say, Hey, I told you that we had the furnace as, as, A rental.

I go, well, I had you initial there. I said, we do that on purpose just because of the fact we know people forget, we, we, we always try to get everybody to sign where the rental is now. Here's, here's what I've done now. Here's what, sorry. Here's another problem. When people have, contracts with, alarm system companies.

A lot of times, the best thing to do is when you're, when you're saying, you know, you're keeping the, alarm equipment, but not including, the monitoring, because sometimes that monitoring, system, they gave you that alarm system, because you signed a five-year contract. So you have to be very careful as a seller.

They gotta be careful as a buyer. I mean, Hey, if the listing only says that the monitor like the, the alarm system is included, but not the ma the monitoring then yeah. The other owner, the previous owner is going to have to pay the difference. He may have to pay out the contract or whatever, so you gotta be very, very careful.

When you're walking through a house, Hey, do you have, do you have a monitoring system here? Did you get this alarm system, in your house because you signed a five-year contract? So you gotta, you gotta really look at that. And, I'll tell you the day on closing or even after closing it's it's, it's a nightmare.

Now what I normally do, if you own your water heater, I always put rental on there. And the reason why I put rental is because what happens when the water heater. Breaks down and blows out between the time you sold the house to the time the closing date. So it could be a two, three month diff a span in between.

Sure. So I put down on the data sheet and the contract when somebody buys it that they're going to renew, they're gonna assume the water heater contract. Even though there is no water heater contract because it's owned. But, but the reason why I put down a rental just in case something happens in that two, three month period, especially if it's a water heater more than five to 10 years old.

Gotcha. Okay. So the homeowner just has to call, you know, reliance or whoever water heater company say, Hey, listen, I need a water heater here. I got my house closing in 30 days and you know, and they could just rent it because. They the, the buyers agreed to, assume any rental contract on the water here.

Now, the, now the seller doesn't have to put out a thousand dollars for a water heater because it's gone. He just cause he's already the buyers already agreed to assume a rental. Now, when he moves in and it's not a rental, guess what bonus? He doesn't have those $30 payments or 40 or $50 payments a month.

For the rental on a water heater, but you gotta be very, very careful. We, every, every house we go into, we say, Hey, is this, especially if it's a newer furnace, is this, is this a rental? Or do you own, it is the air conditioner rental deal on it? Are the, the filtration systems. Are they a rental or do you own it?

And we want to know, we want to make sure, because a lot of times homeowners forget that they're paying, they've been paying it for years and it just comes out of their account and they forget, and they don't realize that it is a rental. And then on closing date, they have to pay it out. And, and because the new Homer is saying, listen on the contract says that you own it, but now, now they have to pay it out and it could be thousands.

It could be five to $10,000 sometimes. So you gotta be very, very careful what you put on as in the rental contract. And a lot of times people take mirrors and they're just hanging in the bathrooms. The one thing everybody assumes, there's always going to be beers in the bathroom. You should see sometimes our buyers, they walk in.

And they're, they're going Rob. Where's the mirrors. Oh. Well, they were just hanging mirrors. They weren't fixed to the bathroom and they really liked them. So they took them with them. So now we put all hanging mirrors in bathrooms, on our contracts, all hanging mirrors. And, that's how we do it. Last week, we were talking about, deposit checks and, you know, the, the size of the deposit checks and how important that was.

Couple of success stories that you wanted to point out that your team has had over the past week. Yes. So, what, one of our agents, Lisa, she was, in, St. Catherine's and she had an offer. On a house, there was multiple offers on this. And, Lisa goes to me like this, Rob, should I just take a picture and send the check to the agent?

So it shows that we have the deposit check. I said, no, you get that deposit. That, that bank draft right to the agent right away. Make sure he's touching it, feeling it in his hands. Cause when he's there with his client, looking at 10 offers, you're the only one with the deposit check and what he's going to do.

Is, he is going to say, you know what, let's work with this offer. And, and even if you're five, $10,000, five, $10,000 less than, than anybody else, they're going to work with your offer because they got a deposit check there at nine o'clock at night or 10 o'clock at night, and they're going to make the deal with you.

So guess what? She got the deal, she got the deal and, I'm telling you, that's how you win deals. We have another story. Rose in, in Niagara falls. Again, she th this just happened last night and no word of lie. She tells me, she goes, Rob, we've got multiple offers. I went in pretty strong. And the agent, the other agent representing the seller, calls her and says, can you do better?

She Rose calls me and says, Rose. Don't worry about doing better. You tell her, you take my offer, I'll have it. And this, this happened, I think around eight o'clock at night, I said, you go, you tell her I will have a bank draft in your hands tonight. If you take my offer. Now, the one thing is agents don't call you unless you are, you are getting it.

I said to Rose, you tell her you got the bank draft and you're going to have it in her hands tonight, like last night. And she. And, and she couldn't believe it. She goes, Rob and I stood up and say, you didn't have to come up anymore on the price. They, you already, you already won it. They try to, first of all, they try to push you to get more money.

And they always do that. Even though you won the deal. If they're calling you to try to Reno, try to negotiate more, you got it. You got it. And that's where experience comes in when you've got the experience and you've dealt with all this stuff before you've got that deal, but now how do you solidify it?

You tell them, listen, I will have a bank draft before you guys go to bed tonight so that, so the agent's going to feel comfortable and guests in rows and rows and rows. Got it. She got the deal. These are the tips you need to know while you win. Listen, thank you, my friend. We'll talk again next week. Well to buddy, have a good weekend, Rob Golfi there.

Tim Dennis here, you can always listen to these shows, this show or any previous shows through Spotify, iTunes, Google podcast, or what have you just search out the Golfi real estate show on your podcast platform. And, if you want to hear it live, we'll be back again next week.

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